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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/38083-8.txt b/38083-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..12340ad --- /dev/null +++ b/38083-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4566 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Mere Chance, Vol. 1 of 3, by Ada Cambridge + +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: A Mere Chance, Vol. 1 of 3 + A Novel + +Author: Ada Cambridge + +Release Date: November 22, 2011 [EBook #38083] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MERE CHANCE, VOL. 1 OF 3 *** + + + + +Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Matthew Wheaton +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.) + + + + + + + + + + A MERE CHANCE. + + A NOVEL. + + BY ADA CAMBRIDGE, + + + AUTHOR OF "IN TWO YEARS TIME," &c. + + IN THREE VOLUMES. + + VOL. I. + + + LONDON: + RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, + Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, + NEW BURLINGTON STREET. + 1882. + _Right of Translation Reserved._ + + + + + CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + + CHAPTER + + I.--A Marshal Neil Rose + II.--Family Counsels + III.--Mr. Kingston's Question + IV.--The Answer + V.--So Soon! + VI.--A Rash Promise + VII.--Two Love Letters + VIII.--How Rachel Met "Him" + IX.--A Black Sheep + X.--Outside the Pale + XI.--Mr. Dalrymple has to Consult Gordon + XII.--"Oh, if they had!" + + + + +A MERE CHANCE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A MARSHAL NEIL ROSE. + + +A few years ago there was a young _débutante_ in Melbourne whose name +was Rachel Fetherstonhaugh. She had risen upon the social horizon +suddenly, like a new star--or, one might almost say, like a comet, so +unusually bright was she, and so much talked about; and no one quite +knew where she had come from. Mrs. Hardy had introduced her as her +niece--everyone knew that--but there were sceptics who, having never +heard of female relatives previously (except the three daughters, who +had married so well), declared that she might be "anybody," picked up +merely for matchmaking purposes--it being well understood that Mrs. +Hardy had for an unknown period sustained life, figuratively speaking, +upon the stimulus of matrimonial intrigues, and had now no more +daughters to provide for. + +That this pretty creature had been unseen and unsuspected until the last +Miss Hardy, as Mrs. Buxton, was fairly away on her honeymoon, and almost +immediately after had been introduced to society as Mrs. Buxton's +successor, was a kind of circumstance that seemed, of course, bound to +have a mystery at the bottom of it. But, as a matter of fact, there was +no mystery. Rachel Fetherstonhaugh was a _bona-fide_ niece, and her +entrance into the Hardy family at a particular juncture could be quite +easily accounted for. + +Her father had been Mrs. Hardy's brother--a good-for-nothing, unlucky +brother, whose clever brains could do anything but earn money, and whose +pockets could no more hold it than a sieve could hold water--a brother +whom, long ago, before she had become rich and fastidious, Mrs. Hardy +had loved, and served, and worked for, but whom, of late years, she +had--with some mild self-reproach for doing so--ignored as far as +possible. + +This man had married a girl without a penny, as such a man was certain +to do; and his wife had left him a widower, with an only child, a few +years afterwards. Since then, for fifteen years, he had rambled about +from place to place, seeking his fortune in all kinds of visionary and +impracticable schemes, whose collapse one after the other, never +deterred him from fresh enterprises, until a sunstroke closed the list +of his life's many failures at the early age of forty-five. + +A formal little note was sent by his orphan daughter to Mrs. Hardy to +announce this sad event; and for half an hour after receiving it the +bereaved sister was inconsolable, tormenting herself with unavailing +regrets for her neglect of "her own flesh and blood," and with +harrowing reminiscences of loving early years. + +At the end of that time, however, she had made many generous plans for +her dead brother's child, which cheered and comforted her; and in time +these gave place to the prudent, unemotional dictates of worldly wisdom. +Mrs. Hardy dried her tears, bought herself a black bonnet, and stole out +of town in a surreptitious fashion, to see what manner of niece had been +thrown upon her hands. + +She pictured to herself what the child's life had probably been--the +motherless child of a vagabond speculator, who had lived very +indifferently by his wits; and the most she hoped for was to find her a +raw bush girl, rudimentally educated, and uncontaminated by the low +society in which she had been brought up. For such a niece she had +mapped out what seemed to be a suitable career--that of a nursery +governess in some _distant_ colony; and she had resolved to be a good +friend to the girl, to set her up in clothes, and to see that she never +came to want or misfortune if by any reasonable means it could be +helped. + +To her intense surprise her young relative turned out to be a remarkably +pretty and refined young woman, obviously accustomed to the decorous and +reticent poverty of people who had "seen better days" and appreciated +the fact, and not raw in any sort of sense, though diffident and shy; +the kind of young woman, indeed, who, it was evident at a glance, was +capable under good management of bringing honour and glory upon the +family. + +The result was as above indicated. Rachel Fetherstonhaugh, instead of +being sent into obscurity to earn her bread, was adopted in the sight of +all men as a daughter of the house--that great white house at Toorak, +which had achieved local fame for its profuse entertainments, its social +diplomacies, and its three great marriages. + +Her father's debts were paid; her wardrobe was supplemented with the +very best style of new clothes--less expensive, but more becoming, than +any that Mrs. Buxton and Mrs. Buxton's sisters had worn; and by and bye +when, having got over the first shock and grief of her father's death, +she made her appearance in public, and began to take an interest in her +new life, she found herself, to her great astonishment, a personage--if +not _the_ personage--in the society around her. + +It must be said, and not to her discredit, I hope, that Miss +Fetherstonhaugh liked being a personage very much indeed. She had grown +up a sensitive little gentlewoman, full of delicate thoughts and tastes, +in the midst of dull, uncultured people of sordid cares and occupations, +and of uncongenial surroundings of all sorts; and the mere physical +enjoyment of her changed circumstances, in which everything was orderly, +and dainty, and plenteous, and "nice," was something like the enjoyment +that a flower must feel when the sun shines. + +And the sudden discovery that certain shy conjectures about her +personal appearance (which she had hardly had leisure or heart to attend +to) were confirmed by the best authority--to know herself a pretty girl, +and to see that society paid her homage accordingly--this was an +experience that no woman born, being in possession of her faculties, +could help delighting in. And having all the grateful consciousness of +the value of life and its good things that nature gives to the young and +healthy, unspoiled by artificial sentiment, her delight was unbounded, +and consequently unconcealed. + +Rachel Fetherstonhaugh was, as her uncle said, "A modest, good girl, +with no nonsense about her." All the same, she was proud and glad of her +fair, clear-cut features, and her pensive, large, sweet eyes that were +full of tender suggestions, for which no authority existed when she +lifted them meekly to an admirer's face; and that figure which with all +its slenderness had the curves of beauty everywhere, and those waves of +ruddy auburn hair. + +"I am so glad I am not plain," she once said to her cousin, Mrs. +Thornley (who strange to say did not repeat the remark to all her +friends with disparaging comments, but responded confidentially with a +sympathising kiss, and said she could quite understand it). "I have +always thought that it must be the most charming thing in the world to +be a really pretty woman. And now I know it." + +On a grey afternoon in the beginning of May this young lady was +enjoying the luxury of a slow drive up and down Collins Street, +shopping with her aunt. She nestled in a soft corner of a well-appointed +Victoria, with a great rug of native bearskins about her knees, showing +her delicate fresh face, like a well-hung picture, to the crowd of +passers-by on the pavement, and yet sitting just enough above them to +see into the shop-windows over their heads; and she felt--though she did +not formulate the sentiment--perfectly happy and satisfied. + +If the truth must be told, she found the sight of more or less +well-dressed men and women, streaming up and down the busy street, more +interesting than the most lovely landscape she had ever seen. She took +as much pleasure in the exquisite fit of her gloves as in the exquisite +colour and fragrance of a Marshal Neil rose that she wore in her +button-hole; and she had never seen a moonrise or a sunset that had +fascinated her _more_ than that sealskin jacket in Alston and Brown's +window, which she observed was exactly the size for her. It is not, +therefore, to be supposed that she is a heroine unworthy of the name. + +At Alston and Brown's Mrs. Hardy stepped out of her carriage for perhaps +the fifth time. She was a very large, masculine kind of woman, with a +remarkably fine Roman nose, of which she was excessively proud, and +justly, for it had been a valuable weapon to her in the battle of life, +literally carrying all before it. When he had got over the effect of her +nose, the beholder of Mrs. Hardy's person, as a rule, was pleasantly +impressed by it. It had a generous and a regal air. + +"My dear," she said to her young companion, "I only want to match some +lace. Will you go in with me, or will you stay where you are?" + +"I think I will stay, if you please, aunt," replied Rachel. "The +carriage is so comfortable, and I like to look at the street." + +"Don't look too much," said Mrs. Hardy, smiling anxiously. "There are +all kinds of office clerks and people mixed up with the crowd at this +hour." + +"I don't want to look at _men_," said Miss Fetherstonhaugh, with more +dignity than one would have given her credit for. "It is the ladies' +dresses I like to see--and the horses." + +Mrs. Hardy marched into the shop with that imposing mien which became +more and more pronounced as she grew older and stouter, and her social +successes accumulated; and her niece sat still in her corner, and looked +for a long while at the sealskin jacket. + +"All my cousins have sealskin jackets," she mused, "but I don't think +they had them until they were married. Perhaps I shall have one when I +am married. I can't expect my aunt to buy me one, of course; she has +bought me so many pretty things. How lovely and soft that brown fur is! +How well it would suit my complexion! If my husband is rich, and asks me +what I should like for my first birthday present, I shall not have any +difficulty in making up my mind. I wonder _will_ he be rich? like Mr. +Thornley, and Mr. Buxton, and Mr. Reade. At any rate, he must not be +poor; if he is, I won't have him. I know enough of poverty"--with a +little shudder and a sudden solemnity in her face--"and I don't mean to +run into it again if I can help it." + +Here she fell into a rather mournful reverie, thinking of her old life, +with its shifts and privations--of her poor father, who had been so +happy through it all, never feeling the weight of the petty debts and +dishonours that lay like lead on her--of her struggles to keep his +affairs straight--of her prayers that she might not live to despise and +desert him, which was a temptation that grew with her growing years--and +as she thought, she gazed absently, tenderly, pensively, not on the +sealskin jacket, but on the faces of the passers-by. She had no idea how +excessively interesting and pretty she looked to those passers-by with +that expression in her eyes. + +However, a gentleman came by presently, a well-preserved young man of +fifty or sixty, with a waxed moustache, and a slender umbrella carried +musketwise over his shoulder; and his attention was violently arrested. + +"Where _have_ I seen that charming creature?" he asked himself, +imploring his memory, which had a great store of miscellaneous +treasures, to be quick and help him. "Surely I have been introduced to +her somewhere. Oh, of course! it is old Hardy's niece, or ward, or +whatever she is. Good day, Miss Fetherstonhaugh," turning back when he +had nearly passed her, and making a profound obeisance with his hat off. +"Fine afternoon for a drive." + +She recognised _him_ immediately. She had danced a quadrille with him at +her memorable first evening "out," and she had learned a great deal of +him since from the gossip of her aunt's circle. There was a time, she +had been told, when he was nearly becoming a member of the family +himself. He was a great merchant--or an ex-merchant rather--who had +dealt in some mysterious commodity that had brought enormous profits; +and he had risen by all kinds of good luck, from no one knew what depth +of social insignificance to the proud position of a man of fashion +about town, whom ladies delighted to honour. + +"Good day, Mr. Kingston," she responded, looking very pink and bright, +and a little flurried as she returned his salutation. She had the +daintiest complexion that ever adorned a youthful face, and whenever she +was startled or embarrassed, however slightly, she blushed like a rose. +Mr. Kingston, accustomed to appraise the charms of his female friends +with an almost brutal impartiality, was unjustifiably touched and +flattered by this innocent demonstration. He was really very glad he had +remembered who she was before he had lost so good an opportunity for +looking at and talking to her. + +"I don't think it _is_ a very fine afternoon," she remarked presently, +as the gentleman seemed to find himself for once a little at a loss for +a subject; and she smiled at him through her blushes, which went and +came suddenly and delicately, as if they were breathed over her by the +air somehow. "It has been looking grey, like rain, ever since we +started; and it is rather cold, don't you think?" + +"Is it? Ah! so it is. But we must expect cold weather in May. I suppose +it is rather strange to you to be finding winter coming on at this +season?" + +"No. Why should it be strange to me?" + +"I thought--I am sure somebody told me--that you were recently out from +England." + +"Oh, dear, no," she replied, frankly. "I was born in this colony, and +have lived in it all my life." + +"In the name of fortune, where?" + +"In different places; at Sandhurst, at Ballarat, and on the Upper +Murray, and in little townships here and there in the bush; and +sometimes in Melbourne." + +"I am sure I never saw you in Melbourne until I met you at that dance +the other night," he protested earnestly. "I never should have forgotten +your face if I had once seen it." + +"I daresay not," she said, and she was angry to find herself blushing +again. "I was but a child when I lived in Melbourne before, and--and my +home was not in Toorak then." + +Mr. Kingston understood. She had been a poor relation in those days, +and the Misses Hardy were unmarried. He had a constitutional antipathy +to poor relations, and he was a little disappointed. For a few seconds +he kept silence, while he wondered what her antecedents could have been. +Then he looked at her again, and she was regarding him with a curious +gravity of demeanour, almost as if she had divined his thoughts. There +was a meek majesty about her that commanded his respect, and that he +considered was excessively becoming. + +After all, what did it matter about her antecedents? Did she not look a +thoroughly well-bred little woman, sitting there in her furs and soft +cushions, with her head held so straight? Did he not hear other +men--better men than he from a genealogical point of view--singing her +praises wherever he went? Whatever she had been, she was a distinguished +personage now, whose acquaintance it behoved a veteran lady-killer to +cultivate, and that without delay. + +"I am very glad your home is in Toorak now," he said gallantly. "I have +some land there myself, quite close to your uncle's place." + +"Indeed," murmured Rachel. + +"Yes, and I am going to build on it soon. I have just got the plans out +from home--capital plans. I shall bring them in for Mrs. Hardy's +opinion. When my house is built we shall be neighbours. You will have to +help me, you and your aunt, with the furnishing and all that sort of +thing that ladies understand." + +"I don't think I understand much about it," she said; "but I shall like +to see it done. I am very fond of pretty furniture. Will your house be +very big?" + +"Oh, nothing out of the way. I'm not going to spend _more_ than twenty +thousand pounds on it. My friends tell me I ought to do the thing +properly when I am about it; but I don't see the fun of locking up a lot +of money in bricks and mortar. I might want to change my residence any +day, you see." + +Rachel looked at him with awe. There was a flippancy in the way he spoke +of that twenty thousand pounds which almost shocked her. + +"If you are going to build a palace," she said, "don't talk of asking my +help. I have never had anything to do with that kind of thing." + +"Oh, my dear Miss Fetherstonhaugh--really it will be nothing but an +ordinary good-sized, comfortable house, and I am sure your taste would +be perfect. At any rate, you will help me with the gardens? I mean to +have good grounds, whatever else I go without; and ladies always know +how to lay out beds and things better than we do." + +"_I_ shouldn't know," she said, smiling; "but I think my aunt is very +clever at that. We have beautiful flowers--even so late as this." + +"So I see." He glanced admiringly at the rose on her breast, and she +stuck her pretty chin into her throat and looked at it too. "What a +lovely bud that is! Marshal Neil, is it not? Oh, don't take it out--the +black fur on your jacket makes such a charming background for it." + +Rachel already had it in her hand, and was stroking the velvety yellow +petals and the dark green leaves. + +"We have plenty of them," she said; "there is a wonderful autumn bloom +of roses just now. This is a picture, isn't it? with that deep colour +like an apricot in the heart, and those scarlet stains streaking it +outside. Would you like to have it?" And she held it out with a frank +gesture and the most captivating smile; and then, as he took it with a +low bow and much ostentatious gratitude, she blushed the deepest crimson +to the roots of her golden hair. + +At this moment Mrs. Hardy emerged from the shop, her ounce-weight of +purchases being carried behind her; and Mr. Kingston turned to receive +an effusive greeting. + +"Oh, my dear Mr. Kingston, is it you?" the stately matron exclaimed. +"How _glad_ I am to see you--I have not met you for an age! Where _have_ +you been? And when _are_ you coming to call on me again?" + +"I will come whenever you will allow me," this illustrious person +replied, with an alacrity of demeanour that did not escape notice. "I +thought of coming this afternoon, and on my way I saw your carriage, and +your niece told me that you were shopping." + +"No; I did not tell you that," interposed Rachel gravely. + +He looked at her and laughed, and his laugh for some unaccountable +reason called her retreating blushes back. Mrs. Hardy glanced sharply +from one to the other, and then she also laughed, in decorous matronly +fashion. + +"Well, come and dine with us to-night," the elder lady said, "and take +us to the opera. That would be a friendly thing to do, if you are +disposed to be friendly. Beatrice and Mr. Reade are coming--nobody else; +and you can take Mr. Hardy's ticket. He is always glad to get off +going." + +"I will indeed--I will with pleasure," was the prompt response; and with +some further exchange of civilities, the friends separated. + +Mr. Kingston walked away to his club, with his flower in his +button-hole, swinging his umbrella gently, and wondering to what class +of woman this pretty Miss Fetherstonhaugh belonged. + +"Is she a coquette?" he asked himself over and over again; "or is she +charmingly fresh and simple?" + +Mrs. Hardy rolled home in her little Victoria, and she also asked +herself questions which were by no means easy to answer, as she stole +furtive glances at the little black figure sitting, watchful and alert, +beside her. + +"My dear," she said presently, breaking a long silence, "where is your +rosebud gone to?" + +"I gave it to Mr. Kingston, aunt." + +"You gave it to Mr. Kingston!" Mrs. Hardy almost shouted in the +vehemence of her surprise. Then, pausing for a moment while she stared, +not unkindly, at the torrent of blushes that flowed over her pretty +face, she ejaculated, almost in a tone of awe, "Good gracious!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FAMILY COUNSELS. + + +The drawing-room of the house in Toorak where our heroine lived, looked +very cosy and comfortable a few hours later in the ruddy glow of the +firelight. It was a little before the days of domestic high art in +Victoria, and it was by no means the charming apartment that it is now. +There was no dado, no parquetry floor, no tiled hearth, no _étagère_ +mantelpiece--nor Persian rugs under foot, nor Limoges plaques and +Benares dishes on the walls, nor Japanese screens and jars, nor +treasures of jade and china, nor anything, in fact, that there ought to +have been. + +The pleasant firelight danced upon a whitewashed ceiling, plentifully +adorned with plaster-of-Paris mouldings, and upon whitey-grey walls +sprigged with golden flowers. The floor was completely covered with a +vivid green carpet, also sprinkled with flowers; and the windows were +draped with brilliant damask to match, depending from immense gilt +cornices in festoons looped with cords and tassels. There was a +cut-glass chandelier hanging down in the middle, and there was a +gigantic pier-glass reaching from the marble chimney-piece to the +plaster-of-Paris frieze, with little gold cupids sitting on the top of +it, tying wreaths of gold flowers into a knot. The chairs and couches +shone in slippery satin, with wonderful rosewood convolutions wriggling +out from them, that one could hardly venture to call legs; and there was +a terrible chiffonniere, full of looking-glasses, with a marble top, +reflecting all these splendours over and over again--which was quite +unnecessary. + +Nevertheless, though Mrs. Hardy cannot look back upon it without a +shudder, the old room was a pleasant room. She herself came into it on +this occasion, having dressed a little earlier than usual, and was +struck by its air of luxurious warmth and comfort. She saw nothing to +shock her artistic susceptibilities; she liked the twinkle of her glass +drops, and the shine of her spacious mirror, and the deep glow of her +emerald satin and damask--though she would die sooner than own to it +now. + +She went leisurely over to the fire, sank down in a low arm-chair, and +put up her feet on the fender to warm, with a distinct impression upon +her mind of congenial surroundings and satisfied aspirations. Long ago +she had been a poor man's wife--the most estimable and devoted of poor +men's wives--doing her own housework, making her own bread and butter, +nursing her own babies, mending her husband's clothes; and in those days +she had beautified her bush hut with cheap paper and chintz, and thought +it prettier than a palace. + +Later on she had had a smart brick and stucco cottage, and in it a +drawing-room--her first drawing-room--with a green and scarlet drugget +on the floor, lace curtains over the window, a centre table (with a +basket of wax flowers under a shade in the middle), and a "suite" in +green rep disposed around; and this in its day had seemed to her an +apartment quite too good for common use. Next she had aspired to a +Brussels carpet, and by and bye to a pier-glass and a piano. And so she +had come by degrees to this Toorak splendour, in each stage feeling that +she had reached the summit of her ambition, and vindicated her claim to +the most correct taste. + +The same process of evolution and development had taken place in +herself, outwardly and inwardly. She was naturally a kindly, honest, +good-hearted woman, and she was by birth a lady. But year by year nature +having much to struggle with had retired, step by step into the +background of her personality, and she was simply what the education of +society--her society--made her. Practically, fashion and _les +convenances_ were her gods. Those men or women who were not what she +generally termed "well-bred"--who were behind the times in social +matters, who had no place in her great world, nor any capacity for +making one--were not people to be received into her house, or to have +anything to do with. Her demeanour to such unfortunate individuals, when +she did happen to come into contact with them was, to say the least, +chilling. + +Yet those who knew her best, declared that if any of these ineligibles +were to fall into great trouble, she would be the first to help and +befriend them if she could; and that if her husband were to lose his +fortune and suddenly plunge her into poverty again, she would set to +work to cook his dinners and mend his clothes with the same cheerful +willingness as of yore. + +She sat in the warm firelight, toasting her feet, and her brain was busy +with projects. For some weeks past she had been troubled about her young +niece, on account of her too absurd innocence, and her ignorance of +social etiquette in many important details. The girl's manner and +carriage had been particularly easy and graceful, but she had constantly +counteracted the effect of this by a deplorable want of penetration as +to who was who, and of reticence concerning her own history and +experiences, which had been very mortifying to an aunt and _chaperon_ +accustomed to better things; and her efforts to teach and train one who +seemed so gentle and pliant had been singularly unfruitful. Rachel was a +sweet child, and she was fond of her, and proud of her beauty; +nevertheless, she had declared to herself and to Beatrice more than +once, that she had never known a human creature so hopelessly dense and +stupid. + +To-night, however, she took another view of the case. That rural +freshness had possibly found favour in the eyes of Mr. Kingston, who had +been the ideal son-in-law to so many mothers of so many polished +daughters. She was surprised, but she could understand it. For she knew +that men had all sorts of queer, independent, unaccountable ways of +looking at things--at women in particular; and she had already noticed +that they liked those ridiculous blushes--which to her mind showed a +painful want of culture and self-possession--in which the girl indulged +so freely. + +What if she should be able to marry her to Mr. Kingston--who had foiled +the artifices of well-meaning matrons, and resisted the fascinations of +charming maidens exactly suited for him for so many years--after +marrying all her own children so well? That was the theme of her +meditations, and she found it deeply interesting. She longed for the +arrival of Beatrice, who was her eldest daughter and her chief +_confidante_ and adviser, to hear what she had to say about it. + +She had been by herself about ten minutes, during which time a servant +had lit up the cut-glass chandelier, when there was a ring at the +door-bell, and Mr. and Mrs. Reade were ushered in. Mrs. Reade was a tiny +little dark woman, with a bright and clever, though by no means pretty, +face, in which no trace of the maternal features was visible. + +She was beautifully dressed in palest pink, with crimson roses in her +hair, and delicate lace of great value about her tight skirt and her +narrow shoulders; and her distinguished appearance generally rejoiced +her mother's heart. Behind her towered her enormous husband, in whom +blue blood declined to manifest itself in the customary way. He was an +amiable, slow-witted, honest gentleman, with a large, weak face, rather +coarse and red, particularly towards bedtime, and heavy and awkward +manners; and he was as wax in the hands of the small person who owned +him. + +"Ned," she said, looking back at him as she swept across the room, "you +go and find papa, and let mamma and me have a talk until the others come +in." + +Ned obediently went--not to find his host, who was probably in the +dressing-room, but to read "The Argus" by the dining-room fire, while +the servants set the table. And the mother and daughter sat down +together to one of the confidential gossips that they loved. Mrs. Reade +began to unfold her little budget of news and scandal, but immediately +laid it by--to be resumed between the acts of the opera presently--while +she listened to Mrs. Hardy's account of the transactions of the +afternoon. It did not take that experienced matron long to explain +herself, and the younger lady was quick to grasp the situation. At first +she was inclined to scoff. + +"Oh, we all know Mr. Kingston, mamma. He dangles after every fresh face, +but he never means anything. _He_ will never marry--at any rate, not +until he is too old to flirt any more." + +"But, my dear, he is going to build his house." + +"I don't believe a word of it," said Mrs. Reade. "He has been going to +build that house ever since I can remember. It is just one of his artful +devices. Whenever he wants to make a girl like him he tells her about +that house--just to set her longing to be the mistress of it. That is +the only use he will ever put it to. You'll see he will tell Rachel all +about it to-night. He will beg her to help him with her exquisite taste, +and so on. Oh, I know his ways. But he means nothing." + +"He has already told Rachel," said Mrs. Hardy, laughing. "And, what is +more, he is going to bring the designs to show her, and he says he is +really going to put the work in hand at once." + +"If so," said Mrs. Reade, gazing into the fire meditatively, "it looks +as if he had been proposing to settle himself--though I shall not +believe it till I see it. But then he must have made his plans before he +ever saw Rachel. It must be Sarah Brownlow he is thinking of, mamma." + +"Sarah Brownlow passed him this afternoon, Beatrice, and he hardly +noticed her. While as for Rachel--well, I only wish you had been there +to see the way he looked at her, and the way he said good-bye. My +impression is that he thinks it is time to settle--as indeed it is, +goodness knows--and so has begun with his house; and that he is looking +about for a mistress for it, and that something in Rachel has struck +him. I am certain he is struck with Rachel." + +Mrs. Reade gazed into the fire gravely, while she pondered over this +solemn announcement. + +"It is possible," she said presently. "It is quite possible. All the men +are saying that she is the prettiest girl in Melbourne just now. An +elderly club man, who has seen much of the world, is very likely to +admire that kind of childish, simple creature. If it should be so," she +continued, musingly, "I wonder how Rachel will take it." + +"Rachel," said Mrs. Hardy, with sudden energy, "is not so simple as she +seems. You mark my words, she will be as keen to make a good marriage as +anybody as soon as she gets the chance." + +"Do you think so?" her daughter responded, looking up with her bright, +quick eyes. "Now that is not at all my notion of her." + +"Nor was it mine at first, but I am getting new lights. It never does to +trust to that demure kind of shy manner. I assure you she made such use +of her opportunities this afternoon as surprised me, who am not easily +surprised. In about ten minutes--I could not have been in Alston's more +than ten minutes--they were on the most frank and friendly terms +possible, and she had given him a rose to wear in his button-hole." + +"Nonsense!" + +"I assure you, yes. And I know, by the look of him, that he never saw +through it. It is wonderful how even the cleverest men can be taken in +by that _ingénue_ manner. He evidently thought her a sweet and +unsophisticated child. Sweet she is--the most amiable little creature I +ever knew; but she knows what she is about perfectly well." + +Mrs. Reade gazed into the fire again with thoughtful eyes; then after a +pause she said: + +"I think you don't understand her, mamma. I think she really saw no more +in Mr. Kingston than she would have seen in any poor young man without a +penny." + +"No, Beatrice. She talked about his new house, and all the money he was +going to spend on it, in a ridiculous way. She was completely fascinated +by the subject." + +"I can't imagine little Rachel scheming to catch a rich husband," the +young lady exclaimed, with a mocking, but pleasant laugh. + +"You don't see as much of her as I do, my dear Beatrice," her mother +replied, with dignity. "If you did, you would know that she is as fond +of money and luxury as any hardened woman of the world could be. She +quite fondles the ornaments I have put in her room. She goes into +raptures over the silver and china. A new dress sends her into +ecstacies. She annoys me sometimes--showing people so plainly that she +has never been used to anything nice. However, it will make it easier +for me to settle her than I at first thought it would be. It will be all +plain sailing with Mr. Kingston, you will see." + +"Mother," said Mrs. Reade--she only said "mother" when she was very +much in earnest--"let me give you a word of advice. If you want to marry +Rachel to Mr. Kingston--and I hope you will, for it would be a capital +match--don't let her know anything about it; don't do anything to help +it on; don't let her see what is coming--leave them both alone. I think +I know her better than you do, and I have a pretty good idea of Mr. +Kingston; and any sort of interference with either of them would be most +injudicious--most dangerous. I shall see to-night--I'm sure I shall see +in a moment----" + +There was a ring at the door-bell, and the stir of an arrival in the +hall, and the little woman did not finish what she wanted to say. She +rose from her chair, and shook out her pink train; and the mother to +whom she had laid down the law rose also, looking very majestic. + +"Mr. Kingston," said the servant, throwing the drawing-room door open. + +The great man entered with a springing step, bowing elaborately. His +glossy hair (some people said it was a wig, but it was not) was curled +to perfection; his moustaches were waxed to the finest needle-points; he +wore flashing diamond studs on an embroidered shirt front; and there was +a Marshal Neil rose in his button-hole, not very fresh, and too much +blown to be any ornament to a fine gentleman's evening toilet, hanging +its yellow head heavily from a weak and flabby stalk. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MR. KINGSTON'S QUESTION. + + +While her aunt and cousin were discussing her downstairs, Miss +Fetherstonhaugh was dressing herself for dinner in her little chamber at +the top of the house. This was a part of the daily ceremonial of her new +life, in which she took a deep and delighted interest. The whole thing, +in fact, was charming to her. To come sweeping down the big staircase in +dainty raiment, all in the spacious light and warmth--to have the doors +held open for her as she passed in and out--to go into the dining-room +on her uncle's arm, and sit at dinner with flowers before her--seeing +and feeling nothing but softness and colour, and polish and order +everywhere--was at this time to realise her highest conception of +earthly enjoyment. + +Her bedroom was not magnificent, but it had everything in it that she +most desired--the whitest linen, the freshest chintz and muslin, a fire +to dress by, an easy chair, and above all, a cheval glass, in which she +could survey her pretty figure from head to foot. She stood before this +cheval glass to-night a thoroughly happy little person. Hitherto, with a +mirror twelve inches by nine, that had a crack across it, she had seen +that her face was fair and fresh, and that her hair had a wonderful +red-gold lustre where the light fell upon it; but she was only now +coming to understand what perfection of shape and grace had developed +with her recent growth into womanhood, to make the _tout ensemble_ +charming. + +She looked at herself with deep content--no doubt with a stronger +interest than she would have looked at any other lovely woman, but in +much the same spirit, enjoying her beauty more for its own sake than for +what it would do for her--more because it harmonised herself to her +tastes and circumstances, than because it was a great arsenal of +ammunition for social warfare and conquest. + +She was still in mourning for her father, and had put on a simple black +evening dress. Her natural sense of the becoming dictated simple +costumes, but education demanded that they should be made in the latest +fashion; and she regarded the tightness of her skirt in front, and the +fan of her train behind, with something more than complacency. + +As yet the lust for jewels had not awakened in her, which was very +fortunate, for she had none. The tender, milky throat and the round +white arms were bare; and all the ornament that she wore, or wanted, was +a bouquet of white chrysanthemum and scarlet salvia on her bosom, and +another in her hair. + +Pretty Rachel Fetherstonhaugh! If Roden Dalrymple could have seen her +that night, only for five minutes, what a deal of trouble she might have +been spared! + +The dinner bell rang, and she blew out her candles hurriedly, and +flitted downstairs. On the landing below her she joined her uncle--a +small, thin, sharp-faced person, with wiry grey hair, and "man of +business" written in every line of his face--as he left his own +apartment; and they descended in haste together to the drawing-room, +where four people were solemnly awaiting them. + +The first thing that Rachel saw when she entered was her Marshal Neil +rose. She glanced from that to its wearer's face, eagerly turned to meet +her, full of admiring interest; and, as a matter of course, she blushed +to a hue that put her scarlet salvias to shame. + +Why she blushed she would have been at a loss to say; certainly not for +any of the reasons that the assembled spectators supposed. It was merely +from the vaguest sense of embarrassment at being in a position which she +had not been trained to understand. + +An hour or two before, her aunt had made that rose the text of a +discourse in which many strange things had been suggested, but nothing +explained; and now they all looked at her, evidently with reference to +it, yet with painful ambiguity that perplexed her and made her uneasy; +and she could only feel, in a general way, that she was young and +ignorant and not equal to the situation. Much less than that was amply +sufficient to cover her with a veil of blushes. + +At dinner she sat between Mr. Reade and her uncle, and, being on the +best of terms with both of them, she confined her conversation to her +own corner of the table, and scarcely lifted her eyes; but when dinner +was over--dinner and coffee, and the drive to the opera-house--then Mr. +Kingston, deeply interested in his supposed discovery of a new kind of +woman, and piqued by her shy reception of his generally much-appreciated +attentions, set himself to improve his acquaintance with her, and found +the task easy. They were standing on the pavement, in the glare of the +gaslight, with a lounging crowd about them. + +Mrs. Hardy had dropped a bracelet, for which she and her son-in-law were +hunting in the bottom of the brougham, and Mrs. Reade was chatting to an +acquaintance, whose hansom had just deposited him beside her--a bearded +young squatter, enjoying his season in town after selling his wool high, +who stared very hard at Rachel through a pair of good glasses, as soon +as he had a favourable opportunity. + +Mr. Kingston stood by the girl's side, staring at her without disguise. +The shadow of the street fell soft upon her gauzy raiment and her white +arms and the lustre of her auburn hair, but her face was turned towards +the gaslight--she was looking wistfully up the long passage which had +something very like fairy land at the end of it--and he thought he had +never seen any face so fresh and sweet. + +"You like this kind of thing, don't you?" he said, gently, as if +speaking to a child, when in turning to look for her aunt she caught his +eye. + +"Oh, yes," she replied, promptly, "I do, indeed! I like the whole thing; +not the singing and the acting only, but the place, and the people, and +the ladies' dresses, and the noise, and the moving about, and the +lights--everything. I should like to come to the opera every +night--except the nights when there are balls." + +Mr. Kingston laughed, and said he should never have guessed from what he +had seen of her that she was such a very gay young lady. + +"You don't understand," she responded quickly, looking up at him with +earnest, candid eyes; "it is not that I am gay--oh, no, I don't think it +is that! though perhaps I do enjoy a spectacle more than many people. +But it is all so new and strange. I have never had any sightseeing--any +pleasure like what I am having now, that is why I find it so +delightful." + +"Come, my dear!" cried Mrs. Hardy sharply (she had found her bracelet +and overheard a part of this little dialogue), "don't stand about in the +wind with nothing over you. What have you done with your shawl?" + +"It is here, aunt," replied Rachel meekly, lifting it from her arm. + +Her cavalier hastened to take it from her and adjust it carefully over +her shoulders. During this operation Mrs. Hardy swept into the lobby, +taking the arm of her big son-in-law; and Mrs. Reade, having parted from +her friend, glanced round quickly, followed her husband, and put herself +also under his protection. Mr. Kingston, smiling to himself like +Mephistopheles under his waxed moustache, was left with Rachel in the +doorway. + +"How _does_ it go?" he said, fumbling with a quantity of woolly fringe. +"All right--there's no hurry. It is not eight o'clock yet. Pray let me +do it for you." + +She stood still, while he dawdled as long as he could over the +arrangement of her wrap, but she cast anxious looks after the three +receding figures, and she was the colour of an oleander blossom. He was +a little disconcerted at her embarrassment; it amused him, but it +touched him too. + +Poor little timid child! Who would be so mean as to take advantage of +her inexperience? Not he, certainly. He gave her his arm and led her +into the house, with a deferential attentiveness that did not usually +mark his deportment towards young girls. On their way they were accosted +by a boy holding a couple of bouquets in each hand. + +"Buy a bouquet for the opera, Sir?" said he, in his sing-song voice. + +Mr. Kingston paused and put his glass in his eye. They were bright +little nosegays, and one of them, much superior to the other, had a +fringe of maiden hair fern and a rich red rose in the middle of it. He +took this from the boy's hand, and offered it to Rachel with his +elaborate bow. + +"Permit me," he said, "to make a poor acknowledgment of my deep +indebtedness to you for _this_." + +And he touched the drooping petals of the Marshal Neil bud, and imagined +he was paying her a delicate sentimental compliment. + +If Rachel had been the most finished fine lady she could not have +undeceived him more gracefully. + +"Thank you," she said, simply, and she smiled for half a second. + +To be sure her red rose was not redder than she was, but she held her +head with a gentle air of maidenly dignity that quite counteracted the +weakness of that blush. + +Mr. Kingston began to suspect, with some surprise, that she was not so +easy to get on with as she appeared. However, that did not lessen his +interest in her by any means. + +"I am afraid you think I have taken a liberty," he suggested presently. +What had come to him to care what a bread-and-butter miss might think? +But somehow he did care. + +"Oh, no," she said, "it is very kind of you. But you must not talk of +being indebted to me. Flowers are not--not presents, like other things." + +By this time they had reached the top of the stairs, and Mrs. Reade was +sweeping out of the cloak-room, where she had been "settling" her hair, +and putting a little powder on her face. + +"Mamma is gone in," she said, taking the girl's hand kindly; "there are +plenty of people here to-night, Rachel. You must look for a lady sitting +on the right of the Governor's box, in a high velvet dress. She is one +of our Melbourne beauties." + +So they went in and took their seats; and Rachel found herself sitting +in the front tier, not very much to the left of the viceregal armchairs, +and her cousin Beatrice was on one side of her and Mr. Kingston on the +other. + +She was perfectly contented now. She smiled at her flowers; she furled +and unfurled her fan; she looked round and round the house through her +glasses, whispering questions and comments to Mrs. Reade, who knew +everybody and everybody's history; and it made Mrs. Hardy quite uneasy +to see how thoroughly and evidently she enjoyed herself. Mr. Kingston +recovered his spirits which she had damped a little while ago. + +He watched her face from time to time--generally when she was absorbed +in watching the stage; and the more he looked, the more charming he +found it. So fresh, so frank, so modest, so sweet, with those delicate +womanly blushes always coming and going, and that child-like fun and +brightness in her eyes. He had never been so "fetched," as he expressed +it, by a pretty face before; that is to say, he did not remember that he +ever had been. + +It was, indeed, very seldom that he regarded a pretty face with such a +serious kind of admiration. He found himself wondering how it would +fare, how long it would keep its transparent innocence and candour in +the atmosphere of this new world--this second-rate Hardy set, which was +full of meretricious, manoeuvring, gossip-loving women--with a touch of +anxiety that was quite unselfish. He was sure now that she was not a +coquette; he was experienced enough to know, also, that, however humble +her origin and antecedents, she was a girl of thoroughly "good style;" +and it would be a thousand pities, he thought, if the influence of her +surroundings should spoil her. + +When the curtain fell and the gas was turned up, he noticed that people +all round the house were turning their glasses upon her. Certainly she +made a charming study from an artistic point of view. What taste she had +shown in the grouping of her white chrysanthemums, and the way she had +mixed in those few velvety horns of red salvia. They were colours proper +to a brunette, but they seemed to accentuate the delicacy of her milky +complexion and the fine shade of her red-gold hair. + +What a chin and throat she had! and what soft, yet strong, round +arms!--white, but warm, like blush rose petals that had unfolded in the +dews of dawn at summer time, against the black background of her dress. +And her shape and her colour were nothing compared with the expression +of utter content and happiness that shone out of her face, irradiating +her youth and beauty with a tender light and sweetness that, like +sunshine on a sleeping crater, gave no hint of the tragic trouble hidden +away for future years. No wonder people looked at her. Of course they +looked. + +The glasses that she had been using belonged to Mrs. Reade, and now that +lady was busy with them, hunting for her numerous acquaintances. Mr. +Kingston held out his own, curious to see if she would discover what +attention she was receiving, and what the effect of such a discovery +would be. + +"Thank you," said Rachel gratefully; and she settled herself back in her +seat, and proceeded to take a thorough survey of all the rank and +fashion that surrounded her. For a long time she gazed attentively, +shifting her glasses slowly round from left to right; and Mr. Kingston +watched her, leaning an elbow on the red ridge between them, and +twiddling one horn of his moustaches. + +He expected to see the familiar blush stealing up over the whiteness of +her face and neck. But she remained, though deeply interested, quite +cool and calm. Presently she dropped her hands in her lap and drew a +long breath. + +"There is a lady over there," she said in a whisper, "who has something +round her arm so bright that I think it must be diamonds. Do you see who +I mean? When she holds up her glasses again, tell me if they are real +diamonds in her bracelet." + +Much amused, Mr. Kingston did as he was bidden. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "they are real diamonds. That lady is particularly +addicted to precious stones. She walks about the street in broad day +with a Sunday school in each ear, as that fellow in _Piccadilly_ says. +Are you like the majority of your sex--a worshipper of diamonds? I +thought you did not care for jewellery." + +"I do," she replied, smiling. "I don't worship jewels, but I should like +to have some. I should like to have some real diamonds _very_ much." + +"I daresay you will have plenty some day, and very becoming they'll be +to you. Not more so, though, than the flowers you are wearing to-night," +he added, looking at them admiringly. + +Rachel touched up her ornaments with a thoughtful face. + +"There is such a light about diamonds," she said musingly; "no coloured +stones seem so liquid and twinkling. I don't care in the least about +coloured stones. If I were very rich I would have one ring full of +diamonds, to wear every day, and one necklace to wear at night--a +necklace of diamond stars strung together--and perhaps a diamond +bracelet. And I wouldn't care for anything else." + +"Should you like to be very rich?" asked her companion, smiling to +himself over these naïve confessions. He was gazing, not only into her +eyes, but at her lovely throat and arms, and imagining how they would +look with diamonds on them. + +"Yes," said Rachel. "But the great thing I wish is not to be poor. I +hope--oh, I do hope--I shall never be poor any more!" + +"I don't think you stand in the least danger of that," said Mr. +Kingston. + +"I know all about it," continued the girl gravely; "and I don't think +you do, or you could not laugh or make a joke of it. You _cannot_ know +how much it means. _You_ never have debts, of course." + +"Debts? Oh, dear, yes, I do--plenty." + +"Yes, but I mean debts that you can't pay--that you have to apologise +for--that hang and drag about you always. I won't talk about it," she +added hurriedly, with a little shiver; "it will spoil my pleasure +to-night." + +"_Don't_," said Mr. Kingston. He did not find it a congenial topic +either. "Tell me what you would do if you were rich." + +"What I would do?" she murmured gently, smiling again. "Oh, all kinds of +things--I would pay ready money for everything, in the first place. Then +I would have a lovely house, with quantities of pictures. That is one +great fault in our house at Toorak--we have no nice pictures. And I +would wear black velvet dresses. And I would have a beautiful sealskin +jacket. And a thorough-bred horse to ride----" + +"Oh, do you ride?" interposed Mr. Kingston, eagerly. + +"I used to ride. I like it very much. My father gave me a beautiful mare +once; but afterwards he rode a steeplechase with her, and she fell and +broke her back. I can ride very well," she added, smiling and blushing. +"I can jump fences without being afraid. But Uncle Hardy keeps only +carriage horses, and none of the family ride." + +"But you must have a horse, of course. I must speak to your uncle about +it," said Mr. Kingston. "Indeed, I think I have one that would suit you +admirably, and I'll lend him to you to try, with pleasure, if you'll +allow me." + +"Oh, _will_ you? Oh, _how_ delightful! When will you let me try him? But +I forgot--I have no habit!" + +"That is a difficulty soon got over. I'll speak to your aunt," said this +influential autocrat. + +And here a bell rang, and the curtain rose upon a fresh scene. Mrs. +Reade and her mother had had an absorbing _tête-à-tête_, and now turned +to see what their charge was doing. Mr. Reade, redolent of something +that was not eau de cologne, came back to his seat; and Rachel began to +watch the proceedings of the prima donna, who was solemnly marching +across the stage. Mr. Kingston was aware, however, that the girl's +thoughts were not with the spectacle before her. She was evidently +preoccupied about those promised rides. + +"I shall have no one to go with me," she whispered presently, in the +pauses of a song. + +"I shall be proud to be your escort," he whispered back. "And there will +always be the groom, you know," he added, seeing the colour of the +oleander blossom suddenly appear. "Do not be anxious. I will manage it +all for you." + +"You are _very_ kind," she said, looking up into his face with that shy +blush, and a charming friendliness in her eyes, "and I am very grateful +to you; but please do not try to persuade Aunt Elizabeth against her +wish." And she did not say much more to him. From this point she became +silent and thoughtful. + +When they reached Toorak, however, Mr. Kingston redeemed his promise +faithfully in his own way, and at considerable trouble to himself. Mr. +and Mrs. Hardy both liked to do things, as they called it, "handsomely," +but at the same time without any unnecessary expense; and neither of +them could see his proposal in the light of a paying enterprise. + +Rachel was driven out in the carriage daily; she appeared at all places +of fashionable resort; she took abundant exercise. A riding-horse would +be expensive, and so would a saddle and habit, not to speak of the +addition to the stable necessities; and what would there be to show for +it? But while the uncle, and still more the aunt, were delicately +fencing with the proposition, Mrs. Reade struck in and swept all +objections away. + +"Of course the child ought to ride if she has been used to riding," said +this imperious small person. "You send your horse here, Mr. Kingston, +and Ned shall come round and see what she can do with it." This was in +the hall, where he was supposed to be saying good-night; and Rachel had +gone upstairs to bed. + +"Thank you, Mrs. Reade--if I may," he said, with an eager gratitude that +amused himself. "I am sure it would be a great pleasure to her--and it +would be so good for her health. Why don't _you_ ride too? It is such +splendid exercise." + +"I would in a minute, if I had a figure like hers," laughed Mrs. Reade. +"Mamma, we must get her a good habit to set off that figure. I'll come +round in the morning, and go with you to have her measured. Are you +going, Mr. Kingston, without a cup of hot coffee? Good-night, then; mind +you send your horse." + +The servant shut the door behind him; and he went out into the solemnity +of the autumn night. The wind was rustling and whispering through the +shrubberies round the house; it had the scent in it of untimely violets, +mingled with a faint fragrance of the distant sea. + +Above, the stars were shining brilliantly; below, the teeming city lay +silent in the lap of darkness, with a thousand lamplights sprinkled +over it. In the foreground he could dimly see the lines of gravelled +paths and grassy terraces, and the gleam of great bunches of pale +chrysanthemums swaying to and fro in the cool air. + +"It is a splendid site," he said to himself; "but I think, if anything, +mine is better." + +He stood for some time, looking away over the illuminated valley to the +milky streak on the horizon where in three or four hours the waters of +Port Philip Bay would shine; and then he sauntered down to the lodge, +and found his hansom waiting for him. + +"Go up to my land there, will you?" said he, pointing his thumb over his +shoulder as he got in. "I'm going to set the men on soon, and I want to +have a look at it." + +The driver, wondering whether he had had more champagne than usual, +said, "All right, Sir," and drove him the few dozen yards that +intervened between Mr. Hardy's gates and the place where his own were +designed to be. + +In the darkness he clambered over the fence, made his way to the highest +ground in the enclosure, and stood once more to look at the +lamp-spangled city and the dim and distant bay. + +"Yes," he said, "I am higher here. I shall get a better view." And he +began to build his house in fancy--to see it towering over all his +neighbours', with great white walls and colonnades, and myriad windows +full of lights, and lovely gardens full of flowers and fountains. "I +must begin at once," he said. "I must see the contractors to-morrow. I +must not put it off any longer, or I shall be an old man before I can +begin to enjoy it." + +And after long musing over the details of his project, he stumbled back, +through saplings, and tussocks, and broken bottles, to the fence; tore +his dress-coat on a nail getting over it; and subsiding into his cab, +lit a cheroot, and stared intently into vacancy all the way to his club. + +When he reached this bachelor's home he did not know what to do with +himself. He thought he would write to a celebrated firm of contractors +to make an appointment for the morning; but it was past twelve o'clock, +and the letters had been collected. + +Some men called him to come and play loo, but he was not in the mood for +cards. He tried billiards, and found his hand unsteady; he went into the +smoking-room, but it was hot and noisy. He had always liked his club, +and maintained against all comers that it was a glorious institution; +but now he began to see that after all a middle-aged gentleman of ample +fortune might find himself pleasanter lodgings. He went out of doors, +where the air was so sweet and cool, rustling up and down an ivied wall, +and over a strip of lawn that lay deep in shadow below it; and looking +at the clear dark sky and the clear pale stars, he put to himself a +momentous question, for which he had a half-shaped answer ready: + +"Who shall I ask to be the mistress of my house?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ANSWER. + + +A girl of eighteen is popularly supposed to be grown up--to have all +wisdom and knowledge necessary for her guidance and protection through +the supreme difficulties of a woman's lot. When one gets ten years +older, one is apt to think that this is a mistake. Life is not so easy +to learn. The treasures of love, like visions of the Holy Grail, are not +revealed to those who have known none of the waiting, and yearning, and +suffering, and sacrifice that teach their divine nature and their +immeasurable worth. + +And to all the vast meanings and solemn mysteries that surround the +great question of right and wrong--the great question of human life--the +spiritual eyesight is blind, or worse than blind, until the experience +of years of mistakes and disillusions brings, little by little, dim +apprehensions of light and truth. + +Rachel Fetherstonhaugh, with the snare of her beauty and her sensuous +love of luxurious surroundings newly laid about her feet, entered upon +her kingdom more than ordinarily unprepared. + +Poor little, helpless, foolish child! How was she to know that marriage +meant something better than a richly-appointed house and a kind +protector? How could she be held accountable for the commission, or +contemplation, of a crime against her youth and womanhood of whose +nature and consequences she was absolutely ignorant? + +She was flitting in and out through the French windows of the +drawing-room one fine morning, with a basket of flowers on her arm, +busily engaged in rearranging the numerous little bouquets that she made +it her business to keep in perennial freshness all about the house, when +Mr. Kingston was announced. + +She had seen him several times since the night of the opera; he had left +his card twice when she had been away from home; and Mrs. Hardy had had +polite messages respecting the horse, which had been duly sent for her +approval. He came in now, with his light and jaunty step, bowing low, +and smiling so that his white teeth shone under his Napoleonic +moustache, carrying a large roll of paper in his hand. + +"Good morning, Miss Fetherstonhaugh," he exclaimed gaily. "I must +apologise for this early call; but I can never find you at home after +lunch these fine days." + +Rachel, who had not seen his approach nor heard him enter the house, +whose hall-door was standing open for her convenience, turned round with +her hands full of flowers. In the sunshine of the morning she looked +more fair and refined than he had ever seen her, he thought. The +plainest little black gown showed her graceful shape to perfection; her +complexion, always so delicate, was flushed and freshened with the wind +and her embarrassment. + +As for her hair, half-covered with a shabby garden hat on the back of +her head, it was the central patch of light and colour in the +bright-hued room; he was sure he had never seen hair so silky in texture +and so rich in tint. + +His ideal woman, hitherto, had been highly polished and elaborately +appointed; she had been a woman of rank and fashion, in Parisian +clothes, a queen of society, always moving about in state, with her +crown on. But now, in the autumn of his years, all his theories of life +were being overturned by an ignorant little country girl, sprung from +nobody knew where; and a coronet of diamonds would not have had the +charm of that old straw hat, with a wisp of muslin round it, which +framed the sweetest face he had ever seen or dreamed of. + +"My aunt is in her room," she stammered hastily; "I will send to tell +her you are here. She will be very glad to see you." + +And she called back the servant who had admitted him, and sent a message +upstairs. + +Mrs. Hardy, however, did not hurry herself. She was a thrifty +housekeeper still, as in her early days, and devoted her forenoons +religiously to her domestic affairs. Just now she was sorting linen +that had returned from the wash; and, hearing that her niece was in the +drawing-room, she had no scruple about remaining to finish her task. + +"Say I will be down directly," she said. And she did not go down for +considerably more than half an hour. + +In the meantime Rachel tumbled her flowers into the basket, took off her +hat, and seated herself demurely in a green satin chair. + +"It is a lovely morning," she remarked. + +"Oh, a charming morning--perfectly charming! You ought to be having a +ride, you know. Have you tried Black Agnes yet?" + +"No, not yet. My habit has not come home. They promised to send it last +night, but they did not. I am very anxious to try her. She is the +prettiest creature I ever saw. I--I," beginning to blush violently, +"have not half thanked you for your kindness, Mr. Kingston." + +"Pray don't mention it," he replied, waving his hand; "I shall be only +too glad if I am able to give you a little pleasure." + +"It is the _greatest_ pleasure," she said, smiling. "But she is so +good--so much too good--I am half afraid to take her out, for fear +anything should happen to her. Uncle Hardy says she is a much better +horse than he wants for me." + +"Your uncle had better mind his own business," said Mr. Kingston, with +sudden irritation. "If you are to have a horse at all, you must have one +that is fit to ride, of course." + +"But I think it is his business," suggested Rachel, laughingly. + +"No; just now it is mine. I mean," he added hastily, a little alarmed at +the expression and colour of her face, "that Black Agnes is mine. And +while I lend her to you she is yours. And I trust you will use her in +every way as if she were actually yours." + +"Thank you; you are very kind. I hope nothing _will_ happen to her. I +shall take great care of her, of course. I will not jump fences or +anything of that sort." + +"Oh, pray do," urged Mr. Kingston. "She is trained to jump. She has +carried a lady over fences scores of times." The fact was he had only +bought her a few days before, and had selected her from a large and +miscellaneous assortment on account of this special qualification. "I +hope you will let me ride out with you, and show you my old +cross-country hunting leaps. You will not mind jumping fences with her, +if I am with you, and make you do it?" + +"No," she said, "for I shall show you that it is not the fault of my +riding if accidents happen." + +"Exactly. I am sure it will not be your fault. But we will not have any +accidents--I will take too good care of you. Can't we go out this +afternoon? Oh, I forgot that habit. I'll call on your tailor, if you'll +allow me, and 'exhort' him; shall I? I have done it before, on my own +account, with the most satisfactory results." + +"No, thank you," said Rachel, "I would not give you that trouble. He +will send it home when it is ready, I suppose." + +And she rose from her chair and began to move about the room, wondering +whether her aunt was ever coming downstairs. + +Mr. Kingston thought it would be expedient to change the conversation. + +"I have brought you the plans of my house," he said, taking up his roll +of papers, and beginning to spread great sheets on a table near him. "I +meant to have asked your opinion before I began to build it, but--well, +I took it for granted that you would like it as it was." + +"Ah, yes," responded Rachel brightly, coming to his side. "Uncle Hardy +said you had begun. And you know I can see all the men and carts from my +window. Oh! oh!" + +This enthusiastic exclamation greeted the unrolling of the "front +elevation," which, in faint outlines, filled in with pale washes of grey +and blue and pink, showed her the towers and colonnades of her ideal +palace. When he heard it, Mr. Kingston's heart swelled. He was more +charmed with his pretty creature than ever. + +"This, you see," said he, "is the main entrance--fifteen steps. But +won't you sit down? You will see better. And this wing is where the +drawing-rooms are to be," he added, when she had seated herself, and he +had taken a chair beside her. "There are three large rooms in a line, +that can all be thrown together on occasions--when necessary. I have not +decided about the furniture yet, nor the colours of the walls. You must +help me with those things presently. The dados, which are being designed +at home, are to be of carved wood, most of them; mantelpieces to match. +Some of the dados will be of inlaid stone, tiles, and that sort of +thing. I suppose you don't know what a dado is, do you?" + +"No," said Rachel, meekly. Whereupon he entered into elaborate +explanations. + +"I think I should not like tiles on the wall," she ventured to remark; +"they would feel very cold, wouldn't they?" + +"They tell me tile is the proper thing," he replied; "and of course I +want to have everything that is proper. But whatever my--my wife wishes +shall be law, of course. In her own rooms, at any rate, she shall +consult her own taste entirely." + +Rachel stared at him, coloured and laughed. "Oh, you did not tell me +about your wife before," she said. "I did not know you were engaged to +be married. That is why you are making haste to build your house? I am +very glad. I congratulate you." + +"Do not; do not," he stammered earnestly. "I speak of a possible wife, +because I hope to have a wife some day. I am not engaged. I wish I +were." + +"Oh!" she said, looking down bashfully, with oleander blossoms +everywhere. "I beg your pardon." + +"I wish I were," he repeated. "But I am going to get ready for that +happy time against it does come. See, these are to be her rooms. They +face the south, and I am going to have a rose garden below them. This is +to be her boudoir. I thought of having the walls and the ceiling painted +in coral. I have noticed that pink lights in a room are very becoming to +a lady's complexion, rather pale on the walls, for the sake of the +pictures. You said you liked plenty of pictures?" + +"I? Oh, yes, I like pictures." + +"And I did mean to have a dado of very fine, rich tiles to make a +foundation of colour, you know; but you don't like tiles?" + +"Oh, but _I_ don't know anything about it, Mr. Kingston! You had better +do what you said--furnish the other rooms, and leave your wife, when you +get one, to choose the decorations of her own herself." + +"She _shall_ choose them herself. But, Miss Fetherstonhaugh--" + +"Rachel, my dear, your habit has come," said Mrs. Hardy, appearing at +this interesting moment. "Oh, how do you do, Mr. Kingston? Pray forgive +me for leaving you so long. I hope you have come to lunch? Oh, yes, you +must stay to lunch, of course. We'll take you into town afterwards, when +we go out to drive." + +Mr. Kingston stayed to lunch, and made himself very agreeable. But then +he went into town by himself, and returned in an incredibly short space +of time in riding costume, mounted on a powerful brown horse. During his +absence, Rachel had put on her habit, and found that it fitted her +beautifully; and Black Agnes had been caparisoned, and was pawing the +gravel before the hall door. Mrs. Reade, magnificently attired for a +series of state calls, had appeared upon the scene, and was regulating +all these pleasant circumstances. + +"Now then, Mr. Kingston, you must only take her along quiet roads. And +she is not to jump any fences when Ned is not with her." + +"Why, Ned?" inquired Mr. Kingston. "I am as learned in fences as Ned, +don't you think?" + +"Oh, yes, I know all about that. But it is the look of the thing. You +remember, Rachel, you are not to jump fences." + +"No, Beatrice, I won't." + +"Have a good gallop, my dear, and enjoy it," the little woman added. +"I'll take care of mamma; and when we have done all our calls we will +come and meet you." + +Mr. Kingston stepped jauntily to Black Agnes's side. He was an old +steeplechase rider before he was a successful city merchant, and he +looked ten years younger in his riding-dress. Rachel, with a radiant +face, approached him, and laid her small foot on his proffered palm. + +In a moment she was up like a feather, and sitting square and light in +her saddle like a practised horsewoman as she was; and all her +attendants, groom included, looked up at her admiringly. Even Mrs. Hardy +forgot the expense she had been put to. + +"The child certainly does look well on horseback," she remarked, +resignedly, as Black Agnes's shining haunches disappeared round a clump +of laurels. "What a figure she has, Beatrice!" + +"Oh, dear me, yes!" assented the younger matron pettishly. "Why didn't +_we_ have figures like that!" + +Meanwhile, the black mare and the big brown horse paced out into the +road, and for a little while the riders contented themselves with +friendly glances at one another. Rachel was crimson with pride and +bashfulness, looking lovely and riding beautifully, as she could not +but know she was. Mr. Kingston, sharing some measure of her elation and +excitement, was absorbed in looking at and admiring her. + +By and bye they had a long canter, which carried them well out into the +country, where there were no houses and no people, and where the shadows +were beginning to rest on the peaceful autumn landscape. And then Mr. +Kingston made her draw rein under a clump of trees, while she looked +back at the city they had left behind, glorified in the light of the +sinking sun. + +"So now there is something else you like besides operas and balls?" he +said, laying his hand upon the black mare's silky mane. + +"Yes," she replied, drawing a long breath, "and I think this is best of +all! She is like a swallow--she seems to skim the ground! And I--I don't +know when I have felt so happy!" + +All his years and his experience went for nothing under these +circumstances, when she looked as sweet as she did now. + +"You must keep Black Agnes," he said eagerly. "I will speak to your +uncle. I will not have you riding low-bred brutes. Nothing but the best +is fit for you; you, who know how to ride so well, and enjoy it so much! +You will keep her, to please me?" + +If she had been sitting in a green satin drawing-room she would +probably have checked this ardent outburst at an apparently harmless +stage. She would have blushed, and looked grave and majestic; but now +she was, in a sense, intoxicated. She lifted a pair of radiant, grateful +eyes to his face, and she held out her hand impulsively. + +"How good you are to me!" she said. "How much pleasure you give me!" + +And then, of course, he succumbed altogether. + +"That is what I want to do, not now, but always," he said, drawing the +mare's head to his knee, and the small, weak hand to his lips, which had +kissed so many hands, though never with quite the same kind of kiss. +"That is why I am building my house. It is you I wanted to be its +mistress--didn't you know that?--to do just what you like with it, and +with me, and with all I have!" And, when once he had fairly set it +going, the flood of his eloquence, running in a well-channelled groove, +flowed freely, and overwhelmed the poor little novice, who had never +been made love to before. + +"I--we--we have only seen each other a few times," she ventured to +suggest at last, but not until her imagination had been captivated by +the splendid prospect before her. She had the colour of a peony in her +cheeks, and frightened tears in her soft child's eyes; but her +experienced lover knew that his cause was gained. + +"That has been enough for me," he said. "Once was enough for me." Then, +after a long pause, "Well? Is it to be 'yes' or 'no?'" + +"Oh, I don't know!" she stammered desperately, turning her head from +side to side. "I have had no time. Let us wait until we know each other +better." + +"_I_ know quite enough," he persisted, "and I am not so young as you are +that I can afford to wait." + +She trembled and panted, gathering up her reins and dropping them in an +agony of embarrassment. + +"Oh," she said at last, "what can I say? Won't you let me speak to Aunt +Elizabeth?" + +"Of course, as soon as you like after you get home. I am not afraid of +Aunt Elizabeth. I know what _she_ will say. But now, dear--while we are +here by ourselves--I want you to tell me, of your own self, whether you +like me--whether you would really like to come and live with me in my +new house? You don't want anybody to help you to make up your mind about +that?" + +"No," she whispered, hanging her head, feeling at once terrified and +elated, and wishing to goodness she could see Mrs. Hardy and Beatrice +driving along the lonely empty road. + +"You _would_ like it? Turn your face to me and say 'Yes,' just once, and +I won't bother you any more." + +She turned her face, scarlet all over her ears and all down her throat, +and she tried to meet his ardent eyes and could not. Her lips shaped +themselves to say "Yes," but no sound would come. However, sound would +have been, perhaps, less expressive than the silence which overwhelmed +her in this proud but dreadful moment. At any rate, Mr. Kingston was +satisfied. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +SO SOON! + + +They rode home sedately in the cool and quiet evening. Mr. Kingston, +having accomplished the end for which he had contrived this unchaperoned +expedition, was content to keep close to his pretty sweetheart's side, +to look in her face occasionally with significant smiles, and to +ruminate on his own good fortune. + +Rachel, fluttered and dismayed at the situation in which she found +herself, bestowed a wandering attention on the near-side fields and +hedges, and discouraged conversation. It is needless to remark that the +carriage did not come to meet them. The long shadows lengthened, the sun +sank down below the glowing horizon, the glory of the evening faded away +into the soft dusk of the autumn night. + +Lamps were being lighted when they entered Toorak; the workmen who had +begun at the foundations of the new house were "knocking off;" the gates +of Mrs. Hardy's domain were standing open, and the woman at the lodge +informed them that she had not returned from her drive. + +They rode up to the house, and Mr. Kingston got off his horse and lifted +Rachel down. She disengaged herself from his arms as quickly as +possible, and then stood on the doorstep, while the groom led both +horses away, and looked at her _fiancé_ anxiously, blushing with all her +might. + +"Won't you let me come in?" he asked smiling. But he did not mean to be +refused admittance; and he turned the handle of the door and led her +into the hall and into the drawing-room, as if it had been his own +house. + +The lamps had not been lit in the drawing-room, but a bright fire was +burning, making a glow of rich and pleasant colour all over its mossy +carpet and its shining furniture. Rachel's flowers were blooming +everywhere. Soft armchairs stood seductively round the cheerful hearth. +An afternoon tea-table was set for four, with everything on it but the +teapot. + +"My aunt is late," said Rachel uneasily. "I wonder what can have kept +her. I hope there has been no accident." + +Mr. Kingston showed all his teeth in a momentary smile, and then +addressed himself to the opportunity that had so happily offered. + +"Oh, no, she is not late; it is the days that are getting so short," he +said. And as he spoke he unfastened her hat and laid it aside, and then +drew her burning face to his shoulder and kissed her. She stood still, +trembling, to let him do it, one tingling blush from head to foot. She +liked him very much; she was very proud and glad that she was going to +marry him; she quite understood that it was his right and privilege to +kiss her, if he felt so disposed. Still her strongest conscious +sentiment was an ardent longing for her aunt's return--or her uncle's, +or anybody's. The spiritual woman in her protested against being kissed. + +"I want you not to be afraid of me," said Mr. Kingston, half anxious, +half amused, as he patted her head. "I am not an ogre, nor Bluebeard +either; you seem to shrink from me almost as if I was. You must not +shrink from me _now_, you know." + +"I will not--by and bye--when I get used to it," she gasped, with a +touch of hysterical excitement, extricating her pretty head, and +standing appealingly before him, with her pink palms outwards. "I'm not +afraid of you, Mr. Kingston, but--but it is very new yet! I shall get +used to it after a little." + +He looked down at her with sudden gravity. She was on the verge of +tears. + +"Oh, yes," he said quietly, almost paternally, "we shall soon get used +to each other. There is plenty of time. Let me see--how old are you? +Don't tell me; let me guess. Eighteen?" + +She smiled and composed herself. Yes, she was just eighteen. Somebody +must have told him. No, upon his honour, nobody had; it was his own +guess entirely. Did he not think he ought to have chosen someone older +for such a position of importance and responsibility? No; she was +gallantly assured that she had been an object, not of choice, but of +necessity. And so on. + +When the dialogue had brought itself down to a sufficiently sober level, +he took her hand, and drawing her into a seat beside him, continued to +hold it, and to stroke her slight white fingers between his palms. + +"They say good blood always shows itself in the fineness of a woman's +hands," he said; "if so, you ought to be particularly well-born." + +"I don't know what your standard is," she answered, smiling. "My father +came of a border family ages ago, I believe. I never knew anything about +my mother's parentage; she died when I was a baby." + +"I am _sure_ you are well born," he said, looking fondly and proudly at +her as she sat in the firelight, with her golden hair shining. "I shall +have not only the finest house, but the most beautiful wife to sit at +the head of my table. I don't believe there is another woman in +Melbourne who will compare with you, especially when you get those +diamonds on." + +"Diamonds!" ejaculated Rachel. + +"Yes; those diamonds you talked about the other night, don't you +know?