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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40431 ***
+
+                            MISS HILDRETH.
+
+                               A Novel.
+
+                       BY A. DE GRASSE STEVENS,
+
+              AUTHOR OF "OLD BOSTON," "THE LOST DAUPHIN,"
+                    "WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE," ETC.
+
+
+    In Three Volumes.
+    VOL. I.
+
+    LONDON:
+    WARD AND DOWNEY,
+    12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
+    1888.
+
+    [_All rights reserved._]
+
+    _Copyright by_ A. de GRASSE STEVENS, 1888.
+
+
+                    TO MY ONLY SISTER,
+                   MRS. FRANK H. EVANS,
+                   I Dedicate this Book.
+
+    Dreams, books are each a world; and books we know
+    Are a substantial world, both pure and good;
+    Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
+    Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
+
+                                           WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+        CHAPTER I. A LETTER                                1
+
+       CHAPTER II. THE FOLLY                              22
+
+      CHAPTER III. "THE SINS OF THE FATHERS"              41
+
+       CHAPTER IV. A FAIR PARLIAMENT                      51
+
+        CHAPTER V. SENTIMENT AND "BACCY"                  66
+
+       CHAPTER VI. STAGE-STRUCK                           82
+
+      CHAPTER VII. DANGER AHEAD                          101
+
+     CHAPTER VIII. AN ARRIVAL AND A MEETING              123
+
+       CHAPTER IX. THE IMPERIAL CHANCELLERIE             152
+
+        CHAPTER X. A COURT FAVOURITE                     176
+
+       CHAPTER XI. A WOMAN SCORNED                       204
+
+      CHAPTER XII. A PINK BILLET-DOUX                    227
+
+     CHAPTER XIII. IN THE HAZEL COPSE                    253
+
+
+
+
+MISS HILDRETH.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A LETTER.
+
+
+     "THE RED HOUSE,
+     "Benton's Station, New Hampshire,
+     "_April, 188--_.
+
+     "MY FRIEND,
+
+     "A clever Frenchman once said, 'On revient toujours à ses premiers
+     amours.' Let us suppose this to have been said of a woman who, in
+     her first youth, had loved a man and jilted him, and then, after
+     many years and much sorrow, her heart returned again to him with a
+     love and constancy unknown before. Cannot the past teach you to
+     read between the lines? I did not write to you of my engagement;
+     but now that it is over, and I am free, I find myself
+     instinctively seeking the old shelter of your friendship, which at
+     one time was never denied me; appealing to the old sympathy to
+     which I then never appealed in vain. Are you astonished--surprised?
+     I am not. In those old days--whose glory is not yet faded, over
+     whose memory 'Requiescant in pace' has not yet been written--I came
+     to you at all times, and you refused me nothing save one
+     thing--once. So now I creep back to the old refuge, and bid you
+     fold down the cere-cloth from our dead past, and see if still,
+     after all these years, it does not look somewhat fair; if still
+     there does not cling to it the memory of those old days; of blue
+     skies, bluer waters, sweet roses, sweeter vows, bright sunshine,
+     brighter promises! My marriage engagement is broken, Philip. Why? I
+     can give no reason. He was all that the world calls worthy, and I
+     believe he loved me; yet I found him wanting. Memory is a rare and
+     delusive beautifier, and my memory is sadly tenacious of the past;
+     therefore I am free. I could not be dishonest to him, even though
+     I would. Yes, I am free, and I am writing you after years of
+     silence. I wonder will you smile over this half-confession, and
+     say, 'Impetuous as ever!' or will you understand, and, so
+     understanding, send me the answer I desire? But should you choose
+     to misconstrue my words, I can but say that I have wished to be
+     honest, however late in the day. Write to me, Philip, or better,
+     come to me. After all, I am but a woman, and a very weak one.
+
+     "PATRICIA."
+
+This was the letter that awaited Philip Tremain on his breakfast-table,
+one bright spring morning of that most fickle, yet most beautiful month,
+April. Even as he entered the room he became aware of its subtle
+presence made known to him by its faint, dead odour of violets;
+consequently it caused him no great shock of surprise to find the large,
+square envelope, sealed with the device of a lighted candle and a silly
+moth, and the motto "Delusion" below a monogram; with the firm
+handwriting forming his name and address looking up at him from its
+dainty surroundings of silver and damask. As the face of a once dearly
+loved friend, neglected yet not forgotten, comes back to one from out
+the mists of memory, recalled unexpectedly by some trivial
+circumstance--a strain of music, a line of poetry, a faded flower.
+
+Time was when each succeeding morning of Mr. Tremain's life, the early
+post brought a similar letter, but in those days his manner of receiving
+it differed exceedingly from this greeting. Then, he would take it up
+tenderly, holding it for a few moments before his longing eyes, and
+perhaps--for he was young and very adoring--raise it to his lips before
+he broke the seal--which in those days was not a cynical candle and
+blind moth, but a true lover's knot, with a French sentiment
+intertwined.
+
+Now he eyed it askance for a second or more before he lifted it, and
+then after balancing it lightly on his open palm, put it down unopened,
+made his tea, buttered his toast, and opened his newspaper; nor did he
+glance towards it again until, his breakfast finished, his cigar alight,
+sitting in the sunshine that flooded his apartment, he took it up and
+broke the seal.
+
+Various emotions passed over his face as he read. Surprise, half anger,
+half scorn, and lastly, as he came to the final lines, a quiver of pity
+or tenderness softened the stern outlines of forehead and lips. He laid
+the open letter on his knee, and as he sat motionless, the increasing
+noise of the shrill street cries, and the echo of commencing traffic
+bespoke the reawakening of the great city to one more day of toil and
+strife and unrest, passed by him unheeded.
+
+A breath of the past was mingled with the present, and bore along with
+it the scent of fresh grass, a mingled perfume of fruit and flowers, a
+vision of flowing muslin draperies, a lithe, graceful figure, dark,
+lustreless hair crowning a proud little head, eyes of deepest violet
+shaded by black, pencilled brows and lashes, a face whose almost dusky
+colouring flushed in an instant into richest carmine when deeply moved.
+
+Ten years had gone by since Philip Tremain, a young barrister struggling
+for briefs, idle, clever, lazy, and cursed with expectations of money,
+first met Patricia Hildreth. He was living then in a small city, in the
+interior of New York State, situated near one of those great lakes so
+renowned for their beauty and their treachery. On account of his talents
+and position he was rather the _enfant gâté_ of society in that
+aristocratic little town; which, by the way, held itself very exclusive,
+and counted among its residents many blue-blooded descendants of old
+colonial families; its customs were colonial as well as its traditions,
+and it looked down with contempt upon its sister city, on the borders
+of a sister lake, because it had admitted within the doors of
+hospitality scions of fathers who were known to have made their money in
+trade.
+
+To this hot-bed of traditional conservatism came Patricia as a
+guest--handsome, disdainful, capricious, city-bred Patricia--armed with
+all her little wiles and graces, a creature of wonderful resource, to be
+looked upon from afar, and to be judged and condemned by the narrow code
+and petty by-laws of the unwritten Blackstone of Hurontown. To the
+married women she was a dangerous siren; to the girls a triumphant,
+unapproachable Thetis; to the men a delusion and a snare, so soon as
+ever she burned them with the blue fire of her eyes, or flashed her
+smile upon them from the freshest of red lips, revealing the whitest of
+pearly teeth.
+
+In virtue of Philip Tremain's long acknowledged precedence where
+anything feminine was concerned, all the other young eligibles of
+Hurontown stood aloof and watched the coming flirtation, half in envy,
+half in pride; for was not the conquering hero one of their own
+belongings, and one also who had never known the arts and cajoleries of
+women, save as portrayed by the demure maidens of their own little town;
+whose manners and conversation betook largely of the Puritan training
+bestowed upon them by their mothers? And was not this mocking, fearless
+young amazon a maiden fresh from that modern Babylon, New York, where,
+if all the girls were fair, all, too, were more or less false, and like
+the Lorelei, only ensnared to destroy? Would it not be a proud boast for
+all future Huronites if this beautiful young witch should be captured by
+their village Perseus, and so changing the classic rôle be made
+subservient to his will and pleasure all the days of her life?
+
+But Patricia was petulant and capricious, and Patricia was not to be
+easily won; both of which reasons made Philip pursue her the more
+eagerly; to him, as to all men, that which is easy of attainment is not
+to be desired. Whether he was successful or not remained for a long time
+unknown to the outside world, but before many weeks had gone by Patricia
+had given over her superior little airs, ceased pursing up her pretty
+mouth, and become indeed wondrously meek and gentle, as she cast down
+her proud eyes and hung out the red flag of danger, followed by the
+white flag of truce; all of which signals signified a total surrender to
+the enemy.
+
+Thus one evening as they drifted idly about in a cockle-shell of a boat
+on the blue waters of the great lake, she holding the oars, he sitting
+at her feet, the softly fading pink and amber light in the west casting
+a rosy hue over her sweet face and fleecy white draperies, he put his
+hand on hers, and drawing down her not unwilling head, told his
+love--the old, old story--and gained the assurance of hers.
+
+Then followed days of beatific bliss and rapture, though both were poor,
+and a more undesirable and foolish marriage for either in the world's
+eyes--even the little world of Hurontown, which aped the morals and
+cynicism of modern Babylon--could not be imagined. As a punishment for
+their precipitate happiness came an indignant letter from Patricia's
+mamma summoning her home, and peremptorily bidding her give up such
+foolish playing at love. What did she think would be her chances for the
+future if she marred all possibilities by such reckless flirtations? Was
+she really devoid of all sense and judgment?
+
+The lovers parted with vows of undying constancy, and the flame of their
+love was kept alight by the interchange of daily letters, which, on
+Patricia's part at least, were the cause of considerable deception and
+hood-winking. Thus the months wore on; winter came, and with it a kind
+friend, lately visiting in modern Babylon, brought news of Patricia's
+gay life in that city, and rumours of her not too innocent flirtations,
+of her daring public opinion by various foolhardy escapades; of her
+beauty, her wit, her heedlessness of public censure; to all of which
+Philip listened, smiling, believing in her fully, trusting that his love
+for her, and hers for him, was sufficient safeguard against all attacks
+made upon her loyalty by those in her own home.
+
+But when there came a letter from Patricia, short, and not very
+gracious, flippant and worldly in tone, announcing her approaching visit
+to Europe under the chaperonage of a lady rather too well known for her
+leaning towards a brilliant life, and altogether unfitted to be the
+guide, philosopher, and friend of so impetuous a nature as his lady
+love's, Philip aroused himself from his indolence, and awakened to
+dangers ahead for him and her, betook himself to modern Babylon, and
+presented himself before her without word of warning. Came, indeed, most
+unexpectedly upon her, as she was holding her little court, composed of
+one or two clever men, several handsome ones, a sprinkling of fair girls
+and equally fair matrons; in the midst of whom Patricia shone forth
+resplendent, as the planet Venus among her satellites.
+
+Upon this fashionable throng burst poor Philip, disturbed,
+travel-stained, and weary. From the fulness of a young, loving, jealous
+heart, overcharged and ready to explode at the first touch of powder, he
+demanded, not too courteously perhaps, that she should instantly then
+and there, explain the presence of those obnoxious men, renounce her
+contemplated journey, throw aside the useless, frivolous life she was
+leading; marry him at once, and come to him in his poverty and toil with
+him; he did not add _for him_, or she might have yielded. He was not
+even gracious in his manner of asking, and his hand clasped hers
+roughly, sending the brilliant rings into the soft fingers mercilessly.
+
+Patricia drew back her injured hand, noting with self pity the red marks
+his violence had left upon it, glanced down at her dainty costume of
+delicate laces and softest silk, looked at the evidence of wealth in
+her soft surroundings, turned a little towards the inner room,
+brilliantly lighted, where she had left her subtle flatterers and
+adorers, their words still echoing in her ears, then brought her
+unwilling eyes back to Philip's tired, angry, harassed face, noted,
+although half ashamed, his rumpled hair and ill-fitting coat, his
+general lack of finish and repose, and drawing one hand slowly over the
+other, slightly shook her head.
+
+"You will not?" he cried out hoarsely. Then without waiting for her
+reply, he burst into a torrent of disappointment and recrimination,
+urged thereto by his hurt self-love; as he, quick as Patricia to make
+comparisons, noted in proud disdain his provincial appearance beside the
+perfectly-mannered, faultlessly-dressed, languidly-interested young
+moths, who fluttered about the flame of Patricia's beauty, stupidly
+singing their sensibilities in the fire of her brilliancy. Yet none the
+less, though he knew and felt his own worth and truth to be boundless,
+compared to theirs, he also felt that in the eyes of the woman he loved,
+he looked--oh, unpardonable sin--honest, jealous, and countrified.
+
+"You are not worthy of my love, or of me," he cried. "Go your own way,
+Patricia, lead your own life; I release you, but don't for one moment
+think you have injured or blighted mine. If all these luxurious
+dainties, and all those brainless fools," with a contemptuous wave of
+his hand towards the innocent revellers and their surroundings, "are
+more to you than my love, then is your love too dainty a luxury for me.
+I loved you, Patty, God knows how I loved you; but that goes for nothing
+in your eyes. Good-bye, Patricia, good-bye."
+
+She stood very still and silent while he spoke, the colour burned red in
+her cheeks, the fire gleamed in her eyes, her bosom rose and fell
+rapidly with the quick beating of her heart. She had not intended that
+half unwilling shake of her head to be taken so literally, and used
+against her. Was he not over anxious to grasp at this chance of freedom?
+Were there not others, only waiting for her to declare herself
+unfettered, to offer her so much more than this one poor man could give?
+Above all, did he not snatch at this suddenly-made breach between them
+with almost indecent haste? Her head rose proudly. She met his look
+gallantly.
+
+"As you say; no, I cannot live without what to me makes up the sum of
+life; luxuries, dainties, call them what you will; they have not entered
+over much into your life, I know; but they have become a part of mine,
+and of me. I should be miserable without them."
+
+"Even as my wife?" he asked royally.
+
+"Even as your wife," she answered proudly.
+
+He said no more, but as he turned to go from her, she came close up to
+him, touching him lightly on his arm. His love had been very dear to
+her; might she not keep a slight chain upon him still, so that in the
+future she might have some little hold upon him; and, indeed, did she
+not love him all the more because of his hot anger, and bitter truth,
+and loyal love?
+
+She put out both her hands to him--her voice was very gentle and
+pleading:
+
+"Since we are to part, Philip, and you will have it so, will you not
+kiss me once, only once more, for good-bye?"
+
+He turned from her, unheeding her pleading voice or hands.
+
+"Do not say it is _my_ will that we part, Patricia; be just at least, if
+you cannot be generous. No, I will not kiss you now, I am not quite a
+hypocrite; perhaps one day, when I can believe and trust in you again,
+Patty, or when all my love for you is dead, or when I can think of you,
+look at you, judge you, as other men do, then I will kiss you, but not
+until then. Ask me then, Patricia."
+
+"I will never ask you again," she answered passionately; "but you,
+Philip, shall be the first to beg a kiss from me, and I shall be the
+one to make your pride suffer, as you now make mine."
+
+Then she left him, sweeping by him, proud, tremulous, excited, stung to
+the heart, but making no sign. He heard her laugh ring out joyously, a
+moment later, as she applauded some witticism of one of her admirers,
+and with a muttered exclamation he made his way out into the night.
+
+So they had parted, and never since that unhappy evening had they met.
+
+Time went on; there came trouble to Patricia in the death of her mother;
+he wrote her a cold note of condolence, to which he received no reply;
+then rumour brought him the knowledge of her inherited wealth, and,
+shortly after, of her engagement to a man many years her senior. Of her
+wealth he thought little, of her engagement he spoke calmly, and with
+the air of a cynic, who beholds all things pass by, good and bad, and
+says, in the bitterness of his soul, _cui bono_? But, inwardly his love
+and pride were roused from their sleep of years, and he owned to
+himself, with a hard honesty, that to think of her as belonging to
+another man than he was intolerable. He had not been able to keep her
+love when he won it, but it was none the less a pain to find that
+another had succeeded where he had failed. Time, however, that wonderful
+physician, in a measure numbed his distress, and to his world he posed
+as a charming man, though cold and heartless; not one to be sentimental
+over a dead past, but rather one to make his power felt, and to lead and
+bend other wills by the stern inflexibility of his own.
+
+And then had come Patricia's letter, telling of her broken toys; asking
+to be taken back into his affections; seeking to creep back into the old
+shelter of his heart, where once she had ruled so proudly.
+
+Ten years had passed since he, in that sweet month of roses, had first
+met and loved her. Ten years; and in the mean time Philip Tremain had
+risen high in the world, and in men's opinions; his money had come to
+him, partly by inheritance, partly through his own hard work; he had
+made his name well known, his fame was still a rising one. No need to
+feel ashamed for him now; indeed, no greater sybarite lived than he, no
+truer _dilettante_, and no one whose surroundings were more daintily
+luxurious.
+
+But notwithstanding the changes that had developed this, to her, unknown
+side of his nature, as he sat in the sunshine this fair spring morning,
+holding Patricia's letter in his hand, he judged her no less harshly,
+blamed her no whit the less, than he had when last he saw her, and
+refused to kiss her for good-bye. With her own hands she had torn the
+veil from his idol ten years ago, and he would not now voluntarily raise
+a finger to restore its shattered beauty.
+
+An hour glided by, his cigar was finished, the freshness of the morning
+had departed, before he aroused himself from his retrospect; he turned
+to his writing-table with a smile, and a half-uttered: "No, not even for
+you, my once beloved Patty; you have made your own life, and you must
+live it out to the bitter end--alone."
+
+His answer therefore to Patricia was a polite stiff note of condolence
+or congratulation, which she chose, on the failure of her matrimonial
+plans. A regret he was unable to accept her invitation, a hope for her
+happiness, an assurance that she might always consider him her friend,
+but nothing more; not one word in answer to the love she proffered, not
+one of remembrance of, or regret for the past.
+
+Patricia Hildreth's face was not good to look upon, as she read his
+response; if ever mortified vanity and determined revenge was readable
+on a woman's countenance, it was to be seen on hers then.
+
+"So I have humbled myself in vain," she said. "Well, it shall be your
+turn next, my Philip, or my woman's wit is of no account; you shall
+feel the same sting as you have given me, incased in your armour of
+pride and well-being though you may be. Take care, Philip, my hand is
+small but it is firm to strike, and he is most lost who thinks himself
+invulnerable to a woman's charms."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FOLLY.
+
+
+About a week later Mr. Tremain found at his breakfast plate another
+letter, and though bearing no crest or motto, and not suggestive of
+violets, was nevertheless a dainty enough feminine epistle.
+
+     "THE FOLLY,
+     "Staten Island,
+     "_April_, 188--.
+
+     "DEAR MR. TREMAIN,
+
+     "Will you come down to us for as long as you can stay without
+     becoming bored to extinction! Your favourite rooms are waiting you,
+     your favourite horse stands idle in his stall, the yacht is in
+     perfect condition, and this delicious foretaste of summer makes
+     sailing in her delightful. We are bored to death, however, for want
+     of some one out of the common. Come and be that some one. I can
+     offer you a pretty girl, a clever girl, and a girl of the period to
+     flirt with successively; then there is myself, and your little
+     god-daughter, Marianne, for common sense and dulness; while George,
+     poor fellow, is pining for another battle at tennis and billiards
+     with you. The ponies, my new ones, and their mistress, will be at
+     the five-thirty boat to-morrow afternoon, to meet you, so pray
+     don't disappoint,
+
+     "Yours most cordially,
+     "ESTHER NEWBOLD."
+
+Nothing loth, Mr. Tremain put himself on board the _Castleton_ the next
+day, and enjoyed the half-hour's crossing to the island, whose wooded,
+picturesque shores, clad in fairest green, were a refreshment to his
+senses, accustomed for so many months to the hard lines and sharp
+angles of New York. As he stepped off the boat at New Brighton, he was
+at once attracted by a very small boy, in a very tall hat, top-boots,
+and silver buttons; then the most perfect of pony-carriages and ponies
+met his view; and last, but not least, a pretty little woman in a
+Gainsborough hat, and a light ulster, who put out a welcoming hand, in a
+heavy driving-glove, as he appeared, and said gaily:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Tremain, this is very good of you. You know I said I should
+come for you myself. Now, then, are you quite settled to your liking?
+Let go their heads, Tony; go on, my beauties."
+
+The ponies answered spiritedly to the flick of her whip; and, indeed,
+pranced off so suddenly that the small atom of humanity, perched up
+behind, quite lost his dignity, and only retained his equilibrium by
+super-human efforts.
+
+Once on the Terrace they bowled along at a good pace, and after the
+usual questions had been asked and answered, Mr. Tremain inquired whom
+he was to meet at the Folly.
+
+Mrs. Newbold answered with a little laugh: "I think I told you in my
+letter of the three varieties of graces--a specimen of each--I have
+prepared for you? Here they are by name, and ticketed with the
+attributes they pose for, and fondly imagine they possess. A clever girl
+from Boston of course, Rosalie James--small and dark, and
+critical--reads all the newest books with the most jaw-breaking names,
+goes in for all the 'ologies' and 'isms,' the later the better; likes to
+think herself a disciple of the most advanced agnostic cult, is nothing
+if not cultured, and pins her artistic canons to those of Burne Jones
+and Walter Crane; is a working member of the Sorosis Club, the
+Nineteenth Century, and every other woman's club in the Union; writes
+for the magazines, and always has an æsthetic novel on the stocks, which
+never is launched. How do you like this style, Philip?"
+
+"Honestly, not at all," answered Tremain, echoing her thrill of
+laughter; "from the woman of brains defend me! What have you next to
+show me?"
+
+"Ah well, she's not so bad as she sounds," said Mrs. Newbold, "I've
+known her do a great many kind things; and after all it's not her fault,
+you know, if like the little boy in _Punch_ she fails to take interest
+in any event subsequent to the Conqueror. And now to number two, my
+pretty girl, Baby Leonard, and a very pretty girl she is, in a slow,
+superb Juno-like fashion. I don't _know_ of my own knowledge that she
+ever shows greater animation than a languid yes, or no, implies; but if
+you feel a very keen desire to read beneath the tranquillity of her
+manner, go to Jack Howard for information, she is his latest victim, and
+he may have touched the depths of even her shallow soul."
+
+"Thank you," returned Tremain, "I do not feel _my_ soul intensely drawn
+by occult forces--isn't that the correct jargon?--towards that of Miss
+Leonard; let us allow Jack full innings there."
+
+"Ah, you are very hard to please," cried Mrs. Newbold in pretended
+petulance. "Now this is really my last and only remaining girl; in my
+heart of hearts I think she is worth the other two, in spite of her
+always handicapping herself; enter then Dick Darling, and shouldn't you
+know by the sound of her name that she is a girl of the period? Pretty?
+Oh, yes, but more fascinating than pretty; has a brown face, and
+laughing eyes, and turned-up nose, uses all the latest slang, wears a
+hard hat, a cut-away jacket, a Stanley necktie, and eye-glass and chain,
+and carries the slenderest of walking-sticks, smokes her own cigarettes,
+drinks Bass's ale, and plays a rattling good game at poker; and despite
+all her mannish affectations, has the best heart in the world. She rides
+like a bird, pulls an oar with the best, and can give as ugly a twister
+at tennis as you could wish to see. Now is she more to your liking?"
+
+Mr. Tremain shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"My dear Mrs. Newbold, what can I say? Miss Darling is doubtless a
+thoroughly good young lady, but more after the hearts and tastes of
+younger men than such a graybeard as I. Do not, I beg of you, make any
+efforts in the young-lady line on my behalf, I ask nothing better than a
+good share of your company, and an hour or two of romps with my little
+god-daughter. I shall be more than blessed if you will put up with my
+dulness."
+
+"What a very pretty speech, Philip, it is quite refreshing to my old
+married ears; very well, you may sacrifice yourself on the altar of
+decorum and innocence if you like, I will not say you nay. The men of
+our party I think you know; besides Jack Howard we have handsome Freddy
+Slade--the beauty of the day--and one or two inoffensive lads to fetch
+and carry. And so you don't think either of my graces worthy your
+consideration, Philip? Yet I do believe each one of them owns a good and
+true heart, in spite of their individual fads."
+
+"I do not doubt it," answered Mr. Tremain; "but seriously, my dear
+Esther, you must surely know that having suffered once in that way, I am
+not likely to be easily attracted again. I fancy the woman who could win
+my cynical and fastidious heart, has not yet come from the other world;
+she must needs combine all the beauties of the graces, the attributes of
+the muses, and be withal, like Cæsar's wife, above suspicion. Find me
+such a divinity, Esther, or else I shall wait for your own little
+Marianne."
+
+A silence followed Philip's half-jesting, half-bitter reply, broken at
+last by Mrs. Newbold's lightest laugh, as she asked:
+
+"Do you like my ponies? George gave them to me on my last birthday; Dick
+Darling christened them, Rock and Taffy; hard and soft, you know, or
+dependable and doubtful, or any opposing virtues you choose to select.
+Now then, here we are," as she turned her ponies cleverly over an
+awkward incline, and dashed through the gates.
+
+"Shall we join the world at lawn-tennis, or will you come in with me and
+have a cup of tea?"
+
+"With you, if you please," answered Philip, mock-pleadingly. "My dear
+Mrs. Newbold, don't deliver me into the hands of the Philistines
+prematurely."
+
+Esther's blithe laugh rang out merrily as they sped up the long avenue,
+shaded by the rows of graceful elm trees on either side; she brought the
+ponies to the door with a workmanlike flourish, and scarcely touching
+Philip's assisting hand, sprang out and was up the low broad steps
+before him.
+
+"Let us have tea at once, Long. This way, Mr. Tremain."
+
+They entered the library together; it was a large room and the favourite
+one, _par excellence_, of all the apartments in that most charming and
+hospitable of homes, the Folly. On one side ran a broad, covered,
+outside verandah, on to which opened two large windows of stained glass,
+through whose mellow tints the light shone in tenderest colours; heavy
+draperies, of some wondrous Eastern fabric, fell on either side of the
+broad low door; a neutral-tinted wall supported rare plaques of Moorish
+faïence, and choice selections of _bric-à-brac_, with here and there the
+glimmer of brass sconces and silver _repoussé_ ovals, relieving the
+somewhat sombre tone; while everywhere, in each possible or impossible
+spot, on every table, in every vase or bowl, a wealth of Maréchal Niel
+roses filled the air with their subtle pungent perfume, and caught and
+held the sunshine as in a trance. The one picture of the room stood upon
+an easel, hung with plush of ruddy hue; it was an artist proof engraving
+of Correggio's "Io and Jupiter." A fire of pine-logs smouldered on the
+andirons, and through the curtained doorway a vanishing perspective
+revealed a vista of drawing-room, music-parlour, and billiard-hall, all
+in the half tints of twilight.
+
+Mrs. Newbold threw off her hat and ulster, and pushing back the light
+fluffy curls from her forehead, called out laughingly:
+
+"Mimi, Mimi!"
+
+A little fairy, all yellow curls and white frock, darted through the
+open door, and dancing up to the pretty lady threw her arms rapturously
+around her; her mamma bent down her own head above the little one, and
+kissed the eager little lips.
+
+"See, Philip," she said, "here is your god-daughter. Has she not
+blossomed into a little hoyden?"
+
+"A Hebe, rather," answered Philip, "and as like her mother as a bud is
+like the rose."
+
+Esther laughed. "You certainly do pay one the very prettiest
+compliments, Mr. Tremain; I make you my humble acknowledgments," and she
+dropped him a mock curtsey. "If this is the result of stern law, why,
+commend me to its votaries."
+
+And thus laughing, chatting and sipping their tea, they beguiled the
+time away, until the first dressing-gong broke upon them with surprise,
+and Philip escaped to his room before the tennis party appeared, flushed
+with victory, or despondent with defeat.
+
+As Mr. Tremain moved leisurely about his apartment, his ear caught the
+sound of his own name; he stopped, with a half smile on his lips, and
+listened. The speakers, two girls, were evidently oblivious to the fact,
+that given open windows and unmodulated voices, what is sent out of one
+window, may enter at the other.
+
+"Who is this Philip Tremain?" asked voice No. 1. "I am bored to death by
+Esther Newbold's praises of him. _I_ don't know him."
+
+"He can't be great things then, can he?" said mockingly voice No. 2.
+"Only you see, Rosie, this time you're out of it altogether; Philip
+Tremain is just too awfully utter, just the swellest thing out in men,
+my dear, though you _don't_ know him Boston-way. Handsome mug, heaps of
+shiners, Mayflower family, and good form from way back."
+
+Here a little whiff from a Russian cigarette fluttered in. "Ha, ha,"
+laughed Philip, as he sniffed at it, "the girl of the period, and her
+least hated friend; matters grow interesting."
+
+"How disgustingly slangy you are, Dick," broke in voice No. 1; "really
+your language is most offensive."