--that you would have if you were very rich. Well, you are going to +be very rich. And I am going to order you some of them to-morrow. You +must give me the size of your finger. A 'ring full of diamonds,' didn't +you say? How full?" + +Rachel smiled, blushed, and ceased to feel that strong repugnance to +the amenities of courtship which had distressed both herself and her +lover at an earlier stage. + +Here a servant came in to light the gas. The man appeared conscious of +the inopportuneness of his intrusion, and despatched his business in +nervous haste, clinking the pendants of the cut-glass chandelier in a +manner that his mistress would have highly disapproved of. + +Rachel and her visitor watched him with a sort of silent fascination, as +if they had never seen gas lighted before. When he was gone, Mr. +Kingston took out his watch. It was past six o'clock. He had a dinner +engagement at seven, and had to get into town and change his clothes. + +"I'm afraid I dare not wait for Mrs. Hardy," he said, rising. "I hate to +go, but you know I would not if I could help it. I will see your uncle +at his office the first thing in the morning, and come to lunch +afterwards. Shall I?" + +"If you like," murmured Rachel, shyly. And then she submitted to be +kissed again, and being asked to do it, touched her lover's fierce +moustaches with her own soft lips--not "minding" it nearly so much as +she did at first. She was beginning to get used to being engaged to him. + +When immediately after his departure Mrs. Hardy, having left her +daughter at her own house, came home, and heard what had been taking +place, she could hardly believe the evidence of her ears. + +"So soon!" she ejaculated, lifting her hands. "Is it credible? My dear, +are you sure you are not making a mistake?" + +Remembering the wear and tear of mind and body that the management of +these affairs had cost her hitherto--remembering the illusive and +unsubstantial nature of all Mr. Kingston's previous attentions to the +most attractive marriageable girls--she found the suddenness of the +thing confounding. + +"Don't you think you may have misunderstood him?" she reiterated, +anxiously. "I'm afraid he is rather given to say more--or to appear to +say more--than he means sometimes." + +Rachel blushingly testified to the good faith of her _fiancé_, by +references to the ring for which her finger had already been measured, +and to the impending interview at her uncle's office. + +"I should never have thought of it of myself Aunt Elizabeth," she said +meekly. + +Mrs. Hardy sank into an easy chair, and unbuttoned her furs, as if to +give her bosom room to swell with the pride and satisfaction that +possessed her. Then, looking up at the slender figure on the hearthrug, +at the candid innocent face of the child who had been bequeathed to her +love and care, a maternal instinct asserted itself. + +"My dear," she said, "you are very young, and this is a serious step. +You must take care not to run into it heedlessly. Do you really feel +that you would be happy with Mr. Kingston? He is much older than you +are, you know." + +Rachel thought of the new house, and of the diamonds, and of all her +lover's tributes to her worth and beauty. + +"Yes, I think so, aunt. He is a very nice man. He is very kind to me." + +"He has lived so long as a bachelor, that he has got into bachelor +ways," Mrs. Hardy reluctantly proceeded. "He has been rather--a--gay, so +they say. I doubt if you will find him domesticated, my dear." + +"I shall not _wish_ him to stay always at home with me," replied the +girl, with a fine glow of generosity. "And I do not mind tobacco-smoke, +nor latchkeys, nor things of that sort. And if he is fond of his club, +I hope he will go there as often as he likes. _I_ shall not try to +deprive him of his pleasures, when he will give me so many of my own. +And, you know, dear aunt, I shall be quite close to you; I can never be +lonely while I am able to run in and out here." + +Mrs. Hardy was reassured. This was the pliant, sweet-natured little +creature who would adapt herself kindly to any husband--who was not, of +course, an absolutely outrageous brute. + +And Mr. Kingston, except that he was a little old, a little of a +_viveur_, a trifle selfish, and, it was said, rather bad tempered when +he was put out, was everything that a reasonable girl could desire. She +smiled, rose from her chair, and kissed her niece's pretty face with +motherly pride and fondness. + +"Well, my love, it is a great match for you," she said, "and I hope it +will be a happy one as well." + +And then, hearing her husband coming downstairs, she left the room +hurriedly to meet and drive him back again, that she might explain to +him the interesting state of affairs while she put on her gown for +dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A RASH PROMISE. + + +There was of course no opposition to Rachel's engagement. Mr. Hardy, +away from his office, was simply Mrs. Hardy's husband, not because he +had no will of his own, but because he acknowledged her superior +capacity for the management of that complicated business called getting +on in the world, to which they had both devoted their lives for so many +years. + +Mrs. Reade, who next to her mother was the greatest "power" in the +family, approved of the match highly, though she had herself proposed to +be Mrs. Kingston at an earlier stage of her career; but she had a good +deal to say before she would allow it to be considered a settled thing. + +In the first place she had a serious talk with the bridegroom-elect, in +which she demanded on Rachel's behalf certain guarantees of good +behaviour when he should have become a married man. She was a clever +little clear-headed woman, full of active energies, for which the +minding of her own business did not supply employment; and being blessed +with plenty of self-confidence and much good sense and tact, she +contrived to give her friends a great deal of assistance with theirs, +without giving them offence at the same time. + +Occasionally she came across another strong-minded woman who objected to +interference; but the men never objected. They rather liked it, most of +them. + +Mr. Kingston, at any rate, thought it was very pleasant to be lectured +in a maternal manner by a woman five feet high, who was just thirty +years younger than he was; and he made profuse and solemn promises that +he would be "a good boy," and take the utmost care of the innocent young +creature who had confided her happiness to his charge. And then she +fetched Rachel away to spend the day with her, and, over a protracted +discussion of afternoon tea, gave _her_ some valuable advice as to the +conduct of her affairs. + +"You know," she said, with much gravity and decision, "it is always best +to look at these things in a practical way. Mr. Kingston is, no doubt, a +splendid match, and not a bad fellow, as men go; but it is no use +pretending that he won't be a great handful. He has been a bachelor too +long. The habit of having his own way in everything will have become his +second nature. I doubt if anyone could properly break him of it now, and +I am sure _you_ could not." + +"I should not try," said Rachel, smiling. "I should like my husband, +whoever he was, to have his own way." + +Mrs. Reade shook her head. + +"It doesn't answer, my dear. What is the use of a man marrying if his +wife doesn't try to keep him straight? And if you give in to him in +everything, he only despises you for it." + +"But, Beatrice," Rachel protested, "all men don't want keeping straight, +do they? It seems to me that every case is different from every other +case. One is no guide for another." + +"I know it isn't. I'm only thinking of your case. And I want to make you +understand it. You don't know him as well as I do, and you don't know +anything about married life. If you run into it blindfold, and let +things take their chance, then--why, then it is too late to talk about +it. Everything depends upon how you begin. You must begin as you mean +to go on." + +"And how ought I to begin?" inquired Rachel, still smiling. She could +not be brought to regard this momentous subject with that serious +attention which it demanded. + +"Well, _I_ should take a very high hand if it were my case--but you are +not like me. I should put a stop to a great deal that goes on now at +_once_, and get it over, while the novelty and pleasure of his marriage +was fresh and my influence was supreme. I should try to make him as +happy as possible, of course, for both our sakes. I'd humour him in +little things. I'd never put him out of temper, if I could help it. But +I would keep him well in hand, and on no account put up with any +nonsense. If they see you mean that from the beginning, they generally +give in; and by and bye they are used to it, and settle down quietly and +comfortably, and you have no more trouble." + +Rachel's smiling face had been growing grave, and her large eyes +dilating and kindling. + +"Oh, Beatrice," she broke out, "that is not marriage--not my idea of +marriage! How can a husband and wife be happy if they are always +watching each other like two policemen? And they marry on purpose to be +happy. I think they should love one another enough to have no fear of +those treacheries. If they are not alike--if they have different tastes +and ways--oughtn't they to be companions whenever they _can_ enjoy +things together, and help each other to get what else they want. Love +should limit those outside wants--love should make everything safe. If +that will not, I don't think anything else will. I should never have the +heart to try anything else, if that failed." + +Mrs. Reade gazed with intense curiosity and interest at this girl, with +her young enthusiasm and her old-world philosophy. She was so surprised +at the unexpected element introduced into the dialogue, that for a few +minutes she could not speak. Then she put out her hand impulsively and +laid it on Rachel's knee. + +"Is _that_ how you feel about Mr. Kingston?" she exclaimed, earnestly. +"My dear, I beg your pardon. I did not know how things were. If you +think of your marriage in that way, pray forget all I have been saying, +and act as your own heart dictates. That will be your safest guide." + +So Rachel was engaged with satisfaction to all concerned. She +conscientiously believed that she loved her elderly _fiancé_, and that +she would be very happy with him; and the rest of them thought so +too--himself of course included. + +The winter wore away, full of peace and pleasure. The interesting event +was public property, and the engaged pair were fêted and congratulated +on all sides, and enjoyed themselves immensely. + +Rachel had her diamond ring, and a diamond bracelet into the bargain, +with a promise of the "necklace of stars, strung together," on her +wedding day: and her aunt in consideration of her prospective +importance, bought her the coveted sealskin jacket. + +Black Agnes was made over to her entirely, and she rode and jumped +fences to her heart's content. She went to the opera whenever she liked. +She was the belle of all the balls; and in the best part of Melbourne +her splendid home was being prepared for her, where she was to reign as +a queen of beauty and fashion, with unlimited power to "aggravate other +women"--which is supposed by some cynics to be the highest object of +female ambition. + +And Mr. Kingston bore with extreme complacency the jokes of his club +friends on his defection from that faith in the superior advantages of +celibacy, which he and some of them had held in common; for he knew they +all admired his lady-love extravagantly, if they did not actually go so +far as to envy him her possession. And he attended her wherever she went +with the utmost assiduity. + +When the winter was nearly over, an event occurred in the Hardy family +which made a change in this state of things. Mrs. Thornley, the second +daughter, who lived in the country, having married a wealthy landowner, +who preferred all the year round to manage his own property, presented +Mrs. Hardy with her first grandchild; and being in rather delicate +health afterwards, wrote to beg her mother to come and stay with her, +and of course to bring Rachel. + +To this invitation Mrs. Hardy responded eagerly by return of post, and +bade Rachel pack up quickly for an early start. Rachel was delighted +with the prospect, even though it involved her separation from her +betrothed; and her preparations were soon completed. Mr. Hardy was +handed over to his daughter Beatrice, "to be kept till called for;" one +old servant was placed in charge of the Toorak house, and others on +board wages; and Mrs. Hardy, paying a round of farewell calls, intimated +to her friends that she was likely to make a long visit. + +Rachel rose early on the day of her departure. It was a very lovely +morning in the earliest dawn of spring, full of that delicate, +delicious, champagny freshness which belongs to Australian mornings. +She opened her window, while yet half dressed, to let in the sweet air +blowing off the sea. + +Far away the luminous blue of the transparent sky met the sparkle of the +bluer bay, where white sails shone like the wings of a flock of +sea-birds. Below her, spreading out from under the garden terraces, far +and wide, lay Melbourne in a thin veil of mist and smoke, beginning to +flash back the sunshine from its spiky forest of chimney stacks and +towers. And close by, through an opening in the belt of pinus insignis +which enclosed Mr. Hardy's domain, and where just now a flock of king +parrots were noisily congregating after an early breakfast on almond +blossoms, she could see the dusty mess surrounding the nucleus of her +future home, and the workmen beginning their day's task of chipping and +chopping at the stones which were to build it; even they were +picturesque in this glorifying atmosphere. How bright it all was! Her +heart swelled with childish exultation at the prospect of a journey on +such a day. + +As for Mr. Kingston, to be left behind to stroll about Collins Street +disconsolately by himself, just now she did not give him a thought. + +Two or three hours later, however, when she and her aunt, accompanied by +"Ned"--who had no office, unfortunately for him, and was therefore +driven by his wife to make himself useful when opportunity +offered--arrived at Spencer Street, there was Mr. Kingston on the +platform waiting to see the last of her. If she was able to leave him +without any severe pangs of regret and remorse, he for his part was by +no means willing to let her go. + +"You will write to me often," he pleaded, when, having placed her in a +corner of the ladies' carriage, he rested his arms on the window for a +last few words. Mrs. Hardy was leaning out of the opposite window, +deeply interested in the spectacle of an empty Williamstown train +patiently waiting for its passengers and its engine. + +"Yes," said Rachel slowly; "but you must remember I shall be in the +country, and shall have no news to make letters of." + +"I don't want news," he replied with a shade of darkness in his eager +face. "Pray don't give me news--that's a kind of letter I detest. I +want you to write about yourself." + +"I--I have never had many friends," she stammered, "and I am not used to +writing letters. You will be disappointed with mine--and perhaps ashamed +of me." + +"What rubbish! Do you think I shall be critical about the grammar and +composition? Why, my pet, if you don't spell a single word right I +shan't care--so long as you tell me you think of me, and miss me, and +want to come back to me." + +"Oh," said Rachel bridling, "I know how to _spell_." + +Here a railway official shouldered them apart in order to lock the door, +and Mr. Kingston demanded of him what he meant by his impudence. Having +satisfied the claims of outraged dignity, he again leaned into the +window, and put out his hand for a tender farewell. + +"Good-bye, my darling. You _will_ write often, won't you? And mind now," +with one of his Mephistophelian smiles, "you are not to go and flirt +with anybody behind my back." + +"I never flirt," said Rachel severely. + +"Nor fall in love with handsome young squatters, you know." + +"Don't talk nonsense," she retorted, melting into one of her sunny +smiles. "If you can't trust me, why do you let me go?" + +"I would not, if I had the power to stop you--you may be quite sure of +that. But you will promise me, Rachel?" + +"Promise you what?" + +"That you will be constant to me while you are away from me, and not +let other men----" + +She lifted her ungloved hand, on which shone that ring "full of +diamonds" which he had given her, and laid it on his mouth--or rather on +his moustache. + +"Now you'll make me angry if you go on," she said, with a playfully +dignified and dictatorial air. "No, I won't hear any more--I am ashamed +of you! after all the long time we have been engaged. As if I was a girl +of _that_ sort, indeed!" + +Here the signal was given for the train to start, and Mrs. Hardy came +forward to make her own adieux, and to give her last instructions to her +son-in-law, who had been meekly standing apart. + +As they slowly steamed out of the station, Rachel rose and comforted her +bereaved lover with a last sight of her fair face, full of fun and +smiles. + +"Good-bye," she called gaily; "I promise." + +"Thank you," he shouted back. + +He lifted his hat, and kissed the tips of his fingers, and stood to +watch the train disappear into the dismal waste that lay immediately +beyond the station precincts. Then he walked away dejectedly to find his +cab. He had grown very fond of his little sweetheart, and he anticipated +the long, dull days that he would have to spend without her. + +He wished Mrs. Hardy had been a little more definite as to the time when +she meant to bring her home. It was not as if he were a young man, with +any quantity of time to waste. However, he had her assurance that she +would be true to him under any temptations that should assail her in his +absence; and though too experienced to put absolute faith in that, it +greatly cheered and consoled him. He stepped into his hansom, and told +the driver to take him to Toorak, that he might see how the house where +they were going to live together was getting on. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TWO LOVE LETTERS. + + +MR. KINGSTON _to_ MISS FETHERSTONHAUGH. + + "My dearest love, + + "I had no idea that Melbourne _could_ be such a detestable + hole! Why have you gone away, and taken all the life and + brightness out of everything? + + "If I had not the house to look after--and there is not much to + interest one in that at present--I declare life would not be + worth the trouble it entails in the mere matter of dressing and + dining, and slating the servants and tradespeople. + + "I went to Mrs. Reade's last night. Everybody was there; but I + was bored to that extent that I came home in an hour (and + physicked _ennui_ at the card-table, where I lost ten pounds). + I could not get up any interest in anybody. Mrs. Reade herself + looked remarkably well. She is a very stylish woman, though she + is so small. And Miss Brownlow looked handsome, as usual--to + those who care for that dark kind of beauty. I confess I don't. + I could only long for you, and think what a lily you would have + been amongst them all, with your white neck and arms. (Be very + careful of your complexion, my darling, while you are in the + country; don't let the wind roughen your fine skin, nor sit by + the fire without a screen for your face). + + "As usual, poor Reade got a good deal snubbed. I would not be + in his place for something. But if a wife of mine told me in + the presence of guests that I had had as much wine as was good + for me, I'd take care she didn't do it a second time. My little + wife, however, will know better than that; _I_ have no fear of + being henpecked. It was a kind of musical evening, and Sarah + Brownlow sang several new songs. I thought her voice had gone + off a great deal. + + "I must say for Mrs. Beatrice, that she is a capital hostess, + and manages her parties as well as anybody. But this one was + immensely slow. Everything is slow now you are away. Is it + necessary for you to remain at Adelonga for the whole time of + your aunt's visit? Can't you come back to town soon, and stay + with Mrs. Reade? _Do_ try and manage it; I'm sure your aunt + would be willing, and it would be a most delightful arrangement + all round. + + "You will find Adelonga very dull, I fancy. It used to be a + pleasant house in the old days, when Thornley was a bachelor; + but two marriages must have altered both it and him, and the + second Mrs. Thornley is not lively, even at the best of times, + and must be terribly depressing as an invalid. There are a lot + of children, too, are there not? If your aunt doesn't let you + come back, can't you, when your cousin is well enough, + manoeuvre to get me an invitation? I would not mind a country + house if you and I were in it together. Nothing could well be + drearier than town is without you. And it would be so charming + to be both under the same roof! + + "And this reminds me of something I want to speak to you about + seriously, so give me your best attention. (I wonder whether, + having read so far, you are beginning to cover yourself with + blushes in anticipation of what is coming? I am sure you are.) + + "You told me, you know, my darling, that you did not wish to be + married for a year or two--not until the house was built and + finished, you said--because you were so young. But I have been + thinking that that will never do. The house will probably be an + immense time in hand; it is not like an ordinary plain house, + you see. And _I_ am not young, if you are. I don't say that I + am old, but still I have come to that time of life when a man, + if he means to marry and settle, should do it as soon as + possible. And you are not any younger than your cousin Laura + was when she married last year; and her husband, moreover, was + a mere boy. I remember when Buxton was born, and he can't be + five-and-twenty, nor anything like it. So you see, my pet, your + proposal is _quite_ absurd and unreasonable. + + "And now I will tell you what mine is. And I know my little + girl's gentle and generous disposition too well to doubt that + she will offer any serious opposition to it, or to any of my + urgent wishes. I propose that we marry without any delay; that + is to say, with no more delay than the preparing of your + trousseau necessitates. + + "We have already been engaged some months, and by the time your + visit is over and your preparations made, we shall have fully + reached the average term of engagements amongst people of our + class. I want you to let me write to your aunt (I am sure she + would see the matter _quite_ from my point of view), and + suggest a day in September, or in October at the latest. That + is a lovely time of year, and all my other plans would fit in + with such an arrangement beautifully. + + "You have never travelled, nor seen anything of the world yet; + and I should like to show you a little before you settle down + in your big house to all the cares of state. So I thought we + would go for a short honeymoon to Sydney or + Tasmania--whichever you like best; then come back for the + races, and to see how the house was going on. I think there + will be a club ball, too, about that time; if so, I know you + would like to go to it _with your diamond necklace on_. Would + you not? And then--while the shell of the house is building--I + propose we repeat the honeymoon tour on a larger scale, and go + to Europe. + + "I know you would like to see all that Laura Buxton is seeing + now; and I will take care that you see a great deal besides. + You shall make the old grand tour, if you like it; it will be + new enough to you. + + "And we will have a good time in Paris; and we will amuse + ourselves, wherever we go, collecting furniture and pictures, + and ornaments for our house. + + "You shall choose everything for your own rooms--as I told you + my wife should--from the best looms and workshops in the world. + And then when we come home we will take a house somewhere while + we superintend the fitting up of our own. + + "And finally, we will give a brilliant ball or something, by + way of housewarming, and settle down to domestic life. + + "Now is not this a charming programme? I am sure you will think + so--indeed you _must_, for I have set my heart upon it. + + "Pray write at once, dear love, and give me leave to put + matters in train. Do you know you have been away four days and + I have only had a post-card to tell me you arrived safely! That + is not how you are going to treat me, I hope. I know there is a + daily mail from Adelonga, and (though I repudiate post-cards) I + don't care what sort of scribble you send so long as you write + constantly. Remember what I told you about that. And remember + your _promise_. + + "And now, good-night, my sweetest Rachel. Sleep well, darling, + and dream of me, + + "Your faithful lover, + + "GRAHAM KINGSTON." + +MISS FETHERSTONHAUGH _to_ MR. KINGSTON. + + "My dearest Graham, + + "I am afraid you will think I ought to have written to you + before, but I have been so much engaged ever since I arrived + that I really have not had an opportunity. + + "Mr. Thornley is always showing me about the place, or the + children are wanting me to have a walk with them, or my cousin + sends for me to her room to see the baby; so that I may say I + have scarcely a moment to call my own until bedtime comes, and + then I am much too sleepy to write--the effect of the country + air, I suppose. I am enjoying myself excessively. + + "The weather is lovely, and this is certainly the most + delightful place. It is a regular old bush house, which has + been added to in every direction. + + "The rooms are low, and straggle about anyhow; there is no + front door--or, rather, there are several; and it has shingle + roofs and weatherboard walls (though all the outhouses are + brick and stone, and Mr. Thornley is going to build a new house + presently, which I think is _such_ a pity.) + + "My own room has a canvas ceiling, which flaps up and down when + the wind is high: and most of the floors are of that dark, + rough-sawn native wood of olden times, which makes it necessary + that the best carpets should have drugget, or some kind of + padding under them. But, oh, how exquisitely the whole house is + kept inside and out. + + "The drawing-room is _much_ prettier than ours at Toorak; + because Mr. Thornley has travelled a great deal at odd times, + and collected beautiful things, and seems to have good taste, + as well as plenty of money. There are quantities of pictures + everywhere; he is very fond of pictures. + + "And the conservatories are half as big as the house; he is + fond of flowers too. Just now they are full of delicious + things--cyclamens, and orchids, and primulas, and begonias, and + heaths of all sorts, and azaleas, and I don't know what. There + are quantities of flowers in the garden too, so early as it is. + The great bushes--almost trees--of camellias are simply + wonderful; and there is a bed of double hyacinths under my + window of all the colours of the rainbow. + + "Then there is a fernery--part of it roofed in, and part + running down through the shrubberies on one side. The tree + ferns make a matted roof overhead, and other ferns grow + between like bushes, and little ferns sprout everywhere + underneath amongst stones and things. There are winding paths + in and out through it, where it is quite dark at mid-day; and + there are little rills and waterfalls trickling there in all + directions, carried down in pipes from a dam up amongst the + hills behind the house. + + "Don't you think _we_ might have a fern-tree gully? If the + water could be got for it, it would run down the side of a + terraced garden even better than it does here, where the ground + falls very slightly. If you like I will ask Mr. Thornley how he + made his, and all about it; he is always delighted if he can + give any information. He is such an excessively kind man. I + like him _so_ much. How long is it since you saw him? When he + was a bachelor, I think you said you stayed at Adelonga. That + must have been a long time ago, for his eldest daughter (just + now finishing her education in Germany) is older than I am. + There is a painting of him in the dining-room as a young man, + and one of his first wife. His is not the least like what he is + now. But I will tell you what might _really_ be his + portrait--Long's old inquisitor in the 'Dancing Girl' + picture--I mean that genial old fellow in the arm-chair, who + leans his arms on the table and grasps (I am sure without + knowing what he is doing) the base of the crucifix, while he + enjoys the sight of that pretty creature dancing. If you go and + look at him the next time you find yourself near the picture + gallery, you will see Mr. Thornley's very image. He is the + soul of hospitality; he is so courteous to everybody in the + house--even to his children; he is one of the nicest and + kindest men I ever met. + + "But I have not said a word about my cousin Lucilla, or the + baby, or the other children. The baby is a little _duck_. I am + allowed to have him a good deal, because the nurse says I am + much 'handier' than most young ladies; and I certainly _have_ + the knack of making him stop crying and of soothing him off to + sleep. + + "The other children--three dear little girls--are in the + schoolroom; but Lucilla will not allow their governess to keep + them too strictly, because they are not very strong. Lucilla + herself I like _excessively_. She is much quieter than + Beatrice, and I don't think she is so clever, and she is not at + all pretty: but she is very sweet-tempered and kind, and very + fond of Mr. Thornley, though he is so much older than she is. I + am glad to say she is getting quite strong; so much so indeed + that she is going to have a large party next week. + + "There are to be some country races, in which Mr. Thornley is + interested, and we are all going, and some people are coming + back with us to dine and spend the night. There is some talk of + a ball, too, to celebrate the coming of age of young Bruce + Thornley, who is now at Oxford--Mr. Thornley's eldest son. That + would be the week after. I _hope_ Lucilla will decide to have + it; they say Adelonga balls are always charming, and that + people come to them from far and near. + + "One enormous room, with two fireplaces, which is gun-room, + billiard-room, smoking-room, and gentlemen's sanctum generally + (which in the general way is divided by big Japanese screens, + and laid down with carpets), was built and floored on purpose + for dancing in those old times that you remember. Perhaps you + have yourself danced there? Tell me if you have. I can see what + a delightful ball-room it would make, with lots of shrubs and + flowers. It opens into the conservatory at one end, and a + passage leads from the other both into the dining-room and out + upon the verandahs, which are wide, and bowered with creepers, + and filled with Indian and American lounge chairs. + + "How are you getting on in town? Did you go to Beatrice's + party, and was it nice? I hope William will look after my dear + Black Agnes properly, and not let her out in the paddock at + night. _Would_ you mind sometimes just calling in to see, when + you are up that way? + + "The workmen are having fine weather, are they not? Aunt + Elizabeth and I have been telling Lucilla all about the house, + and she says it will be magnificent. But Mr. Thornley does not + like pink for the boudoir. He says if I have pictures, some + shade of sage, or grey, or peacock would be better as a ground + colour. What do you think? I must say _I_ like the idea of + pink. + + "Now I have come to the end of my paper. And have I not + written you a long letter? I hope you will not find it very + stupid. + + "Aunt Elizabeth and Lucilla send their kindest regards, and + with much love, believe me, + + "My dear Graham, + + "Yours most affectionately, + + "RACHEL FETHERSTONHAUGH." + + "P.S.--Just received yours of Tuesday. _Please_ give me a + little time to think over your proposal, and do not do anything + at present. The tour in Europe would be very delightful, but I + think, if you don't mind, I would rather not be married _quite_ + so soon." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HOW RACHEL MET "HIM." + + +Adelonga at about nine o'clock on the morning of the race day would have +presented to the eye of the distinguished traveller--who, however, did +not happen to be there, though he was a pretty constant visitor--a +thoroughly typical Australian scene; typical, that is to say, of one +distinct phase of Australian life. It was the enchanting weather of the +country to begin with; which, say what grumblers will, is not to be +matched, one month with another, in all the wide world--clear, fresh and +sunshiny, with an air at once so delicate and so invigorating that none +but exceptionally unhappy mortals could help feeling glad to be alive to +breathe it. + +There had been a cold mist overnight, which was now melting away before +the sun in shining white fleeces that swathed the hollows and shoulders +of the hills behind the house, long after the upper slopes and peaks had +stood sharp and clear in their own forest garments against a sky as pure +as a sapphire and as blue as wild forget-me-nots. + +All the shrubberies that hemmed in the great garden--all the +smooth-shaven wide lawns where croquet hoops still lingered--all the +lovely waves and festoons of creepers that flowed over and curtained the +verandah eaves--all the bright box borders, and all the gay +flowerbeds--glistened with a sort of etherealised hoar-frost, and were +greener than painter's palette could express in this early spring time. + +The rambling, old, one-storied house, with its endless roofs and gables, +was the very type and pattern of that most charming of all bush houses, +_the_ bush house _par excellence_; cottage in design, palace in the +careful finish and elaboration of all its appointments, which, when its +owner is rich and cultured, marks the latest of many developments--such +as becomes, unhappily, rarer every year, and will soon have disappeared +entirely. + +Columns of white smoke rose from half a dozen chimneys, testifying to +the noble logs that blazed away within; while French windows, sash +windows, lattice casements, and doors of all sorts stood open to the +morning sun and the delicious morning air. Behind the house rose a +screen of budding orchard trees, flushed here and there with peach and +almond blossoms. Before the house, on the wide gravelled drive, where +never weed presumed to show its head, stood an open break, large, but of +light American build, round which most of the family and several +servants were congregated, while four powerful horses fidgetted to be +starting, the wheelers only being attached at present. + +Mr. Thornley stood in the break, superintending the bestowal of luncheon +hampers, and shouting cheerily, but with that touch of imperiousness +which indicated a man who had been a master all his life, to the +servants below him. Mrs. Thornley, looking slight and girlish, stood on +the steps of one of the numerous front doors, wrapped in a shawl. She +had wished very much to go to the races too, and to take the nurse and +baby for the further glorification of the occasion; but her husband had +forbidden her to think of anything so foolish, and she had ceased to do +so accordingly, with an abject meekness that would have greatly +disgusted Mrs. Reade. + +Mrs. Hardy stood on the doorstep too, more imposing than ever beside +this gentlest and most unpretending of her children; and the governess +came out of the house in festive apparel with her two elder pupils +dancing after her. + +Rachel was already on the box, where she was to sit beside the driver, +to her great delight. She was in the wildest spirits, and she was +looking as lovely as everything else looked on that eventful morning. +She had quite disregarded Mr. Kingston's injunctions to take care of her +complexion. + +A dark-blue felt hat worn rather on the back of her head, left her soft +face exposed to the sun and wind, as well as to the admiring gaze of all +men. Nothing could have shown up its texture and colour, nor the +wonderful burnished richness of her hair, better than that dark-blue +hat. She wore with it a dark-blue, close-fitting dress, very tight about +the knees, as was then the newest mode, but setting easily to her figure +otherwise, and strongly outlining all its perfect curves of girlish +beauty. She would rather have displayed the sealskin jacket than her own +lovely shape, if she could have found an excuse for doing so; but the +day was going to be warm, and her aunt, who was a thrifty soul, would +not allow the sealskin jacket to be made a mere emergency wrap of--to be +thrown into the boot with the rugs and waterproofs. + +Everything was ready at last, after a great deal of commotion and much +running to and fro--the bountiful luncheon that was to be available for +all comers when luncheon time came, the hamper of crockery, the basket +of fresh-cut salad, the wine, the beer, the soda-water, the spirit stove +and kettle to make afternoon tea with, &c.--and the ladies took their +seats. + +Mrs. Hardy throned herself in an inside corner, Miss O'Hara, the +governess in the opposite corner, next the door sat the butler and a +nursemaid, and the children took up the room of four grown-up people in +the middle of the vehicle. However, it was expected to have a full +complement of passengers coming home, which was a great satisfaction to +everybody. + +Mr. Thornley climbed into his seat and began to gather up his reins: the +two restive leaders where put to; the groom who was to accompany the +carriage rode off to open gates; and "Steady! steady!" roared the +driver, letting out his thong with lightning flashes over the four bare +backs, as the impulsive animals after their immemorial custom, mixed +themselves all together in promiscuous kickings and buckings prior to +coming to a clear understanding with themselves and him. + +For the few delightful seconds that were occupied in getting off, Rachel +was deaf to the cries of her terrified aunt, and blind to everything but +the wild movement beneath her; then, as the horses sprang into their +collars simultaneously with one great bound, and swept out into the +paddock, scattering frightened sheep in all directions, she looked back +at her cousin, standing forlornly alone on the doorstep, and waved her +hand rapturously. + +"Good-bye! good-bye!" she called, in her clear happy voice. "I do wish +you were coming!" And looking down on Mrs. Hardy before she turned her +head, she rallied that stately matron in a gay and reckless manner. "It +is all right, Auntie: there is nothing in the world to be afraid of. We +made a beautiful start! If the off-leader does get both his traces on +one side, Mr. Thornley knows how to make him get between them again. +And, oh, _what_ a day it is!" + +It was, indeed, a day--the kind of day I suppose that has made us, young +and old, the holiday-loving, easy-going, fate-defying people that we +are, and for ever unfits us, when we have had a few years of them, for +any more of those stern experiences, social and atmospherical, in which +the youth of many of us seems to us now to have been so harshly +disciplined. + +Sir Henry Thompson has shown us what a close affinity exists between +food and virtue; no grown Briton can come out here for ten years and go +back without learning something of the value of climate as a raw +material of happiness. + +Though every settled township in the colony has its racecourse and its +yearly meetings, this, the nearest to Adelonga, was a two-hours' drive +distant, even with four fast horses; and it was nearly the time for the +first event to come off when our party reached the ground. + +The course lay in the ring of a shallow valley, hemmed in with low +hills on one slope of which the vehicles of the "county families" of +the neighbourhood were withdrawn a little apart from the space occupied +by the bulk of the crowd, and such booths, merry-go-rounds, and other +rural entertainments as the bulk of the crowd affected. + +There was no grand stand, no platform even--except the judge's box, +which was dedicated to-day to Mr. Thornley's use, and a gallery running +along one side of the saddling-enclosure, where the betting men chiefly +congregated. But this slope, rising rather steeply immediately behind +the place where a grand stand _would_ have been, was a favourable +position, for ladies at any rate, from which to view the main +proceedings; and here the Adelonga break was brought to anchor. + +Two grooms were waiting to take out the horses, which were fed and +watered on the ground in the prevailing picnic fashion, and "hung up" at +the boundary fence, where scores of others were tethered. + +Mr. Thornley looked about for the people he expected to join his party, +found they had not arrived, and then set forth to the saddling-enclosure +to see what horses were going to start and when. + +Rachel continued to sit on the box, and thought it was delicious. She +had a powerful field-glass all to herself, and through this she surveyed +the units and groups that composed the company--women and children, a +great many of them, in charge of sporting husbands and fathers of all +ranks, all perfectly orderly and well-behaved, and all apparently +enjoying themselves as much as she was. + +Some people from a neighbouring buggy came up to speak to Mrs. Hardy, +and to inquire after Mrs. Thornley's health; and a carriage full of +young people further down enticed away the Thornley children and Miss +O'Hara. + +Before she was involved in any of these social proceedings, however, Mr. +Thornley returned, and asked her if she would not like to go with him +and see what was doing "down there"--pointing over his shoulder in the +direction from whence he had come. + +In a moment she had sprung lightly from her perch and was standing +beside him, pleading eagerly for her aunt's permission, which was +graciously given, with certain vague qualifications that she did not +stop to listen to. + +And then she tripped across the green springy grass, shy and fluttered, +and charmed with her enterprise, blushing vividly under the stares of +those dreadful men, and feeling in her innocent heart not a little proud +of the distinguished position in which she found herself. + +The bell was ringing for saddling, and Mr. Thornley took her into the +enclosure to see this operation, which she found deeply interesting. +Crowds of men--betting men, jockeys, owners, stewards--elbowed one +another in and out, and the horses paced and pranced amongst them; and +into the thick of it marched the burly judge to show his young charge +what there was to be seen. + +And what did she see? Jockeys putting on their jackets in semi-private +corners; owners superintending the adjustment of saddles and riders; +noisy gamblers rushing hither and thither with book and pencil; graceful +horses lightly sailing out one after another to try the chance on which +so much beside money was staked; and--men falling back respectfully to +make way for her wherever she went, and to gaze with surprised curiosity +and admiration on the unique spectacle of so fair a creature in so rude +a place. It was all very delightful. + +"And now," said Mr. Thornley, who for his own part was well pleased to +keep her with him, "now you shall stand in my box and see the race. Come +along." + +And away they went into the outside crowd, and she was escorted up the +steps and placed like a queen on her royal daïs, in sight of all the +country side assembled. She was inclined to think that--for once in a +way--it was even better than going to the opera. + +Thereafter until the race was over, she watched the proceedings with the +deepest awe and interest. She was so afraid she should embarrass Mr. +Thornley in the performance of his professional duty that she got as far +away from him as possible, and leaning over the side railing enjoyed her +observations in silence. + +The horses came to their starting-place and had their usual differences +of opinion. Ambitious amateurs offered advice to the starter, who +recommended them to mind their own business. Two or three jockeys +careered about wildly, and one was fined; and then the flag dropped, and +they rushed away; and Rachel lifted her glass with trembling hands and +gazed at the flying colours, mixing and fading as they passed into the +sunshiny distance, and held her breath. Round they came presently, and +past her they flashed, two or three together, two or three straggling +behind; and the roar of the men beneath and around her made her turn a +little pale. + +No word was uttered that was unfit for her girl's ear to hear, but the +waves of shouts rolling all about her expressed a fierce eagerness of +suspense and expectation that made her think of "poor Lorraine Loree," +whose husband sacrificed her to the chance of winning a race. + +The clamour rose, and lulled, and rose again, as for the second time the +green circle was traversed and the horses came in sight--some lagging +far behind, some labouring along under the whip, two keeping to the +front almost neck and neck, whose names were flung wildly into the air +from a hundred mouths. + +And then Mr. Thornley, standing quietly with his eye upon the little +slip of wood before him, said, "Bluebeard and Jessica--half a head." And +it was over. + +Rachel drew a long breath. She was not sorry that it was over, though +she was very glad to have seen it. She shook herself, as if to get rid +of a painful spell, and felt that she might begin to enjoy herself +again. + +"_Dear_ horses!" she exclaimed, with an almost solemn rapture as she +watched them straggle away. She would have liked to go up and pat them +all, and caress their heaving flanks and their poor trembling noses, +after all they had gone through. And then her face brightened as the +winner came pacing back, dropping and lifting his beautiful head as he +filled his lungs again; and when his jockey saluted the judge, she +leaned forward over the railing and smiled a smile in acknowledgement of +his prowess, which made that jockey think himself a hero for the rest of +the day. + +"And now," said Mr. Thornley, "there is nothing more at present: so +we'll see how your aunt is getting on, and look for the Digbys." The +Digbys were the people they expected to take back with them to Adelonga. + +But even as he spoke he was arrested in his place by some of his many +friends, who crowded the steps below him, wanting to have a few minutes' +gossip about the race, or perhaps wanting to have a nearer view of her +own pretty person, never seen in those parts before. + +And while she waited she turned aside to have another amused look at the +children in their merry-go-rounds, and the lads playing Aunt Sally, and +all the simple festivities of the holiday-makers, whose proceedings she +could so well survey from her present commanding position; and it was +then that she saw for the first time a remarkable-looking horseman +riding slowly through the crowd. + +Her attention was attracted in the first place by the beauty of his +horse--for in a small way she was a good judge of horses: and then she +noticed that the equipment of that noble animal was slightly different +from what she was accustomed to see. + +She supposed it was an English saddle in which that tall man sat so +square and straight; then she wondered why he wore his stirrup leathers +so excessively long; and then lifted her glass and stared intently at +his face. There was not much of this to see just now, even through a +strong glass; for he wore a small, soft cap with a peak to it, low over +his eyes, in which the sun was shining, and though his jaws were shaven +and his brown throat bare, he had a heavy, drooping, reddish moustache, +which was the largest she had ever seen. + +He was riding in the direction of the judge's box, and as he came near +she dropped her glass, and shrinking back shyly touched that potentate's +arm. Mr. Thornley turned round, and the horseman took off his cap with a +stately sort of careless courtesy, and revealed a clear-cut, keen-eyed, +powerful, proud face, neither young nor old, rather thin and worn, and +tanned and dried to leather-colour, which Rachel felt at once to be the +most _impressive_ face she had ever looked upon. + +"Hullo!" cried Mr. Thornley, in an accent of profound amazement. "Why, +I thought you were gone to Queensland!" + +"I ought to have gone," the stranger replied. He had a quiet, cool +voice, that nevertheless rang clear through all the noise about them. "I +duly started yesterday, but we broke a trace, and I lost my train by two +minutes." + +"Two minutes! Well, that was hard lines. Are the Digbys here?" + +"Yes." + +"You are not going to make another start immediately, I suppose?" + +"Not till next week, I think." + +"Then you'll come back with us to-night?" + +"Thanks." + +Here he reined up his horse just beside Rachel's railing, and sent a +furtive but searching glance up into her pretty blushing face. + +"Allow me to introduce my wife's cousin, Miss Fetherstonhaugh," said Mr. +Thornley, laying his hand on her shoulder with a paternal gesture. +"Rachel, my dear--Mr. Roden Dalrymple." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A BLACK SHEEP. + + +"Who is Mr. Roden Dalrymple?" asked Rachel presently. Mr. Thornley was +escorting her back to her aunt, and the person in question was riding +across the ground--slowly, as he had come--in search of one of the +grooms of his party, to whom he might deliver his horse to be stabled in +the township until the return from Adelonga. + +"Who is he?" repeated Mr. Thornley. "He is Mrs. Digby's brother. Nice +little woman, Mrs. Digby. You will like her I know. I am very glad she +has come." + +"But what is he?" persisted Rachel, so absorbed in watching the tall +rider swinging along at that stately, easy pace, with his long stirrups +and his dangling rein, that she nearly tumbled over a couple of children +who crossed her path. "Is he a Queensland squatter?" + +"That is what he thinks of being," laughed Mr. Thornley, with an amused, +half-mocking laugh. "He has taken up a big run with Jim Gordon, and they +are going to live there and manage for themselves. A nice mess they'll +make of it, I expect." + +"Why?" inquired Rachel. + +"Why? They know no more about it than you do. How should they? Oh, by +the bye, yes; I suppose Dalrymple has dabbled in cattle a little--in +that South American venture of his. But that experience won't benefit +him much. He lost every penny he put into that business." + +"Has he lived in South America?" asked Rachel. + +"He has lived all over the world, I think. He's a rolling stone, my +dear, that's what he is--with the proverbial consequences." + +"Is he poor, then?" + +"Poor as a church mouse. That is to say, he has got a bit of an estate +somewhere in Scotland or Ireland--I really forget which--an old ruin of +a house mortgaged to the chimney-pots, and a few starved farms, that +bring him in a few odd hundreds now and again. He tries all sorts of +queer schemes for mending his fortunes, but they never come to +anything." + +"Perhaps he is one of the unlucky ones--like my poor father," suggested +Rachel. + +"I don't know. I'm afraid he's a ne'er-do-weel. Judging from his past +history--Jim Gordon knows all about him--he has no worse enemy than +himself." + +"What is his history?" Rachel asked the question with a vague sense of +resentment against her prosperous host, who had probably never known +misfortunes. + +"Well, he was an only son, and I suppose spoilt--to begin with. He was +brought up for the army--simply, as far as I can make out, from force of +habit, because his father and no end of grandfathers had been soldiers +before him--instead of being taught how to manage and improve that +ramshackle old property of his. + +"He was in a crack cavalry regiment; one of the worst of them--I mean +for folly and extravagance; and he went no end of a pace, as if he had +the Bank of England at his back, and got all his affairs into a mess; +and then he got gambling at Newmarket. The story goes that he played a +brother-officer for some woman that they were both in love with; and he +staked everything he had in the world that he could lay his hands on, +except that old land and house, which the law kept for his children. +Fortunately, he is not married, nor ever likely to be." + +"And he lost her?" said Rachel, in an awed whisper, with something very +like tears in her eyes. + +"Her? He lost more than ever she was worth, I'll be bound. He lost to +that extent that he had to sell his commission to pay. The young fool! +he must have been a raving lunatic." + +"And what did he do then?" asked Rachel, taking out her handkerchief and +blowing her nose ostentatiously. + +"No one quite knows what he did for the first few years after he sold +out. He lived in Paris most of his time, and knocked about on the +continent, at Baden and those places--up to no good, you may be sure. +Then he went to the Cape, hunting and amusing himself; and then to +California, gold-digging; and then all about South America, trying +farming or cattle-raising, or something of that sort; and then Digby +went home and married his sister, and she persuaded him to come here." + +"Has he been here long?" + +"A year or two. He has lived with them most of the time--learning +colonial experience of Digby, I suppose. She is awfully fond of him, +that little woman. And Digby never says a word against him--for her +sake, I suppose." + +"Why should he say anything against him?" asked Rachel rather warmly. +"He is doing nothing wrong now, is he?" + +"Oh, no. He is older and wiser now, I daresay. Still--still--" and Mr. +Thornley looked askance at the pretty young creature who was about to +make this reprobate's acquaintance under his roof, and bethought him +that he ought to secure her against temptation and danger--"still +there's no doubt that he is rather a bad lot--what you would call a +black sheep, you know, my dear--not the sort of man that it is desirable +to be very intimate with." + +Rachel blushed one of her ready blushes, and with such suddenness and +vigour that Mr. Thornley feared he had accidentally made equivocal +suggestions. + +"I don't mean that he is not a gentleman--a thoroughly honourable +gentleman," he explained hastily. "I don't know the rights of that +Newmarket business, but in everything else, as far as I am aware, his +moral character is as good as mine is; otherwise I should not ask him to +Adelonga. I am only speaking of him as a man who has lived a sort of +loose, extravagant, Bohemian kind of life, you know." + +"I know," assented Rachel absently. Already his prudent tactics were +having their natural effect. She was ready to champion the cause of this +apparently friendless, as well as unfortunate man; in whom, had he been +recommended to her favour, she might--I do not say she _would_, but she +might--have felt only an ordinary unemotional interest; and she did not +want to hear any more to his disparagement. + +"Is that their buggy?" she asked, nodding in the direction of a covered +waggonette which was now drawn up alongside the break--in which three +ladies sat with Mrs. Hardy, while three gentlemen leaned in and talked +to them. + +"Yes," he replied, "and that is Mrs. Digby--that little woman in a brown +hat. The one next her is Mrs. Hale, a neighbour of theirs--cousin of +Digby's. The girl is Miss Hale. That's Digby with the big light beard. +The little man is Hale. The man with a brown beard is Lessel--engaged to +Miss Hale." + +"Are they all coming to Adelonga?" + +"They are. And I am wondering how we are going to stow them all. We can +pack ten inside, with a little squeezing, but there is Dalrymple +extra." + +"I'll sit in the boot with the children." + +"And all the portmanteaus? Indeed you won't. I must take two on the box. +How do you do, Mrs. Digby? How do, Mrs. Hale? How do, Miss Hale? I am +delighted to see you all." + +Here ensued many complicated greetings, and protracted inquiries and +explanations as to everybody's health and welfare; and then Rachel found +herself absorbed in the group, and the business of making all these new +people's acquaintance. She was a shy, but an eminently adaptable, little +person, ready to melt like snow before a smiling face and a kindly +manner; and as she naturally received a great deal of attention, she was +soon at her ease amongst them. + +Mrs. Digby was a graceful and distinguished-looking woman, fair and +pale, with a soft voice and refined and gentle manners, and her she +admired excessively, with the reverent enthusiasm of eighteen for a +sister beauty of eight-and-twenty. + +Mrs. Hale was less attractive. She was rather pompous and imperious, +rather noisy and bustling, anxious to lead the conversation, and +generally to dominate the company; and withal she had no pretensions to +good looks, except in respect of her very handsome costume, and not a +great deal to good breeding; she was large and strong; she was rich and +prosperous; she had a small, meek husband. Such as she was, she +monopolised the largest share of Mrs. Hardy's attention. + +Miss Hale was a comfortable, round-faced, wholesome-looking girl, +pleasant to talk to, but not intellectually, or indeed in any way +remarkable. She devoted herself to Rachel ardently, with the air of +taking friendly relations as a matter of course, under the interesting +circumstances; glancing archly at Rachel's diamond ring, and displaying +the less magnificent symbol of her own betrothal; and otherwise, +whenever opportunity offered, suggesting the sentimental situation with +more or less directness. + +Rachel, however, did not find her engagement a matter of absorbing +interest; she preferred to talk to Mrs. Digby about the little Digbys +left at home, or to muse in silent intervals--which, to be sure, came +few and far between--of that sad and tragic story of which a glimpse +had just been given her. + +The men of the waggonette party were pleasant, ordinary men; all of them +Australians born, and two of them--Mr. Digby and Mr. Lessel--fine, +handsome specimens of our promising colonial race. They were assiduous +in their attentions to the youngest and prettiest lady of the company, +who, as a matter of course, liked their attentions; but she could not +help feeling a certain restless desire for the return of Mr. Roden +Dalrymple, whose absence seemed to make the circle strangely incomplete. + +He was a long time coming back. They went down to witness the second +race; they wandered for half-an-hour amongst the booths and +merry-go-rounds to amuse themselves with any rustic fun that was going +on; they congregated under the shelter of the judge's box--Mrs. Digby +and Miss Hale standing in it on this occasion--to see yet another +"event" disposed of; and then the butler and the nursemaid with profuse +amateur assistance began to spread the tablecloth for lunch on a bit of +grassy level, pleasantly shadowed in the now brilliant noontide by the +big body of the break. + +All the portmanteaus had been placed in the boot of this capacious +vehicle, and the Digbys' waggonette and horses had been sent to the +hotel to await their return from Adelonga; and still there was no sign +of Mr. Dalrymple. + +"Where can the fellow be?" inquired Mr. Digby of the general public, +looking up for a moment from his interesting occupation of brewing +"cup," in which Rachel was helping him. "He is the most unsociable brute +I ever came across--always loafing away by himself. It isn't safe to +take your eye off him for a moment." + +"How well Queensland will suit him!" laughed Mrs. Hale. + +"No doubt he rode down to the township to give his own orders about +Lucifer," said his sister, lifting her gentle face. "You know he never +cares to trust him to a groom." + +"He could have done that and been back again an hour ago," rejoined her +husband. "However, pray don't wait for him when lunch is ready, Mrs. +Hardy; he will turn up some time." + +Rachel had an indignant opinion, to which she longed to give +expression, that they would all be most grossly rude if they did +anything of the sort. She resented this too ready inclination to slight +a man who in her estimation was dignified by his heroic experiences so +much above them all; and as far as in her lay she did what she could to +counteract it. + +She took a napkin and polished all the wine-bottles, and peeled the foil +from all the champagne corks; she mixed and tossed the salad in a slow +and cautious manner; she garnished the numerous meats with unnecessary +elaboration; she would not allow luncheon to be ready, in short, until +either one o'clock or the missing guest arrived. + +She was standing on the step of the break, helping to hand down rugs +and cushions for the ladies to sit upon--which was not her business, as +her aunt's disapproving eye suggested--when at last she discerned him +far away on the outskirts of the crowd. + +"It wants ten minutes to one, Mr. Thornley, and I see Mr. Dalrymple +coming," she called out in her fresh, clear voice. + +"Where do you see him?" asked Mr. Digby, who was standing in the break, +hugging an armful of opossum rugs. "_I_ don't see him." + +She pointed silently, and for some minutes Mr. Digby looked in vain for +his brother-in-law, knitting his brows, and shading his eyes from the +sunlight. At last he saw him. + +"All that way off!" he exclaimed. "You must have very good sight, Miss +Fetherstonhaugh, to recognise him at such a distance." + +"He is easy to recognise," said Rachel, simply. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +OUTSIDE THE PALE. + + +The races were over at four o'clock, with the exception of the +"Consolation Stakes," and a few other informal affairs, upon which Mr. +Thornley did not condescend to adjudicate; and the Adelonga party, +swelled to fifteen, set off on their long drive home. + +It was a time of year when the twilight fell early and it was dark +between six and seven; but to-night there was a moon, and there was no +need to hurry; all that was necessary was to get back in comfortable +time to dress for an eight o'clock dinner. + +There was a great deal of conversation, but Rachel had not much share in +it. The break was crowded, of course. + +The two servants sat on the box with Mr. Thornley; the boot was +full of portmanteaus. There was no room for the children inside, except +on the knees of their elders; and one of them Rachel insisted on nursing +(and she went fast asleep), while Miss O'Hara sat beside her with the +other. Buxom Miss Hale was wedged opposite, with (Rachel was sure, and +it offended her sense of propriety deeply) her lover's arm round her +waist. Mr. Dalrymple sat by the door, almost out of sight and sound. + +Rachel had scarcely spoken to him all day; the profuse attentions of the +other gentlemen to her had interposed between them, and perhaps, though +she was not aware of it, her aunt's little manoeuvres also. But her +thoughts were full of him, as she sat, tired and silent, in her corner, +with the sleeping child in her arms. + +Her imagination was fascinated by the story of his life, which, given to +her in so brief an outline, she filled in for herself elaborately, +dwelling most of course upon the dramatic Newmarket episode, and +wondering whether that woman was worthy or unworthy of the sacrifice of +fame and fortune that he had made for her. + +"What a lovely night!" remarked Miss Hale, breaking in upon her reverie. + +Rachel looked up, with an absent smile. The moon was beginning to +outshine the fading after-glow of a gorgeous sunset; stars were stealing +out, few and pale, in a clear, pale sky; the distant ranges were growing +sharp and dark, with that velvety sort of bloom on them, like the bloom +of ripe plums, which is the effect of the density of their forest +clothing, seen through the luminous transparency of their native air. + +There was a sound of curlews far away, making their melancholy +wail--broken now and then by the screaming of cockatoos, or the +delirious mirth of laughing jackasses, or the faint "cluck, cluck" of +native companions sailing at an immense distance overhead. The frogs +were serenading the coming night in every pool and watercourse; the cold +night wind made a sound like the sea in the gums and sheoaks under which +they swept along, crashing and jingling, at the rate of ten miles an +hour. The lonely bush was full of its own weird twilight beauty. + +"It is a very lovely night," assented Rachel; and she sighed, and laid +her cheek on Dolly Thornley's head. She was a little tired, a little +sad, and she did not want to talk just now. Seeing which, Miss Hale gave +herself with an easy mind to her lover's entertainment. + +However, when the four horses drew up at the most central of the +Adelonga front doors, panting and steaming, with their exuberance all +evaporated, the naturally light heart became light and gay again. It was +such a cheery arrival too. The charming old house was lit up from end to +end; blazing logs on bedroom hearths sent ruddy gleams through a dozen +windows; doors stood wide like open arms ready to receive all comers. + +Mr. Thornley handed his guests out of the break with profuse gestures of +welcome, shouting to his servants, who were trained as he was himself, +to all hospitable observances, and hurried to take traps and bags. + +Mrs. Thornley, looking girlish and pretty in a pale blue evening dress, +stood on the doorstep, eager and smiling, scattering her graceful and +cordial salutations all around her. + +"Oh, Lucilla," exclaimed Rachel, when she had given her charge to a +nursemaid, running up to kiss her cousin, between whom and herself very +tender relations--based on the baby--existed, "we have had such a +_lovely_ day. I am sorry you were not with us." + +"I am glad you enjoyed yourself," responded Mrs. Thornley +affectionately. "You have had splendid weather. Run and see if the fire +is burning nicely in Mrs. Digby's room, there's a dear child." + +It took some time to get all the guests collected in the house, and then +to disperse them, with their wraps and portmanteaus, to their respective +rooms. Rachel assisted her cousin in this pleasant business, trotting +about to carry shawls, and poke up fires, and get cups of tea and cans +of hot water. It was the kind of service that she delighted in. + +When everybody was disposed of, and she went to her own room, she found +she had barely half-an-hour in which to dress herself. What, she +wondered, should she put on to make herself look very, very nice. With +all these strangers in the house it behoved her to sustain the credit of +the family, as far as in her lay. She set about her toilet with a flush +of hurry and excitement in her face. + +All her weariness was gone now; she was looking as bright and lovely as +it was possible for her to look. Discarding the black dress that was her +ordinary dinner costume, she arrayed herself all in white--the fine +white Indian muslin which had been brought to Adelonga for possible +state occasions, and which was, therefore, made to leave her milky +throat and arms uncovered. She put on her diamond bracelet, but she took +it off again. She fastened a pearl necklace--another of her lover's +presents--round her soft neck, but she unfastened it, and laid it back +in its velvet case. + +She went into the drawing-room at last with her beauty unadorned, save +only by a bit of pink heath in her bosom--without a single spark of that +newly-acquired jewellery that her soul loved--lest she should help, ever +so infinitesimally, to flaunt the wealth and prosperity of the family in +the eyes of impecunious gentlemen. And it is needless to inform the +experienced reader that Mr. Dalrymple, turning to look at her as she +entered, thought she was one of the loveliest girls he had ever seen. + +He was far away on the other side of the room, and she did not go near +him. The ladies were rustling about in their long trains and tinkling +ornaments; the men were trooping in, white-tied and swallow-tailed, +rubbing their hands and sniffing the grateful aroma of dinner. + +Then the gong began to clang and vibrate through the house, and the +company, who were getting hungry, paired themselves to order, and set +forth through sinuous passages to the dining-room. Rachel being, +conventionally, the lady of least consequence, was left without a +gentleman to go in with; and she sat at the long table on the same side +with Mr. Dalrymple, too far off to see or speak to him. + +When dinner was over and the ladies rose, she took advantage of a good +opportunity to pay a visit to the baby, whom she had not seen all day--a +terrible deprivation. + +She whispered her proposed errand to Lucilla, who gratefully sent her +off; and the baby being discovered awake and amiable, she spent nearly +an hour in his apartment, nursing and fondling him in her warm, white +arms. It was her favourite occupation, from which she never could tear +herself voluntarily. + +By and bye the baby dropped asleep, and was tenderly lowered into his +cradle; and then having nothing more to do for him, she tucked him up, +kissed him, and went back to her social duties. + +When she entered the drawing-room she found the whole party assembled, +and some exciting discussion was going on. Mrs. Hale sitting square on a +central sofa was evidently the leading spirit; and Mrs. Hardy sitting +beside her, indicated to the girl's experienced eye, by the expression +of her face and the elevation of her powerful Roman nose, that she was +supporting her neighbour's views--whatever they were--in a determined +and defiant manner. Miss Hale and Mr. Lessel had retired to a distant +alcove, but they had suspended their whispered confidences to listen to +the public debate. Mr. Thornley and Mr. Hale were trying to play chess, +but were also distracted. Mr. Digby lounged against a side table +pretending to be absorbed in _The Argus_, but peeping furtively at +intervals over the top of the sheet. Miss O'Hara sat apart knitting, +with an expression of rigid disapproval. + +Mrs. Digby, in a very central position, full in the light, lay back in a +low easy chair, and fanned herself with gentle, measured movements. Her +eyes were fixed on a picture in front of her, her soft mouth was set, +her face was pale, proud, and grave; very different from Mrs. Thornley's +beside her, which was disturbed and downcast, as that of a hostess whose +affairs were not going well. Rachel saw in Mrs. Digby for the first time +a strong resemblance to her brother. + +Mr. Roden Dalrymple stood alone on the hearthrug with his back against +the wall, and his elbows on a corner of the mantelpiece. His face was +hard and cold, yet not without signs of strong emotion. + +It was evidently between him and Mrs. Hale that the discussion lay, and +it was equally evident that the "feeling of the meeting" was against +him. Rachel, taking in the situation at a glance, longed to walk over to +the hearthrug and publicly espouse her hero's cause, whatever it might +happen to be. What she did instead was to glide noiselessly to the back +of her cousin's chair, and leaning her arms upon it, to "watch the case" +on his behalf. They were all too preoccupied to notice her. + +"It is all very well," Mrs. Hale was saying in an aggressive manner, +"but it was nothing short of murder in cold blood. And if you had been +in any other quarter of the globe when you did it, you would not have +escaped to tell the tale to us here." + +"My dear Mrs. Hale--excuse me--I am not telling the tale to you here. I +have not the slightest intention of doing so." + +"But everybody knows it, of course." + +"I think not," said Mr. Dalrymple. + +"That you had a quarrel with a man who had once been your friend," +proceeded Mrs. Hale, with a vulgar woman's unscrupulousness about +trespassing on sacred ground; "and that you hunted him round the world, +and then, when you met him in that Californian diggings place, shot him +across a billiard-table where he stood, without a moment's warning." + +"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dalrymple, calmly; "he had plenty of warning--five +years at least." + +"Not five minutes after you met him. Mr. Gordon was there, and said that +he was a dead man five minutes after you came into the room and +recognised him." + +"Gordon can tell you, then, that I satisfied all the laws of honour. The +meeting had been arranged and expected; there were no preliminaries to +go through--except to borrow a couple of revolvers and get somebody to +see fair play. There were at least a dozen to do that; Gordon was one." + +"Poor fellow," ejaculated Mrs. Hardy with solemn indignation. "And _he_ +fired in the air, I suppose?" + +"He would have fired in the air, I daresay, if he had any hope that I +would do so," replied Mr. Dalrymple, with a face as hard as flint, and a +deep blaze of passion in his eyes. "But he well knew that there was no +chance of that. He was obliged to shoot his best in self-defence." + +"Then you might have been killed yourself!--and what then?" + +"That was a contingency I was quite prepared for, of course. What +then?--I should have done my duty." + +"Don't say 'duty,' Roden," interposed Mrs. Digby, very gently and +gravely. + +"My dear Lily, the word has no arbitrary sense; we all interpret it to +suit our own views. It was my idea of duty." + +"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Mrs. Hardy again. "It is a dreadful story. And +did he leave any family?" + +"I would rather not pursue the subject, Mrs. Hardy--if you have no +objection." + +"I wonder you are not afraid to go to bed," Mrs. Hale persisted, +undeterred by the darkness of his face. "The ghost of that poor wretch +would haunt _me_ night and day. I should never know what it was to sleep +in peace." + +Rachel listened to this fragment of a conversation, which had evidently +been going on for some time; and her heart grew cold within her. Mr. +Dalrymple happened to turn his head, and saw her looking at him with her +innocent young face scared and pale; and he was almost as much shocked +as she. A swift change in himself--a straightening of his powerful, +tall frame, and a flash of angry surprise and pain in his imperious +eyes--aroused a general attention to her presence. + +"You here, my dear?" exclaimed Mrs. Hardy, much discomposed by the +circumstance. "That is the worst of these irregular shaped rooms--with +so many doors and corners, one never sees people go out and come in." + +"How is baby?" inquired Mrs. Thornley eagerly, thankful for the +diversion. "Is he sleeping nicely?" + +Mr. Dalrymple strode across the room and wheeled up a chair. "Won't you +sit down, Miss Fetherstonhaugh?" he said, looking at her with a little +appeal in his still stern face. "You must be tired after your long day." + +"Thank you," said she; and she sat down. But she felt incapable of +talking--incapable of sitting still, with her hands before her. General +conversation of a more comfortable and conventional kind than that which +she had interrupted was set going all around her. + +The lovers resumed their _tête-à-tête_ in the corner; the chess-players +continued their game; Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Hardy, suffering from a very +justifiable suspicion that they had been a trifle rude, endeavoured to +make themselves particularly entertaining. But she sat silent and +miserable with downcast eyes, picking at the embroidery on her dress, +and wishing the evening over--this disappointing evening which had +counteracted all the brightness and pleasure of the day--so that she +could slip away to bed. + +"You have had no tea," said Mr. Dalrymple presently, when all the +married ladies were absorbed in discussing the merits of their +respective cooks. "It came in while you were out of the room. Won't you +have some now?" + +Grateful for any interruption of the spell of embarrassment which was +holding her painfully under his watchful eyes, she thanked him, and +rising hastily went over to one of the numerous recesses of that +charmingly arranged room, where the evening tea-table usually stood +between a curtained archway and a glass door that led into the +conservatory. + +Of course he followed her. The curtains were looped back so as to permit +the glow of lamps and firelight to stream in from the room, and on the +other side a full moon shone palely down through a network of flowering +shrubs and fern trees. They could hear the conversation of the rest +distinctly--particularly Mrs. Hale's share of it. But it was a very +retired place. + +"You had better sit down," said Mr. Dalrymple, "and let me pour it out +for you. Yes--I do it every night for my sister. She, too, likes to have +the teapot brought in. But I doubt if it is fit to drink; it has been in +half an hour. I thought you were tired and had gone to bed." + +"Did you?" + +"Yes; I am afraid you _are_ very tired. You ought not to have come +back." + +"I--I wish I had not," she said, hardly above a whisper, as she took the +cup from his hands. She looked into his face for a moment with her +timid, troubled eyes, and then looked down hastily and blushed her +brightest scarlet. + +"I know, I know," he replied, in a low tone of emotion that had a touch +of fierceness in it. "I saw how shocked you were, and I could have +bitten my tongue out. But I should never have spoken of _that_ if Mrs. +Hale had not badgered me into it. If it had been one of the men--but +they know better! A woman, though she may be the most prodigious fool, +is privileged. I am very sorry. I can't tell you how sorry I am." + +"It is not _hearing_ it that matters," stammered Rachel, stirring her +tea with wild and tremulous splashes; "it is knowing--it is thinking--of +its being true." + +He paused for a moment, and looked at her with a look that she was +afraid to meet, but which she _felt_ through all her shrinking +consciousness: and then he said quietly. "Drink your tea, and let us go +into the conservatory for five minutes." + +It was a bold proposal under the circumstances; but it did not occur to +her to question it. She drank her tea hastily, and put down her cup; and +Mr. Dalrymple opened the glass door, which swung on noiseless hinges, +and passing out after her, coolly closed it behind them both. It was +very dim and still out there. The steam of the warm air, full of strong +earthy and piney odours, clung to the glass roofs through which the moon +was shining, and made the light vague and misty. The immense brown +stems of the tree ferns, barnacled with stag horns, and the great green +feathers spreading and drooping above them, took all kinds of phantom +shapes. + +Rachel herself looked like a ghost in her white dress, as she flitted +down the dim alleys by that tall man's side, tapping the tiled floor +with her slippered feet with no more noise than a woodpecker. + +"Is that the lapageria?" asked Mr. Dalrymple, when he thought they had +gone far enough for privacy, pausing beside a comfortable seat, and +pointing upward to a lattice-work of dark leaved shoots, from which hung +clusters of dusky flower bells. "How well it grows here, to be sure!" + +"Everything grows well here," responded Rachel, relieved from some +restraint by this harmless opening of their clandestine _tête-à-tête_; +"and that creeper is Mr. Thornley's favourite. The flowers are the +loveliest red in daylight." + +"Now I want to tell you a little about that story you heard just now," +he proceeded gravely. "Sit down; it won't take long." + +"You said you would rather not talk about it," murmured Rachel. + +"I would much rather not. There is nothing I would not sooner do--except +let you go away thinking so badly of me as you do now. I don't usually +care what people think of me," he added; "I am sure I don't know why I +should care now. But you looked so terribly shocked! It hurts me to see +you looking at me in that way. And I should like to try if I could to +make you believe that I am not necessarily a bad man, more than other +men, though bad enough, because I fought a duel once and killed my +adversary." + +"_Meaning_ to kill him," interposed Rachel. "That is the dreadful part +of it!" + +"Yes; I meant to kill him. I staked my own life on the same chance, if +that is any justification, but--oh, yes, I meant to kill him, if I +could. I had a reason for that, Miss Fetherstonhaugh. Shall I tell you +what it was?" + +"Yes," whispered Rachel. "But how _could_ there be any sufficient reason +for such a terrible crime?" + +"Don't call it a crime," he protested. "That is how they speak of it +who know nothing about it--that is how they will represent all my life, +which has been different from theirs--to make you shun and shrink from +me as if I had the small-pox. Wait till you know a little more." + +He was leaning forward with an elbow on his knee, and looking into her +face. She met his eyes now in the uncertain moonlight, which was shining +on her and not on him; and he saw no sign of shrinking yet. + +"Why did you do it?" she asked sorrowfully. + +"Long ago," he said, after a pause, "he and I fell in love with--some +one; and she loved him best. At least I think she did--I don't know. +Sometimes I fancy she would have cared most for me, if we had had our +chances. But we had no chances; I had to give my word of honour not to +stand between her and him--not to try to win her, unless she distinctly +showed a preference for me." + +"I understand," whispered Rachel. She knew this part of the story +already. + +"At any rate," he continued, "she made choice of him. He sold out of the +service, and they went away together. I had sold out myself not long +before, and went away too--travelling about the world. I was very lonely +at that time; I didn't much care where I went or what became of me. It +was several years before I saw or heard of her again." + +"Yes?" + +"And one night, when I had come back home to look after my property, I +met her in London streets. It was the middle of winter--it was +raining--she was all alone--she was almost in rags--" + +"Don't tell me any more!" implored Rachel, beginning to tremble and cry. + +"No," he said, and he drew a deep long breath, "I _can't_ tell you any +more. Only this--she died. I did all I could to save her, but it was too +late. She died of consumption--brought on by exposure and want, and +misery of all sorts--a week or two after I found her. And now you know +why I killed him. _That_ was why!" + +There was a long pause, broken once or twice by Rachel's audible +emotion. She had still her own views as to the right and justice of +what he had done; but she did not dream of the presumption of giving +them now. + +This tremendous tragedy of love and revenge dwarfed all her theories of +life to the merest trivialities. She could only wonder, and tremble, and +cry. + +"It is an old story now," said Mr. Dalrymple, more gently. "And I try +not to think too much of it. It was all fair, thank Heaven!--I comfort +myself with that. I could have shot him once before in Canada; but he +was unprepared then. He did not see me, and I would not take him at a +disadvantage. I try not to think of it now. I don't want you to think of +it either--after to-night. Will you try not to? And try not to let them +persuade you that I am quite a fiend in human shape?" + +Rachel blew her nose for the last time, put her handkerchief in her +pocket, and smiled a tearful smile. + +"I am afraid you are not very good," she said, shaking her head, "but I +know you can't be a really wicked man." + +"How do you know it?" he asked eagerly. + +"How? I'm sure I don't know--I feel it." + +"Thank you, thank you," he said, in a low, rapid under tone. "You don't +know how I thank you for saying that. At any rate, I have _some_ +rudimental morality. I am honest, to the best of my power. I tell no +lies to myself, or to any man--or woman. What I say I mean, and what I +do I own to--if called upon, that is. You may trust me that far. And I +_hope_ you will." + +"I will," said Rachel, without a moment's hesitation. + +How often they thought afterwards of their first strange talk, all alone +in that shadowy place. It was as if they had known one another in some +other world, and had met after long absence; they felt--widely unlike as +they were--so little as strangers usually do beginning a conventional +acquaintance in the conventional way. However, it did occur to both of +them that it would be as well to go back to the drawing-room before they +should be missed. + +"I am glad to have had this opportunity," said Mr. Dalrymple, who rose +first. "I shall hope--I shall feel sure--that you will not let yourself +be prejudiced unfairly by anything you may hear. For the rest, I hope +you will try not to think of this painful story again." + +And he began to saunter back, and she to saunter beside him. + +As they entered the drawing-room by the glass door, they heard Mrs. +Hardy calling: + +"Rachel! Rachel! Why, where is Rachel gone to?" + +The girl glided into the broad, warm light, a little confused and +dazzled, and, of course, dyed in blushes, which deepened to the deepest +pink of oleanders--nay, to the still richer red of that lapageria which +had attracted Mr. Dalrymple's attention just now--as she became +conscious of the curious observation of the assembled guests, who, she +well knew, would not regard this characteristic demonstration as lightly +as those did who knew her. + +"I am here, Aunt Elizabeth," she replied, in an abject voice, as if she +had been caught in something very disgraceful. + +"Oh!" responded Mrs. Hardy, "I thought you were gone to bed." She looked +sharply at the girl's downcast face, and then more sharply at Mr. +Dalrymple, who met her eyes with a stately and distant air of not +putting himself to the trouble of remembering who she was that she found +very offensive and aggravating. "You had better go, my dear," she said +peremptorily. "It is late, and you have had a tiring day. I shall be +having Mr. Kingston complaining if I let you knock yourself up." + +Rachel was only too glad to say good night and go. The other ladies +began to rise and stir about, gathering up fans and fancy work, but she +left the room before they had come to any unanimous decision about +separating. Mr. Dalrymple held open the door for her. "Good night," she +whispered hurriedly, not looking at him. He answered by a strong +pressure of her hand in silence. She did not understand it then, but +looking back afterwards she knew that that first brief hand-clasp +stirred her erstwhile latent woman's soul to life. She was never the +same afterwards. + +Half an hour later, when she was sitting by her own fireside, dreamily +brushing her long auburn hair over a blue dressing-gown (blue was her +specially becoming colour), Mrs. Hardy tapped at her door, and entered. + +"I have brought you a little wine and water, dear," said she, looking +very friendly and amiable. "I know you seldom take it, but to-night it +will do you good. And Lucilla says you are to be sure not to get up to +breakfast if you feel tired in the morning." + +"Oh, thank you, auntie, but you know I _never_ lie in bed! And I am not +in the very _least_ tired. I have had a delightful day." + +"Yes; it has been a pleasant day. I am glad you have enjoyed it so +much. I am only sorry we had to bring that Mr. Dalrymple back with us. +I consider him a most objectionable, a most disreputable, young man--not +so very young either; he will never see forty again, unless I am much +mistaken. But Lucilla and Mr. Thornley are both so much attached to Mrs. +Digby; for her sake they are obliged to be civil to him." + +Rachel was silent. + +"You will, however, be careful, dear, I know, not to get more intimate +with him than necessary," Mrs. Hardy continued. "Mr. Kingston would +dislike it very much. He is a very wild young man--he has not at all a +good character." + +"You said Mr. Kingston was wild, auntie," the girl suggested timidly. +It was her sole feeble effort in defence of her absent friend. + +"Nonsense! I'm sure I said nothing of the kind. He is a man whom +everybody looks up to. There is no question of comparison between them. +At any rate," she added, with solemn severity, "Mr. Kingston has not +taken a fellow-creature's life, as this man has. _That_ is reason enough +why we must none of us have more to do with him than is absolutely +necessary. You will remember that, Rachel? Be civil to him, my dear, of +course, but no more. I should not have allowed you to come into contact +with such a man if I could have helped it, and we had no idea of seeing +him to-day. However, they will all be gone after to-morrow, and you need +not recognise him again. The Digbys are coming to the dance next week, +but Mrs. Hale says he means to start again for Queensland on Monday. Let +us hope they won't break their traces a second time. Good night, my +dear; you will remember what I say? It is what Mr. Kingston would wish +if he were here, I know." + +And Mrs. Hardy kissed her niece affectionately and went away to bed, +with a sense of having done her duty, and without the least suspicion +that as a domestic diplomatist, she had covered herself with disgrace. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +MR. DALRYMPLE HAS TO CONSULT GORDON. + + +Of course it is well understood, without further explanation, that Mr. +Dalrymple and Rachel were in the position of the Sleeping Beauty and her +prince when the spell that held life in abeyance was--or was about to +be--broken. At the same time it is not to be inferred that the man, with +his years and experience, fell in love at first sight with a merely +pretty face, nor that the girl was more than ordinarily impressionable +and inconstant, or had any constitutional weakness for wild young men. + +Perhaps it is not necessary to essay the difficult task of finding a +theory to account for it. Everybody knows that if there is a law of +nature that will not lend itself to system, it is that which governs +these affairs. + +The greatest force and factor in human life comes to birth by a mere +chance--in Roden Dalrymple's case by the breaking of a trace, which was +in itself the result of a whole series of trivial and quite avoidable +circumstances; and then it thrives or languishes by the favour of petty +accidents--until time and sanctifying associations put it beyond the +reach of accident. That is its superficial history, taking a general +average. + +Quality and potency are questions of temperament; vigour of growth +depends in great measure on what may be called climatic influences. But, +as with some other great mysteries of this world, human understanding +can make very little of it. + +At the same time people do not fall in love with each other absolutely +without rhyme or reason. And these two did not. Of course personal +appearance had, in the first instance, something to do with it. + +To a girl of Rachel's disposition (or, indeed, of any other +disposition), nothing in the whole catalogue of manly graces could have +been more captivating than that quiet air of power and dignity which +was the chief characteristic of her hero's person and bearing. + +And Mr. Dalrymple, who was not the kind of man to be at any time +insensible to the charm of a sweet face, had had sufficient experience +to understand and appreciate the peculiar charm of this one--its +unaffected modesty and candour; and he had had, moreover, little of +anything to charm him in his later wandering years. + +And Rachel was not merely a pretty girl, by any means. Being of a most +unselfish, unassuming, kindly nature, and having a subtle apprehension +of the general fitness of things, her manners were exceedingly gracious +and winning--not always conventional, perhaps, but always refined and +modest; and that honest youthful enthusiasm for life and its good +things, which more or less flavoured all she said and did, though +inimical to the prejudices of the British matron, was a charming thing +to men. + +Then Mr. Dalrymple had the faculty to perceive what made her look at him +with so peculiarly wistful and earnest a look; he recognised his friend, +if not his love and mate, in the earliest hours of their acquaintance. A +friend in so fair a shape was doubly a friend naturally; and the strong +appetite that he had for friendship, as a rudimental phase of passion, +had had little to feed on but bitter memories for more than a dozen +years. + +As for Rachel, it was almost inevitable that she should lose her heart +to this hero of romance--this Paladin with a touch of the demon in +him--whom circumstances combined to present to her under such singularly +impressive auspices. If the truth must be told, she fell in love much +more suddenly and hopelessly than he did; and the fates--incarnate in +the persons of his enemies--did their best to precipitate the +catastrophe. + +On the morning following their strange interview in the conservatory--of +which she had been dreaming all night--she awoke with a dim sense of +something being wrong. It was so very dim a sense that she did not +consciously apprehend it, and therefore made no investigation into its +origin. But instead of jumping out of bed as usual, eager to plunge at +once into the unknown joys of a new day, she lay still until obliged to +get up to receive her tea, and gazed pensively into vacancy. + +It was just such a morning as yesterday--the sun shining in through the +white blind, the fresh wind rustling along the leafy verandahs, the +magpies gossiping cheerily in great flocks about the garden; and there +was that sweetest baby cooing like a little wood pigeon as he was +carried past her door in his nurse's arms. But she was deaf to these +erewhile potent influences. + +"Your hot water, miss," quoth a housemaid in the passage. + +"Thank you, Susan," she responded absently, and continued to gaze into +vacancy. + +"Your tea, miss," came, with another tap, presently. + +And then it was she had to get out of bed. She took in her tea, set it +down on a chair and forgot it; she put on her slippers and +dressing-gown, and armed herself with towel and sponge, but had to make +three visits to the bath-room before she could get in. + +Then she woke up to the fact that she was late, and scampered excitedly +about the room in her anxiety to make a becoming toilet in the shortest +possible space of time. Finally, she went to breakfast five minutes +after the gong was supposed to have assembled the family, and found that +the gentlemen had all gone out early on a shooting expedition. + +"Isn't it too bad?" exclaimed Miss Hale. "They arranged it in the +smoking-room last night, after we were gone to bed; and Harold _knew_ +that we wanted to play croquet." + +Croquet, it may be remarked, had not yet "gone out," and Harold was Mr. +Lessel. + +"They had their breakfast at six o'clock," said Mrs. Thornley, smiling. +"And you know, dear Miss Hale, it is nearly the last day of the open +season, and my husband has been trying to preserve those lagoons in the +forest on purpose. There were a great many ducks there last week, and +they will have good sport and enjoy themselves, I hope. They said they +would be back to luncheon." + +"Oh, don't you believe it!" snorted Mrs. Hale, who, having given her +lord orders to stay at home, which had been grossly violated, was in an +aggrieved and aggressive mood. "_I_ know them!--never a thought will +they give to luncheon, or to us either, until they are tired of their +sport. If they are in time for dinner, that's quite as much as you can +expect." + +Rachel sat down, feeling fully as much as anybody the blank that the +five gentlemen had left behind them. She did not exactly say to herself +that it had been waste of time and trouble to put fresh frills into her +dress, but that was the nature of her sentiments. + +It was not a lively morning. None of them expected it would be, so they +were not disappointed. The matrons beguiled the dull hours with +sympathetic gossip on domestic themes. + +Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Hardy had a banquet of Melbourne news and scandal, in +the discussion of which they incidentally glorified their respective +connections, each for the other's edification, until a suggestion of +Mrs. Hale's (to the effect that Mr. Kingston was not much better than he +should be, in spite of his wealth) caused a slight coolness to arise +between them. + +Mrs. Thornley and Mrs. Digby, both young wives and mothers, with many +tender interests in common, whispered pleasantly over their needlework, +chiefly of their nursery affairs. + +The two girls had no resource but to keep each other company. They went +first to see the baby; but Miss Hale was not an enthusiast in babies. +Then they had a little music; and here Rachel did not greatly +distinguish herself. + +After that they walked about the garden and talked. Rachel was told all +about Mr. Lessel--how charming and how good he was--what his father +meant to settle on him when he married--when the wedding was to be, and +what the bridesmaids were to wear. Then she was enticed into a few +reluctant confidences about her own engagement, which led to a detailed +description of the new house, and an invitation to Miss Hale, when she +should be Mrs. Lessel, to pay a visit there some day with her husband. +And so the morning wore away, and luncheon-time came. + +They waited luncheon until past two o'clock, and, to the sombre +satisfaction of Mrs. Hale, the sportsmen did not return, and the made +dishes were spoiled. + +Then the mail arrived, and there was a letter for Rachel from her +_fiancé_, begging her to write at once to relieve his mind of a fear +that she was ill, and to tell him at the same time that she acquiesced +in the arrangements he had proposed for their early marriage, and +whether she preferred Sydney or Tasmania for the introductory wedding +trip. + +He particularly wanted her to settle these little matters without +further delay, as the spring was so much the pleasantest time for +travelling, and he had had the offer of a charming house in Sydney, on +the shores of the bay, for the first two or three weeks in October, +which would only be open for a few days. + +When she had read this letter, she was in a frantic hurry to answer it. +Holding it in her hand, she excused herself to her companions, who were +all setting forth for a gentle walk; begging to be allowed to stay at +home with an anxious eagerness that provoked significant and indulgent +smiles, which said, "Oh, pray don't mind us," as plainly as smiles could +speak. + +So when they were gone, she made herself comfortable in the +smoking-room, in one of the screened compartments of which there was a +sort of public writing-table, supplied with great bowls of ink, and +sheafs of pens, and reams of paper, on which "Adelonga" was printed--as +if Adelonga had been a club--for the use of all-comers; and where there +was always a glorious fire of big logs whenever there was the least +excuse for a fire. + +Here she began her second letter to Mr. Kingston--with effusive +conciliatory excuses for having been such a very bad correspondent. She +had really been so much engaged--time had slipped away, she didn't know +how--the post had gone once or twice without her knowing it--yesterday +they had been away from home; altogether, fate had been against her +writing as often as she had intended, but she would promise him to be +more regular in future. + +Then followed a description of the races, and an enumeration of the +guests they had brought back with them--who they all were, what they +were like, and her estimation of them respectively. One was dismissed +without comment--"and a Mr. Dalrymple, Mrs. Digby's brother" (and of +course her dearest Graham remarked the extreme simplicity of this +phrase, and was curious about the interesting details that were +conspicuous by their absence). And then, after a few inquiries about the +progress of the house, she plunged into the really important matter. + +"I have been thinking about your proposal a _great_ deal, and I want +you, _please_, not to be angry with me if I cannot accede to it," she +began in an abject and deprecating manner that was significant of her +state of mind. "I want to stay a little longer with my dear aunt, to +whom I have had so little opportunity as yet of making what return is in +my power for all her kindness to me; and I want a little time to +improve myself, too, for my future position as your wife, dear Graham. +Lucilla is a beautiful housekeeper and is teaching me lots of things; +and I am brushing up my French and German with Miss O'Hara, who said my +accent (but it is much better now) was enough to set one's teeth on +edge. Moreover, I am _really_ too young to be married just yet. I am +hardly nineteen, and Laura Buxton was nineteen and a half. Perhaps next +year----" + +At this point she was interrupted by the arrival of the sportsmen. They +had been to the drawing-room, apparently, for they came in by way of the +conservatory, through a door just opposite the writing-table. She put +down her pen and rose in haste. + +"Hullo, Rachel! Good-morning, my dear. Don't get up--we won't disturb +you," shouted Mr. Thornley, cheerily. "Come in, Lessel--come in, +Dalrymple. Here's where the guns go." + +"What sport have you had? And are you not very hungry?" she asked, +moving away from her chair and standing on the hearthrug. According to +her primitive ideas of propriety, she was bound to stay a little while +and see to their hospitable entertainment, there being no proper hostess +available. + +"Hungry? I should think so. And we had very good sport, though not much +to show for it," responded Mr. Thornley. "Only five ducks to five guns, +and Dalrymple shot four of them. They are wild enough at the best of +times; but at the end of the season there is no getting near them." + +"You must be a very good shot," she said, lifting her eyes meekly to Mr. +Dalrymple's face. And then, the moment the words were spoken, she would +have given worlds to recall them, and looked at him again with a dumb +entreaty to be forgiven. + +He smiled gently, reading her like a book. + +"Oh, no," he said; "I was only lucky in having the birds." + +They all came round her as she stood on the hearthrug, except Mr. +Thornley, who had gone to order some bread and cheese and beer; and they +looked pleased with the situation. + +Mr. Digby began to tell her what a lovely day it was, and to ask her +why she had not gone out for a walk, too; and then, when she explained +that she had had letters to write, and found herself, unfortunately, +unable to do so without blushing over it (blushing because she feared +she was _going_ to blush), Mr. Hale broke in; and Mr. Hale in +conversation was, in his very different way, worse than Mrs. Hale. + +"To Melbourne, I presume?" insinuated this little monster, with an arch +smile. Rachel, the colour of a peony, lifted her head an inch nearer to +the ceiling. + +"I only heard last night," he continued, rubbing his hands, and looking +a whole volume of vulgar pleasantries, "that the redoubtable Kingston +has been vanquished at last, and that it is to your bow and spear that +he has fallen. Allow me to congratulate you, Miss Fetherstonhaugh." + +"To congratulate _him_, I should think you mean," broke in Mr. +Dalrymple, who was studying the effect of sunset on a picture of the +Adelonga homestead and pulling his moustaches violently. "Hadn't we +better go and wash our hands, Digby, and make ourselves more fit for +ladies' company?" + +"To congratulate him, too, certainly," said Mr. Hale; "very much so, of +course. But still it is a great conquest on the part of Miss +Fetherstonhaugh. Perhaps you don't know Kingston?" + +"I have not that honour," replied Mr. Dalrymple stiffly; and the tone of +his voice strongly implied that he did not in the least degree desire +it. + +"Well, I do; and I know that he has openly defied the combined powers +of her charming sex for--I am afraid to say how many years--as long as I +can remember." + +"I daresay that has not distressed them," said Mr. Dalrymple. + +"Come, come, Hale," said Mr. Digby, who thought his kinsman's allusion +to Mr. Kingston's age a terrible slip of the tongue; "let us go and wash +our hands. Come along, Lessel." + +"And my wife tells me," continued the irrepressible little man, "that +the--a--the interesting event is to take place very shortly!" + +Rachel came out of her majestic reticence with a rush that astonished +everybody. + +"Oh, _no_, Mr. Hale--not for a _long_ time--not for a year, at the very +least! Who _could_ have told Mrs. Hale such a thing? I assure you it is +quite, quite wrong! _Do_ you know who told her? Was it my aunt?" + +She looked at him with an earnest, imploring look that aroused Mr. +Dalrymple to regard her with considerably sharpened interest. The +alarming thought had struck her that her lover might have privately +enlisted Mrs. Hardy's support for his new scheme; and if so, how should +she be able to resist so formidable a pressure? + +"I think it was Mrs. Thornley told Mrs. Hale. She had a letter from her +sister, Mrs. Reade, yesterday; and Mrs. Reade had mentioned it. Ladies' +gossip, Miss Fetherstonhaugh!--ladies never can keep secrets, you know. +They tell everything to one another, and then to us. And we--we tell +them nothing. We know better, eh, Digby?" + +"Come along," said Digby, who was getting a little savage, "and don't +talk like a fool." + +At this critical juncture Mr. Thornley appeared to announce that there +was bread and cheese in the dining-room for anybody who was hungry. +Whereupon the men trooped out--all but Mr. Dalrymple, who apparently was +not hungry. He was lounging at Rachel's side, with an elbow on the +mantelpiece, pulling his moustache meditatively; and he did not move. + +Rachel was fluttered and excited. + +"How _do_ people get hold of those things?" she exclaimed, with a vexed, +embarrassed laugh. "It is very true that everybody knows one's business +better than one does one's self. I _hate_ that kind of impertinent +gossip. No one has the _least_ ground for supposing that I am going to +be married shortly. I have no intention of being married for ever so +long." + +"Why do you care what people say?" said Mr. Dalrymple. "I never care. It +is much the best plan." + +"I would not, if I could help it; but I can't," she responded, turning +round and mechanically spreading her pink palms to the fire. + +"And, after all," he continued, slowly, "all the talking in the world +can't make you marry if you don't want to." + +She did not look up, but the blood flew over her face. + +"I did not say I didn't want to," she murmured. "Of course I want +to--not yet, for a long time, but some day--or I should not be engaged." + +"I don't think that _always_ follows, Miss Fetherstonhaugh. I think many +people engage themselves, and live to think better of it. And then, if +they don't refuse to consummate an admitted mistake, they--well, they +ought to, that's all. Forgive me, I am speaking in the abstract of +course. I have had a great deal of experience, you know." + +"Of broken engagements?" queried Rachel, smiling faintly at the fire. + +"No, not of them--not personally. The curse of my life was an engagement +that was kept. And I have seen so much misery, such everlasting wreck +and ruin, come upon people I have known and cared for--people who kept +the letter of the law of honour and disregarded the spirit--who +preferred sacrificing all that made life worth having, for certainly two +people, and probably four, to breaking an engagement that had no longer +any sense or reason in it." + +"But surely an engagement--it is the initial marriage ceremony--should +be kept sacred," protested Rachel, daring at last to look up, in defence +of pious principles. + +"Yes," he said, "certainly--when it is _really_ the initial marriage +ceremony." + +"And how--what--what is the proof of that?" + +"Shall I tell you what I think it is? When the people who are engaged +long and weary for the consummation--for the time to be over which +keeps them from one another." + +There was a dead silence. Rachel continued to gaze into the fire, but +her eyes were dim, and all her pretty colour sank out of her face. He +had given her a great shock, and she had to take a little time to +recover. Presently she looked up, pale and grave, with a fuller and more +open look than she had ever given him. + +"You should not have told me," she said gently; "you should not talk to +me so." + +"No--you are right--I should not--forgive me," he replied, speaking low +and hurriedly, with something new and strange in his voice. And then +they became simultaneously aware of the dangerous ways into which their +discussion had led them, and, by tacit consent, turned back. Rachel +moved away to the writing-table, and began to gather her papers +together; Mr. Dalrymple brought his arm down from the chimney-piece and +looked at his watch. + +"It is five o'clock," he said; "the ladies are having a long walk, are +they not?" + +"No; it was nearly four when they started. They will be in directly for +their tea." + +Then, without looking to right or left, Rachel hurried out of the room; +and Mr. Dalrymple, after silently holding the door for her, strode away +to the dining-room, where he was still in time for some bread and +cheese. + +The first thing Rachel did on reaching her room, was to sit down and +cry--why or wherefore she never asked herself. She had not yet learned +the art of analysing her emotions. + +She felt vaguely perplexed and hurt, and ashamed and indignant; and a +few tears were necessary to put her to rights. They were very few, and +soon over. + +In less than ten minutes she had again addressed herself to Mr. +Kingston's letter, which she finished up with the suggestion that their +marriage should take place "next year," and a profusion of unwonted +endearments. + +At dusk she went to the drawing-room, where the reunited guests were +having tea in the pleasant firelight, the gentlemen lounging about in +their knickerbockers and leggings, the ladies sitting with hats tilted +on the back of their heads, Mrs. Hale victorious over her subdued +husband. Miss Hale happy with her recovered beau. She sat a little +outside the circle and talked in under-tones to Lucilla; Mr. Dalrymple +stood far away on the other side of the room, and talked to nobody. + +That night Rachel was the first to go to dress; she was the last to come +back when the gong announced dinner. And when she came she was arrayed +in all her glory--pearl necklace, diamond pendant, diamond bracelet, +jewelled fan--all her absent lover's love-gifts that good taste +permitted her to wear, and a few more. And there was no repetition of +the conservatory scene. + +Mrs. Hardy was perfectly satisfied with the result of her diplomatic +measures. Rachel sat by her aunt's side, and sewed industriously all the +evening at a pinafore for her precious baby, who was about to be +short-coated. Mr. Dalrymple sat rather apart, gnawing his moustache, +apparently absorbed in a photographic album of Lucilla's, which he had +discovered in a cabinet near him. + +Two or three times, when Rachel stole a look across the room, unable to +repress her restless curiosity to know what he was doing, she saw him +gazing meditatively at this open book, and always on the first page of +it. She wondered whose photographs they were that interested him so +much, and she felt that she could not go to bed without satisfying her +anxiety on this point. + +When after tea, music and cards and other gentle entertainments were set +going, and Mr. Dalrymple was at last enticed by his host from his corner +and his album to make a fourth at the whist-table, she watched her +opportunity and stole round to the chair on which he had been sitting. +He had his back to her, but he was facing a mirror in which he could see +her distinctly; and while he watched her movements, he trumped his +partner's trick for the first time in his life, and otherwise disgraced +a notorious reputation. + +"I suppose," said Mrs. Hale, who was his partner, with considerable +asperity, "that you don't trouble to play well if you haven't some +great stake to play for." + +"I beg your pardon," he replied, gravely bending his head. Rachel was +stealing back to her aunt's side and her baby's pinafore, and he left +off looking into the mirror and making mistakes. + +Meanwhile Rachel had satisfied her curiosity. When she opened the album +on the first page she saw two familiar faces--one of a young, bright +girl, with pensive eyes, conspicuous for "that royalty which subjects +kings;" the other angular, aquiline, hollow, full of the lines of age, +and smirking with the sprightliness of youth--herself and Mr. Kingston, +to whom, unknown to her, Lucilia had lately given this place of honour. + +She stood still for a few minutes, looking down on them, with the colour +deepening in her cheeks. She seemed to see for the first time how +incongruous a pair they made, and how mean a presence her lover really +bore. + +It was a bad likeness of him, she said to herself; but in point of fact +she was shocked by a faithful representation of his meagre features and +his peculiar smile--which after all was too frivolous and artificial to +be worthy of comparison with the smile of Mephistopheles. + +She did not consciously judge his by the standard of that other face, +which was so impressively dignified and resolute; but she had looked at +this same photograph two days ago, and then it had not struck her +unpleasantly, as it did now. + +Without thinking what she was doing, she tore out her own likeness, and +also the last photograph in the book, which was an old one of her Cousin +Lucilla as a child, and she made them change places. Having effected +which--surreptitiously, as she thought--she closed the album softly, +laid it away in the cabinet, and returned to her seat by her aunt's +side. + +When the ladies were gone to bed, the first thing Mr. Dalrymple did was +to get out that album again and look at it; and he had some very serious +thoughts when he found out what she had done. + +In the morning all the visitors left early, for they had a long distance +to travel. Mr. Thornley was to take them part of the way home, and the +break and the four horses were brought round at eight o'clock. Rachel +came out to the verandah with her aunt and cousin to see them start. + +"Good-bye, dear Mrs. Digby," said Lucilla, affectionately kissing her +particular friend. "Good-bye, Mrs. Hale. Good-bye, Miss Hale. I am so +sorry you could not stay longer, but we shall expect you back next week. +Good-bye, Mr. Dalrymple, I hear you are off to Queensland again on +Monday?" + +Mr. Dalrymple shook hands and lifted his hat, and then said very +quietly, but with great distinctness, "Not quite so soon as that, I +think, Mrs. Thornley. I shall consult Gordon before I make another +start." + +"Oh, well, in that case we shall hope to see you again, too. Of course +you'll come with your sister next week, if you _should_ be still with +her?" + +"Thank you," said Mr. Dalrymple. "I shall be most happy." + +Rachel was not looking at anybody in particular; and nobody was looking +at her. But her rather pale and pensive face suddenly became of a colour +that might have put even the lapageria rosea to shame. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +"OH, IF THEY HAD!" + + +Wandering about that afternoon in an aimless and restless manner, Rachel +entered the drawing-room through the conservatory door, and found her +cousin sitting there alone, at her own little davenport, writing +letters. Lucilla looked up with a smile of cordial welcome. + +"Do you know what I am doing?" she exclaimed brightly. "Come here, and +say thank you. I am writing to ask Mr. Kingston to come." + +"To ask Mr. Kingston to come?" the girl repeated blankly. "What for, +Lucilla?" + +Mrs. Thornley was not like Mrs. Reade; she was amiable and sweet, but a +little dull of apprehension. She did not grasp the obvious significance +of this reply. Still it struck her as inadequate. + +"Why, my dear child, what a question! Because you are here, of course, +and because he is moping about town, Beatrice says, and doesn't know +what to do with himself." + +"Does Beatrice say that?" inquired Rachel, with a little pang of +self-reproach. This man, who had done her the greatest honour, who had +paid her the highest compliment that any man could bestow on any +woman--she was conscious of requiting him with ingratitude at this +moment. "He is very, very--kind," she faltered. "I am afraid he thinks +too much about me. When have you asked him to come, Lucilla?" + +"In time for the dance next week, and as much sooner as he likes. I have +told him to send word what day will suit him, if he can come, and that +we will send to the station. Of course we could not allow _him_ to come +up by coach. I am very glad we have that dance in prospect; it will be +something to amuse him. I should have been half afraid to ask him into +the country if there had been nothing going on. He used to hate the +bush. However," looking up archly, "Beatrice says I need not be afraid +of his feeling dull on this occasion." + +"Did Beatrice tell you to ask him? I mean did she suggest it to you?" + +"Yes, dear--to tell the truth. I should not have asked him, simply +because I knew he didn't like the bush. It did not occur to me that he +would be fretting after you--Mr. Kingston fretting after anybody is such +a very novel idea! Oh, my dear Rachel"--and here she drew the girl close +and kissed her--"you are luckier than ever I thought you were!" + +"Yes," sighed Rachel; "I know I am very lucky." + +"And Beatrice says," continued Mrs. Thornley, with her arm round her +cousin's waist, "that we shall be having everything settled soon, and +that you are to have a delightful tour in Europe. How you will enjoy +that! It was the one thing I wished for when I was married that I did +not get. Not but what," the gentle woman added quickly, "I am very glad +I did not get it now. I could not have been happier than I have been at +Adelonga, and it must be very inconvenient to have a baby when one is +travelling about. You must tell me, darling, what you would like for a +present. John and I were talking about it last night--John thinks a +great deal of you, you must know, which is a thing you ought to be proud +of, for he is very particular and critical about girls--and he says he +would like to give you something worth having. But I told him you and I +would talk it over before we decided what it should be." + +"How good you are! How good everybody is!" exclaimed Rachel, folding the +girlish matron in a rather hysterical embrace. "But I don't think I +shall be married just yet, Lucilla--wait till we hear what Mr. Kingston +says." + +"Oh, we know already what _he_ is going to say." + +"There is the party to be thought of first," proceeded Rachel, +determined, now that Mr. Kingston was coming, not to dissipate in +fruitless skirmishes the strength that she would require to fight the +inevitable battle with him. "You have only a week before you, and you +have not sent out your invitations, have you?" + +"Yes, I have. I did that the day you were at the races, and have had +answers to some of them. We shall get about thirty or forty people +together, I hope--perhaps more. I wonder, by the way, whether Mr. +Dalrymple could bring that friend of his, Mr. Jim Gordon--I _wish_ I had +thought to ask him. We have too large a proportion of married people, +unfortunately." Lucilla had become thoughtful and business-like. "Seven +bachelors altogether," she remarked musingly, after a pause; "that is +not nearly enough. Does Mr. Kingston dance now, Rachel?" + +"Yes, but not a great deal--mostly quadrilles. I think," she added, +reflectively, "he is rather troubled with gout in one of his knees." + +"Poor fellow! He waltzed with me I remember when I first came out, and +that's not very long ago. Surely _he_ can't have gout--a man who walks +with such a peculiarly light and airy tread! Though, to be sure, I knew +a man of twenty-five--or was it thirty-five?--who had gout badly." + +"Perhaps it is rheumatism," suggested Rachel; "or lumbago." + +"Nonsense. Lumbago, indeed! One would think he was a patriarch. But if +he doesn't waltz----" + +Lucilla paused in perplexity. + +"Does Mr. Gordon waltz?" Rachel meekly inquired. + +"Oh, no doubt--sure to. I have never seen him, but all those old army +men dance well." + +"Then I suppose Mr. Dalrymple dances well?" + +"Of course he does. Poor fellow, he excels in everything that is of no +consequence. Oh, yes, Mr. Dalrymple is decidedly an acquisition in a +ball-room, whatever he may be elsewhere." + +"Lucilla!" + +"What, dear?" + +"Why do you all speak of him in that hard way? You are so kind to +everybody else, but for him nobody seems to have a good word. I think it +is so cruel!" she broke out with sudden passion. "The way Mrs. Hale +insulted him the other night--a man like that, whom she was not fit to +associate with--and all of you sitting round and letting her do it--I +think it is dreadful!" + +"Oh, my dear," responded Mrs. Thornley, with tremulous earnestness, a +little frightened at the vehemence that she was too dull to understand, +and deeply shocked by the implied reflection on her hospitality, "you +don't suppose we encouraged or defended Mrs. Hale? We were as vexed as +you were at her gross want of taste--of common courtesy, one might say. +John was excessively angry--with dear Mrs. Digby sitting by to hear it +all; he said at first that he would never have her in his house again." + +"But he is going to have her?" + +"Yes. Well, they are old neighbours you see, and related to the Digbys. +And I daresay she knows no better." + +"She is a horrid woman," said Rachel, viciously; "and so is her +husband." + +"A horrid woman?" laughed Lucilla. "Oh, no, dear, be just--he is not so +bad as that. And you know, Rachel"--becoming gently argumentative--"it +is not surprising that people object to a man who has had such a career +as Mr. Dalrymple's. You know what he has done?" + +"Only fought a duel," said Rachel. "No, I am not defending him, Lucilla, +but how many men have done the same in old days, without being objected +to?" + +"It was a very _bad_ duel," said Lucilla gravely. "There were +circumstances connected with it that were very disreputable--so they +say." + +"You shouldn't trust to hearsay," protested the girl eagerly. "Why don't +you go by the evidence of your own senses? Does he look like the man to +do disreputable things?" + +"He looks like a man who could never do anything mean or underhand," +said Mrs. Thornley; "I admit that. He has a noble face; and he has +perfect manners; and he is clever. But, oh! Rachel, when a man has been +in the dock, and for such a crime as that--" + +"Do you mean he has been in prison?" + +"Of course. He was arrested and put on his trial for murder, or +manslaughter--I forget which it was called. He was acquitted we know, +but by the merest accident. Popular feeling was with him, strange to +say, and Mr. Gordon fought hard for him. They were not over particular +in California, I suppose, and there was a flaw somewhere. But he _might_ +have been hung, Rachel! That is where it is--he was tried for murder, +and he _might_ have been hung!" + +Rachel was leaning against the wall, and looking into the recess that +made a passage to the conservatory. She was calling up a vision of that +memorable night, which was the birthnight of her womanhood, so recently +come and gone--the fern-tree canopy, letting the moonlight through, the +little bench, set in a bower of cork and maidenhair, where she sat alone +with him in a world of brooding shadows--the strong, proud face, +bending forward to look at her, darkly distinct in the soft, green +gloom. + +And she heard his voice again, incisive, imperious, yet melting her very +heart within her as he told her the simple history of this terrible +episode in his life. He might have been hung!--he did not tell her that. +She stole away from her cousin, and walked up and down the long alleys +of the conservatory, pale and passionate with her fierce indignation. +Would they indeed have dared to hang him? And if they had--oh, if they +had! + +Some thirty miles away Mr. Dalrymple was riding by his own short cuts +through the bush, with his peaked cap drawn over his eyes. His +beautiful horse, tall and stately like himself, with glossy dark coat, +and a white star on his forehead, paced with long strides through +saplings and brushwood, swinging his head slowly up and down on the +loose rein with a rhythmical movement that betokened ease of body and +content of mind. + +His master gazed heedfully at the brilliant parrots flashing about with +long, rushing darts over his head, and at the myriads of wild flowers +crushed and trampled under foot. He wore a sprig of epacris in his +button-hole, and carried a sheaf of delicate orchids with their stalks +tucked under the saddle in front of him. + +He hummed a Strauss waltz as he went along through the sunshine and +shadows of the waning day, and thought of the time when he would go +back to Adelonga and carry that girl with the sweet eyes away in his +arms, on the wings of just such a dreamy measure, into the only +realisable Utopia of this world. + +And perhaps he was more glad of his life than he had ever been since the +day when he so nearly lost it--caring not much whether he did so or not. + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + +London: Printed by A. Schulze, 13, Poland Street. (S. & H.) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Mere Chance, Vol. 1 of 3, by Ada Cambridge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MERE CHANCE, VOL. 1 OF 3 *** + +***** This file should be named 38083-8.txt or 38083-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/8/38083/ + +Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Matthew Wheaton +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: A Mere Chance, Vol. 1 of 3 + A Novel + +Author: Ada Cambridge + +Release Date: November 22, 2011 [EBook #38083] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MERE CHANCE, VOL. 1 OF 3 *** + + + + +Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Matthew Wheaton +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 class="booktitle">A MERE CHANCE.</h1> + +<p class="h3">A NOVEL.</p> + +<p class="h4">BY</p> + +<p class="h3">ADA CAMBRIDGE,</p> + +<p class="h4">AUTHOR OF "IN TWO YEARS TIME," &c.</p> + +<p class="h3">IN THREE VOLUMES.<br /> +VOL. I.<br /></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/logo.jpg" width="140" height="160" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="h3">LONDON:<br /> +RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON,</p> + +<p class="h5">Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen,<br /> +NEW BURLINGTON STREET.<br /> +1882.<br /><br /> +<i>Right of Translation Reserved.</i></p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h3">CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="TOC"> + <tr> + <td class="tdrfirst">CHAPTER</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdrfirst">PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">A Marshal Neil Rose</td> + <td class="tdr">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">Family Counsels</td> + <td class="tdr">30</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">Mr. Kingston's Question</td> + <td class="tdr">50</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">The Answer</td> + <td class="tdr">85</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">So Soon!</td> + <td class="tdr">111</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">A Rash Promise</td> + <td class="tdr">126</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">Two Love Letters</td> + <td class="tdr">146</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">How Rachel Met "Him"</td> + <td class="tdr">166</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">A Black Sheep</td> + <td class="tdr">191</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">Outside the Pale</td> + <td class="tdr">210</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">Mr. Dalrymple has to Consult Gordon</td> + <td class="tdr">250</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII</a>.</td> + <td class="tdl">"Oh, if they had!"</td> + <td class="tdr">288</td> + </tr> +</table></div> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p class="h2">A MERE CHANCE.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[1]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c01.jpg" width="600" height="133" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="h3">A MARSHAL NEIL ROSE.</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-a.jpg" height="96" width="80" alt="A" /> + <span class="hide">A</span> few years ago there was a +young <i>débutante</i> in Melbourne +whose name was Rachel Fetherstonhaugh. +She had risen upon the +social horizon suddenly, like a new star—or, +one might almost say, like a +comet, so unusually bright was she, and +so much talked about; and no one quite +knew where she had come from. Mrs.<span class="pagenum">[2]</span> +Hardy had introduced her as her niece—everyone +knew that—but there were +sceptics who, having never heard of +female relatives previously (except the +three daughters, who had married so +well), declared that she might be "anybody," +picked up merely for matchmaking +purposes—it being well understood that +Mrs. Hardy had for an unknown period +sustained life, figuratively speaking, upon +the stimulus of matrimonial intrigues, +and had now no more daughters to provide +for.</p> + +<p>That this pretty creature had been +unseen and unsuspected until the last +Miss Hardy, as Mrs. Buxton, was fairly +away on her honeymoon, and almost +immediately after had been introduced +to society as Mrs. Buxton's successor, +was a kind of circumstance that seemed,<span class="pagenum">[3]</span> +of course, bound to have a mystery at +the bottom of it. But, as a matter of +fact, there was no mystery. Rachel +Fetherstonhaugh was a <i>bona-fide</i> niece, +and her entrance into the Hardy family +at a particular juncture could be quite +easily accounted for.</p> + +<p>Her father had been Mrs. Hardy's +brother—a good-for-nothing, unlucky +brother, whose clever brains could do +anything but earn money, and whose +pockets could no more hold it than +a sieve could hold water—a brother +whom, long ago, before she had become +rich and fastidious, Mrs. Hardy had +loved, and served, and worked for, but +whom, of late years, she had—with +some mild self-reproach for doing so—ignored +as far as possible.</p> + +<p>This man had married a girl without<span class="pagenum">[4]</span> +a penny, as such a man was certain +to do; and his wife had left him a +widower, with an only child, a few +years afterwards. Since then, for fifteen +years, he had rambled about from place +to place, seeking his fortune in all +kinds of visionary and impracticable +schemes, whose collapse one after +the other, never deterred him from +fresh enterprises, until a sunstroke +closed the list of his life's many +failures at the early age of forty-five.</p> + +<p>A formal little note was sent by +his orphan daughter to Mrs. Hardy to +announce this sad event; and for half +an hour after receiving it the bereaved +sister was inconsolable, tormenting herself +with unavailing regrets for her +neglect of "her own flesh and blood,"<span class="pagenum">[5]</span> +and with harrowing reminiscences of +loving early years.</p> + +<p>At the end of that time, however, +she had made many generous plans +for her dead brother's child, which +cheered and comforted her; and in +time these gave place to the prudent, +unemotional dictates of worldly wisdom. +Mrs. Hardy dried her tears, bought +herself a black bonnet, and stole out +of town in a surreptitious fashion, to +see what manner of niece had been +thrown upon her hands.</p> + +<p>She pictured to herself what the +child's life had probably been—the +motherless child of a vagabond speculator, +who had lived very indifferently +by his wits; and the most she hoped +for was to find her a raw bush girl, +rudimentally educated, and uncontaminated<span class="pagenum">[6]</span> +by the low society in which she +had been brought up. For such a niece +she had mapped out what seemed to +be a suitable career—that of a nursery +governess in some <i>distant</i> colony; and +she had resolved to be a good friend +to the girl, to set her up in clothes, +and to see that she never came to +want or misfortune if by any reasonable +means it could be helped.</p> + +<p>To her intense surprise her young +relative turned out to be a remarkably +pretty and refined young woman, obviously +accustomed to the decorous and +reticent poverty of people who had "seen +better days" and appreciated the fact, +and not raw in any sort of sense, though +diffident and shy; the kind of young +woman, indeed, who, it was evident at a +glance, was capable under good management<span class="pagenum">[7]</span> +of bringing honour and glory +upon the family.</p> + +<p>The result was as above indicated. +Rachel Fetherstonhaugh, instead of being +sent into obscurity to earn her bread, +was adopted in the sight of all men as +a daughter of the house—that great +white house at Toorak, which had +achieved local fame for its profuse entertainments, +its social diplomacies, and +its three great marriages.</p> + +<p>Her father's debts were paid; her +wardrobe was supplemented with the +very best style of new clothes—less +expensive, but more becoming, than +any that Mrs. Buxton and Mrs. +Buxton's sisters had worn; and by and +bye when, having got over the first +shock and grief of her father's death, +she made her appearance in public, and<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> +began to take an interest in her new +life, she found herself, to her great +astonishment, a personage—if not <i>the</i> +personage—in the society around her.</p> + +<p>It must be said, and not to her discredit, +I hope, that Miss Fetherstonhaugh +liked being a personage very much +indeed. She had grown up a sensitive +little gentlewoman, full of delicate +thoughts and tastes, in the midst of dull, +uncultured people of sordid cares and +occupations, and of uncongenial surroundings +of all sorts; and the mere +physical enjoyment of her changed +circumstances, in which everything was +orderly, and dainty, and plenteous, and +"nice," was something like the enjoyment +that a flower must feel when the +sun shines.</p> + +<p>And the sudden discovery that certain<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> +shy conjectures about her personal appearance +(which she had hardly had +leisure or heart to attend to) were confirmed +by the best authority—to know +herself a pretty girl, and to see that +society paid her homage accordingly—this +was an experience that no woman +born, being in possession of her faculties, +could help delighting in. And having +all the grateful consciousness of the +value of life and its good things that +nature gives to the young and healthy, +unspoiled by artificial sentiment, her +delight was unbounded, and consequently +unconcealed.</p> + +<p>Rachel Fetherstonhaugh was, as her +uncle said, "A modest, good girl, with +no nonsense about her." All the same, +she was proud and glad of her fair, +clear-cut features, and her pensive, large,<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> +sweet eyes that were full of tender suggestions, +for which no authority existed +when she lifted them meekly to an +admirer's face; and that figure which +with all its slenderness had the curves +of beauty everywhere, and those waves +of ruddy auburn hair.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad I am not plain," she +once said to her cousin, Mrs. Thornley +(who strange to say did not repeat the +remark to all her friends with disparaging +comments, but responded confidentially +with a sympathising kiss, and +said she could quite understand it). "I +have always thought that it must be +the most charming thing in the world +to be a really pretty woman. And now +I know it."</p> + +<p>On a grey afternoon in the beginning +of May this young lady was enjoying<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> +the luxury of a slow drive up and down +Collins Street, shopping with her aunt. +She nestled in a soft corner of a well-appointed +Victoria, with a great rug of +native bearskins about her knees, showing +her delicate fresh face, like a well-hung +picture, to the crowd of passers-by on +the pavement, and yet sitting just enough +above them to see into the shop-windows +over their heads; and she felt—though +she did not formulate the sentiment—perfectly +happy and satisfied.</p> + +<p>If the truth must be told, she found +the sight of more or less well-dressed +men and women, streaming up and down +the busy street, more interesting than +the most lovely landscape she had ever +seen. She took as much pleasure in +the exquisite fit of her gloves as in the +exquisite colour and fragrance of a<span class="pagenum">[12]</span> +Marshal Neil rose that she wore in her +button-hole; and she had never seen a +moonrise or a sunset that had fascinated +her <i>more</i> than that sealskin jacket in +Alston and Brown's window, which she +observed was exactly the size for her. +It is not, therefore, to be supposed that +she is a heroine unworthy of the +name.</p> + +<p>At Alston and Brown's Mrs. Hardy +stepped out of her carriage for perhaps +the fifth time. She was a very large, +masculine kind of woman, with a remarkably +fine Roman nose, of which +she was excessively proud, and justly, +for it had been a valuable weapon to +her in the battle of life, literally carrying +all before it. When he had got over +the effect of her nose, the beholder of +Mrs. Hardy's person, as a rule, was pleasantly<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> +impressed by it. It had a generous +and a regal air.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she said to her young +companion, "I only want to match some +lace. Will you go in with me, or will you +stay where you are?"</p> + +<p>"I think I will stay, if you please, +aunt," replied Rachel. "The carriage is +so comfortable, and I like to look at +the street."</p> + +<p>"Don't look too much," said Mrs. +Hardy, smiling anxiously. "There are +all kinds of office clerks and people +mixed up with the crowd at this +hour."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to look at <i>men</i>," said +Miss Fetherstonhaugh, with more dignity +than one would have given her credit +for. "It is the ladies' dresses I like to +see—and the horses."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[14]</span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Hardy marched into the shop +with that imposing mien which became +more and more pronounced as she grew +older and stouter, and her social successes +accumulated; and her niece sat +still in her corner, and looked for a long +while at the sealskin jacket.</p> + +<p>"All my cousins have sealskin jackets," +she mused, "but I don't think they +had them until they were married. Perhaps +I shall have one when I am +married. I can't expect my aunt to +buy me one, of course; she has bought +me so many pretty things. How lovely +and soft that brown fur is! How well +it would suit my complexion! If my +husband is rich, and asks me what I +should like for my first birthday present, +I shall not have any difficulty in making +up my mind. I wonder <i>will</i> he be<span class="pagenum">[15]</span> +rich? like Mr. Thornley, and Mr. +Buxton, and Mr. Reade. At any rate, +he must not be poor; if he is, I won't +have him. I know enough of poverty"—with +a little shudder and a sudden +solemnity in her face—"and I don't +mean to run into it again if I can +help it."</p> + +<p>Here she fell into a rather mournful +reverie, thinking of her old life, with +its shifts and privations—of her poor +father, who had been so happy through +it all, never feeling the weight of the +petty debts and dishonours that lay +like lead on her—of her struggles to +keep his affairs straight—of her prayers +that she might not live to despise and +desert him, which was a temptation +that grew with her growing years—and +as she thought, she gazed absently,<span class="pagenum">[16]</span> +tenderly, pensively, not on the sealskin +jacket, but on the faces of the passers-by. +She had no idea how excessively +interesting and pretty she looked to +those passers-by with that expression in +her eyes.</p> + +<p>However, a gentleman came by presently, +a well-preserved young man of +fifty or sixty, with a waxed moustache, +and a slender umbrella carried musketwise +over his shoulder; and his attention +was violently arrested.</p> + +<p>"Where <i>have</i> I seen that charming +creature?" he asked himself, imploring +his memory, which had a great store +of miscellaneous treasures, to be quick +and help him. "Surely I have been +introduced to her somewhere. Oh, of +course! it is old Hardy's niece, or +ward, or whatever she is. Good day,<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> +Miss Fetherstonhaugh," turning back +when he had nearly passed her, and +making a profound obeisance with +his hat off. "Fine afternoon for a +drive."</p> + +<p>She recognised <i>him</i> immediately. She +had danced a quadrille with him at +her memorable first evening "out," and +she had learned a great deal of him +since from the gossip of her aunt's +circle. There was a time, she had +been told, when he was nearly becoming +a member of the family himself. He +was a great merchant—or an ex-merchant +rather—who had dealt in some +mysterious commodity that had brought +enormous profits; and he had risen +by all kinds of good luck, from no +one knew what depth of social insignificance +to the proud position of a man<span class="pagenum">[18]</span> +of fashion about town, whom ladies +delighted to honour.</p> + +<p>"Good day, Mr. Kingston," she responded, +looking very pink and bright, +and a little flurried as she returned +his salutation. She had the daintiest +complexion that ever adorned a youthful +face, and whenever she was startled +or embarrassed, however slightly, she +blushed like a rose. Mr. Kingston, +accustomed to appraise the charms of +his female friends with an almost brutal +impartiality, was unjustifiably touched +and flattered by this innocent demonstration. +He was really very glad he +had remembered who she was before +he had lost so good an opportunity for +looking at and talking to her.</p> + +<p>"I don't think it <i>is</i> a very fine +afternoon," she remarked presently, as<span class="pagenum">[19]</span> +the gentleman seemed to find himself +for once a little at a loss for a subject; +and she smiled at him through +her blushes, which went and came suddenly +and delicately, as if they were +breathed over her by the air somehow. +"It has been looking grey, like rain, +ever since we started; and it is rather +cold, don't you think?"</p> + +<p>"Is it? Ah! so it is. But we must +expect cold weather in May. I suppose +it is rather strange to you to +be finding winter coming on at this +season?"</p> + +<p>"No. Why should it be strange to +me?"</p> + +<p>"I thought—I am sure somebody told +me—that you were recently out from +England."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, no," she replied, frankly.<span class="pagenum">[20]</span> +"I was born in this colony, and have +lived in it all my life."</p> + +<p>"In the name of fortune, where?"</p> + +<p>"In different places; at Sandhurst, +at Ballarat, and on the Upper Murray, +and in little townships here and there +in the bush; and sometimes in Melbourne."</p> + +<p>"I am sure I never saw you in Melbourne +until I met you at that dance +the other night," he protested earnestly. +"I never should have forgotten your face +if I had once seen it."</p> + +<p>"I daresay not," she said, and she was +angry to find herself blushing again. "I +was but a child when I lived in Melbourne +before, and—and my home was not in +Toorak then."</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston understood. She had +been a poor relation in those days, and<span class="pagenum">[21]</span> +the Misses Hardy were unmarried. He +had a constitutional antipathy to poor +relations, and he was a little disappointed. +For a few seconds he kept silence, while +he wondered what her antecedents could +have been. Then he looked at her +again, and she was regarding him with +a curious gravity of demeanour, almost +as if she had divined his thoughts. +There was a meek majesty about her +that commanded his respect, and that +he considered was excessively becoming.</p> + +<p>After all, what did it matter about her +antecedents? Did she not look a thoroughly +well-bred little woman, sitting +there in her furs and soft cushions, +with her head held so straight? Did +he not hear other men—better men +than he from a genealogical point of<span class="pagenum">[22]</span> +view—singing her praises wherever he +went? Whatever she had been, she was +a distinguished personage now, whose +acquaintance it behoved a veteran lady-killer +to cultivate, and that without +delay.</p> + +<p>"I am very glad your home is in +Toorak now," he said gallantly. "I +have some land there myself, quite close +to your uncle's place."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," murmured Rachel.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I am going to build on it +soon. I have just got the plans out +from home—capital plans. I shall bring +them in for Mrs. Hardy's opinion. +When my house is built we shall be +neighbours. You will have to help me, +you and your aunt, with the furnishing +and all that sort of thing that ladies +understand."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[23]</span></p> + +<p>"I don't think I understand much +about it," she said; "but I shall like to +see it done. I am very fond of pretty +furniture. Will your house be very +big?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing out of the way. I'm +not going to spend <i>more</i> than twenty +thousand pounds on it. My friends tell +me I ought to do the thing properly +when I am about it; but I don't see +the fun of locking up a lot of money in +bricks and mortar. I might want to +change my residence any day, you +see."</p> + +<p>Rachel looked at him with awe. There +was a flippancy in the way he spoke of +that twenty thousand pounds which +almost shocked her.</p> + +<p>"If you are going to build a palace," +she said, "don't talk of asking my help.<span class="pagenum">[24]</span> +I have never had anything to do with +that kind of thing."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear Miss Fetherstonhaugh—really +it will be nothing but an ordinary +good-sized, comfortable house, and +I am sure your taste would be perfect. +At any rate, you will help me with +the gardens? I mean to have good +grounds, whatever else I go without; +and ladies always know how to lay +out beds and things better than we +do."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> shouldn't know," she said, smiling; +"but I think my aunt is very clever +at that. We have beautiful flowers—even +so late as this."</p> + +<p>"So I see." He glanced admiringly +at the rose on her breast, and she stuck +her pretty chin into her throat and +looked at it too. "What a lovely bud<span class="pagenum">[25]</span> +that is! Marshal Neil, is it not? Oh, +don't take it out—the black fur on your +jacket makes such a charming background +for it."</p> + +<p>Rachel already had it in her hand, and +was stroking the velvety yellow petals +and the dark green leaves.</p> + +<p>"We have plenty of them," she said; +"there is a wonderful autumn bloom of +roses just now. This is a picture, isn't +it? with that deep colour like an +apricot in the heart, and those scarlet +stains streaking it outside. Would you +like to have it?" And she held it out +with a frank gesture and the most +captivating smile; and then, as he took +it with a low bow and much ostentatious +gratitude, she blushed the deepest +crimson to the roots of her golden +hair.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[26]</span></p> + +<p>At this moment Mrs. Hardy emerged +from the shop, her ounce-weight of purchases +being carried behind her; and +Mr. Kingston turned to receive an effusive +greeting.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear Mr. Kingston, is it +you?" the stately matron exclaimed. +"How <i>glad</i> I am to see you—I have +not met you for an age! Where <i>have</i> +you been? And when <i>are</i> you coming +to call on me again?"</p> + +<p>"I will come whenever you will allow +me," this illustrious person replied, with +an alacrity of demeanour that did not +escape notice. "I thought of coming +this afternoon, and on my way I saw +your carriage, and your niece told me +that you were shopping."</p> + +<p>"No; I did not tell you that," interposed +Rachel gravely.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[27]</span></p> + +<p>He looked at her and laughed, and +his laugh for some unaccountable reason +called her retreating blushes back. Mrs. +Hardy glanced sharply from one to the +other, and then she also laughed, in +decorous matronly fashion.</p> + +<p>"Well, come and dine with us to-night," +the elder lady said, "and take +us to the opera. That would be a +friendly thing to do, if you are disposed +to be friendly. Beatrice and Mr. Reade +are coming—nobody else; and you can +take Mr. Hardy's ticket. He is always +glad to get off going."</p> + +<p>"I will indeed—I will with pleasure," +was the prompt response; and with +some further exchange of civilities, the +friends separated.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston walked away to his club, +with his flower in his button-hole, swinging<span class="pagenum">[28]</span> +his umbrella gently, and wondering +to what class of woman this pretty Miss +Fetherstonhaugh belonged.</p> + +<p>"Is she a coquette?" he asked himself +over and over again; "or is she +charmingly fresh and simple?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hardy rolled home in her little +Victoria, and she also asked herself +questions which were by no means easy +to answer, as she stole furtive glances +at the little black figure sitting, watchful +and alert, beside her.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she said presently, breaking +a long silence, "where is your +rosebud gone to?"</p> + +<p>"I gave it to Mr. Kingston, aunt."</p> + +<p>"You gave it to Mr. Kingston!" Mrs. +Hardy almost shouted in the vehemence +of her surprise. Then, pausing for a +moment while she stared, not unkindly,<span class="pagenum">[29]</span> +at the torrent of blushes that flowed +over her pretty face, she ejaculated, +almost in a tone of awe, "Good +gracious!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c01e.jpg" width="150" height="167" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[30]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c02.jpg" width="600" height="133" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="h3">FAMILY COUNSELS.</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-t.jpg" height="97" width="80" alt="T" /> + <span class="hide">T</span>HE drawing-room of the house +in Toorak where our heroine +lived, looked very cosy and +comfortable a few hours later in the +ruddy glow of the firelight. It was a +little before the days of domestic high +art in Victoria, and it was by no means +the charming apartment that it is now. +There was no dado, no parquetry floor, +no tiled hearth, no <i>étagère</i> mantelpiece—nor +Persian rugs under foot, nor Limoges<span class="pagenum">[31]</span> +plaques and Benares dishes on the +walls, nor Japanese screens and jars, +nor treasures of jade and china, nor +anything, in fact, that there ought to +have been.</p> + +<p>The pleasant firelight danced upon a +whitewashed ceiling, plentifully adorned +with plaster-of-Paris mouldings, and upon +whitey-grey walls sprigged with golden +flowers. The floor was completely +covered with a vivid green carpet, also +sprinkled with flowers; and the windows +were draped with brilliant damask to +match, depending from immense gilt +cornices in festoons looped with cords +and tassels. There was a cut-glass +chandelier hanging down in the middle, +and there was a gigantic pier-glass +reaching from the marble chimney-piece +to the plaster-of-Paris frieze, with little<span class="pagenum">[32]</span> +gold cupids sitting on the top of it, +tying wreaths of gold flowers into a +knot. The chairs and couches shone in +slippery satin, with wonderful rosewood +convolutions wriggling out from them, +that one could hardly venture to call +legs; and there was a terrible chiffonniere, +full of looking-glasses, with a +marble top, reflecting all these splendours +over and over again—which was quite +unnecessary.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, though Mrs. Hardy cannot +look back upon it without a shudder, +the old room was a pleasant room. She +herself came into it on this occasion, +having dressed a little earlier than usual, +and was struck by its air of luxurious +warmth and comfort. She saw nothing +to shock her artistic susceptibilities; she +liked the twinkle of her glass drops,<span class="pagenum">[33]</span> +and the shine of her spacious mirror, +and the deep glow of her emerald satin +and damask—though she would die +sooner than own to it now.</p> + +<p>She went leisurely over to the fire, +sank down in a low arm-chair, and put +up her feet on the fender to warm, +with a distinct impression upon her +mind of congenial surroundings and +satisfied aspirations. Long ago she had +been a poor man's wife—the most +estimable and devoted of poor men's +wives—doing her own housework, making +her own bread and butter, nursing her +own babies, mending her husband's +clothes; and in those days she had beautified +her bush hut with cheap paper +and chintz, and thought it prettier than +a palace.</p> + +<p>Later on she had had a smart brick<span class="pagenum">[34]</span> +and stucco cottage, and in it a drawing-room—her +first drawing-room—with a +green and scarlet drugget on the floor, +lace curtains over the window, a centre +table (with a basket of wax flowers +under a shade in the middle), and a +"suite" in green rep disposed around; +and this in its day had seemed to her +an apartment quite too good for common +use. Next she had aspired to a Brussels +carpet, and by and bye to a pier-glass +and a piano. And so she had come by +degrees to this Toorak splendour, in +each stage feeling that she had reached +the summit of her ambition, and vindicated +her claim to the most correct +taste.</p> + +<p>The same process of evolution and +development had taken place in herself, +outwardly and inwardly. She was<span class="pagenum">[35]</span> +naturally a kindly, honest, good-hearted +woman, and she was by birth a lady. +But year by year nature having much +to struggle with had retired, step by +step into the background of her personality, +and she was simply what the +education of society—her society—made +her. Practically, fashion and <i>les convenances</i> +were her gods. Those men or +women who were not what she generally +termed "well-bred"—who were behind +the times in social matters, who had +no place in her great world, nor any +capacity for making one—were not people +to be received into her house, or to +have anything to do with. Her demeanour +to such unfortunate individuals, +when she did happen to come into +contact with them was, to say the least, +chilling.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[36]</span></p> + +<p>Yet those who knew her best, declared +that if any of these ineligibles were to +fall into great trouble, she would be +the first to help and befriend them if +she could; and that if her husband +were to lose his fortune and suddenly +plunge her into poverty again, she +would set to work to cook his dinners +and mend his clothes with the same +cheerful willingness as of yore.</p> + +<p>She sat in the warm firelight, toasting +her feet, and her brain was busy +with projects. For some weeks past +she had been troubled about her young +niece, on account of her too absurd +innocence, and her ignorance of social +etiquette in many important details. +The girl's manner and carriage had +been particularly easy and graceful, but +she had constantly counteracted the<span class="pagenum">[37]</span> +effect of this by a deplorable want of +penetration as to who was who, and of +reticence concerning her own history +and experiences, which had been very +mortifying to an aunt and <i>chaperon</i> +accustomed to better things; and her +efforts to teach and train one who +seemed so gentle and pliant had been +singularly unfruitful. Rachel was a +sweet child, and she was fond of her, +and proud of her beauty; nevertheless, +she had declared to herself and to +Beatrice more than once, that she had +never known a human creature so hopelessly +dense and stupid.</p> + +<p>To-night, however, she took another +view of the case. That rural freshness +had possibly found favour in the eyes +of Mr. Kingston, who had been the +ideal son-in-law to so many mothers of<span class="pagenum">[38]</span> +so many polished daughters. She was +surprised, but she could understand it. +For she knew that men had all sorts +of queer, independent, unaccountable +ways of looking at things—at women +in particular; and she had already +noticed that they liked those ridiculous +blushes—which to her mind showed a +painful want of culture and self-possession—in +which the girl indulged so +freely.</p> + +<p>What if she should be able to marry +her to Mr. Kingston—who had foiled +the artifices of well-meaning matrons, +and resisted the fascinations of charming +maidens exactly suited for him for +so many years—after marrying all her +own children so well? That was the +theme of her meditations, and she found +it deeply interesting. She longed for<span class="pagenum">[39]</span> +the arrival of Beatrice, who was her +eldest daughter and her chief <i>confidante</i> +and adviser, to hear what she had to +say about it.</p> + +<p>She had been by herself about ten +minutes, during which time a servant +had lit up the cut-glass chandelier, when +there was a ring at the door-bell, and +Mr. and Mrs. Reade were ushered in. +Mrs. Reade was a tiny little dark +woman, with a bright and clever, though +by no means pretty, face, in which no +trace of the maternal features was +visible.</p> + +<p>She was beautifully dressed in palest +pink, with crimson roses in her hair, +and delicate lace of great value about her +tight skirt and her narrow shoulders; and +her distinguished appearance generally +rejoiced her mother's heart. Behind<span class="pagenum">[40]</span> +her towered her enormous husband, in +whom blue blood declined to manifest +itself in the customary way. He was +an amiable, slow-witted, honest gentleman, +with a large, weak face, rather +coarse and red, particularly towards bedtime, +and heavy and awkward manners; +and he was as wax in the hands of the +small person who owned him.</p> + +<p>"Ned," she said, looking back at him +as she swept across the room, "you +go and find papa, and let mamma and +me have a talk until the others come +in."</p> + +<p>Ned obediently went—not to find his +host, who was probably in the dressing-room, +but to read "The Argus" by the +dining-room fire, while the servants set +the table. And the mother and daughter +sat down together to one of the confidential<span class="pagenum">[41]</span> +gossips that they loved. Mrs. +Reade began to unfold her little budget +of news and scandal, but immediately +laid it by—to be resumed between the +acts of the opera presently—while she +listened to Mrs. Hardy's account of the +transactions of the afternoon. It did +not take that experienced matron long +to explain herself, and the younger lady +was quick to grasp the situation. At +first she was inclined to scoff.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we all know Mr. Kingston, +mamma. He dangles after every fresh +face, but he never means anything. +<i>He</i> will never marry—at any rate, +not until he is too old to flirt any +more."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear, he is going to build +his house."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe a word of it," said<span class="pagenum">[42]</span> +Mrs. Reade. "He has been going to +build that house ever since I can +remember. It is just one of his artful +devices. Whenever he wants to make +a girl like him he tells her about that +house—just to set her longing to be +the mistress of it. That is the only +use he will ever put it to. You'll see +he will tell Rachel all about it to-night. +He will beg her to help him with her +exquisite taste, and so on. Oh, I know +his ways. But he means nothing."</p> + +<p>"He has already told Rachel," said +Mrs. Hardy, laughing. "And, what is +more, he is going to bring the designs +to show her, and he says he is really +going to put the work in hand at +once."</p> + +<p>"If so," said Mrs. Reade, gazing +into the fire meditatively, "it looks as<span class="pagenum">[43]</span> +if he had been proposing to settle himself—though +I shall not believe it till +I see it. But then he must have made +his plans before he ever saw Rachel. +It must be Sarah Brownlow he is thinking +of, mamma."</p> + +<p>"Sarah Brownlow passed him this +afternoon, Beatrice, and he hardly noticed +her. While as for Rachel—well, I only +wish you had been there to see the +way he looked at her, and the way +he said good-bye. My impression is +that he thinks it is time to settle—as +indeed it is, goodness knows—and so +has begun with his house; and that he is +looking about for a mistress for it, and +that something in Rachel has struck +him. I am certain he is struck with +Rachel."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Reade gazed into the fire gravely,<span class="pagenum">[44]</span> +while she pondered over this solemn announcement.</p> + +<p>"It is possible," she said presently. +"It is quite possible. All the men are +saying that she is the prettiest girl +in Melbourne just now. An elderly +club man, who has seen much of the +world, is very likely to admire that +kind of childish, simple creature. If +it should be so," she continued, +musingly, "I wonder how Rachel will +take it."</p> + +<p>"Rachel," said Mrs. Hardy, with +sudden energy, "is not so simple as +she seems. You mark my words, she +will be as keen to make a good marriage +as anybody as soon as she gets +the chance."