+
+"Poor cultured child!" cried out the other, with a merry laugh, that had
+something honest in its tone. "How I afflict her! Oh, ye gods and little
+fishes, how shall I appease her? But seriously, Rosie, don't you
+remember some one telling us all about him, and the dreadful cropper
+handsome Patty Hildreth came over him? Long ago, my dear, when she was
+young, and we had not even seen our 'green and salad days.' He was
+tremendously in love with her, they say, and was blind to Patty's little
+peculiarities where men and flirting were concerned, until at last
+something worse than usual came to his ears, some scrape more daring and
+hare-brained, in which Patty's name figured largely, and he cut up rough
+about it; Patty was wilful and obstinate, and Mr. Tremain injured and
+harsh, and so the engagement came to everlasting smash, and Patty
+engaged herself, before the week was out, to old Tom Naylor, who left
+her a cool million, and died within the year of her dismissing him. What
+luck some girls have! By the way, Esther has asked her here, she says;
+what a lark it will be to see the meeting of the old-time pals. Good
+gracious! are you all dressed, Rosa? I shall be late again, as sure as
+eggs is eggs, and George is such a Turk about meals."
+
+Then the speaker evidently moved away from the window, and Philip heard
+no more; but what he had listened to set him thinking, and brought a
+smile of bitterness to his lips.
+
+"So Patty is coming, Patty is to be here," he mused, "and I must meet
+her after all these long years. Poor, wilful, pretty Patricia!"
+
+A few moments later he entered the library, and found the room still in
+half-lights and apparently tenantless; but as he moved towards the
+fireplace he became aware of a tall, slight figure, severely clad in a
+dark, trailing gown of some heavy silken material. A fall of black lace
+surrounded the drooping head and fell low about the face, throwing such
+deep shadows upon it that Philip looked in vain for any definite
+characteristics. The long and slender hands lay crossed lightly upon her
+knees, and were guiltless of rings. Something in their attitude,
+however, recalled Patty to him, and, with a half-credulous smile, he
+quickened his steps towards the quiet, almost motionless figure; but as
+he reached her side, a ripple of laughter and light voices broke the
+spell, as the door was thrown open, and Mrs. Newbold entered, followed
+by her bevy of fair maidens.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Tremain," cried Esther, "are you here before us? How shall I
+apologise? Now, will you take your introductions homoeopathically, or
+in one dose? Girls, fall into line!"
+
+Laughingly she presented him to each in turn, and with a careless, "The
+men you know," slipped her hand within his arm, saying: "Shall we go in
+to dinner?"
+
+But Philip stayed her.
+
+"You have forgotten _one_," he said, in a low voice, glancing towards
+the figure by the fire, that had remained motionless during all the gay
+_argot_ and repartee.
+
+"Oh," replied Mrs. Newbold, with a shrug of her pretty shoulders, "you
+mean Mdlle. Lamien. She is Mimi's governess. I will present you,
+however. Mademoiselle, permit me; Mr. Tremain--Mdlle. Lamien."
+
+The lady thus addressed turned and bowed slightly--the barest
+recognition of Mr. Tremain's presence. She raised her face a little, and
+the light from the wax candles in the sconce above her head fell full
+upon it. It was a face pale in the extreme, with the dull waxen colour
+of death--a pallor increased and intensified by the masses of snow-white
+hair piled high above it, and the heavy black lace folds about it. The
+dark eyes set in deep shadows burned with a strange inward fire, that
+not even the heavy lashes could veil. Across one cheek a long cruel mark
+of greyish blue seemed to throb, as if in angry remembrance of the cruel
+blow that had caused it; the fair skin would bear its traces for life.
+The mouth was firm and hard, save for a nervous twitching that sometimes
+marred its outline. It was a countenance neither handsome nor
+attractive, and Mr. Tremain turned away, after the barest interchange
+of civilities, with a feeling of irritable disappointment. What right
+had such a figure, youthful and full of grace, to be surmounted by a
+face almost grotesque in its plainness? He had thought of Patty, when
+first he saw the quiet, dark figure and clasped hands; but as he turned
+now with Esther's hand still on his arm, the fleeting evanescent vision
+passed from him.
+
+"Mimi will come to us at dessert, mademoiselle," said Esther, not
+unkindly. "Will you not also join us?"
+
+"Madame is very kind, but I beg she will excuse me," was the reply, in a
+voice that sounded young for so old a face, and yet that held an echo of
+such hopelessness in its cadences, it haunted Philip's ears unceasingly,
+and so dulled his senses that Miss James's most brilliant high
+æsthetical conversation fell unheeded, while Dick Darling's most daring
+slang evoked only a passing shudder of disapproval.
+
+Miss James shrugged her thin shoulders and voted him a good-looking
+bore, then turned her dark head and left shoulder upon him, and carried
+the battle into the enemy's camp, by appropriating Jack Howard, who, by
+all rights, social and flirtatious, belonged to pretty Baby Leonard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+"THE SINS OF THE FATHERS."
+
+
+Philip thus left unmolested save by his own reflections, and quite
+innocent of his own shortcomings, was only aroused from a long brown
+study by hearing Freddy Slade appeal in his most drawling tones to his
+host, as he lifted his glass of Burgundy, and eyed it lovingly.
+
+"I say, Newbold, what an extraordinary woman you have managed to annex
+as a governess--capital wine this, what's its vintage?--I met her
+to-day, walkin' all alone in that beastly sycamore plantation of yours,
+and thinkin' she might be lonely offered myself as a companion. By
+George! you should have seen the look on her face as she declined; you
+wouldn't have thought me good enough to be her lap-dog--give you my
+word, never saw such scorn on any woman's face before. Who is she? A
+princess in disguise, an exiled Russian of high degree, or a
+disappointed tragedy actress?"
+
+"Oh, you must ask Esther," replied lazy George Newbold. "She's her
+latest importation."
+
+This was Mr. Newbold's usual way of getting rid of all troublesome or
+inconvenient questions. "It saved him trouble," he used to say, "and
+gave the wife the gratification of doing all the talking."
+
+"Esther will tell you, without being asked, _beau sire_," broke in that
+little matron; "I am very much in love with her, you must know; she is
+delightful, and she is mysterious, what more can you ask? She is the
+daughter of a Russian noble and a French girl of the bourgeoisie. You
+can imagine the story, it's for ever repeating itself. The marriage was
+a secret one, the young man's family refused to recognise it; he was
+recalled to Petersburg, and the girl offered money in lieu of her young
+husband, which she passionately rejected. Then followed the old story of
+hopeless waiting; her baby was born, and for a time she struggled
+bravely on, fighting shame and poverty hand to hand. But at last she
+succumbed, and death freed her from her share in life's battle.
+
+"The misfortunes of the mother seemed to follow and dog the daughter,
+whose great personal beauty served only as her worst enemy. She was
+brought up respectably enough, and but for what Lord Byron calls the
+'fatal dower,' would doubtless have lived and died in the monotony of a
+commonplace existence. Little as you may think it, however, Adèle Lamien
+was possessed of such unusual beauty of face and form, it was impossible
+for her to pass unnoticed in the rank and file of humanity.
+
+"In ignorance of her mother's fate, the poor girl, with a blindness born
+of innocence, was soon treading step by step that dolorous path which
+had ended for her young mother in despair and death. There's an irony in
+such repetitions that might well repay the study of one interested in
+the factors of the 'great chance' called life.
+
+"Well, Adèle was wooed and won by a very lofty personage, who, if not of
+the parent imperial rose-tree, could claim close connection with it.
+Like her mother again, the marriage was a secret one, though in
+accordance with the ritual of the Catholic Church, to which faith the
+girl belonged. I believe the months that followed were the happiest the
+girl had ever known in her not too happy life. It made the awakening all
+the more terrible; for of course there was an awakening. Men have a
+habit of tiring of their most beautiful human toys, especially if these
+playthings develop intellect and passion.
+
+"Let me draw a veil over this part of Mdlle. Lamien's history. It is
+enough to say that a terrible crime was committed--a crime so violent
+and so fatal that all Petersburg were roused to action, and the imperial
+blood-hounds let loose to track the perpetrator. It was at this time
+that Adèle fled from Russia, and reached England almost by miracle. From
+there she hastened to America, haven of all persecuted unfortunates; and
+in New York she came under my notice. I listened to her story, and,
+after she had finished its narration, and knowing all against her, and
+nothing in her favour, I took her as governess for my little daughter.
+Quixotic! Yes, I know it was, and a dangerous experiment; but I couldn't
+help it--there were reasons--her eyes haunted me. And truth compels me
+to state that so far she has proved herself fully worthy of my trust.
+Marianne is devoted to her--she is little short of angelic in the
+child's eyes; and I openly confess to a tender regard for her. She is
+unexplainable, enigmatic, fascinating. But, hush, here comes the child;
+and _her_ ears are something abnormal."
+
+Esther finished with a dramatic little gesture that set them all
+laughing, and in the general merriment Philip's gravity passed
+unchallenged.
+
+The story, as told by Mrs. Newbold, with all her little artistic touches
+of gesture and inflection, haunted him strangely. He found himself
+constantly reverting to it, and always with an incongruous and almost
+jarring thought of Patty, running side by side with his unwilling
+sympathy for Mdlle. Lamien.
+
+Miss James found him a very inattentive listener as, later in the
+evening, they sat together on the wide verandah, and looked across the
+broad stretch of lawn to where the faintest streak of shining grey
+marked the waters of the bay. The moonlight was flooding all things with
+reckless prodigality, until even the barest and tiniest twig grew
+luminous, and the budding roses became ethereal in the generosity of its
+rays.
+
+Miss James would have dearly loved to sentimentalise a little; she was
+not at all adverse to a mild flirtation with this handsome grave man,
+whose very presence made her feel her own littleness of mental stature.
+Unconsciously she dropped her usual heroics, and was prepared to be as
+meek and coy as any new-fledged _débutante_. Unfortunately however,
+Philip's mind was not in tune, or she struck the wrong chords, for he
+failed miserably to be responsive. At length, after a rather awkward
+little silence, she requested him, a trifle sharply, to fetch her a
+shawl; she felt the evening growing chilly.
+
+Almost too eagerly Philip sprang up and hastened to obey her, leaving
+her with tears of mortification in her eyes, and hot anger in her heart.
+Meantime, Mr. Tremain, quite oblivious to his shortcomings, made his way
+to the inner hall, where he had an indistinct remembrance of having seen
+something white and fluffy, and which bore about it a faint odour of
+white rose, Miss James's most affected scent. Surely, unless he was too
+awfully masculine, that soft white odorous mass was of the nature of a
+wrap.
+
+As he crossed the entrance-hall on his quest, he caught sight of Mdlle.
+Lamien's tall figure in the little drawing-room which was especially
+consecrated to Marianne. She was standing by the window, her face
+pressed against the frame, her whole form shaken with suppressed
+emotion. Tremain, like most men, was acutely susceptible to tears. He
+stopped involuntarily, hesitated, and in another moment was at her side.
+
+"Mdlle. Lamien," he said, gently, "are you in trouble? Can I help you?"
+
+She made him no answer, save by a quick, impatient movement of her head.
+
+But Mr. Tremain was not to be baffled, though he rather wished himself
+out of the scene, and felt unwarrantably angry at Miss James for being
+the innocent cause of his present position.
+
+"Have you had bad news?" he persisted. "Are you suffering? Let me beg of
+you to tell me what troubles you?"
+
+As suddenly as she had drawn from him before she turned towards him
+now, and lifted her face, pale and haggard in the moonlight, full upon
+him. Her eyes shone hotly.
+
+"I have been looking my dead past--my old love--in the face," she cried,
+passionately, "and I am miserable!"
+
+She turned, and before Philip could put out a detaining hand, was gone.
+He stood as she left him, almost as pale as the wild, white face she had
+flashed upon him.
+
+"Good God!" he muttered. "What a look of Patty there was in her eyes!"
+
+Miss James waited long, and impatiently, and in vain for Mr. Tremain and
+her wrap. He did not come back; indeed, as a matter of fact, he forgot
+all about her commission until later in the evening, when she swept by
+him on Jack Howard's arm. At sight of her, Philip was struck by his sins
+of omission, and with rather less self-possession than usual, made a
+poor apology for his rudeness.
+
+"Were you rude, Mr. Tremain?" Miss James replied, icily. "Pray don't
+apologise; I had not accused you." And with a mocking smile, she passed
+on, laughing ostentatiously at Jack's latest witticism.
+
+Mr. Tremain looked after them with a faint surprise in his glance; then
+he, too, laughed, but quietly, as he said, half-aloud:
+
+"Oh, woman, woman! thy name is caprice!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A FAIR PARLIAMENT.
+
+
+The next morning, when Mr. Tremain sauntered down the broad stairs, that
+gave upon the inner hall, he found that favourite place of resort
+already occupied, and about twenty tongues were going at full gallop,
+every one talking, no one listening, while far above the well-bred
+clamour, rose Dick Darling's high-pitched treble.
+
+"I say we must; oh, what a most too unutterably utter lark! Esther, you
+are a trump, you are a saint, you are a double-distilled daisy, and you
+deserve to have a free-actioned, high-stepping trotter, and a skeleton
+selfish waggon, for your very, very own!"
+
+"You are very kind, Dick," and this time it was Mrs. Newbold's voice,
+"but indeed, I don't want a reward of merit of that description, I fail
+to appreciate it, my dear. A nasty little abominable trotting waggon,
+all bones and ribs, and no flesh, and a monstrosity of a horse that
+would drag my arms from their sockets and me over its head before I
+could say----"
+
+"Jack Robinson," broke in the irrepressible Dick, "though why one is
+always supposed to invoke that mythical personage, in times of surprise,
+it is beyond me to explain. However, you are about right, Esther, for
+now I come to think of it, what would you do with your legs?"
+
+"Oh, Dick, you are really too hopelessly vulgar," cried out a chorus of
+voices, to which Miss Darling not a whit abashed, replied:
+
+"Well, and what would you have me call them?"
+
+"You might say pedal extremities," remarked Miss James, to which
+brilliant suggestion Dick vouchsafed no further reply than a pronounced
+sniff and shrug of her shoulders.
+
+Then Esther caught sight of Philip, and rose in pretty confusion to
+greet him.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Tremain, you have stolen a march upon us, and invaded a woman's
+congress, and now, since you have been so very rash and bold----"
+
+"'Oh, rash and bold!'" sang Dick, under her breath, with a comical
+Mikado gesture.
+
+"You shall stay and be umpire. Perhaps, as you are a man," continued
+Esther, severely, "I may be able to drag a little bit of sense out of
+you."
+
+"I doubt it," said Dick again, _sotto voce_.
+
+"And so do I," echoed Philip aloud, at which there was a general laugh,
+and then a general and eagerly expressed desire that Mr. Tremain might
+be made as comfortable as possible, and at once admitted to the inner
+sanctorum of their circle.
+
+Esther pulled forward the most seductive _causeuse_, Baby Leonard
+actually resigned a cushion for his head, and Dick Darling evolved the
+tiniest of cigarette cases and vesuvians from her knowing little coat
+pocket, and striking a light offered him a "real Turkish brew," assuring
+him that they were "quite the knob," and that she imported them herself,
+straight from the shores of the Bosphorus, a fact, which none of them
+being strong in geography, dared to contradict. Only Miss James refused
+to join in the general adulation; she sat quite still in her low
+wicker-chair, leaning her dark head against the gold-coloured cushions,
+and watching Philip, furtively, through her half-closed eyelids.
+
+When the hubbub of welcome had somewhat subsided, and only a rippling
+laugh, or the _frou-frou_ of the women's gowns, as their owners moved
+about listlessly, or settled themselves more comfortably in their
+luxurious chairs, gave evidence of the "concourse of tongues" that had
+been, Mr. Tremain ventured to ask, holding his unsmoked cigarette
+between his fingers, what had been the topic under discussion, when his
+untoward entrance silenced the music of their voices?
+
+"Music of our voices, indeed!" mocked Dick, bringing her shoulders up to
+her little ears. "You flatter us, Mr. Tremain--at least you flatter
+me--the harmonies must have been strangely mixed in that _galère_; I
+never heard my shrill pipe called anything so fetching before. Speak for
+yourselves, girls, I am nothing if not honest."
+
+"Don't be absurd, Dick," answered Miss James, pettishly; "what a miser
+you are to take everything to yourself in that fashion!"
+
+"Speak for oneself, or no one will speak for you," said Dick, calmly. "I
+always find the best policy is that which brings oneself most into
+notice, and if you don't flaunt your own colours boldly, no one will
+haul 'em up for you."
+
+"All this isn't very enlightening to Mr. Tremain," broke in Mrs.
+Newbold, in her pleasant fashion; "of course it's wildly exciting and
+interesting to us, but we can scarcely expect him to enter heart and
+soul, into the rights and wrongs of our feminine policy. Now the case in
+point, Philip, is this: next Thursday--ten days off, you see--will be my
+husband's birthday, and we thought it would be very nice to celebrate it
+for him in some jovial way."
+
+"I suggested a dance," interrupted Baby Leonard, "because a dance is so
+easily done; one has only to put the whole affair in Delmonico's hands,
+and order one's dress, and let one's young men know the colours for
+one's bouquets, and fill up one's dance card twice over, and then you
+see--why then it is accomplished."
+
+"Highly amusing for you, Baby, who never look to such advantage as
+valsing with Jack," said Esther, half indignantly, "but rather hard on
+poor old George, I think, seeing that the poor dear fellow can't dance
+a step, and after all, it's _his_ birthday, you know."
+
+"I don't suppose he would think of that," replied Miss Leonard, "_I_
+never did," at which self-evident ingenuousness Dick went off into a
+frenzy of laughter, which proved so infectious that they all joined in,
+until their united strength of lung attracted Jack Howard and Freddy
+Slade, who emerged from the billiard-hall, cues in hand, to know "what
+the dickens was the joke?" And then, when order was restored, and only
+Dick going off spasmodically in little spurts of merriment, the two men
+were invited to remain and become members of the council of war.
+
+"Now, Esther, _I_ have an idea," suddenly cried out Dick. "I don't get
+one very often, so attach it when you can. Let's have some downright
+first-class athletic sports. There's the gymnasium, just the ticket,
+with all the newest fads in bars, and poles, and trapezes. We girls
+might go in for the lighter exercises against the men, and then make
+way for their competitions in the higher science; and we could end up
+with a rousing good battle at ten-pins! Now that is a good suggestion.
+Don't you like it?" in a tone of intense astonishment, turning from one
+to another with a comical look of surprise on her fresh round face.
+
+"I think it is perfectly disgusting," said Miss James, with scorn; "and
+quite worthy of you, Dick. The idea of making mountebanks of ourselves
+in those odious gymnasium costumes, to romp and riot about like a parcel
+of schoolboys! Besides, I don't see where George would come in, in your
+refined little programme, any better than in Baby's scheme!"
+
+"Oh, he should give the prizes," answered Dick, not a whit abashed.
+
+"Yes, and pay for them, too," muttered Jack Howard, a little
+maliciously.
+
+"Well, I resign," said Dick, with the air of a martyr. "But really I
+don't see what we can do. We can't have races, because the ground's as
+hard as nails, and the poor dear beasties would lame themselves, and we
+can't have a yachting contest, because all the Squadron, and the crack
+boats, have gone off to Newport; and tennis is a bore, and dancing is a
+nuisance, and you look down on my healthy little device, so cudgel your
+own brains, my dears, mine refuse to evolve another iota of an idea!"
+And Miss Darling pulled out her cigarette-case and devoted herself to a
+minute inspection of its contents.
+
+"Well, I am sure, the only things left to us are theatricals, or
+tableaux," said Esther, piteously; "the latter are simply odious, so it
+must be the former. After all, it's strange how one always does come
+back to theatricals; they always seem most satisfactory in the end."
+
+"Because we all believe ourselves to be the one great actor of the
+future," said Mr. Tremain, with a smile; "it's only opportunity that we
+lack, not genius; and it's only other people's stupidity that fails to
+recognise our talents."
+
+"You needn't count me in, Esther dear," cried Dick; "I never could act
+worth a cent, and what's more I hate it, pretending to be ever so many
+qualities that one is not, and never succeeding a third part as well as
+the most tuppenny-ha'penny actress at the Bowery!"
+
+"Dick's severe," laughed Baby Leonard, "because the first and only time
+she was to have appeared in public the committee were obliged to ask her
+to resign, she made love in such a vigorous fashion, and charged the
+_jeune premier_ as though he were a five-barred gate, and over him she
+would go, willy-nilly. She frightened him terribly, and he refused to go
+on with his rôle if Miss Darling continued in hers."
+
+"Baby dearly loves a sell," remarked Dick, good-naturedly, when the
+laugh at her expense had subsided; "but she's quite right, I'm quite
+too awfully horrid when it comes to making believe." With which little
+home thrust Miss Darling settled back in her chair beamingly.
+
+"Then, since acting it is to be, let's settle the play," said Jack
+Howard. "It's always a long business, and we haven't any too much time
+at our disposal."
+
+"There's _School_," suggested Miss James, "or _Ours_, or _The Romance of
+a Poor Young Man_; and oh, doesn't that make one weep for poor
+Montague?"
+
+"Oh, how sentimental!" cried Dick. "Why don't you have something jolly,
+like _The Mikado_, or _Ruddigore_, or even _Patience_? There's something
+more in any one of them, than in all your love and moonshine plays put
+together."
+
+"But since you refuse to join our company, Dick, isn't it a little
+grasping on your part to wish to coerce our choice?" said Esther,
+mischievously.
+
+"I am dumb," answered Dick, shutting her mouth firmly, and only letting
+her laughing eyes glance merrily from one to another, as the discussion
+waxed fast and furious, and threatened to end in tears and temper.
+
+It settled itself down at last, however, into a comedy, or melodrama,
+and a farce; and when, to end all further embarrassment, Mr. Tremain
+suggested a ballot to decide, it was accepted unanimously. The result
+gave the first preference to _The Ladies' Battle_, the second to the
+ever fresh _Box and Cox_.
+
+"Of course you all know I don't act," said Mrs. Newbold, prettily, and
+withdrawing gracefully from all contest over the rôles. "_I_ never like
+anything so much as being wardrobe mistress and prompter, so I shall
+elect myself into those positions at once, and that clears off one
+superfluous woman."
+
+Nor would she listen to any of the protestations and entreaties of her
+companions; she put her hands over her ears, and shook her head, until
+every little golden curl danced again, as she cried, laughingly: "It's
+no use, I don't hear you, and I'm not to be moved. I have chosen my
+favourite characters, and I won't give them up. Now then," bringing down
+her hands, "let us dispose of the rôles. Baby, you must be Léonie de
+Villegontier, you will look the character to perfection; Rosalie, whose
+forte though you may not think it, is comedy, shall be Mrs. Bouncer, in
+the farce; Jack, will you take De Grignon's rôle? And you, Philip, I
+know Henri is an old friend in your hands, will you represent him once
+more?"
+
+"And who is to be the Countess, Esther?" asked Miss James, with a little
+smile. "Are you keeping her part for some special favourite who has not
+yet arrived? It's the most important rôle of all, and should be well
+taken, or the play will prove terribly flat."
+
+"Have no fear, Rose," cried out Dick, forgetful of her vow of silence,
+"I know, my genius is once more to the front; for whom, of course,
+should Esther be keeping that part, except for the cleverest actress of
+you all--Patricia Hildreth--don't you know, pretty Patty----" She
+stopped as suddenly as she began, and, flushing crimson, stole a
+deprecatory look at Mr. Tremain's cold quiet face, which at that moment
+caught a reflection of her own painful blush.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she murmured under her breath; and there followed a
+moment's constraint, broken immediately, however, by Philip asking quite
+naturally and easily:
+
+"Then you are expecting Miss Hildreth, Mrs. Newbold? It is many years
+since I last saw her--act."
+
+And then, just in time to save Esther's confusion, the luncheon-gong
+sounded, and the council broke up, straying off in twos and threes
+towards the dining-room.
+
+"It's all very well," said Dick Darling, scoffingly, to Freddy
+Slade, as they sauntered along together, "having these miserable
+theatricals--they might as well have dumb-crambo at once, and be done
+with it--and, for my part, I can't see that poor George comes into it
+any better than he did with Baby and me, though Esther was so sharp
+about its being _his_ birthday."
+
+"Oh, George can pay the shot," answered Freddy, carelessly.
+
+"I'm sure it's what he's always at, poor dear," retorted Dick, sharply;
+and as by this time they had reached the lunch-room, their argument came
+to an end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SENTIMENT AND "BACCY."
+
+
+"Esther," said Mr. Tremain a few hours later, as they sat together in
+the library, just before the time for the tea-tray and the return of the
+other visitors, who, at Dick Darling's suggestion and under her
+guidance, had gone _en masse_ to deal out tobacco and small sums of
+money to the old salts at Snug Harbour, "Esther, did you know Patricia
+was to be here, when you asked me to come?"
+
+His voice was more stern than reproachful, and Mrs. Newbold, glancing up
+at him furtively, thought how cold and impassive was his face. She
+paused a moment before answering him, and the flames from the pine-logs
+on the wide hearth, leaping high, revealed a half-anxious,
+half-hesitating expression in her blue eyes and about her delicately-cut
+mouth. She held a screen of scarlet Ibis feathers, as she sat in a low
+chair, to shield her from the heat, and her hand trembled just enough to
+set the scarlet feathers moving, like so many vivid fire-tongues. She
+answered somewhat evasively:
+
+"And if I did, Philip, what then? Is the old wound so deep it cannot be
+healed, and do you, a Hercules among men, shrink from the light touch of
+a woman's fingers?"
+
+"We are but courageous," he made answer, "according to time and
+opportunity, and the weakness or strength of the temptation. A woman's
+hand has been the cause of a man's undoing ever since the world began,
+Esther. I have no desire to become another sacrifice on the altar of a
+woman's vanity."
+
+"What do you fear, Philip?" she asked, presently, turning the feather
+fan round and round in her fingers, and watching him intently as she
+spoke.
+
+"What do I fear? Everything and nothing. You, who know the whole
+miserable old story, must also know the bitterness of its ending. What
+do I fear? I fear Patricia; I fear the light coming and going in her
+eyes; I fear the grace and beauty of her motions; I fear the subtle
+witchery of her voice; I fear the sweetness of her smile, the studied
+trick of her down-drooped mouth, the soft lingering pressure of her
+hand; I fear--but there, why fight against shadows? I have the remedy in
+my own hands--I can leave you, Esther. Even you cannot compel me to see
+her."
+
+He had risen as he spoke, and moved about restlessly, stopping
+half-unconsciously at a table that stood in his path, and fingered
+absently the several articles of _bric-à-brac_ upon it.
+
+Esther followed his movements with her eyes, a look of pity and yet
+triumph on her face. As his voice grew passionate, she dropped the
+feather-screen, and clasping her hands across her knee, drew a quick
+long breath; but when he came towards her again, she sank back into her
+former listless attitude. He stood up tall and straight before her,
+resting one arm upon the chimney-shelf, and looked down at her with dark
+excited eyes, which the slight smile upon his lips failed to
+counterbalance.
+
+"Did you ask her here with some deep-laid plan of reconciliation?
+Esther, was that your motive? Did you think, knowing me since your
+girlhood--not so many years ago, Esther--and finding me fairly
+good-natured and forgiving, as men go, that you would take the spindle
+of fate into your own hands, and like Atropos of old, cut the tangled
+skein of my life, in the vain hope of reuniting it with hers? It was
+kindly meant, Esther, but--it cannot be."
+
+Mrs. Newbold stopped him with an upward gesture of her hand.
+
+"Philip," she said, slowly, and looking at him steadily, "does it not
+strike you--do you not think--you are taking her acquiescence rather too
+much as a matter of course? Has Patricia no right to repudiate you,
+before even you endeavour to reclaim her?"
+
+He paused before he answered, and the lines about his mouth and eyes
+grew sterner and more defined. When he spoke he took his arm from the
+chimney-shelf, on which he had been resting, as though disdaining that
+slight support, and his voice sounded harsh and uncompromising.
+
+"Has she that right, Esther? Has she not rather by her own actions cut
+herself adrift from the usual consideration granted to women? Did she
+consider me, when she cast me off so lightly? And for what, forsooth?
+Because I was a too eager and too rustic a lover; because my outward
+appearance offended her hypercritical eyes; because she was but a
+butterfly of the hour, as vain and frivolous as the frailest _cigale_ of
+a summer's hour; and because her world, before which she shone as a
+bright particular star--and oh, what a little, trifling world it
+was!--and over which she reigned as a queen, repudiated me. I was not of
+their mode; I was not a _super-chic_; I could not speak their _argot_,
+or join in their light impertinent persiflage. I was too honest, Esther,
+for her world--too honest and too brutally straightforward, and so--she
+threw me over."