</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?" her daughter +responded, looking up with her bright,<span class="pagenum">[45]</span> +quick eyes. "Now that is not at all my +notion of her."</p> + +<p>"Nor was it mine at first, but I am +getting new lights. It never does to +trust to that demure kind of shy manner. +I assure you she made such use of her +opportunities this afternoon as surprised +me, who am not easily surprised. In +about ten minutes—I could not have +been in Alston's more than ten minutes—they +were on the most frank and +friendly terms possible, and she had +given him a rose to wear in his button-hole."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!"</p> + +<p>"I assure you, yes. And I know, by +the look of him, that he never saw +through it. It is wonderful how even +the cleverest men can be taken in by +that <i>ingénue</i> manner. He evidently<span class="pagenum">[46]</span> +thought her a sweet and unsophisticated +child. Sweet she is—the most amiable +little creature I ever knew; but she +knows what she is about perfectly +well."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Reade gazed into the fire again +with thoughtful eyes; then after a +pause she said:</p> + +<p>"I think you don't understand her, +mamma. I think she really saw no +more in Mr. Kingston than she would +have seen in any poor young man without +a penny."</p> + +<p>"No, Beatrice. She talked about his +new house, and all the money he was +going to spend on it, in a ridiculous +way. She was completely fascinated by +the subject."</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine little Rachel scheming +to catch a rich husband," the young<span class="pagenum">[47]</span> +lady exclaimed, with a mocking, but +pleasant laugh.</p> + +<p>"You don't see as much of her as +I do, my dear Beatrice," her mother +replied, with dignity. "If you did, you +would know that she is as fond of +money and luxury as any hardened +woman of the world could be. She +quite fondles the ornaments I have put +in her room. She goes into raptures +over the silver and china. A new dress +sends her into ecstacies. She annoys +me sometimes—showing people so plainly +that she has never been used to anything +nice. However, it will make it +easier for me to settle her than I at +first thought it would be. It will be +all plain sailing with Mr. Kingston, you +will see."</p> + +<p>"Mother," said Mrs. Reade—she only<span class="pagenum">[48]</span> +said "mother" when she was very much +in earnest—"let me give you a word +of advice. If you want to marry Rachel +to Mr. Kingston—and I hope you will, +for it would be a capital match—don't let +her know anything about it; don't do +anything to help it on; don't let her +see what is coming—leave them both +alone. I think I know her better than +you do, and I have a pretty good idea +of Mr. Kingston; and any sort of interference +with either of them would +be most injudicious—most dangerous. +I shall see to-night—I'm sure I shall +see in a moment——"</p> + +<p>There was a ring at the door-bell, and +the stir of an arrival in the hall, and +the little woman did not finish what +she wanted to say. She rose from her +chair, and shook out her pink train;<span class="pagenum">[49]</span> +and the mother to whom she had laid +down the law rose also, looking very +majestic.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Kingston," said the servant, +throwing the drawing-room door open.</p> + +<p>The great man entered with a springing +step, bowing elaborately. His glossy +hair (some people said it was a wig, but +it was not) was curled to perfection; +his moustaches were waxed to the finest +needle-points; he wore flashing diamond +studs on an embroidered shirt front; and +there was a Marshal Neil rose in his +button-hole, not very fresh, and too +much blown to be any ornament to a +fine gentleman's evening toilet, hanging +its yellow head heavily from a weak and +flabby stalk.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[50]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c03.jpg" width="600" height="136" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="h3">MR. KINGSTON'S QUESTION.</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-w.jpg" height="92" width="80" alt="W" /> + <span class="hide">W</span>HILE her aunt and cousin were +discussing her downstairs, Miss +Fetherstonhaugh was dressing +herself for dinner in her little chamber +at the top of the house. This was a +part of the daily ceremonial of her +new life, in which she took a deep and +delighted interest. The whole thing, in +fact, was charming to her. To come +sweeping down the big staircase in +dainty raiment, all in the spacious light<span class="pagenum">[51]</span> +and warmth—to have the doors held +open for her as she passed in and out—to +go into the dining-room on her +uncle's arm, and sit at dinner with +flowers before her—seeing and feeling +nothing but softness and colour, and +polish and order everywhere—was at +this time to realise her highest conception +of earthly enjoyment.</p> + +<p>Her bedroom was not magnificent, +but it had everything in it that she +most desired—the whitest linen, the +freshest chintz and muslin, a fire to +dress by, an easy chair, and above +all, a cheval glass, in which she could +survey her pretty figure from head to +foot. She stood before this cheval +glass to-night a thoroughly happy little +person. Hitherto, with a mirror twelve +inches by nine, that had a crack across<span class="pagenum">[52]</span> +it, she had seen that her face was +fair and fresh, and that her hair had +a wonderful red-gold lustre where the +light fell upon it; but she was only +now coming to understand what perfection +of shape and grace had developed +with her recent growth into womanhood, +to make the <i>tout ensemble</i> +charming.</p> + +<p>She looked at herself with deep content—no +doubt with a stronger interest +than she would have looked at any +other lovely woman, but in much the +same spirit, enjoying her beauty more +for its own sake than for what it +would do for her—more because it +harmonised herself to her tastes and +circumstances, than because it was a +great arsenal of ammunition for social +warfare and conquest.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[53]</span></p> + +<p>She was still in mourning for her +father, and had put on a simple black +evening dress. Her natural sense of +the becoming dictated simple costumes, +but education demanded that they should +be made in the latest fashion; and +she regarded the tightness of her skirt +in front, and the fan of her train +behind, with something more than complacency.</p> + +<p>As yet the lust for jewels had not +awakened in her, which was very +fortunate, for she had none. The +tender, milky throat and the round +white arms were bare; and all the +ornament that she wore, or wanted, +was a bouquet of white chrysanthemum +and scarlet salvia on her bosom, and +another in her hair.</p> + +<p>Pretty Rachel Fetherstonhaugh! If<span class="pagenum">[54]</span> +Roden Dalrymple could have seen her +that night, only for five minutes, what +a deal of trouble she might have been +spared!</p> + +<p>The dinner bell rang, and she blew +out her candles hurriedly, and flitted +downstairs. On the landing below her +she joined her uncle—a small, thin, +sharp-faced person, with wiry grey +hair, and "man of business" written +in every line of his face—as he left +his own apartment; and they descended +in haste together to the drawing-room, +where four people were solemnly awaiting +them.</p> + +<p>The first thing that Rachel saw when +she entered was her Marshal Neil rose. +She glanced from that to its wearer's +face, eagerly turned to meet her, +full of admiring interest; and, as a<span class="pagenum">[55]</span> +matter of course, she blushed to a +hue that put her scarlet salvias to +shame.</p> + +<p>Why she blushed she would have been +at a loss to say; certainly not for any of +the reasons that the assembled spectators +supposed. It was merely from the +vaguest sense of embarrassment at being +in a position which she had not been +trained to understand.</p> + +<p>An hour or two before, her aunt had +made that rose the text of a discourse +in which many strange things had been +suggested, but nothing explained; and +now they all looked at her, evidently +with reference to it, yet with painful +ambiguity that perplexed her and made +her uneasy; and she could only feel, in +a general way, that she was young and +ignorant and not equal to the situation.<span class="pagenum">[56]</span> +Much less than that was amply +sufficient to cover her with a veil of +blushes.</p> + +<p>At dinner she sat between Mr. Reade +and her uncle, and, being on the best +of terms with both of them, she confined +her conversation to her own corner +of the table, and scarcely lifted her +eyes; but when dinner was over—dinner +and coffee, and the drive to the opera-house—then +Mr. Kingston, deeply interested +in his supposed discovery of a +new kind of woman, and piqued by her +shy reception of his generally much-appreciated +attentions, set himself to +improve his acquaintance with her, and +found the task easy. They were standing +on the pavement, in the glare of the +gaslight, with a lounging crowd about +them.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[57]</span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Hardy had dropped a bracelet, +for which she and her son-in-law were +hunting in the bottom of the brougham, +and Mrs. Reade was chatting to an +acquaintance, whose hansom had just +deposited him beside her—a bearded +young squatter, enjoying his season in +town after selling his wool high, who +stared very hard at Rachel through a +pair of good glasses, as soon as he had +a favourable opportunity.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston stood by the girl's side, +staring at her without disguise. The +shadow of the street fell soft upon her +gauzy raiment and her white arms and +the lustre of her auburn hair, but her +face was turned towards the gaslight—she +was looking wistfully up the long +passage which had something very like +fairy land at the end of it—and he<span class="pagenum">[58]</span> +thought he had never seen any face so +fresh and sweet.</p> + +<p>"You like this kind of thing, don't +you?" he said, gently, as if speaking to +a child, when in turning to look for +her aunt she caught his eye.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," she replied, promptly, "I +do, indeed! I like the whole thing; +not the singing and the acting only, +but the place, and the people, and the +ladies' dresses, and the noise, and the +moving about, and the lights—everything. +I should like to come to the +opera every night—except the nights +when there are balls."</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston laughed, and said he +should never have guessed from what +he had seen of her that she was such +a very gay young lady.</p> + +<p>"You don't understand," she responded<span class="pagenum">[59]</span> +quickly, looking up at him with earnest, +candid eyes; "it is not that I am gay—oh, +no, I don't think it is that! though +perhaps I do enjoy a spectacle more than +many people. But it is all so new and +strange. I have never had any sightseeing—any +pleasure like what I am +having now, that is why I find it so +delightful."</p> + +<p>"Come, my dear!" cried Mrs. Hardy +sharply (she had found her bracelet and +overheard a part of this little dialogue), +"don't stand about in the wind with +nothing over you. What have you done +with your shawl?"</p> + +<p>"It is here, aunt," replied Rachel +meekly, lifting it from her arm.</p> + +<p>Her cavalier hastened to take it from +her and adjust it carefully over her +shoulders. During this operation Mrs.<span class="pagenum">[60]</span> +Hardy swept into the lobby, taking the +arm of her big son-in-law; and Mrs. +Reade, having parted from her friend, +glanced round quickly, followed her +husband, and put herself also under his +protection. Mr. Kingston, smiling to +himself like Mephistopheles under his +waxed moustache, was left with Rachel +in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"How <i>does</i> it go?" he said, fumbling +with a quantity of woolly fringe. "All +right—there's no hurry. It is not eight +o'clock yet. Pray let me do it for +you."</p> + +<p>She stood still, while he dawdled as +long as he could over the arrangement +of her wrap, but she cast anxious looks +after the three receding figures, and she +was the colour of an oleander blossom. +He was a little disconcerted at her embarrassment;<span class="pagenum">[61]</span> +it amused him, but it +touched him too.</p> + +<p>Poor little timid child! Who would +be so mean as to take advantage of her +inexperience? Not he, certainly. He +gave her his arm and led her into the +house, with a deferential attentiveness +that did not usually mark his deportment +towards young girls. On their +way they were accosted by a boy +holding a couple of bouquets in each +hand.</p> + +<p>"Buy a bouquet for the opera, Sir?" +said he, in his sing-song voice.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston paused and put his +glass in his eye. They were bright +little nosegays, and one of them, much +superior to the other, had a fringe of +maiden hair fern and a rich red rose +in the middle of it. He took this from<span class="pagenum">[62]</span> +the boy's hand, and offered it to Rachel +with his elaborate bow.</p> + +<p>"Permit me," he said, "to make a +poor acknowledgment of my deep indebtedness +to you for <i>this</i>."</p> + +<p>And he touched the drooping petals +of the Marshal Neil bud, and imagined +he was paying her a delicate sentimental +compliment.</p> + +<p>If Rachel had been the most finished +fine lady she could not have undeceived +him more gracefully.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she said, simply, and +she smiled for half a second.</p> + +<p>To be sure her red rose was not +redder than she was, but she held her +head with a gentle air of maidenly +dignity that quite counteracted the +weakness of that blush.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston began to suspect, with<span class="pagenum">[63]</span> +some surprise, that she was not so +easy to get on with as she appeared. +However, that did not lessen his +interest in her by any means.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you think I have taken +a liberty," he suggested presently. What +had come to him to care what a bread-and-butter +miss might think? But +somehow he did care.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," she said, "it is very kind +of you. But you must not talk of +being indebted to me. Flowers are not—not +presents, like other things."</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached the +top of the stairs, and Mrs. Reade was +sweeping out of the cloak-room, where +she had been "settling" her hair, +and putting a little powder on her +face.</p> + +<p>"Mamma is gone in," she said, taking<span class="pagenum">[64]</span> +the girl's hand kindly; "there are +plenty of people here to-night, Rachel. +You must look for a lady sitting on the +right of the Governor's box, in a high +velvet dress. She is one of our Melbourne +beauties."</p> + +<p>So they went in and took their seats; +and Rachel found herself sitting in the +front tier, not very much to the left +of the viceregal armchairs, and her +cousin Beatrice was on one side of +her and Mr. Kingston on the +other.</p> + +<p>She was perfectly contented now. +She smiled at her flowers; she furled +and unfurled her fan; she looked +round and round the house through +her glasses, whispering questions and +comments to Mrs. Reade, who knew +everybody and everybody's history;<span class="pagenum">[65]</span> +and it made Mrs. Hardy quite uneasy +to see how thoroughly and evidently she +enjoyed herself. Mr. Kingston recovered +his spirits which she had damped a +little while ago.</p> + +<p>He watched her face from time to +time—generally when she was absorbed +in watching the stage; and the more +he looked, the more charming he found +it. So fresh, so frank, so modest, so +sweet, with those delicate womanly +blushes always coming and going, and +that child-like fun and brightness in +her eyes. He had never been so +"fetched," as he expressed it, by a +pretty face before; that is to say, he +did not remember that he ever had +been.</p> + +<p>It was, indeed, very seldom that he +regarded a pretty face with such a<span class="pagenum">[66]</span> +serious kind of admiration. He found +himself wondering how it would fare, +how long it would keep its transparent +innocence and candour in the atmosphere +of this new world—this second-rate +Hardy set, which was full of meretricious, +manœuvring, gossip-loving women—with +a touch of anxiety that was +quite unselfish. He was sure now that +she was not a coquette; he was experienced +enough to know, also, that, +however humble her origin and antecedents, +she was a girl of thoroughly +"good style;" and it would be a +thousand pities, he thought, if the influence +of her surroundings should spoil +her.</p> + +<p>When the curtain fell and the gas +was turned up, he noticed that people +all round the house were turning their<span class="pagenum">[67]</span> +glasses upon her. Certainly she made +a charming study from an artistic +point of view. What taste she had +shown in the grouping of her white +chrysanthemums, and the way she had +mixed in those few velvety horns of +red salvia. They were colours proper +to a brunette, but they seemed to +accentuate the delicacy of her milky +complexion and the fine shade of her +red-gold hair.</p> + +<p>What a chin and throat she had! +and what soft, yet strong, round arms!—white, +but warm, like blush rose +petals that had unfolded in the dews +of dawn at summer time, against +the black background of her dress. +And her shape and her colour were +nothing compared with the expression +of utter content and happiness that<span class="pagenum">[68]</span> +shone out of her face, irradiating her +youth and beauty with a tender light +and sweetness that, like sunshine on +a sleeping crater, gave no hint of +the tragic trouble hidden away for +future years. No wonder people looked +at her. Of course they looked.</p> + +<p>The glasses that she had been +using belonged to Mrs. Reade, and +now that lady was busy with them, +hunting for her numerous acquaintances. +Mr. Kingston held out his +own, curious to see if she would +discover what attention she was +receiving, and what the effect of such +a discovery would be.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Rachel gratefully; +and she settled herself back +in her seat, and proceeded to take a +thorough survey of all the rank and<span class="pagenum">[69]</span> +fashion that surrounded her. For a +long time she gazed attentively, shifting +her glasses slowly round from +left to right; and Mr. Kingston +watched her, leaning an elbow on the +red ridge between them, and twiddling +one horn of his moustaches.</p> + +<p>He expected to see the familiar +blush stealing up over the whiteness +of her face and neck. But she +remained, though deeply interested, +quite cool and calm. Presently she +dropped her hands in her lap and +drew a long breath.</p> + +<p>"There is a lady over there," +she said in a whisper, "who has +something round her arm so bright +that I think it must be diamonds. +Do you see who I mean? When +she holds up her glasses again, tell<span class="pagenum">[70]</span> +me if they are real diamonds in her +bracelet."</p> + +<p>Much amused, Mr. Kingston did as +he was bidden.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," he said, "they are +real diamonds. That lady is particularly +addicted to precious stones. +She walks about the street in broad +day with a Sunday school in each ear, +as that fellow in <i>Piccadilly</i> says. Are +you like the majority of your sex—a +worshipper of diamonds? I thought +you did not care for jewellery."</p> + +<p>"I do," she replied, smiling. "I +don't worship jewels, but I should +like to have some. I should like +to have some real diamonds <i>very</i> +much."</p> + +<p>"I daresay you will have plenty +some day, and very becoming they'll<span class="pagenum">[71]</span> +be to you. Not more so, though, +than the flowers you are wearing +to-night," he added, looking at them +admiringly.</p> + +<p>Rachel touched up her ornaments +with a thoughtful face.</p> + +<p>"There is such a light about +diamonds," she said musingly; "no +coloured stones seem so liquid and +twinkling. I don't care in the least +about coloured stones. If I were +very rich I would have one ring full +of diamonds, to wear every day, and +one necklace to wear at night—a necklace +of diamond stars strung together—and +perhaps a diamond bracelet. +And I wouldn't care for anything +else."</p> + +<p>"Should you like to be very rich?" +asked her companion, smiling to himself<span class="pagenum">[72]</span> +over these naïve confessions. He +was gazing, not only into her eyes, +but at her lovely throat and arms, +and imagining how they would look +with diamonds on them.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Rachel. "But the great +thing I wish is not to be poor. I +hope—oh, I do hope—I shall never be +poor any more!"</p> + +<p>"I don't think you stand in the +least danger of that," said Mr. +Kingston.</p> + +<p>"I know all about it," continued +the girl gravely; "and I don't think +you do, or you could not laugh or +make a joke of it. You <i>cannot</i> know +how much it means. <i>You</i> never have +debts, of course."</p> + +<p>"Debts? Oh, dear, yes, I do—plenty."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[73]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes, but I mean debts that you +can't pay—that you have to apologise +for—that hang and drag about you +always. I won't talk about it," she +added hurriedly, with a little shiver; +"it will spoil my pleasure to-night."</p> + +<p>"<i>Don't</i>," said Mr. Kingston. He did +not find it a congenial topic either. +"Tell me what you would do if you +were rich."</p> + +<p>"What I would do?" she murmured +gently, smiling again. "Oh, all kinds +of things—I would pay ready money +for everything, in the first place. Then +I would have a lovely house, with +quantities of pictures. That is one +great fault in our house at Toorak—we +have no nice pictures. And I +would wear black velvet dresses. And<span class="pagenum">[74]</span> +I would have a beautiful sealskin +jacket. And a thorough-bred horse to +ride——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, do you ride?" interposed Mr. +Kingston, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"I used to ride. I like it very +much. My father gave me a beautiful +mare once; but afterwards he rode a +steeplechase with her, and she fell +and broke her back. I can ride very +well," she added, smiling and blushing. +"I can jump fences without being +afraid. But Uncle Hardy keeps only +carriage horses, and none of the family +ride."</p> + +<p>"But you must have a horse, of +course. I must speak to your uncle +about it," said Mr. Kingston. "Indeed, +I think I have one that would suit +you admirably, and I'll lend him to<span class="pagenum">[75]</span> +you to try, with pleasure, if you'll +allow me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>will</i> you? Oh, <i>how</i> delightful! +When will you let me try him? But +I forgot—I have no habit!"</p> + +<p>"That is a difficulty soon got over. +I'll speak to your aunt," said this +influential autocrat.</p> + +<p>And here a bell rang, and the +curtain rose upon a fresh scene. Mrs. +Reade and her mother had had an +absorbing <i>tête-à-tête</i>, and now turned to +see what their charge was doing. Mr. +Reade, redolent of something that was +not eau de cologne, came back to his +seat; and Rachel began to watch the +proceedings of the prima donna, who +was solemnly marching across the +stage. Mr. Kingston was aware, however, +that the girl's thoughts were not<span class="pagenum">[76]</span> +with the spectacle before her. She +was evidently preoccupied about those +promised rides.</p> + +<p>"I shall have no one to go with +me," she whispered presently, in the +pauses of a song.</p> + +<p>"I shall be proud to be your +escort," he whispered back. "And +there will always be the groom, you +know," he added, seeing the colour +of the oleander blossom suddenly appear. +"Do not be anxious. I will +manage it all for you."</p> + +<p>"You are <i>very</i> kind," she said, looking +up into his face with that shy +blush, and a charming friendliness in +her eyes, "and I am very grateful to +you; but please do not try to persuade +Aunt Elizabeth against her +wish." And she did not say much<span class="pagenum">[77]</span> +more to him. From this point she +became silent and thoughtful.</p> + +<p>When they reached Toorak, however, +Mr. Kingston redeemed his promise +faithfully in his own way, and at +considerable trouble to himself. Mr. +and Mrs. Hardy both liked to do things, +as they called it, "handsomely," but at +the same time without any unnecessary +expense; and neither of them could see +his proposal in the light of a paying +enterprise.</p> + +<p>Rachel was driven out in the carriage +daily; she appeared at all places of +fashionable resort; she took abundant +exercise. A riding-horse would be +expensive, and so would a saddle and +habit, not to speak of the addition to +the stable necessities; and what would +there be to show for it? But while<span class="pagenum">[78]</span> +the uncle, and still more the aunt, +were delicately fencing with the proposition, +Mrs. Reade struck in and +swept all objections away.</p> + +<p>"Of course the child ought to ride +if she has been used to riding," said +this imperious small person. "You +send your horse here, Mr. Kingston, +and Ned shall come round and see +what she can do with it." This was +in the hall, where he was supposed to +be saying good-night; and Rachel had +gone upstairs to bed.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mrs. Reade—if I may," +he said, with an eager gratitude that +amused himself. "I am sure it would +be a great pleasure to her—and it +would be so good for her health. +Why don't <i>you</i> ride too? It is such +splendid exercise."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[79]</span></p> + +<p>"I would in a minute, if I had a +figure like hers," laughed Mrs. Reade. +"Mamma, we must get her a good +habit to set off that figure. I'll come +round in the morning, and go with +you to have her measured. Are you +going, Mr. Kingston, without a cup of +hot coffee? Good-night, then; mind you +send your horse."</p> + +<p>The servant shut the door behind +him; and he went out into the +solemnity of the autumn night. The +wind was rustling and whispering +through the shrubberies round the +house; it had the scent in it of untimely +violets, mingled with a faint +fragrance of the distant sea.</p> + +<p>Above, the stars were shining brilliantly; +below, the teeming city lay +silent in the lap of darkness, with a<span class="pagenum">[80]</span> +thousand lamplights sprinkled over it. +In the foreground he could dimly see +the lines of gravelled paths and grassy +terraces, and the gleam of great +bunches of pale chrysanthemums swaying +to and fro in the cool air.</p> + +<p>"It is a splendid site," he said to +himself; "but I think, if anything, +mine is better."</p> + +<p>He stood for some time, looking +away over the illuminated valley to +the milky streak on the horizon where +in three or four hours the waters of +Port Philip Bay would shine; and +then he sauntered down to the lodge, +and found his hansom waiting for +him.</p> + +<p>"Go up to my land there, will you?" +said he, pointing his thumb over his +shoulder as he got in. "I'm going to set<span class="pagenum">[81]</span> +the men on soon, and I want to have a +look at it."</p> + +<p>The driver, wondering whether he had +had more champagne than usual, said, +"All right, Sir," and drove him the +few dozen yards that intervened between +Mr. Hardy's gates and the +place where his own were designed to +be.</p> + +<p>In the darkness he clambered over the +fence, made his way to the highest +ground in the enclosure, and stood +once more to look at the lamp-spangled +city and the dim and distant +bay.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "I am higher here. +I shall get a better view." And he +began to build his house in fancy—to +see it towering over all his neighbours', +with great white walls and<span class="pagenum">[82]</span> +colonnades, and myriad windows full +of lights, and lovely gardens full of +flowers and fountains. "I must begin +at once," he said. "I must see the +contractors to-morrow. I must not +put it off any longer, or I shall be +an old man before I can begin to enjoy +it."</p> + +<p>And after long musing over the +details of his project, he stumbled back, +through saplings, and tussocks, and +broken bottles, to the fence; tore his +dress-coat on a nail getting over it; +and subsiding into his cab, lit a cheroot, +and stared intently into vacancy all the +way to his club.</p> + +<p>When he reached this bachelor's home +he did not know what to do with +himself. He thought he would write +to a celebrated firm of contractors to<span class="pagenum">[83]</span> +make an appointment for the morning; +but it was past twelve o'clock, and the +letters had been collected.</p> + +<p>Some men called him to come and +play loo, but he was not in the mood +for cards. He tried billiards, and found +his hand unsteady; he went into the +smoking-room, but it was hot and +noisy. He had always liked his club, +and maintained against all comers that +it was a glorious institution; but now +he began to see that after all a +middle-aged gentleman of ample fortune +might find himself pleasanter lodgings. +He went out of doors, where the +air was so sweet and cool, rustling +up and down an ivied wall, and over +a strip of lawn that lay deep in +shadow below it; and looking at the +clear dark sky and the clear pale stars,<span class="pagenum">[84]</span> +he put to himself a momentous question, +for which he had a half-shaped answer +ready:</p> + +<p>"Who shall I ask to be the mistress of +my house?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c03e.jpg" width="150" height="132" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[85]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c04.jpg" width="600" height="114" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="h3">THE ANSWER.</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-a.jpg" height="96" width="80" alt="A" /> + <span class="hide">A</span> girl of eighteen is popularly +supposed to be grown up—to +have all wisdom and knowledge +necessary for her guidance and +protection through the supreme difficulties +of a woman's lot. When one +gets ten years older, one is apt to +think that this is a mistake. Life is +not so easy to learn. The treasures +of love, like visions of the Holy Grail, +are not revealed to those who have<span class="pagenum">[86]</span> +known none of the waiting, and yearning, +and suffering, and sacrifice that teach +their divine nature and their immeasurable +worth.</p> + +<p>And to all the vast meanings and +solemn mysteries that surround the +great question of right and wrong—the +great question of human life—the +spiritual eyesight is blind, or worse +than blind, until the experience of years +of mistakes and disillusions brings, little +by little, dim apprehensions of light and +truth.</p> + +<p>Rachel Fetherstonhaugh, with the +snare of her beauty and her sensuous +love of luxurious surroundings newly +laid about her feet, entered upon her +kingdom more than ordinarily unprepared.</p> + +<p>Poor little, helpless, foolish child!<span class="pagenum">[87]</span> +How was she to know that marriage +meant something better than a richly-appointed +house and a kind protector? +How could she be held accountable for +the commission, or contemplation, of +a crime against her youth and womanhood +of whose nature and consequences +she was absolutely ignorant?</p> + +<p>She was flitting in and out through +the French windows of the drawing-room +one fine morning, with a basket +of flowers on her arm, busily engaged +in rearranging the numerous little +bouquets that she made it her business +to keep in perennial freshness all about +the house, when Mr. Kingston was +announced.</p> + +<p>She had seen him several times since +the night of the opera; he had left his +card twice when she had been away<span class="pagenum">[88]</span> +from home; and Mrs. Hardy had had +polite messages respecting the horse, +which had been duly sent for her +approval. He came in now, with his +light and jaunty step, bowing low, +and smiling so that his white teeth +shone under his Napoleonic moustache, +carrying a large roll of paper in his +hand.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Miss Fetherstonhaugh," +he exclaimed gaily. "I must +apologise for this early call; but I can +never find you at home after lunch these +fine days."</p> + +<p>Rachel, who had not seen his approach +nor heard him enter the house, whose +hall-door was standing open for her +convenience, turned round with her +hands full of flowers. In the sunshine +of the morning she looked more fair<span class="pagenum">[89]</span> +and refined than he had ever seen +her, he thought. The plainest little +black gown showed her graceful shape +to perfection; her complexion, always +so delicate, was flushed and freshened +with the wind and her embarrassment.</p> + +<p>As for her hair, half-covered with a +shabby garden hat on the back of +her head, it was the central patch of +light and colour in the bright-hued room; +he was sure he had never seen hair +so silky in texture and so rich in +tint.</p> + +<p>His ideal woman, hitherto, had been +highly polished and elaborately appointed; +she had been a woman of +rank and fashion, in Parisian clothes, +a queen of society, always moving about +in state, with her crown on. But now,<span class="pagenum">[90]</span> +in the autumn of his years, all his +theories of life were being overturned +by an ignorant little country girl, sprung +from nobody knew where; and a coronet +of diamonds would not have had the +charm of that old straw hat, with a +wisp of muslin round it, which framed the +sweetest face he had ever seen or dreamed +of.</p> + +<p>"My aunt is in her room," she +stammered hastily; "I will send to tell +her you are here. She will be very glad +to see you."</p> + +<p>And she called back the servant who +had admitted him, and sent a message +upstairs.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hardy, however, did not hurry +herself. She was a thrifty housekeeper +still, as in her early days, and devoted +her forenoons religiously to her domestic<span class="pagenum">[91]</span> +affairs. Just now she was sorting linen +that had returned from the wash; and, +hearing that her niece was in the drawing-room, +she had no scruple about remaining +to finish her task.</p> + +<p>"Say I will be down directly," +she said. And she did not go down +for considerably more than half an +hour.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Rachel tumbled her +flowers into the basket, took off her hat, +and seated herself demurely in a green +satin chair.</p> + +<p>"It is a lovely morning," she remarked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, a charming morning—perfectly +charming! You ought to be having a +ride, you know. Have you tried Black +Agnes yet?"</p> + +<p>"No, not yet. My habit has not come<span class="pagenum">[92]</span> +home. They promised to send it last +night, but they did not. I am very +anxious to try her. She is the prettiest +creature I ever saw. I—I," beginning +to blush violently, "have not half +thanked you for your kindness, Mr. +Kingston."</p> + +<p>"Pray don't mention it," he replied, +waving his hand; "I shall be only too +glad if I am able to give you a little +pleasure."</p> + +<p>"It is the <i>greatest</i> pleasure," she +said, smiling. "But she is so good—so +much too good—I am half afraid +to take her out, for fear anything should +happen to her. Uncle Hardy says she is +a much better horse than he wants for +me."</p> + +<p>"Your uncle had better mind his +own business," said Mr. Kingston, with<span class="pagenum">[93]</span> +sudden irritation. "If you are to have a +horse at all, you must have one that is +fit to ride, of course."</p> + +<p>"But I think it is his business," suggested +Rachel, laughingly.</p> + +<p>"No; just now it is mine. I mean," +he added hastily, a little alarmed at the +expression and colour of her face, "that +Black Agnes is mine. And while I lend +her to you she is yours. And I trust +you will use her in every way as if she +were actually yours."</p> + +<p>"Thank you; you are very kind. I +hope nothing <i>will</i> happen to her. I +shall take great care of her, of course. +I will not jump fences or anything of that +sort."</p> + +<p>"Oh, pray do," urged Mr. Kingston. +"She is trained to jump. She has +carried a lady over fences scores of<span class="pagenum">[94]</span> +times." The fact was he had only +bought her a few days before, and had +selected her from a large and miscellaneous +assortment on account of +this special qualification. "I hope you +will let me ride out with you, and show +you my old cross-country hunting leaps. +You will not mind jumping fences with +her, if I am with you, and make you do +it?"</p> + +<p>"No," she said, "for I shall show you +that it is not the fault of my riding if +accidents happen."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. I am sure it will not be +your fault. But we will not have +any accidents—I will take too good care +of you. Can't we go out this afternoon? +Oh, I forgot that habit. I'll call on +your tailor, if you'll allow me, and +'exhort' him; shall I? I have done it<span class="pagenum">[95]</span> +before, on my own account, with the +most satisfactory results."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," said Rachel, "I +would not give you that trouble. He +will send it home when it is ready, I +suppose."</p> + +<p>And she rose from her chair and +began to move about the room, wondering +whether her aunt was ever coming +downstairs.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston thought it would be +expedient to change the conversation.</p> + +<p>"I have brought you the plans of +my house," he said, taking up his roll +of papers, and beginning to spread +great sheets on a table near him. "I +meant to have asked your opinion before +I began to build it, but—well, I took +it for granted that you would like it as it +was."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[96]</span></p> + +<p>"Ah, yes," responded Rachel brightly, +coming to his side. "Uncle Hardy said +you had begun. And you know I can +see all the men and carts from my +window. Oh! oh!"</p> + +<p>This enthusiastic exclamation greeted +the unrolling of the "front elevation," +which, in faint outlines, filled in with +pale washes of grey and blue and pink, +showed her the towers and colonnades +of her ideal palace. When he heard it, +Mr. Kingston's heart swelled. He was +more charmed with his pretty creature +than ever.</p> + +<p>"This, you see," said he, "is the +main entrance—fifteen steps. But won't +you sit down? You will see better. +And this wing is where the drawing-rooms +are to be," he added, when +she had seated herself, and he had<span class="pagenum">[97]</span> +taken a chair beside her. "There are +three large rooms in a line, that can +all be thrown together on occasions—when +necessary. I have not decided +about the furniture yet, nor the colours +of the walls. You must help me with +those things presently. The dados, which +are being designed at home, are to be +of carved wood, most of them; mantelpieces +to match. Some of the dados will +be of inlaid stone, tiles, and that sort of +thing. I suppose you don't know what a +dado is, do you?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Rachel, meekly. Whereupon +he entered into elaborate explanations.</p> + +<p>"I think I should not like tiles on +the wall," she ventured to remark; +"they would feel very cold, wouldn't +they?"</p><p><span class="pagenum">[98]</span></p> + +<p>"They tell me tile is the proper thing," +he replied; "and of course I want to have +everything that is proper. But whatever +my—my wife wishes shall be law, of +course. In her own rooms, at any +rate, she shall consult her own taste +entirely."</p> + +<p>Rachel stared at him, coloured and +laughed. "Oh, you did not tell me +about your wife before," she said. "I +did not know you were engaged to be +married. That is why you are making +haste to build your house? I am very +glad. I congratulate you."</p> + +<p>"Do not; do not," he stammered +earnestly. "I speak of a possible +wife, because I hope to have a wife +some day. I am not engaged. I wish +I were."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she said, looking down<span class="pagenum">[99]</span> +bashfully, with oleander blossoms everywhere. +"I beg your pardon."</p> + +<p>"I wish I were," he repeated. "But +I am going to get ready for that +happy time against it does come. See, +these are to be her rooms. They face +the south, and I am going to have a +rose garden below them. This is to +be her boudoir. I thought of having the +walls and the ceiling painted in coral. +I have noticed that pink lights in a +room are very becoming to a lady's +complexion, rather pale on the walls, +for the sake of the pictures. You +said you liked plenty of pictures?"</p> + +<p>"I? Oh, yes, I like pictures."</p> + +<p>"And I did mean to have a dado +of very fine, rich tiles to make a foundation +of colour, you know; but you +don't like tiles?"</p><p><span class="pagenum">[100]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, but <i>I</i> don't know anything +about it, Mr. Kingston! You had better +do what you said—furnish the other +rooms, and leave your wife, when you +get one, to choose the decorations of +her own herself."</p> + +<p>"She <i>shall</i> choose them herself. +But, Miss Fetherstonhaugh—"</p> + +<p>"Rachel, my dear, your habit has +come," said Mrs. Hardy, appearing at +this interesting moment. "Oh, how do +you do, Mr. Kingston? Pray forgive +me for leaving you so long. I hope +you have come to lunch? Oh, yes, +you must stay to lunch, of course. +We'll take you into town afterwards, +when we go out to drive."</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston stayed to lunch, and +made himself very agreeable. But then +he went into town by himself, and<span class="pagenum">[101]</span> +returned in an incredibly short space +of time in riding costume, mounted on +a powerful brown horse. During his +absence, Rachel had put on her habit, +and found that it fitted her beautifully; +and Black Agnes had been caparisoned, +and was pawing the gravel before the +hall door. Mrs. Reade, magnificently +attired for a series of state calls, +had appeared upon the scene, and was +regulating all these pleasant circumstances.</p> + +<p>"Now then, Mr. Kingston, you must +only take her along quiet roads. And +she is not to jump any fences when +Ned is not with her."</p> + +<p>"Why, Ned?" inquired Mr. Kingston. +"I am as learned in fences as Ned, +don't you think?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I know all about that.<span class="pagenum">[102]</span> +But it is the look of the thing. You +remember, Rachel, you are not to jump +fences."</p> + +<p>"No, Beatrice, I won't."</p> + +<p>"Have a good gallop, my dear, and +enjoy it," the little woman added. "I'll +take care of mamma; and when we have +done all our calls we will come and meet +you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston stepped jauntily to +Black Agnes's side. He was an old +steeplechase rider before he was a +successful city merchant, and he looked +ten years younger in his riding-dress. +Rachel, with a radiant face, approached +him, and laid her small foot on his +proffered palm.</p> + +<p>In a moment she was up like a +feather, and sitting square and light in +her saddle like a practised horsewoman<span class="pagenum">[103]</span> +as she was; and all her attendants, groom +included, looked up at her admiringly. +Even Mrs. Hardy forgot the expense she +had been put to.</p> + +<p>"The child certainly does look +well on horseback," she remarked, resignedly, +as Black Agnes's shining +haunches disappeared round a clump of +laurels. "What a figure she has, +Beatrice!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me, yes!" assented the +younger matron pettishly. "Why didn't +<i>we</i> have figures like that!"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the black mare and the +big brown horse paced out into the +road, and for a little while the riders +contented themselves with friendly +glances at one another. Rachel was +crimson with pride and bashfulness, +looking lovely and riding beautifully,<span class="pagenum">[104]</span> +as she could not but know she was. +Mr. Kingston, sharing some measure +of her elation and excitement, was +absorbed in looking at and admiring +her.</p> + +<p>By and bye they had a long canter, +which carried them well out into the +country, where there were no houses +and no people, and where the shadows +were beginning to rest on the peaceful +autumn landscape. And then +Mr. Kingston made her draw rein +under a clump of trees, while she looked +back at the city they had left behind, +glorified in the light of the sinking +sun.</p> + +<p>"So now there is something else you +like besides operas and balls?" he said, +laying his hand upon the black mare's +silky mane.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[105]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied, drawing a long +breath, "and I think this is best +of all! She is like a swallow—she +seems to skim the ground! And I—I +don't know when I have felt so +happy!"</p> + +<p>All his years and his experience went +for nothing under these circumstances, +when she looked as sweet as she did +now.</p> + +<p>"You must keep Black Agnes," he +said eagerly. "I will speak to your +uncle. I will not have you riding +low-bred brutes. Nothing but the best +is fit for you; you, who know how +to ride so well, and enjoy it so +much! You will keep her, to please +me?"</p> + +<p>If she had been sitting in a green +satin drawing-room she would probably<span class="pagenum">[106]</span> +have checked this ardent outburst at an +apparently harmless stage. She would +have blushed, and looked grave and +majestic; but now she was, in a +sense, intoxicated. She lifted a pair of +radiant, grateful eyes to his face, +and she held out her hand impulsively.</p> + +<p>"How good you are to me!" she +said. "How much pleasure you give +me!"</p> + +<p>And then, of course, he succumbed +altogether.</p> + +<p>"That is what I want to do, not +now, but always," he said, drawing +the mare's head to his knee, and the +small, weak hand to his lips, which +had kissed so many hands, though +never with quite the same kind of +kiss. "That is why I am building<span class="pagenum">[107]</span> +my house. It is you I wanted to +be its mistress—didn't you know +that?—to do just what you like with +it, and with me, and with all I have!" +And, when once he had fairly set it +going, the flood of his eloquence, +running in a well-channelled groove, +flowed freely, and overwhelmed the +poor little novice, who had never been +made love to before.</p> + +<p>"I—we—we have only seen each other +a few times," she ventured to suggest +at last, but not until her imagination +had been captivated by the splendid +prospect before her. She had the +colour of a peony in her cheeks, and +frightened tears in her soft child's eyes; +but her experienced lover knew that his +cause was gained.</p> + +<p>"That has been enough for me," he<span class="pagenum">[108]</span> +said. "Once was enough for me." Then, +after a long pause, "Well? Is it to be +'yes' or 'no?'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know!" she stammered +desperately, turning her head from side +to side. "I have had no time. Let +us wait until we know each other +better."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> know quite enough," he persisted, +"and I am not so young +as you are that I can afford to +wait."</p> + +<p>She trembled and panted, gathering up +her reins and dropping them in an agony +of embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she said at last, "what can +I say? Won't you let me speak to Aunt +Elizabeth?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, as soon as you like after +you get home. I am not afraid of Aunt<span class="pagenum">[109]</span> +Elizabeth. I know what <i>she</i> will say. +But now, dear—while we are here by +ourselves—I want you to tell me, of +your own self, whether you like me—whether +you would really like to come +and live with me in my new house? +You don't want anybody to help +you to make up your mind about +that?"</p> + +<p>"No," she whispered, hanging her +head, feeling at once terrified and elated, +and wishing to goodness she could see +Mrs. Hardy and Beatrice driving along +the lonely empty road.</p> + +<p>"You <i>would</i> like it? Turn your +face to me and say 'Yes,' just +once, and I won't bother you any +more."</p> + +<p>She turned her face, scarlet all over +her ears and all down her throat,<span class="pagenum">[110]</span> +and she tried to meet his ardent eyes +and could not. Her lips shaped themselves +to say "Yes," but no sound +would come. However, sound would +have been, perhaps, less expressive than +the silence which overwhelmed her in +this proud but dreadful moment. At +any rate, Mr. Kingston was satisfied.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c04e.jpg" width="150" height="62" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[111]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c05.jpg" width="600" height="114" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="h3">SO SOON!</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-t.jpg" height="97" width="80" alt="T" /> + <span class="hide">T</span>HEY rode home sedately in the +cool and quiet evening. Mr. +Kingston, having accomplished +the end for which he had contrived this +unchaperoned expedition, was content to +keep close to his pretty sweetheart's side, +to look in her face occasionally with +significant smiles, and to ruminate on his +own good fortune.</p> + +<p>Rachel, fluttered and dismayed at the +situation in which she found herself,<span class="pagenum">[112]</span> +bestowed a wandering attention on the +near-side fields and hedges, and discouraged +conversation. It is needless +to remark that the carriage did not +come to meet them. The long shadows +lengthened, the sun sank down below the +glowing horizon, the glory of the evening +faded away into the soft dusk of the +autumn night.</p> + +<p>Lamps were being lighted when they +entered Toorak; the workmen who had +begun at the foundations of the new +house were "knocking off;" the gates of +Mrs. Hardy's domain were standing open, +and the woman at the lodge informed +them that she had not returned from her +drive.</p> + +<p>They rode up to the house, and Mr. +Kingston got off his horse and lifted +Rachel down. She disengaged herself<span class="pagenum">[113]</span> +from his arms as quickly as possible, and +then stood on the doorstep, while the +groom led both horses away, and looked +at her <i>fiancé</i> anxiously, blushing with all +her might.</p> + +<p>"Won't you let me come in?" he +asked smiling. But he did not mean +to be refused admittance; and he +turned the handle of the door and +led her into the hall and into the +drawing-room, as if it had been his own +house.</p> + +<p>The lamps had not been lit in the +drawing-room, but a bright fire was +burning, making a glow of rich and +pleasant colour all over its mossy carpet +and its shining furniture. Rachel's +flowers were blooming everywhere. Soft +armchairs stood seductively round the +cheerful hearth. An afternoon tea-table<span class="pagenum">[114]</span> +was set for four, with everything on it but +the teapot.</p> + +<p>"My aunt is late," said Rachel uneasily. +"I wonder what can have +kept her. I hope there has been no +accident."</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston showed all his teeth in a +momentary smile, and then addressed +himself to the opportunity that had so +happily offered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, she is not late; it is the +days that are getting so short," he +said. And as he spoke he unfastened +her hat and laid it aside, and then +drew her burning face to his shoulder +and kissed her. She stood still, trembling, +to let him do it, one tingling +blush from head to foot. She liked +him very much; she was very proud +and glad that she was going to marry<span class="pagenum">[115]</span> +him; she quite understood that it was +his right and privilege to kiss her, if +he felt so disposed. Still her strongest +conscious sentiment was an ardent longing +for her aunt's return—or her +uncle's, or anybody's. The spiritual +woman in her protested against being +kissed.</p> + +<p>"I want you not to be afraid of me," +said Mr. Kingston, half anxious, half +amused, as he patted her head. "I am +not an ogre, nor Bluebeard either; +you seem to shrink from me almost as +if I was. You must not shrink from +me <i>now</i>, you know."</p> + +<p>"I will not—by and bye—when I +get used to it," she gasped, with a +touch of hysterical excitement, extricating +her pretty head, and standing +appealingly before him, with her pink<span class="pagenum">[116]</span> +palms outwards. "I'm not afraid of +you, Mr. Kingston, but—but it is very +new yet! I shall get used to it after +a little."</p> + +<p>He looked down at her with sudden +gravity. She was on the verge of +tears.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," he said quietly, almost +paternally, "we shall soon get used +to each other. There is plenty of time. +Let me see—how old are you? Don't +tell me; let me guess. Eighteen?"</p> + +<p>She smiled and composed herself. +Yes, she was just eighteen. Somebody +must have told him. No, upon his +honour, nobody had; it was his own +guess entirely. Did he not think he +ought to have chosen someone older for +such a position of importance and responsibility? +No; she was gallantly<span class="pagenum">[117]</span> +assured that she had been an object, +not of choice, but of necessity. And +so on.</p> + +<p>When the dialogue had brought itself +down to a sufficiently sober level, he took +her hand, and drawing her into a seat +beside him, continued to hold it, and +to stroke her slight white fingers between +his palms.</p> + +<p>"They say good blood always shows +itself in the fineness of a woman's +hands," he said; "if so, you ought to +be particularly well-born."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what your standard +is," she answered, smiling. "My father +came of a border family ages ago, I +believe. I never knew anything about +my mother's parentage; she died when +I was a baby."</p> + +<p>"I am <i>sure</i> you are well born," he<span class="pagenum">[118]</span> +said, looking fondly and proudly at her +as she sat in the firelight, with her +golden hair shining. "I shall have +not only the finest house, but the +most beautiful wife to sit at the head +of my table. I don't believe there is +another woman in Melbourne who will +compare with you, especially when you +get those diamonds on."</p> + +<p>"Diamonds!" ejaculated Rachel.</p> + +<p>"Yes; those diamonds you talked +about the other night, don't you know?—that +you would have if you were +very rich. Well, you are going to be +very rich. And I am going to order +you some of them to-morrow. You +must give me the size of your finger. +A 'ring full of diamonds,' didn't you +say? How full?"</p> + +<p>Rachel smiled, blushed, and ceased to<span class="pagenum">[119]</span> +feel that strong repugnance to the +amenities of courtship which had distressed +both herself and her lover at +an earlier stage.</p> + +<p>Here a servant came in to light the +gas. The man appeared conscious of +the inopportuneness of his intrusion, +and despatched his business in nervous +haste, clinking the pendants of the cut-glass +chandelier in a manner that his +mistress would have highly disapproved +of.</p> + +<p>Rachel and her visitor watched him +with a sort of silent fascination, as if +they had never seen gas lighted before. +When he was gone, Mr. Kingston took +out his watch. It was past six o'clock. +He had a dinner engagement at seven, +and had to get into town and change +his clothes.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[120]</span></p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I dare not wait for +Mrs. Hardy," he said, rising. "I hate +to go, but you know I would not if +I could help it. I will see your uncle +at his office the first thing in the +morning, and come to lunch afterwards. +Shall I?"</p> + +<p>"If you like," murmured Rachel, +shyly. And then she submitted to be +kissed again, and being asked to do it, +touched her lover's fierce moustaches +with her own soft lips—not "minding" +it nearly so much as she did at first. +She was beginning to get used to being +engaged to him.</p> + +<p>When immediately after his departure +Mrs. Hardy, having left her daughter +at her own house, came home, and heard +what had been taking place, she could +hardly believe the evidence of her ears.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[121]</span></p> + +<p>"So soon!" she ejaculated, lifting +her hands. "Is it credible? My dear, +are you sure you are not making a +mistake?"</p> + +<p>Remembering the wear and tear of +mind and body that the management +of these affairs had cost her hitherto—remembering +the illusive and unsubstantial +nature of all Mr. Kingston's +previous attentions to the most attractive +marriageable girls—she found +the suddenness of the thing confounding.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think you may have +misunderstood him?" she reiterated, +anxiously. "I'm afraid he is rather +given to say more—or to appear +to say more—than he means sometimes."</p> + +<p>Rachel blushingly testified to the +good faith of her <i>fiancé</i>, by references<span class="pagenum">[122]</span> +to the ring for which her finger had +already been measured, and to the +impending interview at her uncle's +office.</p> + +<p>"I should never have thought of it +of myself Aunt Elizabeth," she said +meekly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hardy sank into an easy chair, +and unbuttoned her furs, as if to give +her bosom room to swell with the +pride and satisfaction that possessed +her. Then, looking up at the slender +figure on the hearthrug, at the candid +innocent face of the child who had +been bequeathed to her love and care, +a maternal instinct asserted itself.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she said, "you are very +young, and this is a serious step. You +must take care not to run into it +heedlessly. Do you really feel that<span class="pagenum">[123]</span> +you would be happy with Mr. Kingston? +He is much older than you +are, you know."</p> + +<p>Rachel thought of the new house, +and of the diamonds, and of all her +lover's tributes to her worth and +beauty.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think so, aunt. He is a +very nice man. He is very kind to +me."</p> + +<p>"He has lived so long as a bachelor, +that he has got into bachelor ways," +Mrs. Hardy reluctantly proceeded. "He +has been rather—a—gay, so they say. +I doubt if you will find him domesticated, +my dear."</p> + +<p>"I shall not <i>wish</i> him to stay always +at home with me," replied the girl, +with a fine glow of generosity. "And +I do not mind tobacco-smoke, nor latchkeys,<span class="pagenum">[124]</span> +nor things of that sort. And +if he is fond of his club, I hope he +will go there as often as he likes. <i>I</i> +shall not try to deprive him of his +pleasures, when he will give me so +many of my own. And, you know, +dear aunt, I shall be quite close to +you; I can never be lonely while +I am able to run in and out here."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hardy was reassured. This was +the pliant, sweet-natured little creature +who would adapt herself kindly to any +husband—who was not, of course, an +absolutely outrageous brute.</p> + +<p>And Mr. Kingston, except that he +was a little old, a little of a <i>viveur</i>, +a trifle selfish, and, it was said, rather +bad tempered when he was put out, +was everything that a reasonable girl +could desire. She smiled, rose from<span class="pagenum">[125]</span> +her chair, and kissed her niece's pretty +face with motherly pride and fondness.</p> + +<p>"Well, my love, it is a great match +for you," she said, "and I hope it will +be a happy one as well."</p> + +<p>And then, hearing her husband coming +downstairs, she left the room hurriedly +to meet and drive him back again, that +she might explain to him the interesting +state of affairs while she put on her +gown for dinner.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c05e.jpg" width="150" height="59" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[126]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c06.jpg" width="600" height="127" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="h3">A RASH PROMISE.</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-t.jpg" height="97" width="80" alt="T" /> + <span class="hide">T</span>HERE was of course no opposition +to Rachel's engagement. +Mr. Hardy, away from +his office, was simply Mrs. Hardy's +husband, not because he had no will of +his own, but because he acknowledged +her superior capacity for the management +of that complicated business called +getting on in the world, to which they +had both devoted their lives for so +many years.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[127]</span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Reade, who next to her mother +was the greatest "power" in the family, +approved of the match highly, though +she had herself proposed to be Mrs. +Kingston at an earlier stage of her +career; but she had a good deal to +say before she would allow it to be +considered a settled thing.</p> + +<p>In the first place she had a serious +talk with the bridegroom-elect, in which +she demanded on Rachel's behalf +certain guarantees of good behaviour +when he should have become a married +man. She was a clever little +clear-headed woman, full of active +energies, for which the minding of her +own business did not supply employment; +and being blessed with plenty of +self-confidence and much good sense +and tact, she contrived to give her<span class="pagenum">[128]</span> +friends a great deal of assistance with +theirs, without giving them offence at +the same time.</p> + +<p>Occasionally she came across another +strong-minded woman who objected to +interference; but the men never objected. +They rather liked it, most of them.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kingston, at any rate, thought +it was very pleasant to be lectured in +a maternal manner by a woman five +feet high, who was just thirty years +younger than he was; and he made +profuse and solemn promises that he +would be "a good boy," and take the +utmost care of the innocent young +creature who had confided her happiness +to his charge. And then she +fetched Rachel away to spend the day +with her, and, over a protracted discussion +of afternoon tea, gave <i>her</i> some<span class="pagenum">[129]</span> +valuable advice as to the conduct of +her affairs.</p> + +<p>"You know," she said, with much +gravity and decision, "it is always best +to look at these things in a practical +way. Mr. Kingston is, no doubt, a +splendid match, and not a bad fellow, +as men go; but it is no use pretending +that he won't be a great handful. He +has been a bachelor too long. The +habit of having his own way in everything +will have become his second +nature. I doubt if anyone could properly +break him of it now, and I am +sure <i>you</i> could not."</p> + +<p>"I should not try," said Rachel, +smiling. "I should like my husband, +whoever he was, to have his own +way."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Reade shook her head.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[130]</span></p> + +<p>"It doesn't answer, my dear. What +is the use of a man marrying if his +wife doesn't try to keep him straight? +And if you give in to him in everything, +he only despises you for +it."</p> + +<p>"But, Beatrice," Rachel protested, "all +men don't want keeping straight, do +they? It seems to me that every case +is different from every other case. One +is no guide for another."</p> + +<p>"I know it isn't. I'm only thinking +of your case. And I want to make +you understand it. You don't know +him as well as I do, and you don't +know anything about married life. If +you run into it blindfold, and let things +take their chance, then—why, then it +is too late to talk about it. Everything +depends upon how you begin.<span class="pagenum">[131]</span> +You must begin as you mean to go +on."</p> + +<p>"And how ought I to begin?" +inquired Rachel, still smiling. She +could not be brought to regard this +momentous subject with that serious +attention which it demanded.</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>I</i> should take a very high +hand if it were my case—but you are +not like me. I should put a stop to +a great deal that goes on now at <i>once</i>, +and get it over, while the novelty and +pleasure of his marriage was fresh and +my influence was supreme. I should +try to make him as happy as possible, +of course, for both our sakes. I'd +humour him in little things. I'd +never put him out of temper, if I could +help it. But I would keep him well in +hand, and on no account put up with any<span class="pagenum">[132]</span> +nonsense. If they see you mean that +from the beginning, they generally give +in; and by and bye they are used to +it, and settle down quietly and comfortably, +and you have no more trouble."</p> + +<p>Rachel's smiling face had been growing +grave, and her large eyes dilating and +kindling.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Beatrice," she broke out, "that +is not marriage—not my idea of marriage! +How can a husband and wife +be happy if they are always watching +each other like two policemen? And +they marry on purpose to be happy. +I think they should love one another +enough to have no fear of those +treacheries. If they are not alike—if +they have different tastes and ways—oughtn't +they to be companions whenever +they <i>can</i> enjoy things together,<span class="pagenum">[133]</span> +and help each other to get what else +they want. Love should limit those +outside wants—love should make everything +safe. If that will not, I don't +think anything else will. I should never +have the heart to try anything else, if +that failed."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Reade gazed with intense +curiosity and interest at this girl, with +her young enthusiasm and her old-world +philosophy. She was so surprised +at the unexpected element introduced +into the dialogue, that for a few +minutes she could not speak. Then +she put out her hand impulsively and +laid it on Rachel's knee.</p> + +<p>"Is <i>that</i> how you feel about Mr. +Kingston?" she exclaimed, earnestly. +"My dear, I beg your pardon. I +did not know how things were. If<span class="pagenum">[134]</span> +you think of your marriage in that +way, pray forget all I have been saying, +and act as your own heart dictates. +That will be your safest guide."</p> + +<p>So Rachel was engaged with satisfaction +to all concerned. She conscientiously +believed that she loved +her elderly <i>fiancé</i>, and that she would +be very happy with him; and the +rest of them thought so too—himself +of course included.</p> + +<p>The winter wore away, full of peace +and pleasure. The interesting event +was public property, and the engaged +pair were fêted and congratulated on +all sides, and enjoyed themselves immensely.</p> + +<p>Rachel had her diamond ring, and a +diamond bracelet into the bargain, with +a promise of the "necklace of stars,<span class="pagenum">[135]</span> +strung together," on her wedding day: +and her aunt in consideration of her +prospective importance, bought her the +coveted sealskin jacket.</p> + +<p>Black Agnes was made over to her +entirely, and she rode and jumped +fences to her heart's content. She went +to the opera whenever she liked. She +was the belle of all the balls; and in +the best part of Melbourne her splendid +home was being prepared for her, where +she was to reign as a queen of beauty +and fashion, with unlimited power to +"aggravate other women"—which is +supposed by some cynics to be the +highest object of female ambition.</p> + +<p>And Mr. Kingston bore with extreme +complacency the jokes of his +club friends on his defection from that +faith in the superior advantages of<span class="pagenum">[136]</span> +celibacy, which he and some of them +had held in common; for he knew they +all admired his lady-love extravagantly, +if they did not actually go so far as +to envy him her possession. And he +attended her wherever she went with +the utmost assiduity.</p> + +<p>When the winter was nearly over, an +event occurred in the Hardy family +which made a change in this state of +things. Mrs. Thornley, the second +daughter, who lived in the country, +having married a wealthy landowner, +who preferred all the year round to +manage his own property, presented +Mrs. Hardy with her first grandchild; +and being in rather delicate health +afterwards, wrote to beg her mother to +come and stay with her, and of course +to bring Rachel.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[137]</span></p> + +<p>To this invitation Mrs. Hardy responded +eagerly by return of post, and +bade Rachel pack up quickly for an +early start. Rachel was delighted with +the prospect, even though it involved +her separation from her betrothed; and +her preparations were soon completed. +Mr. Hardy was handed over to his +daughter Beatrice, "to be kept till +called for;" one old servant was placed +in charge of the Toorak house, and +others on board wages; and Mrs. +Hardy, paying a round of farewell calls, +intimated to her friends that she was +likely to make a long visit.</p> + +<p>Rachel rose early on the day of her +departure. It was a very lovely morning +in the earliest dawn of spring, full +of that delicate, delicious, champagny +freshness which belongs to Australian<span class="pagenum">[138]</span> +mornings. She opened her window, +while yet half dressed, to let in the +sweet air blowing off the sea.</p> + +<p>Far away the luminous blue of the +transparent sky met the sparkle of the +bluer bay, where white sails shone like +the wings of a flock of sea-birds. +Below her, spreading out from under +the garden terraces, far and wide, lay +Melbourne in a thin veil of mist and +smoke, beginning to flash back the sunshine +from its spiky forest of chimney +stacks and towers. And close by, +through an opening in the belt of pinus +insignis which enclosed Mr. Hardy's +domain, and where just now a flock +of king parrots were noisily congregating +after an early breakfast on almond +blossoms, she could see the dusty mess +surrounding the nucleus of her future<span class="pagenum">[139]</span> +home, and the workmen beginning +their day's task of chipping and chopping +at the stones which were to build +it; even they were picturesque in this +glorifying atmosphere. How bright it all +was! Her heart swelled with childish +exultation at the prospect of a journey +on such a day.</p> + +<p>As for Mr. Kingston, to be left behind +to stroll about Collins Street disconsolately +by himself, just now she did +not give him a thought.</p> + +<p>Two or three hours later, however, +when she and her aunt, accompanied by +"Ned"—who had no office, unfortunately +for him, and was therefore driven +by his wife to make himself useful +when opportunity offered—arrived at +Spencer Street, there was Mr. Kingston +on the platform waiting to see the<span class="pagenum">[140]</span> +last of her. If she was able to leave him +without any severe pangs of regret and +remorse, he for his part was by no +means willing to let her go.</p> + +<p>"You will write to me often," he +pleaded, when, having placed her in a +corner of the ladies' carriage, he rested +his arms on the window for a last few +words. Mrs. Hardy was leaning out of +the opposite window, deeply interested in +the spectacle of an empty Williamstown +train patiently waiting for its passengers +and its engine.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Rachel slowly; "but you +must remember I shall be in the +country, and shall have no news to make +letters of."</p> + +<p>"I don't want news," he replied +with a shade of darkness in his eager +face. "Pray don't give me news—that's<span class="pagenum">[141]</span> +a kind of letter I detest. I want you +to write about yourself."</p> + +<p>"I—I have never had many friends," +she stammered, "and I am not used to +writing letters. You will be disappointed +with mine—and perhaps ashamed +of me."</p> + +<p>"What rubbish! Do you think I +shall be critical about the grammar and +composition? Why, my pet, if you +don't spell a single word right I shan't +care—so long as you tell me you think +of me, and miss me, and want to come +back to me."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Rachel bridling, "I know +how to <i>spell</i>."</p> + +<p>Here a railway official shouldered +them apart in order to lock the door, +and Mr. Kingston demanded of him +what he meant by his impudence.<span class="pagenum">[142]</span> +Having satisfied the claims of outraged +dignity, he again leaned into the window, +and put out his hand for a tender farewell.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, my darling. You <i>will</i> +write often, won't you? And mind +now," with one of his Mephistophelian +smiles, "you are not to go and flirt with +anybody behind my back."</p> + +<p>"I never flirt," said Rachel severely.</p> + +<p>"Nor fall in love with handsome +young squatters, you know."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk nonsense," she retorted, +melting into one of her sunny smiles. +"If you can't trust me, why do you +let me go?"</p> + +<p>"I would not, if I had the power to +stop you—you may be quite sure of that. +But you will promise me, Rachel?"</p> + +<p>"Promise you what?"</p> + +<p>"That you will be constant to me<span class="pagenum">[143]</span> +while you are away from me, and not let +other men——"</p> + +<p>She lifted her ungloved hand, on +which shone that ring "full of +diamonds" which he had given her, +and laid it on his mouth—or rather on +his moustache.</p> + +<p>"Now you'll make me angry if you +go on," she said, with a playfully dignified +and dictatorial air. "No, I +won't hear any more—I am ashamed +of you! after all the long time we have +been engaged. As if I was a girl of +<i>that</i> sort, indeed!"</p> + +<p>Here the signal was given for the +train to start, and Mrs. Hardy came +forward to make her own adieux, and +to give her last instructions to her +son-in-law, who had been meekly standing +apart.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[144]</span></p> + +<p>As they slowly steamed out of the +station, Rachel rose and comforted +her bereaved lover with a last sight of +her fair face, full of fun and smiles.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye," she called gaily; "I +promise."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," he shouted back.</p> + +<p>He lifted his hat, and kissed the tips +of his fingers, and stood to watch the +train disappear into the dismal waste that +lay immediately beyond the station precincts. +Then he walked away dejectedly +to find his cab. He had grown +very fond of his little sweetheart, and +he anticipated the long, dull days that +he would have to spend without her.</p> + +<p>He wished Mrs. Hardy had been a +little more definite as to the time when +she meant to bring her home. It was +not as if he were a young man, with<span class="pagenum">[145]</span> +any quantity of time to waste. However, +he had her assurance that she +would be true to him under any temptations +that should assail her in his +absence; and though too experienced +to put absolute faith in that, it greatly +cheered and consoled him. He stepped +into his hansom, and told the driver to +take him to Toorak, that he might see +how the house where they were going +to live together was getting on.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c06e.jpg" width="150" height="55" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[146]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c07.jpg" width="600" height="130" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="h3">TWO LOVE LETTERS.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Kingston</span> <i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Miss Fetherstonhaugh</span>.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="quote">"</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-m.jpg" height="96" width="80" alt="M" /> + <span class="hide">M</span>Y dearest love,</p> + +<p>"I had no idea that Melbourne +<i>could</i> be such a detestable hole! +Why have you gone away, and taken all +the life and brightness out of everything?</p> + +<p>"If I had not the house to look after—and +there is not much to interest one in +that at present—I declare life would<span class="pagenum">[147]</span> +not be worth the trouble it entails +in the mere matter of dressing and +dining, and slating the servants and +tradespeople.</p> + +<p>"I went to Mrs. Reade's last night. +Everybody was there; but I was bored +to that extent that I came home in an +hour (and physicked <i>ennui</i> at the card-table, +where I lost ten pounds). I could +not get up any interest in anybody. +Mrs. Reade herself looked remarkably +well. She is a very stylish woman, +though she is so small. And Miss +Brownlow looked handsome, as usual—to +those who care for that dark kind of +beauty. I confess I don't. I could only +long for you, and think what a lily you +would have been amongst them all, with +your white neck and arms. (Be very +careful of your complexion, my darling,<span class="pagenum">[148]</span> +while you are in the country; don't let +the wind roughen your fine skin, nor +sit by the fire without a screen for your +face).</p> + +<p>"As usual, poor Reade got a good deal +snubbed. I would not be in his place for +something. But if a wife of mine told +me in the presence of guests that I had +had as much wine as was good for me, +I'd take care she didn't do it a second +time. My little wife, however, will know +better than that; <i>I</i> have no fear of being +henpecked. It was a kind of musical +evening, and Sarah Brownlow sang +several new songs. I thought her voice +had gone off a great deal.</p> + +<p>"I must say for Mrs. Beatrice, that +she is a capital hostess, and manages her +parties as well as anybody. But this one +was immensely slow. Everything is slow<span class="pagenum">[149]</span> +now you are away. Is it necessary for +you to remain at Adelonga for the whole +time of your aunt's visit? Can't you +come back to town soon, and stay with +Mrs. Reade? <i>Do</i> try and manage it; I'm +sure your aunt would be willing, and it +would be a most delightful arrangement +all round.</p> + +<p>"You will find Adelonga very dull, I +fancy. It used to be a pleasant house in +the old days, when Thornley was a +bachelor; but two marriages must have +altered both it and him, and the second +Mrs. Thornley is not lively, even at the +best of times, and must be terribly +depressing as an invalid. There are a lot +of children, too, are there not? If your +aunt doesn't let you come back, can't you, +when your cousin is well enough, manœuvre +to get me an invitation? I would<span class="pagenum">[150]</span> +not mind a country house if you and I were +in it together. Nothing could well be +drearier than town is without you. And +it would be so charming to be both under +the same roof!</p> + +<p>"And this reminds me of something +I want to speak to you about seriously, +so give me your best attention. (I +wonder whether, having read so far, you +are beginning to cover yourself with +blushes in anticipation of what is coming? +I am sure you are.)</p> + +<p>"You told me, you know, my darling, +that you did not wish to be married for +a year or two—not until the house was +built and finished, you said—because you +were so young. But I have been thinking +that that will never do. The house +will probably be an immense time in +hand; it is not like an ordinary plain house,<span class="pagenum">[151]</span> +you see. And <i>I</i> am not young, if you are. +I don't say that I am old, but still I +have come to that time of life when a +man, if he means to marry and settle, +should do it as soon as possible. And +you are not any younger than your cousin +Laura was when she married last year; +and her husband, moreover, was a mere +boy. I remember when Buxton was +born, and he can't be five-and-twenty, +nor anything like it. So you see, my +pet, your proposal is <i>quite</i> absurd and +unreasonable.