+
+"She was young, Philip," pleaded Mrs. Newbold, "young and flattered and
+spoilt. Cannot you now make allowance for her surroundings then, and
+understand how terrible and impossible poverty, imperious poverty,
+seemed to her? You, who so well appreciate the luxuries of life now,
+cannot you put yourself in Patricia's place, and judge from her
+standpoint, and see with her eyes, what it meant, when you asked her to
+fling her old life behind her, and start on a new and untried one, with
+you alone, and you only as recompense and compensation?"
+
+"If she had loved me," broke in Mr. Tremain, "she would not have
+considered, she would not have hesitated; my love and my devotion would
+have weighed heavier with her than all the baubles and gewgaws of her
+fashionable life."
+
+For all answer to this Mrs. Newbold laughed, throwing back her pretty
+head, and throwing out her pretty hands dramatically.
+
+"Ah," she cried, "for wholesale, downright vanity commend me to a man!
+It's no use looking savage, Philip; I cannot help it, I must have my
+laugh out; your cool assumption of the be-all and end-all of Patricia's
+existence is too irresistibly funny. It's very man-like, and very
+characteristic. You never take into consideration, you lords of
+creation, the up-bringing, education and surroundings of a girl of the
+world. You forget that the very trifles you stigmatise as frivolities
+are the daily small necessities of her life: she knows nothing
+different. It is as natural to her to have pretty clothes, artistic
+surroundings, and dainty employments, as it is for you to go to a crack
+tailor and smoke an irreproachable cigar. She cannot understand another
+sort of world where these elements are not: she accepts them as a matter
+of course, and could not fashion her day without them. Then comes some
+untoward fate, in the shape of a lover from that unfamiliar world, whose
+habits, manner of life, occupations, are all opposed to hers--as
+opposite as the luxurious civilisation of Europe is to that of the heart
+of Africa. What she deems necessities, he calls luxuries; her natural
+pastimes become frivolities; her occupations, idleness; her unconscious
+acceptation of all that money brings, worldliness; and her hesitation,
+when her lover and her love demand the sacrifice of all this,
+pusillanimity and calculativeness. And what does the man offer in
+exchange?--for luxurious comfort, straitened means; for dainty clothes,
+the resuscitated dresses of last year; for society--a tired harassed
+husband; and for recreation--perhaps a cheap place at some theatre,
+two or three times a year."
+
+"You are painfully frank, Esther," said Mr. Tremain, stiffly.
+
+"Yes, and I mean to be," continued Mrs. Newbold, "because it is a
+subject I have very much at heart, and because it is the fashion of the
+day to cry down the worldly maiden, and cry up the poor, but
+self-sacrificing lover. Had you anything better to offer Patricia, than
+what my words picture? Was there any brighter prospect for her? Did you
+not make the sacrifice as great a one as possible, and could you
+honourably and reasonably have expected the change in your fortunes,
+when you urged Patricia's choice, and left her no alternative between
+poverty with you, and her accustomed luxury without you? Do you not
+understand her position somewhat better, Philip, since _you_ have become
+a man of luxury and wealth?"
+
+"You should qualify as a special pleader, Esther," was Mr. Tremain's
+reply; "but you are in a manner right, a woman's motives are always
+beyond a man's fathoming;" and then with half a sigh she heard him add,
+under his breath, "poor Patty, poor pretty wilful Patty!" and she smiled
+at the inconsequent words, and nodded her pretty head at the dancing
+flames, while the lurking look of triumph in her eyes shone out
+defiantly, and drove away the droop of apprehension from her lips.
+
+Then came Long, and the tea-tray, and little Marianne, and Mrs. Esther
+was very gracious and sweet, and full of _petits soins_ for Mr.
+Tremain's comfort, and withal so winsome and so subduedly elated, that
+Dick Darling--who returned presently with all her volunteers in
+outrageous spirits--declared she was "the daisyest thing out, and quite
+too superlatively lovely!"
+
+"And how did you find the old salts, Dick?" asked Esther, when every one
+had been served with tea, and little Marianne was particularly happy,
+forcing some scalding milk down the luckless throat of "Trim," her
+_fidus Achates_ in terrier-dog form.
+
+"Oh, as fresh as paint, and as delightfully greedy and selfish as it
+behoves all old men to be. They minutely inspected the 'baccy,' and one
+of them told me, ''tweren't his sort, but shiver his timbers if he could
+expect a young leddy ter know the difference atween "old virginny," and
+"honey dew";' and another one spat rather unpleasantly upon the new
+silver dollar I gave him, and expressed his rather blasphemous opinion,
+as to its being a 'Blaine dollar,' and only worth ninety cents! Oh, my
+dear, they are a most edifying old crew, and their simplicity and
+naturalness is only worthy of that respectable old party, and his
+residence, known familiarly as 'Davy Jones's locker.'"
+
+"Dick, you are incorrigible!" laughed Mrs. Newbold, and that young lady,
+on whom the afternoon's expedition seemed to have acted as champagne,
+began again.
+
+"There was one most particularly refreshing old hero; he said he had
+been all through the civil war, and got his promotion, and his leg
+bowled off, at Gettysburgh----"
+
+"Oh, but I say, Miss Dick," here broke in Freddy Slade, "he couldn't do
+it, you know, not there, because Gettysburgh was a land battle, and how
+could your old man-o'-war's man be there?"
+
+"He said Gettysburgh, I am perfectly sure he did," answered Dick,
+"because I quite well remember how he winked at me when he said it,
+and--yes, I did, I couldn't help it, it must have been capillary
+attraction, Esther--I winked back at him, and then he spun a tremendous
+yarn, all about his gory wounds, and bloody hurts; mixed up, you know,
+with reefing topsails, and belaying mizzen-masts, and setting fore and
+aft sheets, and rolling in the scuppers, and weltering in his own gore,
+and piping up the dog-watch, and losing his leg, and fighting for his
+country, and scoffing at its rewards; and I am sure, yes, very sure, he
+said it was at Gettysburgh it all happened. But really now, when you
+come to think of it, things _were_ a little mixed, and I am not
+responsible for the geography of this country."
+
+At this there was another laugh, in which Dick joined, and then in the
+silence that followed, Marianne's shrill treble made itself heard:
+
+"I do quite think with Perkins, mumsey, Miss Dick's the gal for my
+money!"
+
+At which astounding revelation Esther gasped, and the rest of the
+company fell into renewed shouts of laughter.
+
+"Come here, Mimi," said Mr. Slade at last, putting out his hand, and
+catching hold of the child and the dog, and drawing them towards him, he
+lifted Marianne on to his knee, causing Trim to stand in perilous
+fashion on his back legs, since his little mistress refused to release
+him.
+
+"Now, Mimi," Mr. Slade continued in the hush of a breathless silence,
+"you are a most interesting little girl, and what you have just told us
+has made Miss Dick very happy, only we should like to know a little
+more. Can you remember anything else said by the ingenuous Mr. Perkins?"
+
+"He isn't _Mister_ Perkins, 'cept to Sarah," said Marianne, very proud
+of her position, and rather consequential in consequence; "he's her
+young man, and he comes under her window sometimes, and sings 'Sally in
+our Alley,' real beautiful, and that's _her_, and I heard her tell Jane,
+and she's my very own nursery-maid, that he said 'that there wasn't no
+one could hold a candle to Miss Dick, and she was the gal for his money;
+he wouldn't mind putting a fiver on her, 'cause she'd run straight; but
+he wouldn't go much on that there pal of hers, Miss James, 'cause she
+was a shifty one.'"
+
+"Oh, Marianne, Marianne!" cried out Esther, trying vainly to cover the
+confusion caused by Miss Newbold's parrot-like revelations, "come here
+to me." Then as Mimi struggled down from Mr. Slade's detaining arms,
+and danced over to her mother, she said, reprovingly:
+
+"What were you doing, to hear all that senseless gossip? Where was
+Mdlle. Lamien?"
+
+"Poor Lammy had a 'cruciation' headache," lisped the little girl,
+standing first on one foot and then on the other; "so I was just put off
+on to Jane, 'cause nursey was out, and so she and Sarah did their work
+together and I helped 'em, and they were having 'a crack' over the
+company. Is you sorry, mumsey?" the little thing asked suddenly,
+noticing the look of annoyance on her mother's face. "Was I naughty?"
+
+"Yes, I am very sorry," answered Mrs. Newbold, emphatically; "my little
+daughter, you must not listen to such nonsense. You must get your dolly
+next time, or come to me, when Mdlle. Lamien has a headache."
+
+"Poor Lammy!" echoed the child, "she was cross, too, and said Sarah was
+very wrong, every one wasn't made with Miss Dick's bright face and
+sweet temper; but I could make myself like her if I tried to always say
+a kind thing and not a horrid one, though the horrid one might be
+cleverer."
+
+There was a moment's unbearable awkwardness as Mimi's sage remarks fell
+upon the burning ears of her audience; then Esther made a move, quickly
+followed by the other ladies, and the party broke up, each glad to
+escape the embarrassment of the moment. Esther alone noticed Miss
+James's face, flushed with passion and mortification, and sighed
+involuntarily.
+
+She had reason afterwards to remember that look, and her sigh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+STAGE-STRUCK.
+
+
+For the next week but little was talked of at the Folly, save the
+forthcoming theatricals.
+
+The morning hours grew strangely silent. Gone was the light laughter,
+banished the echo of gay voices, the quick coming and going of youthful
+feet; indeed, to any one entering suddenly and unknowing, the air of the
+house was so changed and transformed they might well exclaim, "The place
+is haunted!"
+
+And haunted it certainly was, but with fair ghosts in modern raiment,
+who, if they moved about at all, did so with tragic step and abstracted
+gaze, or with comic gesture and exaggerated action, accompanied by
+eagerly-moving lips, from which, however, no sound proceeded, while
+each and all held, tightly clasped and closely scanned, one of those
+thin yellow paper books which Mr. French has made so happily familiar to
+all of us.
+
+Indeed, as Dick Darling remarked, with a piteous shake of her head, and
+a twisting up of her round mouth, "There wasn't such a thing as a 'rise'
+to be got out of any one of them, since the craze for acting had
+descended upon them."
+
+Now and then George Newbold, in honour of whose birthday all this
+commotion was undertaken, would come upon a solitary group of
+two--always a girl and a man--who evidently considered learning in
+couples the quickest way, and who would scowl upon him distractedly when
+he approached them, or seem wrapped in contemplation of the other's
+genius as, with halting speech and flushed face, he or she repeated
+their respective lines.
+
+Mr. Newbold had been heard to declare more than once within the safe
+precincts of the smoking-room, in language more forcible than polite,
+that for his part, he should be glad when the "shindy" was all over; and
+as to its having anything to do with him, or his birthday, it was
+a--lie. He didn't see where his fun came in, since he took no part in
+it.
+
+"Paying the bills, old man," replied Jack Howard, lazily, to this
+outburst; "what more can you ask? Isn't that the proud position and
+boast of the typical American husband?"
+
+To which grim comfort George only replied by lighting a very large and
+disreputable-looking pipe, and smoking furiously.
+
+Miss James was among those who elected to study _à deux_, and had
+undertaken, in this way, Jack Howard's education, who, much to Baby
+Leonard's chagrin, had become in some manner, the clever Rosalie's
+slave. Baby, with tears in her eyes, marked his defalcation from her
+ranks, and with a feeling of self-pity and wounded vanity, sought
+compensation in Freddy Slade, and absorption in her rôle.
+
+Between Miss James and Dick Darling coolness reigned. These once fast
+friends were now almost declared enemies, for even Dick's proverbial
+good-nature was not proof against the continued and unbending anger of
+her whilom friend. Miss James had neither forgotten nor forgiven little
+Marianne's unfortunate revelations, and she visited her annoyance and
+jealousy upon Dick, who at least was guiltless of all wish to offend;
+and from brooding over Mr. Perkins' plain and unvarnished words, Rosalie
+grew to forget they were the utterance of a servant, and magnified their
+consequence until she fairly hated Dick, and longed to see some evil
+befall her.
+
+Perhaps the keenest sting of all lay in the fact of her humiliation
+before Mr. Tremain, for, with an unreasoning confidence, she had made
+out to herself that Philip was attracted to her, that he found in her a
+mind superior to the general run of young ladies, and that consequently
+he might, in time, come to fully realise and appreciate her abilities,
+and so, perhaps, would be solved the enigma of her future; for Miss
+James was no longer a _jeune ingénue_, and the thought of continued
+single-blessedness troubled her not a little.
+
+It was therefore very bitter to be humiliated in his presence, and to
+see the lurking smile gather about his lips at Marianne's reckless
+disclosures. Mr. Tremain, be it remarked, was innocent of any
+co-operation in Miss James's schemes; he did not even give her a second
+thought beyond the necessities of every-day life; and the fact that they
+were often thrown together created no suspicion in his mind, as to any
+ulterior hopes being built upon his words and manner. Though, indeed,
+Philip had that courteous and deferential bearing towards women which
+made his smallest service an appeal, and his lightest word a caress--as
+Dick Darling said, "When he asked one to have sugar in one's tea, it was
+with such an assumption of intimacy and entreaty, one might well imagine
+he was suing for one's heart and hand."
+
+Perhaps Miss James built upon this manner, and though so clever in
+ologies and ethics, failed to read aright the signs of this man's heart,
+and raised foundations on sand in consequence.
+
+And still Patricia did not come. Each day Mr. Tremain looked for the old
+familiar witching face in the circle of "fair women" who gathered at
+tea-time in the pleasant library; where the wide fireplace, never empty
+of smouldering pine-logs, was very attractive in the chilly spring
+mornings and evenings. But he looked in vain. The faces were constantly
+changing--for Mrs. Newbold was a great favourite, and had many
+guests--and they were fair enough, too, but none so fair as Patty's, as
+he remembered it, ten years ago, and not so winsome or so full of grace.
+
+He was too proud to ask news of her; ever since his conversation with
+Esther, his heart had gone forth more and more to his little wayward
+love of a decade ago, and though he turned his thoughts resolutely from
+all remembrance of her, and sternly told himself that he had been right
+in his judgment of her, she was but a frivolous butterfly, and as such
+more unsuited than ever to him in his graver years, still there would
+come unbidden a lurking memory of her sweet mutinous face, the wilful
+lips, the flashing eyes, the silks and laces that surrounded her lithe
+form, the faint sweet odour of violets that always accompanied her, and
+he would pull himself up with a start to find his heart and mind gone
+captive to the ghost of his old love.
+
+"Ten years ago!" he said, half unconsciously to himself, "ten years ago!
+It is ten years since we parted; why, Patty must be past her _jeunesse_
+now; she was nineteen then, she is nine-and-twenty now, and what woman
+keeps youth's fairness or freshness when so close on thirty? Patty
+thirty! Patty grown out of wilful, petulant girlhood; Patty with
+suffering and change written on her face; nay, with perhaps a wrinkle
+or two, or even a gray thread in the soft brown darkness of her hair!"
+
+Impossible! He could never think of her save as when they parted, when
+she was in the full flush and arrogance of her young beauty, surrounded
+by every luxury, and flattered by the gay homage of her little court,
+triumphant, sparkling, inaccessible. To picture her in any different
+guise, was to wilfully take down his idol from its pedestal.
+
+He sauntered into the library one afternoon, at the accustomed hour of
+tea, and found the room full of people. Mrs. Newbold was pouring Indian
+Hyson into faultless cups of royal Worcester, which Jack Howard passed
+about, followed by Dick Darling with what she called "the trimmings,"
+_i.e._ sugar and cream.
+
+An animated discussion was going on, so Philip's entrance was unnoticed
+save by Miss James, who beckoned to him to take the empty chair beside
+her. Nothing loth to escape introductions, he fell into her scheme and
+made her supremely happy; for they sat a little withdrawn from the
+general group, and this made Mr. Tremain's position all the more marked.
+Miss James was never quite content unless what she called Philip's
+"attentions" were fully _en évidence_.
+
+Dick Darling's bright eyes spied him out presently, and she brought him
+a cup of tea, handing it to him with a shrug of her shoulders and an
+absolute wink of her eye, at which Miss James coloured and cast an angry
+look after the retreating culprit.
+
+"And when is Miss Hildreth coming?" were the first words that caught Mr.
+Tremain's ear, and riveted his attention at once.
+
+"Not until the very day of the play," replied Mrs. Newbold. "It's rather
+provoking of her, isn't it? But really, you know, Patricia's so spoiled,
+and it doesn't very much matter. She's quite perfect in her part, and we
+can have a dress rehearsal before evening on _the_ day, if necessary."
+
+"And who acts Henri de Flavigneul's part?" asked another voice.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Tremain," replied Mrs. Newbold again. "You need have no fear,
+Mrs. Beverley. Mr. Tremain is _sans reproche_ in his character."
+
+"Do you mean Philip Tremain," the lady persisted, "the clever Mr.
+Tremain, who has such bijou chambers and who is so unapproachable? But
+surely, won't that be a little awkward? Wasn't he once engaged to Miss
+Hil----?"
+
+But here Dick Darling managed to upset the brass water-kettle, and in
+the confusion which ensued the question was never completed.
+
+Soon after the guests took their departure, and as the house party stood
+about the fire waiting for the dressing-gong, Esther said:
+
+"I am sure it is high time we had a rehearsal; we shall never be ready
+if we go on in this lazy fashion. I have sent for Mr. Robinson, of
+Wallack's Theatre, to coach you all, and he will be here to-morrow; so I
+call a rehearsal for that afternoon, and I advise you to study up well,
+for he's a perfect martinet regarding correct lines, and thinks nothing
+of reducing one to abject misery by his sarcasm."
+
+"But who will take Miss Hildreth's part?" asked Baby Leonard. "It's no
+use our rehearsing if the Countess isn't here--it will be _Hamlet_ with
+Hamlet left out, and no mistake."
+
+"Baby is thinking of her grand scene," murmured Miss James aside to
+Philip. "Her part is nothing without the Countess as a foil."
+
+"Some one might read the lines of her rôle," suggested Freddy Slade,
+who, as De Grignon, thought very little of any other character. "It
+won't matter very much if one only gets one's proper cues."
+
+"Oh, but it matters a great deal, thank you," cried Baby, quite roused
+from her usual lethargy. "Who wants to act to bare cues, I should like
+to know? And how is one to work up into anything, if one hasn't the
+proper assistance?"
+
+"You are quite right, Baby," said Esther, when she could make herself
+heard, "and you shan't be put in any such dampening position. Mdlle.
+Lamien has offered to be Patricia's substitute, and she knows the lines
+by heart. I think it's very good-natured of her."
+
+To which there was a general assent, only Miss James whispered again to
+Mr. Tremain:
+
+"You will have no temptation to draw you from your allegiance to your
+Baby-ish sweetheart, Mr. Tremain. Mdlle. Lamien can scarcely offer any
+counter attractions, as the Countess, to Baby, as Léonie."
+
+Then with a quick upward look and the least perceptible halt: "How would
+it be, I wonder, if our capricious leading lady were here in person?"
+
+The glance she gave him was brief; but in the second that her eyes
+scanned his face, she noted the blood steal slowly into his cheeks, and
+the lines deepen about his mouth, and with an angry impotent throb at
+her heart she realised his secret, and the hopelessness of her plans and
+desires. She turned away however, as the gong sounded, with a light
+laugh, despite the dull heavy sense of her own impuissance.
+
+Mr. Tremain was not long in completing his toilette that evening, and
+when he came downstairs and made his way to the library in search of a
+book, it was with the purpose of half an hour's quiet reading before
+dinner. He crossed the room to the low book-cases that lined one side,
+and selecting his volume turned back to the fireplace, where a low
+reading-lamp on the sofa-table made an inviting resting-place.
+
+He had thought himself quite alone, and was consequently not a little
+surprised to see within the shadow of the chimney recess, opposite to
+him, the dark quiet figure of Mdlle. Lamien. He put down his book with
+a half-sigh, and approached her; not even at the sacrifice of his
+dearest self-indulgence could Mr. Tremain be discourteous to a lady,
+still less to a stranger and a dependent. Moreover, he acknowledged to
+himself that Mdlle. Lamien exercised a distinct and strange kind of
+spell over him, reminding him in some occult mysterious way of Patricia,
+though why and wherefore he was at a loss to explain.
+
+It was not that these two women--who had so little in common, whose
+lives were as wide apart as the poles, and whose interests were as
+diversely opposite as well could be--had ever met; and yet--such is the
+strong personal magnetism of certain natures--Philip, though he had
+spoken but twice to Mimi's governess, felt the sense of her power over
+him; a power so subtle, and yet so strong as to amount almost to
+physical force; while always with the sense of this domination came the
+thought of Patricia.
+
+Mdlle. Lamien was sitting where first he remembered seeing her, well
+within the shadowed recess; her face, even in the subdued light of the
+single lamp, looked paler than ever, perhaps because its waxen pallor
+was touched by a shade of red in the cheeks; the kindly shadows hid the
+painful mark that disfigured one of them, but the light, catching the
+silver of the wavy hair beneath the falling lace folds, played about it,
+and across the dark sombre eyes, and thin hands that lay clasped with a
+sorrowful droop on her knees.
+
+As Philip drew near to her, some polite words of salutation on his lips,
+she suddenly raised her head, and turning it more fully towards the
+light, smiled at him. It was wonderful, the effect of her smile; in a
+moment, as it flashed across her face, it transfigured it wholly, and
+restored, once more, somewhat of the youth and beauty of bygone days.
+
+Mr. Tremain stood spell-bound; once again there swept across him that
+strange intangible _something_, that reflex of Patricia, that evanescent
+likeness, gone as soon as caught, yet so tantalising in its reality. As
+he stood silent, amazed, and yet in a manner fascinated, by the singular
+metamorphose wrought by a smile, two lines of an unpublished poem,
+written by a dear dead friend, rose unbidden to his lips. He repeated
+them, half unconsciously, below his breath:
+
+    "Light my path thro' Stygian darkness,
+    By the splendour of thy smile."
+
+Such indeed must have been the light that glowed upon the face of
+Cleopatra, when Anthony called her his
+
+    "Glorious sorceress of the Nile."
+
+As Philip gazed upon the face before him, and no word was spoken, he
+felt a sudden thrill of life and fire pass through him; the blood leapt
+in his veins and flew to his face, he put out his hands entreatingly,
+drawing nearer to her; he felt the subtle essence of her being wrapping
+him around, enervating his mind, his will; and yet he had no power, no
+desire to combat it. For it was not Mdlle. Lamien he saw, it was not her
+white, wan face, with its disfiguring scar, that enchanted him, it was
+not her burning eyes that held his, it was not even the present he was
+conscious of. No, he was back again in the past, ten years ago, and he
+was looking his last upon his sweet girl-love, seeing the mocking smile
+upon her lips, the trembling hands, the piteous, defiant eyes.
+
+"Patricia," he cried, "Patricia!" And as he called her name, the spell
+was broken, the glory faded, the past fell from him, and he found
+himself alone; and only the light rustle of a silken gown, the faint
+click of a closing door, gave evidence of a departing presence.
+
+"Good heavens!" he said at last, drawing a deep breath, and looking
+about him uncertainly, "who and what is this Mdlle. Lamien, that she is
+so like, and yet so unlike Patricia? And what spell does she own to
+trick me into such hysteric emotion?"
+
+Then the door opened, and Long came in, followed by Perkins, and the wax
+candles were lit in the brackets and sconces, and the room from
+semi-darkness and mysterious shadows, leapt into vivid, brilliant life.
+Then came Mrs. Newbold, bringing a touch of this world's goods in her
+latest importation of a Wörth gown, full of joyful content and
+well-being, fastening her gloves and jingling her jewelled bangles, and
+looking very much surprised to find Mr. Tremain in advance of her.
+
+And so the hour passed and the spell faded, and Philip gave no further
+thought to Mdlle. Lamien or, strange to say, to Patricia.
+
+Miss James scored several points that evening in her own estimation,
+and felt almost feverishly anxious to have the preliminaries over with,
+and her engagement to Philip recognised as _un fait accompli_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+DANGER AHEAD.
+
+
+Meantime the preparations for the theatricals went on rapidly. Mr.
+Robinson came down the next day, and found his amateur troupe duly drawn
+up for inspection. Not one of them, however, was word-perfect, in spite
+of their diligent study, singly or in couples, except Mdlle. Lamien and
+Mr. Tremain, to neither of whom did the text present any difficulties.
+
+Much to Philip's surprise, Mdlle. Lamien proved but an indifferent
+actress; she recited her lines without a mistake, but that was all that
+could be said in praise of her. She was dull, apathetic, heavy, made no
+effort to throw life or emotion into her part, and was, indeed, so
+studiously indifferent, that Mr. Robinson took no trouble to either
+remonstrate with or contradict her, knowing her to be but a substitute,
+and feeling perfectly sure of the real impersonator, who had been
+trained untiringly by him, and had made her _début_ as his favourite
+pupil.
+
+Mdlle. Lamien made it so very apparent that she only appeared in
+obedience to Mrs. Newbold's request, that Philip found acting up to her
+not only laborious, but ridiculous, and consequently shirked his scenes
+with her as much as possible, though not without wondering at the
+strange contradictions of which her character seemed formed.
+
+The days were drawing on now, and only three remained before that one
+which, as Dick Darling remarked, "they were to so appropriately
+celebrate--George's birthday, with George left very much out of it." Now
+that Philip knew Patricia was not expected until the very morning of the
+all-important day, he put away from him all thought of meeting her,
+and, with a suddenly developed gaiety, joined heart and soul in the
+frivolities of the hour.
+
+The day before the great event, however, something happened which
+threatened to deprive the company of Henri's personation, and which for
+the moment, threw even the theatricals in the shade. A letter written by
+Mr. Tremain to his one intimate man friend best explains the situation:
+
+     "THE FOLLY,
+     "_April, 188_--.
+
+     "DEAR MAINWARING,
+
+     "Here I am with a strained wrist and a halo of heroism. The first
+     is uncomfortable, the second undeserved. No doubt you will receive
+     a garbled account of what has occurred, and a highly-coloured
+     report of my 'heroic action and wonderful presence of mind'--the
+     words are Miss James's, not mine. Well, then, to save your brain a
+     shock, and your friendship a blow, I send off these somewhat
+     unintelligible lines. I don't want you repeating the tale, with
+     mock heroics, at the club and about town, and I know your fondness
+     for a good story.
+
+     "Let me say then, as a premise, that whatever of bravery or heroism
+     was displayed, at a somewhat critical moment in a commonplace
+     incident, belongs solely to Mdlle. Lamien, Mimi's governess; and,
+     by-the-bye, I don't know but that it is just at these commonplace
+     times that one's nerve and resolution are most often put to the
+     test.
+
+     "Here are the facts: Mrs. Newbold has a pair of new ponies,
+     George's latest gift, and her last fad; she drove me up with them
+     the day I arrived, and I didn't care for their style particularly,
+     they pulled too hard, and had an obstinate trick of catching at the
+     bit that might prove nasty. Esther's groom on these occasions is
+     Tony, elected, presumably, because of the smallness of his stature.
+     You have seen Tony, and therefore know that he is mostly hat.
+
+     "Very well, this morning being bright and cool, Mrs. Newbold
+     decided to take little Marianne and Cissy Beverley for a drive; it
+     was in vain both George and I pointed out to her that the ponies
+     had not been exercised for the last two days, and would therefore
+     be very fresh and too great a handful for her, she would not
+     listen--her sex never will, you know, when advice runs against
+     inclination--and woman-like, she must play with her latest toy.
+
+     "So off they started, the children tucked in beside Mrs. Newbold,
+     and Tony perched up behind. The little brutes were fresh enough,
+     but Esther had them well in hand, and drove off in true workmanlike
+     style. They had their drive, along the upper road, and round by the
+     Bay, and so through the town to Beverley's house. Here Mrs. Newbold
+     got out, letting Marianne hold the reins, with Tony at the ponies'
+     heads. She lifted Cissy down, and was just turning to give a word
+     of caution, when a cat, followed by Beverley's setter pup, ran out
+     from the kitchen garden and flew directly under the ponies' heads.
+
+     "Then came a sudden shying movement, the light carriage swayed
+     dangerously, and then, with tossing heads, the little brutes broke
+     loose from Tony's hold, took the bits between their teeth, and in a
+     second were off on a dead run.
+
+     "You will admit it was not a pleasant situation for Esther. She has
+     since told me that her first intimation of danger was the sight of
+     her darling's bright sunny hair and frightened blue eyes being
+     borne away in the rocking, swaying carriage, as it sped down the
+     drive, drawn by horses wild and young.
+
+     "They passed the gate safely, and started off down the Terrace at a
+     full gallop. And now my part comes in. I was walking leisurely up
+     from the post-office when, as I neared Snug Harbour, I saw the
+     ponies dashing towards me; in a second I recognised them; in that
+     second they were past me. I started after them, but with a feeling
+     of hopelessness, for who could hope to come up with their flying
+     feet? And though the road was broad and open for several miles,
+     little Marianne--whose piteous white face caught my eye as she was
+     borne by me--might at any moment loose her hold and be dashed out,
+     or dragged in the trailing reins.