</p> + +<p>"And now I will tell you what mine is. +And I know my little girl's gentle and +generous disposition too well to doubt +that she will offer any serious opposition +to it, or to any of my urgent wishes. I +propose that we marry without any +delay; that is to say, with no more delay<span class="pagenum">[152]</span> +than the preparing of your trousseau +necessitates.</p> + +<p>"We have already been engaged some +months, and by the time your visit is +over and your preparations made, we +shall have fully reached the average +term of engagements amongst people of +our class. I want you to let me write to +your aunt (I am sure she would see the +matter <i>quite</i> from my point of view), and +suggest a day in September, or in +October at the latest. That is a lovely +time of year, and all my other plans +would fit in with such an arrangement +beautifully.</p> + +<p>"You have never travelled, nor seen +anything of the world yet; and I should +like to show you a little before you settle +down in your big house to all the cares +of state. So I thought we would go<span class="pagenum">[153]</span> +for a short honeymoon to Sydney or +Tasmania—whichever you like best; then +come back for the races, and to see how +the house was going on. I think there +will be a club ball, too, about that time; +if so, I know you would like to go to +it <i>with your diamond necklace on</i>. Would +you not? And then—while the shell +of the house is building—I propose we +repeat the honeymoon tour on a larger +scale, and go to Europe.</p> + +<p>"I know you would like to see all that +Laura Buxton is seeing now; and I will +take care that you see a great deal +besides. You shall make the old grand +tour, if you like it; it will be new enough +to you.</p> + +<p>"And we will have a good time in +Paris; and we will amuse ourselves, +wherever we go, collecting furniture<span class="pagenum">[154]</span> +and pictures, and ornaments for our +house.</p> + +<p>"You shall choose everything for +your own rooms—as I told you my wife +should—from the best looms and workshops +in the world. And then when +we come home we will take a house +somewhere while we superintend the +fitting up of our own.</p> + +<p>"And finally, we will give a brilliant +ball or something, by way of housewarming, +and settle down to domestic +life.</p> + +<p>"Now is not this a charming programme? +I am sure you will think so—indeed +you <i>must</i>, for I have set my heart +upon it.</p> + +<p>"Pray write at once, dear love, and +give me leave to put matters in train. +Do you know you have been away four<span class="pagenum">[155]</span> +days and I have only had a post-card to +tell me you arrived safely! That is not +how you are going to treat me, I hope. +I know there is a daily mail from +Adelonga, and (though I repudiate post-cards) +I don't care what sort of scribble +you send so long as you write constantly. +Remember what I told you about that. +And remember your <i>promise</i>.</p> + +<p>"And now, good-night, my sweetest +Rachel. Sleep well, darling, and dream +of me,</p> + +<p>"Your faithful lover,</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Graham Kingston</span>."</p></blockquote> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miss Fetherstonhaugh</span> <i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Kingston</span>.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"My dearest Graham,</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you will think I ought +to have written to you before, but I have +been so much engaged ever since I<span class="pagenum">[156]</span> +arrived that I really have not had an +opportunity.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Thornley is always showing me +about the place, or the children are +wanting me to have a walk with them, +or my cousin sends for me to her +room to see the baby; so that I may +say I have scarcely a moment to call +my own until bedtime comes, and then +I am much too sleepy to write—the +effect of the country air, I suppose. I +am enjoying myself excessively.</p> + +<p>"The weather is lovely, and this is certainly +the most delightful place. It is +a regular old bush house, which has +been added to in every direction.</p> + +<p>"The rooms are low, and straggle +about anyhow; there is no front door—or, +rather, there are several; and it +has shingle roofs and weatherboard<span class="pagenum">[157]</span> +walls (though all the outhouses are +brick and stone, and Mr. Thornley is +going to build a new house presently, +which I think is <i>such</i> a pity.)</p> + +<p>"My own room has a canvas ceiling, +which flaps up and down when the +wind is high: and most of the floors +are of that dark, rough-sawn native +wood of olden times, which makes it +necessary that the best carpets should +have drugget, or some kind of padding +under them. But, oh, how exquisitely +the whole house is kept inside and +out.</p> + +<p>"The drawing-room is <i>much</i> prettier +than ours at Toorak; because Mr. +Thornley has travelled a great deal +at odd times, and collected beautiful +things, and seems to have good taste, +as well as plenty of money. There<span class="pagenum">[158]</span> +are quantities of pictures everywhere; +he is very fond of pictures.</p> + +<p>"And the conservatories are half as +big as the house; he is fond of flowers +too. Just now they are full of delicious +things—cyclamens, and orchids, +and primulas, and begonias, and heaths +of all sorts, and azaleas, and I don't +know what. There are quantities of +flowers in the garden too, so early as it +is. The great bushes—almost trees—of +camellias are simply wonderful; and +there is a bed of double hyacinths +under my window of all the colours of +the rainbow.</p> + +<p>"Then there is a fernery—part of it +roofed in, and part running down +through the shrubberies on one side. +The tree ferns make a matted roof +overhead, and other ferns grow between<span class="pagenum">[159]</span> +like bushes, and little ferns sprout +everywhere underneath amongst stones +and things. There are winding paths +in and out through it, where it is quite +dark at mid-day; and there are little +rills and waterfalls trickling there in all +directions, carried down in pipes from a +dam up amongst the hills behind the +house.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think <i>we</i> might have a +fern-tree gully? If the water could +be got for it, it would run down the +side of a terraced garden even better +than it does here, where the ground +falls very slightly. If you like I will +ask Mr. Thornley how he made his, +and all about it; he is always delighted +if he can give any information. He is +such an excessively kind man. I like +him <i>so</i> much. How long is it since<span class="pagenum">[160]</span> +you saw him? When he was a bachelor, +I think you said you stayed at +Adelonga. That must have been a long +time ago, for his eldest daughter (just +now finishing her education in Germany) +is older than I am. There is a +painting of him in the dining-room as a +young man, and one of his first wife. +His is not the least like what he is +now. But I will tell you what might +<i>really</i> be his portrait—Long's old inquisitor +in the 'Dancing Girl' picture—I +mean that genial old fellow in the +arm-chair, who leans his arms on the +table and grasps (I am sure without +knowing what he is doing) the base of +the crucifix, while he enjoys the sight of +that pretty creature dancing. If you go +and look at him the next time you +find yourself near the picture gallery,<span class="pagenum">[161]</span> +you will see Mr. Thornley's very image. +He is the soul of hospitality; he +is so courteous to everybody in the +house—even to his children; he is one +of the nicest and kindest men I ever +met.</p> + +<p>"But I have not said a word about +my cousin Lucilla, or the baby, or the +other children. The baby is a +little <i>duck</i>. I am allowed to have him +a good deal, because the nurse says I +am much 'handier' than most young +ladies; and I certainly <i>have</i> the knack +of making him stop crying and of +soothing him off to sleep.</p> + +<p>"The other children—three dear little +girls—are in the schoolroom; but +Lucilla will not allow their governess +to keep them too strictly, because they +are not very strong. Lucilla herself I<span class="pagenum">[162]</span> +like <i>excessively</i>. She is much quieter +than Beatrice, and I don't think she is +so clever, and she is not at all pretty: +but she is very sweet-tempered and kind, +and very fond of Mr. Thornley, though +he is so much older than she is. I am +glad to say she is getting quite strong; so +much so indeed that she is going to +have a large party next week.</p> + +<p>"There are to be some country races, +in which Mr. Thornley is interested, +and we are all going, and some people +are coming back with us to dine and +spend the night. There is some talk +of a ball, too, to celebrate the coming of age +of young Bruce Thornley, who is now +at Oxford—Mr. Thornley's eldest son. +That would be the week after. I <i>hope</i> +Lucilla will decide to have it; they say +Adelonga balls are always charming,<span class="pagenum">[163]</span> +and that people come to them from far +and near.</p> + +<p>"One enormous room, with two fireplaces, +which is gun-room, billiard-room, +smoking-room, and gentlemen's +sanctum generally (which in the general +way is divided by big Japanese screens, +and laid down with carpets), was built and +floored on purpose for dancing in those +old times that you remember. Perhaps +you have yourself danced there? Tell +me if you have. I can see what a delightful +ball-room it would make, with +lots of shrubs and flowers. It opens into +the conservatory at one end, and a passage +leads from the other both into the +dining-room and out upon the verandahs, +which are wide, and bowered with +creepers, and filled with Indian and +American lounge chairs.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[164]</span></p> + +<p>"How are you getting on in town? +Did you go to Beatrice's party, and was +it nice? I hope William will look after +my dear Black Agnes properly, and not +let her out in the paddock at night. +<i>Would</i> you mind sometimes just calling +in to see, when you are up that +way?</p> + +<p>"The workmen are having fine +weather, are they not? Aunt Elizabeth +and I have been telling Lucilla all about +the house, and she says it will be magnificent. +But Mr. Thornley does not +like pink for the boudoir. He says +if I have pictures, some shade of sage, +or grey, or peacock would be better as +a ground colour. What do you think? +I must say <i>I</i> like the idea of pink.</p> + +<p>"Now I have come to the end of +my paper. And have I not written<span class="pagenum">[165]</span> +you a long letter? I hope you will +not find it very stupid.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Elizabeth and Lucilla send +their kindest regards, and with much +love, believe me,</p> + +<p> +"My dear Graham,<br /> +<br /> +"Yours most affectionately,<br /> +<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Rachel Fetherstonhaugh</span>."<br /> +</p> + +<p>"P.S.—Just received yours of Tuesday. +<i>Please</i> give me a little time to +think over your proposal, and do not +do anything at present. The tour in +Europe would be very delightful, but I +think, if you don't mind, I would rather +not be married <i>quite</i> so soon."</p></blockquote> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c07e.jpg" width="150" height="48" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[166]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c08.jpg" width="600" height="131" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="h3">HOW RACHEL MET "HIM."</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-a.jpg" height="96" width="80" alt="A" /> + <span class="hide">A</span>DELONGA at about nine +o'clock on the morning of +the race day would have +presented to the eye of the distinguished +traveller—who, however, did +not happen to be there, though he was +a pretty constant visitor—a thoroughly +typical Australian scene; typical, that +is to say, of one distinct phase of +Australian life. It was the enchanting<span class="pagenum">[167]</span> +weather of the country to begin with; +which, say what grumblers will, is not +to be matched, one month with another, +in all the wide world—clear, fresh +and sunshiny, with an air at once so +delicate and so invigorating that none +but exceptionally unhappy mortals could +help feeling glad to be alive to breathe +it.</p> + +<p>There had been a cold mist overnight, +which was now melting away before +the sun in shining white fleeces that +swathed the hollows and shoulders of +the hills behind the house, long after +the upper slopes and peaks had stood +sharp and clear in their own forest +garments against a sky as pure as a +sapphire and as blue as wild forget-me-nots.</p> + +<p>All the shrubberies that hemmed in<span class="pagenum">[168]</span> +the great garden—all the smooth-shaven +wide lawns where croquet hoops still +lingered—all the lovely waves and +festoons of creepers that flowed over +and curtained the verandah eaves—all the +bright box borders, and all the gay flowerbeds—glistened +with a sort of etherealised +hoar-frost, and were greener than painter's +palette could express in this early spring +time.</p> + +<p>The rambling, old, one-storied house, +with its endless roofs and gables, was +the very type and pattern of that most +charming of all bush houses, <i>the</i> bush +house <i>par excellence</i>; cottage in design, +palace in the careful finish and elaboration +of all its appointments, which, +when its owner is rich and cultured, +marks the latest of many developments—such +as becomes, unhappily, rarer<span class="pagenum">[169]</span> +every year, and will soon have disappeared +entirely.</p> + +<p>Columns of white smoke rose from +half a dozen chimneys, testifying to +the noble logs that blazed away within; +while French windows, sash windows, +lattice casements, and doors of all sorts +stood open to the morning sun and the +delicious morning air. Behind the house +rose a screen of budding orchard trees, +flushed here and there with peach and +almond blossoms. Before the house, on +the wide gravelled drive, where never +weed presumed to show its head, stood +an open break, large, but of light +American build, round which most of +the family and several servants were +congregated, while four powerful horses +fidgetted to be starting, the wheelers +only being attached at present.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[170]</span></p> + +<p>Mr. Thornley stood in the break, +superintending the bestowal of luncheon +hampers, and shouting cheerily, but +with that touch of imperiousness which +indicated a man who had been a master +all his life, to the servants below him. +Mrs. Thornley, looking slight and +girlish, stood on the steps of one of +the numerous front doors, wrapped in a +shawl. She had wished very much to +go to the races too, and to take the +nurse and baby for the further glorification +of the occasion; but her husband +had forbidden her to think of anything +so foolish, and she had ceased to do +so accordingly, with an abject meekness +that would have greatly disgusted +Mrs. Reade.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hardy stood on the doorstep +too, more imposing than ever beside<span class="pagenum">[171]</span> +this gentlest and most unpretending +of her children; and the governess +came out of the house in festive +apparel with her two elder pupils +dancing after her.</p> + +<p>Rachel was already on the box, +where she was to sit beside the driver, +to her great delight. She was in the +wildest spirits, and she was looking as +lovely as everything else looked on that +eventful morning. She had quite disregarded +Mr. Kingston's injunctions to +take care of her complexion.</p> + +<p>A dark-blue felt hat worn rather on +the back of her head, left her soft face +exposed to the sun and wind, as well +as to the admiring gaze of all men. +Nothing could have shown up its +texture and colour, nor the wonderful +burnished richness of her hair, better<span class="pagenum">[172]</span> +than that dark-blue hat. She wore +with it a dark-blue, close-fitting dress, +very tight about the knees, as was +then the newest mode, but setting +easily to her figure otherwise, and +strongly outlining all its perfect curves +of girlish beauty. She would rather +have displayed the sealskin jacket than +her own lovely shape, if she could have +found an excuse for doing so; but the +day was going to be warm, and her +aunt, who was a thrifty soul, would +not allow the sealskin jacket to be +made a mere emergency wrap of—to +be thrown into the boot with the rugs +and waterproofs.</p> + +<p>Everything was ready at last, after +a great deal of commotion and much +running to and fro—the bountiful +luncheon that was to be available for<span class="pagenum">[173]</span> +all comers when luncheon time came, +the hamper of crockery, the basket of +fresh-cut salad, the wine, the beer, the +soda-water, the spirit stove and kettle +to make afternoon tea with, &c.—and +the ladies took their seats.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hardy throned herself in an inside +corner, Miss O'Hara, the governess +in the opposite corner, next the door +sat the butler and a nursemaid, and +the children took up the room of four +grown-up people in the middle of the +vehicle. However, it was expected to +have a full complement of passengers +coming home, which was a great satisfaction +to everybody.</p> + +<p>Mr. Thornley climbed into his seat +and began to gather up his reins: the +two restive leaders where put to; the +groom who was to accompany the carriage<span class="pagenum">[174]</span> +rode off to open gates; and +"Steady! steady!" roared the driver, +letting out his thong with lightning +flashes over the four bare backs, as the +impulsive animals after their immemorial +custom, mixed themselves all +together in promiscuous kickings and +buckings prior to coming to a clear +understanding with themselves and +him.</p> + +<p>For the few delightful seconds that +were occupied in getting off, Rachel +was deaf to the cries of her terrified +aunt, and blind to everything but the +wild movement beneath her; then, as +the horses sprang into their collars simultaneously +with one great bound, and +swept out into the paddock, scattering +frightened sheep in all directions, she +looked back at her cousin, standing<span class="pagenum">[175]</span> +forlornly alone on the doorstep, and +waved her hand rapturously.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye! good-bye!" she called, in +her clear happy voice. "I do wish you +were coming!" And looking down on +Mrs. Hardy before she turned her head, +she rallied that stately matron in a gay +and reckless manner. "It is all right, +Auntie: there is nothing in the world +to be afraid of. We made a beautiful +start! If the off-leader does get both +his traces on one side, Mr. Thornley +knows how to make him get between +them again. And, oh, <i>what</i> a day it is!"</p> + +<p>It was, indeed, a day—the kind +of day I suppose that has made us, +young and old, the holiday-loving, easy-going, +fate-defying people that we are, +and for ever unfits us, when we have +had a few years of them, for any more<span class="pagenum">[176]</span> +of those stern experiences, social and +atmospherical, in which the youth of +many of us seems to us now to have +been so harshly disciplined.</p> + +<p>Sir Henry Thompson has shown us +what a close affinity exists between +food and virtue; no grown Briton can +come out here for ten years and go +back without learning something of the +value of climate as a raw material of +happiness.</p> + +<p>Though every settled township in the +colony has its racecourse and its yearly +meetings, this, the nearest to Adelonga, +was a two-hours' drive distant, even with +four fast horses; and it was nearly the +time for the first event to come off when +our party reached the ground.</p> + +<p>The course lay in the ring of a shallow +valley, hemmed in with low hills<span class="pagenum">[177]</span> +on one slope of which the vehicles of +the "county families" of the neighbourhood +were withdrawn a little apart +from the space occupied by the bulk of +the crowd, and such booths, merry-go-rounds, +and other rural entertainments +as the bulk of the crowd affected.</p> + +<p>There was no grand stand, no platform +even—except the judge's box, +which was dedicated to-day to Mr. +Thornley's use, and a gallery running +along one side of the saddling-enclosure, +where the betting men chiefly congregated. +But this slope, rising rather +steeply immediately behind the place +where a grand stand <i>would</i> have been, +was a favourable position, for ladies at +any rate, from which to view the main +proceedings; and here the Adelonga +break was brought to anchor.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[178]</span></p> + +<p>Two grooms were waiting to take +out the horses, which were fed and +watered on the ground in the prevailing +picnic fashion, and "hung up" at the +boundary fence, where scores of others +were tethered.</p> + +<p>Mr. Thornley looked about for the +people he expected to join his party, +found they had not arrived, and then +set forth to the saddling-enclosure to +see what horses were going to start and +when.</p> + +<p>Rachel continued to sit on the box, +and thought it was delicious. She had +a powerful field-glass all to herself, and +through this she surveyed the units and +groups that composed the company—women +and children, a great many of +them, in charge of sporting husbands +and fathers of all ranks, all perfectly<span class="pagenum">[179]</span> +orderly and well-behaved, and all apparently +enjoying themselves as much +as she was.</p> + +<p>Some people from a neighbouring +buggy came up to speak to Mrs. +Hardy, and to inquire after Mrs. Thornley's +health; and a carriage full of young +people further down enticed away the +Thornley children and Miss O'Hara.</p> + +<p>Before she was involved in any of +these social proceedings, however, Mr. +Thornley returned, and asked her if +she would not like to go with him and +see what was doing "down there"—pointing +over his shoulder in the direction +from whence he had come.</p> + +<p>In a moment she had sprung lightly +from her perch and was standing beside +him, pleading eagerly for her +aunt's permission, which was graciously<span class="pagenum">[180]</span> +given, with certain vague qualifications +that she did not stop to listen to.</p> + +<p>And then she tripped across the +green springy grass, shy and fluttered, +and charmed with her enterprise, blushing +vividly under the stares of those +dreadful men, and feeling in her innocent +heart not a little proud of the distinguished +position in which she found herself.</p> + +<p>The bell was ringing for saddling, +and Mr. Thornley took her into the enclosure +to see this operation, which she +found deeply interesting. Crowds of +men—betting men, jockeys, owners, +stewards—elbowed one another in and +out, and the horses paced and pranced +amongst them; and into the thick of +it marched the burly judge to show his +young charge what there was to be +seen.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[181]</span></p> + +<p>And what did she see? Jockeys putting +on their jackets in semi-private +corners; owners superintending the +adjustment of saddles and riders; noisy +gamblers rushing hither and thither +with book and pencil; graceful horses +lightly sailing out one after another to +try the chance on which so much +beside money was staked; and—men falling +back respectfully to make way for +her wherever she went, and to gaze +with surprised curiosity and admiration +on the unique spectacle of so fair a +creature in so rude a place. It was +all very delightful.</p> + +<p>"And now," said Mr. Thornley, who +for his own part was well pleased to +keep her with him, "now you shall +stand in my box and see the race. +Come along."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[182]</span></p> + +<p>And away they went into the outside +crowd, and she was escorted up the +steps and placed like a queen on her +royal daïs, in sight of all the country +side assembled. She was inclined to +think that—for once in a way—it was +even better than going to the opera.</p> + +<p>Thereafter until the race was over, +she watched the proceedings with the +deepest awe and interest. She was so +afraid she should embarrass Mr. Thornley +in the performance of his professional +duty that she got as far away +from him as possible, and leaning over +the side railing enjoyed her observations +in silence.</p> + +<p>The horses came to their starting-place +and had their usual differences +of opinion. Ambitious amateurs offered +advice to the starter, who recommended<span class="pagenum">[183]</span> +them to mind their own business. Two +or three jockeys careered about wildly, +and one was fined; and then the flag +dropped, and they rushed away; and +Rachel lifted her glass with trembling +hands and gazed at the flying colours, +mixing and fading as they passed into +the sunshiny distance, and held her +breath. Round they came presently, +and past her they flashed, two or three +together, two or three straggling +behind; and the roar of the men +beneath and around her made her turn a +little pale.</p> + +<p>No word was uttered that was unfit +for her girl's ear to hear, but the waves +of shouts rolling all about her expressed +a fierce eagerness of suspense and expectation +that made her think of "poor +Lorraine Loree," whose husband sacrificed<span class="pagenum">[184]</span> +her to the chance of winning a +race.</p> + +<p>The clamour rose, and lulled, and +rose again, as for the second time +the green circle was traversed and the +horses came in sight—some lagging far +behind, some labouring along under the +whip, two keeping to the front almost +neck and neck, whose names were flung +wildly into the air from a hundred +mouths.</p> + +<p>And then Mr. Thornley, standing +quietly with his eye upon the little slip +of wood before him, said, "Bluebeard +and Jessica—half a head." And it was +over.</p> + +<p>Rachel drew a long breath. She +was not sorry that it was over, though +she was very glad to have seen it. She +shook herself, as if to get rid of a<span class="pagenum">[185]</span> +painful spell, and felt that she might +begin to enjoy herself again.</p> + +<p>"<i>Dear</i> horses!" she exclaimed, with +an almost solemn rapture as she +watched them straggle away. She +would have liked to go up and pat +them all, and caress their heaving +flanks and their poor trembling noses, +after all they had gone through. And +then her face brightened as the winner +came pacing back, dropping and lifting +his beautiful head as he filled his lungs +again; and when his jockey saluted +the judge, she leaned forward over the +railing and smiled a smile in acknowledgement +of his prowess, which made +that jockey think himself a hero for +the rest of the day.</p> + +<p>"And now," said Mr. Thornley, +"there is nothing more at present: so<span class="pagenum">[186]</span> +we'll see how your aunt is getting on, +and look for the Digbys." The Digbys +were the people they expected to take +back with them to Adelonga.</p> + +<p>But even as he spoke he was arrested +in his place by some of his many +friends, who crowded the steps below +him, wanting to have a few minutes' +gossip about the race, or perhaps +wanting to have a nearer view of her +own pretty person, never seen in those +parts before.</p> + +<p>And while she waited she turned +aside to have another amused look at +the children in their merry-go-rounds, and +the lads playing Aunt Sally, and all +the simple festivities of the holiday-makers, +whose proceedings she could +so well survey from her present commanding +position; and it was then that<span class="pagenum">[187]</span> +she saw for the first time a remarkable-looking +horseman riding slowly +through the crowd.</p> + +<p>Her attention was attracted in the +first place by the beauty of his horse—for +in a small way she was a good +judge of horses: and then she noticed +that the equipment of that noble animal +was slightly different from what she +was accustomed to see.</p> + +<p>She supposed it was an English +saddle in which that tall man sat so +square and straight; then she wondered +why he wore his stirrup leathers so excessively +long; and then lifted her glass +and stared intently at his face. There +was not much of this to see just now, +even through a strong glass; for he +wore a small, soft cap with a peak to +it, low over his eyes, in which the sun<span class="pagenum">[188]</span> +was shining, and though his jaws were +shaven and his brown throat bare, he +had a heavy, drooping, reddish moustache, +which was the largest she had +ever seen.</p> + +<p>He was riding in the direction of the +judge's box, and as he came near she +dropped her glass, and shrinking back +shyly touched that potentate's arm. +Mr. Thornley turned round, and the +horseman took off his cap with a +stately sort of careless courtesy, and revealed +a clear-cut, keen-eyed, powerful, +proud face, neither young nor old, +rather thin and worn, and tanned and +dried to leather-colour, which Rachel felt +at once to be the most <i>impressive</i> face +she had ever looked upon.</p> + +<p>"Hullo!" cried Mr. Thornley, in an +accent of profound amazement. "Why,<span class="pagenum">[189]</span> +I thought you were gone to Queensland!"</p> + +<p>"I ought to have gone," the stranger +replied. He had a quiet, cool voice, +that nevertheless rang clear through +all the noise about them. "I duly +started yesterday, but we broke a trace, +and I lost my train by two +minutes."</p> + +<p>"Two minutes! Well, that was hard +lines. Are the Digbys here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You are not going to make another +start immediately, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Not till next week, I think."</p> + +<p>"Then you'll come back with us to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Thanks."</p> + +<p>Here he reined up his horse just beside +Rachel's railing, and sent a furtive<span class="pagenum">[190]</span> +but searching glance up into her pretty +blushing face.</p> + +<p>"Allow me to introduce my wife's +cousin, Miss Fetherstonhaugh," said Mr. +Thornley, laying his hand on her shoulder +with a paternal gesture. "Rachel, my +dear—Mr. Roden Dalrymple."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c08e.jpg" width="150" height="185" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[191]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c09.jpg" width="600" height="125" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p class="h3">A BLACK SHEEP.</p> + +<p class="quote">"</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-w.jpg" height="92" width="80" alt="W" /> + <span class="hide">W</span>HO is Mr. Roden Dalrymple?" +asked Rachel presently. Mr. +Thornley was escorting her +back to her aunt, and the person in +question was riding across the ground—slowly, +as he had come—in search of one +of the grooms of his party, to whom he +might deliver his horse to be stabled in +the township until the return from +Adelonga.</p> + +<p>"Who is he?" repeated Mr. Thornley.<span class="pagenum">[192]</span> +"He is Mrs. Digby's brother. Nice +little woman, Mrs. Digby. You will like +her I know. I am very glad she has +come."</p> + +<p>"But what is he?" persisted Rachel, +so absorbed in watching the tall rider +swinging along at that stately, easy +pace, with his long stirrups and his +dangling rein, that she nearly tumbled +over a couple of children who crossed +her path. "Is he a Queensland +squatter?"</p> + +<p>"That is what he thinks of being," +laughed Mr. Thornley, with an amused, +half-mocking laugh. "He has taken up +a big run with Jim Gordon, and they +are going to live there and manage for +themselves. A nice mess they'll make +of it, I expect."</p> + +<p>"Why?" inquired Rachel.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[193]</span></p> + +<p>"Why? They know no more about +it than you do. How should they? +Oh, by the bye, yes; I suppose +Dalrymple has dabbled in cattle a little—in +that South American venture of +his. But that experience won't benefit +him much. He lost every penny he put +into that business."</p> + +<p>"Has he lived in South America?" +asked Rachel.</p> + +<p>"He has lived all over the world, I +think. He's a rolling stone, my dear, +that's what he is—with the proverbial +consequences."</p> + +<p>"Is he poor, then?"</p> + +<p>"Poor as a church mouse. That is +to say, he has got a bit of an estate +somewhere in Scotland or Ireland—I really +forget which—an old ruin of a house +mortgaged to the chimney-pots, and a few<span class="pagenum">[194]</span> +starved farms, that bring him in a few +odd hundreds now and again. He tries +all sorts of queer schemes for mending +his fortunes, but they never come to +anything."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he is one of the unlucky +ones—like my poor father," suggested +Rachel.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I'm afraid he's a +ne'er-do-weel. Judging from his past +history—Jim Gordon knows all about +him—he has no worse enemy than himself."</p> + +<p>"What is his history?" Rachel asked +the question with a vague sense of +resentment against her prosperous host, +who had probably never known misfortunes.</p> + +<p>"Well, he was an only son, and I +suppose spoilt—to begin with. He was<span class="pagenum">[195]</span> +brought up for the army—simply, as far +as I can make out, from force of habit, +because his father and no end of grandfathers +had been soldiers before him—instead +of being taught how to manage +and improve that ramshackle old property +of his.</p> + +<p>"He was in a crack cavalry regiment; +one of the worst of them—I mean +for folly and extravagance; and he +went no end of a pace, as if he had the +Bank of England at his back, and got +all his affairs into a mess; and then he +got gambling at Newmarket. The story +goes that he played a brother-officer for +some woman that they were both in love +with; and he staked everything he had +in the world that he could lay his hands +on, except that old land and house, which +the law kept for his children. Fortunately,<span class="pagenum">[196]</span> +he is not married, nor ever +likely to be."</p> + +<p>"And he lost her?" said Rachel, in +an awed whisper, with something very +like tears in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Her? He lost more than ever she +was worth, I'll be bound. He lost +to that extent that he had to sell +his commission to pay. The young +fool! he must have been a raving +lunatic."</p> + +<p>"And what did he do then?" asked +Rachel, taking out her handkerchief and +blowing her nose ostentatiously.</p> + +<p>"No one quite knows what he did for +the first few years after he sold out. He +lived in Paris most of his time, and +knocked about on the continent, at Baden +and those places—up to no good, you +may be sure. Then he went to the Cape,<span class="pagenum">[197]</span> +hunting and amusing himself; and then +to California, gold-digging; and then all +about South America, trying farming or +cattle-raising, or something of that sort; +and then Digby went home and married +his sister, and she persuaded him to come +here."</p> + +<p>"Has he been here long?"</p> + +<p>"A year or two. He has lived with +them most of the time—learning colonial +experience of Digby, I suppose. She +is awfully fond of him, that little +woman. And Digby never says a +word against him—for her sake, I +suppose."</p> + +<p>"Why should he say anything against +him?" asked Rachel rather warmly. +"He is doing nothing wrong now, is +he?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. He is older and wiser now,<span class="pagenum">[198]</span> +I daresay. Still—still—" and Mr. +Thornley looked askance at the pretty +young creature who was about to make +this reprobate's acquaintance under his +roof, and bethought him that he ought +to secure her against temptation and +danger—"still there's no doubt that he +is rather a bad lot—what you would call +a black sheep, you know, my dear—not +the sort of man that it is desirable +to be very intimate with."</p> + +<p>Rachel blushed one of her ready +blushes, and with such suddenness and +vigour that Mr. Thornley feared he +had accidentally made equivocal suggestions.</p> + +<p>"I don't mean that he is not a gentleman—a +thoroughly honourable gentleman," +he explained hastily. "I don't +know the rights of that Newmarket<span class="pagenum">[199]</span> +business, but in everything else, as far +as I am aware, his moral character is as +good as mine is; otherwise I should not +ask him to Adelonga. I am only speaking +of him as a man who has lived a sort +of loose, extravagant, Bohemian kind of +life, you know."</p> + +<p>"I know," assented Rachel absently. +Already his prudent tactics were having +their natural effect. She was ready to +champion the cause of this apparently +friendless, as well as unfortunate man; in +whom, had he been recommended to her +favour, she might—I do not say she +<i>would</i>, but she might—have felt only an +ordinary unemotional interest; and she +did not want to hear any more to his +disparagement.</p> + +<p>"Is that their buggy?" she asked, +nodding in the direction of a covered<span class="pagenum">[200]</span> +waggonette which was now drawn up +alongside the break—in which three +ladies sat with Mrs. Hardy, while three +gentlemen leaned in and talked to +them.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied, "and that is Mrs. +Digby—that little woman in a brown +hat. The one next her is Mrs. Hale, +a neighbour of theirs—cousin of +Digby's. The girl is Miss Hale. That's +Digby with the big light beard. The +little man is Hale. The man with a +brown beard is Lessel—engaged to Miss +Hale."</p> + +<p>"Are they all coming to Adelonga?"</p> + +<p>"They are. And I am wondering how +we are going to stow them all. We +can pack ten inside, with a little +squeezing, but there is Dalrymple +extra."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[201]</span></p> + +<p>"I'll sit in the boot with the children."</p> + +<p>"And all the portmanteaus? Indeed +you won't. I must take two on the box. +How do you do, Mrs. Digby? How do, +Mrs. Hale? How do, Miss Hale? I am +delighted to see you all."</p> + +<p>Here ensued many complicated greetings, +and protracted inquiries and explanations +as to everybody's health and +welfare; and then Rachel found herself +absorbed in the group, and the business +of making all these new people's acquaintance. +She was a shy, but an eminently +adaptable, little person, ready to melt +like snow before a smiling face and a +kindly manner; and as she naturally +received a great deal of attention, +she was soon at her ease amongst +them.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Digby was a graceful and distinguished-looking<span class="pagenum">[202]</span> +woman, fair and pale, +with a soft voice and refined and gentle +manners, and her she admired excessively, +with the reverent enthusiasm of +eighteen for a sister beauty of eight-and-twenty.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hale was less attractive. She +was rather pompous and imperious, +rather noisy and bustling, anxious to +lead the conversation, and generally to +dominate the company; and withal she +had no pretensions to good looks, except +in respect of her very handsome costume, +and not a great deal to good breeding; +she was large and strong; she was rich +and prosperous; she had a small, meek +husband. Such as she was, she monopolised +the largest share of Mrs. Hardy's +attention.</p> + +<p>Miss Hale was a comfortable, round-faced,<span class="pagenum">[203]</span> +wholesome-looking girl, pleasant +to talk to, but not intellectually, or +indeed in any way remarkable. She +devoted herself to Rachel ardently, with +the air of taking friendly relations as a +matter of course, under the interesting +circumstances; glancing archly at Rachel's +diamond ring, and displaying the less +magnificent symbol of her own betrothal; +and otherwise, whenever opportunity +offered, suggesting the sentimental +situation with more or less directness.</p> + +<p>Rachel, however, did not find her +engagement a matter of absorbing interest; +she preferred to talk to Mrs. +Digby about the little Digbys left at +home, or to muse in silent intervals—which, +to be sure, came few and far +between—of that sad and tragic story of<span class="pagenum">[204]</span> +which a glimpse had just been given +her.</p> + +<p>The men of the waggonette party were +pleasant, ordinary men; all of them +Australians born, and two of them—Mr. +Digby and Mr. Lessel—fine, handsome +specimens of our promising colonial race. +They were assiduous in their attentions +to the youngest and prettiest lady of the +company, who, as a matter of course, +liked their attentions; but she could not +help feeling a certain restless desire for +the return of Mr. Roden Dalrymple, +whose absence seemed to make the circle +strangely incomplete.</p> + +<p>He was a long time coming back. +They went down to witness the second +race; they wandered for half-an-hour +amongst the booths and merry-go-rounds +to amuse themselves with any rustic fun<span class="pagenum">[205]</span> +that was going on; they congregated +under the shelter of the judge's box—Mrs. +Digby and Miss Hale standing in it +on this occasion—to see yet another +"event" disposed of; and then the butler +and the nursemaid with profuse amateur +assistance began to spread the tablecloth +for lunch on a bit of grassy level, +pleasantly shadowed in the now brilliant +noontide by the big body of the +break.</p> + +<p>All the portmanteaus had been placed +in the boot of this capacious vehicle, and +the Digbys' waggonette and horses +had been sent to the hotel to +await their return from Adelonga; +and still there was no sign of Mr. +Dalrymple.</p> + +<p>"Where can the fellow be?" inquired +Mr. Digby of the general public, looking<span class="pagenum">[206]</span> +up for a moment from his interesting +occupation of brewing "cup," in which +Rachel was helping him. "He is the +most unsociable brute I ever came across—always +loafing away by himself. It +isn't safe to take your eye off him for a +moment."</p> + +<p>"How well Queensland will suit him!" +laughed Mrs. Hale.</p> + +<p>"No doubt he rode down to the township +to give his own orders about Lucifer," +said his sister, lifting her gentle face. +"You know he never cares to trust him +to a groom."</p> + +<p>"He could have done that and been +back again an hour ago," rejoined her +husband. "However, pray don't wait +for him when lunch is ready, Mrs. Hardy; +he will turn up some time."</p> + +<p>Rachel had an indignant opinion, to<span class="pagenum">[207]</span> +which she longed to give expression, that +they would all be most grossly rude if +they did anything of the sort. She resented +this too ready inclination to slight +a man who in her estimation was +dignified by his heroic experiences so +much above them all; and as far as in her +lay she did what she could to counteract +it.</p> + +<p>She took a napkin and polished all +the wine-bottles, and peeled the foil from +all the champagne corks; she mixed and +tossed the salad in a slow and cautious +manner; she garnished the numerous +meats with unnecessary elaboration; she +would not allow luncheon to be ready, in +short, until either one o'clock or the +missing guest arrived.</p> + +<p>She was standing on the step of the +break, helping to hand down rugs and<span class="pagenum">[208]</span> +cushions for the ladies to sit upon—which +was not her business, as her aunt's disapproving +eye suggested—when at last she +discerned him far away on the outskirts +of the crowd.</p> + +<p>"It wants ten minutes to one, Mr. +Thornley, and I see Mr. Dalrymple +coming," she called out in her fresh, +clear voice.</p> + +<p>"Where do you see him?" asked Mr. +Digby, who was standing in the break, +hugging an armful of opossum rugs. "<i>I</i> +don't see him."</p> + +<p>She pointed silently, and for some +minutes Mr. Digby looked in vain for his +brother-in-law, knitting his brows, and +shading his eyes from the sunlight. At +last he saw him.</p> + +<p>"All that way off!" he exclaimed. +"You must have very good sight, Miss<span class="pagenum">[209]</span> +Fetherstonhaugh, to recognise him at +such a distance."</p> + +<p>"He is easy to recognise," said Rachel, +simply.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c09e.jpg" width="150" height="161" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[210]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c10.jpg" width="600" height="128" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p class="h3">OUTSIDE THE PALE.</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-t.jpg" height="97" width="80" alt="T" /> + <span class="hide">T</span>HE races were over at four +o'clock, with the exception of +the "Consolation Stakes," and +a few other informal affairs, upon which +Mr. Thornley did not condescend to +adjudicate; and the Adelonga party, +swelled to fifteen, set off on their long +drive home.</p> + +<p>It was a time of year when the twilight +fell early and it was dark between six and<span class="pagenum">[211]</span> +seven; but to-night there was a moon, +and there was no need to hurry; all +that was necessary was to get back in +comfortable time to dress for an eight +o'clock dinner.</p> + +<p>There was a great deal of conversation, +but Rachel had not much share in +it. The break was crowded, of +course.</p> + +<p>The two servants sat on the box +with Mr. Thornley; the boot was full of +portmanteaus. There was no room for +the children inside, except on the knees +of their elders; and one of them Rachel +insisted on nursing (and she went fast +asleep), while Miss O'Hara sat beside her +with the other. Buxom Miss Hale was +wedged opposite, with (Rachel was sure, +and it offended her sense of propriety +deeply) her lover's arm round her waist.<span class="pagenum">[212]</span> +Mr. Dalrymple sat by the door, almost +out of sight and sound.</p> + +<p>Rachel had scarcely spoken to him all +day; the profuse attentions of the other +gentlemen to her had interposed between +them, and perhaps, though she was not +aware of it, her aunt's little manœuvres +also. But her thoughts were full of him, +as she sat, tired and silent, in her +corner, with the sleeping child in her +arms.</p> + +<p>Her imagination was fascinated by the +story of his life, which, given to her in so +brief an outline, she filled in for herself +elaborately, dwelling most of course +upon the dramatic Newmarket episode, +and wondering whether that woman was +worthy or unworthy of the sacrifice of +fame and fortune that he had made for +her.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[213]</span></p> + +<p>"What a lovely night!" remarked +Miss Hale, breaking in upon her +reverie.</p> + +<p>Rachel looked up, with an absent +smile. The moon was beginning to outshine +the fading after-glow of a gorgeous +sunset; stars were stealing out, few and +pale, in a clear, pale sky; the distant +ranges were growing sharp and dark, +with that velvety sort of bloom on them, +like the bloom of ripe plums, which is the +effect of the density of their forest clothing, +seen through the luminous transparency +of their native air.</p> + +<p>There was a sound of curlews far away, +making their melancholy wail—broken +now and then by the screaming of cockatoos, +or the delirious mirth of laughing +jackasses, or the faint "cluck, cluck" of +native companions sailing at an immense<span class="pagenum">[214]</span> +distance overhead. The frogs were +serenading the coming night in every +pool and watercourse; the cold night +wind made a sound like the sea in the +gums and sheoaks under which they swept +along, crashing and jingling, at the rate +of ten miles an hour. The lonely bush +was full of its own weird twilight +beauty.</p> + +<p>"It is a very lovely night," assented +Rachel; and she sighed, and laid her +cheek on Dolly Thornley's head. She +was a little tired, a little sad, and she did +not want to talk just now. Seeing +which, Miss Hale gave herself with +an easy mind to her lover's entertainment.</p> + +<p>However, when the four horses drew +up at the most central of the Adelonga +front doors, panting and steaming, with<span class="pagenum">[215]</span> +their exuberance all evaporated, the +naturally light heart became light and +gay again. It was such a cheery arrival +too. The charming old house was lit up +from end to end; blazing logs on bedroom +hearths sent ruddy gleams through +a dozen windows; doors stood wide +like open arms ready to receive all +comers.</p> + +<p>Mr. Thornley handed his guests out of +the break with profuse gestures of welcome, +shouting to his servants, who were +trained as he was himself, to all hospitable +observances, and hurried to take +traps and bags.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thornley, looking girlish and +pretty in a pale blue evening dress, stood +on the doorstep, eager and smiling, +scattering her graceful and cordial salutations +all around her.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[216]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, Lucilla," exclaimed Rachel, when +she had given her charge to a nursemaid, +running up to kiss her cousin, between +whom and herself very tender relations—based +on the baby—existed, "we have +had such a <i>lovely</i> day. I am sorry +you were not with us."</p> + +<p>"I am glad you enjoyed yourself," +responded Mrs. Thornley affectionately. +"You have had splendid weather. Run +and see if the fire is burning nicely +in Mrs. Digby's room, there's a dear +child."</p> + +<p>It took some time to get all the guests +collected in the house, and then to +disperse them, with their wraps and +portmanteaus, to their respective rooms. +Rachel assisted her cousin in this pleasant +business, trotting about to carry shawls, +and poke up fires, and get cups of<span class="pagenum">[217]</span> +tea and cans of hot water. It was +the kind of service that she delighted +in.</p> + +<p>When everybody was disposed of, and +she went to her own room, she found she +had barely half-an-hour in which to dress +herself. What, she wondered, should she +put on to make herself look very, very +nice. With all these strangers in the +house it behoved her to sustain the +credit of the family, as far as in her +lay. She set about her toilet with +a flush of hurry and excitement in her +face.</p> + +<p>All her weariness was gone now; she +was looking as bright and lovely as it was +possible for her to look. Discarding the +black dress that was her ordinary dinner +costume, she arrayed herself all in white—the +fine white Indian muslin which had<span class="pagenum">[218]</span> +been brought to Adelonga for possible +state occasions, and which was, therefore, +made to leave her milky throat and arms +uncovered. She put on her diamond +bracelet, but she took it off again. She +fastened a pearl necklace—another of her +lover's presents—round her soft neck, +but she unfastened it, and laid it back in +its velvet case.</p> + +<p>She went into the drawing-room at +last with her beauty unadorned, save +only by a bit of pink heath in her bosom—without +a single spark of that newly-acquired +jewellery that her soul loved—lest +she should help, ever so infinitesimally, +to flaunt the wealth and +prosperity of the family in the eyes of +impecunious gentlemen. And it is needless +to inform the experienced reader that +Mr. Dalrymple, turning to look at her<span class="pagenum">[219]</span> +as she entered, thought she was one +of the loveliest girls he had ever +seen.</p> + +<p>He was far away on the other side of +the room, and she did not go near him. +The ladies were rustling about in their +long trains and tinkling ornaments; the +men were trooping in, white-tied and +swallow-tailed, rubbing their hands +and sniffing the grateful aroma of +dinner.</p> + +<p>Then the gong began to clang and +vibrate through the house, and the +company, who were getting hungry, +paired themselves to order, and set forth +through sinuous passages to the dining-room. +Rachel being, conventionally, the +lady of least consequence, was left without +a gentleman to go in with; and she +sat at the long table on the same side<span class="pagenum">[220]</span> +with Mr. Dalrymple, too far off to see or +speak to him.</p> + +<p>When dinner was over and the ladies +rose, she took advantage of a good +opportunity to pay a visit to the baby, +whom she had not seen all day—a terrible +deprivation.</p> + +<p>She whispered her proposed errand +to Lucilla, who gratefully sent her +off; and the baby being discovered +awake and amiable, she spent nearly an +hour in his apartment, nursing and fondling +him in her warm, white arms. It +was her favourite occupation, from +which she never could tear herself +voluntarily.</p> + +<p>By and bye the baby dropped asleep, +and was tenderly lowered into his cradle; +and then having nothing more to do +for him, she tucked him up, kissed<span class="pagenum">[221]</span> +him, and went back to her social +duties.</p> + +<p>When she entered the drawing-room +she found the whole party assembled, and +some exciting discussion was going on. +Mrs. Hale sitting square on a central +sofa was evidently the leading spirit; +and Mrs. Hardy sitting beside her, indicated +to the girl's experienced eye, by +the expression of her face and the +elevation of her powerful Roman nose, +that she was supporting her neighbour's +views—whatever they were—in a determined +and defiant manner. Miss Hale +and Mr. Lessel had retired to a distant +alcove, but they had suspended their +whispered confidences to listen to the +public debate. Mr. Thornley and Mr. +Hale were trying to play chess, but were +also distracted. Mr. Digby lounged<span class="pagenum">[222]</span> +against a side table pretending to be +absorbed in <i>The Argus</i>, but peeping +furtively at intervals over the top of the +sheet. Miss O'Hara sat apart knitting, +with an expression of rigid disapproval.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Digby, in a very central position, +full in the light, lay back in a low easy +chair, and fanned herself with gentle, +measured movements. Her eyes were +fixed on a picture in front of her, her +soft mouth was set, her face was pale, +proud, and grave; very different from +Mrs. Thornley's beside her, which +was disturbed and downcast, as that of a +hostess whose affairs were not going +well. Rachel saw in Mrs. Digby for the +first time a strong resemblance to her +brother.</p> + +<p>Mr. Roden Dalrymple stood alone on<span class="pagenum">[223]</span> +the hearthrug with his back against the +wall, and his elbows on a corner of the +mantelpiece. His face was hard and +cold, yet not without signs of strong +emotion.</p> + +<p>It was evidently between him and Mrs. +Hale that the discussion lay, and it was +equally evident that the "feeling of +the meeting" was against him. Rachel, +taking in the situation at a glance, longed +to walk over to the hearthrug and +publicly espouse her hero's cause, whatever +it might happen to be. What she +did instead was to glide noiselessly to the +back of her cousin's chair, and leaning +her arms upon it, to "watch the case" on +his behalf. They were all too preoccupied +to notice her.</p> + +<p>"It is all very well," Mrs. Hale was +saying in an aggressive manner, "but it<span class="pagenum">[224]</span> +was nothing short of murder in cold blood. +And if you had been in any other +quarter of the globe when you did it, +you would not have escaped to tell the +tale to us here."</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Hale—excuse me—I +am not telling the tale to you here. I have +not the slightest intention of doing so."</p> + +<p>"But everybody knows it, of course."</p> + +<p>"I think not," said Mr. Dalrymple.</p> + +<p>"That you had a quarrel with a man +who had once been your friend," proceeded +Mrs. Hale, with a vulgar woman's +unscrupulousness about trespassing on +sacred ground; "and that you hunted +him round the world, and then, when +you met him in that Californian diggings +place, shot him across a billiard-table +where he stood, without a moment's +warning."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[225]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dalrymple, +calmly; "he had plenty of warning—five +years at least."</p> + +<p>"Not five minutes after you met him. +Mr. Gordon was there, and said that he +was a dead man five minutes after you +came into the room and recognised +him."</p> + +<p>"Gordon can tell you, then, that I +satisfied all the laws of honour. The +meeting had been arranged and expected; +there were no preliminaries to go +through—except to borrow a couple of +revolvers and get somebody to see fair +play. There were at least a dozen to +do that; Gordon was one."</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow," ejaculated Mrs. Hardy +with solemn indignation. "And <i>he</i> +fired in the air, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"He would have fired in the air, I<span class="pagenum">[226]</span> +daresay, if he had any hope that I +would do so," replied Mr. Dalrymple, +with a face as hard as flint, and a deep +blaze of passion in his eyes. "But he +well knew that there was no chance of +that. He was obliged to shoot his best +in self-defence."</p> + +<p>"Then you might have been killed +yourself!—and what then?"</p> + +<p>"That was a contingency I was +quite prepared for, of course. What +then?—I should have done my duty."</p> + +<p>"Don't say 'duty,' Roden," interposed +Mrs. Digby, very gently and +gravely.</p> + +<p>"My dear Lily, the word has no +arbitrary sense; we all interpret it to +suit our own views. It was my idea +of duty."</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Mrs.<span class="pagenum">[227]</span> +Hardy again. "It is a dreadful story. +And did he leave any family?"</p> + +<p>"I would rather not pursue the +subject, Mrs. Hardy—if you have no +objection."</p> + +<p>"I wonder you are not afraid to go +to bed," Mrs. Hale persisted, undeterred +by the darkness of his face. "The +ghost of that poor wretch would haunt +<i>me</i> night and day. I should never +know what it was to sleep in peace."</p> + +<p>Rachel listened to this fragment of +a conversation, which had evidently +been going on for some time; and her +heart grew cold within her. Mr. Dalrymple +happened to turn his head, and +saw her looking at him with her innocent +young face scared and pale; +and he was almost as much shocked as +she. A swift change in himself—a<span class="pagenum">[228]</span> +straightening of his powerful, tall frame, +and a flash of angry surprise and pain +in his imperious eyes—aroused a general +attention to her presence.</p> + +<p>"You here, my dear?" exclaimed +Mrs. Hardy, much discomposed by the +circumstance. "That is the worst of +these irregular shaped rooms—with so +many doors and corners, one never sees +people go out and come in."</p> + +<p>"How is baby?" inquired Mrs. +Thornley eagerly, thankful for the +diversion. "Is he sleeping nicely?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Dalrymple strode across the room +and wheeled up a chair. "Won't you +sit down, Miss Fetherstonhaugh?" he +said, looking at her with a little appeal +in his still stern face. "You must be +tired after your long day."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said she; and she sat<span class="pagenum">[229]</span> +down. But she felt incapable of talking—incapable +of sitting still, with her +hands before her. General conversation +of a more comfortable and conventional +kind than that which she had interrupted +was set going all around her.</p> + +<p>The lovers resumed their <i>tête-à-tête</i> in +the corner; the chess-players continued +their game; Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Hardy, +suffering from a very justifiable suspicion +that they had been a trifle rude, +endeavoured to make themselves particularly +entertaining. But she sat silent +and miserable with downcast eyes, picking +at the embroidery on her dress, and wishing +the evening over—this disappointing +evening which had counteracted all the +brightness and pleasure of the day—so +that she could slip away to bed.</p> + +<p>"You have had no tea," said Mr.<span class="pagenum">[230]</span> +Dalrymple presently, when all the married +ladies were absorbed in discussing the +merits of their respective cooks. "It +came in while you were out of the room. +Won't you have some now?"</p> + +<p>Grateful for any interruption of the +spell of embarrassment which was holding +her painfully under his watchful +eyes, she thanked him, and rising +hastily went over to one of the +numerous recesses of that charmingly +arranged room, where the evening tea-table +usually stood between a curtained +archway and a glass door that led into +the conservatory.</p> + +<p>Of course he followed her. The +curtains were looped back so as to permit +the glow of lamps and firelight to +stream in from the room, and on the +other side a full moon shone palely<span class="pagenum">[231]</span> +down through a network of flowering +shrubs and fern trees. They could hear +the conversation of the rest distinctly—particularly +Mrs. Hale's share of it. +But it was a very retired place.</p> + +<p>"You had better sit down," said +Mr. Dalrymple, "and let me pour it out +for you. Yes—I do it every night for +my sister. She, too, likes to have the +teapot brought in. But I doubt if it is +fit to drink; it has been in half an +hour. I thought you were tired and +had gone to bed."</p> + +<p>"Did you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I am afraid you <i>are</i> very tired. +You ought not to have come back."</p> + +<p>"I—I wish I had not," she said, +hardly above a whisper, as she took the +cup from his hands. She looked into +his face for a moment with her timid,<span class="pagenum">[232]</span> +troubled eyes, and then looked down +hastily and blushed her brightest +scarlet.</p> + +<p>"I know, I know," he replied, in a +low tone of emotion that had a touch +of fierceness in it. "I saw how shocked +you were, and I could have bitten my +tongue out. But I should never have +spoken of <i>that</i> if Mrs. Hale had not +badgered me into it. If it had been +one of the men—but they know better! +A woman, though she may be the most +prodigious fool, is privileged. I am +very sorry. I can't tell you how sorry +I am."</p> + +<p>"It is not <i>hearing</i> it that matters," +stammered Rachel, stirring her tea +with wild and tremulous splashes; "it +is knowing—it is thinking—of its being +true."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[233]</span></p> + +<p>He paused for a moment, and looked +at her with a look that she was afraid +to meet, but which she <i>felt</i> through all +her shrinking consciousness: and then +he said quietly. "Drink your tea, and +let us go into the conservatory for five +minutes."</p> + +<p>It was a bold proposal under the +circumstances; but it did not occur to +her to question it. She drank her tea +hastily, and put down her cup; and Mr. +Dalrymple opened the glass door, which +swung on noiseless hinges, and passing +out after her, coolly closed it behind +them both. It was very dim and still +out there. The steam of the warm +air, full of strong earthy and piney +odours, clung to the glass roofs through +which the moon was shining, and made +the light vague and misty. The immense<span class="pagenum">[234]</span> +brown stems of the tree ferns, +barnacled with stag horns, and the great +green feathers spreading and drooping +above them, took all kinds of phantom +shapes.</p> + +<p>Rachel herself looked like a ghost +in her white dress, as she flitted down +the dim alleys by that tall man's side, +tapping the tiled floor with her slippered +feet with no more noise than a +woodpecker.</p> + +<p>"Is that the lapageria?" asked Mr. +Dalrymple, when he thought they had +gone far enough for privacy, pausing +beside a comfortable seat, and pointing +upward to a lattice-work of dark +leaved shoots, from which hung clusters +of dusky flower bells. "How well it +grows here, to be sure!"</p> + +<p>"Everything grows well here," responded<span class="pagenum">[235]</span> +Rachel, relieved from some +restraint by this harmless opening of their +clandestine <i>tête-à-tête</i>; "and that creeper +is Mr. Thornley's favourite. The +flowers are the loveliest red in daylight."</p> + +<p>"Now I want to tell you a little +about that story you heard just now," +he proceeded gravely. "Sit down; it +won't take long."</p> + +<p>"You said you would rather not talk +about it," murmured Rachel.</p> + +<p>"I would much rather not. There +is nothing I would not sooner do—except +let you go away thinking so +badly of me as you do now. I don't +usually care what people think of me," +he added; "I am sure I don't know +why I should care now. But you +looked so terribly shocked! It hurts<span class="pagenum">[236]</span> +me to see you looking at me in that +way. And I should like to try if I +could to make you believe that I am +not necessarily a bad man, more than +other men, though bad enough, because +I fought a duel once and killed my +adversary."</p> + +<p>"<i>Meaning</i> to kill him," interposed +Rachel. "That is the dreadful part of +it!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I meant to kill him. I staked +my own life on the same chance, if that +is any justification, but—oh, yes, I +meant to kill him, if I could. I had a +reason for that, Miss Fetherstonhaugh. +Shall I tell you what it was?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," whispered Rachel. "But +how <i>could</i> there be any sufficient reason +for such a terrible crime?"</p> + +<p>"Don't call it a crime," he protested.<span class="pagenum">[237]</span> +"That is how they speak of it who +know nothing about it—that is how +they will represent all my life, which +has been different from theirs—to make +you shun and shrink from me as if I +had the small-pox. Wait till you know +a little more."</p> + +<p>He was leaning forward with an +elbow on his knee, and looking into +her face. She met his eyes now in +the uncertain moonlight, which was +shining on her and not on him; and +he saw no sign of shrinking yet.</p> + +<p>"Why did you do it?" she asked +sorrowfully.</p> + +<p>"Long ago," he said, after a pause, +"he and I fell in love with—some one; +and she loved him best. At least I +think she did—I don't know. Sometimes +I fancy she would have cared most for<span class="pagenum">[238]</span> +me, if we had had our chances. But +we had no chances; I had to give my +word of honour not to stand between +her and him—not to try to win her, +unless she distinctly showed a preference +for me."</p> + +<p>"I understand," whispered Rachel. +She knew this part of the story +already.</p> + +<p>"At any rate," he continued, "she +made choice of him. He sold out of +the service, and they went away together. +I had sold out myself not long before, +and went away too—travelling about +the world. I was very lonely at that +time; I didn't much care where I went or +what became of me. It was several +years before I saw or heard of her +again."</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p><p><span class="pagenum">[239]</span></p> + +<p>"And one night, when I had come +back home to look after my property, +I met her in London streets. It was +the middle of winter—it was raining—she +was all alone—she was almost in +rags—"</p> + +<p>"Don't tell me any more!" implored +Rachel, beginning to tremble and cry.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, and he drew a deep +long breath, "I <i>can't</i> tell you any more. +Only this—she died. I did all I could +to save her, but it was too late. She +died of consumption—brought on by +exposure and want, and misery of all sorts—a +week or two after I found her. And +now you know why I killed him. <i>That</i> +was why!"</p> + +<p>There was a long pause, broken once +or twice by Rachel's audible emotion. +She had still her own views as<span class="pagenum">[240]</span> +to the right and justice of what +he had done; but she did not dream +of the presumption of giving them +now.</p> + +<p>This tremendous tragedy of love and +revenge dwarfed all her theories of life +to the merest trivialities. She could +only wonder, and tremble, and cry.</p> + +<p>"It is an old story now," said Mr. +Dalrymple, more gently. "And I try +not to think too much of it. It was +all fair, thank Heaven!—I comfort myself +with that. I could have shot him +once before in Canada; but he was +unprepared then. He did not see me, +and I would not take him at a disadvantage. +I try not to think of it +now. I don't want you to think of +it either—after to-night. Will you try +not to? And try not to let them<span class="pagenum">[241]</span> +persuade you that I am quite a fiend +in human shape?"</p> + +<p>Rachel blew her nose for the last +time, put her handkerchief in her +pocket, and smiled a tearful smile.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you are not very +good," she said, shaking her head, "but +I know you can't be a really wicked +man."</p> + +<p>"How do you know it?" he asked +eagerly.</p> + +<p>"How? I'm sure I don't know—I +feel it."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, thank you," he said, +in a low, rapid under tone. "You don't +know how I thank you for saying that. +At any rate, I have <i>some</i> rudimental +morality. I am honest, to the best of +my power. I tell no lies to myself, or +to any man—or woman. What I say<span class="pagenum">[242]</span> +I mean, and what I do I own to—if +called upon, that is. You may trust +me that far. And I <i>hope</i> you will."</p> + +<p>"I will," said Rachel, without a +moment's hesitation.</p> + +<p>How often they thought afterwards +of their first strange talk, all alone in +that shadowy place. It was as if +they had known one another in some +other world, and had met after long +absence; they felt—widely unlike as +they were—so little as strangers usually +do beginning a conventional acquaintance +in the conventional way. However, +it did occur to both of them that +it would be as well to go back to the +drawing-room before they should be +missed.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to have had this opportunity," +said Mr. Dalrymple, who rose<span class="pagenum">[243]</span> +first. "I shall hope—I shall feel sure—that +you will not let yourself be +prejudiced unfairly by anything you +may hear. For the rest, I hope you +will try not to think of this painful +story again."</p> + +<p>And he began to saunter back, and +she to saunter beside him.</p> + +<p>As they entered the drawing-room by +the glass door, they heard Mrs. Hardy +calling:</p> + +<p>"Rachel! Rachel! Why, where is +Rachel gone to?"</p> + +<p>The girl glided into the broad, warm +light, a little confused and dazzled, +and, of course, dyed in blushes, which +deepened to the deepest pink of +oleanders—nay, to the still richer red +of that lapageria which had attracted +Mr. Dalrymple's attention just now<span class="pagenum">[244]</span>—as +she became conscious of the curious +observation of the assembled guests, +who, she well knew, would not regard +this characteristic demonstration as +lightly as those did who knew +her.</p> + +<p>"I am here, Aunt Elizabeth," she +replied, in an abject voice, as if she +had been caught in something very +disgraceful.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" responded Mrs. Hardy, "I +thought you were gone to bed." She +looked sharply at the girl's downcast +face, and then more sharply at Mr. +Dalrymple, who met her eyes with a +stately and distant air of not putting +himself to the trouble of remembering +who she was that she found very +offensive and aggravating. "You had +better go, my dear," she said peremptorily.<span class="pagenum">[245]</span> +"It is late, and you have had +a tiring day. I shall be having Mr. +Kingston complaining if I let you knock +yourself up."</p> + +<p>Rachel was only too glad to say good +night and go. The other ladies began +to rise and stir about, gathering up +fans and fancy work, but she left the +room before they had come to any +unanimous decision about separating. +Mr. Dalrymple held open the door for +her. "Good night," she whispered +hurriedly, not looking at him. He +answered by a strong pressure of her +hand in silence. She did not understand +it then, but looking back afterwards +she knew that that first brief +hand-clasp stirred her erstwhile latent +woman's soul to life. She was never +the same afterwards.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[246]</span></p> + +<p>Half an hour later, when she was +sitting by her own fireside, dreamily +brushing her long auburn hair over a +blue dressing-gown (blue was her +specially becoming colour), Mrs. Hardy +tapped at her door, and entered.</p> + +<p>"I have brought you a little wine +and water, dear," said she, looking +very friendly and amiable. "I know +you seldom take it, but to-night it will +do you good. And Lucilla says you +are to be sure not to get up to +breakfast if you feel tired in the +morning."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you, auntie, but you +know I <i>never</i> lie in bed! And I am +not in the very <i>least</i> tired. I have had +a delightful day."</p> + +<p>"Yes; it has been a pleasant day. +I am glad you have enjoyed it so much.<span class="pagenum">[247]</span> +I am only sorry we had to bring that +Mr. Dalrymple back with us. I consider +him a most objectionable, a most +disreputable, young man—not so very +young either; he will never see forty +again, unless I am much mistaken. But +Lucilla and Mr. Thornley are both so +much attached to Mrs. Digby; for +her sake they are obliged to be civil +to him."</p> + +<p>Rachel was silent.</p> + +<p>"You will, however, be careful, dear, +I know, not to get more intimate with +him than necessary," Mrs. Hardy continued. +"Mr. Kingston would dislike it +very much. He is a very wild young +man—he has not at all a good +character."</p> + +<p>"You said Mr. Kingston was wild, +auntie," the girl suggested timidly. It<span class="pagenum">[248]</span> +was her sole feeble effort in defence of +her absent friend.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! I'm sure I said nothing +of the kind. He is a man +whom everybody looks up to. There +is no question of comparison between +them. At any rate," she added, with +solemn severity, "Mr. Kingston has +not taken a fellow-creature's life, as this +man has. <i>That</i> is reason enough why +we must none of us have more to do +with him than is absolutely necessary. +You will remember that, Rachel? Be +civil to him, my dear, of course, but +no more. I should not have allowed +you to come into contact with such +a man if I could have helped it, and +we had no idea of seeing him to-day. +However, they will all be gone after +to-morrow, and you need not recognise<span class="pagenum">[249]</span> +him again. The Digbys are coming to +the dance next week, but Mrs. Hale +says he means to start again for +Queensland on Monday. Let us hope +they won't break their traces a second +time. Good night, my dear; you will +remember what I say? It is what Mr. +Kingston would wish if he were here, +I know."</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Hardy kissed her niece +affectionately and went away to bed, +with a sense of having done her duty, +and without the least suspicion that as +a domestic diplomatist, she had covered +herself with disgrace.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c10e.jpg" width="150" height="46" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[250]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c11.jpg" width="600" height="130" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p class="h3">MR. DALRYMPLE HAS TO CONSULT GORDON.</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-o.jpg" height="94" width="80" alt="O" /> + <span class="hide">O</span>F course it is well understood, +without further explanation, +that Mr. Dalrymple and Rachel +were in the position of the Sleeping +Beauty and her prince when the spell +that held life in abeyance was—or was +about to be—broken. At the same time +it is not to be inferred that the man, +with his years and experience, fell in +love at first sight with a merely +pretty face, nor that the girl was<span class="pagenum">[251]</span> +more than ordinarily impressionable and +inconstant, or had any constitutional +weakness for wild young men.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it is not necessary to essay +the difficult task of finding a theory +to account for it. Everybody knows +that if there is a law of nature +that will not lend itself to system, +it is that which governs these +affairs.</p> + +<p>The greatest force and factor in +human life comes to birth by a mere +chance—in Roden Dalrymple's case by +the breaking of a trace, which was in +itself the result of a whole series of +trivial and quite avoidable circumstances; +and then it thrives or languishes by the +favour of petty accidents—until time +and sanctifying associations put it +beyond the reach of accident. That is<span class="pagenum">[252]</span> +its superficial history, taking a general +average.</p> + +<p>Quality and potency are questions of +temperament; vigour of growth depends +in great measure on what may be +called climatic influences. But, as with +some other great mysteries of this +world, human understanding can make +very little of it.</p> + +<p>At the same time people do not fall +in love with each other absolutely without +rhyme or reason. And these two +did not. Of course personal appearance +had, in the first instance, something to +do with it.</p> + +<p>To a girl of Rachel's disposition (or, +indeed, of any other disposition), nothing +in the whole catalogue of manly graces +could have been more captivating than +that quiet air of power and dignity<span class="pagenum">[253]</span> +which was the chief characteristic of +her hero's person and bearing.</p> + +<p>And Mr. Dalrymple, who was not +the kind of man to be at any time +insensible to the charm of a sweet face, +had had sufficient experience to understand +and appreciate the peculiar charm +of this one—its unaffected modesty and +candour; and he had had, moreover, +little of anything to charm him in his +later wandering years.</p> + +<p>And Rachel was not merely a pretty +girl, by any means. Being of a most +unselfish, unassuming, kindly nature, and +having a subtle apprehension of the +general fitness of things, her manners +were exceedingly gracious and winning—not +always conventional, perhaps, but +always refined and modest; and that +honest youthful enthusiasm for life and<span class="pagenum">[254]</span> +its good things, which more or less +flavoured all she said and did, though +inimical to the prejudices of the British +matron, was a charming thing to +men.</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Dalrymple had the faculty +to perceive what made her look at him +with so peculiarly wistful and earnest +a look; he recognised his friend, if not +his love and mate, in the earliest hours +of their acquaintance. A friend in so +fair a shape was doubly a friend +naturally; and the strong appetite that +he had for friendship, as a rudimental +phase of passion, had had little to feed +on but bitter memories for more than a +dozen years.</p> + +<p>As for Rachel, it was almost inevitable +that she should lose her heart to +this hero of romance—this Paladin with<span class="pagenum">[255]</span> +a touch of the demon in him—whom +circumstances combined to present to +her under such singularly impressive +auspices. If the truth must be told, +she fell in love much more suddenly +and hopelessly than he did; and the +fates—incarnate in the persons of his +enemies—did their best to precipitate +the catastrophe.</p> + +<p>On the morning following their strange +interview in the conservatory—of which +she had been dreaming all night—she +awoke with a dim sense of something +being wrong. It was so very dim a +sense that she did not consciously +apprehend it, and therefore made no +investigation into its origin. But instead +of jumping out of bed as usual, +eager to plunge at once into the unknown +joys of a new day, she lay<span class="pagenum">[256]</span> +still until obliged to get up to receive +her tea, and gazed pensively into +vacancy.