+
+     "I put on what speed I could, and as I reached a slight curve in
+     the road, beyond which the ponies would be lost to sight, a woman
+     flew through an open gate and threw herself directly in front of
+     the frightened animals.
+
+     "Thus checked for a second, I saw her measure the distance with a
+     glance, then jump and catch the bridle with one hand, flinging all
+     her weight upon it and never letting go, though the little brutes
+     dragged her several rods. To reach her side and add my strength to
+     hers was but the work of a moment; the ponies, easily tired,
+     submitted to my soothing voice and hand, while little Marianne,
+     who throughout had behaved like a heroine, now covered herself with
+     glory, by stepping deliberately out of the carriage and throwing
+     her arms about the tall, dark figure beside her.
+
+     "I turned then to face my brave companion; it was, as I suspected,
+     Mdlle. Lamien, who stood there, calm and unmoved, the heavy lace of
+     her veil concealing whatever emotion her face might have revealed.
+     It was she, and no other, who had risked her own life to save the
+     child; and yet, Mainwaring, I declare to you solemnly and in all
+     calmness, it was not of her I thought as we stood together side by
+     side; it was not her personality that seemed so near me, nor her
+     spirit that had carried out so brave a rescue. Laugh at me if you
+     will, suggest hysteria and nerves; so be it, I accept the taunt,
+     and repeat again, it was not Mdlle. Lamien who made captive my
+     admiration and esteem--it was Patricia Hildreth. Explain it as best
+     you can. I do but repeat, it was Patricia who dominated me then;
+     Patricia who seemingly stood so close, I had but to put out my hand
+     to touch her,--and yet--it was Mdlle. Lamien who replied coldly to
+     my inquiries, and who walked swiftly away, leaving me with
+     Marianne, and the now quiet horses.
+
+     "Strange to say, neither she nor the child have received any
+     injuries, and I have escaped with a strained wrist--my left
+     one--which will not incapacitate me for to-morrow; indeed, a Henri
+     de Flavigneul with a sling will be a new departure, and ought to
+     prove what Miss Darling would call 'very fetching.'
+
+     "By the way, you come down, I believe, for the play; did I tell you
+     Patricia will also be here? I think in many ways this place grows
+     dangerous, and I shall return to my own den, as soon as the
+     theatricals are over.
+
+     "As ever, old friend, yours faithfully,
+
+     "PHILIP TREMAIN."
+
+But if Mr. Tremain was inclined to treat thus lightly his share in
+Marianne's rescue, the others refused to look at it in so trivial a
+light. Esther, with tears in her eyes, took both his hands and thanked
+him with a tremulous smile.
+
+"I shall never forget it, Philip, never," she said, and turned away to
+hide the falling drops.
+
+George Newbold, proverbially a man of few words, wrung his friend's hand
+in the grip of a giant, and muttered an incoherent "Old fellow, can't
+thank you; it was splendidly done."
+
+And then came Dick Darling, her laughing face sobered for a moment, and
+a look of true admiration in her eyes, as she said:
+
+"Mr. Tremain, you are a brick; it was awfully tip-top of you! I tell you
+what; for downright bravery you 'take the cake!'"
+
+But from no one did Philip receive such delicate and subtle flattery as
+from Miss James. That young lady fairly glowed with the magnitude of her
+admiration. She went about with raised eyelids and drooped lips, as
+though always contemplating, mentally, his past danger, and returning
+thanks for his deliverance. She was also always meeting him at odd
+times, and in out-of-the-way corners, and asking with solicitude after
+his "poor injured wrist," offering to bind it up for him, or write his
+letters, or read to him; which last, as Dick said, "was palpably absurd,
+since Mr. Tremain's eyes and brains were not injured, or out of working
+gear."
+
+Philip, hating all fuss, and especially fuss in which he deserved so
+small a share, made the most of his strained wrist and kept in the
+smoking-room, or his own chamber, the rest of the day, and there nursed
+his rancour against Miss James for being a fool herself, and making him
+appear an equal one; and his resentment towards Mdlle. Lamien, who had
+passed him by almost without recognition, drawing the falling laces
+closer about her face, and not heeding the eager hand he put out to
+detain her, or the alert tone in which he asked after her health. She
+had paused just one brief instant, as though about to speak, and then,
+evidently changing her intention, drew herself up and passed down the
+stairs, not once looking back, or replying by a word to his courtesy.
+
+There was a full-dress rehearsal called for that evening, and Philip, as
+he sat moodily in his own room, smoking his cigar, felt a half savage
+delight in the knowledge that Mdlle. Lamien must appear for it, and
+respond in a somewhat less chilling and uncomfortable manner to the
+requirements demanded by his rôle.
+
+A little before tea-time he heard voices in the corridor outside, which
+he recognised as Dick Darling's and Baby Leonard's.
+
+"Only think; she has actually come," Miss Leonard was saying, "and a day
+before she promised!"
+
+To which Dick briefly replied, "Who?"
+
+"Why, Miss Hildreth, of course; who else are we all waiting for?
+Really, Dick, you grow very dense!"
+
+"Oh, do I?" returned Miss Darling, unmoved. "And so Patricia has come at
+last? Patricia the beautiful, Patricia the inconstant, Patricia the
+slayer, Patricia the conqueror! Well, I agree with you, Baby, 'tis
+something to be sure of her, for Miss Patty is but kittle cattle at
+best!"
+
+Here the two girls walked down the passage, their voices growing fainter
+and then sinking into silence. So Patricia was come. For a long time Mr.
+Tremain sat very still, not heeding his outward surroundings, immersed
+in retrospect; his cigar went out, the fire died on the hearth and fell
+into little heaps of white ashes, the day darkened, the hours drew on to
+evening, and the shadows came out of their hiding-places in the large
+room, creeping up from indistinct corners, and from behind the heavy
+furniture, shaking themselves free from the window draperies, and
+drawing nearer, nearer, until they wrapped him all about in their
+impalpable obscurity, and he became a part of them, as unreal and
+intangible as they.
+
+Patty was come! Patty! And he must see her again, must look into her
+eyes, and touch her hand, and watch the smile come and go upon her lips,
+just as he had known it all, and loved it, ten years ago.
+
+And now a strange thing occurred; at least it seemed strange at the
+time, and Philip could never quite shake off the indefinable feeling of
+the supernatural that then enveloped him, whenever in after years he
+recalled that evening.
+
+His rooms were situated in what was known as the "bachelor wing" of the
+Folly, though not separated from the main corridor, as were the other
+apartments of that class. He knew that next to his chamber was what was
+called the Green Room, occupied by Miss James and Dick Darling, while on
+the other side was the dressing-room belonging to his suite, and used by
+his man-servant; the remaining rooms beyond were bachelor apartments,
+separated from the main part of the house by a heavy baize door, that
+cut off all sound. He also knew that the fair occupants of the Green
+Room were at that hour sipping tea and scandal in the library, and his
+man flirting with the maids in the hall. To all intents and purposes he
+was absolutely alone, as no sound of arriving guests could reach him,
+the greater spare rooms being situated in the west wing. Marianne and
+Mdlle. Lamien's apartments were in the main corridor, but a storey
+above. All this flashed across Mr. Tremain's mind in a second, though it
+has taken somewhat long to explain.
+
+As he sat brooding in the chill dim shadows, conjuring up the ghosts of
+bygone years, and speculating moodily upon the fate that had marred his
+life, and the strange, inconsistent, unwilling homage he even yet bore
+for the woman who had played the part of a gay mocking Cassandra to him,
+and with a dreary pessimist philosophy accepted his destiny as
+inevitable, he became suddenly aware of a faint subtle perfume, that
+stole over his senses imperceptibly, which he recognised physically to
+be the odour of violets. And as this sweet scent swept over him, there
+came before him vividly, a sudden sharp remembrance of the past, while
+the words of the poet rose unconsciously to his lips:
+
+    "--I think of the passion that shook my youth,
+      Of its aimless love and its idle pains,
+    And am thankful now for the certain truth
+      That only the sweet remains."
+
+He was no longer Philip the successful, resting in his easy-chair, the
+idol of the hour at the Folly; but he was Philip the ardent, and the
+impecunious; Philip in a badly made coat, heated and travel-stained,
+hurt and angry; standing in a room that was dainty in its luxury of
+flowers and half lights, with a vision of a drawing-room beyond,
+brilliantly lighted, softly coloured, and from whence came the echo of
+gay laughter, and bright voices.
+
+And now from out that room came slowly, ah, how slowly, to his wildly
+beating heart, a tall slight figure, clad in softest silks and laces,
+with a breast-knot of violets; and as the vision advanced nearer and
+stood half within the shadow of the outer room, he could see the soft
+fair face, crowned with its dead-brown hair, and wearing a look half
+frightened, half pleading in the sweet eyes, and on the arched and
+trembling lips.
+
+Slowly, slowly the figure drew nearer to him; now it was but a few paces
+off, he could almost touch it with his hand, he could see the violets
+rise and fall with the lace upon her bosom; their scent came to him
+strong, and sweet, and pungent. He sprang from his chair, and held out
+his hands.
+
+"Patty!" he cried, "Patty, have you come to find me, my little Patty?"
+
+But even as he spoke the vision faded; there came one clear loud
+whisper, calling his name, "Philip! Philip!" and then, even as he
+looked, the shining lights were gone, the gaily echoed voices silent,
+the figure grew indistinct and unreal, and then vanished, and Philip
+found himself standing in the middle of the room, gazing on vacancy,
+with only the sad perfume of violets left on the air.
+
+He sank back into his chair, bewildered, exhausted, and as he did so, a
+strain of saddest music reached his ears, and a voice that was almost a
+monotone, and yet that struck an answering chord of misery in his heart,
+said, rather than sang, some words that ran in this wise:
+
+    "I am a woman,
+      Therefore I may not
+    Call to him, cry to him,
+      Bid him delay not;
+    Showing no sign to him,
+    By look of mine to him,
+    What he has been to me.
+    Pity me, lean to me,
+      Philip, my king!"
+
+The voice ceased, and Mr. Tremain, his composure gone, his heart beating
+wildly, cried out again, this time with a ring of deepest passion:
+
+"Patricia! Patty, have you come back to me?"
+
+But it was not Patty's sweet voice he knew so well, that made answer, it
+was a far higher, lighter treble that cried out, as the door was flung
+open impetuously:
+
+"Oh, Mr. Tremain, how very dull and mopy of you! All alone, in the dark,
+and no fire!" And Mrs. Esther swept in, trailing her plush tea-gown
+after her, followed by Perkins with a lamp, and Long with a silver tray
+set with a tea equipage.
+
+"Dear me!" continued Mrs. Newbold, coming nearer, and blinking her eyes
+in affected short-sightedness, "how very dismal you look, and how very
+cold you feel! Here, Perkins, make up the fire directly. I have come to
+give you your tea, Philip, I am sure you need it, for you look as white
+as a ghost, and as dazed as a clairvoyant! Put the tray here, Long,"
+drawing up a small table, "there, that will do; now tell your master to
+come to Mr. Tremain's sitting-room, immediately." Then as the two
+servants withdrew, she added with a comical little grimace, "now for
+ten minutes, until George can join us, my reputation is at stake! Isn't
+it awful? and I who have known you since my days of short frocks and
+pig-tails!" Then with a light laugh, "I knew you would be dull, Philip,
+I always think it's very trying work posing for a hero, and you know we
+all insist upon your personating that most uncomfortable character,
+whether you like it or not, so if I were you I'd get all the glory out
+of it that's possible! Now then, here's a cup of tea for you," and she
+jumped up, carrying it over to him, where he sat, half hidden in his
+arm-chair.
+
+The newly kindled fire flashed up as she came to him, and shining full
+upon him, revealed the whiteness of his face, and the look of
+introspection in his eyes.
+
+"Are you not well, Philip?" she asked; and then before he could reply,
+"Why, what a delicious odour of violets! You dear thing, have you got
+some for me?"
+
+But Mr. Tremain made no answer; he put out his hand and took the cup
+from her, saying as he did so: "Then you, too, perceive it, Esther; it
+_is_ the odour of violets, is it not, and yet I have none for you."
+
+"Of course it's violets," replied Mrs. Newbold, positively, "and of
+course you are hiding them from me. Ah, well, I don't mind, I dare say
+you are keeping them for _some one_," and she smiled a little fine smile
+of superiority and knowledge.
+
+After a moment's pause Mr. Tremain asked another question, and in spite
+of his attempted carelessness, his voice had a ring of anxiety.
+
+"Esther, who--who was singing, just now, when you came in, or a moment
+before?"
+
+"Singing?" queried Mrs. Newbold. "Oh, no one; they are all far too busy
+discussing this evening's rehearsal; though, stay a moment--yes, I
+remember now, I did hear some one grinding out a melancholy ditty, as I
+came down the corridor. Of course, it was Mdlle. Lamien."
+
+"Mdlle. Lamien?" echoed Philip.
+
+"Yes," replied Esther, "she has a little, tiny room in this very wing,
+where she keeps a piano and some books; you might hear her here, it's
+just possible."
+
+But Mr. Tremain was not heeding her. Once again he was overwhelmed and
+confused as the strange spell of this woman's personality crept over
+him. He could have sworn the voice was Patricia's, just as the face of
+his vision had been Patricia's! Was he always to be haunted by this
+strange dual resemblance--which was no resemblance--between the Patricia
+of his youth, and this incomprehensible, mysterious stranger?
+
+If the voice was the voice of Mdlle. Lamien, why should it affect him so
+strongly, or why should it seem but the fitting adjunct to the face of
+his vision, since that vision wore the semblance of Patricia?
+
+    "But whether she came as a faint perfume,
+      Or whether a spirit in stole of white,
+    I feel, as I pass from the darkened room,
+      She has been with my soul to-night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AN ARRIVAL AND A MEETING.
+
+
+When Mr. Tremain entered the drawing-room later in the evening, he was
+at once conscious of Patricia's presence. It did not require the
+practical use of his eyes to assure himself of the fact, for to him the
+room and the company were permeated with her personality.
+
+It had always been so with Patricia. When she entered an assembly she
+drew to herself all the light and vivacity and beauty of the scene; and
+the homage which was always immediately accorded her, seemed but a
+fitting tribute to her fascinations.
+
+Other women, by far more beautiful, paled before the witchery of her
+face; other wits, whose slightest expression was a _bon-mot_, faded into
+insignificance when she entered the lists.
+
+And yet she was neither very beautiful, nor very _spirituelle_; but she
+possessed in a rare degree that nameless _something_, that charm of
+presence, of voice, of manner, which is unconquerable because
+intangible, and against which it is worse than useless to resist. It is
+a dangerous attribute, and heavy is the responsibility of those who
+possess it; it may lead them and others to the highest feats of heroic
+sacrifice, and it may doom them to the lowest depths of the woe that is
+eternal.
+
+Philip, as he crossed the room, looked not so much for Patricia herself,
+but rather to where the black coats gathered thickest, and the tinkling
+sound of gay laughter and careless _persiflage_ waxed loudest; there he
+knew he should find Miss Hildreth, for was she not the candle about
+which the silly moths gathered eagerly, glad to singe their humble
+wings, or even spend their lives, if only once the flame of her
+brilliancy might rest upon them, and lift them for a moment from the
+dull round of commonplace?
+
+The seal she affected was indeed a typical one, he thought, as he moved
+towards her with a slight smile upon his lips, his face still pale from
+his recent emotion; and was he any better than his fellows? Were not his
+unwilling feet moving towards her, drawn as the needle to the magnet?
+Was not his heart beating tumultuously at the thought of holding her
+hand in his once more? Was he not, in fact, the silliest of all human
+moths, since he, who knew by experience the cruelty of that flame, yet
+sought it wantonly, glad to bask again for a brief half-hour in its
+baleful light? As he came close to where sat Miss Hildreth, a queen of a
+mimic court, the knot of adorers and worshippers fell back, and accorded
+him, as of a right, a free passage to the lady of their allegiance. In
+a moment the hum of general conversation ceased; even Mrs. Newbold, who
+had watched his entrance with only half-suppressed excitement, felt the
+words die upon her lips, while Miss James made no pretence of even
+listening to her cavalier as she noted with flashing eyes and sullen
+heart the meeting of these whilom lovers, and Dick Darling, with
+sympathy written on every line of her fresh young face, laid an
+impetuous hand on Jack Howard's arm, drawing him a step or two nearer
+the charmed circle. Thus watched by every eye, and almost in total
+silence, Mr. Tremain bowed low before Patricia, holding out his hand, as
+he said in his most deferential tones:
+
+"May I hope that Miss Hildreth still keeps a place for me in her
+remembrance, although it is so long since we last met?"
+
+And now surely, if ever, Patricia earned for herself the character so
+freely bestowed upon her, of petulance and inconstancy. She raised her
+head a trifle haughtily as she replied, and so managed as not to see Mr.
+Tremain's outstretched hand, while her words fell cold and cutting:
+
+"Can Mr. Tremain expect any woman to remember ten years back and own to
+it?"
+
+Then she laughed, a cool, well-trained little defiant laugh, and turned
+nonchalantly to a tall, dark, foreign-looking man, who alone of all her
+court had refused to fall back as Philip approached her. The slight was
+a direct one, but if it told, the hurt was invisible to the world, for
+Mr. Tremain, smiling a little more indulgently, answered her no less
+coolly:
+
+"That Miss Hildreth should remember the number of years since we met is
+answer sufficient, and too great an honour."
+
+Then he bowed again, and turned away, and the crowd of eager satellites
+moved up closer and filled the gap; only Miss James remarked the wave of
+angry colour that swept across Patricia's face, and for an instant dyed
+it crimson.
+
+Meantime, Mr. Tremain moved quietly back, and stationed himself where,
+half-hidden by the heavy falling _portières_, he could study unseen the
+face and form of the woman on whom for ten long years he had bestowed
+the greatest love of his life.
+
+It was with keenest eyes of disapproval that he noted each change in
+her, changes that to him seemed indicative only of the interior
+alteration that had come over her, and that while it gave her the
+polished brilliancy of a costly gem, he felt was gained only by some
+corresponding loss of heart.
+
+Miss Hildreth was dressed in white, without a spot of colour save for
+the large bouquet of Parma violets that lay unheeded on her lap. Her
+costume, though simple in the extreme, yet bore evidence, even to
+Philip, of its costliness, and reminded him sadly, with its soft silken
+folds and filmy laces, of the dress in which he had last seen her.
+Evidently these baubles of fashion had not lost their charm to Patricia.
+Mr. Tremain in his character of critic saw only artificiality in each
+little curl that formed the coronal of soft, dusky hair, crowning the
+small delicate head; he read worldliness in each guarded laugh, each
+well-modulated tone; he descried vanity and pride in the very gestures
+of her hands--those little hands that had once rested so trustingly in
+his, and on which he had showered so many hot, youthful kisses. He noted
+every turn of her head, every line of her sweet face, every movement of
+the slim upright form, and to him it seemed as though a cold hard
+imperceptible coating of worldly artifice and selfishness wrapped her
+around and about, as hard and keen and impregnable as any corslet of
+triply-tried steel, from which all shafts of remembrance, affection,
+compassion, or naturalness, glanced off harmless, not leaving even a
+dent behind upon the polished surface.
+
+This, then, was Patricia after ten long years? This was the woman of his
+love. This was the wilful Patty for whom Esther Newbold had pleaded so
+generously, and towards whom his heart had become as wax in the fire of
+tender remembrance. This was the reality of his vision; he had come from
+the presence of that spiritual Patty face to face with the real
+Patricia, and so coming his heart and soul had been moved with love and
+compassion towards her; he had yearned to make all right between them,
+to forget the past, to knit together the broken skein of their two
+lives, to be, in fact, magnanimous and generous, to hold out the hand of
+forgiveness and reconciliation, and to welcome in return a heart-broken,
+remorseful, penitent Patricia, who should fall upon his heart with glad
+gratitude, while she owned herself vanquished and grateful for the
+immensity of his goodness and patronage.
+
+And he had found instead of this imaginary Patty a woman of the world,
+unmoved by his presence, irresponsive to his generosity, unconscious of
+her own shortcomings, unremorseful for the past, in fact, forgetful of
+it and of him; who, with cool insolence, overlooked his outstretched
+hand, and, with the well-bred impertinence of her class, made plain her
+indifference to him. Well, and was he not right when he told Esther
+Newbold that he would not consent again to play the fool to a woman's
+vanity? Had he not read aright Miss Hildreth's character when she
+scorned him ten years ago, and withdrew her love, because of his poverty
+and his bucolic indifference to the _petits soins_ of her every-day
+life? Had he judged her too harshly? No; a thousand times no! Her
+character was but in bud then, and he had only too well foreseen how
+bitter would be the blossom, though so fair in outward seeming.
+
+Ah, well! Let the dream vanish, the vision fade! He had been but allured
+by the Lorelei of desire, and, however near he had approached to the
+scorching flame of her seductions, he had come forth unscathed.
+
+His meditations were here interrupted by a touch on his shoulder, and
+George Newbold's pleasant voice in his ear.
+
+"I say, Tremain, I want to introduce some one to you----. Oh, no, my
+good fellow, _not_ a woman; I am too much your friend to betray you in
+such a fashion. It's a man for whom I bespeak your politeness--a man,
+and not a brother, since he is a foreigner."
+
+Mr. Newbold, after this, for him, very long speech, stopped to take
+breath, and, as he did so, patted Philip affectionately on the shoulder.
+
+"There he is," he continued, presently, moving Mr. Tremain about, and
+motioning towards the crowd that still surrounded the spot where sat
+Patricia. "Don't you see him? Tall, dark man, pasty face and black eyes,
+wears a red ribbon in his button-hole that fetches all the
+women--there, bending over Miss Hildreth! By Jove! he's scarcely left
+her side since I presented him. She's a witch, is Miss Patty--a witch,
+with a long head, and minus a broomstick."
+
+"Who is he?" asked Philip, not particularly impressed by the stranger's
+appearance. "Where on earth did you pick him up, and what the devil made
+you bring him down here?"
+
+"He picked me up, don't you see?" replied George Newbold, not in the
+least put out by Philip's evident bad temper. "Found him at the
+Club--the Union, you know. Townsend had introduced him, and made him a
+stranger member. He brought a line of introduction to Townsend from Jim
+Goelet, who knew him in Paris. Townsend said he had been asking for
+me--knew my name, he said, from hearing the Goelets speak of me so
+often--awfully kind of Jim and Ada, I'm sure--so he wanted to know me,
+and I couldn't do less than be civil, so I asked him down for the
+theatricals--my birthday, you know--and he leaped at my fly at once, so
+here he is."
+
+"I don't like him," said Mr. Tremain, didactically. "What's his name,
+Newbold, and where does he hail from?"
+
+"Here's his card," replied George, pulling it out of his
+waistcoat-pocket. "I thought I had better be sure about it because of
+introducing him, you know. The women do get so savage when you leave a
+fellow's patronymic vague. Bless them, the dears! They've got their
+'Almanach de Gotha' at their fingers' ends, and know to a fraction's
+nicety just how cordial they should be to each individual mother's son
+of them. So many smiles and graciousness to the elder son of a peer, so
+many less to an Honourable, and so many less again to a younger
+detrimental. The women of this country, my dear Tremain, are mad, simply
+mad over titles. It's the irony of history. What our forefathers fought
+and died for--equality, and the abolishment of mere hereditary
+rights--their grandchildren fall down and worship. For my part, I
+wonder the stern old Puritans don't turn in their graves with horror!"
+
+The card which Mr. Tremain held bore the name of Count Vladimir
+Mellikoff, and had no address save a pencilled one--"Brevoort House"--in
+one corner. The bit of paste-board was as non-committal as the
+stranger's face.
+
+"Is he a Russian?" asked Philip.
+
+"It looks so, doesn't it?" was the careless reply. "'A Roosian or a
+Proosian,' but certainly _not_ 'an Englishman.' Perhaps he's a Nihilist
+in disguise, perhaps he's a dynamiter, or a Land-leaguer, or a
+red-handed Communist, who knows? At any rate, he's got his match in Miss
+Patty; never saw such a case of 'bowl over' at first sight in my life,
+never, I give you my word."
+
+But Philip failed to rejoice in Mr. Newbold's hilarity; and that
+gentleman strolled off presently, in his peculiarly aimless fashion, and
+securing Count Vladimir Mellikoff by the simple device of slipping his
+hand within his arm, led him up to Philip, presenting him with all due
+ceremony.
+
+Mr. Tremain, contrary to the traditions of his country, and taking a
+leaf from Patricia's own book, passed by the foreigner's outstretched
+hand, and with a somewhat forbidding manner and bow, entered into
+conversation.
+
+Count Vladimir, however, was not to be easily distanced or put down; he
+could with rare tact suit his manner and his words to the individual of
+the moment who formed his audience; so now, with his usual keen insight,
+while discovering Mr. Tremain's half-formed distrust and dislike, he
+also recognised his superior intellect and position, and set himself to
+work at once to dispel the unfavourable impression he had made. He had
+not learned his earliest lessons in diplomacy at Europe's politest
+Court, Petersburg, for nothing, therefore it was not long before Philip
+found his suspicions and scepticism melting beneath the charm of his
+manner, and his cultivated, modest conversation. He learned without
+trouble, that Count Mellikoff was travelling in the States for pleasure
+principally, though with a suspicion of political business to give
+interest to his visit; that he was a diplomat by birth and training, and
+a loyal servant to the present Tsar of all the Russias, whom he served
+with the like love and fidelity he had formerly bestowed upon Alexander
+II.
+
+He was a distinguished-looking man, rather than handsome, with an air of
+breeding and distinction in the thin face, keen small black eyes,
+aquiline nose and broad, rather pointed forehead. His manners were
+self-possessed and quiet, he spoke English fluently, and in a pleasantly
+modulated voice, while the few gestures he used were indicative of
+absolute self-control. Mr. Tremain soon discovered that nothing escaped
+his observation, he was aware of every movement of the various groups
+scattered about the drawing-rooms, and while apparently absorbed in the
+topic of the moment, had the attribute of prescience so widely
+developed as to be conscious of the general tone of conversation
+throughout the room.
+
+Philip acknowledged himself fascinated, and ere long dropping his
+habitual reserve, he entered cordially into Count Vladimir's graphic
+descriptions of life in Petersburg. By degrees the conversation glided
+on to more intimate grounds, and Philip found himself asking somewhat
+bold questions as to a certain Russian practice in which he had long
+been much interested. Count Mellikoff replied frankly and with great
+openness, and only laughed a little indulgently when Mr. Tremain
+advanced gingerly upon the spy system of the Tsar's Government. His
+remarks were firm and to the point, and the Count became more and more
+earnest as he refuted them, giving his interlocutor, every now and then,
+a keen and searching look.
+
+"You cannot deny, Count Mellikoff," said Mr. Tremain at last, speaking
+with more than his usual animation, "that the spy system, as practised
+by your Government, makes of every true Russian a special constable,
+whose work is well understood, and whose life is devoted to the
+espionage, not only of suspects, but of every Russian citizen. You
+become, in fact, individual policemen, and you each watch the other with
+keenest scrutiny, ready at any moment to denounce and arrest each
+other."
+
+"Why should I deny it, my dear sir?" answered the Count, very quietly.
+"It would be but useless waste of breath on my part, since all the world
+looks with awe and wonder on the workings of the Imperial Chancellerie
+of Petersburg. Nay, so far from denying it, let me give you some faint
+idea of its workings, and of the far-reaching, all-powerful engines it
+employs. Our system is divided into two sections, one of which is
+devoted to all international or foreign questions; the other deals only
+with the surveillance of the Tsar's subjects, who, for the time being,
+are non-resident or abroad. Our agents of the first section are
+generally well known; as a rule they make no secret of their connection
+with the Imperial Chancellerie, and they consist of both sexes and of
+all classes. Indeed, we find our cleverest work often accomplished by
+ladies. I need but mention Madame Novikoff, whose influence and power
+over a certain Premier of England is but a matter of common _on dits_,
+and who, at one time, seriously affected the foreign policy of Great
+Britain. That work accomplished, she has wrought further mischief to Her
+Majesty's Government by encompassing the defection of Dhuleep Singh and
+enrolling him under Russia's flag. It is not beside the question, sir,
+if, in the future, he does not become a source of trouble to the British
+authorities at Calcutta. That, sir, is one woman's work. On the
+Continent, again, I could point out to you, in almost every city of
+importance, a like emissary. In Paris there was the charming Princess
+Lise Troubetskoi, followed now by that Marquis de ---- and his
+fascinating wife, whose hotel is the gathering-place of all the _élite_,
+and whose identity is as strictly unknown now as when first they
+startled all Paris by the magnificence of their entertainments. At
+Brussels you will find Madame de M----; at Dresden, the Countess de
+B----; in Switzerland, the Prince A. P----; and at Rome, the Marquise di
+P----. Even Egypt is not forgotten, and in the Countess J---- Russia
+finds an able coadjutor, whose position as lady-in-waiting to the
+vice-Queen gains for us many secrets communicated by the British
+Government to the Khedive. And even you, sir, must remember the great
+noise regarding Madame Blavatsky, who, as the priestess of theosophy,
+for many years carried on a secret correspondence with Monsieur
+Zinovieff, then Chief of the Asiatic Department of the Foreign Office,
+and with Prince Doudaroff Korsakoff, Governor-General of the Caucasus?