</p> + +<p>It was just such a morning as yesterday—the +sun shining in through the +white blind, the fresh wind rustling +along the leafy verandahs, the magpies +gossiping cheerily in great flocks about +the garden; and there was that sweetest +baby cooing like a little wood pigeon +as he was carried past her door in +his nurse's arms. But she was deaf +to these erewhile potent influences.</p> + +<p>"Your hot water, miss," quoth a +housemaid in the passage.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Susan," she responded +absently, and continued to gaze into +vacancy.</p> + +<p>"Your tea, miss," came, with another +tap, presently.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[257]</span></p> + +<p>And then it was she had to get out +of bed. She took in her tea, set it +down on a chair and forgot it; she +put on her slippers and dressing-gown, +and armed herself with towel and +sponge, but had to make three visits +to the bath-room before she could get +in.</p> + +<p>Then she woke up to the fact that +she was late, and scampered excitedly +about the room in her anxiety to make +a becoming toilet in the shortest +possible space of time. Finally, she +went to breakfast five minutes after +the gong was supposed to have assembled +the family, and found that the +gentlemen had all gone out early on a +shooting expedition.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it too bad?" exclaimed Miss +Hale. "They arranged it in the smoking-room<span class="pagenum">[258]</span> +last night, after we were gone +to bed; and Harold <i>knew</i> that we +wanted to play croquet."</p> + +<p>Croquet, it may be remarked, had +not yet "gone out," and Harold was +Mr. Lessel.</p> + +<p>"They had their breakfast at six +o'clock," said Mrs. Thornley, smiling. +"And you know, dear Miss Hale, it is +nearly the last day of the open season, +and my husband has been trying to +preserve those lagoons in the forest on +purpose. There were a great many +ducks there last week, and they will +have good sport and enjoy themselves, +I hope. They said they would be back +to luncheon."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't you believe it!" snorted +Mrs. Hale, who, having given her lord +orders to stay at home, which had been<span class="pagenum">[259]</span> +grossly violated, was in an aggrieved and +aggressive mood. "<i>I</i> know them!—never +a thought will they give to luncheon, or +to us either, until they are tired of +their sport. If they are in time for +dinner, that's quite as much as you can +expect."</p> + +<p>Rachel sat down, feeling fully as +much as anybody the blank that the five +gentlemen had left behind them. She +did not exactly say to herself that +it had been waste of time and trouble +to put fresh frills into her dress, +but that was the nature of her sentiments.</p> + +<p>It was not a lively morning. None +of them expected it would be, so they +were not disappointed. The matrons +beguiled the dull hours with sympathetic +gossip on domestic themes.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[260]</span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Hardy had a +banquet of Melbourne news and scandal, +in the discussion of which they incidentally +glorified their respective connections, +each for the other's edification, +until a suggestion of Mrs. Hale's (to the +effect that Mr. Kingston was not much +better than he should be, in spite of his +wealth) caused a slight coolness to arise +between them.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thornley and Mrs. Digby, both +young wives and mothers, with many +tender interests in common, whispered +pleasantly over their needlework, chiefly +of their nursery affairs.</p> + +<p>The two girls had no resource but to +keep each other company. They went +first to see the baby; but Miss Hale +was not an enthusiast in babies. Then +they had a little music; and here<span class="pagenum">[261]</span> +Rachel did not greatly distinguish herself.</p> + +<p>After that they walked about the +garden and talked. Rachel was told all +about Mr. Lessel—how charming and +how good he was—what his father meant +to settle on him when he married—when +the wedding was to be, and what +the bridesmaids were to wear. Then she +was enticed into a few reluctant confidences +about her own engagement, +which led to a detailed description of +the new house, and an invitation to Miss +Hale, when she should be Mrs. Lessel, +to pay a visit there some day with +her husband. And so the morning +wore away, and luncheon-time +came.</p> + +<p>They waited luncheon until past two +o'clock, and, to the sombre satisfaction<span class="pagenum">[262]</span> +of Mrs. Hale, the sportsmen did not +return, and the made dishes were +spoiled.</p> + +<p>Then the mail arrived, and there was +a letter for Rachel from her <i>fiancé</i>, +begging her to write at once to relieve his +mind of a fear that she was ill, and to +tell him at the same time that she +acquiesced in the arrangements he had +proposed for their early marriage, and +whether she preferred Sydney or +Tasmania for the introductory wedding +trip.</p> + +<p>He particularly wanted her to +settle these little matters without further +delay, as the spring was so much the +pleasantest time for travelling, and he +had had the offer of a charming house in +Sydney, on the shores of the bay, for +the first two or three weeks in October,<span class="pagenum">[263]</span> +which would only be open for a few +days.</p> + +<p>When she had read this letter, she was +in a frantic hurry to answer it. Holding +it in her hand, she excused herself to her +companions, who were all setting forth +for a gentle walk; begging to be allowed +to stay at home with an anxious eagerness +that provoked significant and +indulgent smiles, which said, "Oh, pray +don't mind us," as plainly as smiles could +speak.</p> + +<p>So when they were gone, she made +herself comfortable in the smoking-room, +in one of the screened compartments +of which there was a sort of public +writing-table, supplied with great bowls +of ink, and sheafs of pens, and reams +of paper, on which "Adelonga" was +<span class="pagenum">[264]</span>printed—as if Adelonga had been a club—for +the use of all-comers; and where there +was always a glorious fire of big logs +whenever there was the least excuse for a +fire.</p> + +<p>Here she began her second letter +to Mr. Kingston—with effusive conciliatory +excuses for having been such +a very bad correspondent. She had +really been so much engaged—time had +slipped away, she didn't know how—the +post had gone once or twice without her +knowing it—yesterday they had been +away from home; altogether, fate had +been against her writing as often as she +had intended, but she would promise him +to be more regular in future.</p> + +<p>Then followed a description of the +races, and an enumeration of the guests +they had brought back with them—who +they all were, what they were like, and<span class="pagenum">[265]</span> +her estimation of them respectively. One +was dismissed without comment—"and +a Mr. Dalrymple, Mrs. Digby's brother" +(and of course her dearest Graham remarked +the extreme simplicity of this +phrase, and was curious about the interesting +details that were conspicuous by +their absence). And then, after a few +inquiries about the progress of the house, +she plunged into the really important +matter.</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking about your +proposal a <i>great</i> deal, and I want you, +<i>please</i>, not to be angry with me if I +cannot accede to it," she began in an +abject and deprecating manner that was +significant of her state of mind. "I want +to stay a little longer with my dear aunt, +to whom I have had so little opportunity +as yet of making what return is in my<span class="pagenum">[266]</span> +power for all her kindness to me; and I +want a little time to improve myself, too, +for my future position as your wife, dear +Graham. Lucilla is a beautiful housekeeper +and is teaching me lots of things; and I +am brushing up my French and German +with Miss O'Hara, who said my accent +(but it is much better now) was enough +to set one's teeth on edge. Moreover, I +am <i>really</i> too young to be married just +yet. I am hardly nineteen, and Laura +Buxton was nineteen and a half. Perhaps +next year——"</p> + +<p>At this point she was interrupted by +the arrival of the sportsmen. They had +been to the drawing-room, apparently, +for they came in by way of the conservatory, +through a door just opposite the +writing-table. She put down her pen +and rose in haste.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[267]</span></p> + +<p>"Hullo, Rachel! Good-morning, +my dear. Don't get up—we won't +disturb you," shouted Mr. Thornley, +cheerily. "Come in, Lessel—come +in, Dalrymple. Here's where the guns +go."</p> + +<p>"What sport have you had? And are +you not very hungry?" she asked, moving +away from her chair and standing on the +hearthrug. According to her primitive +ideas of propriety, she was bound to stay +a little while and see to their hospitable +entertainment, there being no proper +hostess available.</p> + +<p>"Hungry? I should think so. And +we had very good sport, though not much +to show for it," responded Mr. Thornley. +"Only five ducks to five guns, and +Dalrymple shot four of them. They are +wild enough at the best of times; but at<span class="pagenum">[268]</span> +the end of the season there is no getting +near them."</p> + +<p>"You must be a very good shot," she +said, lifting her eyes meekly to Mr. +Dalrymple's face. And then, the moment +the words were spoken, she would have +given worlds to recall them, and looked +at him again with a dumb entreaty to be +forgiven.</p> + +<p>He smiled gently, reading her like a +book.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," he said; "I was only lucky +in having the birds."</p> + +<p>They all came round her as she stood +on the hearthrug, except Mr. Thornley, +who had gone to order some bread and +cheese and beer; and they looked pleased +with the situation.</p> + +<p>Mr. Digby began to tell her what a +lovely day it was, and to ask her why<span class="pagenum">[269]</span> +she had not gone out for a walk, too; +and then, when she explained that she +had had letters to write, and found herself, +unfortunately, unable to do so +without blushing over it (blushing +because she feared she was <i>going</i> to +blush), Mr. Hale broke in; and Mr. +Hale in conversation was, in his very +different way, worse than Mrs. Hale.</p> + +<p>"To Melbourne, I presume?" insinuated +this little monster, with an +arch smile. Rachel, the colour of a +peony, lifted her head an inch nearer +to the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"I only heard last night," he continued, +rubbing his hands, and looking +a whole volume of vulgar pleasantries, +"that the redoubtable Kingston has been +vanquished at last, and that it is to +your bow and spear that he has fallen.<span class="pagenum">[270]</span> +Allow me to congratulate you, Miss +Fetherstonhaugh."</p> + +<p>"To congratulate <i>him</i>, I should think +you mean," broke in Mr. Dalrymple, +who was studying the effect of sunset +on a picture of the Adelonga homestead +and pulling his moustaches violently. +"Hadn't we better go and wash our +hands, Digby, and make ourselves more +fit for ladies' company?"</p> + +<p>"To congratulate him, too, certainly," +said Mr. Hale; "very much so, of +course. But still it is a great conquest +on the part of Miss Fetherstonhaugh. +Perhaps you don't know Kingston?"</p> + +<p>"I have not that honour," replied +Mr. Dalrymple stiffly; and the tone of +his voice strongly implied that he did +not in the least degree desire it.</p> + +<p>"Well, I do; and I know that he<span class="pagenum">[271]</span> +has openly defied the combined powers +of her charming sex for—I am afraid +to say how many years—as long as I +can remember."</p> + +<p>"I daresay that has not distressed +them," said Mr. Dalrymple.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Hale," said Mr. Digby, +who thought his kinsman's allusion to +Mr. Kingston's age a terrible slip of the +tongue; "let us go and wash our +hands. Come along, Lessel."</p> + +<p>"And my wife tells me," continued +the irrepressible little man, "that the—a—the +interesting event is to take place +very shortly!"</p> + +<p>Rachel came out of her majestic reticence +with a rush that astonished +everybody.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>no</i>, Mr. Hale—not for a <i>long</i> +time—not for a year, at the very least!<span class="pagenum">[272]</span> +Who <i>could</i> have told Mrs. Hale such +a thing? I assure you it is quite, quite +wrong! <i>Do</i> you know who told her? +Was it my aunt?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him with an earnest, +imploring look that aroused Mr. Dalrymple +to regard her with considerably +sharpened interest. The alarming +thought had struck her that her lover +might have privately enlisted Mrs. +Hardy's support for his new scheme; +and if so, how should she be able to +resist so formidable a pressure?</p> + +<p>"I think it was Mrs. Thornley told +Mrs. Hale. She had a letter from her +sister, Mrs. Reade, yesterday; and Mrs. +Reade had mentioned it. Ladies' gossip, +Miss Fetherstonhaugh!—ladies never can +keep secrets, you know. They tell +everything to one another, and then<span class="pagenum">[273]</span> +to us. And we—we tell them nothing. +We know better, eh, Digby?"</p> + +<p>"Come along," said Digby, who was +getting a little savage, "and don't talk +like a fool."</p> + +<p>At this critical juncture Mr. Thornley +appeared to announce that there was +bread and cheese in the dining-room +for anybody who was hungry. Whereupon +the men trooped out—all but Mr. +Dalrymple, who apparently was not +hungry. He was lounging at Rachel's +side, with an elbow on the mantelpiece, +pulling his moustache meditatively; and +he did not move.</p> + +<p>Rachel was fluttered and excited.</p> + +<p>"How <i>do</i> people get hold of those +things?" she exclaimed, with a vexed, +embarrassed laugh. "It is very true +that everybody knows one's business<span class="pagenum">[274]</span> +better than one does one's self. I <i>hate</i> +that kind of impertinent gossip. No +one has the <i>least</i> ground for supposing +that I am going to be married shortly. +I have no intention of being married +for ever so long."</p> + +<p>"Why do you care what people say?" +said Mr. Dalrymple. "I never care. It +is much the best plan."</p> + +<p>"I would not, if I could help it; but +I can't," she responded, turning round +and mechanically spreading her pink +palms to the fire.</p> + +<p>"And, after all," he continued, slowly, +"all the talking in the world can't +make you marry if you don't want +to."</p> + +<p>She did not look up, but the blood +flew over her face.</p> + +<p>"I did not say I didn't want to,"<span class="pagenum">[275]</span> +she murmured. "Of course I want to—not +yet, for a long time, but some +day—or I should not be engaged."</p> + +<p>"I don't think that <i>always</i> follows, +Miss Fetherstonhaugh. I think many +people engage themselves, and live to +think better of it. And then, if they +don't refuse to consummate an admitted +mistake, they—well, they ought to, that's +all. Forgive me, I am speaking in the +abstract of course. I have had a great +deal of experience, you know."</p> + +<p>"Of broken engagements?" queried +Rachel, smiling faintly at the fire.</p> + +<p>"No, not of them—not personally. +The curse of my life was an engagement +that was kept. And I have seen +so much misery, such everlasting wreck +and ruin, come upon people I have +known and cared for—people who kept<span class="pagenum">[276]</span> +the letter of the law of honour and +disregarded the spirit—who preferred +sacrificing all that made life worth +having, for certainly two people, and +probably four, to breaking an engagement +that had no longer any sense or +reason in it."</p> + +<p>"But surely an engagement—it is the +initial marriage ceremony—should be +kept sacred," protested Rachel, daring +at last to look up, in defence of pious +principles.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "certainly—when it +is <i>really</i> the initial marriage ceremony."</p> + +<p>"And how—what—what is the proof +of that?"</p> + +<p>"Shall I tell you what I think it is? +When the people who are engaged long +and weary for the consummation—for<span class="pagenum">[277]</span> +the time to be over which keeps them +from one another."</p> + +<p>There was a dead silence. Rachel +continued to gaze into the fire, but her +eyes were dim, and all her pretty +colour sank out of her face. He had +given her a great shock, and she had +to take a little time to recover. Presently +she looked up, pale and grave, +with a fuller and more open look than +she had ever given him.</p> + +<p>"You should not have told me," she +said gently; "you should not talk to +me so."</p> + +<p>"No—you are right—I should not—forgive +me," he replied, speaking low +and hurriedly, with something new and +strange in his voice. And then they +became simultaneously aware of the +dangerous ways into which their discussion<span class="pagenum">[278]</span> +had led them, and, by tacit +consent, turned back. Rachel moved +away to the writing-table, and began +to gather her papers together; Mr. +Dalrymple brought his arm down +from the chimney-piece and looked at +his watch.</p> + +<p>"It is five o'clock," he said; "the +ladies are having a long walk, are they +not?"</p> + +<p>"No; it was nearly four when they +started. They will be in directly for +their tea."</p> + +<p>Then, without looking to right or +left, Rachel hurried out of the room; +and Mr. Dalrymple, after silently holding +the door for her, strode away to +the dining-room, where he was still in +time for some bread and cheese.</p> + +<p>The first thing Rachel did on reaching<span class="pagenum">[279]</span> +her room, was to sit down and +cry—why or wherefore she never asked +herself. She had not yet learned the +art of analysing her emotions.</p> + +<p>She felt vaguely perplexed and hurt, +and ashamed and indignant; and a few +tears were necessary to put her to +rights. They were very few, and soon +over.</p> + +<p>In less than ten minutes she had +again addressed herself to Mr. Kingston's +letter, which she finished up +with the suggestion that their marriage +should take place "next year," and a +profusion of unwonted endearments.</p> + +<p>At dusk she went to the drawing-room, +where the reunited guests were +having tea in the pleasant firelight, +the gentlemen lounging about in their +knickerbockers and leggings, the ladies<span class="pagenum">[280]</span> +sitting with hats tilted on the back +of their heads, Mrs. Hale victorious +over her subdued husband. Miss Hale +happy with her recovered beau. She +sat a little outside the circle and +talked in under-tones to Lucilla; Mr. +Dalrymple stood far away on the other +side of the room, and talked to nobody.</p> + +<p>That night Rachel was the first to +go to dress; she was the last to come +back when the gong announced dinner. +And when she came she was arrayed +in all her glory—pearl necklace, diamond +pendant, diamond bracelet, jewelled fan—all +her absent lover's love-gifts that +good taste permitted her to wear, +and a few more. And there was +no repetition of the conservatory +scene.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[281]</span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Hardy was perfectly satisfied +with the result of her diplomatic +measures. Rachel sat by her aunt's +side, and sewed industriously all the +evening at a pinafore for her precious +baby, who was about to be short-coated. +Mr. Dalrymple sat rather apart, +gnawing his moustache, apparently absorbed +in a photographic album of +Lucilla's, which he had discovered in a +cabinet near him.</p> + +<p>Two or three times, when Rachel +stole a look across the room, unable +to repress her restless curiosity to +know what he was doing, she saw him +gazing meditatively at this open book, +and always on the first page of it. +She wondered whose photographs they +were that interested him so much, and +she felt that she could not go to bed<span class="pagenum">[282]</span> +without satisfying her anxiety on this +point.</p> + +<p>When after tea, music and cards +and other gentle entertainments were +set going, and Mr. Dalrymple was at +last enticed by his host from his +corner and his album to make a fourth +at the whist-table, she watched her +opportunity and stole round to the +chair on which he had been sitting. +He had his back to her, but he was +facing a mirror in which he could see +her distinctly; and while he watched +her movements, he trumped his partner's +trick for the first time in his life, +and otherwise disgraced a notorious reputation.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," said Mrs. Hale, who +was his partner, with considerable +asperity, "that you don't trouble to<span class="pagenum">[283]</span> +play well if you haven't some great +stake to play for."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," he replied, +gravely bending his head. Rachel was +stealing back to her aunt's side and +her baby's pinafore, and he left off +looking into the mirror and making +mistakes.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Rachel had satisfied her +curiosity. When she opened the album +on the first page she saw two familiar +faces—one of a young, bright girl, with +pensive eyes, conspicuous for "that +royalty which subjects kings;" the +other angular, aquiline, hollow, full of +the lines of age, and smirking with +the sprightliness of youth—herself and +Mr. Kingston, to whom, unknown to +her, Lucilia had lately given this place +of honour.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[284]</span></p> + +<p>She stood still for a few minutes, +looking down on them, with the colour +deepening in her cheeks. She seemed +to see for the first time how incongruous +a pair they made, and how +mean a presence her lover really +bore.</p> + +<p>It was a bad likeness of him, she said +to herself; but in point of fact she +was shocked by a faithful representation +of his meagre features and his +peculiar smile—which after all was too +frivolous and artificial to be worthy of +comparison with the smile of Mephistopheles.</p> + +<p>She did not consciously judge his by +the standard of that other face, which +was so impressively dignified and resolute; +but she had looked at this same +photograph two days ago, and then it<span class="pagenum">[285]</span> +had not struck her unpleasantly, as it +did now.</p> + +<p>Without thinking what she was doing, +she tore out her own likeness, and also +the last photograph in the book, which +was an old one of her Cousin Lucilla +as a child, and she made them change +places. Having effected which—surreptitiously, +as she thought—she closed the +album softly, laid it away in the cabinet, +and returned to her seat by her aunt's +side.</p> + +<p>When the ladies were gone to bed, +the first thing Mr. Dalrymple did was +to get out that album again and look +at it; and he had some very serious +thoughts when he found out what she +had done.</p> + +<p>In the morning all the visitors left +early, for they had a long distance to<span class="pagenum">[286]</span> +travel. Mr. Thornley was to take them +part of the way home, and the break +and the four horses were brought round +at eight o'clock. Rachel came out to +the verandah with her aunt and cousin +to see them start.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, dear Mrs. Digby," said +Lucilla, affectionately kissing her particular +friend. "Good-bye, Mrs. Hale. +Good-bye, Miss Hale. I am so sorry +you could not stay longer, but we +shall expect you back next week. +Good-bye, Mr. Dalrymple, I hear you +are off to Queensland again on Monday?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Dalrymple shook hands and lifted +his hat, and then said very quietly, but +with great distinctness, "Not quite so soon as that, I think, +Mrs. Thornley. I shall consult Gordon +before I make another start."</p><p><span class="pagenum">[287]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, well, in that case we shall +hope to see you again, too. Of course +you'll come with your sister next week, +if you <i>should</i> be still with her?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Mr. Dalrymple. +"I shall be most happy."</p> + +<p>Rachel was not looking at anybody +in particular; and nobody was looking +at her. But her rather pale and pensive +face suddenly became of a colour +that might have put even the lapageria +rosea to shame.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c11e.jpg" width="150" height="69" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[288]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/c12.jpg" width="600" height="116" alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2 id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p class="h3">"OH, IF THEY HAD!"</p> + +<p><img class="dropimg" src="images/d-w.jpg" height="92" width="80" alt="W" /> + <span class="hide">W</span>ANDERING about that afternoon +in an aimless and restless +manner, Rachel entered +the drawing-room through the conservatory +door, and found her cousin +sitting there alone, at her own little +davenport, writing letters. Lucilla +looked up with a smile of cordial welcome.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what I am doing?" +she exclaimed brightly. "Come here,<span class="pagenum">[289]</span> +and say thank you. I am writing to +ask Mr. Kingston to come."</p> + +<p>"To ask Mr. Kingston to come?" +the girl repeated blankly. "What for, +Lucilla?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thornley was not like Mrs. +Reade; she was amiable and sweet, +but a little dull of apprehension. She +did not grasp the obvious significance +of this reply. Still it struck her as +inadequate.</p> + +<p>"Why, my dear child, what a question! +Because you are here, of course, +and because he is moping about town, +Beatrice says, and doesn't know what +to do with himself."</p> + +<p>"Does Beatrice say that?" inquired +Rachel, with a little pang of self-reproach. +This man, who had done her +the greatest honour, who had paid her<span class="pagenum">[290]</span> +the highest compliment that any man +could bestow on any woman—she was +conscious of requiting him with ingratitude +at this moment. "He is very, +very—kind," she faltered. "I am +afraid he thinks too much about me. +When have you asked him to come, +Lucilla?"</p> + +<p>"In time for the dance next week, +and as much sooner as he likes. I +have told him to send word what day +will suit him, if he can come, and that +we will send to the station. Of course +we could not allow <i>him</i> to come up by +coach. I am very glad we have that +dance in prospect; it will be something +to amuse him. I should have been +half afraid to ask him into the country +if there had been nothing going on. +He used to hate the bush. However,"<span class="pagenum">[291]</span> +looking up archly, "Beatrice says I +need not be afraid of his feeling dull +on this occasion."</p> + +<p>"Did Beatrice tell you to ask him? +I mean did she suggest it to +you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear—to tell the truth. I +should not have asked him, simply +because I knew he didn't like the +bush. It did not occur to me that +he would be fretting after you—Mr. +Kingston fretting after anybody is +such a very novel idea! Oh, my dear +Rachel"—and here she drew the girl +close and kissed her—"you are +luckier than ever I thought you +were!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," sighed Rachel; "I know I +am very lucky."</p> + +<p>"And Beatrice says," continued Mrs.<span class="pagenum">[292]</span> +Thornley, with her arm round her +cousin's waist, "that we shall be +having everything settled soon, and +that you are to have a delightful +tour in Europe. How you will enjoy +that! It was the one thing I wished +for when I was married that I did +not get. Not but what," the gentle +woman added quickly, "I am very +glad I did not get it now. I could +not have been happier than I have +been at Adelonga, and it must be +very inconvenient to have a baby when +one is travelling about. You must +tell me, darling, what you would like +for a present. John and I were talking +about it last night—John thinks +a great deal of you, you must know, +which is a thing you ought to be +proud of, for he is very particular<span class="pagenum">[293]</span> +and critical about girls—and he says +he would like to give you something +worth having. But I told him you +and I would talk it over before we +decided what it should be."</p> + +<p>"How good you are! How good +everybody is!" exclaimed Rachel, folding +the girlish matron in a rather +hysterical embrace. "But I don't +think I shall be married just yet, +Lucilla—wait till we hear what Mr. +Kingston says."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we know already what <i>he</i> is +going to say."</p> + +<p>"There is the party to be thought +of first," proceeded Rachel, determined, +now that Mr. Kingston was +coming, not to dissipate in fruitless +skirmishes the strength that she would +require to fight the inevitable battle<span class="pagenum">[294]</span> +with him. "You have only a week +before you, and you have not sent out +your invitations, have you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have. I did that the day +you were at the races, and have had +answers to some of them. We shall +get about thirty or forty people together, +I hope—perhaps more. I wonder, +by the way, whether Mr. Dalrymple +could bring that friend of his, Mr. +Jim Gordon—I <i>wish</i> I had thought +to ask him. We have too large a +proportion of married people, unfortunately." +Lucilla had become thoughtful +and business-like. "Seven bachelors +altogether," she remarked musingly, +after a pause; "that is not nearly +enough. Does Mr. Kingston dance +now, Rachel?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but not a great deal—mostly<span class="pagenum">[295]</span> +quadrilles. I think," she added, reflectively, +"he is rather troubled with +gout in one of his knees."</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow! He waltzed with +me I remember when I first came +out, and that's not very long ago. +Surely <i>he</i> can't have gout—a man +who walks with such a peculiarly +light and airy tread! Though, to be +sure, I knew a man of twenty-five—or +was it thirty-five?—who had gout +badly."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is rheumatism," suggested +Rachel; "or lumbago."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense. Lumbago, indeed! One +would think he was a patriarch. But +if he doesn't waltz——"</p> + +<p>Lucilla paused in perplexity.</p> + +<p>"Does Mr. Gordon waltz?" Rachel +meekly inquired.</p><p><span class="pagenum">[296]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, no doubt—sure to. I have +never seen him, but all those old army +men dance well."</p> + +<p>"Then I suppose Mr. Dalrymple +dances well?"</p> + +<p>"Of course he does. Poor fellow, +he excels in everything that is of no +consequence. Oh, yes, Mr. Dalrymple +is decidedly an acquisition in a ball-room, +whatever he may be elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"Lucilla!"</p> + +<p>"What, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Why do you all speak of him in +that hard way? You are so kind to +everybody else, but for him nobody +seems to have a good word. I think +it is so cruel!" she broke out with +sudden passion. "The way Mrs. Hale +insulted him the other night—a man<span class="pagenum">[297]</span> +like that, whom she was not fit to +associate with—and all of you sitting +round and letting her do it—I think +it is dreadful!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear," responded Mrs. +Thornley, with tremulous earnestness, +a little frightened at the vehemence +that she was too dull to understand, +and deeply shocked by the implied +reflection on her hospitality, "you +don't suppose we encouraged or defended +Mrs. Hale? We were as vexed +as you were at her gross want of +taste—of common courtesy, one might +say. John was excessively angry—with +dear Mrs. Digby sitting by to +hear it all; he said at first that he +would never have her in his house +again."</p> + +<p>"But he is going to have her?"</p><p><span class="pagenum">[298]</span></p> + +<p>"Yes. Well, they are old neighbours +you see, and related to the Digbys. +And I daresay she knows no better."</p> + +<p>"She is a horrid woman," said Rachel, +viciously; "and so is her husband."</p> + +<p>"A horrid woman?" laughed Lucilla. +"Oh, no, dear, be just—he is not so +bad as that. And you know, Rachel"—becoming +gently argumentative—"it +is not surprising that people object to +a man who has had such a career as +Mr. Dalrymple's. You know what he +has done?"</p> + +<p>"Only fought a duel," said Rachel. +"No, I am not defending him, Lucilla, +but how many men have done the same +in old days, without being objected +to?"</p> + +<p>"It was a very <i>bad</i> duel," said Lucilla +gravely. "There were circumstances<span class="pagenum">[299]</span> +connected with it that were very disreputable—so +they say."</p> + +<p>"You shouldn't trust to hearsay," +protested the girl eagerly. "Why +don't you go by the evidence of +your own senses? Does he look like +the man to do disreputable things?"</p> + +<p>"He looks like a man who could +never do anything mean or underhand," +said Mrs. Thornley; "I admit that. +He has a noble face; and he has +perfect manners; and he is clever. +But, oh! Rachel, when a man has been +in the dock, and for such a crime as +that—"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean he has been in +prison?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. He was arrested and +put on his trial for murder, or manslaughter—I +forget which it was called.<span class="pagenum">[300]</span> +He was acquitted we know, but by +the merest accident. Popular feeling +was with him, strange to say, and +Mr. Gordon fought hard for him. They +were not over particular in California, +I suppose, and there was a flaw somewhere. +But he <i>might</i> have been hung, +Rachel! That is where it is—he was +tried for murder, and he <i>might</i> have been +hung!"</p> + +<p>Rachel was leaning against the wall, +and looking into the recess that made +a passage to the conservatory. She +was calling up a vision of that memorable +night, which was the birthnight +of her womanhood, so recently come +and gone—the fern-tree canopy, letting +the moonlight through, the little bench, +set in a bower of cork and maidenhair, +where she sat alone with him in<span class="pagenum">[301]</span> +a world of brooding shadows—the +strong, proud face, bending forward to +look at her, darkly distinct in the soft, +green gloom.</p> + +<p>And she heard his voice again, incisive, +imperious, yet melting her very +heart within her as he told her the +simple history of this terrible episode +in his life. He might have been hung!—he +did not tell her that. She stole +away from her cousin, and walked up +and down the long alleys of the conservatory, +pale and passionate with her +fierce indignation. Would they indeed +have dared to hang him? And if they +had—oh, if they had!</p> + +<p>Some thirty miles away Mr. Dalrymple +was riding by his own short +cuts through the bush, with his peaked +cap drawn over his eyes. His beautiful<span class="pagenum">[302]</span> +horse, tall and stately like himself, +with glossy dark coat, and a white +star on his forehead, paced with long +strides through saplings and brushwood, +swinging his head slowly up and +down on the loose rein with a rhythmical +movement that betokened ease of +body and content of mind.</p> + +<p>His master gazed heedfully at the +brilliant parrots flashing about with +long, rushing darts over his head, and +at the myriads of wild flowers crushed +and trampled under foot. He wore +a sprig of epacris in his button-hole, +and carried a sheaf of delicate orchids +with their stalks tucked under the saddle +in front of him.</p> + +<p>He hummed a Strauss waltz as he +went along through the sunshine and +shadows of the waning day, and thought<span class="pagenum">[303]</span> +of the time when he would go back +to Adelonga and carry that girl with +the sweet eyes away in his arms, on +the wings of just such a dreamy +measure, into the only realisable Utopia +of this world.</p> + +<p>And perhaps he was more glad of +his life than he had ever been since +the day when he so nearly lost it—caring +not much whether he did so +or not.</p> + +<p class="h3">END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h5">London: Printed by A. Schulze, 13, Poland Street. (S. & H.)</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Mere Chance, Vol. 1 of 3, by Ada Cambridge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MERE CHANCE, VOL. 1 OF 3 *** + +***** This file should be named 38083-h.htm or 38083-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/8/38083/ + +Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Matthew Wheaton +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: A Mere Chance, Vol. 1 of 3 + A Novel + +Author: Ada Cambridge + +Release Date: November 22, 2011 [EBook #38083] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MERE CHANCE, VOL. 1 OF 3 *** + + + + +Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Matthew Wheaton +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.) + + + + + + + + + + A MERE CHANCE. + + A NOVEL. + + BY ADA CAMBRIDGE, + + + AUTHOR OF "IN TWO YEARS TIME," &c. + + IN THREE VOLUMES. + + VOL. I. + + + LONDON: + RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, + Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, + NEW BURLINGTON STREET. + 1882. + _Right of Translation Reserved._ + + + + + CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + + CHAPTER + + I.--A Marshal Neil Rose + II.--Family Counsels + III.--Mr. Kingston's Question + IV.--The Answer + V.--So Soon! + VI.--A Rash Promise + VII.--Two Love Letters + VIII.--How Rachel Met "Him" + IX.--A Black Sheep + X.--Outside the Pale + XI.--Mr. Dalrymple has to Consult Gordon + XII.--"Oh, if they had!" + + + + +A MERE CHANCE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A MARSHAL NEIL ROSE. + + +A few years ago there was a young _debutante_ in Melbourne whose name +was Rachel Fetherstonhaugh. She had risen upon the social horizon +suddenly, like a new star--or, one might almost say, like a comet, so +unusually bright was she, and so much talked about; and no one quite +knew where she had come from. Mrs. Hardy had introduced her as her +niece--everyone knew that--but there were sceptics who, having never +heard of female relatives previously (except the three daughters, who +had married so well), declared that she might be "anybody," picked up +merely for matchmaking purposes--it being well understood that Mrs. +Hardy had for an unknown period sustained life, figuratively speaking, +upon the stimulus of matrimonial intrigues, and had now no more +daughters to provide for. + +That this pretty creature had been unseen and unsuspected until the last +Miss Hardy, as Mrs. Buxton, was fairly away on her honeymoon, and almost +immediately after had been introduced to society as Mrs. Buxton's +successor, was a kind of circumstance that seemed, of course, bound to +have a mystery at the bottom of it. But, as a matter of fact, there was +no mystery. Rachel Fetherstonhaugh was a _bona-fide_ niece, and her +entrance into the Hardy family at a particular juncture could be quite +easily accounted for. + +Her father had been Mrs. Hardy's brother--a good-for-nothing, unlucky +brother, whose clever brains could do anything but earn money, and whose +pockets could no more hold it than a sieve could hold water--a brother +whom, long ago, before she had become rich and fastidious, Mrs. Hardy +had loved, and served, and worked for, but whom, of late years, she +had--with some mild self-reproach for doing so--ignored as far as +possible. + +This man had married a girl without a penny, as such a man was certain +to do; and his wife had left him a widower, with an only child, a few +years afterwards. Since then, for fifteen years, he had rambled about +from place to place, seeking his fortune in all kinds of visionary and +impracticable schemes, whose collapse one after the other, never +deterred him from fresh enterprises, until a sunstroke closed the list +of his life's many failures at the early age of forty-five. + +A formal little note was sent by his orphan daughter to Mrs. Hardy to +announce this sad event; and for half an hour after receiving it the +bereaved sister was inconsolable, tormenting herself with unavailing +regrets for her neglect of "her own flesh and blood," and with +harrowing reminiscences of loving early years. + +At the end of that time, however, she had made many generous plans for +her dead brother's child, which cheered and comforted her; and in time +these gave place to the prudent, unemotional dictates of worldly wisdom. +Mrs. Hardy dried her tears, bought herself a black bonnet, and stole out +of town in a surreptitious fashion, to see what manner of niece had been +thrown upon her hands. + +She pictured to herself what the child's life had probably been--the +motherless child of a vagabond speculator, who had lived very +indifferently by his wits; and the most she hoped for was to find her a +raw bush girl, rudimentally educated, and uncontaminated by the low +society in which she had been brought up. For such a niece she had +mapped out what seemed to be a suitable career--that of a nursery +governess in some _distant_ colony; and she had resolved to be a good +friend to the girl, to set her up in clothes, and to see that she never +came to want or misfortune if by any reasonable means it could be +helped. + +To her intense surprise her young relative turned out to be a remarkably +pretty and refined young woman, obviously accustomed to the decorous and +reticent poverty of people who had "seen better days" and appreciated +the fact, and not raw in any sort of sense, though diffident and shy; +the kind of young woman, indeed, who, it was evident at a glance, was +capable under good management of bringing honour and glory upon the +family. + +The result was as above indicated. Rachel Fetherstonhaugh, instead of +being sent into obscurity to earn her bread, was adopted in the sight of +all men as a daughter of the house--that great white house at Toorak, +which had achieved local fame for its profuse entertainments, its social +diplomacies, and its three great marriages. + +Her father's debts were paid; her wardrobe was supplemented with the +very best style of new clothes--less expensive, but more becoming, than +any that Mrs. Buxton and Mrs. Buxton's sisters had worn; and by and bye +when, having got over the first shock and grief of her father's death, +she made her appearance in public, and began to take an interest in her +new life, she found herself, to her great astonishment, a personage--if +not _the_ personage--in the society around her. + +It must be said, and not to her discredit, I hope, that Miss +Fetherstonhaugh liked being a personage very much indeed. She had grown +up a sensitive little gentlewoman, full of delicate thoughts and tastes, +in the midst of dull, uncultured people of sordid cares and occupations, +and of uncongenial surroundings of all sorts; and the mere physical +enjoyment of her changed circumstances, in which everything was orderly, +and dainty, and plenteous, and "nice," was something like the enjoyment +that a flower must feel when the sun shines. + +And the sudden discovery that certain shy conjectures about her +personal appearance (which she had hardly had leisure or heart to attend +to) were confirmed by the best authority--to know herself a pretty girl, +and to see that society paid her homage accordingly--this was an +experience that no woman born, being in possession of her faculties, +could help delighting in. And having all the grateful consciousness of +the value of life and its good things that nature gives to the young and +healthy, unspoiled by artificial sentiment, her delight was unbounded, +and consequently unconcealed. + +Rachel Fetherstonhaugh was, as her uncle said, "A modest, good girl, +with no nonsense about her." All the same, she was proud and glad of her +fair, clear-cut features, and her pensive, large, sweet eyes that were +full of tender suggestions, for which no authority existed when she +lifted them meekly to an admirer's face; and that figure which with all +its slenderness had the curves of beauty everywhere, and those waves of +ruddy auburn hair. + +"I am so glad I am not plain," she once said to her cousin, Mrs. +Thornley (who strange to say did not repeat the remark to all her +friends with disparaging comments, but responded confidentially with a +sympathising kiss, and said she could quite understand it). "I have +always thought that it must be the most charming thing in the world to +be a really pretty woman. And now I know it." + +On a grey afternoon in the beginning of May this young lady was +enjoying the luxury of a slow drive up and down Collins Street, +shopping with her aunt. She nestled in a soft corner of a well-appointed +Victoria, with a great rug of native bearskins about her knees, showing +her delicate fresh face, like a well-hung picture, to the crowd of +passers-by on the pavement, and yet sitting just enough above them to +see into the shop-windows over their heads; and she felt--though she did +not formulate the sentiment--perfectly happy and satisfied. + +If the truth must be told, she found the sight of more or less +well-dressed men and women, streaming up and down the busy street, more +interesting than the most lovely landscape she had ever seen. She took +as much pleasure in the exquisite fit of her gloves as in the exquisite +colour and fragrance of a Marshal Neil rose that she wore in her +button-hole; and she had never seen a moonrise or a sunset that had +fascinated her _more_ than that sealskin jacket in Alston and Brown's +window, which she observed was exactly the size for her. It is not, +therefore, to be supposed that she is a heroine unworthy of the name. + +At Alston and Brown's Mrs. Hardy stepped out of her carriage for perhaps +the fifth time. She was a very large, masculine kind of woman, with a +remarkably fine Roman nose, of which she was excessively proud, and +justly, for it had been a valuable weapon to her in the battle of life, +literally carrying all before it. When he had got over the effect of her +nose, the beholder of Mrs. Hardy's person, as a rule, was pleasantly +impressed by it. It had a generous and a regal air. + +"My dear," she said to her young companion, "I only want to match some +lace. Will you go in with me, or will you stay where you are?" + +"I think I will stay, if you please, aunt," replied Rachel. "The +carriage is so comfortable, and I like to look at the street." + +"Don't look too much," said Mrs. Hardy, smiling anxiously. "There are +all kinds of office clerks and people mixed up with the crowd at this +hour." + +"I don't want to look at _men_," said Miss Fetherstonhaugh, with more +dignity than one would have given her credit for. "It is the ladies' +dresses I like to see--and the horses." + +Mrs. Hardy marched into the shop with that imposing mien which became +more and more pronounced as she grew older and stouter, and her social +successes accumulated; and her niece sat still in her corner, and looked +for a long while at the sealskin jacket. + +"All my cousins have sealskin jackets," she mused, "but I don't think +they had them until they were married. Perhaps I shall have one when I +am married. I can't expect my aunt to buy me one, of course; she has +bought me so many pretty things. How lovely and soft that brown fur is! +How well it would suit my complexion! If my husband is rich, and asks me +what I should like for my first birthday present, I shall not have any +difficulty in making up my mind. I wonder _will_ he be rich? like Mr. +Thornley, and Mr. Buxton, and Mr. Reade. At any rate, he must not be +poor; if he is, I won't have him. I know enough of poverty"--with a +little shudder and a sudden solemnity in her face--"and I don't mean to +run into it again if I can help it." + +Here she fell into a rather mournful reverie, thinking of her old life, +with its shifts and privations--of her poor father, who had been so +happy through it all, never feeling the weight of the petty debts and +dishonours that lay like lead on her--of her struggles to keep his +affairs straight--of her prayers that she might not live to despise and +desert him, which was a temptation that grew with her growing years--and +as she thought, she gazed absently, tenderly, pensively, not on the +sealskin jacket, but on the faces of the passers-by. She had no idea how +excessively interesting and pretty she looked to those passers-by with +that expression in her eyes. + +However, a gentleman came by presently, a well-preserved young man of +fifty or sixty, with a waxed moustache, and a slender umbrella carried +musketwise over his shoulder; and his attention was violently arrested. + +"Where _have_ I seen that charming creature?" he asked himself, +imploring his memory, which had a great store of miscellaneous +treasures, to be quick and help him. "Surely I have been introduced to +her somewhere. Oh, of course! it is old Hardy's niece, or ward, or +whatever she is. Good day, Miss Fetherstonhaugh," turning back when he +had nearly passed her, and making a profound obeisance with his hat off. +"Fine afternoon for a drive." + +She recognised _him_ immediately. She had danced a quadrille with him at +her memorable first evening "out," and she had learned a great deal of +him since from the gossip of her aunt's circle. There was a time, she +had been told, when he was nearly becoming a member of the family +himself. He was a great merchant--or an ex-merchant rather--who had +dealt in some mysterious commodity that had brought enormous profits; +and he had risen by all kinds of good luck, from no one knew what depth +of social insignificance to the proud position of a man of fashion +about town, whom ladies delighted to honour. + +"Good day, Mr. Kingston," she responded, looking very pink and bright, +and a little flurried as she returned his salutation. She had the +daintiest complexion that ever adorned a youthful face, and whenever she +was startled or embarrassed, however slightly, she blushed like a rose. +Mr. Kingston, accustomed to appraise the charms of his female friends +with an almost brutal impartiality, was unjustifiably touched and +flattered by this innocent demonstration. He was really very glad he had +remembered who she was before he had lost so good an opportunity for +looking at and talking to her. + +"I don't think it _is_ a very fine afternoon," she remarked presently, +as the gentleman seemed to find himself for once a little at a loss for +a subject; and she smiled at him through her blushes, which went and +came suddenly and delicately, as if they were breathed over her by the +air somehow. "It has been looking grey, like rain, ever since we +started; and it is rather cold, don't you think?" + +"Is it? Ah! so it is. But we must expect cold weather in May. I suppose +it is rather strange to you to be finding winter coming on at this +season?" + +"No. Why should it be strange to me?" + +"I thought--I am sure somebody told me--that you were recently out from +England." + +"Oh, dear, no," she replied, frankly. "I was born in this colony, and +have lived in it all my life." + +"In the name of fortune, where?" + +"In different places; at Sandhurst, at Ballarat, and on the Upper +Murray, and in little townships here and there in the bush; and +sometimes in Melbourne." + +"I am sure I never saw you in Melbourne until I met you at that dance +the other night," he protested earnestly. "I never should have forgotten +your face if I had once seen it." + +"I daresay not," she said, and she was angry to find herself blushing +again. "I was but a child when I lived in Melbourne before, and--and my +home was not in Toorak then." + +Mr. Kingston understood. She had been a poor relation in those days, +and the Misses Hardy were unmarried. He had a constitutional antipathy +to poor relations, and he was a little disappointed. For a few seconds +he kept silence, while he wondered what her antecedents could have been. +Then he looked at her again, and she was regarding him with a curious +gravity of demeanour, almost as if she had divined his thoughts. There +was a meek majesty about her that commanded his respect, and that he +considered was excessively becoming. + +After all, what did it matter about her antecedents? Did she not look a +thoroughly well-bred little woman, sitting there in her furs and soft +cushions, with her head held so straight? Did he not hear other +men--better men than he from a genealogical point of view--singing her +praises wherever he went? Whatever she had been, she was a distinguished +personage now, whose acquaintance it behoved a veteran lady-killer to +cultivate, and that without delay. + +"I am very glad your home is in Toorak now," he said gallantly. "I have +some land there myself, quite close to your uncle's place." + +"Indeed," murmured Rachel. + +"Yes, and I am going to build on it soon. I have just got the plans out +from home--capital plans. I shall bring them in for Mrs. Hardy's +opinion. When my house is built we shall be neighbours. You will have to +help me, you and your aunt, with the furnishing and all that sort of +thing that ladies understand." + +"I don't think I understand much about it," she said; "but I shall like +to see it done. I am very fond of pretty furniture. Will your house be +very big?" + +"Oh, nothing out of the way. I'm not going to spend _more_ than twenty +thousand pounds on it. My friends tell me I ought to do the thing +properly when I am about it; but I don't see the fun of locking up a lot +of money in bricks and mortar. I might want to change my residence any +day, you see." + +Rachel looked at him with awe. There was a flippancy in the way he spoke +of that twenty thousand pounds which almost shocked her. + +"If you are going to build a palace," she said, "don't talk of asking my +help. I have never had anything to do with that kind of thing." + +"Oh, my dear Miss Fetherstonhaugh--really it will be nothing but an +ordinary good-sized, comfortable house, and I am sure your taste would +be perfect. At any rate, you will help me with the gardens? I mean to +have good grounds, whatever else I go without; and ladies always know +how to lay out beds and things better than we do." + +"_I_ shouldn't know," she said, smiling; "but I think my aunt is very +clever at that. We have beautiful flowers--even so late as this." + +"So I see." He glanced admiringly at the rose on her breast, and she +stuck her pretty chin into her throat and looked at it too. "What a +lovely bud that is! Marshal Neil, is it not? Oh, don't take it out--the +black fur on your jacket makes such a charming background for it." + +Rachel already had it in her hand, and was stroking the velvety yellow +petals and the dark green leaves. + +"We have plenty of them," she said; "there is a wonderful autumn bloom +of roses just now. This is a picture, isn't it? with that deep colour +like an apricot in the heart, and those scarlet stains streaking it +outside. Would you like to have it?" And she held it out with a frank +gesture and the most captivating smile; and then, as he took it with a +low bow and much ostentatious gratitude, she blushed the deepest crimson +to the roots of her golden hair. + +At this moment Mrs. Hardy emerged from the shop, her ounce-weight of +purchases being carried behind her; and Mr. Kingston turned to receive +an effusive greeting. + +"Oh, my dear Mr. Kingston, is it you?" the stately matron exclaimed. +"How _glad_ I am to see you--I have not met you for an age! Where _have_ +you been? And when _are_ you coming to call on me again?" + +"I will come whenever you will allow me," this illustrious person +replied, with an alacrity of demeanour that did not escape notice. "I +thought of coming this afternoon, and on my way I saw your carriage, and +your niece told me that you were shopping." + +"No; I did not tell you that," interposed Rachel gravely. + +He looked at her and laughed, and his laugh for some unaccountable +reason called her retreating blushes back. Mrs. Hardy glanced sharply +from one to the other, and then she also laughed, in decorous matronly +fashion. + +"Well, come and dine with us to-night," the elder lady said, "and take +us to the opera. That would be a friendly thing to do, if you are +disposed to be friendly. Beatrice and Mr. Reade are coming--nobody else; +and you can take Mr. Hardy's ticket. He is always glad to get off +going." + +"I will indeed--I will with pleasure," was the prompt response; and with +some further exchange of civilities, the friends separated. + +Mr. Kingston walked away to his club, with his flower in his +button-hole, swinging his umbrella gently, and wondering to what class +of woman this pretty Miss Fetherstonhaugh belonged. + +"Is she a coquette?" he asked himself over and over again; "or is she +charmingly fresh and simple?" + +Mrs. Hardy rolled home in her little Victoria, and she also asked +herself questions which were by no means easy to answer, as she stole +furtive glances at the little black figure sitting, watchful and alert, +beside her. + +"My dear," she said presently, breaking a long silence, "where is your +rosebud gone to?" + +"I gave it to Mr. Kingston, aunt." + +"You gave it to Mr. Kingston!" Mrs. Hardy almost shouted in the +vehemence of her surprise. Then, pausing for a moment while she stared, +not unkindly, at the torrent of blushes that flowed over her pretty +face, she ejaculated, almost in a tone of awe, "Good gracious!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FAMILY COUNSELS. + + +The drawing-room of the house in Toorak where our heroine lived, looked +very cosy and comfortable a few hours later in the ruddy glow of the +firelight. It was a little before the days of domestic high art in +Victoria, and it was by no means the charming apartment that it is now. +There was no dado, no parquetry floor, no tiled hearth, no _etagere_ +mantelpiece--nor Persian rugs under foot, nor Limoges plaques and +Benares dishes on the walls, nor Japanese screens and jars, nor +treasures of jade and china, nor anything, in fact, that there ought to +have been. + +The pleasant firelight danced upon a whitewashed ceiling, plentifully +adorned with plaster-of-Paris mouldings, and upon whitey-grey walls +sprigged with golden flowers. The floor was completely covered with a +vivid green carpet, also sprinkled with flowers; and the windows were +draped with brilliant damask to match, depending from immense gilt +cornices in festoons looped with cords and tassels. There was a +cut-glass chandelier hanging down in the middle, and there was a +gigantic pier-glass reaching from the marble chimney-piece to the +plaster-of-Paris frieze, with little gold cupids sitting on the top of +it, tying wreaths of gold flowers into a knot. The chairs and couches +shone in slippery satin, with wonderful rosewood convolutions wriggling +out from them, that one could hardly venture to call legs; and there was +a terrible chiffonniere, full of looking-glasses, with a marble top, +reflecting all these splendours over and over again--which was quite +unnecessary. + +Nevertheless, though Mrs. Hardy cannot look back upon it without a +shudder, the old room was a pleasant room. She herself came into it on +this occasion, having dressed a little earlier than usual, and was +struck by its air of luxurious warmth and comfort. She saw nothing to +shock her artistic susceptibilities; she liked the twinkle of her glass +drops, and the shine of her spacious mirror, and the deep glow of her +emerald satin and damask--though she would die sooner than own to it +now. + +She went leisurely over to the fire, sank down in a low arm-chair, and +put up her feet on the fender to warm, with a distinct impression upon +her mind of congenial surroundings and satisfied aspirations. Long ago +she had been a poor man's wife--the most estimable and devoted of poor +men's wives--doing her own housework, making her own bread and butter, +nursing her own babies, mending her husband's clothes; and in those days +she had beautified her bush hut with cheap paper and chintz, and thought +it prettier than a palace. + +Later on she had had a smart brick and stucco cottage, and in it a +drawing-room--her first drawing-room--with a green and scarlet drugget +on the floor, lace curtains over the window, a centre table (with a +basket of wax flowers under a shade in the middle), and a "suite" in +green rep disposed around; and this in its day had seemed to her an +apartment quite too good for common use. Next she had aspired to a +Brussels carpet, and by and bye to a pier-glass and a piano. And so she +had come by degrees to this Toorak splendour, in each stage feeling that +she had reached the summit of her ambition, and vindicated her claim to +the most correct taste. + +The same process of evolution and development had taken place in +herself, outwardly and inwardly. She was naturally a kindly, honest, +good-hearted woman, and she was by birth a lady. But year by year nature +having much to struggle with had retired, step by step into the +background of her personality, and she was simply what the education of +society--her society--made her. Practically, fashion and _les +convenances_ were her gods. Those men or women who were not what she +generally termed "well-bred"--who were behind the times in social +matters, who had no place in her great world, nor any capacity for +making one--were not people to be received into her house, or to have +anything to do with. Her demeanour to such unfortunate individuals, when +she did happen to come into contact with them was, to say the least, +chilling. + +Yet those who knew her best, declared that if any of these ineligibles +were to fall into great trouble, she would be the first to help and +befriend them if she could; and that if her husband were to lose his +fortune and suddenly plunge her into poverty again, she would set to +work to cook his dinners and mend his clothes with the same cheerful +willingness as of yore. + +She sat in the warm firelight, toasting her feet, and her brain was busy +with projects. For some weeks past she had been troubled about her young +niece, on account of her too absurd innocence, and her ignorance of +social etiquette in many important details. The girl's manner and +carriage had been particularly easy and graceful, but she had constantly +counteracted the effect of this by a deplorable want of penetration as +to who was who, and of reticence concerning her own history and +experiences, which had been very mortifying to an aunt and _chaperon_ +accustomed to better things; and her efforts to teach and train one who +seemed so gentle and pliant had been singularly unfruitful. Rachel was a +sweet child, and she was fond of her, and proud of her beauty; +nevertheless, she had declared to herself and to Beatrice more than +once, that she had never known a human creature so hopelessly dense and +stupid. + +To-night, however, she took another view of the case. That rural +freshness had possibly found favour in the eyes of Mr. Kingston, who had +been the ideal son-in-law to so many mothers of so many polished +daughters. She was surprised, but she could understand it. For she knew +that men had all sorts of queer, independent, unaccountable ways of +looking at things--at women in particular; and she had already noticed +that they liked those ridiculous blushes--which to her mind showed a +painful want of culture and self-possession--in which the girl indulged +so freely. + +What if she should be able to marry her to Mr. Kingston--who had foiled +the artifices of well-meaning matrons, and resisted the fascinations of +charming maidens exactly suited for him for so many years--after +marrying all her own children so well? That was the theme of her +meditations, and she found it deeply interesting. She longed for the +arrival of Beatrice, who was her eldest daughter and her chief +_confidante_ and adviser, to hear what she had to say about it. + +She had been by herself about ten minutes, during which time a servant +had lit up the cut-glass chandelier, when there was a ring at the +door-bell, and Mr. and Mrs. Reade were ushered in. Mrs. Reade was a tiny +little dark woman, with a bright and clever, though by no means pretty, +face, in which no trace of the maternal features was visible. + +She was beautifully dressed in palest pink, with crimson roses in her +hair, and delicate lace of great value about her tight skirt and her +narrow shoulders; and her distinguished appearance generally rejoiced +her mother's heart. Behind her towered her enormous husband, in whom +blue blood declined to manifest itself in the customary way. He was an +amiable, slow-witted, honest gentleman, with a large, weak face, rather +coarse and red, particularly towards bedtime, and heavy and awkward +manners; and he was as wax in the hands of the small person who owned +him. + +"Ned," she said, looking back at him as she swept across the room, "you +go and find papa, and let mamma and me have a talk until the others come +in." + +Ned obediently went--not to find his host, who was probably in the +dressing-room, but to read "The Argus" by the dining-room fire, while +the servants set the table. And the mother and daughter sat down +together to one of the confidential gossips that they loved. Mrs. Reade +began to unfold her little budget of news and scandal, but immediately +laid it by--to be resumed between the acts of the opera presently--while +she listened to Mrs. Hardy's account of the transactions of the +afternoon. It did not take that experienced matron long to explain +herself, and the younger lady was quick to grasp the situation. At first +she was inclined to scoff. + +"Oh, we all know Mr. Kingston, mamma. He dangles after every fresh face, +but he never means anything. _He_ will never marry--at any rate, not +until he is too old to flirt any more." + +"But, my dear, he is going to build his house." + +"I don't believe a word of it," said Mrs. Reade. "He has been going to +build that house ever since I can remember. It is just one of his artful +devices. Whenever he wants to make a girl like him he tells her about +that house--just to set her longing to be the mistress of it. That is +the only use he will ever put it to. You'll see he will tell Rachel all +about it to-night. He will beg her to help him with her exquisite taste, +and so on. Oh, I know his ways. But he means nothing." + +"He has already told Rachel," said Mrs. Hardy, laughing. "And, what is +more, he is going to bring the designs to show her, and he says he is +really going to put the work in hand at once." + +"If so," said Mrs. Reade, gazing into the fire meditatively, "it looks +as if he had been proposing to settle himself--though I shall not +believe it till I see it. But then he must have made his plans before he +ever saw Rachel. It must be Sarah Brownlow he is thinking of, mamma." + +"Sarah Brownlow passed him this afternoon, Beatrice, and he hardly +noticed her. While as for Rachel--well, I only wish you had been there +to see the way he looked at her, and the way he said good-bye. My +impression is that he thinks it is time to settle--as indeed it is, +goodness knows--and so has begun with his house; and that he is looking +about for a mistress for it, and that something in Rachel has struck +him. I am certain he is struck with Rachel." + +Mrs. Reade gazed into the fire gravely, while she pondered over this +solemn announcement. + +"It is possible," she said presently. "It is quite possible. All the men +are saying that she is the prettiest girl in Melbourne just now. An +elderly club man, who has seen much of the world, is very likely to +admire that kind of childish, simple creature. If it should be so," she +continued, musingly, "I wonder how Rachel will take it." + +"Rachel," said Mrs. Hardy, with sudden energy, "is not so simple as she +seems. You mark my words, she will be as keen to make a good marriage as +anybody as soon as she gets the chance." + +"Do you think so?" her daughter responded, looking up with her bright, +quick eyes. "Now that is not at all my notion of her." + +"Nor was it mine at first, but I am getting new lights. It never does to +trust to that demure kind of shy manner. I assure you she made such use +of her opportunities this afternoon as surprised me, who am not easily +surprised. In about ten minutes--I could not have been in Alston's more +than ten minutes--they were on the most frank and friendly terms +possible, and she had given him a rose to wear in his button-hole." + +"Nonsense!" + +"I assure you, yes. And I know, by the look of him, that he never saw +through it. It is wonderful how even the cleverest men can be taken in +by that _ingenue_ manner. He evidently thought her a sweet and +unsophisticated child. Sweet she is--the most amiable little creature I +ever knew; but she knows what she is about perfectly well." + +Mrs. Reade gazed into the fire again with thoughtful eyes; then after a +pause she said: + +"I think you don't understand her, mamma. I think she really saw no more +in Mr. Kingston than she would have seen in any poor young man without a +penny." + +"No, Beatrice. She talked about his new house, and all the money he was +going to spend on it, in a ridiculous way. She was completely fascinated +by the subject." + +"I can't imagine little Rachel scheming to catch a rich husband," the +young lady exclaimed, with a mocking, but pleasant laugh. + +"You don't see as much of her as I do, my dear Beatrice," her mother +replied, with dignity. "If you did, you would know that she is as fond +of money and luxury as any hardened woman of the world could be. She +quite fondles the ornaments I have put in her room. She goes into +raptures over the silver and china. A new dress sends her into +ecstacies. She annoys me sometimes--showing people so plainly that she +has never been used to anything nice. However, it will make it easier +for me to settle her than I at first thought it would be. It will be all +plain sailing with Mr. Kingston, you will see." + +"Mother," said Mrs. Reade--she only said "mother" when she was very +much in earnest--"let me give you a word of advice. If you want to marry +Rachel to Mr. Kingston--and I hope you will, for it would be a capital +match--don't let her know anything about it; don't do anything to help +it on; don't let her see what is coming--leave them both alone. I think +I know her better than you do, and I have a pretty good idea of Mr. +Kingston; and any sort of interference with either of them would be most +injudicious--most dangerous. I shall see to-night--I'm sure I shall see +in a moment----" + +There was a ring at the door-bell, and the stir of an arrival in the +hall, and the little woman did not finish what she wanted to say. She +rose from her chair, and shook out her pink train; and the mother to +whom she had laid down the law rose also, looking very majestic. + +"Mr. Kingston," said the servant, throwing the drawing-room door open. + +The great man entered with a springing step, bowing elaborately. His +glossy hair (some people said it was a wig, but it was not) was curled +to perfection; his moustaches were waxed to the finest needle-points; he +wore flashing diamond studs on an embroidered shirt front; and there was +a Marshal Neil rose in his button-hole, not very fresh, and too much +blown to be any ornament to a fine gentleman's evening toilet, hanging +its yellow head heavily from a weak and flabby stalk. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MR. KINGSTON'S QUESTION. + + +While her aunt and cousin were discussing her downstairs, Miss +Fetherstonhaugh was dressing herself for dinner in her little chamber at +the top of the house. This was a part of the daily ceremonial of her new +life, in which she took a deep and delighted interest. The whole thing, +in fact, was charming to her. To come sweeping down the big staircase in +dainty raiment, all in the spacious light and warmth--to have the doors +held open for her as she passed in and out--to go into the dining-room +on her uncle's arm, and sit at dinner with flowers before her--seeing +and feeling nothing but softness and colour, and polish and order +everywhere--was at this time to realise her highest conception of +earthly enjoyment. + +Her bedroom was not magnificent, but it had everything in it that she +most desired--the whitest linen, the freshest chintz and muslin, a fire +to dress by, an easy chair, and above all, a cheval glass, in which she +could survey her pretty figure from head to foot. She stood before this +cheval glass to-night a thoroughly happy little person. Hitherto, with a +mirror twelve inches by nine, that had a crack across it, she had seen +that her face was fair and fresh, and that her hair had a wonderful +red-gold lustre where the light fell upon it; but she was only now +coming to understand what perfection of shape and grace had developed +with her recent growth into womanhood, to make the _tout ensemble_ +charming. + +She looked at herself with deep content--no doubt with a stronger +interest than she would have looked at any other lovely woman, but in +much the same spirit, enjoying her beauty more for its own sake than for +what it would do for her--more because it harmonised herself to her +tastes and circumstances, than because it was a great arsenal of +ammunition for social warfare and conquest. + +She was still in mourning for her father, and had put on a simple black +evening dress. Her natural sense of the becoming dictated simple +costumes, but education demanded that they should be made in the latest +fashion; and she regarded the tightness of her skirt in front, and the +fan of her train behind, with something more than complacency. + +As yet the lust for jewels had not awakened in her, which was very +fortunate, for she had none. The tender, milky throat and the round +white arms were bare; and all the ornament that she wore, or wanted, was +a bouquet of white chrysanthemum and scarlet salvia on her bosom, and +another in her hair. + +Pretty Rachel Fetherstonhaugh! If Roden Dalrymple could have seen her +that night, only for five minutes, what a deal of trouble she might have +been spared! + +The dinner bell rang, and she blew out her candles hurriedly, and +flitted downstairs. On the landing below her she joined her uncle--a +small, thin, sharp-faced person, with wiry grey hair, and "man of +business" written in every line of his face--as he left his own +apartment; and they descended in haste together to the drawing-room, +where four people were solemnly awaiting them. + +The first thing that Rachel saw when she entered was her Marshal Neil +rose. She glanced from that to its wearer's face, eagerly turned to meet +her, full of admiring interest; and, as a matter of course, she blushed +to a hue that put her scarlet salvias to shame. + +Why she blushed she would have been at a loss to say; certainly not for +any of the reasons that the assembled spectators supposed. It was merely +from the vaguest sense of embarrassment at being in a position which she +had not been trained to understand. + +An hour or two before, her aunt had made that rose the text of a +discourse in which many strange things had been suggested, but nothing +explained; and now they all looked at her, evidently with reference to +it, yet with painful ambiguity that perplexed her and made her uneasy; +and she could only feel, in a general way, that she was young and +ignorant and not equal to the situation. Much less than that was amply +sufficient to cover her with a veil of blushes. + +At dinner she sat between Mr. Reade and her uncle, and, being on the +best of terms with both of them, she confined her conversation to her +own corner of the table, and scarcely lifted her eyes; but when dinner +was over--dinner and coffee, and the drive to the opera-house--then Mr. +Kingston, deeply interested in his supposed discovery of a new kind of +woman, and piqued by her shy reception of his generally much-appreciated +attentions, set himself to improve his acquaintance with her, and found +the task easy. They were standing on the pavement, in the glare of the +gaslight, with a lounging crowd about them. + +Mrs. Hardy had dropped a bracelet, for which she and her son-in-law were +hunting in the bottom of the brougham, and Mrs. Reade was chatting to an +acquaintance, whose hansom had just deposited him beside her--a bearded +young squatter, enjoying his season in town after selling his wool high, +who stared very hard at Rachel through a pair of good glasses, as soon +as he had a favourable opportunity. + +Mr. Kingston stood by the girl's side, staring at her without disguise. +The shadow of the street fell soft upon her gauzy raiment and her white +arms and the lustre of her auburn hair, but her face was turned towards +the gaslight--she was looking wistfully up the long passage which had +something very like fairy land at the end of it--and he thought he had +never seen any face so fresh and sweet. + +"You like this kind of thing, don't you?" he said, gently, as if +speaking to a child, when in turning to look for her aunt she caught his +eye. + +"Oh, yes," she replied, promptly, "I do, indeed! I like the whole thing; +not the singing and the acting only, but the place, and the people, and +the ladies' dresses, and the noise, and the moving about, and the +lights--everything. I should like to come to the opera every +night--except the nights when there are balls." + +Mr. Kingston laughed, and said he should never have guessed from what he +had seen of her that she was such a very gay young lady. + +"You don't understand," she responded quickly, looking up at him with +earnest, candid eyes; "it is not that I am gay--oh, no, I don't think it +is that! though perhaps I do enjoy a spectacle more than many people. +But it is all so new and strange. I have never had any sightseeing--any +pleasure like what I am having now, that is why I find it so +delightful." + +"Come, my dear!" cried Mrs. Hardy sharply (she had found her bracelet +and overheard a part of this little dialogue), "don't stand about in the +wind with nothing over you. What have you done with your shawl?" + +"It is here, aunt," replied Rachel meekly, lifting it from her arm. + +Her cavalier hastened to take it from her and adjust it carefully over +her shoulders. During this operation Mrs. Hardy swept into the lobby, +taking the arm of her big son-in-law; and Mrs. Reade, having parted from +her friend, glanced round quickly, followed her husband, and put herself +also under his protection. Mr. Kingston, smiling to himself like +Mephistopheles under his waxed moustache, was left with Rachel in the +doorway. + +"How _does_ it go?" he said, fumbling with a quantity of woolly fringe. +"All right--there's no hurry. It is not eight o'clock yet. Pray let me +do it for you." + +She stood still, while he dawdled as long as he could over the +arrangement of her wrap, but she cast anxious looks after the three +receding figures, and she was the colour of an oleander blossom. He was +a little disconcerted at her embarrassment; it amused him, but it +touched him too. + +Poor little timid child! Who would be so mean as to take advantage of +her inexperience? Not he, certainly. He gave her his arm and led her +into the house, with a deferential attentiveness that did not usually +mark his deportment towards young girls. On their way they were accosted +by a boy holding a couple of bouquets in each hand. + +"Buy a bouquet for the opera, Sir?" said he, in his sing-song voice. + +Mr. Kingston paused and put his glass in his eye. They were bright +little nosegays, and one of them, much superior to the other, had a +fringe of maiden hair fern and a rich red rose in the middle of it. He +took this from the boy's hand, and offered it to Rachel with his +elaborate bow. + +"Permit me," he said, "to make a poor acknowledgment of my deep +indebtedness to you for _this_." + +And he touched the drooping petals of the Marshal Neil bud, and imagined +he was paying her a delicate sentimental compliment. + +If Rachel had been the most finished fine lady she could not have +undeceived him more gracefully. + +"Thank you," she said, simply, and she smiled for half a second. + +To be sure her red rose was not redder than she was, but she held her +head with a gentle air of maidenly dignity that quite counteracted the +weakness of that blush. + +Mr. Kingston began to suspect, with some surprise, that she was not so +easy to get on with as she appeared. However, that did not lessen his +interest in her by any means. + +"I am afraid you think I have taken a liberty," he suggested presently. +What had come to him to care what a bread-and-butter miss might think? +But somehow he did care. + +"Oh, no," she said, "it is very kind of you. But you must not talk of +being indebted to me. Flowers are not--not presents, like other things." + +By this time they had reached the top of the stairs, and Mrs. Reade was +sweeping out of the cloak-room, where she had been "settling" her hair, +and putting a little powder on her face. + +"Mamma is gone in," she said, taking the girl's hand kindly; "there are +plenty of people here to-night, Rachel. You must look for a lady sitting +on the right of the Governor's box, in a high velvet dress. She is one +of our Melbourne beauties." + +So they went in and took their seats; and Rachel found herself sitting +in the front tier, not very much to the left of the viceregal armchairs, +and her cousin Beatrice was on one side of her and Mr. Kingston on the +other. + +She was perfectly contented now. She smiled at her flowers; she furled +and unfurled her fan; she looked round and round the house through her +glasses, whispering questions and comments to Mrs. Reade, who knew +everybody and everybody's history; and it made Mrs. Hardy quite uneasy +to see how thoroughly and evidently she enjoyed herself. Mr. Kingston +recovered his spirits which she had damped a little while ago. + +He watched her face from time to time--generally when she was absorbed +in watching the stage; and the more he looked, the more charming he +found it. So fresh, so frank, so modest, so sweet, with those delicate +womanly blushes always coming and going, and that child-like fun and +brightness in her eyes. He had never been so "fetched," as he expressed +it, by a pretty face before; that is to say, he did not remember that he +ever had been. + +It was, indeed, very seldom that he regarded a pretty face with such a +serious kind of admiration. He found himself wondering how it would +fare, how long it would keep its transparent innocence and candour in +the atmosphere of this new world--this second-rate Hardy set, which was +full of meretricious, manoeuvring, gossip-loving women--with a touch of +anxiety that was quite unselfish. He was sure now that she was not a +coquette; he was experienced enough to know, also, that, however humble +her origin and antecedents, she was a girl of thoroughly "good style;" +and it would be a thousand pities, he thought, if the influence of her +surroundings should spoil her. + +When the curtain fell and the gas was turned up, he noticed that people +all round the house were turning their glasses upon her. Certainly she +made a charming study from an artistic point of view. What taste she had +shown in the grouping of her white chrysanthemums, and the way she had +mixed in those few velvety horns of red salvia. They were colours proper +to a brunette, but they seemed to accentuate the delicacy of her milky +complexion and the fine shade of her red-gold hair. + +What a chin and throat she had! and what soft, yet strong, round +arms!