+But for Lord Dufferin's clear-sightedness, Madame might still be
+carrying on her patriotic work."
+
+"You astonish me, Count Mellikoff," said Mr. Tremain, as his informant
+stopped to draw breath; "I knew that 'the little father' held undoubted
+sway over all his own vast territory, but not that he bisected other
+nations with such regular and effective engines."
+
+Count Mellikoff smiled, and the fire in his deep-set eyes leapt up, as
+he answered:
+
+"Sir, this is but a small portion of the all-powerful protection
+bestowed on his children by our father, the Tsar. Even here, in your own
+land of equality and freedom, his emissaries are ever at work, and from
+every capital of Europe, indeed from many insignificant towns and
+villages, there go forth daily weekly or monthly reports to the Imperial
+Chancellerie at Petersburg. Is it not useless, then, for any one
+individual to fight against so omnipotent and universal a power?"
+
+"Worse than useless, I should say," replied Philip, wondering within
+himself as he spoke, what part was played in the great political drama
+by this same quiet, well-bred gentleman who stood before him.
+
+"But this," continued Count Mellikoff, smiling again, and turning his
+intensely black eyes, in which no pupil was visible, but all seemed
+iris, full upon Mr. Tremain, "this is but one section of the great
+organisation, and in some ways the most insignificant. The second
+section, which has to do directly with the Tsar's subjects abroad, is of
+much vaster proportions, and wields a far greater power. If you will
+permit me, sir, to introduce dry statistics?" And the Count drew from
+his pocket a small but substantial note-book, which he held unopened,
+waiting for Mr. Tremain's reply.
+
+Philip bowed a trifle impatiently, as he said: "I beg you will continue,
+Count Mellikoff; statistics are the back-bone of political economics in
+all countries; to me they bear a special charm."
+
+"I thank you, sir," replied the Count, who evidently was a literal
+translator of the polite Gaelic, _Monsieur_. He opened the note-book,
+and turned over the pages carefully and with a practised hand.
+
+"Ah!" he said at last, "I have it. Listen, sir, to a quotation from the
+reports of the Chancellerie: 'In the year 1884, no less than 890,318
+Russian subjects of the Tsar crossed the Western frontier, for the
+purpose of paying more or less prolonged visits to foreign countries.
+The next year the numbers had increased to 920,563;' and you must bear
+in mind that I do not exaggerate when I assert that every one of these
+travellers is subjected to the same amount of espionage abroad as at
+home. Their every movement is noted, every remark reported, every change
+of residence recorded. There lives no true-born and loyal Russian who is
+not bound by conscience, if not by oath, to report to Petersburg
+anything that may seem to him suspicious, or amiss, in any of his
+fellow-countrymen. It may be only a word, a look, a letter, a handshake,
+nothing is too trivial, because out of trivialities have grown the great
+revolutions of the world. You may be living in India, China, England, or
+America; you may be rich and noble, or poor and dependent; if you are
+one of the Tsar's children, you may be very sure that every day and hour
+of your life is known, nay, is commented upon and discussed within the
+Imperial Chancellerie, no matter how many thousands of miles of sea and
+land separate you from Russia. At any moment the Tsar can call you to
+account; he is no respecter of persons; it may be the highest noble at
+the Court, the poorest serf on the steppes, the fashionable beauty of
+the hour, the hired governess of your children, the maid of your
+toilette, the _valet de place_; the very highest and the very lowest,
+one and all must obey when the voice of the Tsar of all the Russians
+speaks the word of command. No crime can be so hidden but it will be
+unearthed, no reparation accepted unless appointed by Imperial edict, no
+forgiveness sanctioned unless granted by word of the Tsar. Said I not
+right, sir, is it not a grand and wonderful system, this that puts to
+shame Nature's barriers, and acknowledges no limits to its power, save
+its own Imperial will?"
+
+Count Mellikoff ceased speaking, and Philip, looking at him, saw his
+face for one moment lit with the mocking fires of conscious malignity
+and indomitable, cruel perseverance. For one moment only; but in that
+moment the fierce light of his eyes seemed to scorch all who came within
+its radiance--nay, seemed even to traverse the long room and touch
+Patricia with its malevolence. Then the passion faded, and the Count
+stood quietly before him, a smile on his lips, the black note-book
+clasped firmly between the long, thin fingers of both hands.
+
+Mr. Tremain felt all his original dislike and mistrust rush full upon
+him once more. He for one moment felt actual hatred for this calm,
+composed foreigner, and his quiet, well-tutored face, his low voice and
+persuasive manner, and, above all, for the horrible system of torture
+and surveillance he upheld as his tenets and dogma. He gave a short,
+hard laugh as he replied:
+
+"I cannot compliment you, Count Mellikoff, on either section of your
+system. To me, as I said before, you all appear to act only as special
+police spies, each one ready and eager to betray the other should
+occasion arise, and each knowing the other to hold this power over him.
+You have interested me deeply; but, pardon me, I cannot jump with you
+the entire length of the Tsar's fatherly protection, as exemplified by
+the Imperial Chancellerie. I have an old-fashioned prejudice in favour
+of individual free will and independence."
+
+Count Mellikoff made a slight bow, and the smile on his lips deepened as
+he answered:
+
+"At least, sir, you will pay us this justice, you never hear one
+Russian speak evil of another (I speak, of course, only of those of a
+certain social standing), nor will our ambassadors give any direct
+information to foreigners concerning any fugitive from justice, no
+matter how doubtful and suspicious their actions may appear. With us,
+sir, loyalty to our great Tsar and to his Government go hand-in-hand
+with our lives."
+
+Mr. Tremain replied only by a gesture of assent, for, as he began to
+speak, George Newbold came up to him once more, and carried him off,
+with a hurried apology to the Count.
+
+"We want him, you see. Many pardons, but he is needed for rehearsal.
+I'll be back directly," and Philip, thus hustled away, had no time to
+explain.
+
+Count Vladimir Mellikoff stood very still for some moments after Philip
+left him; the lines of care and thought that were graven innumerably
+about his eyes and the corners of his mouth, came forth with startling
+prominence, and gave a crafty, sceptical look to his countenance; his
+eyes gleamed in their hollow sockets, his lips moved quickly, and then,
+with a sudden upward gesture of his right hand, he put back the
+note-book in his pocket, and, turning, walked slowly back to where he
+had left Patricia surrounded by her gay adorers.
+
+The room, however, was empty now, and had Miss Hildreth been in very
+deed but a vision of his own creating she could not have vanished more
+completely--not a trace of her remained. The great carved chair in which
+she had sat was pushed hastily back, and about it, grouped in confusion,
+stood the ottomans, stools, _causeuses_ and low _fauteuils_, in which
+her train of devotees had reposed themselves, all equally unoccupied
+now. Not a trace of the queen of the revels, or her light-hearted
+companions, remained--not one. Yet stay; what is this lying on the
+floor, half-hidden by the fallen satin cushion of her chair? This bit
+of finest muslin and filmy lace, dropped or forgotten by Patricia as she
+moved away indifferent, yet alive, to every note of praise or flattery
+that rang about her.
+
+Count Mellikoff crossed the room with noiseless footsteps, bent down and
+picked up the dainty morsel; it proved to be a lady's handkerchief, and
+in the corner were an embroidered crest, and the initials _A. de L._ The
+Count gave one long-drawn sigh, almost a gasp, and then with dexterous
+fingers folded the delicate article neatly and placed it in an inner
+pocket of his waistcoat. He smiled as he did so, and said, half aloud:
+
+"There's treason in every inch of that cambric and lace! Ah, madame, how
+we overreach ourselves sometimes, and how the odour of violets clings to
+every thread of this little traitor!"
+
+Then he turned and walked down the empty room, and as he reached the
+heavily-draped doors dividing the drawing-rooms from the music-hall, one
+of the curtains was pulled further aside, and he came face to face with
+Miss Rosalie James.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE IMPERIAL CHANCELLERIE.
+
+
+Three months before that meeting between Patricia Hildreth and Mr.
+Tremain--out of which had grown such cynical disillusion on
+his part, and which had called forth such cogent reasons for his
+disenchantment--winter still held captive the great metropolis of
+Petersburg. But a winter of such dazzling brilliancy, such blue skies,
+such clear and glittering frost and snow, such floods of sunshine, such
+ringing out of joyful sleigh-bells, such flashing past of fair women
+robed _cap-à-pie_ in costly furs, and such a constant round of gaiety
+and frivolity, as to rob the ice-king of his usual hardships and
+terrors.
+
+Looking on as an unbiassed spectator at the life and vivacity of the
+scene, the riches and luxury displayed day by day on the Nevski
+Prospekte, at the line of handsome equipages, the brilliant uniforms of
+the Tsar's Guard Imperial, at the laughing eyes and fair faces of the
+fairest women of the world, at the hourly ebb and flow of the splendid
+pageant, who could believe, or, believing, realise that not a
+stone's-throw away, beneath the horrible gloomy walls of Peter's
+fortress, there languished men and women, equal in birth and position to
+those gay _flâneurs_ of the present hour, and who once had flaunted
+their colours as bravely as the best, but who now, owing to the
+inexorable will of an acknowledged tyrant, wore their hearts away in
+imprisonment for some political lapse, some inadvertent dereliction, no
+matter how slight; perhaps but a word whispered in a lover's ear, a note
+given or taken, an uncontrolled exclamation, a gesture of emotion; and
+who, victims of that despotic secret police, betrayed, maybe, by their
+nearest and dearest, were hurled in one moment from comparative security
+and protection into the terrible, silent, unapproachable dungeons of
+Petropavlovsk, from which no word or sigh, no cry for help, no appeal
+for justice ever resounds, and into which no whisper of comfort or
+encouragement, no sign of love, friendship, or remembrance, ever
+penetrates, whose only outlook is the still more horrible sentence of
+exile to Siberia, or perhaps a merciful deliverance through death on the
+weary march thither?
+
+The very air of the gay city breathes disaffection and suspicion, while
+upon the brightest countenance, beneath the merriest jest and laugh, one
+reads the fleeting look of terror, or hears the echo of strained
+anxiety.
+
+It was of Venice that Lord Byron wrote his famous line:
+
+    "A palace and a prison on each hand."
+
+And yet, surely, it may well be typical of great Petersburg, where
+fair, and grand, and imperial rises the Winter Palace, guarded night and
+day by ranks of soldiers and police, within which reign luxury, power,
+and wealth, though stalked by the grim shadows of treachery, deception,
+Nihilism; while hard by, the frowning bastions of Peter and Paul tell of
+the first Peter's cruel tyranny, as of the latter-day hand of iron
+despotism and oppression; within whose death-encircling walls languish
+many of Russia's proudest sons and daughters, who, grown hopeless from
+long and fruitless waiting for deliverance, have become
+
+            "... Bowed and bent,
+    Wax gray, and ghostly, withering ere their time."
+
+Thus does history but repeat itself, and the story of _Ivan Ivanowich_
+is rehearsed again and again, only the actors changing, not the drama,
+or the _mise-en-scène_.
+
+On one bright and beautiful morning in January, when all the fashionable
+world of the famous capital were out and abroad, and to all outward
+seeming "youth was at the prow, pleasure at the helm" of the day's
+amusements, a group of some half-dozen men were gathered together in a
+small inner apartment of the building known as the Imperial
+Chancellerie. Of these, some were in the police uniform of the Tsar, the
+others in plain morning dress, in one case enhanced by a great-coat
+lined with almost priceless sables. Conversation, which had been carried
+on in low tones, languished somewhat, and the only sounds that broke the
+increasing silence, were the scratching of a quill-pen over rough paper,
+or the fall of a coal from time to time from the open fireplace. It was
+the owner of the fur-lined great-coat who was writing, and as he sat
+busy and preoccupied, the clear, searching sunlight fell full upon him,
+and revealed a face of more than usual distinction. The brow was broad
+at the temples, growing narrow as it reached the hair that fell heavily
+across it, and which was well streaked with grey; the eyes were
+intensely black, deep set in cavernous sockets, out of which they
+flashed and glowed like smouldering fires; the cheeks were thin, the
+complexion olive; a slight, short beard and moustache accentuated the
+pointed chin and firm, thin lips; the hand that guided the pen was
+slender, nervous, long-fingered, and capable.
+
+In a word, the man writing in the inner sanctum of the Petersburg
+Chancellerie, and the man paying his _devoirs_ to Patricia Hildreth, and
+conversing amicably with Mr. Tremain, are one and the same, Count
+Vladimir Mellikoff. It was easy to see that he was the ruling spirit of
+the group assembled, each one of whom treated him with deference and
+respect.
+
+The quill-pen continued its noisy progress over the official paper for
+some moments, and the silence grew so intense that the tinkling of the
+sleigh-bells and the echoed laughter of the occupants of the droschkies
+as they flew past could be distinctly heard, despite the heavy double
+casements. At length the door opened and another person entered, at
+sight of whom the assembled men fell into attitudes of anxious respect,
+even Count Mellikoff rising from the table and bowing deferentially to
+him.
+
+The new-comer was a tall and handsome man, with a stern, uncompromising
+face, and of alert and dictatorial manner. He was dressed in morning
+attire, and wore on his coat more than one ribbon of merit or
+distinction. He advanced rapidly, bowing comprehensively, and took the
+chair offered him by Count Mellikoff, from which the latter had just
+arisen, with a courteous word and gesture.
+
+This personage, for he well deserves the grander designation, was Paul
+Patouchki, a naturalised Russian, who owned Poland as his mother, yet
+yielded his allegiance to the Tsar; he was the head and chief in
+Petersburg of that secret section of the Chancellerie whose work it was
+to keep strict watch and ward over the Imperial subjects, who, from
+business or pleasure, elected to live without the Tsar's boundaries.
+Patouchki was trusted implicitly by his superiors, whom, indeed, he had
+often served at the risk of his life, and by them, the Emperor of all
+the Russias not excepted, he was entrusted with the organisation and
+development of the most delicate missions; for by no harsher word were
+the despotic actions and orders of the Chancellerie ever designated.
+
+Patouchki seated himself and drew towards him a heavily brass-bound
+despatch-box, and unlocking it with a key suspended from his
+watch-chain, took from it his morning's correspondence; this he
+scrutinised rapidly, sorting out the more important papers, and pushing
+the largest number towards a fair, boyish-looking young man, who had
+entered with him, with a muttered, "For you, Ivor," and then opening and
+reading with quick and comprehensive eyes the few special
+communications he had reserved for his own perusal.
+
+Indeed, every movement and action of this remarkable man bespoke a
+character of keen perceptions, unbending will, inflexible opinions, and
+quick deductions. As he finished his letters he folded them neatly and
+laid them down with nice precision, in due regularity of sequence of
+importance; this done, he leant back and looked up at the men who stood
+somewhat back from him in the same respectful attitudes. This slight
+movement was evidently a signal well known, for each one of the group
+now advanced in turn and laid before Patouchki their reports, which were
+in the form of sealed documents; then falling back again, waited for the
+chief to speak.
+
+When he did so, his voice was harsh and crisp, the words fell from his
+lips with the precision of bullets from a repeating revolver, and it was
+noticeable that, whatever the bearing or meaning of his instructions,
+his countenance and expression never changed or softened; that hard,
+imperious, unsympathetic human mask was never known to show emotion of
+any kind.
+
+"Count Vladimir," he said, addressing the most distinguished of the
+group, after himself, "I have read and considered your report of the
+work done by you in western France, which, I am requested by his
+Excellency to say, does you infinite credit; it has been decided by the
+secret committee of the Chancellerie to give into your hands a somewhat
+delicate mission. What say you, sir, to an expedition into the heart of
+Africa?"
+
+"His Excellency knows he has but to command me at all times, and in any
+mission," replied Count Mellikoff, his musical voice sounding in marked
+contrast to the other's harsh tones; "my life is at the service of our
+father the Tsar."
+
+"Well said," replied Patouchki, shortly; then, turning towards the
+others, he continued: "Gentlemen, we will dispense with your presence;
+we wish you good morning, sirs."
+
+The salutation was a command, and so understood by those to whom it was
+addressed; they responded to it by bowing and withdrawing in silence;
+all but Ivor, who, as the chief's private secretary, was a privileged
+person.
+
+As the door closed on the last departing agent, Patouchki turned
+somewhat hastily towards Count Mellikoff, and bade him be seated. Ivor
+Tolskoi's fair head was bent in studious attention over his official
+papers, and the chief had learned by experience that Ivor, despite his
+boyish face and girlish complexion, was both deaf, dumb, and blind when
+it behoved him to be so in the service of his master, even as his soft
+dimpled hand could, when occasion required, sheath itself in a gauntlet
+of iron, and deal a giant's blow.
+
+"Vladimir Mellikoff," said the chief, dropping the more ceremonious
+title, "we have tried your metal often, and know of what true steel it
+is fashioned; but the mission I am now desired to commit to your skill
+and judgment is one requiring even more _finesse_, delicacy, and
+determination than any that have gone before. Let me put well before you
+its hazards and unpleasant features, that you may withdraw your
+acquiescence, if you so desire."
+
+Count Mellikoff, whose mobile face had responded by varying expressions
+to Patouchki's warning, now flushed suddenly, and as suddenly paled
+again; he leant forward impetuously, and spoke rapidly, the nervous
+fingers of his right hand moving restlessly as he did so.
+
+"In what have I failed, chief, that you should think such words
+necessary?"
+
+"In nothing, Vladimir Mellikoff," replied the other, coldly and without
+change of expression or voice; "we have ever found you ready and willing
+and zealous in our service; indeed, but one reproach can be attributed
+to you, and that is more an attribute of temperament than a fault; _trop
+de zèle_, Vladimir, _trop de zèle_, has ruined more than one diplomat,
+and frustrated more than one mission."
+
+Count Vladimir drew back as if struck an unexpected blow; his eyes
+flashed for a moment intemperately, the lines about his mouth tightened;
+then the habitual and tutored reserve and control of long apprenticeship
+reasserted itself, and when he bowed in answer to the implied reproof,
+his face was as expressionless and cold as that of his monitor.
+Patouchki continued:
+
+"It goes without the saying that your mission will not take you into
+Africa, that was but a _pour-parler_; indeed, you must leave the East
+behind you and travel westward to the great continent of America; your
+work lies there, and if I mistake not, within the somewhat narrow limits
+of New York. You have read the minutes of the murder of Count Stevan
+Lallovich, and you know that our suspicions regarding the murderer all
+point to a woman, either as instigator or accomplice. _You_ must find
+that woman, Vladimir. Stop," raising his hand imperatively, "we ask no
+impossible _devoir_; you shall have every facility afforded you, and as
+the case now stands, you will want no deadlier weapons than tact,
+_finesse_, and delicacy, the surest tools with which to meet a woman,
+since they are essentially her own."
+
+"It is but a poor warfare, chief," replied the Count, a smile curving
+his lips in disdain.
+
+Patouchki frowned.
+
+"No warfare is poor or trivial, Count Vladimir, that sustains the safety
+of our father the Tsar, or that strengthens the hands of his Government.
+Women have proved ere now our most dangerous foes; they strike in the
+dark, and pay no regard to honourable codes. Since, then, we may not
+fight them openly, let us turn their own forces of cunning, artifice,
+and falsehood against them. He who would serve the interests of the
+Tsar must put aside all considerations of sex."
+
+Again Count Mellikoff bowed; and after a moment's silence the chief
+continued:
+
+"You know the incidents of the murder, Vladimir, no need to recapitulate
+them; you know Count Stevan's near kinship to the Tsar, and the
+consequent lesson that must be read to all miscreants who think to spill
+the Imperial blood of Russia and escape unpunished. You know also of the
+oath sworn by that wretched woman, when, by Imperial ukase, her marriage
+to Stevan Lallovich was pronounced void; you know her subsequent career,
+and the chain of circumstantial evidence that points to her as at least
+an accessory to the crime. We have reason to believe that she has
+escaped to America, and is living there in disguise; the chain has
+narrowed its links until we can confine ourselves to one state and one
+city of that great country--New York, or a narrow radius therefrom. But
+so far the Chancellerie has been unable to lay the finger of certainty
+upon her, so far she has eluded our absolute knowledge; and therefore it
+is to you we would depute the task of tracking her, dogging her, and
+bringing her personally within the power and jurisdiction of the
+Imperial Chancellerie. Are you willing to accept this work, Vladimir?
+Remember, we ask it in the service of the Tsar, to whose protection you
+have hitherto, with undeviating fidelity, sworn to be true, even at the
+cost of your life."
+
+Count Mellikoff, as Patouchki concluded, rose from his chair and walked
+quickly across the room to the window. As he did so, Ivor Tolskoi raised
+his fair head and youthful face, and looked after him. "Does he
+hesitate?" he said within himself. "By our Lady of Kazan, I wish the
+chance were but offered me. The chief should find me ready, and as
+adamant against the softest lures of the fairest woman of all her sex."
+Then he dropped his innocent blue eyes, and continued the monotonous
+pen-work on which he was engaged.
+
+Vladimir Mellikoff remained for several long moments beside the window,
+looking out with unseeing eyes upon the well-known scene before him;
+upon the gaily decorated sleighs and droschkies flying by; upon the
+frozen Neva, over whose glittering ice the skaters were deftly circling;
+upon the Austrian band playing before the Admiralty, their light-blue
+uniforms seeming like a bit of the sky above, fallen to earth; upon the
+huge Imperial Winter Palace, whose innumerable windows glanced like
+jewels in the crisp cold sunlight; upon the officers and sentinels
+relieving guard at its gates; upon the throng of brightly attired
+pedestrians coming and going, up and down the broad streets, in quick
+succession; he knew it all so well, had been part of it for so many
+years. Was not this very scene photographed upon his brain's camera,
+with all the high lights accentuated, and all the shadows deepened? Who
+shall say what wave of memory swept over him, as he stood there gazing
+down, seeing, yet not seeing the ever-changing panorama that since his
+boyhood had been dear to him; from the unique charm with which only
+youth and youth's memories can embellish the most ordinary scene?
+
+Did he hesitate, or draw back from this mission laid upon him; did his
+heart and soul shrink from hounding out a woman, whose wrongs and griefs
+had hurried her on to the perpetration of a crime, which even he felt to
+be but an outburst of that savage justice that reigns deep down in every
+human heart? Did he confess to himself that it was but coward's work to
+bring to bear upon this wretched fugitive all the political force of the
+Imperial Chancellerie, with himself at its head as its willing and
+revengeful agent?
+
+He knew well that if he undertook this mission he would carry it
+through to the very end, that was his nature; combining something of the
+sleuth-hound and the bulldog, he could track his prey indefatigably, and
+could fasten his cruel fangs upon it relentlessly when found. But was it
+worth his while, was the game noble enough; was not fighting a woman,
+with her own weapons, but poor sport for one who had won his spurs in
+signal service under far braver and more dangerous circumstances?
+
+As he stood thus, wavering within himself, a hoarse and mighty shout
+went echoing up to the blue vaulted sky; then came the clank of arms,
+the rattle of metal trappings, and a mounted guard swept into sight,
+their scarlet kaftans brilliant against the snow, the precursors of the
+Imperial equipage, in which, as it dashed past, Vladimir recognised the
+Tsar and Tsarina, enveloped though they were in robes and mantles of
+rarest furs. Behind them came another sleigh in which sat two ladies and
+an equerry; as they passed the Chancellerie, the lady nearest
+Vladimir's window lifted her face and turned it towards the grim walls;
+it was a pale and beautiful face, enhanced by the rich cap of sables
+that seemed to embrace lovingly the waves and masses of golden brown
+hair beneath it. As Count Vladimir caught sight of that proud, fair
+countenance, a sudden smile broke over it, called forth by some remark
+of her companion's, and melted all the pure still lines into the
+tenderest curves of youth.
+
+It was but an instant. Then the sleigh had passed by, and was already
+far down the Nevski Prospekte, while the shouts and cries of "Long live
+the Tsar! Long live the Little Father!" grew fainter and fainter as the
+crowd followed in the wake of the Imperial _cortège_.
+
+Count Vladimir started as from a reverie, and unconsciously drew up his
+tall figure proudly, while his face became haughty and resolved. Well he
+knew that fair, proud woman, and long had he served her as the most
+ardent and loving of her slaves. She had been a hard task-mistress, but
+he loved her, and to win her would gladly have sold his soul to the
+Prince of Darkness. She had given him some half-encouragement when last
+he urged his suit, and laughing half tenderly as she dismissed him, bade
+him bring her yet one more proof of his undeviating fidelity to the
+Tsar, augment by one more public expression his unqualified loyalty, add
+one more ribbon to those he already wore on State occasions, and
+then--why, then, she, Olga the beautiful, the Tsarina's favourite, most
+beloved and loving maid of honour, Olga the cold, the proud, the
+unbending, would consider his passionate pleadings, his long service,
+and perhaps reward it in the way he implored.
+
+"You must hesitate at nothing, Count Vladimir," she had ended, "if it is
+to serve our father the Tsar. Remember, it is in small actions, rather
+than in great ones, that we prove our loyalty. Nothing can be too
+trivial or too heroic if it be undertaken for him."
+
+And Vladimir had gone from her presence resolved to win her at any cost.
+Here then, lay his opportunity close to his hand. He turned abruptly
+from the window, and met Ivor Tolskoi's eager blue eyes with such an
+expression of determination and pride that that youth dropped his
+abashed, and felt his chances of superseding Count Mellikoff to be but
+vain and delusive hopes.
+
+"Your pardon, chief," said Vladimir, in a quiet voice, once more taking
+the chair facing Patouchki; "I have taken, perhaps, too much time to
+consider the flattering mission his Excellency would honour me with. My
+answer is, as it ever has been, and ever will be, that I am at the
+disposal of my gracious father the Tsar. My life is his, consequently
+what his Government elect for me to do, I can but consider as an
+Imperial command, and consecrate myself to its fulfilment. I am ready to
+leave Petersburg at a moment's notice."
+
+"It is well said, Vladimir," replied Patouchki, over whose composed
+features passed the faintest suspicion of relief. "My instructions are
+that you leave within the week; to-morrow your papers of detail will be
+given you. I need not remind so faithful a servant of the Tsar that
+secrecy, despatch, and caution should be your watchwords. Be discreet,
+Vladimir, and watchful. Remember how much depends upon our having this
+woman within our power; and remember, also, that in choosing you as
+their emissary, the secret committee have had particular regard to the
+exigencies of the case, and to the fact that you will have to deal with
+people of the upper classes, and through them work your way to the
+completion of the chain of evidence. Distrust every one, Vladimir; but,
+above all, distrust the ladies of the great world, they are our
+cleverest enemies, even as they are our best friends. Your letters of
+introduction and credit will be sent you in due course. And now,
+good-bye, Vladimir, for the present. You have carried good luck with you
+so far, may it not fail you now."
+
+A week later saw Count Vladimir Mellikoff on his way to Paris, _en
+route_ for the United States, and as he settled himself comfortably in
+the _salon coupé_ reserved for him in the _train de luxe_ going
+southward, it was with the memory of Olga's blue eyes looking kindly on
+him, and Olga's hand resting just a moment longer in his than was
+necessary for good-bye, and his heart was warm within him, and he smiled
+as he watched the outlines of magnificent Petersburg fading in the
+distance.
+
+His glance lingered longest on the glittering spire of Petropavlovsk, as
+it rose above the Neva, and when at last this was lost in the distance,
+he murmured, with a sigh upon his lips:
+
+"Fate is stronger than conscience. I go to make war upon a woman, with a
+woman's smile as my reward!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A COURT FAVOURITE.
+
+
+It was evening in the Winter Palace--evening of the day on which
+Vladimir Mellikoff had entered on the first stage of his new mission: to
+make war upon a woman.
+
+Within the Palace all was hushed and still; the servants passed to and
+fro with noiseless footsteps and that well-trained air of repose only
+attainable by long and constant effort. For once no official or social
+entertainment was on hand, and the Imperial Family were enjoying the
+novelty of a comparatively quiet evening--a novelty, whose rarity
+precluded any possibility of its charm waxing dim.