--white, but warm, like blush rose petals that had unfolded in the +dews of dawn at summer time, against the black background of her dress. +And her shape and her colour were nothing compared with the expression +of utter content and happiness that shone out of her face, irradiating +her youth and beauty with a tender light and sweetness that, like +sunshine on a sleeping crater, gave no hint of the tragic trouble hidden +away for future years. No wonder people looked at her. Of course they +looked. + +The glasses that she had been using belonged to Mrs. Reade, and now that +lady was busy with them, hunting for her numerous acquaintances. Mr. +Kingston held out his own, curious to see if she would discover what +attention she was receiving, and what the effect of such a discovery +would be. + +"Thank you," said Rachel gratefully; and she settled herself back in her +seat, and proceeded to take a thorough survey of all the rank and +fashion that surrounded her. For a long time she gazed attentively, +shifting her glasses slowly round from left to right; and Mr. Kingston +watched her, leaning an elbow on the red ridge between them, and +twiddling one horn of his moustaches. + +He expected to see the familiar blush stealing up over the whiteness of +her face and neck. But she remained, though deeply interested, quite +cool and calm. Presently she dropped her hands in her lap and drew a +long breath. + +"There is a lady over there," she said in a whisper, "who has something +round her arm so bright that I think it must be diamonds. Do you see who +I mean? When she holds up her glasses again, tell me if they are real +diamonds in her bracelet." + +Much amused, Mr. Kingston did as he was bidden. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "they are real diamonds. That lady is particularly +addicted to precious stones. She walks about the street in broad day +with a Sunday school in each ear, as that fellow in _Piccadilly_ says. +Are you like the majority of your sex--a worshipper of diamonds? I +thought you did not care for jewellery." + +"I do," she replied, smiling. "I don't worship jewels, but I should like +to have some. I should like to have some real diamonds _very_ much." + +"I daresay you will have plenty some day, and very becoming they'll be +to you. Not more so, though, than the flowers you are wearing to-night," +he added, looking at them admiringly. + +Rachel touched up her ornaments with a thoughtful face. + +"There is such a light about diamonds," she said musingly; "no coloured +stones seem so liquid and twinkling. I don't care in the least about +coloured stones. If I were very rich I would have one ring full of +diamonds, to wear every day, and one necklace to wear at night--a +necklace of diamond stars strung together--and perhaps a diamond +bracelet. And I wouldn't care for anything else." + +"Should you like to be very rich?" asked her companion, smiling to +himself over these naive confessions. He was gazing, not only into her +eyes, but at her lovely throat and arms, and imagining how they would +look with diamonds on them. + +"Yes," said Rachel. "But the great thing I wish is not to be poor. I +hope--oh, I do hope--I shall never be poor any more!" + +"I don't think you stand in the least danger of that," said Mr. +Kingston. + +"I know all about it," continued the girl gravely; "and I don't think +you do, or you could not laugh or make a joke of it. You _cannot_ know +how much it means. _You_ never have debts, of course." + +"Debts? Oh, dear, yes, I do--plenty." + +"Yes, but I mean debts that you can't pay--that you have to apologise +for--that hang and drag about you always. I won't talk about it," she +added hurriedly, with a little shiver; "it will spoil my pleasure +to-night." + +"_Don't_," said Mr. Kingston. He did not find it a congenial topic +either. "Tell me what you would do if you were rich." + +"What I would do?" she murmured gently, smiling again. "Oh, all kinds of +things--I would pay ready money for everything, in the first place. Then +I would have a lovely house, with quantities of pictures. That is one +great fault in our house at Toorak--we have no nice pictures. And I +would wear black velvet dresses. And I would have a beautiful sealskin +jacket. And a thorough-bred horse to ride----" + +"Oh, do you ride?" interposed Mr. Kingston, eagerly. + +"I used to ride. I like it very much. My father gave me a beautiful mare +once; but afterwards he rode a steeplechase with her, and she fell and +broke her back. I can ride very well," she added, smiling and blushing. +"I can jump fences without being afraid. But Uncle Hardy keeps only +carriage horses, and none of the family ride." + +"But you must have a horse, of course. I must speak to your uncle about +it," said Mr. Kingston. "Indeed, I think I have one that would suit you +admirably, and I'll lend him to you to try, with pleasure, if you'll +allow me." + +"Oh, _will_ you? Oh, _how_ delightful! When will you let me try him? But +I forgot--I have no habit!" + +"That is a difficulty soon got over. I'll speak to your aunt," said this +influential autocrat. + +And here a bell rang, and the curtain rose upon a fresh scene. Mrs. +Reade and her mother had had an absorbing _tete-a-tete_, and now turned +to see what their charge was doing. Mr. Reade, redolent of something +that was not eau de cologne, came back to his seat; and Rachel began to +watch the proceedings of the prima donna, who was solemnly marching +across the stage. Mr. Kingston was aware, however, that the girl's +thoughts were not with the spectacle before her. She was evidently +preoccupied about those promised rides. + +"I shall have no one to go with me," she whispered presently, in the +pauses of a song. + +"I shall be proud to be your escort," he whispered back. "And there will +always be the groom, you know," he added, seeing the colour of the +oleander blossom suddenly appear. "Do not be anxious. I will manage it +all for you." + +"You are _very_ kind," she said, looking up into his face with that shy +blush, and a charming friendliness in her eyes, "and I am very grateful +to you; but please do not try to persuade Aunt Elizabeth against her +wish." And she did not say much more to him. From this point she became +silent and thoughtful. + +When they reached Toorak, however, Mr. Kingston redeemed his promise +faithfully in his own way, and at considerable trouble to himself. Mr. +and Mrs. Hardy both liked to do things, as they called it, "handsomely," +but at the same time without any unnecessary expense; and neither of +them could see his proposal in the light of a paying enterprise. + +Rachel was driven out in the carriage daily; she appeared at all places +of fashionable resort; she took abundant exercise. A riding-horse would +be expensive, and so would a saddle and habit, not to speak of the +addition to the stable necessities; and what would there be to show for +it? But while the uncle, and still more the aunt, were delicately +fencing with the proposition, Mrs. Reade struck in and swept all +objections away. + +"Of course the child ought to ride if she has been used to riding," said +this imperious small person. "You send your horse here, Mr. Kingston, +and Ned shall come round and see what she can do with it." This was in +the hall, where he was supposed to be saying good-night; and Rachel had +gone upstairs to bed. + +"Thank you, Mrs. Reade--if I may," he said, with an eager gratitude that +amused himself. "I am sure it would be a great pleasure to her--and it +would be so good for her health. Why don't _you_ ride too? It is such +splendid exercise." + +"I would in a minute, if I had a figure like hers," laughed Mrs. Reade. +"Mamma, we must get her a good habit to set off that figure. I'll come +round in the morning, and go with you to have her measured. Are you +going, Mr. Kingston, without a cup of hot coffee? Good-night, then; mind +you send your horse." + +The servant shut the door behind him; and he went out into the solemnity +of the autumn night. The wind was rustling and whispering through the +shrubberies round the house; it had the scent in it of untimely violets, +mingled with a faint fragrance of the distant sea. + +Above, the stars were shining brilliantly; below, the teeming city lay +silent in the lap of darkness, with a thousand lamplights sprinkled +over it. In the foreground he could dimly see the lines of gravelled +paths and grassy terraces, and the gleam of great bunches of pale +chrysanthemums swaying to and fro in the cool air. + +"It is a splendid site," he said to himself; "but I think, if anything, +mine is better." + +He stood for some time, looking away over the illuminated valley to the +milky streak on the horizon where in three or four hours the waters of +Port Philip Bay would shine; and then he sauntered down to the lodge, +and found his hansom waiting for him. + +"Go up to my land there, will you?" said he, pointing his thumb over his +shoulder as he got in. "I'm going to set the men on soon, and I want to +have a look at it." + +The driver, wondering whether he had had more champagne than usual, +said, "All right, Sir," and drove him the few dozen yards that +intervened between Mr. Hardy's gates and the place where his own were +designed to be. + +In the darkness he clambered over the fence, made his way to the highest +ground in the enclosure, and stood once more to look at the +lamp-spangled city and the dim and distant bay. + +"Yes," he said, "I am higher here. I shall get a better view." And he +began to build his house in fancy--to see it towering over all his +neighbours', with great white walls and colonnades, and myriad windows +full of lights, and lovely gardens full of flowers and fountains. "I +must begin at once," he said. "I must see the contractors to-morrow. I +must not put it off any longer, or I shall be an old man before I can +begin to enjoy it." + +And after long musing over the details of his project, he stumbled back, +through saplings, and tussocks, and broken bottles, to the fence; tore +his dress-coat on a nail getting over it; and subsiding into his cab, +lit a cheroot, and stared intently into vacancy all the way to his club. + +When he reached this bachelor's home he did not know what to do with +himself. He thought he would write to a celebrated firm of contractors +to make an appointment for the morning; but it was past twelve o'clock, +and the letters had been collected. + +Some men called him to come and play loo, but he was not in the mood for +cards. He tried billiards, and found his hand unsteady; he went into the +smoking-room, but it was hot and noisy. He had always liked his club, +and maintained against all comers that it was a glorious institution; +but now he began to see that after all a middle-aged gentleman of ample +fortune might find himself pleasanter lodgings. He went out of doors, +where the air was so sweet and cool, rustling up and down an ivied wall, +and over a strip of lawn that lay deep in shadow below it; and looking +at the clear dark sky and the clear pale stars, he put to himself a +momentous question, for which he had a half-shaped answer ready: + +"Who shall I ask to be the mistress of my house?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ANSWER. + + +A girl of eighteen is popularly supposed to be grown up--to have all +wisdom and knowledge necessary for her guidance and protection through +the supreme difficulties of a woman's lot. When one gets ten years +older, one is apt to think that this is a mistake. Life is not so easy +to learn. The treasures of love, like visions of the Holy Grail, are not +revealed to those who have known none of the waiting, and yearning, and +suffering, and sacrifice that teach their divine nature and their +immeasurable worth. + +And to all the vast meanings and solemn mysteries that surround the +great question of right and wrong--the great question of human life--the +spiritual eyesight is blind, or worse than blind, until the experience +of years of mistakes and disillusions brings, little by little, dim +apprehensions of light and truth. + +Rachel Fetherstonhaugh, with the snare of her beauty and her sensuous +love of luxurious surroundings newly laid about her feet, entered upon +her kingdom more than ordinarily unprepared. + +Poor little, helpless, foolish child! How was she to know that marriage +meant something better than a richly-appointed house and a kind +protector? How could she be held accountable for the commission, or +contemplation, of a crime against her youth and womanhood of whose +nature and consequences she was absolutely ignorant? + +She was flitting in and out through the French windows of the +drawing-room one fine morning, with a basket of flowers on her arm, +busily engaged in rearranging the numerous little bouquets that she made +it her business to keep in perennial freshness all about the house, when +Mr. Kingston was announced. + +She had seen him several times since the night of the opera; he had left +his card twice when she had been away from home; and Mrs. Hardy had had +polite messages respecting the horse, which had been duly sent for her +approval. He came in now, with his light and jaunty step, bowing low, +and smiling so that his white teeth shone under his Napoleonic +moustache, carrying a large roll of paper in his hand. + +"Good morning, Miss Fetherstonhaugh," he exclaimed gaily. "I must +apologise for this early call; but I can never find you at home after +lunch these fine days." + +Rachel, who had not seen his approach nor heard him enter the house, +whose hall-door was standing open for her convenience, turned round with +her hands full of flowers. In the sunshine of the morning she looked +more fair and refined than he had ever seen her, he thought. The +plainest little black gown showed her graceful shape to perfection; her +complexion, always so delicate, was flushed and freshened with the wind +and her embarrassment. + +As for her hair, half-covered with a shabby garden hat on the back of +her head, it was the central patch of light and colour in the +bright-hued room; he was sure he had never seen hair so silky in texture +and so rich in tint. + +His ideal woman, hitherto, had been highly polished and elaborately +appointed; she had been a woman of rank and fashion, in Parisian +clothes, a queen of society, always moving about in state, with her +crown on. But now, in the autumn of his years, all his theories of life +were being overturned by an ignorant little country girl, sprung from +nobody knew where; and a coronet of diamonds would not have had the +charm of that old straw hat, with a wisp of muslin round it, which +framed the sweetest face he had ever seen or dreamed of. + +"My aunt is in her room," she stammered hastily; "I will send to tell +her you are here. She will be very glad to see you." + +And she called back the servant who had admitted him, and sent a message +upstairs. + +Mrs. Hardy, however, did not hurry herself. She was a thrifty +housekeeper still, as in her early days, and devoted her forenoons +religiously to her domestic affairs. Just now she was sorting linen +that had returned from the wash; and, hearing that her niece was in the +drawing-room, she had no scruple about remaining to finish her task. + +"Say I will be down directly," she said. And she did not go down for +considerably more than half an hour. + +In the meantime Rachel tumbled her flowers into the basket, took off her +hat, and seated herself demurely in a green satin chair. + +"It is a lovely morning," she remarked. + +"Oh, a charming morning--perfectly charming! You ought to be having a +ride, you know. Have you tried Black Agnes yet?" + +"No, not yet. My habit has not come home. They promised to send it last +night, but they did not. I am very anxious to try her. She is the +prettiest creature I ever saw. I--I," beginning to blush violently, +"have not half thanked you for your kindness, Mr. Kingston." + +"Pray don't mention it," he replied, waving his hand; "I shall be only +too glad if I am able to give you a little pleasure." + +"It is the _greatest_ pleasure," she said, smiling. "But she is so +good--so much too good--I am half afraid to take her out, for fear +anything should happen to her. Uncle Hardy says she is a much better +horse than he wants for me." + +"Your uncle had better mind his own business," said Mr. Kingston, with +sudden irritation. "If you are to have a horse at all, you must have one +that is fit to ride, of course." + +"But I think it is his business," suggested Rachel, laughingly. + +"No; just now it is mine. I mean," he added hastily, a little alarmed at +the expression and colour of her face, "that Black Agnes is mine. And +while I lend her to you she is yours. And I trust you will use her in +every way as if she were actually yours." + +"Thank you; you are very kind. I hope nothing _will_ happen to her. I +shall take great care of her, of course. I will not jump fences or +anything of that sort." + +"Oh, pray do," urged Mr. Kingston. "She is trained to jump. She has +carried a lady over fences scores of times." The fact was he had only +bought her a few days before, and had selected her from a large and +miscellaneous assortment on account of this special qualification. "I +hope you will let me ride out with you, and show you my old +cross-country hunting leaps. You will not mind jumping fences with her, +if I am with you, and make you do it?" + +"No," she said, "for I shall show you that it is not the fault of my +riding if accidents happen." + +"Exactly. I am sure it will not be your fault. But we will not have any +accidents--I will take too good care of you. Can't we go out this +afternoon? Oh, I forgot that habit. I'll call on your tailor, if you'll +allow me, and 'exhort' him; shall I? I have done it before, on my own +account, with the most satisfactory results." + +"No, thank you," said Rachel, "I would not give you that trouble. He +will send it home when it is ready, I suppose." + +And she rose from her chair and began to move about the room, wondering +whether her aunt was ever coming downstairs. + +Mr. Kingston thought it would be expedient to change the conversation. + +"I have brought you the plans of my house," he said, taking up his roll +of papers, and beginning to spread great sheets on a table near him. "I +meant to have asked your opinion before I began to build it, but--well, +I took it for granted that you would like it as it was." + +"Ah, yes," responded Rachel brightly, coming to his side. "Uncle Hardy +said you had begun. And you know I can see all the men and carts from my +window. Oh! oh!" + +This enthusiastic exclamation greeted the unrolling of the "front +elevation," which, in faint outlines, filled in with pale washes of grey +and blue and pink, showed her the towers and colonnades of her ideal +palace. When he heard it, Mr. Kingston's heart swelled. He was more +charmed with his pretty creature than ever. + +"This, you see," said he, "is the main entrance--fifteen steps. But +won't you sit down? You will see better. And this wing is where the +drawing-rooms are to be," he added, when she had seated herself, and he +had taken a chair beside her. "There are three large rooms in a line, +that can all be thrown together on occasions--when necessary. I have not +decided about the furniture yet, nor the colours of the walls. You must +help me with those things presently. The dados, which are being designed +at home, are to be of carved wood, most of them; mantelpieces to match. +Some of the dados will be of inlaid stone, tiles, and that sort of +thing. I suppose you don't know what a dado is, do you?" + +"No," said Rachel, meekly. Whereupon he entered into elaborate +explanations. + +"I think I should not like tiles on the wall," she ventured to remark; +"they would feel very cold, wouldn't they?" + +"They tell me tile is the proper thing," he replied; "and of course I +want to have everything that is proper. But whatever my--my wife wishes +shall be law, of course. In her own rooms, at any rate, she shall +consult her own taste entirely." + +Rachel stared at him, coloured and laughed. "Oh, you did not tell me +about your wife before," she said. "I did not know you were engaged to +be married. That is why you are making haste to build your house? I am +very glad. I congratulate you." + +"Do not; do not," he stammered earnestly. "I speak of a possible wife, +because I hope to have a wife some day. I am not engaged. I wish I +were." + +"Oh!" she said, looking down bashfully, with oleander blossoms +everywhere. "I beg your pardon." + +"I wish I were," he repeated. "But I am going to get ready for that +happy time against it does come. See, these are to be her rooms. They +face the south, and I am going to have a rose garden below them. This is +to be her boudoir. I thought of having the walls and the ceiling painted +in coral. I have noticed that pink lights in a room are very becoming to +a lady's complexion, rather pale on the walls, for the sake of the +pictures. You said you liked plenty of pictures?" + +"I? Oh, yes, I like pictures." + +"And I did mean to have a dado of very fine, rich tiles to make a +foundation of colour, you know; but you don't like tiles?" + +"Oh, but _I_ don't know anything about it, Mr. Kingston! You had better +do what you said--furnish the other rooms, and leave your wife, when you +get one, to choose the decorations of her own herself." + +"She _shall_ choose them herself. But, Miss Fetherstonhaugh--" + +"Rachel, my dear, your habit has come," said Mrs. Hardy, appearing at +this interesting moment. "Oh, how do you do, Mr. Kingston? Pray forgive +me for leaving you so long. I hope you have come to lunch? Oh, yes, you +must stay to lunch, of course. We'll take you into town afterwards, when +we go out to drive." + +Mr. Kingston stayed to lunch, and made himself very agreeable. But then +he went into town by himself, and returned in an incredibly short space +of time in riding costume, mounted on a powerful brown horse. During his +absence, Rachel had put on her habit, and found that it fitted her +beautifully; and Black Agnes had been caparisoned, and was pawing the +gravel before the hall door. Mrs. Reade, magnificently attired for a +series of state calls, had appeared upon the scene, and was regulating +all these pleasant circumstances. + +"Now then, Mr. Kingston, you must only take her along quiet roads. And +she is not to jump any fences when Ned is not with her." + +"Why, Ned?" inquired Mr. Kingston. "I am as learned in fences as Ned, +don't you think?" + +"Oh, yes, I know all about that. But it is the look of the thing. You +remember, Rachel, you are not to jump fences." + +"No, Beatrice, I won't." + +"Have a good gallop, my dear, and enjoy it," the little woman added. +"I'll take care of mamma; and when we have done all our calls we will +come and meet you." + +Mr. Kingston stepped jauntily to Black Agnes's side. He was an old +steeplechase rider before he was a successful city merchant, and he +looked ten years younger in his riding-dress. Rachel, with a radiant +face, approached him, and laid her small foot on his proffered palm. + +In a moment she was up like a feather, and sitting square and light in +her saddle like a practised horsewoman as she was; and all her +attendants, groom included, looked up at her admiringly. Even Mrs. Hardy +forgot the expense she had been put to. + +"The child certainly does look well on horseback," she remarked, +resignedly, as Black Agnes's shining haunches disappeared round a clump +of laurels. "What a figure she has, Beatrice!" + +"Oh, dear me, yes!" assented the younger matron pettishly. "Why didn't +_we_ have figures like that!" + +Meanwhile, the black mare and the big brown horse paced out into the +road, and for a little while the riders contented themselves with +friendly glances at one another. Rachel was crimson with pride and +bashfulness, looking lovely and riding beautifully, as she could not +but know she was. Mr. Kingston, sharing some measure of her elation and +excitement, was absorbed in looking at and admiring her. + +By and bye they had a long canter, which carried them well out into the +country, where there were no houses and no people, and where the shadows +were beginning to rest on the peaceful autumn landscape. And then Mr. +Kingston made her draw rein under a clump of trees, while she looked +back at the city they had left behind, glorified in the light of the +sinking sun. + +"So now there is something else you like besides operas and balls?" he +said, laying his hand upon the black mare's silky mane. + +"Yes," she replied, drawing a long breath, "and I think this is best of +all! She is like a swallow--she seems to skim the ground! And I--I don't +know when I have felt so happy!" + +All his years and his experience went for nothing under these +circumstances, when she looked as sweet as she did now. + +"You must keep Black Agnes," he said eagerly. "I will speak to your +uncle. I will not have you riding low-bred brutes. Nothing but the best +is fit for you; you, who know how to ride so well, and enjoy it so much! +You will keep her, to please me?" + +If she had been sitting in a green satin drawing-room she would +probably have checked this ardent outburst at an apparently harmless +stage. She would have blushed, and looked grave and majestic; but now +she was, in a sense, intoxicated. She lifted a pair of radiant, grateful +eyes to his face, and she held out her hand impulsively. + +"How good you are to me!" she said. "How much pleasure you give me!" + +And then, of course, he succumbed altogether. + +"That is what I want to do, not now, but always," he said, drawing the +mare's head to his knee, and the small, weak hand to his lips, which had +kissed so many hands, though never with quite the same kind of kiss. +"That is why I am building my house. It is you I wanted to be its +mistress--didn't you know that?--to do just what you like with it, and +with me, and with all I have!" And, when once he had fairly set it +going, the flood of his eloquence, running in a well-channelled groove, +flowed freely, and overwhelmed the poor little novice, who had never +been made love to before. + +"I--we--we have only seen each other a few times," she ventured to +suggest at last, but not until her imagination had been captivated by +the splendid prospect before her. She had the colour of a peony in her +cheeks, and frightened tears in her soft child's eyes; but her +experienced lover knew that his cause was gained. + +"That has been enough for me," he said. "Once was enough for me." Then, +after a long pause, "Well? Is it to be 'yes' or 'no?'" + +"Oh, I don't know!" she stammered desperately, turning her head from +side to side. "I have had no time. Let us wait until we know each other +better." + +"_I_ know quite enough," he persisted, "and I am not so young as you are +that I can afford to wait." + +She trembled and panted, gathering up her reins and dropping them in an +agony of embarrassment. + +"Oh," she said at last, "what can I say? Won't you let me speak to Aunt +Elizabeth?" + +"Of course, as soon as you like after you get home. I am not afraid of +Aunt Elizabeth. I know what _she_ will say. But now, dear--while we are +here by ourselves--I want you to tell me, of your own self, whether you +like me--whether you would really like to come and live with me in my +new house? You don't want anybody to help you to make up your mind about +that?" + +"No," she whispered, hanging her head, feeling at once terrified and +elated, and wishing to goodness she could see Mrs. Hardy and Beatrice +driving along the lonely empty road. + +"You _would_ like it? Turn your face to me and say 'Yes,' just once, and +I won't bother you any more." + +She turned her face, scarlet all over her ears and all down her throat, +and she tried to meet his ardent eyes and could not. Her lips shaped +themselves to say "Yes," but no sound would come. However, sound would +have been, perhaps, less expressive than the silence which overwhelmed +her in this proud but dreadful moment. At any rate, Mr. Kingston was +satisfied. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +SO SOON! + + +They rode home sedately in the cool and quiet evening. Mr. Kingston, +having accomplished the end for which he had contrived this unchaperoned +expedition, was content to keep close to his pretty sweetheart's side, +to look in her face occasionally with significant smiles, and to +ruminate on his own good fortune. + +Rachel, fluttered and dismayed at the situation in which she found +herself, bestowed a wandering attention on the near-side fields and +hedges, and discouraged conversation. It is needless to remark that the +carriage did not come to meet them. The long shadows lengthened, the sun +sank down below the glowing horizon, the glory of the evening faded away +into the soft dusk of the autumn night. + +Lamps were being lighted when they entered Toorak; the workmen who had +begun at the foundations of the new house were "knocking off;" the gates +of Mrs. Hardy's domain were standing open, and the woman at the lodge +informed them that she had not returned from her drive. + +They rode up to the house, and Mr. Kingston got off his horse and lifted +Rachel down. She disengaged herself from his arms as quickly as +possible, and then stood on the doorstep, while the groom led both +horses away, and looked at her _fiance_ anxiously, blushing with all her +might. + +"Won't you let me come in?" he asked smiling. But he did not mean to be +refused admittance; and he turned the handle of the door and led her +into the hall and into the drawing-room, as if it had been his own +house. + +The lamps had not been lit in the drawing-room, but a bright fire was +burning, making a glow of rich and pleasant colour all over its mossy +carpet and its shining furniture. Rachel's flowers were blooming +everywhere. Soft armchairs stood seductively round the cheerful hearth. +An afternoon tea-table was set for four, with everything on it but the +teapot. + +"My aunt is late," said Rachel uneasily. "I wonder what can have kept +her. I hope there has been no accident." + +Mr. Kingston showed all his teeth in a momentary smile, and then +addressed himself to the opportunity that had so happily offered. + +"Oh, no, she is not late; it is the days that are getting so short," he +said. And as he spoke he unfastened her hat and laid it aside, and then +drew her burning face to his shoulder and kissed her. She stood still, +trembling, to let him do it, one tingling blush from head to foot. She +liked him very much; she was very proud and glad that she was going to +marry him; she quite understood that it was his right and privilege to +kiss her, if he felt so disposed. Still her strongest conscious +sentiment was an ardent longing for her aunt's return--or her uncle's, +or anybody's. The spiritual woman in her protested against being kissed. + +"I want you not to be afraid of me," said Mr. Kingston, half anxious, +half amused, as he patted her head. "I am not an ogre, nor Bluebeard +either; you seem to shrink from me almost as if I was. You must not +shrink from me _now_, you know." + +"I will not--by and bye--when I get used to it," she gasped, with a +touch of hysterical excitement, extricating her pretty head, and +standing appealingly before him, with her pink palms outwards. "I'm not +afraid of you, Mr. Kingston, but--but it is very new yet! I shall get +used to it after a little." + +He looked down at her with sudden gravity. She was on the verge of +tears. + +"Oh, yes," he said quietly, almost paternally, "we shall soon get used +to each other. There is plenty of time. Let me see--how old are you? +Don't tell me; let me guess. Eighteen?" + +She smiled and composed herself. Yes, she was just eighteen. Somebody +must have told him. No, upon his honour, nobody had; it was his own +guess entirely. Did he not think he ought to have chosen someone older +for such a position of importance and responsibility? No; she was +gallantly assured that she had been an object, not of choice, but of +necessity. And so on. + +When the dialogue had brought itself down to a sufficiently sober level, +he took her hand, and drawing her into a seat beside him, continued to +hold it, and to stroke her slight white fingers between his palms. + +"They say good blood always shows itself in the fineness of a woman's +hands," he said; "if so, you ought to be particularly well-born." + +"I don't know what your standard is," she answered, smiling. "My father +came of a border family ages ago, I believe. I never knew anything about +my mother's parentage; she died when I was a baby." + +"I am _sure_ you are well born," he said, looking fondly and proudly at +her as she sat in the firelight, with her golden hair shining. "I shall +have not only the finest house, but the most beautiful wife to sit at +the head of my table. I don't believe there is another woman in +Melbourne who will compare with you, especially when you get those +diamonds on." + +"Diamonds!" ejaculated Rachel. + +"Yes; those diamonds you talked about the other night, don't you +know?--that you would have if you were very rich. Well, you are going to +be very rich. And I am going to order you some of them to-morrow. You +must give me the size of your finger. A 'ring full of diamonds,' didn't +you say? How full?" + +Rachel smiled, blushed, and ceased to feel that strong repugnance to +the amenities of courtship which had distressed both herself and her +lover at an earlier stage. + +Here a servant came in to light the gas. The man appeared conscious of +the inopportuneness of his intrusion, and despatched his business in +nervous haste, clinking the pendants of the cut-glass chandelier in a +manner that his mistress would have highly disapproved of. + +Rachel and her visitor watched him with a sort of silent fascination, as +if they had never seen gas lighted before. When he was gone, Mr. +Kingston took out his watch. It was past six o'clock. He had a dinner +engagement at seven, and had to get into town and change his clothes. + +"I'm afraid I dare not wait for Mrs. Hardy," he said, rising. "I hate to +go, but you know I would not if I could help it. I will see your uncle +at his office the first thing in the morning, and come to lunch +afterwards. Shall I?" + +"If you like," murmured Rachel, shyly. And then she submitted to be +kissed again, and being asked to do it, touched her lover's fierce +moustaches with her own soft lips--not "minding" it nearly so much as +she did at first. She was beginning to get used to being engaged to him. + +When immediately after his departure Mrs. Hardy, having left her +daughter at her own house, came home, and heard what had been taking +place, she could hardly believe the evidence of her ears. + +"So soon!" she ejaculated, lifting her hands. "Is it credible? My dear, +are you sure you are not making a mistake?" + +Remembering the wear and tear of mind and body that the management of +these affairs had cost her hitherto--remembering the illusive and +unsubstantial nature of all Mr. Kingston's previous attentions to the +most attractive marriageable girls--she found the suddenness of the +thing confounding. + +"Don't you think you may have misunderstood him?" she reiterated, +anxiously. "I'm afraid he is rather given to say more--or to appear to +say more--than he means sometimes." + +Rachel blushingly testified to the good faith of her _fiance_, by +references to the ring for which her finger had already been measured, +and to the impending interview at her uncle's office. + +"I should never have thought of it of myself Aunt Elizabeth," she said +meekly. + +Mrs. Hardy sank into an easy chair, and unbuttoned her furs, as if to +give her bosom room to swell with the pride and satisfaction that +possessed her. Then, looking up at the slender figure on the hearthrug, +at the candid innocent face of the child who had been bequeathed to her +love and care, a maternal instinct asserted itself. + +"My dear," she said, "you are very young, and this is a serious step. +You must take care not to run into it heedlessly. Do you really feel +that you would be happy with Mr. Kingston? He is much older than you +are, you know." + +Rachel thought of the new house, and of the diamonds, and of all her +lover's tributes to her worth and beauty. + +"Yes, I think so, aunt. He is a very nice man. He is very kind to me." + +"He has lived so long as a bachelor, that he has got into bachelor +ways," Mrs. Hardy reluctantly proceeded. "He has been rather--a--gay, so +they say. I doubt if you will find him domesticated, my dear." + +"I shall not _wish_ him to stay always at home with me," replied the +girl, with a fine glow of generosity. "And I do not mind tobacco-smoke, +nor latchkeys, nor things of that sort. And if he is fond of his club, +I hope he will go there as often as he likes. _I_ shall not try to +deprive him of his pleasures, when he will give me so many of my own. +And, you know, dear aunt, I shall be quite close to you; I can never be +lonely while I am able to run in and out here." + +Mrs. Hardy was reassured. This was the pliant, sweet-natured little +creature who would adapt herself kindly to any husband--who was not, of +course, an absolutely outrageous brute. + +And Mr. Kingston, except that he was a little old, a little of a +_viveur_, a trifle selfish, and, it was said, rather bad tempered when +he was put out, was everything that a reasonable girl could desire. She +smiled, rose from her chair, and kissed her niece's pretty face with +motherly pride and fondness. + +"Well, my love, it is a great match for you," she said, "and I hope it +will be a happy one as well." + +And then, hearing her husband coming downstairs, she left the room +hurriedly to meet and drive him back again, that she might explain to +him the interesting state of affairs while she put on her gown for +dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A RASH PROMISE. + + +There was of course no opposition to Rachel's engagement. Mr. Hardy, +away from his office, was simply Mrs. Hardy's husband, not because he +had no will of his own, but because he acknowledged her superior +capacity for the management of that complicated business called getting +on in the world, to which they had both devoted their lives for so many +years. + +Mrs. Reade, who next to her mother was the greatest "power" in the +family, approved of the match highly, though she had herself proposed to +be Mrs. Kingston at an earlier stage of her career; but she had a good +deal to say before she would allow it to be considered a settled thing. + +In the first place she had a serious talk with the bridegroom-elect, in +which she demanded on Rachel's behalf certain guarantees of good +behaviour when he should have become a married man. She was a clever +little clear-headed woman, full of active energies, for which the +minding of her own business did not supply employment; and being blessed +with plenty of self-confidence and much good sense and tact, she +contrived to give her friends a great deal of assistance with theirs, +without giving them offence at the same time. + +Occasionally she came across another strong-minded woman who objected to +interference; but the men never objected. They rather liked it, most of +them. + +Mr. Kingston, at any rate, thought it was very pleasant to be lectured +in a maternal manner by a woman five feet high, who was just thirty +years younger than he was; and he made profuse and solemn promises that +he would be "a good boy," and take the utmost care of the innocent young +creature who had confided her happiness to his charge. And then she +fetched Rachel away to spend the day with her, and, over a protracted +discussion of afternoon tea, gave _her_ some valuable advice as to the +conduct of her affairs. + +"You know," she said, with much gravity and decision, "it is always best +to look at these things in a practical way. Mr. Kingston is, no doubt, a +splendid match, and not a bad fellow, as men go; but it is no use +pretending that he won't be a great handful. He has been a bachelor too +long. The habit of having his own way in everything will have become his +second nature. I doubt if anyone could properly break him of it now, and +I am sure _you_ could not." + +"I should not try," said Rachel, smiling. "I should like my husband, +whoever he was, to have his own way." + +Mrs. Reade shook her head. + +"It doesn't answer, my dear. What is the use of a man marrying if his +wife doesn't try to keep him straight? And if you give in to him in +everything, he only despises you for it." + +"But, Beatrice," Rachel protested, "all men don't want keeping straight, +do they? It seems to me that every case is different from every other +case. One is no guide for another." + +"I know it isn't. I'm only thinking of your case. And I want to make you +understand it. You don't know him as well as I do, and you don't know +anything about married life. If you run into it blindfold, and let +things take their chance, then--why, then it is too late to talk about +it. Everything depends upon how you begin. You must begin as you mean +to go on." + +"And how ought I to begin?" inquired Rachel, still smiling. She could +not be brought to regard this momentous subject with that serious +attention which it demanded. + +"Well, _I_ should take a very high hand if it were my case--but you are +not like me. I should put a stop to a great deal that goes on now at +_once_, and get it over, while the novelty and pleasure of his marriage +was fresh and my influence was supreme. I should try to make him as +happy as possible, of course, for both our sakes. I'd humour him in +little things. I'd never put him out of temper, if I could help it. But +I would keep him well in hand, and on no account put up with any +nonsense. If they see you mean that from the beginning, they generally +give in; and by and bye they are used to it, and settle down quietly and +comfortably, and you have no more trouble." + +Rachel's smiling face had been growing grave, and her large eyes +dilating and kindling. + +"Oh, Beatrice," she broke out, "that is not marriage--not my idea of +marriage! How can a husband and wife be happy if they are always +watching each other like two policemen? And they marry on purpose to be +happy. I think they should love one another enough to have no fear of +those treacheries. If they are not alike--if they have different tastes +and ways--oughtn't they to be companions whenever they _can_ enjoy +things together, and help each other to get what else they want. Love +should limit those outside wants--love should make everything safe. If +that will not, I don't think anything else will. I should never have the +heart to try anything else, if that failed." + +Mrs. Reade gazed with intense curiosity and interest at this girl, with +her young enthusiasm and her old-world philosophy. She was so surprised +at the unexpected element introduced into the dialogue, that for a few +minutes she could not speak. Then she put out her hand impulsively and +laid it on Rachel's knee. + +"Is _that_ how you feel about Mr. Kingston?" she exclaimed, earnestly. +"My dear, I beg your pardon. I did not know how things were. If you +think of your marriage in that way, pray forget all I have been saying, +and act as your own heart dictates. That will be your safest guide." + +So Rachel was engaged with satisfaction to all concerned. She +conscientiously believed that she loved her elderly _fiance_, and that +she would be very happy with him; and the rest of them thought so +too--himself of course included. + +The winter wore away, full of peace and pleasure. The interesting event +was public property, and the engaged pair were feted and congratulated +on all sides, and enjoyed themselves immensely. + +Rachel had her diamond ring, and a diamond bracelet into the bargain, +with a promise of the "necklace of stars, strung together," on her +wedding day: and her aunt in consideration of her prospective +importance, bought her the coveted sealskin jacket. + +Black Agnes was made over to her entirely, and she rode and jumped +fences to her heart's content. She went to the opera whenever she liked. +She was the belle of all the balls; and in the best part of Melbourne +her splendid home was being prepared for her, where she was to reign as +a queen of beauty and fashion, with unlimited power to "aggravate other +women"--which is supposed by some cynics to be the highest object of +female ambition. + +And Mr. Kingston bore with extreme complacency the jokes of his club +friends on his defection from that faith in the superior advantages of +celibacy, which he and some of them had held in common; for he knew they +all admired his lady-love extravagantly, if they did not actually go so +far as to envy him her possession. And he attended her wherever she went +with the utmost assiduity. + +When the winter was nearly over, an event occurred in the Hardy family +which made a change in this state of things. Mrs. Thornley, the second +daughter, who lived in the country, having married a wealthy landowner, +who preferred all the year round to manage his own property, presented +Mrs. Hardy with her first grandchild; and being in rather delicate +health afterwards, wrote to beg her mother to come and stay with her, +and of course to bring Rachel. + +To this invitation Mrs. Hardy responded eagerly by return of post, and +bade Rachel pack up quickly for an early start. Rachel was delighted +with the prospect, even though it involved her separation from her +betrothed; and her preparations were soon completed. Mr. Hardy was +handed over to his daughter Beatrice, "to be kept till called for;" one +old servant was placed in charge of the Toorak house, and others on +board wages; and Mrs. Hardy, paying a round of farewell calls, intimated +to her friends that she was likely to make a long visit. + +Rachel rose early on the day of her departure. It was a very lovely +morning in the earliest dawn of spring, full of that delicate, +delicious, champagny freshness which belongs to Australian mornings. +She opened her window, while yet half dressed, to let in the sweet air +blowing off the sea. + +Far away the luminous blue of the transparent sky met the sparkle of the +bluer bay, where white sails shone like the wings of a flock of +sea-birds. Below her, spreading out from under the garden terraces, far +and wide, lay Melbourne in a thin veil of mist and smoke, beginning to +flash back the sunshine from its spiky forest of chimney stacks and +towers. And close by, through an opening in the belt of pinus insignis +which enclosed Mr. Hardy's domain, and where just now a flock of king +parrots were noisily congregating after an early breakfast on almond +blossoms, she could see the dusty mess surrounding the nucleus of her +future home, and the workmen beginning their day's task of chipping and +chopping at the stones which were to build it; even they were +picturesque in this glorifying atmosphere. How bright it all was! Her +heart swelled with childish exultation at the prospect of a journey on +such a day. + +As for Mr. Kingston, to be left behind to stroll about Collins Street +disconsolately by himself, just now she did not give him a thought. + +Two or three hours later, however, when she and her aunt, accompanied by +"Ned"--who had no office, unfortunately for him, and was therefore +driven by his wife to make himself useful when opportunity +offered--arrived at Spencer Street, there was Mr. Kingston on the +platform waiting to see the last of her. If she was able to leave him +without any severe pangs of regret and remorse, he for his part was by +no means willing to let her go. + +"You will write to me often," he pleaded, when, having placed her in a +corner of the ladies' carriage, he rested his arms on the window for a +last few words. Mrs. Hardy was leaning out of the opposite window, +deeply interested in the spectacle of an empty Williamstown train +patiently waiting for its passengers and its engine. + +"Yes," said Rachel slowly; "but you must remember I shall be in the +country, and shall have no news to make letters of." + +"I don't want news," he replied with a shade of darkness in his eager +face. "Pray don't give me news--that's a kind of letter I detest. I +want you to write about yourself." + +"I--I have never had many friends," she stammered, "and I am not used to +writing letters. You will be disappointed with mine--and perhaps ashamed +of me." + +"What rubbish! Do you think I shall be critical about the grammar and +composition? Why, my pet, if you don't spell a single word right I +shan't care--so long as you tell me you think of me, and miss me, and +want to come back to me." + +"Oh," said Rachel bridling, "I know how to _spell_." + +Here a railway official shouldered them apart in order to lock the door, +and Mr. Kingston demanded of him what he meant by his impudence. Having +satisfied the claims of outraged dignity, he again leaned into the +window, and put out his hand for a tender farewell. + +"Good-bye, my darling. You _will_ write often, won't you? And mind now," +with one of his Mephistophelian smiles, "you are not to go and flirt +with anybody behind my back." + +"I never flirt," said Rachel severely. + +"Nor fall in love with handsome young squatters, you know." + +"Don't talk nonsense," she retorted, melting into one of her sunny +smiles. "If you can't trust me, why do you let me go?" + +"I would not, if I had the power to stop you--you may be quite sure of +that. But you will promise me, Rachel?" + +"Promise you what?" + +"That you will be constant to me while you are away from me, and not +let other men----" + +She lifted her ungloved hand, on which shone that ring "full of +diamonds" which he had given her, and laid it on his mouth--or rather on +his moustache. + +"Now you'll make me angry if you go on," she said, with a playfully +dignified and dictatorial air. "No, I won't hear any more--I am ashamed +of you! after all the long time we have been engaged. As if I was a girl +of _that_ sort, indeed!" + +Here the signal was given for the train to start, and Mrs. Hardy came +forward to make her own adieux, and to give her last instructions to her +son-in-law, who had been meekly standing apart. + +As they slowly steamed out of the station, Rachel rose and comforted her +bereaved lover with a last sight of her fair face, full of fun and +smiles. + +"Good-bye," she called gaily; "I promise." + +"Thank you," he shouted back. + +He lifted his hat, and kissed the tips of his fingers, and stood to +watch the train disappear into the dismal waste that lay immediately +beyond the station precincts. Then he walked away dejectedly to find his +cab. He had grown very fond of his little sweetheart, and he anticipated +the long, dull days that he would have to spend without her. + +He wished Mrs. Hardy had been a little more definite as to the time when +she meant to bring her home. It was not as if he were a young man, with +any quantity of time to waste. However, he had her assurance that she +would be true to him under any temptations that should assail her in his +absence; and though too experienced to put absolute faith in that, it +greatly cheered and consoled him. He stepped into his hansom, and told +the driver to take him to Toorak, that he might see how the house where +they were going to live together was getting on. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TWO LOVE LETTERS. + + +MR. KINGSTON _to_ MISS FETHERSTONHAUGH. + + "My dearest love, + + "I had no idea that Melbourne _could_ be such a detestable + hole! Why have you gone away, and taken all the life and + brightness out of everything? + + "If I had not the house to look after--and there is not much to + interest one in that at present--I declare life would not be + worth the trouble it entails in the mere matter of dressing and + dining, and slating the servants and tradespeople. + + "I went to Mrs. Reade's last night. Everybody was there; but I + was bored to that extent that I came home in an hour (and + physicked _ennui_ at the card-table, where I lost ten pounds). + I could not get up any interest in anybody. Mrs. Reade herself + looked remarkably well. She is a very stylish woman, though she + is so small. And Miss Brownlow looked handsome, as usual--to + those who care for that dark kind of beauty. I confess I don't. + I could only long for you, and think what a lily you would have + been amongst them all, with your white neck and arms. (Be very + careful of your complexion, my darling, while you are in the + country; don't let the wind roughen your fine skin, nor sit by + the fire without a screen for your face). + + "As usual, poor Reade got a good deal snubbed. I would not be + in his place for something. But if a wife of mine told me in + the presence of guests that I had had as much wine as was good + for me, I'd take care she didn't do it a second time. My little + wife, however, will know better than that; _I_ have no fear of + being henpecked. It was a kind of musical evening, and Sarah + Brownlow sang several new songs. I thought her voice had gone + off a great deal. + + "I must say for Mrs. Beatrice, that she is a capital hostess, + and manages her parties as well as anybody. But this one was + immensely slow. Everything is slow now you are away. Is it + necessary for you to remain at Adelonga for the whole time of + your aunt's visit? Can't you come back to town soon, and stay + with Mrs. Reade? _Do_ try and manage it; I'm sure your aunt + would be willing, and it would be a most delightful arrangement + all round. + + "You will find Adelonga very dull, I fancy. It used to be a + pleasant house in the old days, when Thornley was a bachelor; + but two marriages must have altered both it and him, and the + second Mrs. Thornley is not lively, even at the best of times, + and must be terribly depressing as an invalid. There are a lot + of children, too, are there not? If your aunt doesn't let you + come back, can't you, when your cousin is well enough, + manoeuvre to get me an invitation? I would not mind a country + house if you and I were in it together. Nothing could well be + drearier than town is without you. And it would be so charming + to be both under the same roof! + + "And this reminds me of something I want to speak to you about + seriously, so give me your best attention. (I wonder whether, + having read so far, you are beginning to cover yourself with + blushes in anticipation of what is coming? I am sure you are.) + + "You told me, you know, my darling, that you did not wish to be + married for a year or two--not until the house was built and + finished, you said--because you were so young. But I have been + thinking that that will never do. The house will probably be an + immense time in hand; it is not like an ordinary plain house, + you see. And _I_ am not young, if you are. I don't say that I + am old, but still I have come to that time of life when a man, + if he means to marry and settle, should do it as soon as + possible. And you are not any younger than your cousin Laura + was when she married last year; and her husband, moreover, was + a mere boy. I remember when Buxton was born, and he can't be + five-and-twenty, nor anything like it. So you see, my pet, your + proposal is _quite_ absurd and unreasonable. + + "And now I will tell you what mine is. And I know my little + girl's gentle and generous disposition too well to doubt that + she will offer any serious opposition to it, or to any of my + urgent wishes. I propose that we marry without any delay; that + is to say, with no more delay than the preparing of your + trousseau necessitates. + + "We have already been engaged some months, and by the time your + visit is over and your preparations made, we shall have fully + reached the average term of engagements amongst people of our + class. I want you to let me write to your aunt (I am sure she + would see the matter _quite_ from my point of view), and + suggest a day in September, or in October at the latest. That + is a lovely time of year, and all my other plans would fit in + with such an arrangement beautifully. + + "You have never travelled, nor seen anything of the world yet; + and I should like to show you a little before you settle down + in your big house to all the cares of state. So I thought we + would go for a short honeymoon to Sydney or + Tasmania--whichever you like best; then come back for the + races, and to see how the house was going on. I think there + will be a club ball, too, about that time; if so, I know you + would like to go to it _with your diamond necklace on_. Would + you not? And then--while the shell of the house is building--I + propose we repeat the honeymoon tour on a larger scale, and go + to Europe. + + "I know you would like to see all that Laura Buxton is seeing + now; and I will take care that you see a great deal besides. + You shall make the old grand tour, if you like it; it will be + new enough to you. + + "And we will have a good time in Paris; and we will amuse + ourselves, wherever we go, collecting furniture and pictures, + and ornaments for our house. + + "You shall choose everything for your own rooms--as I told you + my wife should--from the best looms and workshops in the world. + And then when we come home we will take a house somewhere while + we superintend the fitting up of our own. + + "And finally, we will give a brilliant ball or something, by + way of housewarming, and settle down to domestic life. + + "Now is not this a charming programme? I am sure you will think + so--indeed you _must_, for I have set my heart upon it. + + "Pray write at once, dear love, and give me leave to put + matters in train. Do you know you have been away four days and + I have only had a post-card to tell me you arrived safely! That + is not how you are going to treat me, I hope. I know there is a + daily mail from Adelonga, and (though I repudiate post-cards) I + don't care what sort of scribble you send so long as you write + constantly. Remember what I told you about that. And remember + your _promise_. + + "And now, good-night, my sweetest Rachel. Sleep well, darling, + and dream of me, + + "Your faithful lover, + + "GRAHAM KINGSTON." + +MISS FETHERSTONHAUGH _to_ MR. KINGSTON. + + "My dearest Graham, + + "I am afraid you will think I ought to have written to you + before, but I have been so much engaged ever since I arrived + that I really have not had an opportunity. + + "Mr. Thornley is always showing me about the place, or the + children are wanting me to have a walk with them, or my cousin + sends for me to her room to see the baby; so that I may say I + have scarcely a moment to call my own until bedtime comes, and + then I am much too sleepy to write--the effect of the country + air, I suppose. I am enjoying myself excessively. + + "The weather is lovely, and this is certainly the most + delightful place. It is a regular old bush house, which has + been added to in every direction. + + "The rooms are low, and straggle about anyhow; there is no + front door--or, rather, there are several; and it has shingle + roofs and weatherboard walls (though all the outhouses are + brick and stone, and Mr. Thornley is going to build a new house + presently, which I think is _such_ a pity.) + + "My own room has a canvas ceiling, which flaps up and down when + the wind is high: and most of the floors are of that dark, + rough-sawn native wood of olden times, which makes it necessary + that the best carpets should have drugget, or some kind of + padding under them. But, oh, how exquisitely the whole house is + kept inside and out. + + "The drawing-room is _much_ prettier than ours at Toorak; + because Mr. Thornley has travelled a great deal at odd times, + and collected beautiful things, and seems to have good taste, + as well as plenty of money. There are quantities of pictures + everywhere; he is very fond of pictures. + + "And the conservatories are half as big as the house; he is + fond of flowers too. Just now they are full of delicious + things--cyclamens, and orchids, and primulas, and begonias, and + heaths of all sorts, and azaleas, and I don't know what. There + are quantities of flowers in the garden too, so early as it is. + The great bushes--almost trees--of camellias are simply + wonderful; and there is a bed of double hyacinths under my + window of all the colours of the rainbow. + + "Then there is a fernery--part of it roofed in, and part + running down through the shrubberies on one side. The tree + ferns make a matted roof overhead, and other ferns grow + between like bushes, and little ferns sprout everywhere + underneath amongst stones and things. There are winding paths + in and out through it, where it is quite dark at mid-day; and + there are little rills and waterfalls trickling there in all + directions, carried down in pipes from a dam up amongst the + hills behind the house. + + "Don't you think _we_ might have a fern-tree gully? If the + water could be got for it, it would run down the side of a + terraced garden even better than it does here, where the ground + falls very slightly. If you like I will ask Mr. Thornley how he + made his, and all about it; he is always delighted if he can + give any information. He is such an excessively kind man. I + like him _so_ much. How long is it since you saw him? When he + was a bachelor, I think you said you stayed at Adelonga. That + must have been a long time ago, for his eldest daughter (just + now finishing her education in Germany) is older than I am. + There is a painting of him in the dining-room as a young man, + and one of his first wife. His is not the least like what he is + now. But I will tell you what might _really_ be his + portrait--Long's old inquisitor in the 'Dancing Girl' + picture--I mean that genial old fellow in the arm-chair, who + leans his arms on the table and grasps (I am sure without + knowing what he is doing) the base of the crucifix, while he + enjoys the sight of that pretty creature dancing. If you go and + look at him the next time you find yourself near the picture + gallery, you will see Mr. Thornley's very image. He is the + soul of hospitality; he is so courteous to everybody in the + house--even to his children; he is one of the nicest and + kindest men I ever met. + + "But I have not said a word about my cousin Lucilla, or the + baby, or the other children. The baby is a little _duck_. I am + allowed to have him a good deal, because the nurse says I am + much 'handier' than most young ladies; and I certainly _have_ + the knack of making him stop crying and of soothing him off to + sleep. + + "The other children--three dear little girls--are in the + schoolroom; but Lucilla will not allow their governess to keep + them too strictly, because they are not very strong. Lucilla + herself I like _excessively_. She is much quieter than + Beatrice, and I don't think she is so clever, and she is not at + all pretty: but she is very sweet-tempered and kind, and very + fond of Mr. Thornley, though he is so much older than she is. I + am glad to say she is getting quite strong; so much so indeed + that she is going to have a large party next week. + + "There are to be some country races, in which Mr. Thornley is + interested, and we are all going, and some people are coming + back with us to dine and spend the night. There is some talk of + a ball, too, to celebrate the coming of age of young Bruce + Thornley, who is now at Oxford--Mr. Thornley's eldest son. That + would be the week after. I _hope_ Lucilla will decide to have + it; they say Adelonga balls are always charming, and that + people come to them from far and near. + + "One enormous room, with two fireplaces, which is gun-room, + billiard-room, smoking-room, and gentlemen's sanctum generally + (which in the general way is divided by big Japanese screens, + and laid down with carpets), was built and floored on purpose + for dancing in those old times that you remember. Perhaps you + have yourself danced there? Tell me if you have. I can see what + a delightful ball-room it would make, with lots of shrubs and + flowers. It opens into the conservatory at one end, and a + passage leads from the other both into the dining-room and out + upon the verandahs, which are wide, and bowered with creepers, + and filled with Indian and American lounge chairs. + + "How are you getting on in town? Did you go to Beatrice's + party, and was it nice? I hope William will look after my dear + Black Agnes properly, and not let her out in the paddock at + night. _Would_ you mind sometimes just calling in to see, when + you are up that way? + + "The workmen are having fine weather, are they not? Aunt + Elizabeth and I have been telling Lucilla all about the house, + and she says it will be magnificent. But Mr. Thornley does not + like pink for the boudoir. He says if I have pictures, some + shade of sage, or grey, or peacock would be better as a ground + colour. What do you think? I must say _I_ like the idea of + pink. + + "Now I have come to the end of my paper. And have I not + written you a long letter? I hope you will not find it very + stupid. + + "Aunt Elizabeth and Lucilla send their kindest regards, and + with much love, believe me, + + "My dear Graham, + + "Yours most affectionately, + + "RACHEL FETHERSTONHAUGH." + + "P.S.--Just received yours of Tuesday. _Please_ give me a + little time to think over your proposal, and do not do anything + at present. The tour in Europe would be very delightful, but I + think, if you don't mind, I would rather not be married _quite_ + so soon." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HOW RACHEL MET "HIM." + + +Adelonga at about nine o'clock on the morning of the race day would have +presented to the eye of the distinguished traveller--who, however, did +not happen to be there, though he was a pretty constant visitor--a +thoroughly typical Australian scene; typical, that is to say, of one +distinct phase of Australian life. It was the enchanting weather of the +country to begin with; which, say what grumblers will, is not to be +matched, one month with another, in all the wide world--clear, fresh and +sunshiny, with an air at once so delicate and so invigorating that none +but exceptionally unhappy mortals could help feeling glad to be alive to +breathe it. + +There had been a cold mist overnight, which was now melting away before +the sun in shining white fleeces that swathed the hollows and shoulders +of the hills behind the house, long after the upper slopes and peaks had +stood sharp and clear in their own forest garments against a sky as pure +as a sapphire and as blue as wild forget-me-nots. + +All the shrubberies that hemmed in the great garden--all the +smooth-shaven wide lawns where croquet hoops still lingered--all the +lovely waves and festoons of creepers that flowed over and curtained the +verandah eaves--all the bright box borders, and all the gay +flowerbeds--glistened with a sort of etherealised hoar-frost, and were +greener than painter's palette could express in this early spring time. + +The rambling, old, one-storied house, with its endless roofs and gables, +was the very type and pattern of that most charming of all bush houses, +_the_ bush house _par excellence_; cottage in design, palace in the +careful finish and elaboration of all its appointments, which, when its +owner is rich and cultured, marks the latest of many developments--such +as becomes, unhappily, rarer every year, and will soon have disappeared +entirely. + +Columns of white smoke rose from half a dozen chimneys, testifying to +the noble logs that blazed away within; while French windows, sash +windows, lattice casements, and doors of all sorts stood open to the +morning sun and the delicious morning air. Behind the house rose a +screen of budding orchard trees, flushed here and there with peach and +almond blossoms. Before the house, on the wide gravelled drive, where +never weed presumed to show its head, stood an open break, large, but of +light American build, round which most of the family and several +servants were congregated, while four powerful horses fidgetted to be +starting, the wheelers only being attached at present. + +Mr. Thornley stood in the break, superintending the bestowal of luncheon +hampers, and shouting cheerily, but with that touch of imperiousness +which indicated a man who had been a master all his life, to the +servants below him. Mrs. Thornley, looking slight and girlish, stood on +the steps of one of the numerous front doors, wrapped in a shawl. She +had wished very much to go to the races too, and to take the nurse and +baby for the further glorification of the occasion; but her husband had +forbidden her to think of anything so foolish, and she had ceased to do +so accordingly, with an abject meekness that would have greatly +disgusted Mrs. Reade. + +Mrs. Hardy stood on the doorstep too, more imposing than ever beside +this gentlest and most unpretending of her children; and the governess +came out of the house in festive apparel with her two elder pupils +dancing after her. + +Rachel was already on the box, where she was to sit beside the driver, +to her great delight. She was in the wildest spirits, and she was +looking as lovely as everything else looked on that eventful morning. +She had quite disregarded Mr. Kingston's injunctions to take care of her +complexion. + +A dark-blue felt hat worn rather on the back of her head, left her soft +face exposed to the sun and wind, as well as to the admiring gaze of all +men. Nothing could have shown up its texture and colour, nor the +wonderful burnished richness of her hair, better than that dark-blue +hat. She wore with it a dark-blue, close-fitting dress, very tight about +the knees, as was then the newest mode, but setting easily to her figure +otherwise, and strongly outlining all its perfect curves of girlish +beauty. She would rather have displayed the sealskin jacket than her own +lovely shape, if she could have found an excuse for doing so; but the +day was going to be warm, and her aunt, who was a thrifty soul, would +not allow the sealskin jacket to be made a mere emergency wrap of--to be +thrown into the boot with the rugs and waterproofs. + +Everything was ready at last, after a great deal of commotion and much +running to and fro--the bountiful luncheon that was to be available for +all comers when luncheon time came, the hamper of crockery, the basket +of fresh-cut salad, the wine, the beer, the soda-water, the spirit stove +and kettle to make afternoon tea with, &c.--and the ladies took their +seats. + +Mrs. Hardy throned herself in an inside corner, Miss O'Hara, the +governess in the opposite corner, next the door sat the butler and a +nursemaid, and the children took up the room of four grown-up people in +the middle of the vehicle. However, it was expected to have a full +complement of passengers coming home, which was a great satisfaction to +everybody. + +Mr. Thornley climbed into his seat and began to gather up his reins: the +two restive leaders where put to; the groom who was to accompany the +carriage rode off to open gates; and "Steady! steady!" roared the +driver, letting out his thong with lightning flashes over the four bare +backs, as the impulsive animals after their immemorial custom, mixed +themselves all together in promiscuous kickings and buckings prior to +coming to a clear understanding with themselves and him. + +For the few delightful seconds that were occupied in getting off, Rachel +was deaf to the cries of her terrified aunt, and blind to everything but +the wild movement beneath her; then, as the horses sprang into their +collars simultaneously with one great bound, and swept out into the +paddock, scattering frightened sheep in all directions, she looked back +at her cousin, standing forlornly alone on the doorstep, and waved her +hand rapturously. + +"Good-bye! good-bye!" she called, in her clear happy voice. "I do wish +you were coming!" And looking down on Mrs. Hardy before she turned her +head, she rallied that stately matron in a gay and reckless manner. "It +is all right, Auntie: there is nothing in the world to be afraid of. We +made a beautiful start! If the off-leader does get both his traces on +one side, Mr. Thornley knows how to make him get between them again. +And, oh, _what_ a day it is!" + +It was, indeed, a day--the kind of day I suppose that has made us, young +and old, the holiday-loving, easy-going, fate-defying people that we +are, and for ever unfits us, when we have had a few years of them, for +any more of those stern experiences, social and atmospherical, in which +the youth of many of us seems to us now to have been so harshly +disciplined. + +Sir Henry Thompson has shown us what a close affinity exists between +food and virtue; no grown Briton can come out here for ten years and go +back without learning something of the value of climate as a raw +material of happiness. + +Though every settled township in the colony has its racecourse and its +yearly meetings, this, the nearest to Adelonga, was a two-hours' drive +distant, even with four fast horses; and it was nearly the time for the +first event to come off when our party reached the ground. + +The course lay in the ring of a shallow valley, hemmed in with low +hills on one slope of which the vehicles of the "county families" of +the neighbourhood were withdrawn a little apart from the space occupied +by the bulk of the crowd, and such booths, merry-go-rounds, and other +rural entertainments as the bulk of the crowd affected. + +There was no grand stand, no platform even--except the judge's box, +which was dedicated to-day to Mr. Thornley's use, and a gallery running +along one side of the saddling-enclosure, where the betting men chiefly +congregated. But this slope, rising rather steeply immediately behind +the place where a grand stand _would_ have been, was a favourable +position, for ladies at any rate, from which to view the main +proceedings; and here the Adelonga break was brought to anchor. + +Two grooms were waiting to take out the horses, which were fed and +watered on the ground in the prevailing picnic fashion, and "hung up" at +the boundary fence, where scores of others were tethered. + +Mr. Thornley looked about for the people he expected to join his party, +found they had not arrived, and then set forth to the saddling-enclosure +to see what horses were going to start and when. + +Rachel continued to sit on the box, and thought it was delicious. She +had a powerful field-glass all to herself, and through this she surveyed +the units and groups that composed the company--women and children, a +great many of them, in charge of sporting husbands and fathers of all +ranks, all perfectly orderly and well-behaved, and all apparently +enjoying themselves as much as she was. + +Some people from a neighbouring buggy came up to speak to Mrs. Hardy, +and to inquire after Mrs. Thornley's health; and a carriage full of +young people further down enticed away the Thornley children and Miss +O'Hara. + +Before she was involved in any of these social proceedings, however, Mr. +Thornley returned, and asked her if she would not like to go with him +and see what was doing "down there"--pointing over his shoulder in the +direction from whence he had come. + +In a moment she had sprung lightly from her perch and was standing +beside him, pleading eagerly for her aunt's permission, which was +graciously given, with certain vague qualifications that she did not +stop to listen to. + +And then she tripped across the green springy grass, shy and fluttered, +and charmed with her enterprise, blushing vividly under the stares of +those dreadful men, and feeling in her innocent heart not a little proud +of the distinguished position in which she found herself. + +The bell was ringing for saddling, and Mr. Thornley took her into the +enclosure to see this operation, which she found deeply interesting. +Crowds of men--betting men, jockeys, owners, stewards--elbowed one +another in and out, and the horses paced and pranced amongst them; and +into the thick of it marched the burly judge to show his young charge +what there was to be seen. + +And what did she see? Jockeys putting on their jackets in semi-private +corners; owners superintending the adjustment of saddles and riders; +noisy gamblers rushing hither and thither with book and pencil; graceful +horses lightly sailing out one after another to try the chance on which +so much beside money was staked; and--men falling back respectfully to +make way for her wherever she went, and to gaze with surprised curiosity +and admiration on the unique spectacle of so fair a creature in so rude +a place. It was all very delightful. + +"And now," said Mr. Thornley, who for his own part was well pleased to +keep her with him, "now you shall stand in my box and see the race. Come +along." + +And away they went into the outside crowd, and she was escorted up the +steps and placed like a queen on her royal dais, in sight of all the +country side assembled. She was inclined to think that--for once in a +way--it was even better than going to the opera. + +Thereafter until the race was over, she watched the proceedings with the +deepest awe and interest. She was so afraid she should embarrass Mr. +Thornley in the performance of his professional duty that she got as far +away from him as possible, and leaning over the side railing enjoyed her +observations in silence. + +The horses came to their starting-place and had their usual differences +of opinion. Ambitious amateurs offered advice to the starter, who +recommended them to mind their own business. Two or three jockeys +careered about wildly, and one was fined; and then the flag dropped, and +they rushed away; and Rachel lifted her glass with trembling hands and +gazed at the flying colours, mixing and fading as they passed into the +sunshiny distance, and held her breath. Round they came presently, and +past her they flashed, two or three together, two or three straggling +behind; and the roar of the men beneath and around her made her turn a +little pale. + +No word was uttered that was unfit for her girl's ear to hear, but the +waves of shouts rolling all about her expressed a fierce eagerness of +suspense and expectation that made her think of "poor Lorraine Loree," +whose husband sacrificed her to the chance of winning a race. + +The clamour rose, and lulled, and rose again, as for the second time the +green circle was traversed and the horses came in sight--some lagging +far behind, some labouring along under the whip, two keeping to the +front almost neck and neck, whose names were flung wildly into the air +from a hundred mouths. + +And then Mr. Thornley, standing quietly with his eye upon the little +slip of wood before him, said, "Bluebeard and Jessica--half a head." And +it was over. + +Rachel drew a long breath. She was not sorry that it was over, though +she was very glad to have seen it. She shook herself, as if to get rid +of a painful spell, and felt that she might begin to enjoy herself +again. + +"_Dear_ horses!" she exclaimed, with an almost solemn rapture as she +watched them straggle away. She would have liked to go up and pat them +all, and caress their heaving flanks and their poor trembling noses, +after all they had gone through. And then her face brightened as the +winner came pacing back, dropping and lifting his beautiful head as he +filled his lungs again; and when his jockey saluted the judge, she +leaned forward over the railing and smiled a smile in acknowledgement of +his prowess, which made that jockey think himself a hero for the rest of +the day. + +"And now," said Mr. Thornley, "there is nothing more at present: so +we'll see how your aunt is getting on, and look for the Digbys." The +Digbys were the people they expected to take back with them to Adelonga. + +But even as he spoke he was arrested in his place by some of his many +friends, who crowded the steps below him, wanting to have a few minutes' +gossip about the race, or perhaps wanting to have a nearer view of her +own pretty person, never seen in those parts before. + +And while she waited she turned aside to have another amused look at the +children in their merry-go-rounds, and the lads playing Aunt Sally, and +all the simple festivities of the holiday-makers, whose proceedings she +could so well survey from her present commanding position; and it was +then that she saw for the first time a remarkable-looking horseman +riding slowly through the crowd. + +Her attention was attracted in the first place by the beauty of his +horse--for in a small way she was a good judge of horses: and then she +noticed that the equipment of that noble animal was slightly different +from what she was accustomed to see. + +She supposed it was an English saddle in which that tall man sat so +square and straight; then she wondered why he wore his stirrup leathers +so excessively long; and then lifted her glass and stared intently at +his face. There was not much of this to see just now, even through a +strong glass; for he wore a small, soft cap with a peak to it, low over +his eyes, in which the sun was shining, and though his jaws were shaven +and his brown throat bare, he had a heavy, drooping, reddish moustache, +which was the largest she had ever seen. + +He was riding in the direction of the judge's box, and as he came near +she dropped her glass, and shrinking back shyly touched that potentate's +arm. Mr. Thornley turned round, and the horseman took off his cap with a +stately sort of careless courtesy, and revealed a clear-cut, keen-eyed, +powerful, proud face, neither young nor old, rather thin and worn, and +tanned and dried to leather-colour, which Rachel felt at once to be the +most _impressive_ face she had ever looked upon. + +"Hullo!" cried Mr. Thornley, in an accent of profound amazement. "Why, +I thought you were gone to Queensland!" + +"I ought to have gone," the stranger replied. He had a quiet, cool +voice, that nevertheless rang clear through all the noise about them. "I +duly started yesterday, but we broke a trace, and I lost my train by two +minutes." + +"Two minutes! Well, that was hard lines. Are the Digbys here?" + +"Yes." + +"You are not going to make another start immediately, I suppose?" + +"Not till next week, I think." + +"Then you'll come back with us to-night?" + +"Thanks." + +Here he reined up his horse just beside Rachel's railing, and sent a +furtive but searching glance up into her pretty blushing face. + +"Allow me to introduce my wife's cousin, Miss Fetherstonhaugh," said Mr. +Thornley, laying his hand on her shoulder with a paternal gesture. +"Rachel, my dear--Mr. Roden Dalrymple." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A BLACK SHEEP. + + +"Who is Mr. Roden Dalrymple?" asked Rachel presently. Mr. Thornley was +escorting her back to her aunt, and the person in question was riding +across the ground--slowly, as he had come--in search of one of the +grooms of his party, to whom he might deliver his horse to be stabled in +the township until the return from Adelonga. + +"Who is he?" repeated Mr. Thornley. "He is Mrs. Digby's brother. Nice +little woman, Mrs. Digby. You will like her I know. I am very glad she +has come." + +"But what is he?" persisted Rachel, so absorbed in watching the tall +rider swinging along at that stately, easy pace, with his long stirrups +and his dangling rein, that she nearly tumbled over a couple of children +who crossed her path. "Is he a Queensland squatter?" + +"That is what he thinks of being," laughed Mr. Thornley, with an amused, +half-mocking laugh. "He has taken up a big run with Jim Gordon, and they +are going to live there and manage for themselves. A nice mess they'll +make of it, I expect." + +"Why?" inquired Rachel. + +"Why? They know no more about it than you do. How should they? Oh, by +the bye, yes; I suppose Dalrymple has dabbled in cattle a little--in +that South American venture of his. But that experience won't benefit +him much. He lost every penny he put into that business." + +"Has he lived in South America?" asked Rachel. + +"He has lived all over the world, I think. He's a rolling stone, my +dear, that's what he is--with the proverbial consequences." + +"Is he poor, then?" + +"Poor as a church mouse. That is to say, he has got a bit of an estate +somewhere in Scotland or Ireland--I really forget which--an old ruin of +a house mortgaged to the chimney-pots, and a few starved farms, that +bring him in a few odd hundreds now and again. He tries all sorts of +queer schemes for mending his fortunes, but they never come to +anything." + +"Perhaps he is one of the unlucky ones--like my poor father," suggested +Rachel. + +"I don't know. I'm afraid he's a ne'er-do-weel. Judging from his past +history--Jim Gordon knows all about him--he has no worse enemy than +himself." + +"What is his history?" Rachel asked the question with a vague sense of +resentment against her prosperous host, who had probably never known +misfortunes. + +"Well, he was an only son, and I suppose spoilt--to begin with. He was +brought up for the army--simply, as far as I can make out, from force of +habit, because his father and no end of grandfathers had been soldiers +before him--instead of being taught how to manage and improve that +ramshackle old property of his. + +"He was in a crack cavalry regiment; one of the worst of them--I mean +for folly and extravagance; and he went no end of a pace, as if he had +the Bank of England at his back, and got all his affairs into a mess; +and then he got gambling at Newmarket. The story goes that he played a +brother-officer for some woman that they were both in love with; and he +staked everything he had in the world that he could lay his hands on, +except that old land and house, which the law kept for his children. +Fortunately, he is not married, nor ever likely to be." + +"And he lost her?" said Rachel, in an awed whisper, with something very +like tears in her eyes. + +"Her? He lost more than ever she was worth, I'll be bound. He lost to +that extent that he had to sell his commission to pay. The young fool! +he must have been a raving lunatic." + +"And what did he do then?" asked Rachel, taking out her handkerchief and +blowing her nose ostentatiously. + +"No one quite knows what he did for the first few years after he sold +out. He lived in Paris most of his time, and knocked about on the +continent, at Baden and those places--up to no good, you may be sure. +Then he went to the Cape, hunting and amusing himself; and then to +California, gold-digging; and then all about South America, trying +farming or cattle-raising, or something of that sort; and then Digby +went home and married his sister, and she persuaded him to come here." + +"Has he been here long?" + +"A year or two. He has lived with them most of the time--learning +colonial experience of Digby, I suppose. She is awfully fond of him, +that little woman. And Digby never says a word against him--for her +sake, I suppose." + +"Why should he say anything against him?" asked Rachel rather warmly. +"He is doing nothing wrong now, is he?" + +"Oh, no. He is older and wiser now, I daresay. Still--still--" and Mr. +Thornley looked askance at the pretty young creature who was about to +make this reprobate's acquaintance under his roof, and bethought him +that he ought to secure her against temptation and danger--"still +there's no doubt that he is rather a bad lot--what you would call a +black sheep, you know, my dear--not the sort of man that it is desirable +to be very intimate with." + +Rachel blushed one of her ready blushes, and with such suddenness and +vigour that Mr. Thornley feared he had accidentally made equivocal +suggestions. + +"I don't mean that he is not a gentleman--a thoroughly honourable +gentleman," he explained hastily. "I don't know the rights of that +Newmarket business, but in everything else, as far as I am aware, his +moral character is as good as mine is; otherwise I should not ask him to +Adelonga. I am only speaking of him as a man who has lived a sort of +loose, extravagant, Bohemian kind of life, you know." + +"I know," assented Rachel absently. Already his prudent tactics were +having their natural effect. She was ready to champion the cause of this +apparently friendless, as well as unfortunate man; in whom, had he been +recommended to her favour, she might--I do not say she _would_, but she +might--have felt only an ordinary unemotional interest; and she did not +want to hear any more to his disparagement. + +"Is that their buggy?" she asked, nodding in the direction of a covered +waggonette which was now drawn up alongside the break--in which three +ladies sat with Mrs. Hardy, while three gentlemen leaned in and talked +to them. + +"Yes," he replied, "and that is Mrs. Digby--that little woman in a brown +hat. The one next her is Mrs. Hale, a neighbour of theirs--cousin of +Digby's. The girl is Miss Hale. That's Digby with the big light beard. +The little man is Hale. The man with a brown beard is Lessel--engaged to +Miss Hale." + +"Are they all coming to Adelonga?" + +"They are. And I am wondering how we are going to stow them all. We can +pack ten inside, with a little squeezing, but there is Dalrymple +extra." + +"I'll sit in the boot with the children." + +"And all the portmanteaus? Indeed you won't. I must take two on the box. +How do you do, Mrs. Digby? How do, Mrs. Hale? How do, Miss Hale? I am +delighted to see you all." + +Here ensued many complicated greetings, and protracted inquiries and +explanations as to everybody's health and welfare; and then Rachel found +herself absorbed in the group, and the business of making all these new +people's acquaintance. She was a shy, but an eminently adaptable, little +person, ready to melt like snow before a smiling face and a kindly +manner; and as she naturally received a great deal of attention, she was +soon at her ease amongst them. + +Mrs. Digby was a graceful and distinguished-looking woman, fair and +pale, with a soft voice and refined and gentle manners, and her she +admired excessively, with the reverent enthusiasm of eighteen for a +sister beauty of eight-and-twenty. + +Mrs. Hale was less attractive. She was rather pompous and imperious, +rather noisy and bustling, anxious to lead the conversation, and +generally to dominate the company; and withal she had no pretensions to +good looks, except in respect of her very handsome costume, and not a +great deal to good breeding; she was large and strong; she was rich and +prosperous; she had a small, meek husband. Such as she was, she +monopolised the largest share of Mrs. Hardy's attention. + +Miss Hale was a comfortable, round-faced, wholesome-looking girl, +pleasant to talk to, but not intellectually, or indeed in any way +remarkable. She devoted herself to Rachel ardently, with the air of +taking friendly relations as a matter of course, under the interesting +circumstances; glancing archly at Rachel's diamond ring, and displaying +the less magnificent symbol of her own betrothal; and otherwise, +whenever opportunity offered, suggesting the sentimental situation with +more or less directness. + +Rachel, however, did not find her engagement a matter of absorbing +interest; she preferred to talk to Mrs. Digby about the little Digbys +left at home, or to muse in silent intervals--which, to be sure, came +few and far between--of that sad and tragic story of which a glimpse +had just been given her. + +The men of the waggonette party were pleasant, ordinary men; all of them +Australians born, and two of them--Mr. Digby and Mr. Lessel--fine, +handsome specimens of our promising colonial race. They were assiduous +in their attentions to the youngest and prettiest lady of the company, +who, as a matter of course, liked their attentions; but she could not +help feeling a certain restless desire for the return of Mr. Roden +Dalrymple, whose absence seemed to make the circle strangely incomplete. + +He was a long time coming back. They went down to witness the second +race; they wandered for half-an-hour amongst the booths and +merry-go-rounds to amuse themselves with any rustic fun that was going +on; they congregated under the shelter of the judge's box--Mrs. Digby +and Miss Hale standing in it on this occasion--to see yet another +"event" disposed of; and then the butler and the nursemaid with profuse +amateur assistance began to spread the tablecloth for lunch on a bit of +grassy level, pleasantly shadowed in the now brilliant noontide by the +big body of the break. + +All the portmanteaus had been placed in the boot of this capacious +vehicle, and the Digbys' waggonette and horses had been sent to the +hotel to await their return from Adelonga; and still there was no sign +of Mr. Dalrymple. + +"Where can the fellow be?" inquired Mr. Digby of the general public, +looking up for a moment from his interesting occupation of brewing +"cup," in which Rachel was helping him. "He is the most unsociable brute +I ever came across--always loafing away by himself. It isn't safe to +take your eye off him for a moment." + +"How well Queensland will suit him!" laughed Mrs. Hale. + +"No doubt he rode down to the township to give his own orders about +Lucifer," said his sister, lifting her gentle face. "You know he never +cares to trust him to a groom." + +"He could have done that and been back again an hour ago," rejoined her +husband. "However, pray don't wait for him when lunch is ready, Mrs. +Hardy; he will turn up some time." + +Rachel had an indignant opinion, to which she longed to give +expression, that they would all be most grossly rude if they did +anything of the sort. She resented this too ready inclination to slight +a man who in her estimation was dignified by his heroic experiences so +much above them all; and as far as in her lay she did what she could to +counteract it. + +She took a napkin and polished all the wine-bottles, and peeled the foil +from all the champagne corks; she mixed and tossed the salad in a slow +and cautious manner; she garnished the numerous meats with unnecessary +elaboration; she would not allow luncheon to be ready, in short, until +either one o'clock or the missing guest arrived. + +She was standing on the step of the break, helping to hand down rugs +and cushions for the ladies to sit upon--which was not her business, as +her aunt's disapproving eye suggested--when at last she discerned him +far away on the outskirts of the crowd. + +"It wants ten minutes to one, Mr. Thornley, and I see Mr. Dalrymple +coming," she called out in her fresh, clear voice. + +"Where do you see him?" asked Mr. Digby, who was standing in the break, +hugging an armful of opossum rugs. "_I_ don't see him." + +She pointed silently, and for some minutes Mr. Digby looked in vain for +his brother-in-law, knitting his brows, and shading his eyes from the +sunlight. At last he saw him. + +"All that way off!" he exclaimed. "You must have very good sight, Miss +Fetherstonhaugh, to recognise him at such a distance." + +"He is easy to recognise," said Rachel, simply. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +OUTSIDE THE PALE. + + +The races were over at four o'clock, with the exception of the +"Consolation Stakes," and a few other informal affairs, upon which Mr. +Thornley did not condescend to adjudicate; and the Adelonga party, +swelled to fifteen, set off on their long drive home. + +It was a time of year when the twilight fell early and it was dark +between six and seven; but to-night there was a moon, and there was no +need to hurry; all that was necessary was to get back in comfortable +time to dress for an eight o'clock dinner. + +There was a great deal of conversation, but Rachel had not much share in +it. The break was crowded, of course. + +The two servants sat on the box with Mr. Thornley; the boot was +full of portmanteaus. There was no room for the children inside, except +on the knees of their elders; and one of them Rachel insisted on nursing +(and she went fast asleep), while Miss O'Hara sat beside her with the +other. Buxom Miss Hale was wedged opposite, with (Rachel was sure, and +it offended her sense of propriety deeply) her lover's arm round her +waist. Mr. Dalrymple sat by the door, almost out of sight and sound. + +Rachel had scarcely spoken to him all day; the profuse attentions of the +other gentlemen to her had interposed between them, and perhaps, though +she was not aware of it, her aunt's little manoeuvres also. But her +thoughts were full of him, as she sat, tired and silent, in her corner, +with the sleeping child in her arms. + +Her imagination was fascinated by the story of his life, which, given to +her in so brief an outline, she filled in for herself elaborately, +dwelling most of course upon the dramatic Newmarket episode, and +wondering whether that woman was worthy or unworthy of the sacrifice of +fame and fortune that he had made for her. + +"What a lovely night!" remarked Miss Hale, breaking in upon her reverie. + +Rachel looked up, with an absent smile. The moon was beginning to +outshine the fading after-glow of a gorgeous sunset; stars were stealing +out, few and pale, in a clear, pale sky; the distant ranges were growing +sharp and dark, with that velvety sort of bloom on them, like the bloom +of ripe plums, which is the effect of the density of their forest +clothing, seen through the luminous transparency of their native air. + +There was a sound of curlews far away, making their melancholy +wail--broken now and then by the screaming of cockatoos, or the +delirious mirth of laughing jackasses, or the faint "cluck, cluck" of +native companions sailing at an immense distance overhead. The frogs +were serenading the coming night in every pool and watercourse; the cold +night wind made a sound like the sea in the gums and sheoaks under which +they swept along, crashing and jingling, at the rate of ten miles an +hour. The lonely bush was full of its own weird twilight beauty. + +"It is a very lovely night," assented Rachel; and she sighed, and laid +her cheek on Dolly Thornley's head. She was a little tired, a little +sad, and she did not want to talk just now. Seeing which, Miss Hale gave +herself with an easy mind to her lover's entertainment. + +However, when the four horses drew up at the most central of the +Adelonga front doors, panting and steaming, with their exuberance all +evaporated, the naturally light heart became light and gay again. It was +such a cheery arrival too. The charming old house was lit up from end to +end; blazing logs on bedroom hearths sent ruddy gleams through a dozen +windows; doors stood wide like open arms ready to receive all comers. + +Mr. Thornley handed his guests out of the break with profuse gestures of +welcome, shouting to his servants, who were trained as he was himself, +to all hospitable observances, and hurried to take traps and bags. + +Mrs. Thornley, looking girlish and pretty in a pale blue evening dress, +stood on the doorstep, eager and smiling, scattering her graceful and +cordial salutations all around her. + +"Oh, Lucilla," exclaimed Rachel, when she had given her charge to a +nursemaid, running up to kiss her cousin, between whom and herself very +tender relations--based on the baby--existed, "we have had such a +_lovely_ day. I am sorry you were not with us." + +"I am glad you enjoyed yourself," responded Mrs. Thornley +affectionately. "You have had splendid weather. Run and see if the fire +is burning nicely in Mrs. Digby's room, there's a dear child." + +It took some time to get all the guests collected in the house, and then +to disperse them, with their wraps and portmanteaus, to their respective +rooms. Rachel assisted her cousin in this pleasant business, trotting +about to carry shawls, and poke up fires, and get cups of tea and cans +of hot water. It was the kind of service that she delighted in. + +When everybody was disposed of, and she went to her own room, she found +she had barely half-an-hour in which to dress herself. What, she +wondered, should she put on to make herself look very, very nice. With +all these strangers in the house it behoved her to sustain the credit of +the family, as far as in her lay. She set about her toilet with a flush +of hurry and excitement in her face. + +All her weariness was gone now; she was looking as bright and lovely as +it was possible for her to look. Discarding the black dress that was her +ordinary dinner costume, she arrayed herself all in white--the fine +white Indian muslin which had been brought to Adelonga for possible +state occasions, and which was, therefore, made to leave her milky +throat and arms uncovered. She put on her diamond bracelet, but she took +it off again. She fastened a pearl necklace--another of her lover's +presents--round her soft neck, but she unfastened it, and laid it back +in its velvet case. + +She went into the drawing-room at last with her beauty unadorned, save +only by a bit of pink heath in her bosom--without a single spark of that +newly-acquired jewellery that her soul loved--lest she should help, ever +so infinitesimally, to flaunt the wealth and prosperity of the family in +the eyes of impecunious gentlemen. And it is needless to inform the +experienced reader that Mr. Dalrymple, turning to look at her as she +entered, thought she was one of the loveliest girls he had ever seen. + +He was far away on the other side of the room, and she did not go near +him. The ladies were rustling about in their long trains and tinkling +ornaments; the men were trooping in, white-tied and swallow-tailed, +rubbing their hands and sniffing the grateful aroma of dinner. + +Then the gong began to clang and vibrate through the house, and the +company, who were getting hungry, paired themselves to order, and set +forth through sinuous passages to the dining-room. Rachel being, +conventionally, the lady of least consequence, was left without a +gentleman to go in with; and she sat at the long table on the same side +with Mr. Dalrymple, too far off to see or speak to him. + +When dinner was over and the ladies rose, she took advantage of a good +opportunity to pay a visit to the baby, whom she had not seen all day--a +terrible deprivation. + +She whispered her proposed errand to Lucilla, who gratefully sent her +off; and the baby being discovered awake and amiable, she spent nearly +an hour in his apartment, nursing and fondling him in her warm, white +arms. It was her favourite occupation, from which she never could tear +herself voluntarily. + +By and bye the baby dropped asleep, and was tenderly lowered into his +cradle; and then having nothing more to do for him, she tucked him up, +kissed him, and went back to her social duties. + +When she entered the drawing-room she found the whole party assembled, +and some exciting discussion was going on. Mrs. Hale sitting square on a +central sofa was evidently the leading spirit; and Mrs. Hardy sitting +beside her, indicated to the girl's experienced eye, by the expression +of her face and the elevation of her powerful Roman nose, that she was +supporting her neighbour's views--whatever they were--in a determined +and defiant manner. Miss Hale and Mr. Lessel had retired to a distant +alcove, but they had suspended their whispered confidences to listen to +the public debate. Mr. Thornley and Mr. Hale were trying to play chess, +but were also distracted. Mr. Digby lounged against a side table +pretending to be absorbed in _The Argus_, but peeping furtively at +intervals over the top of the sheet. Miss O'Hara sat apart knitting, +with an expression of rigid disapproval. + +Mrs. Digby, in a very central position, full in the light, lay back in a +low easy chair, and fanned herself with gentle, measured movements. Her +eyes were fixed on a picture in front of her, her soft mouth was set, +her face was pale, proud, and grave; very different from Mrs. Thornley's +beside her, which was disturbed and downcast, as that of a hostess whose +affairs were not going well. Rachel saw in Mrs. Digby for the first time +a strong resemblance to her brother. + +Mr. Roden Dalrymple stood alone on the hearthrug with his back against +the wall, and his elbows on a corner of the mantelpiece. His face was +hard and cold, yet not without signs of strong emotion. + +It was evidently between him and Mrs. Hale that the discussion lay, and +it was equally evident that the "feeling of the meeting" was against +him. Rachel, taking in the situation at a glance, longed to walk over to +the hearthrug and publicly espouse her hero's cause, whatever it might +happen to be. What she did instead was to glide noiselessly to the back +of her cousin's chair, and leaning her arms upon it, to "watch the case" +on his behalf. They were all too preoccupied to notice her. + +"It is all very well," Mrs. Hale was saying in an aggressive manner, +"but it was nothing short of murder in cold blood. And if you had been +in any other quarter of the globe when you did it, you would not have +escaped to tell the tale to us here." + +"My dear Mrs. Hale--excuse me--I am not telling the tale to you here. I +have not the slightest intention of doing so." + +"But everybody knows it, of course." + +"I think not," said Mr. Dalrymple. + +"That you had a quarrel with a man who had once been your friend," +proceeded Mrs. Hale, with a vulgar woman's unscrupulousness about +trespassing on sacred ground; "and that you hunted him round the world, +and then, when you met him in that Californian diggings place, shot him +across a billiard-table where he stood, without a moment's warning." + +"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dalrymple, calmly; "he had plenty of warning--five +years at least." + +"Not five minutes after you met him. Mr. Gordon was there, and said that +he was a dead man five minutes after you came into the room and +recognised him." + +"Gordon can tell you, then, that I satisfied all the laws of honour. The +meeting had been arranged and expected; there were no preliminaries to +go through--except to borrow a couple of revolvers and get somebody to +see fair play. There were at least a dozen to do that; Gordon was one." + +"Poor fellow," ejaculated Mrs. Hardy with solemn indignation. "And _he_ +fired in the air, I suppose?" + +"He would have fired in the air, I daresay, if he had any hope that I +would do so," replied Mr. Dalrymple, with a face as hard as flint, and a +deep blaze of passion in his eyes. "But he well knew that there was no +chance of that. He was obliged to shoot his best in self-defence." + +"Then you might have been killed yourself!--and what then?" + +"That was a contingency I was quite prepared for, of course. What +then?--I should have done my duty." + +"Don't say 'duty,' Roden," interposed Mrs. Digby, very gently and +gravely. + +"My dear Lily, the word has no arbitrary sense; we all interpret it to +suit our own views. It was my idea of duty." + +"Poor fellow!" exclaimed Mrs. Hardy again. "It is a dreadful story. And +did he leave any family?" + +"I would rather not pursue the subject, Mrs. Hardy--if you have no +objection." + +"I wonder you are not afraid to go to bed," Mrs. Hale persisted, +undeterred by the darkness of his face. "The ghost of that poor wretch +would haunt _me_ night and day. I should never know what it was to sleep +in peace." + +Rachel listened to this fragment of a conversation, which had evidently +been going on for some time; and her heart grew cold within her. Mr. +Dalrymple happened to turn his head, and saw her looking at him with her +innocent young face scared and pale; and he was almost as much shocked +as she. A swift change in himself--a straightening of his powerful, +tall frame, and a flash of angry surprise and pain in his imperious +eyes--aroused a general attention to her presence. + +"You here, my dear?" exclaimed Mrs. Hardy, much discomposed by the +circumstance. "That is the worst of these irregular shaped rooms--with +so many doors and corners, one never sees people go out and come in." + +"How is baby?" inquired Mrs. Thornley eagerly, thankful for the +diversion. "Is he sleeping nicely?" + +Mr. Dalrymple strode across the room and wheeled up a chair. "Won't you +sit down, Miss Fetherstonhaugh?" he said, looking at her with a little +appeal in his still stern face. "You must be tired after your long day." + +"Thank you," said she; and she sat down. But she felt incapable of +talking--incapable of sitting still, with her hands before her. General +conversation of a more comfortable and conventional kind than that which +she had interrupted was set going all around her. + +The lovers resumed their _tete-a-tete_ in the corner; the chess-players +continued their game; Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Hardy, suffering from a very +justifiable suspicion that they had been a trifle rude, endeavoured to +make themselves particularly entertaining. But she sat silent and +miserable with downcast eyes, picking at the embroidery on her dress, +and wishing the evening over--this disappointing evening which had +counteracted all the brightness and pleasure of the day--so that she +could slip away to bed. + +"You have had no tea," said Mr. Dalrymple presently, when all the +married ladies were absorbed in discussing the merits of their +respective cooks. "It came in while you were out of the room. Won't you +have some now?" + +Grateful for any interruption of the spell of embarrassment which was +holding her painfully under his watchful eyes, she thanked him, and +rising hastily went over to one of the numerous recesses of that +charmingly arranged room, where the evening tea-table usually stood +between a curtained archway and a glass door that led into the +conservatory. + +Of course he followed her. The curtains were looped back so as to permit +the glow of lamps and firelight to stream in from the room, and on the +other side a full moon shone palely down through a network of flowering +shrubs and fern trees. They could hear the conversation of the rest +distinctly--particularly Mrs. Hale's share of it. But it was a very +retired place. + +"You had better sit down," said Mr. Dalrymple, "and let me pour it out +for you. Yes--I do it every night for my sister. She, too, likes to have +the teapot brought in. But I doubt if it is fit to drink; it has been in +half an hour. I thought you were tired and had gone to bed." + +"Did you?" + +"Yes; I am afraid you _are_ very tired. You ought not to have come +back." + +"I--I wish I had not," she said, hardly above a whisper, as she took the +cup from his hands. She looked into his face for a moment with her +timid, troubled eyes, and then looked down hastily and blushed her +brightest scarlet. + +"I know, I know," he replied, in a low tone of emotion that had a touch +of fierceness in it. "I saw how shocked you were, and I could have +bitten my tongue out. But I should never have spoken of _that_ if Mrs. +Hale had not badgered me into it. If it had been one of the men--but +they know better! A woman, though she may be the most prodigious fool, +is privileged. I am very sorry. I can't tell you how sorry I am." + +"It is not _hearing_ it that matters," stammered Rachel, stirring her +tea with wild and tremulous splashes; "it is knowing--it is thinking--of +its being true." + +He paused for a moment, and looked at her with a look that she was +afraid to meet, but which she _felt_ through all her shrinking +consciousness: and then he said quietly. "Drink your tea, and let us go +into the conservatory for five minutes." + +It was a bold proposal under the circumstances; but it did not occur to +her to question it. She drank her tea hastily, and put down her cup; and +Mr. Dalrymple opened the glass door, which swung on noiseless hinges, +and passing out after her, coolly closed it behind them both. It was +very dim and still out there. The steam of the warm air, full of strong +earthy and piney odours, clung to the glass roofs through which the moon +was shining, and made the light vague and misty. The immense brown +stems of the tree ferns, barnacled with stag horns, and the great green +feathers spreading and drooping above them, took all kinds of phantom +shapes. + +Rachel herself looked like a ghost in her white dress, as she flitted +down the dim alleys by that tall man's side, tapping the tiled floor +with her slippered feet with no more noise than a woodpecker. + +"Is that the lapageria?" asked Mr. Dalrymple, when he thought they had +gone far enough for privacy, pausing beside a comfortable seat, and +pointing upward to a lattice-work of dark leaved shoots, from which hung +clusters of dusky flower bells. "How well it grows here, to be sure!" + +"Everything grows well here," responded Rachel, relieved from some +restraint by this harmless opening of their clandestine _tete-a-tete_; +"and that creeper is Mr. Thornley's favourite. The flowers are the +loveliest red in daylight." + +"Now I want to tell you a little about that story you heard just now," +he proceeded gravely. "Sit down; it won't take long." + +"You said you would rather not talk about it," murmured Rachel. + +"I would much rather not. There is nothing I would not sooner do--except +let you go away thinking so badly of me as you do now. I don't usually +care what people think of me," he added; "I am sure I don't know why I +should care now. But you looked so terribly shocked! It hurts me to see +you looking at me in that way. And I should like to try if I could to +make you believe that I am not necessarily a bad man, more than other +men, though bad enough, because I fought a duel once and killed my +adversary." + +"_Meaning_ to kill him," interposed Rachel. "That is the dreadful part +of it!" + +"Yes; I meant to kill him. I staked my own life on the same chance, if +that is any justification, but--oh, yes, I meant to kill him, if I +could. I had a reason for that, Miss Fetherstonhaugh. Shall I tell you +what it was?" + +"Yes," whispered Rachel. "But how _could_ there be any sufficient reason +for such a terrible crime?" + +"Don't call it a crime," he protested. "That is how they speak of it +who know nothing about it--that is how they will represent all my life, +which has been different from theirs--to make you shun and shrink from +me as if I had the small-pox. Wait till you know a little more." + +He was leaning forward with an elbow on his knee, and looking into her +face. She met his eyes now in the uncertain moonlight, which was shining +on her and not on him; and he saw no sign of shrinking yet. + +"Why did you do it?" she asked sorrowfully. + +"Long ago," he said, after a pause, "he and I fell in love with--some +one; and she loved him best. At least I think she did--I don't know. +Sometimes I fancy she would have cared most for me, if we had had our +chances. But we had no chances; I had to give my word of honour not to +stand between her and him--not to try to win her, unless she distinctly +showed a preference for me." + +"I understand," whispered Rachel. She knew this part of the story +already. + +"At any rate," he continued, "she made choice of him. He sold out of the +service, and they went away together. I had sold out myself not long +before, and went away too--travelling about the world. I was very lonely +at that time; I didn't much care where I went or what became of me. It +was several years before I saw or heard of her again." + +"Yes?" + +"And one night, when I had come back home to look after my property, I +met her in London streets. It was the middle of winter--it was +raining--she was all alone--she was almost in rags--" + +"Don't tell me any more!" implored Rachel, beginning to tremble and cry. + +"No," he said, and he drew a deep long breath, "I _can't_ tell you any +more. Only this--she died. I did all I could to save her, but it was too +late. She died of consumption--brought on by exposure and want, and +misery of all sorts--a week or two after I found her. And now you know +why I killed him. _That_ was why!" + +There was a long pause, broken once or twice by Rachel's audible +emotion. She had still her own views as to the right and justice of +what he had done; but she did not dream of the presumption of giving +them now. + +This tremendous tragedy of love and revenge dwarfed all her theories of +life to the merest trivialities. She could only wonder, and tremble, and +cry. + +"It is an old story now," said Mr. Dalrymple, more gently. "And I try +not to think too much of it. It was all fair, thank Heaven!--I comfort +myself with that. I could have shot him once before in Canada; but he +was unprepared then. He did not see me, and I would not take him at a +disadvantage. I try not to think of it now. I don't want you to think of +it either--after to-night. Will you try not to? And try not to let them +persuade you that I am quite a fiend in human shape?" + +Rachel blew her nose for the last time, put her handkerchief in her +pocket, and smiled a tearful smile. + +"I am afraid you are not very good," she said, shaking her head, "but I +know you can't be a really wicked man." + +"How do you know it?" he asked eagerly. + +"How? I'm sure I don't know--I feel it." + +"Thank you, thank you," he said, in a low, rapid under tone. "You don't +know how I thank you for saying that. At any rate, I have _some_ +rudimental morality. I am honest, to the best of my power. I tell no +lies to myself, or to any man--or woman. What I say I mean, and what I +do I own to--if called upon, that is. You may trust me that far. And I +_hope_ you will." + +"I will," said Rachel, without a moment's hesitation. + +How often they thought afterwards of their first strange talk, all alone +in that shadowy place. It was as if they had known one another in some +other world, and had met after long absence; they felt--widely unlike as +they were--so little as strangers usually do beginning a conventional +acquaintance in the conventional way. However, it did occur to both of +them that it would be as well to go back to the drawing-room before they +should be missed. + +"I am glad to have had this opportunity," said Mr. Dalrymple, who rose +first. "I shall hope--I shall feel sure--that you will not let yourself +be prejudiced unfairly by anything you may hear. For the rest, I hope +you will try not to think of this painful story again." + +And he began to saunter back, and she to saunter beside him. + +As they entered the drawing-room by the glass door, they heard Mrs. +Hardy calling: + +"Rachel! Rachel! Why, where is Rachel gone to?" + +The girl glided into the broad, warm light, a little confused and +dazzled, and, of course, dyed in blushes, which deepened to the deepest +pink of oleanders--nay, to the still richer red of that lapageria which +had attracted Mr. Dalrymple's attention just now--as she became +conscious of the curious observation of the assembled guests, who, she +well knew, would not regard this characteristic demonstration as lightly +as those did who knew her. + +"I am here, Aunt Elizabeth," she replied, in an abject voice, as if she +had been caught in something very disgraceful. + +"Oh!" responded Mrs. Hardy, "I thought you were gone to bed." She looked +sharply at the girl's downcast face, and then more sharply at Mr. +Dalrymple, who met her eyes with a stately and distant air of not +putting himself to the trouble of remembering who she was that she found +very offensive and aggravating. "You had better go, my dear," she said +peremptorily. "It is late, and you have had a tiring day. I shall be +having Mr. Kingston complaining if I let you knock yourself up." + +Rachel was only too glad to say good night and go. The other ladies +began to rise and stir about, gathering up fans and fancy work, but she +left the room before they had come to any unanimous decision about +separating. Mr. Dalrymple held open the door for her. "Good night," she +whispered hurriedly, not looking at him. He answered by a strong +pressure of her hand in silence. She did not understand it then, but +looking back afterwards she knew that that first brief hand-clasp +stirred her erstwhile latent woman's soul to life. She was never the +same afterwards. + +Half an hour later, when she was sitting by her own fireside, dreamily +brushing her long auburn hair over a blue dressing-gown (blue was her +specially becoming colour), Mrs. Hardy tapped at her door, and entered. + +"I have brought you a little wine and water, dear," said she, looking +very friendly and amiable. "I know you seldom take it, but to-night it +will do you good. And Lucilla says you are to be sure not to get up to +breakfast if you feel tired in the morning." + +"Oh, thank you, auntie, but you know I _never_ lie in bed! And I am not +in the very _least_ tired. I have had a delightful day." + +"Yes; it has been a pleasant day. I am glad you have enjoyed it so +much. I am only sorry we had to bring that Mr. Dalrymple back with us. +I consider him a most objectionable, a most disreputable, young man--not +so very young either; he will never see forty again, unless I am much +mistaken. But Lucilla and Mr. Thornley are both so much attached to Mrs. +Digby; for her sake they are obliged to be civil to him." + +Rachel was silent. + +"You will, however, be careful, dear, I know, not to get more intimate +with him than necessary," Mrs. Hardy continued. "Mr. Kingston would +dislike it very much. He is a very wild young man--he has not at all a +good character." + +"You said Mr. Kingston was wild, auntie," the girl suggested timidly. +It was her sole feeble effort in defence of her absent friend. + +"Nonsense! I'm sure I said nothing of the kind. He is a man whom +everybody looks up to. There is no question of comparison between them. +At any rate," she added, with solemn severity, "Mr. Kingston has not +taken a fellow-creature's life, as this man has. _That_ is reason enough +why we must none of us have more to do with him than is absolutely +necessary. You will remember that, Rachel? Be civil to him, my dear, of +course, but no more. I should not have allowed you to come into contact +with such a man if I could have helped it, and we had no idea of seeing +him to-day. However, they will all be gone after to-morrow, and you need +not recognise him again. The Digbys are coming to the dance next week, +but Mrs. Hale says he means to start again for Queensland on Monday. Let +us hope they won't break their traces a second time. Good night, my +dear; you will remember what I say? It is what Mr. Kingston would wish +if he were here, I know." + +And Mrs. Hardy kissed her niece affectionately and went away to bed, +with a sense of having done her duty, and without the least suspicion +that as a domestic diplomatist, she had covered herself with disgrace. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +MR. DALRYMPLE HAS TO CONSULT GORDON. + + +Of course it is well understood, without further explanation, that Mr. +Dalrymple and Rachel were in the position of the Sleeping Beauty and her +prince when the spell that held life in abeyance was--or was about to +be--broken. At the same time it is not to be inferred that the man, with +his years and experience, fell in love at first sight with a merely +pretty face, nor that the girl was more than ordinarily impressionable +and inconstant, or had any constitutional weakness for wild young men. + +Perhaps it is not necessary to essay the difficult task of finding a +theory to account for it. Everybody knows that if there is a law of +nature that will not lend itself to system, it is that which governs +these affairs. + +The greatest force and factor in human life comes to birth by a mere +chance--in Roden Dalrymple's case by the breaking of a trace, which was +in itself the result of a whole series of trivial and quite avoidable +circumstances; and then it thrives or languishes by the favour of petty +accidents--until time and sanctifying associations put it beyond the +reach of accident. That is its superficial history, taking a general +average. + +Quality and potency are questions of temperament; vigour of growth +depends in great measure on what may be called climatic influences. But, +as with some other great mysteries of this world, human understanding +can make very little of it. + +At the same time people do not fall in love with each other absolutely +without rhyme or reason. And these two did not. Of course personal +appearance had, in the first instance, something to do with it. + +To a girl of Rachel's disposition (or, indeed, of any other +disposition), nothing in the whole catalogue of manly graces could have +been more captivating than that quiet air of power and dignity which +was the chief characteristic of her hero's person and bearing. + +And Mr. Dalrymple, who was not the kind of man to be at any time +insensible to the charm of a sweet face, had had sufficient experience +to understand and appreciate the peculiar charm of this one--its +unaffected modesty and candour; and he had had, moreover, little of +anything to charm him in his later wandering years. + +And Rachel was not merely a pretty girl, by any means. Being of a most +unselfish, unassuming, kindly nature, and having a subtle apprehension +of the general fitness of things, her manners were exceedingly gracious +and winning--not always conventional, perhaps, but always refined and +modest; and that honest youthful enthusiasm for life and its good +things, which more or less flavoured all she said and did, though +inimical to the prejudices of the British matron, was a charming thing +to men. + +Then Mr. Dalrymple had the faculty to perceive what made her look at him +with so peculiarly wistful and earnest a look; he recognised his friend, +if not his love and mate, in the earliest hours of their acquaintance. A +friend in so fair a shape was doubly a friend naturally; and the strong +appetite that he had for friendship, as a rudimental phase of passion, +had had little to feed on but bitter memories for more than a dozen +years. + +As for Rachel, it was almost inevitable that she should lose her heart +to this hero of romance--this Paladin with a touch of the demon in +him--whom circumstances combined to present to her under such singularly +impressive auspices. If the truth must be told, she fell in love much +more suddenly and hopelessly than he did; and the fates--incarnate in +the persons of his enemies--did their best to precipitate the +catastrophe. + +On the morning following their strange interview in the conservatory--of +which she had been dreaming all night--she awoke with a dim sense of +something being wrong. It was so very dim a sense that she did not +consciously apprehend it, and therefore made no investigation into its +origin. But instead of jumping out of bed as usual, eager to plunge at +once into the unknown joys of a new day, she lay still until obliged to +get up to receive her tea, and gazed pensively into vacancy. + +It was just such a morning as yesterday--the sun shining in through the +white blind, the fresh wind rustling along the leafy verandahs, the +magpies gossiping cheerily in great flocks about the garden; and there +was that sweetest baby cooing like a little wood pigeon as he was +carried past her door in his nurse's arms. But she was deaf to these +erewhile potent influences. + +"Your hot water, miss," quoth a housemaid in the passage. + +"Thank you, Susan," she responded absently, and continued to gaze into +vacancy. + +"Your tea, miss," came, with another tap, presently. + +And then it was she had to get out of bed. She took in her tea, set it +down on a chair and forgot it; she put on her slippers and +dressing-gown, and armed herself with towel and sponge, but had to make +three visits to the bath-room before she could get in. + +Then she woke up to the fact that she was late, and scampered excitedly +about the room in her anxiety to make a becoming toilet in the shortest +possible space of time. Finally, she went to breakfast five minutes +after the gong was supposed to have assembled the family, and found that +the gentlemen had all gone out early on a shooting expedition. + +"Isn't it too bad?" exclaimed Miss Hale. "They arranged it in the +smoking-room last night, after we were gone to bed; and Harold _knew_ +that we wanted to play croquet." + +Croquet, it may be remarked, had not yet "gone out," and Harold was Mr. +Lessel. + +"They had their breakfast at six o'clock," said Mrs. Thornley, smiling. +"And you know, dear Miss Hale, it is nearly the last day of the open +season, and my husband has been trying to preserve those lagoons in the +forest on purpose. There were a great many ducks there last week, and +they will have good sport and enjoy themselves, I hope. They said they +would be back to luncheon." + +"Oh, don't you believe it!" snorted Mrs. Hale, who, having given her +lord orders to stay at home, which had been grossly violated, was in an +aggrieved and aggressive mood. "_I_ know them!--never a thought will +they give to luncheon, or to us either, until they are tired of their +sport. If they are in time for dinner, that's quite as much as you can +expect." + +Rachel sat down, feeling fully as much as anybody the blank that the +five gentlemen had left behind them. She did not exactly say to herself +that it had been waste of time and trouble to put fresh frills into her +dress, but that was the nature of her sentiments. + +It was not a lively morning. None of them expected it would be, so they +were not disappointed. The matrons beguiled the dull hours with +sympathetic gossip on domestic themes. + +Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Hardy had a banquet of Melbourne news and scandal, in +the discussion of which they incidentally glorified their respective +connections, each for the other's edification, until a suggestion of +Mrs. Hale's (to the effect that Mr. Kingston was not much better than he +should be, in spite of his wealth) caused a slight coolness to arise +between them. + +Mrs. Thornley and Mrs. Digby, both young wives and mothers, with many +tender interests in common, whispered pleasantly over their needlework, +chiefly of their nursery affairs. + +The two girls had no resource but to keep each other company. They went +first to see the baby; but Miss Hale was not an enthusiast in babies. +Then they had a little music; and here Rachel did not greatly +distinguish herself. + +After that they walked about the garden and talked. Rachel was told all +about Mr. Lessel--how charming and how good he was--what his father +meant to settle on him when he married--when the wedding was to be, and +what the bridesmaids were to wear. Then she was enticed into a few +reluctant confidences about her own engagement, which led to a detailed +description of the new house, and an invitation to Miss Hale, when she +should be Mrs. Lessel, to pay a visit there some day with her husband. +And so the morning wore away, and luncheon-time came. + +They waited luncheon until past two o'clock, and, to the sombre +satisfaction of Mrs. Hale, the sportsmen did not return, and the made +dishes were spoiled. + +Then the mail arrived, and there was a letter for Rachel from her +_fiance_, begging her to write at once to relieve his mind of a fear +that she was ill, and to tell him at the same time that she acquiesced +in the arrangements he had proposed for their early marriage, and +whether she preferred Sydney or Tasmania for the introductory wedding +trip. + +He particularly wanted her to settle these little matters without +further delay, as the spring was so much the pleasantest time for +travelling, and he had had the offer of a charming house in Sydney, on +the shores of the bay, for the first two or three weeks in October, +which would only be open for a few days. + +When she had read this letter, she was in a frantic hurry to answer it. +Holding it in her hand, she excused herself to her companions, who were +all setting forth for a gentle walk; begging to be allowed to stay at +home with an anxious eagerness that provoked significant and indulgent +smiles, which said, "Oh, pray don't mind us," as plainly as smiles could +speak. + +So when they were gone, she made herself comfortable in the +smoking-room, in one of the screened compartments of which there was a +sort of public writing-table, supplied with great bowls of ink, and +sheafs of pens, and reams of paper, on which "Adelonga" was printed--as +if Adelonga had been a club--for the use of all-comers; and where there +was always a glorious fire of big logs whenever there was the least +excuse for a fire. + +Here she began her second letter to Mr. Kingston--with effusive +conciliatory excuses for having been such a very bad correspondent. She +had really been so much engaged--time had slipped away, she didn't know +how--the post had gone once or twice without her knowing it--yesterday +they had been away from home; altogether, fate had been against her +writing as often as she had intended, but she would promise him to be +more regular in future. + +Then followed a description of the races, and an enumeration of the +guests they had brought back with them--who they all were, what they +were like, and her estimation of them respectively. One was dismissed +without comment--"and a Mr. Dalrymple, Mrs. Digby's brother" (and of +course her dearest Graham remarked the extreme simplicity of this +phrase, and was curious about the interesting details that were +conspicuous by their absence). And then, after a few inquiries about the +progress of the house, she plunged into the really important matter. + +"I have been thinking about your proposal a _great_ deal, and I want +you, _please_, not to be angry with me if I cannot accede to it," she +began in an abject and deprecating manner that was significant of her +state of mind. "I want to stay a little longer with my dear aunt, to +whom I have had so little opportunity as yet of making what return is in +my power for all her kindness to me; and I want a little time to +improve myself, too, for my future position as your wife, dear Graham. +Lucilla is a beautiful housekeeper and is teaching me lots of things; +and I am brushing up my French and German with Miss O'Hara, who said my +accent (but it is much better now) was enough to set one's teeth on +edge. Moreover, I am _really_ too young to be married just yet. I am +hardly nineteen, and Laura Buxton was nineteen and a half. Perhaps next +year----" + +At this point she was interrupted by the arrival of the sportsmen. They +had been to the drawing-room, apparently, for they came in by way of the +conservatory, through a door just opposite the writing-table. She put +down her pen and rose in haste. + +"Hullo, Rachel! Good-morning, my dear. Don't get up--we won't disturb +you," shouted Mr. Thornley, cheerily. "Come in, Lessel--come in, +Dalrymple. Here's where the guns go." + +"What sport have you had? And are you not very hungry?" she asked, +moving away from her chair and standing on the hearthrug. According to +her primitive ideas of propriety, she was bound to stay a little while +and see to their hospitable entertainment, there being no proper hostess +available. + +"Hungry? I should think so. And we had very good sport, though not much +to show for it," responded Mr. Thornley. "Only five ducks to five guns, +and Dalrymple shot four of them. They are wild enough at the best of +times; but at the end of the season there is no getting near them." + +"You must be a very good shot," she said, lifting her eyes meekly to Mr. +Dalrymple's face. And then, the moment the words were spoken, she would +have given worlds to recall them, and looked at him again with a dumb +entreaty to be forgiven. + +He smiled gently, reading her like a book. + +"Oh, no," he said; "I was only lucky in having the birds." + +They all came round her as she stood on the hearthrug, except Mr. +Thornley, who had gone to order some bread and cheese and beer; and they +looked pleased with the situation. + +Mr. Digby began to tell her what a lovely day it was, and to ask her +why she had not gone out for a walk, too; and then, when she explained +that she had had letters to write, and found herself, unfortunately, +unable to do so without blushing over it (blushing because she feared +she was _going_ to blush), Mr. Hale broke in; and Mr. Hale in +conversation was, in his very different way, worse than Mrs. Hale. + +"To Melbourne, I presume?" insinuated this little monster, with an arch +smile. Rachel, the colour of a peony, lifted her head an inch nearer to +the ceiling. + +"I only heard last night," he continued, rubbing his hands, and looking +a whole volume of vulgar pleasantries, "that the redoubtable Kingston +has been vanquished at last, and that it is to your bow and spear that +he has fallen. Allow me to congratulate you, Miss Fetherstonhaugh." + +"To congratulate _him_, I should think you mean," broke in Mr. +Dalrymple, who was studying the effect of sunset on a picture of the +Adelonga homestead and pulling his moustaches violently. "Hadn't we +better go and wash our hands, Digby, and make ourselves more fit for +ladies' company?" + +"To congratulate him, too, certainly," said Mr. Hale; "very much so, of +course. But still it is a great conquest on the part of Miss +Fetherstonhaugh. Perhaps you don't know Kingston?" + +"I have not that honour," replied Mr. Dalrymple stiffly; and the tone of +his voice strongly implied that he did not in the least degree desire +it. + +"Well, I do; and I know that he has openly defied the combined powers +of her charming sex for--I am afraid to say how many years--as long as I +can remember." + +"I daresay that has not distressed them," said Mr. Dalrymple. + +"Come, come, Hale," said Mr. Digby, who thought his kinsman's allusion +to Mr. Kingston's age a terrible slip of the tongue; "let us go and wash +our hands. Come along, Lessel." + +"And my wife tells me," continued the irrepressible little man, "that +the--a--the interesting event is to take place very shortly!" + +Rachel came out of her majestic reticence with a rush that astonished +everybody. + +"Oh, _no_, Mr. Hale--not for a _long_ time--not for a year, at the very +least! Who _could_ have told Mrs. Hale such a thing? I assure you it is +quite, quite wrong! _Do_ you know who told her? Was it my aunt?" + +She looked at him with an earnest, imploring look that aroused Mr. +Dalrymple to regard her with considerably sharpened interest. The +alarming thought had struck her that her lover might have privately +enlisted Mrs. Hardy's support for his new scheme; and if so, how should +she be able to resist so formidable a pressure? + +"I think it was Mrs. Thornley told Mrs. Hale. She had a letter from her +sister, Mrs. Reade, yesterday; and Mrs. Reade had mentioned it. Ladies' +gossip, Miss Fetherstonhaugh!--ladies never can keep secrets, you know. +They tell everything to one another, and then to us. And we--we tell +them nothing. We know better, eh, Digby?" + +"Come along," said Digby, who was getting a little savage, "and don't +talk like a fool." + +At this critical juncture Mr. Thornley appeared to announce that there +was bread and cheese in the dining-room for anybody who was hungry. +Whereupon the men trooped out--all but Mr. Dalrymple, who apparently was +not hungry. He was lounging at Rachel's side, with an elbow on the +mantelpiece, pulling his moustache meditatively; and he did not move. + +Rachel was fluttered and excited. + +"How _do_ people get hold of those things?" she exclaimed, with a vexed, +embarrassed laugh. "It is very true that everybody knows one's business +better than one does one's self. I _hate_ that kind of impertinent +gossip. No one has the _least_ ground for supposing that I am going to +be married shortly. I have no intention of being married for ever so +long." + +"Why do you care what people say?" said Mr. Dalrymple. "I never care. It +is much the best plan." + +"I would not, if I could help it; but I can't," she responded, turning +round and mechanically spreading her pink palms to the fire. + +"And, after all," he continued, slowly, "all the talking in the world +can't make you marry if you don't want to." + +She did not look up, but the blood flew over her face. + +"I did not say I didn't want to," she murmured. "Of course I want +to--not yet, for a long time, but some day--or I should not be engaged." + +"I don't think that _always_ follows, Miss Fetherstonhaugh. I think many +people engage themselves, and live to think better of it. And then, if +they don't refuse to consummate an admitted mistake, they--well, they +ought to, that's all. Forgive me, I am speaking in the abstract of +course. I have had a great deal of experience, you know." + +"Of broken engagements?" queried Rachel, smiling faintly at the fire. + +"No, not of them--not personally. The curse of my life was an engagement +that was kept. And I have seen so much misery, such everlasting wreck +and ruin, come upon people I have known and cared for--people who kept +the letter of the law of honour and disregarded the spirit--who +preferred sacrificing all that made life worth having, for certainly two +people, and probably four, to breaking an engagement that had no longer +any sense or reason in it." + +"But surely an engagement--it is the initial marriage ceremony--should +be kept sacred," protested Rachel, daring at last to look up, in defence +of pious principles. + +"Yes," he said, "certainly--when it is _really_ the initial marriage +ceremony." + +"And how--what--what is the proof of that?" + +"Shall I tell you what I think it is? When the people who are engaged +long and weary for the consummation--for the time to be over which +keeps them from one another." + +There was a dead silence. Rachel continued to gaze into the fire, but +her eyes were dim, and all her pretty colour sank out of her face. He +had given her a great shock, and she had to take a little time to +recover. Presently she looked up, pale and grave, with a fuller and more +open look than she had ever given him. + +"You should not have told me," she said gently; "you should not talk to +me so." + +"No--you are right--I should not--forgive me," he replied, speaking low +and hurriedly, with something new and strange in his voice. And then +they became simultaneously aware of the dangerous ways into which their +discussion had led them, and, by tacit consent, turned back. Rachel +moved away to the writing-table, and began to gather her papers +together; Mr. Dalrymple brought his arm down from the chimney-piece and +looked at his watch. + +"It is five o'clock," he said; "the ladies are having a long walk, are +they not?" + +"No; it was nearly four when they started. They will be in directly for +their tea." + +Then, without looking to right or left, Rachel hurried out of the room; +and Mr. Dalrymple, after silently holding the door for her, strode away +to the dining-room, where he was still in time for some bread and +cheese. + +The first thing Rachel did on reaching her room, was to sit down and +cry--why or wherefore she never asked herself. She had not yet learned +the art of analysing her emotions. + +She felt vaguely perplexed and hurt, and ashamed and indignant; and a +few tears were necessary to put her to rights. They were very few, and +soon over. + +In less than ten minutes she had again addressed herself to Mr. +Kingston's letter, which she finished up with the suggestion that their +marriage should take place "next year," and a profusion of unwonted +endearments. + +At dusk she went to the drawing-room, where the reunited guests were +having tea in the pleasant firelight, the gentlemen lounging about in +their knickerbockers and leggings, the ladies sitting with hats tilted +on the back of their heads, Mrs. Hale victorious over her subdued +husband. Miss Hale happy with her recovered beau. She sat a little +outside the circle and talked in under-tones to Lucilla; Mr. Dalrymple +stood far away on the other side of the room, and talked to nobody. + +That night Rachel was the first to go to dress; she was the last to come +back when the gong announced dinner. And when she came she was arrayed +in all her glory--pearl necklace, diamond pendant, diamond bracelet, +jewelled fan--all her absent lover's love-gifts that good taste +permitted her to wear, and a few more. And there was no repetition of +the conservatory scene. + +Mrs. Hardy was perfectly satisfied with the result of her diplomatic +measures. Rachel sat by her aunt's side, and sewed industriously all the +evening at a pinafore for her precious baby, who was about to be +short-coated. Mr. Dalrymple sat rather apart, gnawing his moustache, +apparently absorbed in a photographic album of Lucilla's, which he had +discovered in a cabinet near him. + +Two or three times, when Rachel stole a look across the room, unable to +repress her restless curiosity to know what he was doing, she saw him +gazing meditatively at this open book, and always on the first page of +it. She wondered whose photographs they were that interested him so +much, and she felt that she could not go to bed without satisfying her +anxiety on this point. + +When after tea, music and cards and other gentle entertainments were set +going, and Mr. Dalrymple was at last enticed by his host from his corner +and his album to make a fourth at the whist-table, she watched her +opportunity and stole round to the chair on which he had been sitting. +He had his back to her, but he was facing a mirror in which he could see +her distinctly; and while he watched her movements, he trumped his +partner's trick for the first time in his life, and otherwise disgraced +a notorious reputation. + +"I suppose," said Mrs. Hale, who was his partner, with considerable +asperity, "that you don't trouble to play well if you haven't some +great stake to play for." + +"I beg your pardon," he replied, gravely bending his head. Rachel was +stealing back to her aunt's side and her baby's pinafore, and he left +off looking into the mirror and making mistakes. + +Meanwhile Rachel had satisfied her curiosity. When she opened the album +on the first page she saw two familiar faces--one of a young, bright +girl, with pensive eyes, conspicuous for "that royalty which subjects +kings;" the other angular, aquiline, hollow, full of the lines of age, +and smirking with the sprightliness of youth--herself and Mr. Kingston, +to whom, unknown to her, Lucilia had lately given this place of honour. + +She stood still for a few minutes, looking down on them, with the colour +deepening in her cheeks. She seemed to see for the first time how +incongruous a pair they made, and how mean a presence her lover really +bore. + +It was a bad likeness of him, she said to herself; but in point of fact +she was shocked by a faithful representation of his meagre features and +his peculiar smile--which after all was too frivolous and artificial to +be worthy of comparison with the smile of Mephistopheles. + +She did not consciously judge his by the standard of that other face, +which was so impressively dignified and resolute; but she had looked at +this same photograph two days ago, and then it had not struck her +unpleasantly, as it did now. + +Without thinking what she was doing, she tore out her own likeness, and +also the last photograph in the book, which was an old one of her Cousin +Lucilla as a child, and she made them change places. Having effected +which--surreptitiously, as she thought--she closed the album softly, +laid it away in the cabinet, and returned to her seat by her aunt's +side. + +When the ladies were gone to bed, the first thing Mr. Dalrymple did was +to get out that album again and look at it; and he had some very serious +thoughts when he found out what she had done. + +In the morning all the visitors left early, for they had a long distance +to travel. Mr. Thornley was to take them part of the way home, and the +break and the four horses were brought round at eight o'clock. Rachel +came out to the verandah with her aunt and cousin to see them start. + +"Good-bye, dear Mrs. Digby," said Lucilla, affectionately kissing her +particular friend. "Good-bye, Mrs. Hale. Good-bye, Miss Hale. I am so +sorry you could not stay longer, but we shall expect you back next week. +Good-bye, Mr. Dalrymple, I hear you are off to Queensland again on +Monday?" + +Mr. Dalrymple shook hands and lifted his hat, and then said very +quietly, but with great distinctness, "Not quite so soon as that, I +think, Mrs. Thornley. I shall consult Gordon before I make another +start." + +"Oh, well, in that case we shall hope to see you again, too. Of course +you'll come with your sister next week, if you _should_ be still with +her?" + +"Thank you," said Mr. Dalrymple. "I shall be most happy." + +Rachel was not looking at anybody in particular; and nobody was looking +at her. But her rather pale and pensive face suddenly became of a colour +that might have put even the lapageria rosea to shame. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +"OH, IF THEY HAD!" + + +Wandering about that afternoon in an aimless and restless manner, Rachel +entered the drawing-room through the conservatory door, and found her +cousin sitting there alone, at her own little davenport, writing +letters. Lucilla looked up with a smile of cordial welcome. + +"Do you know what I am doing?" she exclaimed brightly. "Come here, and +say thank you. I am writing to ask Mr. Kingston to come." + +"To ask Mr. Kingston to come?" the girl repeated blankly. "What for, +Lucilla?" + +Mrs. Thornley was not like Mrs. Reade; she was amiable and sweet, but a +little dull of apprehension. She did not grasp the obvious significance +of this reply. Still it struck her as inadequate. + +"Why, my dear child, what a question! Because you are here, of course, +and because he is moping about town, Beatrice says, and doesn't know +what to do with himself." + +"Does Beatrice say that?" inquired Rachel, with a little pang of +self-reproach. This man, who had done her the greatest honour, who had +paid her the highest compliment that any man could bestow on any +woman--she was conscious of requiting him with ingratitude at this +moment. "He is very, very--kind," she faltered. "I am afraid he thinks +too much about me. When have you asked him to come, Lucilla?" + +"In time for the dance next week, and as much sooner as he likes. I have +told him to send word what day will suit him, if he can come, and that +we will send to the station. Of course we could not allow _him_ to come +up by coach. I am very glad we have that dance in prospect; it will be +something to amuse him. I should have been half afraid to ask him into +the country if there had been nothing going on. He used to hate the +bush. However," looking up archly, "Beatrice says I need not be afraid +of his feeling dull on this occasion." + +"Did Beatrice tell you to ask him? I mean did she suggest it to you?" + +"Yes, dear--to tell the truth. I should not have asked him, simply +because I knew he didn't like the bush. It did not occur to me that he +would be fretting after you--Mr. Kingston fretting after anybody is such +a very novel idea! Oh, my dear Rachel"--and here she drew the girl close +and kissed her--"you are luckier than ever I thought you were!" + +"Yes," sighed Rachel; "I know I am very lucky." + +"And Beatrice says," continued Mrs. Thornley, with her arm round her +cousin's waist, "that we shall be having everything settled soon, and +that you are to have a delightful tour in Europe. How you will enjoy +that! It was the one thing I wished for when I was married that I did +not get. Not but what," the gentle woman added quickly, "I am very glad +I did not get it now. I could not have been happier than I have been at +Adelonga, and it must be very inconvenient to have a baby when one is +travelling about. You must tell me, darling, what you would like for a +present. John and I were talking about it last night--John thinks a +great deal of you, you must know, which is a thing you ought to be proud +of, for he is very particular and critical about girls--and he says he +would like to give you something worth having. But I told him you and I +would talk it over before we decided what it should be." + +"How good you are! How good everybody is!" exclaimed Rachel, folding the +girlish matron in a rather hysterical embrace. "But I don't think I +shall be married just yet, Lucilla--wait till we hear what Mr. Kingston +says." + +"Oh, we know already what _he_ is going to say." + +"There is the party to be thought of first," proceeded Rachel, +determined, now that Mr. Kingston was coming, not to dissipate in +fruitless skirmishes the strength that she would require to fight the +inevitable battle with him. "You have only a week before you, and you +have not sent out your invitations, have you?" + +"Yes, I have. I did that the day you were at the races, and have had +answers to some of them. We shall get about thirty or forty people +together, I hope--perhaps more. I wonder, by the way, whether Mr. +Dalrymple could bring that friend of his, Mr. Jim Gordon--I _wish_ I had +thought to ask him. We have too large a proportion of married people, +unfortunately." Lucilla had become thoughtful and business-like. "Seven +bachelors altogether," she remarked musingly, after a pause; "that is +not nearly enough. Does Mr. Kingston dance now, Rachel?" + +"Yes, but not a great deal--mostly quadrilles. I think," she added, +reflectively, "he is rather troubled with gout in one of his knees." + +"Poor fellow! He waltzed with me I remember when I first came out, and +that's not very long ago. Surely _he_ can't have gout--a man who walks +with such a peculiarly light and airy tread! Though, to be sure, I knew +a man of twenty-five--or was it thirty-five?--who had gout badly." + +"Perhaps it is rheumatism," suggested Rachel; "or lumbago." + +"Nonsense. Lumbago, indeed! One would think he was a patriarch. But if +he doesn't waltz----" + +Lucilla paused in perplexity. + +"Does Mr. Gordon waltz?" Rachel meekly inquired. + +"Oh, no doubt--sure to. I have never seen him, but all those old army +men dance well." + +"Then I suppose Mr. Dalrymple dances well?" + +"Of course he does. Poor fellow, he excels in everything that is of no +consequence. Oh, yes, Mr. Dalrymple is decidedly an acquisition in a +ball-room, whatever he may be elsewhere." + +"Lucilla!" + +"What, dear?" + +"Why do you all speak of him in that hard way? You are so kind to +everybody else, but for him nobody seems to have a good word. I think it +is so cruel!" she broke out with sudden passion. "The way Mrs. Hale +insulted him the other night--a man like that, whom she was not fit to +associate with--and all of you sitting round and letting her do it--I +think it is dreadful!" + +"Oh, my dear," responded Mrs. Thornley, with tremulous earnestness, a +little frightened at the vehemence that she was too dull to understand, +and deeply shocked by the implied reflection on her hospitality, "you +don't suppose we encouraged or defended Mrs. Hale? We were as vexed as +you were at her gross want of taste--of common courtesy, one might say. +John was excessively angry--with dear Mrs. Digby sitting by to hear it +all; he said at first that he would never have her in his house again." + +"But he is going to have her?" + +"Yes. Well, they are old neighbours you see, and related to the Digbys. +And I daresay she knows no better." + +"She is a horrid woman," said Rachel, viciously; "and so is her +husband." + +"A horrid woman?" laughed Lucilla. "Oh, no, dear, be just--he is not so +bad as that. And you know, Rachel"--becoming gently argumentative--"it +is not surprising that people object to a man who has had such a career +as Mr. Dalrymple's. You know what he has done?" + +"Only fought a duel," said Rachel. "No, I am not defending him, Lucilla, +but how many men have done the same in old days, without being objected +to?" + +"It was a very _bad_ duel," said Lucilla gravely. "There were +circumstances connected with it that were very disreputable--so they +say." + +"You shouldn't trust to hearsay," protested the girl eagerly. "Why don't +you go by the evidence of your own senses? Does he look like the man to +do disreputable things?" + +"He looks like a man who could never do anything mean or underhand," +said Mrs. Thornley; "I admit that. He has a noble face; and he has +perfect manners; and he is clever. But, oh! Rachel, when a man has been +in the dock, and for such a crime as that--" + +"Do you mean he has been in prison?" + +"Of course. He was arrested and put on his trial for murder, or +manslaughter--I forget which it was called. He was acquitted we know, +but by the merest accident. Popular feeling was with him, strange to +say, and Mr. Gordon fought hard for him. They were not over particular +in California, I suppose, and there was a flaw somewhere. But he _might_ +have been hung, Rachel! That is where it is--he was tried for murder, +and he _might_ have been hung!" + +Rachel was leaning against the wall, and looking into the recess that +made a passage to the conservatory. She was calling up a vision of that +memorable night, which was the birthnight of her womanhood, so recently +come and gone--the fern-tree canopy, letting the moonlight through, the +little bench, set in a bower of cork and maidenhair, where she sat alone +with him in a world of brooding shadows--the strong, proud face, +bending forward to look at her, darkly distinct in the soft, green +gloom. + +And she heard his voice again, incisive, imperious, yet melting her very +heart within her as he told her the simple history of this terrible +episode in his life. He might have been hung!--he did not tell her that. +She stole away from her cousin, and walked up and down the long alleys +of the conservatory, pale and passionate with her fierce indignation. +Would they indeed have dared to hang him? And if they had--oh, if they +had! + +Some thirty miles away Mr. Dalrymple was riding by his own short cuts +through the bush, with his peaked cap drawn over his eyes. His +beautiful horse, tall and stately like himself, with glossy dark coat, +and a white star on his forehead, paced with long strides through +saplings and brushwood, swinging his head slowly up and down on the +loose rein with a rhythmical movement that betokened ease of body and +content of mind. + +His master gazed heedfully at the brilliant parrots flashing about with +long, rushing darts over his head, and at the myriads of wild flowers +crushed and trampled under foot. He wore a sprig of epacris in his +button-hole, and carried a sheaf of delicate orchids with their stalks +tucked under the saddle in front of him. + +He hummed a Strauss waltz as he went along through the sunshine and +shadows of the waning day, and thought of the time when he would go +back to Adelonga and carry that girl with the sweet eyes away in his +arms, on the wings of just such a dreamy measure, into the only +realisable Utopia of this world. + +And perhaps he was more glad of his life than he had ever been since the +day when he so nearly lost it--caring not much whether he did so or not. + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + +London: Printed by A. Schulze, 13, Poland Street. (S. & H.) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Mere Chance, Vol. 1 of 3, by Ada Cambridge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MERE CHANCE, VOL. 1 OF 3 *** + +***** This file should be named 38083.txt or 38083.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/8/38083/ + +Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Matthew Wheaton +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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