+
+The great State apartments, the Onyx Hall, and the _Salle des Palmiers_
+were empty, dark, and silent, hiding their wonderful treasures in the
+gloom and shadows: their priceless tables of malachite and lapis-lazuli;
+their jewel-encrusted frames to pictures rarer and more valuable than
+the gems that surrounded them. From out the dark corners started a
+thousand and one memories of bygone kings and dynasties--of that great
+and licentious Catherine II., to whose energy Petersburg owes so much,
+and the Winter Palace its existence; of Peter, also called the Great,
+who first raised his nation from out of its barbarism; of Napoleon, and
+his restless ambition; of Nicholas, who died broken-hearted when
+Sevastopol fell; of Alexander, the wise and beneficent, father of the
+Tsar who now occupies the Imperial throne, and who strove in vain to
+stem the current of mad republicanism that spread disaffection broadcast
+from the Baltic to the Caspian, and which gathering strength year by
+year and month by month, rolled on like some gigantic wave far out at
+sea, tossing high above the surrounding breakers, riding fearlessly to
+its doom, and breaking with devastating effect against the ill-protected
+breakwaters of monarchical institutions and traditions.
+
+When the Court was alone, so to speak, and free from the onerous duties
+of perfunctory ceremonial, the Tsarina--whose nature was as gentle and
+loving and peaceful as that of her sister, the beloved Princess of
+England's hopes--shunned the vast State chambers, and held her _petites
+réunions_ in a smaller suite of apartments, within which were gathered
+every luxury of modern civilisation, and where, when the heavy plush
+_portières_ were drawn, the great stoves emitting the heat of a furnace,
+and the logs piled high on the low fire-dogs, it was possible to forget
+the ice and snow without, even as in looking upon the various spoils and
+souvenirs of every clime and country, from the rich silks and perfumed
+woods of the Orient, to the more homely comforts of Great Britain, it
+was possible to forget that this was Petersburg, and become oblivious to
+those frowning walls and cruel dungeons, mocked by the names of the two
+Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul.
+
+Nevertheless, there they stood, grim, real, dauntless, and within them
+languished the poor "prisoners of hope," wrapped, at least let us pray,
+in that merciful and dreamless sleep, which the dark hours bring even to
+the most miserable.
+
+This favourite set of rooms of the Tsarina's opened one from another,
+each growing smaller until the last was reached, which was indeed a
+veritable nest of down for the fair Danish dove who had mated with the
+bold Russian eagle. Here the Empress received her most privileged
+guests, and permitted audiences that were of a peculiarly private or
+domestic order. Here, too, would come the Tsar, and throwing himself
+down into one of the low velvet ottomans, put from him his habitual air
+of reserve and anxiety, and enter with affectionate raillery into the
+spirit of the hour; or should such be his mood, at a sign all would
+withdraw, leaving him alone with the Empress, who at such times threw
+aside the conventionalities of a life hedged in by etiquette, and became
+only the loving, faithful wife, the intelligent companion, the cheerful
+counsellor and consoler.
+
+Much indeed might the walls of that blue chamber have revealed could
+they have spoken: secrets on which hung the fate of nations; decisions
+that were to make history; and confidences that wrung tears of blood
+from the stern Tsar, whose heart, like that of his father, loved his
+mighty empire, but who, unlike him, failed to inspire complete trust in
+his nation's heart.
+
+On these occasions, the larger room of all was given up to the use of
+the Court; and here gathered the different ladies and gentlemen attached
+to the _personnel_ of their Imperial Majesties; and here, too, were
+often admitted particular friends of the bedchamber ladies, the maids
+of honour, the equerries, and other official personages of the Court.
+The orders, however, for such entrance were somewhat difficult to
+obtain, and each person who entered was keenly watched by a member of
+the secret committee of the Chancellerie, whose function, unknown to any
+but himself, obtained for him the fullest opportunities of scrutiny.
+
+And in this incognito lay the power of the Chancellerie; for it might be
+the very individual to whom you spoke so confidingly; the friend, man or
+woman, on whose fidelity you relied implicitly, the young girl with the
+innocent face, the youth with the bold free carriage, the elderly
+courtier with venerable grey locks, or the _dame d'honneur_ of highest
+repute, who was the secret agent and in the secret pay of the
+Chancellerie, and who, at a given signal, would deliver you up to its
+iron laws, its fearless judgments, and cruel sentence.
+
+On this particular evening the outer _salon_ was well filled with
+guests, whose gay voices and subdued rippling laughter mingled with the
+strains of the Household band, and bespoke some hearts at least among
+the number as free from carking care. French was the language spoken,
+for Petersburg outvies even gay Lutetia itself in its undeviating
+worship of all things Parisian.
+
+Within an embrasure of one of the heavily-draped windows, the curtains
+of which had been pulled somewhat hastily apart, sat a youthful couple,
+who would in any assembly have stood boldly forth as being more
+beautiful and distinguished than is the usual type of humanity. Of
+these, one was a young man, the other a woman scarcely entering her
+second decade, but with so much of imperious grandeur and haughty pride
+of race about her that to call her by the less dignified title of girl
+or maiden would seem an impertinence.
+
+The young man was of more than ordinary proportions, tall and
+broad-shouldered, with a look of the innocence of childhood still
+clinging to the soft curves of his fair Northern face, that was revealed
+in his joyous azure-blue eyes, and reflected in the crisp golden curls
+which, despite the rigid cropping according to the last Paris mode, lay
+in tiny rings all over his round and well-shaped head. A close observer
+would perhaps have noted that his throat, though full and well
+developed, owned a straight and clean back line, denoting a lack of
+amative passion, and that the head and forehead were most developed
+where the phrenologists tell us to look for cruelty and perseverance.
+His hands were remarkably white, and kept in scrupulous order, even to
+the finely-rounded filbert nails that shone with the reflected sheen of
+a _polissoire_ and _poudre des ongles_. This was his only bit of
+cox-combry, however, and for the rest, it may be said, he had a hearty
+laugh, a merry jest, and a cheerful word for every one, and, while
+boasting more friends than any young patrician in Petersburg, yet
+admitted no one to a closer intimacy than that accorded by outward
+cordiality of manner.
+
+This was Ivor Tolskoi. We have seen him before, in the inner sanctum of
+the Chancellerie, when Vladimir Mellikoff accepted his mission; and Ivor
+cursed the fate that trembling in the balance, fell in the favour of the
+older and more experienced man, and thus shut him out from winning his
+first spurs in the service of his master.
+
+Ivor Tolskoi was, in many ways, an _enfant gâté_ of his world. He was an
+orphan, and very rich; a ward of the Tsar's, owning large estates in the
+wild Ural province, which he seldom visited, and serfs whose numbers he
+had never counted, who were free in name only, and whose sole use in the
+world was so to labour for him that his revenues year by year never
+failed, and never grew less. He owned no title, and he would have
+scorned the acceptance of any mere bauble of to-day's creation; he would
+have told you, with a toss of his golden head and a ringing laugh, that
+the Tolskois were lords of the soil and of human souls long centuries
+before Peter came to the Imperial throne, and raised his nation from out
+their barbaric indolence; and that while the imperious Tsar was learning
+ship-building at Deptford, his ancestor of that period was riding at
+large over his vast properties, hunting the wild boar and the wolf, the
+ermine and marten, across his own territory, whose boundaries not even
+he could define. It would ill become him, then, the last scion of his
+grand old race, to accept a tawdry title in place of his own simple
+name, Ivor Tolskoi, which each eldest son had born in succession for
+generation after generation, and before which the peasants upon his wide
+western property turned pale and trembled.
+
+His companion was his equal in feminine beauty, and there were many
+circumstances in the life of each strangely similar, which served to
+draw them closer together, and more intimately than is usually the case
+in a country and a Court where etiquette governs rather than affinity.
+
+The face of the young woman who leant back negligently against the pile
+of velvet cushions Ivor had placed for her, was strangely beautiful,
+with the weird, almost unholy beauty of an enchantress of old; such
+beauty as Faustine wore, or Cleopatra, or Messalina, which enslaves the
+senses at once, without leaving any loophole for calm reason. She too
+was tall and grand of build, though slight, as became her
+three-and-twenty years; her shoulders bore the curves of the Milo Venus;
+her neck and bosom fell in the round charming lines of maidenhood; her
+head rose proudly from the short classic pillar of her throat, and was
+carried with an almost royal grace; the sweep from chin to ear was
+perfect in its fine symmetry; the low arched forehead bespoke more than
+ordinary intelligence; beneath it her eyes, set wide apart and wearing a
+look of innocent fearlessness, were of the deepest shade of violet, to
+which the black lashes and pencilled brows gave the piquancy of
+unexpectedness, for her hair, which was rolled high in heavy masses and
+fastened with a jewelled arrow, was brown in colour, shot through with a
+thousand lights of golden auburn; her complexion was pale but warm, and
+the small perfectly modelled bow of her mouth was tinged with vivid
+crimson, adding the perfecting note to her ideal countenance.
+
+In manner she was cold, proud, repellent, though beneath the outward ice
+ran a fire of passion that once let loose would sweep away all barriers
+of conventionality, and stop at nothing to accomplish its desires.
+
+Like Ivor, she was an orphan, and like him untitled, but there ran
+within her veins a strain of the great Catherine's blood, transmuted to
+her from an ancestor who could boast of Imperial favours, and of this
+bar sinister in the past Olga--for she it was--was prouder than of any
+patent of a lesser nobility. It may be that, generations intervening
+notwithstanding, this last fair representative of her race possessed
+some traits and characteristics of her Imperial ancestress, for like
+her, she was both strong and weak, impetuous and calculating, passionate
+and mercenary, forgiving and tyrannical; and was indeed a pure specimen
+of the Russian type, in which are so strongly and so dispassionately
+blended the master passions of cruelty and remorse.
+
+Olga Naundorff had known no home save that of the Court, for though she
+inherited a fair property from her father, it was situated many long
+miles from Petersburg, on the southern frontier amidst the trackless
+wastes of the steppes, where for nine months continual snow reigned, and
+where the long dreariness of winter was fraught with the terror of
+isolation and dull monotony.
+
+Olga remembered but little of this far-away home, and shunned such
+memories whenever they came to her, with an instinctive shrinking from
+the unknown and undesirable.
+
+Her father, who had been a brave and gallant officer, who had served his
+country on many a battle-field, and loved his Tsar, the Alexander of
+good deeds, with a strong and fervent love, which nothing, not even the
+claims of his little daughter, could outweigh, and who was trusted and
+loved in return by his Emperor, brought the little motherless Olga, when
+but a child of ten, to Gatschina, presented her to the Tsar, demanding
+an asylum for the pretty child, whose mother was dead, and whose
+fearlessness and beauty made her the more open to an untoward fate.
+
+The great Alexander was pleased to gratify his faithful friend and
+servant, and was also captivated by the tiny maid's rare loveliness; and
+so it came about that General Naundorff's desire was granted, and his
+little Olga became the pet and plaything of the Imperial Court. There
+she grew from girlhood to maidenhood, and, as her beauty developed more
+and more, and her intelligence expanded, she became a special favourite
+with the Tsar, to whose private apartments she had free access, and from
+whom she gained by her pretty imperious pleading, many a coveted favour
+for some loyal subject of his Majesty.
+
+The news came of her father's death, but it made little difference to
+Olga; she had scarcely known him, she could not be expected to weep for
+one she did not love. Her first real sorrow fell upon her when by the
+hand of an assassin, the kind and gracious Alexander II. passed from
+life to death. Her grief was inconsolable then; she wept for days and
+nights, and mourned him with a deep abiding sorrow, that fostered and
+strengthened her hate and abhorrence of those who, while calling
+themselves Russians and patriots, planned secretly, and in the dark, for
+the overthrow of the Imperial throne.
+
+She was grown a woman then, and a rarely beautiful one, with her fair
+proud face with its touch of royal scorn, and her free, upright,
+graceful form. It was at this time that Vladimir Mellikoff first saw
+her, and claiming distant cousinship, proceeded straightway to fall in
+love with her and worship her; a worship she accepted as a right, but a
+love which she only tolerated with indifference.
+
+When the new Tsarina formed her personal Court, she named Olga as maid
+of honour, and when first the young girl entered on her duties, received
+her with such winning sweetness and graciousness, as to subdue utterly
+the proud heart, and cause it to transfer to the young and still lovely
+woman all its treasure of intense veneration, affection, and allegiance
+which it had held for the beloved Alexander.
+
+Count Mellikoff, meantime, succeeded but poorly in his suit; Olga was
+neither touched nor won by his persistency; she accepted his homage and
+his passionate devotion with her superb Imperial grace, but granted him
+nothing in return, save perhaps when she saw him wavering and uncertain,
+torn between his love and his self-respect, then she would bestow on him
+a smile of dazzling softness, or let her slim firm fingers rest a moment
+within his, or murmur some half inaudible word of praise or protest,
+when he would be again at her feet, her slave, her adorer, her
+passionate lover.
+
+He had spoken out his love at last, and urged his claims upon her so
+vehemently and with such emotional force, as to rouse her even from her
+habitual indifference, and to call forth that half promise, on account
+of which Vladimir had started on his new mission with such an exulting
+heart and such visions of glorified future bliss.
+
+There was one _habitué_ of the Court, however, whom Olga often favoured
+with her rare smiles, and in whose company she always appeared frankly
+content; this was Ivor Tolskoi, in whose fair good looks she took honest
+pride, and for whom she laid aside something of her haughty, imperious
+manner. Indeed, Ivor was so bright and joyous, such an incarnation of
+the brilliant sparkling cold sun of Petersburg, which exhilarates but
+does not warm, it was impossible not to like him, and not to melt under
+the cool fire of his blue eyes, and the fine if cruel smile of his lips;
+only Olga failed to see the coldness or the cruelty.
+
+She fancied she knew Ivor Tolskoi's life from Alpha to Omega, that there
+was not a page of his daily existence that was not open to her
+inspection, and yet she in reality knew nothing; not even his daily
+avocations, beyond the light ones imposed upon him by Court regulations,
+and never dreamed that he was one of the most vigilant and most active
+members in the secret service of the Chancellerie. Indeed, Ivor
+Tolskoi's boyish face and youthful laugh seemed incompatible with
+intrigue and surveillance; and Ivor knew this, and took good care to
+play both his rôles with diplomatic _finesse_ and success.
+
+"And so, Ivor," Olga was saying in her clear, cold voice, "you really
+believe that that wretched woman of the _bourgeoisie_ had a hand in the
+murder of poor Stevan Lallovich? Upon my word, to what heights will the
+_canaille_ next aspire, if even a Prince of Russia is not safe from the
+stab of a knife in the hand of a red republican? Do you think she
+murdered him, Ivor?"
+
+"Ah," replied Tolskoi, "you put a blunt question, Mdlle. Naundorff," for
+though Olga addressed him with the familiarity of a sister, Ivor never
+so far forgot himself as to reply in like manner. "How dare one express
+any opinion on any subject in these days of treachery, since the very
+walls have ears and the very doors speak? And even should you press me,
+mademoiselle, I could not answer; I never have any opinion on any
+subject more important than a ball cotillon; _c'est trop de peine_." And
+Ivor threw back his head and laughed, his full and hearty peal, at
+sound of which several of the other guests of the _salon_ stopped their
+idle occupations and laughed in sympathy. But Olga frowned and beat her
+pointed slipper impatiently against the foot-stool on which it rested.
+
+"Don't be silly, Ivor," she said; "and don't laugh so loud, you will
+have old Madame Bettcheriski down upon us for breach of etiquette. When
+will you cease to be such a boy?"
+
+"When I cease to sun myself in your smiles, mademoiselle," replied the
+young man, gallantly, and with a half-mocking bow. "When that unhappy
+day dawns for me I shall take leave of my youth for ever, and seeing it
+fall from me, grow as 'grave and reverend a signior' as Count Vladimir
+himself."
+
+To this allusion to her absent lover, Olga made no rejoinder save by a
+scarcely perceptible upward movement of her head. She waited a moment
+before she spoke again, and in the silence that fell between them,
+there floated across the room the conclusion of a sentence, spoken in a
+musical though rather high-pitched voice:
+
+"It is true, nevertheless. She may not care for him, but when he returns
+to Court our proud and haughty favourite will be prepared to bestow her
+hand upon him."
+
+Then the speaker's voice faded away into space, and Olga looking up
+found Ivor's eyes fixed upon her with a strange and unwonted fierceness
+in their blue depths. Her own fell beneath his glance, and she felt with
+annoyance the blood rise in her face, and spread its crimson over her
+pale cheeks.
+
+She was angry at this school-girl exhibition, and drew herself upright
+into a more dignified attitude, folding her hands on her knees, and
+looking up boldly into Ivor's face; as she did so the colour faded as
+quickly as it had come, leaving her paler than before. Tolskoi continued
+to gaze at her intently; he bent forward a little, bringing his golden
+head nearer her dark one, and said, in a voice quite different from his
+usual gay _insouciant_ tones:
+
+"It is my turn to ask a question. Is this true, mademoiselle?"
+
+"Is what true?" replied Olga, under her breath, half fascinated by the
+face and eyes looking down so close upon her; a face that bore the
+familiar lineaments of Ivor, but with an expression she had never seen
+there before, and which made this very familiarity seem strange and
+repellent.
+
+"Is it true," repeated Ivor, in the same low voice, "that when Count
+Vladimir Mellikoff returns--if he returns--Mademoiselle Naundorff will
+bestow upon him the honour of her hand? Is it true? For that is the
+reading between the lines, is it not? Our Court recognises but one proud
+favourite, mademoiselle, and who should know her name so well as you? At
+present she lacks but one courtier in her train, Count Vladimir. You see
+the riddle is not difficult of solution; but is it true--Olga?"
+
+It was the first time he had ever called her by her name, and
+Mademoiselle Naundorff winced perceptibly as she heard it fall from his
+lips, in the low suppressed tones of his voice. She started, and threw
+back her head with her favourite gesture, as if she would throw off the
+burden of the hour, and free herself from its restrictions.
+
+"Have you a right to ask, Ivor?" she answered, coldly. "How can you be
+so foolish as to heed a bit of incomplete gossip, blown to us from the
+lips of Countess Vera, light as feather-down, and without beginning or
+end, as are most of the Countess's scandals?"
+
+"You may laugh at me if it pleases you," replied the young man,
+brusquely; "but I will have my answer. Is it true?"
+
+"_Will_ have--and to me!" cried out Mademoiselle Naundorff, hasty anger
+in her voice, then laughing a little. "You deserve to be punished for
+your temerity. What--since you will have it so, Ivor--what if to oblige
+you I admit that perhaps when Count Mellikoff returns, if I see my way
+to it, and am not too _bornée_ or fatigued, I may--what is the happy
+phrase?--bestow my hand upon him. There, you have your answer, sir."
+
+She leant back again against the cushions, and scrutinised him through
+her half-closed eyelids. Ivor's face was white with passion; his blue
+eyes seemed made of steel, so hard and brilliant was their lustre. He
+did not move from his position, or take his gaze from her face, and when
+he spoke it was with no outburst of anger or eloquence, but in the same
+repressed low voice.
+
+"Then I warn you, Olga, let him take heed, for you shall never give to
+him what I know you would refuse to me. Should he dare to boast of you
+as won by him, I will make him eat his own words, even though it be with
+a knife of steel."
+
+Olga shuddered involuntarily, but controlling herself quickly, said
+quietly, with a little laugh: "You speak at random, my poor Ivor; what
+wish of yours have I disregarded, or what request left unfulfilled? Is
+there anything more I can do for you?"
+
+But Tolskoi was not to be put off with light words or meaningless
+phrases; his face did not relax, nor a softer expression come to his
+eyes, at her bantering words, though he spoke somewhat less harshly.
+
+"Yes, you can give me one thing more; you can give me your promise never
+to marry Vladimir Mellikoff without my consent. Will you promise me
+this, Olga?"
+
+Mdlle. Naundorff was now, however, thoroughly roused; she sprang to her
+feet and drew up her tall figure to its full height, while the proud
+lines of her face became prouder and more imperious, and her voice
+vibrated with suppressed anger, though her tones fell calm and cold.
+
+"Certainly not, Monsieur Tolskoi; you presume too far on good
+fellowship. I make no promise to you, or any one, that shall control my
+free actions; what you ask is preposterous, Ivor, preposterous."
+
+"Then I will kill him," said Tolskoi, quite calmly, and without any
+extraordinary vehemence in his voice or manner; "I will kill him."
+
+And as Olga drew back, startled at his unexpected reply, he bent forward
+and caught her hand in his.
+
+"Remember what I say, Olga; if he presumes to think that he has won you,
+or dares to say so, or if I learn in any way that you are his promised
+wife, I will kill him. He shall not possess what I would give my life to
+gain, and what you know would be refused me."
+
+Then he dropped her hand, and before Olga could recover from her
+surprise, had passed down the long _salon_, and through the open
+_portières_ into the great corridor that led to the palace court-yard.
+
+Olga remained for some moments dazed and astonished, trying in vain to
+reconcile the Ivor of the past with the Ivor of the moment, wondering
+vaguely at his strange words and altered aspect. She had known for some
+months that he made no secret of his devotion to her, but he had always
+urged his admiration upon her in such a happy half-bantering fashion,
+she only regarded it as a boy's ardour, nor took him more seriously than
+his youthful face and careless manner demanded.
+
+He had, indeed, once hinted at a deeper feeling, but she had laughed and
+told him not to burn his fingers with fire, and he, after a moment's
+annoyance, had laughed with her, and returned to his old openly
+expressed adoration.
+
+But now, within this last half-hour, she had seen below the surface of
+that gay exterior, and she drew back half alarmed, half fascinated at
+what she beheld there. And although she had had her eyes opened to the
+other side of Ivor's nature, she had ruled and controlled men too long,
+seen them become her willing and abject slaves at a mere smile or word
+too often, to give much weight to Tolskoi's threat; it amused her
+rather than terrified her.
+
+"Poor Ivor," she mused; "how very melodramatic, and how youthful! I must
+get you into better training, Ivor, or we shall have you really
+committing some foolish escapade, and mixing my name up in it, in a way
+I should not care for."
+
+Then she turned from the window, and as she did so came her summons to
+the Empress, and hastening to obey the command she forgot Ivor entirely,
+or remembered him only to say half vexedly: "After all he told me
+nothing about Count Stevan's murder. Oh, tiresome Ivor!" And thus she
+dismissed him, and all other annoying subjects, with but scant
+courtesy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A WOMAN SCORNED.
+
+
+When Count Vladimir Mellikoff drew back the _portières_ that shrouded
+the doors of the large drawing-room at the Folly, he came face to face
+with Miss Rosalie James, and for a full moment these two gazed at each
+other in a silence that might have been born either of unexpectedness,
+or preconcerted arrangement.
+
+Count Mellikoff never allowed ordinary emotions to be visible in his
+face; he had that absolute control of feature and muscle which only long
+training and an inflexible will can effect. It is seldom one comes
+across such a countenance, over which no appreciable change ever
+passes, and upon which the passions leave no reflex, not even the
+slightest shadow, such as troubles a pool when a cloud passes overhead,
+that is gone even as one watches its approach. Such a countenance
+betokens one of two temperaments: a nature too weak and vacuous to feel
+or comprehend any master passion, and which from very inanition becomes
+irresponsive, or one so strong and so intense as to fear its own
+capabilities, and therefore strives to conceal all outward expression,
+lest its lightest emotion might exhibit something more than the usual
+conventionalities.
+
+Of the latter type was Vladimir Mellikoff. From his boyhood he had
+taught himself the value of repression, and in it had found his greatest
+power. He had learned to so utterly subdue all outward expression of the
+passion that at the moment might be consuming him, as to remain
+absolutely passive under the most trying circumstances, and so to
+control his every feature, that not one muscle, not so much as the
+trembling of his lips or the lifting of his eyebrows, ever betrayed him,
+when it was his will that they should not.
+
+And yet, perhaps, the greatest charm that he possessed was the sudden
+and unexpected brilliancy or softness which he at times allowed his
+countenance to assume; then all the harsh, decisive lines faded from
+about his mouth and eyes, the stern rigidity of chin and brow relaxed,
+the gravity of the dark eyes, in their deep settings, grew tender, and
+the expression of melancholy harshness melted beneath the sweetness of
+his smile.
+
+Olga Naundorff, who knew him so well, had seen this change in him more
+often than any one, yet even to her it was always new and startling, and
+filled her with a certain feeling of amazement, not unmixed with pity.
+For to Olga, the beautiful, as to her Imperial ancestress, men and men's
+passions were but playthings of the hour, and should, like all
+mechanical toys, be perfectly regulated by ingenious clockwork,
+warranted never to get out of order, and never to carry their cleverness
+beyond certain boundaries. If any one of her puppets over-stepped these,
+and showed signs of unconventional or barbaric passion, she lifted her
+dark brows in astonishment, raised her proud head a trifle more
+haughtily, and with superb disdain reduced the poor bungler to his
+proper state of imbecility, and then passed him by ever after with an
+intensity of quiet scorn, that killed by slow but sure degrees.
+
+To her mind all passion was vulgar, and to be vulgar was to write one's
+self down a fool; fools had no place in her world. They might be of use
+in some other part of the globe, that was not her affair; to her they
+were bores, and bores, as we all know, are obnoxious pests; away with
+them, let them be anathema. Life is too short to expend any portion of
+it on emotions that ruin the digestion and spoil the most perfect
+complexion.
+
+For one entire moment Miss James and Count Vladimir looked full in one
+another's faces, and in that moment each pair of dark eyes read
+something in the other that caused them both to sink simultaneously,
+while over the girl's cheeks a faint dull red rose and faded.
+
+The half smile, mocking yet satisfied, that had come to Count
+Mellikoff's lips as he picked up the bit of lace and muslin from beside
+Patricia's chair, still lingered, and now it deepened somewhat, as with
+a bow he stepped back, holding aside the heavy draperies, and by an
+almost imperceptible gesture commanded Miss James to enter. She obeyed
+him, and as the thick plush curtains fell behind her with a dull rustle,
+they seemed to her excited fancy to shut her out for ever from the
+gaiety and freedom of the life she had quitted only a moment ago, even
+as they shut her within the deserted drawing-room, with Vladimir
+Mellikoff as her only companion.
+
+She laughed nervously and put her hand up to her throat as she did so,
+trying in vain to shake off the absurd superstitious feeling that was
+creeping over her, and that seemed to enfold all her senses and render
+her acquiescent and obedient to the will of this tall dark man, who
+stood before her, and whose distinguished face, with its burning eyes
+and compressed lips, fascinated her, as the serpent fascinates the dove.
+She could even think of this simile, and in her heart laugh at it, but
+she could not shake off, or overcome the fact of his mesmeric influence
+upon her.
+
+Count Mellikoff drew a low _causeuse_ towards her, and with grave
+politeness begged her to be seated. She sank down upon it with passive
+obedience, and folding her hands on her knees looked up at him; she held
+a _marquise_ fan of ostrich plumes, these trembled somewhat; it was the
+only sign of emotion that escaped her.
+
+Vladimir turned from her and walked the length of the drawing-room,
+standing for a moment at the entrance to the conservatory, where lived
+the golden-hued Maréchal Niel roses; their pungent yet faint perfume
+permeating the atmosphere, while their heavy heads drooped with the
+burden of their own loveliness, half hidden in the tender green of their
+leaves.
+
+As he walked away from her, Rosalie roused herself from the strange
+lethargy that had subdued her; she threw back her head, her breath came
+quickly, a flush crept up and stained the olive pallor of her cheeks;
+she opened her hands, throwing them out with an impatient gesture, and
+the _marquise_ fan fell noiselessly at her feet, the waving feathers
+making a light breeze as they fluttered down that touched her face and
+lifted the laces of her low corsage.
+
+The over-strained tension of her nerves gave way; she could have cried
+for very relief and joy as she felt the spell of his presence failing at
+the return of her powerful will. She watched him eagerly and saw him
+enter the rose house; as his dark figure vanished in the interior gloom
+she jumped up quickly, threw up her arms, and drew a long deep breath;
+took a step or two forward, and noticing the fallen fan stooped to pick
+it up, then turned to leave the room by a side entrance. As she did so
+Vladimir Mellikoff stood before her, holding a golden-hued rose between
+his fingers.
+
+She started back, she was almost terrified by his sudden reappearance;
+she had not heard his approach, his footsteps were noiseless on the
+heavy carpet; she imagined him safe in the alleys of the conservatory,
+and her escape from him but the effort of a moment. She had but stooped
+to recover her fan, and lo, there he stood, tall and commanding and
+smiling, before her. She gazed at him questioningly, and again, as her
+glance met his inscrutable dark eyes, she recalled the old fable of the
+serpent and the dove. She sank down upon the _causeuse_ trembling.
+
+"Mademoiselle," Count Vladimir's courteous, cool tones were saying,
+"will you honour me by the acceptance of this rose? The royal flower,
+_par excellence_, over all other flowers, as one of your own English
+writers, John Ruskin, says. If I may be permitted to suggest so bold an
+idea, it will enhance, and be enhanced, by a place in your corsage."
+
+He held out the flower, smiling as he did so, and she took it
+mechanically, and fastened it amidst the black laces that draped her
+shoulders and bosom; it dropped its golden head lovingly upon them,
+while its perfume rose and fell with the pulsations of her heart.
+
+Vladimir drew a chair opposite to her and sat down, leaning forward with
+his elbows on his knees, and his keen eyes noting each fluctuating
+expression of her face, each flutter of the laces above her unquiet
+breast, each nervous movement of her hands in their long, loose Suède
+coverings. He had a dangerous game to play, and upon his success or
+defeat depended his winning or losing Olga. As her name crossed his
+mind, though not spoken by his lips, he was shaken by a sudden passion
+of love and desire; he recalled her proud, pale beauty, the blue of her
+eyes, "blue as the violets of his own Novgorod," the golden sheen of her
+hair, her lissom figure, and her cold haughty smile.
+
+He _would_ win her, or he would die; and what mattered any other woman's
+life if he could but appear worthy in her eyes? What had the chief said?
+"You must use a woman's weapons--_finesse_, deceit, distrust--when you
+make war upon a woman." Well, and so he would; it should go hard with
+him if he could not fit himself out in a woman's armour, and not reveal
+where the breast-plate failed to meet, or the helmet bound his forehead
+too tightly. One must put up with such little inconveniences when one
+adapts oneself to the warfare of the weaker sex.
+
+"Above all, distrust the women of the great world, they are our
+cleverest enemies;" that had been another of Patouchki's axioms; and he
+did distrust this pale, dark-eyed, slight American girl with every fibre
+of his mind, and read her through and through; her shallow cleverness,
+her dwarfed ambitions, her stunted love, that was not so much love as a
+mixture of baffled pride and jealousy, and desire of conquest. She could
+be useful to him; he had decided that within the dinner-hour, when he
+caught her suspicious glances, cast first at Philip Tremain, as he sat
+on Mrs. Newbold's left, and then at Miss Hildreth, who, radiant and
+handsome, was eating olives, and mystifying George Newbold, on whose
+right hand she was placed. He had read Miss James's secret then and
+there, and resolved that it should be useful to him, and that she should
+be the tool in his master-hand wherewith to work.
+
+Rosalie in due course had been presented to him, and she had not failed
+to notice and feel flattered by his attentions to her. She was smarting
+under Mr. Tremain's too apparent indifference, and Patricia's too
+evident power. She longed to strike both the one and the other, to tear
+off the masks from their serenely smiling faces, and hold them up to the
+scorn and derision of their world.
+
+"I hate them both," she murmured between her teeth. "I hate him because
+he loves her still, and I hate her because she is so beautiful and so
+victorious. I know there is some secret well hidden behind that lovely
+face, and oh, what would I not give to find it out and reveal it!"
+
+It was at this moment that George Newbold's lazy voice interrupted her
+thoughts, and looking up she saw him leaning towards her with the
+distinguished appearing foreigner beside him. Mr. Newbold mumbled out
+two names and left them, and Rosalie glancing up again met the Count's
+steady dark eyes fixed upon her, and knew with sudden certainty that he
+had read her face only too well; how much more that lay beneath the
+surface of her outward seeming not even she could tell!
+
+They stood quite silent for several moments, and during that time she
+felt imperceptibly at first, and then more and more certainly, his
+influence and power growing upon her; she acknowledged the intensity of
+his glance without daring to meet it, and could have cried for rage at
+her own inability to throw off the fascination he exercised over her.
+When he spoke it was upon a commonplace topic, and she drew a sigh of
+relief when, after a brief conversation, he bowed and left her, even
+though conscious of a vague regret that he should go from her.
+
+During the evening she had many times felt his eyes seek her out and
+rest for a moment on her face, and at each such occurrence the blood had
+rushed to her cheeks, and she had trembled, though not with cold. He had
+stood a long time talking with Mr. Tremain, and she had watched them
+with a half-formed anticipation of some coming and unexpected
+catastrophe, and then, when she turned and sought to leave the room, she
+heard a quiet voice say, "Permit me," the door was opened for her, and
+as she expressed her thanks Count Vladimir bowed, and returned to his
+place beside Philip. And now they were once more together and alone, and
+she was again conscious of an ever-increasing apprehension; the
+prescience of some coming evil in which they were both to bear a part,
+and yet which she was powerless to avert.
+
+"Mademoiselle," said Count Vladimir, bending a little more forward and
+looking up at her from under his dark brows, "I am about to do something
+which under ordinary circumstances and with an ordinary audience would
+be considered not only indiscreet but unconventional. If I misjudge my
+opportunity and my audience and offend you by putting you outside the
+pale of weak worshippers of conventional cult, pray say so at once, and
+I will humbly beg your pardon and withdraw."
+
+For answer she drew her fingers once or twice across the feathers of her
+fan, and let her eyes travel slowly up from that pretty toy to his face,
+taking in as they did so the smallest detail of his appearance, from the
+thin long-fingered hands, that hung down so quietly between his knees,
+the dead gold of the one ring he wore with its blazing ruby, to the tiny
+red rosette of an officer of the Legion of Honour that decorated his
+correct evening costume. As she raised her eyes still higher they met
+his, and for an infinitesimal space of time held hers captive; then she
+dropped them again, and sinking back against the cushions of her chair,
+raised the feather fan until it rested against her lips. Her voice was
+quiet when she replied, though a fine ear might have caught a suspicion
+of fear in it:
+
+"You flatter me, Count Mellikoff; to be considered above one's world in
+virtue or in vice is always a distinction, if not always an honour.
+Pray in what indiscretion can I be of help to you?"
+
+"I will tell you frankly, mademoiselle, that I am visiting this country
+for two purposes and in two characters. It has struck me that as one
+part of my work is that of reparation, a woman of my own world, of quick
+perceptions, nice judgment, and unerring instinct might, and could,
+materially assist me in my self-imposed task. I know the generosity of
+women, and I know how quick they are to respond to any tale of wrong or
+outrage; perhaps it is the very conventionalities of their lives which
+hedge them in, from birth to marriage, that increases their spontaneous
+desire to see wrongs righted, and the criminal brought to justice. I do
+not know, that is a question of analysis into which I cannot enter; I
+may have my theories, but need not bore you with them. The result of the
+present system is made plain to me by the women of my own country,
+where no rule or restriction is ever relaxed on any pretence, and where
+the world and the world's dogmas are worshipped with a blind and
+absolute faith. And yet, mademoiselle, even there I have known the
+fairest and highest born women, when occasion required, shake off the
+chains of custom and stand forth boldly in defence of right and
+justice."
+
+"That, Count Mellikoff, it seems to me any woman would do, no matter
+what her nationality, if the object of her enthusiasm was worthy in her
+eyes. It is not to an American girl that you should plead for liberty of
+thought and action, since we have grown up upon the very soil that once
+was baptized in blood, shed by our forefathers to gain this very freedom
+of opinion."
+
+"It is a grand country," replied Vladimir, slowly, and without banter or
+sarcasm in his tone, "I admire it already, though as yet but a stranger,
+and it is for that very reason that I shrink from one part of my task.
+Mademoiselle, when one has been courteously received, and hospitably
+entertained, one hesitates to strike a blow at those who have so trusted
+one. The Arabs read us a lesson in moral ethics, which we children of a
+latter-day civilisation would do well to follow. He who breaks bread
+with the child of the desert is ever after protected by him and his
+tribe. Not so with us, treachery is our watchword, ingratitude our pass
+key."
+
+He spoke somewhat bitterly, though without changing his position or
+expression, and Miss James, as she looked searchingly at him, could
+discover no corresponding reflexion of words in face or eyes.
+
+"Has your experience been of such a character?" she asked, a little
+abruptly.
+
+"Both my experience and actions will bear me out in my asseverations,"
+he replied; and then in rather a lighter tone he continued: "It is
+rather the fault of our nineteenth century progress, mademoiselle, that
+we have neither time nor inclination for the old-fashioned courtesies
+and amenities of our grandsires' days; we make boast of our honesty and
+truth, it is true, and we are brutal often in enforcing these virtues;
+we cry out against and disclaim the gentler methods, and say with
+satisfied arrogance that fine phrases have no truth, polite aphorisms no
+depth; well, perhaps we are right, but for my part I prefer a
+well-turned and politely-worded lie, knowing it to be such, than the
+brute force of to-day's truthfulness. Honesty and honour have such
+elastic definitions, it is difficult to know where the one degenerates
+into mendacity, or the other becomes contention.
+
+"Let us, however, leave useless analysis, mademoiselle, and with your
+permission, I will become personal. I am selfish in doing so, because I
+desire to interest you in myself and my work."
+
+He drew back a little as he spoke, and lifted his arms from his knees,
+bringing his face more on a level with hers. Rosalie watched him with
+the same indefinable interest and fascination that had first subdued
+her. She did not speak, but her eyes sought his and rested there, and
+the heavy golden flower upon her bosom rose and sank hurriedly.
+
+"Have I your permission, mademoiselle?" he asked.
+
+She bowed her head, making an affirmative gesture with her hand; the
+feather fan lay still upon her lap.
+
+"You have heard," he began, "that I am here in two characters. I come in
+the ordinary way to visit a great country, for which my own land has
+always entertained a friendly feeling; I come to inspect her
+institutions, her educational universities, her great cities, her fine
+rivers; I come to admire and to learn, and to carry back with me
+pleasant recollections of a too-hospitable and charming people. That is
+I, in my proper aspect, without disguise or concealment; but that is
+not my first object, or my real errand. Mademoiselle, I come to seek, to
+trace, to find--a woman. One who has flown to your country for
+protection, to escape the penalty of crime; who is a fugitive from
+justice, and who thinks, poor fool! thus to avoid the power and the
+vengeance of Russia. Mademoiselle, it is in this work I ask your
+assistance."
+
+As he spoke, Miss James had risen to her feet, and now stood before him,
+her face blanched and haggard, her eyes glowing dark and angry, her
+breath coming quick and short; her arms hung straight down by her sides,
+the loose gloves falling about the thin wrists and leaving bare the
+slender arms; the feather fan lay unheeded at her feet.
+
+"Why do you ask _me_, Count Mellikoff?" she cried, in a strained, harsh
+voice, her eyes never leaving his face. "Why do you ask me to help you
+to track a woman, to hunt a fugitive, a poor, wretched, heart-broken
+fugitive, no doubt flying for her life from your cruel country and its
+cruel laws? What do you see in me that makes you think I will lend
+myself to your mad schemes? What am I that you should so count upon my
+co-operation?"
+
+She stopped, and Vladimir, who had also risen and stood facing her, cool
+and unmoved, bent down and, lifting up the _marquise_ fan, handed it to
+her with a bow before he replied. When he spoke his voice was keen and
+sharp, his words cutting and cruel.
+
+"What do I see in you, mademoiselle? Nay, let me rather answer your
+question by a line from an English poet:
+
+    '_I see--a woman scorned----_'
+
+How does the couplet end?"
+
+But Miss James made him no reply, her hands closed vehemently on the fan
+she held; under their pressure the frail pearl sticks snapped in two and
+fell apart. She looked at him fixedly; the crimson blood had rushed in
+a torrent to her face, and the red stain lingered there. Suddenly she
+faltered, trembled, swayed a little, and sinking down upon the low
+_causeuse_, covered her face with her hands and burst into long-drawn
+sobs and tears.
+
+It was late that night before Miss James sought her own room; as she
+passed out of the drawing-room Count Vladimir held back the heavy
+_portières_ with respectful attention, bending his head in salutation as
+she went by him.
+
+Behind her, on the velvet carpet, lay the strewn petals of a golden-hued
+rose, about whose torn beauty a subtle fragrance still lingered, and the
+broken pearl sticks of a _marquise_ feather fan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A PINK BILLET-DOUX.
+
+
+Mr. Tremain had allowed George Newbold to take him away from Count
+Mellikoff without any great regret on his part. He acknowledged himself
+interested in the man and in his conversation, and at first as he
+listened had almost persuaded himself that his instinctive prejudice
+against him was ill-founded and narrow.
+
+But as the Count continued in a perfectly passionless voice and with
+what seemed to Philip a grim satisfaction, his circumstantial
+revelations regarding Russia's power, and Russia's definition as to what
+constituted fatherly protection, he felt all his original doubts
+reawaken; and then he had caught that momentary, searching,
+comprehensive malevolent expression which crept over Vladimir's face,
+though but for a brief second, and this had strengthened him in his
+dislike and suspicion.
+
+Therefore he was glad of any excuse to leave him and return to the more
+commonplace, if frivolous, topics of the ladies.
+
+In the silence and security of his own room he had promised himself a
+somewhat more satisfactory interview with Mdlle. Lamien than had been
+his portion since the accident, and with this object in view had shaken
+himself out of his half-mesmeric condition, and deserted the hermitage
+of his cynical reflections.
+
+But this was destined to be an evening of disappointments, beginning
+with Patricia's frigid reception of him, and culminating in the
+non-appearance of Mdlle. Lamien, either at dinner or afterwards in the
+drawing-room. He had watched in vain for the tall dark figure, with the
+falling laces half concealing the pale face and white hair, to come
+gliding in unnoticed, and take the accustomed place within the arched
+chimney-recess, the slender hands, clasped loosely together, resting on
+the black dress, the passionless repose of attitude marking a mind far
+away from the gay surroundings of the Folly.
+
+He grew impatient at her absence, for Philip was of that temperament
+which, finding most things--men, women, and opportunity--come at his
+bidding, resented the smallest deviation from this rule, and chafed
+inwardly at so flagrant a dereliction to his will. He desired to see
+Mdlle. Lamien in Patricia's presence, and with the cool analysis of
+criticism, contrast her feature by feature, attribute by attribute, with
+that brilliant woman of the world. It had never entered into his
+reasoning that Mdlle. Lamien might frustrate his plans by the simple
+device of remaining invisible. He had perhaps imagined her presence
+compulsory, and since he had decided that she was to be the object of
+his evening's pleasure or amusement, he felt doubly defrauded by her
+absence.
+
+Had Mdlle. Lamien desired to feed the flame of the something more than
+interest already lighted in Mr. Tremain's mind concerning her, she could
+not have chosen a surer method. He was piqued and chagrined at her
+evident indifference. It was many years since any advances on his part
+had been met by steady rebuff. He had sustained his character of
+conquering hero by the very rarity of his attentions, and it gave his
+sensibilities something of a moral shock to find himself distanced by
+this cold indifferent woman, whose very position made his interest in
+her the more anomalous.
+
+It was ten years ago that Patricia had flouted and dismissed him. Was he
+to experience like treatment at Mdlle. Lamien's hands? For though Mr.
+Tremain had so far scarcely admitted the nature of the interest that
+Mimi's governess inspired in him, he was yet candid enough to give it a
+somewhat warmer title than mere curiosity in the study of a new
+character.
+
+Patricia had distinctly repulsed him, though he had met her with the old
+love ready to reawaken at the first sign of desire on her part. Very
+well then, let Patricia see that he too was heart-whole and as
+indifferent to her as she to him. And then Mdlle. Lamien had failed to
+work up to his cue, and Philip felt his sharpest weapon was thus taken
+from him, while Patricia triumphed in her insolence and beauty.
+
+The theatricals were to take place in the _bijou_ gem of a theatre which
+George Newbold had had put up to please Esther, in the first year of
+their marriage. It was a perfect model in miniature of _La Scala_, at
+Milan, hung throughout with the softest shade of rose silk, a daring
+innovation of Esther's, which rather outvied the classic columns and
+severe arches, but which added a charming air of comfort and luxury,
+and was as Dick Darling said, "quite far and away the most fetching
+thing for the complexion."
+
+The stage was fitted completely with all possible and impossible
+"properties," and opened at the back into the other end of the
+rose-house, the opposite door of which led into the drawing-room. It was
+indeed a royal playhouse, and acting upon its boards became a luxurious
+fine art.
+
+When Mr. Tremain entered the auditorium, he found the first two rows of
+stalls half filled by the house guests; Patricia had betaken herself and
+her train of admirers to one of the boxes, where she sat radiant and
+lovely, the soft rose colouring of the hangings casting a delicious tint
+upon her fair face and upon the shimmering surface of her dress. Philip
+was at once conscious of her presence, but passed her by apparently
+unnoticed, and made his way to the front row, where sat Esther Newbold
+and Dick Darling, with an empty _fauteuil_ beside the former.
+
+Into this Mr. Tremain slipped carelessly, and with the familiarity of
+good-fellowship, lifted the great bouquet of roses and hyacinths that
+lay unheeded on Esther's lap. Dick Darling leant over and nodded her
+brown head at him, while Mrs. Newbold gave him one of her sweet smiles,
+but laid her fingers on her lips in token of silence, for _Box and Cox_
+held the stage, and Miss James was entering into the spirit of Mrs.
+Bouncer with a _verve_ and sprightliness, seemingly incompatible with
+her usual irresponsive superciliousness.
+
+The absurd farce played itself out amidst the chilling reproofs of Mr.
+Robinson, and the plaudits of the spectators, until at last the curtain
+dropped upon the final scene. Philip turned then to Mrs. Newbold, and
+restoring her flowers to her, said:
+
+"_A propos_ of nothing, Esther, whose exquisite taste is one supposed
+to praise in the arrangement of your posy?"
+
+"Ah," said Mrs. Newbold, smiling again, and touching the great
+jacqueminots caressingly with her fingers, "I am very proud of my
+bouquet, and I will give you three guesses, Philip, at the donor's
+name."
+
+"Yes," broke in Dick Darling, quickly, "and I'll bet you three to five
+you don't guess it!"
+
+"Those are very certain odds, Miss Dick," replied Mr. Tremain, laughing,
+"considering that never in the course of my long and varied experience
+have I been known to elucidate the simplest rebus. Even 'when is a door
+not a door?' is beyond my mental powers; how then can I be expected to
+divine who is the latest slave to Mrs. Newbold's charms? I must say
+however, I consider George a very amiable young man."
+
+"So do I," laughed Esther. "Now could a wife say more? But your three
+guesses, Mr. Tremain."
+
+"Miss Darling must put up the stakes first," answered Philip, "I am not
+going to bring my powerful legal mind to bear on this problem without
+first seeing the stakes. Now then, Miss Dick, out with them."
+
+"Oh, but I have positively nothing," cried Dick Darling, her face
+flushed and eager. "What could I possibly have worth Mr. Tremain's
+'cheese'?"
+
+"My dear Dick!" exclaimed Esther, "you really must get out a dictionary
+of your own terms; your expressions, I am sure, are nowhere to be found
+in Lindley Murray."
+
+"Poor old duffer!" replied the incorrigible Dick, "I hope not indeed. I
+guess some of them would make his hair curl, even in the cold cold
+grave."
+
+Philip laughed, and Esther tried to look scandalised, but failed
+utterly; and then Mr. Tremain said, bending slightly forward:
+
+"You might put up that tantalising little note, Miss Dick, that is half
+stowed away in your laces. I am perfectly sure it contains 'some
+scandal of Queen Elizabeth,' which would amply repay me for my unwonted
+efforts, if I win it. Its very colour betrays it; whoever heard of a
+pink _billet-doux_ that was not redolent of intrigue? The more bashful
+the colour, the more gigantic the scandal."
+
+"What, this?" replied Dick, taking out a small square envelope,
+rose-tinted and crested. "Oh, no, this would not be worth your powder;
+it's only a note from Mdlle. Lamien, and doesn't contain a cent's worth
+of intrigue, Mr. Tremain."
+
+"Then its looks belie it," said Philip, "for it fills me with
+apprehension. Let me look at it, Miss Dick, perhaps its tangible
+presence may allay my terrors."
+
+But Dick only shook her head, and held the little note still further
+away.
+
+"No, no," she cried, "it's not for you, Mr. Tremain, and I'm not going
+to give you even so much as a 'glim' at it." Saying this, she put it
+back in her dress, and smiled at Philip provokingly.
+
+"I will put up this," she exclaimed, holding out her arm, on which a
+ruby and diamond butterfly sparkled in a bangle setting; "and I am sure
+it's simply angelic of me, for this is my one and only piece of bang-up
+jewellery; all real and no imitation, worth double the money. Now, Mr.
+Tremain, three guesses out of five; and oh, ye gods, protect my
+cherished bauble!"
+
+She swung the pretty ornament between her finger and thumb, and the
+light from the wax-candles in the girandoles caught at it eagerly, as it
+shot forth rays tipped with rainbow gleams.
+
+Mr. Tremain sat back with a mock air and sigh of fatigue, and the two
+women watched him interestedly; Esther with a little smile of amusement
+on her softly-tinted face, and Dick with a frown of anxiety knitting her
+forehead.
+
+"Let me consider," said Philip, reflectively, putting the tips of his
+fingers together somewhat awkwardly on account of his sling, and
+contemplating them attentively, "only three random shots at three-score
+recognised admirers! Long odds in your favour, Miss Dick. Now had I but
+the language of flowers at my tongue's end, I might be able to make such
+conjunctions with the unwritten but supposable affinities, as to read at
+once the hidden meaning in the subtle juxtaposition of jacque roses and
+hyacinths. Question: Did the donor know any more about their meanings
+than I do?"
+
+"I can supply you with posy lore, Mr. Tremain," broke in Mrs. Newbold,
+"if that will be of any assistance. Know then that the red red rose
+expresses love, the hyacinth sport or play."
+
+"Ah, the one is contradictory of the other," replied Philip. "Your
+nameless admirer, Esther, could scarcely be guilty of so bold a play
+upon definitions as to make game of his love by his flowers. Rather let
+us suppose him ignorant of any deeper knowledge than their price."
+
+"I think that an equally impertinent suggestion," answered Mrs. Newbold.
+"A man should never count the cost where a woman is concerned."
+
+"Granted, my dear Esther; in theory you are absolutely right, in
+practice you are lamentably wrong. But I see wrath mantling on Miss
+Dick's brow, and scorn flashing from her eyes at our persiflage; let me
+appease her and make a desperate plunge into the depths of incertitude.
+And first of all, to be courteous and French, I throw away deliberately
+one chance in suggesting that it may have been _M. le mari_ who sent the
+flowers? Ah, no, believe me, I did not need your silent denial, Esther,
+to be assured of my mistake; that would be far too commonplace and
+_bourgeois_ a reading for our ethics of this nineteenth century. The
+lover sinks such attentions in the husband, and is better employed in
+sending flowers to some other man's wife, rather than to his own."
+
+"How very cynical you can be, Philip," exclaimed Mrs. Newbold, turning
+her blue eyes full upon him. "I am sure George often gives me flowers;
+why, these very buds I am wearing are his gift," and she touched some
+half-open blossoms that formed her _bouquet de corsage_.
+
+"That was very gallant of George," replied Mr. Tremain, gravely,
+"especially as he had the arduous task of gathering them from his own
+rosery, and the virtuous satisfaction of knowing that they cost him far
+more than the roses of your posy cost the other fellow. Well, let me try
+again. Was it Freddy Slade? I have noticed that innocent youth casting
+furtive glances in your direction, Mrs. Esther, too often of late. It is
+possible that his ardour may have over-stepped his prudence and his
+income, and your jacques been the result."
+
+"Wrong again, Mr. Tremain," cried Dick Darling; "oh, I do hope, with all
+my soul, you may miss each time."
+
+"Considering that I have but one chance more, that is rather ungenerous,
+Miss Dick. I should not have believed so rancorous a spirit dwelt within
+your breast. To wish to further humiliate a two-thirds vanquished foe!"
+
+"But I don't want to lose my bangle, you see," said Dick, naïvely, at
+which remark both Mr. Tremain and Esther laughed, and the former
+continued:
+
+"Well, here goes my last and only try for your pretty bauble, Miss Dick.
+Was it Sir Piers Tracey? To be sure it is not quite in his line, and I
+never saw an Englishman yet who appreciated an American woman's love of
+flowers, still it might have been Sir Piers, and in that case George
+could not even try to appear jealous."
+
+"Poor dear Sir Piers!" laughed Esther, "the idea of his sending any one
+flowers! He's old enough to be one's grandfather!"
+
+"I don't know that that makes him ineligible," answered Mr. Tremain, "I
+dare say 'old Q.' and Beau Brummel showered roses upon the youthful
+Esthers of their decrepitude; it isn't age, my dear Mrs. Esther, that
+counts in such things, it's temperament."
+
+"Well, in any case I am glad you have not won my bangle," cried Dick
+Darling, as she slipped it over her dimpled wrist. "I always make it a
+point to pay up my debts of honour on the spot, I can't bear a
+'Welcher,' so you would have been obliged to take my ruby fly, had you
+been successful, Mr. Tremain, and that would have been death to me,
+simply death."
+
+"With such an alternative, Miss Dick," replied Philip, with increased
+gravity, and bowing across Esther, "I am devoutly thankful to have lost,
+for to have been the indirect cause of your untimely decease, would
+have branded me for ever in my own eyes!"
+
+Then Mrs. Newbold said time was up, and she must go; the _Ladies'
+Battle_ would be called in five minutes, and she was wanted behind the
+scenes; was Mr. Tremain going through with his rôle?
+
+But Philip begged off on account of his still lame wrist which he wore
+bandaged and in a sling; it would be quite effort enough to act when the
+real representation took place, Mr. Robinson could read his lines and he
+would imbibe valuable hints from his superior method. Was Mdlle. Lamien
+to take the Countess d'Autreval's part?
+
+"No," replied Esther, fingering her roses a trifle nervously, and
+looking at him from under her eyelids, "Miss Hildreth has elected to act
+her own rôle at the rehearsal, consequently Mdlle. Lamien's services
+will not be required. Ah, Patricia has already left her box, I must go,"
+she added, hastily; and with a hurried gesture she walked towards a
+side exit, her pale pink draperies sweeping after her, and making a
+little _frou-frou_ with their silks and laces.
+
+Mr. Tremain reseated himself, changing his _fauteuil_ for the one Esther
+had vacated next to Miss Darling. He leant back negligently and turning
+his face towards that young lady said carelessly:
+
+"Since we neither of us appear on the boards, Miss Dick, let us console
+one another off them. By the way, where is Miss James? I did not see her
+come into the theatre after her very capital bit of acting."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," answered Miss Darling, with a shrug of her
+shoulders. "I suppose she is improving her mind somewhere, at the
+expense of some one. To speak frankly, Mr. Tremain, Rosalie and I are
+bad friends just now, and I give her as wide a berth as possible."
+
+"Oh, indeed," answered Philip, rather bored, and not at all
+understanding that he was the cause of this bad friendship, since Dick,
+reading Rosalie's schemes and wishes, had denounced them hotly; and Miss
+James, with the remembrance of Perkins's slighting remarks still fresh,
+had replied with equal vigour; and so the breach widened between them
+day by day.
+
+Dick sat silent for several moments, the colour coming and going in her
+cheeks; she was a very chivalrous little girl, and her whole heart had
+gone out in unreasoning admiration to Patricia, when first she saw her;
+her beauty, her brilliancy, her sparkling vivacity making an absolute
+captive of the maiden, who, as she looked at her, felt all her own
+shortcomings rise up and confront her in formidable array.
+
+She had heard the story of Philip's and Patricia's engagement, and its
+unhappy termination, and she had secretly admired him, in her own mind,
+for a long time, and had felt Patricia's reception of him as a personal
+injury, which she longed to put right by a few judicious words. She felt
+sure they would be judicious because they would be honest. Now if he
+would only name Patricia, only ask some question, no matter how trivial,
+that she might introduce this one absorbing subject.
+
+But Mr. Tremain, with that perverted obstinacy so often displayed, which
+consists in saying the wrong thing at the right moment, when he did
+speak, propounded a question so diametrically opposite to Dick Darling's
+thoughts that that young lady was actually taken aback, and stared at
+him blankly for a full second without answering. And yet Philip had only
+inquired if Miss Dick could say why Mdlle. Lamien had not appeared that
+evening? It was a simple enough question, but Miss Darling seemed
+incapable of replying to it, so he spoke again.
+
+"My dear Miss Dick, what have I said? You look as though you had either
+not heard, or not understood me. Pray let me repeat myself. Can you tell
+me why Mdlle. Lamien has absented herself all this evening?"
+
+Miss Darling by this time had come back from her vain imaginings, and
+answered him readily enough.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon; I guess I must have been 'in Japan' when you
+first spoke. Why hasn't Mdlle. Lamien come down this evening? For a very
+simple reason: she has gone away."
+
+"Gone away!" echoed Philip. "But I saw her late this afternoon in the
+corridor." He did not add, and _heard_ her; since, if Esther Newbold
+spoke truly, it was she who had startled him by her sad, monotonous
+song, and her voice that had an echo of Patty's in its notes.
+
+"Oh, no doubt," replied Miss Darling, "she only went away while we were
+at dinner; I heard the wheels of the dog-cart just as we had eaten our
+way up to the _suprême de volaille_."
+
+"Is she to be gone long?" asked Philip, conscious and yet astonished at
+the feeling of loss this news created in him.
+
+"I really don't know," replied Dick, looking a little surprised. "She
+left this note for me," taking out the pink envelope from its
+hiding-place and showing it to him. He bent forward eagerly to scan it
+as it lay on her outstretched palm, the superscription hidden, the
+reverse side lying uppermost. On this he saw impressed a tiny coronet
+and a twisted cypher, "_A. de L._"
+
+"It only tells me about some fancy work she undertook for me," continued
+Dick, drawing back her hand with the note, "and thanks me rather over
+much for my 'unvarying kindness.' She might stow that," she concluded,
+with a grimace.
+
+But Mr. Tremain had eyes and thoughts only for the little note, and its
+dainty, aristocratic heraldry.
+
+"Is she a titled _émigrée_ in disguise?" he asked, pointing to the
+monogram and coronet; then, with an effort, as he became aware of Miss
+Darling's surprised looks, and speaking more lightly: "This grows
+exciting, Miss Dick; who knows?--we may have the elements of a three
+volume novel ready to our hands, yet lose them all by blundering. What
+do you know about Mdlle. Lamien?"
+
+"Only what Esther has told us all, which you heard, I think. As to her
+being titled, if you think this indicates it," pointing to the
+embellishments on the pink note, "why you know, they go for nothing. It
+may be only a blind, or it may be that Mdlle. Lamien prefers to write on
+other people's note-paper. I don't think it's very conclusive evidence
+one way or the other."
+
+And Miss Darling got up with almost an impatient air.
+
+"I am going to change my seat," she said, "I want to go further back,
+where I can better see and admire Miss Hildreth. But before I go, Mr.
+Tremain, I will tell you who sent Esther the roses, it was Mdlle.
+Lamien; a sentimental and too extravagant outburst of gush on her part,
+wasn't it?"
+
+Too surprised to reply, Mr. Tremain made way for Miss Darling,
+escorting her to a back row, where George Newbold received her with
+_empressement_, and Jack Howard with unqualified relief.
+
+"Give you my word," he whispered in her ear, "I have been bored to
+death, Miss Dick; so glad to have you back again!"
+
+But Miss Darling proved very poor company, and Jack Howard for once
+voted her tiresome.
+
+"Stupid blind mole!" declared Dick to herself, as Philip made his bow
+and left her. "Can't he see how lovely Patricia has grown, that he must
+run after that pale Russian woman? Oh, what idiots men are!" and Miss
+Darling consoled herself by reducing poor Jack to the verge of despair
+by her sharp retorts and acrid replies.
+
+Quite late in the evening, after the rehearsal was over, and the little
+theatre empty, Count Vladimir opened the double doors and stepped within
+Melpomene's deserted temple. The lights had not yet been put out, and
+the stage scenery stood unchanged from the last act; an air of late
+occupancy, and a memory of brilliant accessories, of fair women in their
+sheen of jewels and gleam of satins still lingered, to which the empty
+seats and deserted stage pointed the moral of all transitory glory.
+
+Vladimir stood for a moment contemplating the scene, a fine smile
+curving his lips, the light of recent conquest lingering in his eyes.
+
+"I am too late," he murmured; "the drama is played out seemingly, the
+actors fled. Ah, well, I can afford to wait."
+
+Then he went forward a few steps, and as he did so his quick eye
+evidently detected something unexpected, for he made his way definitely
+towards the back row of stalls, stooping when he came to the last but
+one, and lifted from the carpet a folded square of paper. He held it up
+to the light; it was an envelope, pink in hue, and embellished on the
+smooth satin surface by a tiny coronet and a twisted cypher. It was
+Dick Darling's rose-coloured _billet-doux_.
+
+Vladimir Mellikoff made no movement of surprise or triumph, but as he
+took out his black note-book and laid the envelope safely within its
+pages, the smile deepened on his lips and in his eyes. He turned and
+walked swiftly away, letting the double doors close noiselessly behind
+him.
+
+The little theatre was once more deserted; the wax-lights flickered in
+the still air; the rose silk draperies stirred slightly as a passing
+breath of soft spring wind floated in from the rose house, bringing a
+wave of perfume from the golden blossoms over which it had lingered in
+its passage. The mimic comedy was played out, the actors had abandoned
+their rôles; only real life and its human tragedy remained uncompleted,
+across which none but the Divine hand dare write the word _finis_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+IN THE HAZEL COPSE.
+
+
+Mr. Tremain, after leaving Miss Darling in the safe custody of George
+Newbold, walked hastily out of the theatre by a side entrance, and
+making his way along a narrow and dimly lighted corridor, came to a
+small door opening on to an outside terrace which ran beneath the
+library windows, and from which a flight of steps led to the large
+flower garden--Esther Newbold's particular hobby.
+
+He stepped out on to the terrace, shutting the door behind him, and
+drawing a deep breath of relief at being once more alone. It was a
+charming night; the cool fresh west wind swept by him in fitful gusts,
+touched with a warmer breath of the south, and laden with all the
+mystery of the thousands of miles it had travelled ere it reached this
+fair spot of God's creation. It could not linger to unfold its burden of
+knowledge; it could but flutter its dark soft wings and pass on in the
+orbit of its destiny, leaving its mystery unsolved, its secrets
+unrevealed, and murmuring ever as it went, sweeping up amidst the tall,
+waving trees, or bending low to caress the sleeping flowers, telling its
+message always and ever--its message of the passing of Time, of the
+coming of Eternity.
+
+             "The stars heard it, and the sea,
+    And the answering aisles of the dim woods."
+
+Only man, whose ears are not as yet finely enough attuned to the music
+of the spheres, heard no hidden meaning in its gentle voice, no
+celestial trumpet-call in its rude blasts.
+
+Why should Nature reveal her most priceless secrets to man, since as
+yet, his highest attainment is a disbelief in all things beyond his
+finite wisdom, and a cavilling at what he calls the useless machinery of
+organic life? Nature is as shy as she is beautiful; generous when
+trusted, but niggardly when discredited. How shall the wilfully blind
+expect to see into her mysteries, or the wilfully deaf hear the lilt of
+her charming?
+
+Below the terrace lay the garden beds, wrapt about in a dreamy haze, out
+of which the crescent moon, set high in the intense blue of the heavens,
+evoked spectral gleams of gold and silver as it fell athwart the yellow
+daffodils, hanging their heavy heads down to their shrouding green
+sheath-like leaves; or where the sweet narcissus raised its white disk,
+distilling its rich perfume far into the night, and recalling the
+beautiful Boeotian youth, whose tragic fate seemed written on each
+silver petal.
+
+    "Narcissi, fairest of them all,
+    Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess,
+    Till they die of their own dear loveliness."
+
+Here, too, blossomed the luscious double violet, hidden beneath its
+close growing leaves, mingling its dainty perfume with the more pungent
+exhalations of the tiny musk plant and lily-of-the-valley, while the
+pale blue-eyed forget-me-not was lost in the shadows, as were the star
+of Bethlehem, and the delicate classic cups of the crocus, only their
+bolder yellow rims catching, now and then, a fleeting moonbeam.
+
+A grove of sycamore trees threw up their graceful branches against the
+luminous darkness, while the chestnuts swayed their half-opened downy
+pink and white buds, and the maples fluttered their long, tendril-like
+pods, cased in verdant green, and as rhythmical as lightly strung
+Eastern prayer-beads. The faint early verdure of the lilac was just
+discernible, and in one of the dark oak-trees a little mother bird,
+wakened by the brilliant moonlight, crooned out a plaintive note to her
+mate, who answered her by the soft fluttering of his brown wings.
+
+And then all was still, but not silent; for the great wonderful night is
+filled with the sweet harmonies of the invisible world, whose cadences
+are too faint and tender to be heard among the clarion chords of the
+day, but which possess an infinitude of euphony that seems borrowed from
+the heavenly choirs of the New Jerusalem.
+
+Mr. Tremain coming suddenly--from the artificiality of the miniature La
+Scala, with its rose-coloured hangings, its wax tapers, its atmosphere
+laden with the manufactured perfumes of chypre, jockey-club, duchesse;
+and its stage, on which the mimic actors travestied the passions of real
+life; its audience, made up of fair women, whose costly robes were more
+priceless in their eyes than the ruder virtues of truth and honour; of
+men, whose natural abilities were buried beneath a fashionable languor,
+and whose moral nature was stunted and undeveloped by the blighting
+curse of their century, love of gold and desire of its possession--into
+the immensity and candour of the night--felt as if dealt a blow, and
+stopped involuntarily, swayed by some unknown emotion that strove
+against the one influence and yearned towards the other.
+
+He stepped down from the terrace, and wandered aimlessly along the broad
+garden paths, his hands clasped loosely behind him, his bare head bent
+forward, the April wind stirring the short brown locks that fell over
+his forehead. Now and then he stooped down and looked carefully at some
+half-hidden blossom, drawing back the leaves with heedful fingers, and
+smiling at his own childishness as he passed on, not rifling even one
+bud from the parent stem.
+
+The garden paths were all broad and straight, and Philip walked on,
+unheeding his steps and unmindful of his course. He was very deep in
+thought, so deep that presently he forgot to notice the flowers on
+either side, passing on without halting at any favoured one. Dick
+Darling's bald news--that Mdlle. Lamien had left the Folly--and her
+apparent ignorance as to her return, had opened Philip's eyes with a
+start, and revealed to him the distance he had already travelled in the
+primrose path of dalliance and uncertainty.
+
+He acknowledged to himself, with a twinge of mortification, that her
+leaving the house in such a manner, and without any word to him as to
+her intention, was a wound to his self-love and self-esteem. Though,
+indeed, why Mdlle. Lamien should have confided her plans to him was an
+open question. He had met her but once face to face since the accident,
+and that opportunity had resolved itself into the unsatisfactory
+interview in the corridor, when she had scorned his hand, and swept by
+him down the stairs without a word.
+
+Poor Philip! it was rather rough treatment, as he said to himself, to
+have his hand refused twice in the same evening by two different women!
+A smile of self-scorn and amusement came to his lips as he recalled the
+incident; fate was not usually so unkind, he was not accustomed to such
+churlish treatment at her hands, and the very novelty set him
+speculating as to the motives that incited two such opposite natures to
+a similarity of action.
+
+Self analysis is a very deceitful occupation, and Mr. Tremain, who had
+set about an interior examination as to his own feelings and intentions
+regarding Mdlle. Lamien, was soon wandering far afield in the realms of
+speculation regarding the ulterior motives of these two women, comparing
+their various attributes, contrasting their characteristics, finding
+subtle likenesses between them, and antagonistic points of approachment.
+Then he recalled the little pink note, and the bouquet of jacque roses,
+and Dick Darling's sarcastic criticism upon them. Why should Mdlle.
+Lamien use coroneted note-paper if it was not her own? And why should
+Mimi's governess waste her scanty substance upon hot-house flowers for
+Esther Newbold, who certainly could better afford the luxury than her
+paid dependent? And did not Mdlle. Lamien know the meaning hidden in the
+blossoms? Had she some reason for selecting red roses and white
+hyacinths, or was it only a coincidence, an accident?
+
+"Were I a little more of a fatalist," thought Philip, "I should answer
+my own question by reminding myself that nothing is accident in life. In
+their cult, _kismet_ overrules and becomes destiny."
+
+Meantime, taking no heed to his steps, Mr. Tremain was surprised into
+consciousness by a sharp blow in the face, which recalled him to a
+survey of his surroundings. He found he had wandered far beyond the
+garden precincts, down a gentle declivity ending in a lightly-wooded
+copse, to which a low-hanging hazel-tree branch barred his entrance.
+Putting this aside, he entered the small enclosure; it was not more than
+an acre in extent, the trees with which it was planted being still
+young, and standing rather wide apart. The ground beneath was of
+yielding though uneven turf, and quite at the far end of the tiny wood a
+rustic bench was placed near a small fountain with a marble basin, into
+which the water, trickling from a vase held in the marble boy
+Narcissus's uplifted hands, made a pleasant murmur in the stillness of
+the night.
+
+A gleam of white drapery falling across the bench warned Philip that he
+was trespassing upon a rendezvous, that had all the recognised
+characteristics of an assignation. He had gone too far, however, to
+retreat, since his presence must have been already announced by the
+harsh crackling of the offending hazel-bough, some of the twigs having
+broken in his hand as he pushed it back.
+
+The white figure neither moved nor showed any knowledge of his approach,
+but remained absolutely motionless, the head and shoulders in deep
+shadow, only the gloved hands and the sweeping draperies catching
+reflections from the fitful moonlight. If it was an assignation, the
+lady apparently was the only one faithful to the tryst, for there was no
+manly form beside her, nor manly accents raised in pleading or caress;
+indeed, voices of any _timbre_ there were not. A silence, deep and
+profound, held the little wood as in a spell, and the white-robed figure
+with the folded hands might have been the enchanted Princess, and Philip
+the Prince who was to wake her with a kiss, whose very sweetness would
+open the door once again to the outside world of romance, and passion,
+and disappointment.
+
+Poor Princess! let her dream on a little longer, wrapped in her
+unconscious, visionless slumber; the malignant fairy's curse of a
+hundred years ago is fast wearing itself away, and with love's awakening
+who can banish the twin sisters of jealousy and suspicion? Does not the
+fairest rose of all the garden fair bear within its flushing bosom the
+canker worm of deceit and decay?
+
+Treading noiselessly upon the short turf, Mr. Tremain came close upon
+the fair intriguer before she heard his footsteps, or was aware of his
+presence. The moon, which had been slightly obscured by the passing of
+some hazy clouds, now broke forth and shone down full upon the slight
+upright figure that had arisen hastily, and taken a forward step or two,
+as Philip's approach became known. The silver rays touched with seeming
+tenderness the dark hair rolled high upon the little head, and fell
+across the white neck, half concealed by a fleecy drapery, gathered
+together carelessly, and held by one slender hand in a long loose glove;
+they struck cool and sharp on the sweeping lines of the dress,
+accentuating each fold of the silken texture, and threw into bold relief
+the soft pallor of the delicately-rounded face, lingering longest where
+the dark brows made a mystery of the eyes, and kissing the curved lips
+that now were set and defiant; illuminating and defining each gracious
+curve and outline of the graceful form, with the same ethereal
+brilliancy that transformed the trickling fountain into an elixir of
+life, and awakened the boy-god Narcissus into perennial youthfulness.
+
+Mr. Tremain stopped spell-bound; and for a moment's space, in the hush
+that fell between them, each could hear the quick-drawn breath of the
+other, while the tinkling drops from Narcissus's vase became a Niagara
+in sound and volume. Then the spell was broken, as both, with
+involuntary impulse, spoke the other's name.
+
+"Patricia!"
+
+"Philip!"
+
+The woman was the first to recover her composure; with a nervous laugh,
+that rang a little untrue, and in a slightly strained voice, she broke
+the embarrassment of the moment.
+
+"So you, too, have caught the fever of unrest, Mr. Tremain, and become
+moon-struck under the influence of Luna's fool's month. For myself, I
+have always asserted that the blood of the wandering tribes flows in my
+veins, the night-time and the dark hours have always been my favourite
+times for----"
+
+"A rendezvous," struck in Philip, sharply. "I have not forgotten any of
+your pet peculiarities, you see. Perhaps I intrude, however; the hour
+and scene demand a Romeo for your Juliet, and I can scarcely hope to
+fill the part to your liking."
+
+She started as though he had struck her, but made answer calmly enough:
+
+"You are too modest, Mr. Tremain, by far; it is a new development in
+your character, pardon me if it strikes me as somewhat ludicrous." And
+she laughed lightly and coldly, though with a ring of bitterness below
+the mocking notes.
+
+But Philip was not angered by her words or her laughter; he scarcely
+heard the latter, so eagerly were his eyes devouring each feature and
+line of the once dearly worshipped face and form.
+
+Surely the cheeks were a trifle more wan and hollow than in the old
+days, despite the delicate rouge tinting that lay upon them; and the
+eyes were deeper set, the shadows beneath them darker, their expression
+more weary and unsatisfied than when last he had looked into their
+violet depths; and had not the perfect modelling of her figure grown
+somewhat thinner and more shrunken?
+
+He, who remembered her in the full glory and pride of her youthful
+beauty, and who had loved her in it, noted now with keenest vision each
+change that time had wrought upon it. And as he gazed the old old
+passion leapt into life again; his heart grew tender and longing, his
+love of ten years ago awoke from its long slumber, and clamoured for its
+resurrection. And yet, mingling with this tumult of emotion,
+overweighing it, and pressing it back, was a strange, intangible,
+inexplicable power that evolved itself out of a future of unknown
+presentiment, even as it seemed but the forecast of a dread calamity.
+
+But Philip was not one to be swayed by unseen influences; he shook off
+the impression of supernatural agencies and resolved to snatch at this
+one hour, which chance had thrown in his way, and wring from it whatever
+of joy or sweetness could be gathered from the withered blossoms and
+crushed buds of the past.
+
+He stood face to face with Patricia once more; might not he, remembering
+Esther Newbold's pleadings, even now after ten long years of separation,
+gather sufficient fruit from off the golden trees of past youth and
+love, to make happy and contented the downward years of life? Could a
+man stand thus, looking into the eyes of the woman of his life-long
+devotion, and remain indifferent? Would not any sop from out that gilded
+past, if thrown to him by her hand, prove of sufficient value to be
+worth his glad acceptance?
+
+All this time his eyes had never left her face, and she grew restive
+under the intensity of his scrutiny, flushing and paling, while the
+hand that held the fleecy drapery about her throat and neck trembled.
+
+"Patty," he said at last, in a voice set in a lower key than usual.
+"Patty, it is ten long years since we stood thus, alone together. Do you
+remember the last time we met and--parted?"
+
+She did not answer him at first, but moved away from him some paces, and
+halted beside the fountain; the marble rim that surrounded the basin was
+broad and high, she seated herself upon it, and turning her face looked
+upward at Philip, who had followed her.
+
+Not more cold, or hard, or irresponsive was the face of the boy
+Narcissus behind her, than was the fair impassive beauty of her face.
+The springing jet of water had ceased to flow, and only a few drops fell
+now and then from the upheld vase; they seemed like echoes from the past
+years falling slowly, slowly, one by one.
+
+When she spoke her voice was calm and composed, though Philip,
+accustomed to its fuller cadences, caught here and there a flat note in
+its ebb and flow.
+
+"I find you are as inconsequent and as tactless as ever, Philip," she
+said; and though she dropped her previous formality of address, his name
+gained nothing in her using of it. "You were always a sad bungler; fancy
+reminding a woman of her existence ten years ago! And then expecting her
+to remember her words and actions at that time! My dear Philip you are
+speaking of ancient history; why not tell me at once that Queen Anne is
+dead, and expect me to be astonished? A woman remembers nothing of her
+past, save her conquests and her gowns. The one tells upon her vanity,
+the other tells upon her purse."
+
+She laughed again, lightly; and drawing off her glove dipped one hand in
+the dark water, stirring its surface into a hundred rippling smiles, and
+scattering the drops in a shower of prismatic spherules.
+
+"I know it is the fashion of your world, Patricia," Philip replied,
+quietly, "to scoff at all things; so narrow are the limits of this
+nineteenth-century philosophy that what we cannot understand we
+disbelieve, what we do not wish to recall we deny, and what we are
+forced to accept we despise. It is a cruel creed even for men, on the
+lips of a woman it becomes detestable. You may scoff as you please,
+Patricia, you cannot change or alter the old laws of God; as long as man
+is man and woman, woman, memory and remorse must have a place within
+their consciousness; and no matter how hard or callous you may have
+grown, or how learned in the world's theology, you cannot entirely
+quench the attributes bestowed upon you, when you became not only a
+beautiful creation, but a woman of soul and reason. The last ten years
+cannot be a blank to you, any more than our last meeting and parting can
+be."
+
+Miss Hildreth laughed again, and wiping her slender finger-tips upon a
+tiny square of lace and muslin, from whose folds an odour of violets
+stole forth, she answered in an even lighter tone:
+
+"My dear Philip, let me recommend to you a certain essay on the 'Art of
+Forgetting,' if you have not already read it. It is written by a modern
+philosopher, it is true, but nevertheless, he sounds the heights and
+depths of our social system, and evolves a theory therefrom for which he
+should receive an universal peerage, bestowed upon him by his indebted
+fellow-sufferers. In the art of forgetting lies one's only chance of
+freedom from remorse for the past, and the inconveniences of the future.
+Believe me, if we can only master thoroughly this hitherto neglected
+art, we need have no further fears either for our digestions or
+complexions. It was, I think, old Sir Piers who said that all one's
+nightmares, physical or moral, arose from one of two causes, an unruly
+liver, or a too vivid memory; let us give the old man the credit of the
+aphorism, in any case."
+
+"Since you are so willingly blind, Patricia," cried Philip, roused from
+his apparent calm by the cool impertinence of her replies, "it seems a
+pity to force you to recall a past that dates back ten years. And yet I
+fear I must do so, for there are certain things that had better be
+explained between us now. Who knows but twice ten years may come and go
+before we meet again?"
+
+He paused for a moment, but she made him no reply; her face and slim
+graceful figure were thrown into high relief against the dark
+hazel-trees, her silks and laces lay about her feet in careless
+profusion across the short green turf, her hands were folded in the lace
+scarf that wrapped her neck in its fleecy folds. Afar off in the
+darkness of the drooping branches, an owl hooted, and a bird or two
+answered in sleepy half-notes.
+
+"It is not so very long ago," Philip continued, "since a letter came to
+me from you."
+
+She shivered a little and drew her laces about her more closely.
+
+"In that letter, Patricia, you had forgotten nothing; not one detail of
+the dream we dreamed together ten years ago. You wrote from your heart
+then; your heart that will sometimes make its cry heard, despite the
+crust of worldly artifice and selfishness you have built up upon it, and
+you appealed to me to recall the old days, 'to fold back the cere-cloth
+from the face of our dead past,' and see if something of beauty and
+sentiment did not still cling to its memory."
+
+She put up one hand to her face and passed it hurriedly across her
+trembling lips; she did not speak, but her eyes grew large and dark in
+their entreaty. Mr. Tremain continued, unheeding either her eyes or
+gesture.
+
+"I am not going to quote further from that letter, Patricia, and I will
+only tax your patience a very little longer, while I describe to you two
+visions conjured up by your appeal. I saw once more you, in your first
+fresh loveliness and beauty, radiant with youth, transformed by love;
+and I saw myself, as yet a raw, unfinished, unformed specimen of
+manhood; the Creighton of a suburban society, it is true, but
+nevertheless the veriest tyro in the affectations and niceties of town
+etiquette. You came within my circle, and you charmed me by the sweet
+graciousness of your beauty, the blue fire of your eyes, the frank
+candour of your witcheries. And you--you were content to let me play
+Strephon to your Chloe. And so that vision faded; and when next I saw
+you in fancy, you came towards me, from out a world of light beyond,
+from whence came also the echo of gay laughter and light jest; the silks
+and laces of your dress fell about you jealously, I remember their
+colour and their sheen, as you crept up to me, trembling. There was no
+glad exclamation on your lips, no joy in your eyes, no hand held out in
+welcome; hesitating and uncertain you stood before me, looking at me
+from under your downcast lids, and drawing one hand slowly over the
+other. And I, loving and eager, I, a very fool in love, never dreamed
+the reason of your changed demeanour; no, not until hours afterwards,
+when the night and the falling rain had cooled my passion. You were
+ashamed of me, Patty, ashamed of your rustic lover, who came into your
+presence with a heart on fire, but wearing an ill-fitting coat, and with
+manners more pronounced and enthusiastic than those of your little court
+in the room beyond."
+
+He stopped and walked away from her a few paces. The woman thus left
+alone seated on the marble fountain rim, never moved or spoke; only a
+low cry burst from her lips, smothered as soon as born, otherwise she
+remained as still and silent as the Boeotian marble god behind her,
+whose prototype had lived out all the passion and the pain of loving so
+many centuries ago.
+
+The moon above drifted from cloud to cloud, flinging its silver fire
+down recklessly upon the sheltered nook, and upon the fair woman
+miserable in the midst of her loveliness. Mr. Tremain turned and came
+back, he drew close to her and stood silent for some moments; the pity
+that filled his soul, revealed in his eyes down bent upon her. After a
+time he spoke, and his voice had regained its usual level tones.
+
+"That was all, Patty, a very commonplace ending. You were ashamed of me;
+ashamed of my outward appearance, which lacked the correct finish of a
+Bond Street tailor; ashamed of my eagerness and my passion, and my open
+adoration; ashamed of my poverty, and afraid of it. Poor pretty Patty!
+poor little butterfly of fashion! What should it know of the coarser
+insects of creation, whose existence was as necessary perhaps, but less
+ornamental, than its own? Why should it break its pretty painted wings
+in trying to soar above the sunshine of the hour? You rejected me,
+Patricia, that was the end of our last interview; you rejected me and
+scorned me, and cast me from you when tired of your toy, and when you
+had wounded me beyond healing, and flouted my love and constancy. You
+asked me to kiss you for good-bye; I think that was the bitterest moment
+of all my life, Patty, it was such wanton cruelty, such selfish
+triumphing. And I went from you with all the love and hope and trust and
+belief of youth crushed out of my heart by your two soft little hands.
+Who could have thought they had the strength to deal one such a coward's
+blow?"
+
+Again he stopped, but still she remained still and silent, the whiteness
+of her face growing strange and unfamiliar in the fitful moonbeams.
+
+"That was our last meeting and parting, Patricia, and it happened ten
+years ago. And you would have me believe that you have so mastered the
+art of forgetting as to make of it all only a blank chaos!"
+
+He came nearer to her, and moving with careful hand the folds of her
+dress sat down beside her on the broad marble brim. Seated thus, side by
+side, his eyes were on a level with hers, and he read within their
+depths so great a misery as to call forth a fuller pity in his own.
+
+"Patty," he said, very quietly, "Patty, my answer to your letter was
+cold and hard, unworthy of me. Will you forget it, my dear, and let me
+give you my true answer now, with your head upon my heart, and my lips
+on yours, as in the old days, Patty? The old beautiful days when the
+world and our love was young. Patty, my little wayward Patty, come back
+to my love and to me."
+
+He held out his arms and would have drawn her to him, so sure was he of
+her answer. But she, springing up, stood tall and dignified before him,
+her bosom, from which the lace wrap had fallen, heaving with her
+hurriedly drawn breath, the whiteness of her uncovered neck and arms
+gleaming like alabaster, as she stood silhouetted against the sombre
+boughs of the hazel-trees behind her. Her eyes flashed with their old
+fire, she raised one hand in her old favourite imperious gesture, and
+when she spoke the tones of her voice had grown round and full and
+musical.
+
+"No, Philip," she cried, "you come too late. What! you think you have
+but to throw the handkerchief and I will run gladly to pick it up? You
+are willing to accept me now, because for some concealed reason of your
+own, I appear more desirable in your eyes, better worth the having, and
+so you read me a long monologue on your constancy and love, and my
+faithlessness and cruelty. But you forget to put in the finer shading to
+the picture, Philip; you forget the part _you_ played in our drama _à
+deux_; you forget how eagerly you snatched at the freedom I offered;
+you forget your harsh words, your rough manners, your imperious demands,
+your impatient flying to conclusions. You wilfully misunderstood me
+then, Philip, you wilfully misread a girl's most natural shrinking from
+the unknown and the untried, and put it down to heartless coquetry and
+deceit. Was it for me to set you right? Was I to plead my own cause? No,
+Philip, you have scorned me twice; once when you refused my kiss, ten
+years ago, and again when you refused my offer in my letter. I will not
+accept now a love born out of pity, an interest created by desire. I
+will have all or nothing; pity shall have nothing to say or plead on my
+behalf."
+
+She threw out her hands passionately.
+
+"Take back your offer, Philip; make it to some less jealous, less wise
+woman. I will have none of it. I have seen many strange things in my
+wanderings of ten years, gained many bitter experiences, mingled with
+many strange people, touched close on terrible tragedies; but one thing
+I have never lost throughout all--my pride and my freedom. Go, Philip,
+you have your answer in my farewell words of ten years ago. I have no
+room to remember. I have mastered the art of forgetfulness and
+oblivion."
+
+With one quick movement she stooped, drew the long folds of her shining
+draperies about her, gathering her laces in one hand, and swept by him
+swiftly; the moonlight clinging to her as she moved, surrounded her as
+with a halo, and lighted up the fine scorn that curved her lips and
+glowed in her deep eyes.
+
+In another moment the elastic swaying hazel-boughs parted to receive
+her, and then springing back, hid the slight graceful figure from
+Philip's sight.
+
+And still the drops falling from the vase, held high in the hands of the
+boy-god Narcissus, counted out the moments, and the moonbeams fell
+straight and long, in narrow shafts, across the spot where Patricia had
+leant her fair form, stirring to sudden life with her jewelled fingers
+the water's placid dark surface.
+
+Now she was gone, and the radiance departed with her.
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Hildreth, Volume 1 of 3, by 
+Augusta de Grasse Stevens
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40431 ***