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diff --git a/42167-8.txt b/42167-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ff7437b..0000000 --- a/42167-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5052 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3), by -Charles James Wills - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - - - - -Title: The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) - A Family Mystery. - - -Author: Charles James Wills - - - -Release Date: February 23, 2013 [eBook #42167] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIT TOWN CORONET, VOLUME I (OF -3)*** - - -E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Sue Fleming, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images -generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries -(http://archive.org/details/americana) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive/American Libraries. See - http://archive.org/details/pittowncoronetfa01will - - - Project Gutenberg has the other two volumes of this work. - Volume II: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42168 - Volume III: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42169 - - - - - -THE PIT TOWN CORONET: - -A Family Mystery. - -by - -CHARLES J. WILLS, - -Author of -"In the Land of the Lion and Sun," etc. - -In Three Volumes. - -VOL. I. - - - - - - - -Ward and Downey, -12, York Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. -1888 - -[The right of translation is reserved, and the Dramatic Copyright -protected.] - -Printed by -Kelly and Co., Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.; -and Middle Mill, Kingston-on-Thames. - - - -THE PIT TOWN CORONET. - - - INSCRIBED - TO - EDMUND YATES, Esq. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAP. PAGE - - I.--IN THE ROSE GARDEN 1 - - II.--THE CROQUET PARTY 26 - - III.--THE VILLAGE DORCAS 45 - - IV.--WALLS END CASTLE 67 - - V.--AT THE PANDEMONIUM CLUB 96 - - VI.--GEORGIE'S WEDDING 118 - - VII.--LORD MAYOR'S DAY 138 - - VIII.--AT THE CASTLE 161 - - IX.--ANASTATIA'S COURTSHIP 182 - - X.--ROME.--THE BALLO PAPAYANI 205 - - XI.--A MEETING IN THE GOOD OLD STYLE 229 - - XII.--THE VILLA LAMBERT 256 - - - - - THE PIT TOWN CORONET. - - - - - CHAPTER 1. - - IN THE ROSE GARDEN. - - -Big Reginald Haggard had been exceedingly attentive to the elder of two -very pretty girls of the name of Warrender. Both families came from the -eastern counties. The Warrenders had inhabited The Warren, or at all -events the older portion of the house, for nearly four centuries. They -were harmless people. They manfully stuck to their ancestral acres of -fat Essex land. The present head of the family farmed the greater part -of the estate himself, as his fathers had done before him. Many a -Warrender had held the rich living of King's Warren, and the parson, -whoever he might be, and the reigning Squire Warrender were always the -two greatest men in King's Warren village and parish. - -In the rather old-fashioned garden at The Warren sat a young lady, an -open book upon her lap; the book was not a novel, it was an -argumentative work, a book which dealt with the social problems of the -day. But, alas! the book which Georgina Warrender had brought out with -the serious intention of reading, for the Warrenders of either sex, -though always soft-hearted, were a hard-headed race, lay upside down -upon her lap. The fact is that she was weighing a man in the balance, an -interesting occupation for a lady, and, alas! finding him a little -wanting. Georgie Warrender had received a great deal of attention during -the London season. Her people were well-to-do, the ancestral freeholds -were unencumbered, her family was eminently respectable and well known, -her connections unimpeachable; but Miss Warrender's principal attraction -to those who had the privilege of her acquaintance outside the world of -balls, dinner parties and musical evenings, was the sturdy -open-heartedness of her character, which often distinguishes well -brought-up young ladies who have been reared in an atmosphere at once -intelligent and healthy, but not ultra-intellectual. Miss Warrender had -no craze. She played and sang sufficiently well, but not well enough to -be a terror to the home circle. She drew and sketched, as a pastime, but -she had no desire to compete with professional artists, nor was her -conversation interlarded with the jargon of the craft. Her reading had -been carefully directed by her governess, Miss Hood, who had remained to -discharge the onerous duties of chaperon, guide, philosopher, and, above -all, friend to Georgie Warrender and her cousin Lucy. - -Lucy Warrender was Georgie's cousin on the father's side. Colonel -Warrender, as the younger brother, was naturally intended for the -family living of King's Warren. But fiery young George Warrender -declined the Church altogether, so he was sent to Hailybury, and then he -became a soldier of John Company, and was soon known as Fighting George -Warrender, and by dint of following his own bent attained the colonelcy -of a native regiment. Then he had a good determined shake at the pagoda -tree. And then he made a fool of himself, for just as he had come down -to Bombay, having made up his mind to take two years' leave, he was -smitten by the blonde beauty of a newly-imported "spin," fresh from the -boarding-school; and being an impulsive man, Colonel George Warrender -married the little boarding-school miss, and changed his mind about his -furlough. Within a year his daughter Lucy was born. And then the cholera -came to Bebreabad, swept off Colonel Warrender and his pale-faced -child-wife; and the little Lucy, his orphan daughter, came home at once -in charge of an ayah in the Company's ship "Lord Clive." On her arrival -Squire Warrender pitied the little misery, as she was called by -everybody, and treated her as his own daughter. There was but two years' -difference between the girls, and they looked upon each other as -sisters. The squire's wife had died within a year of his daughter's -birth, so that practically neither of the cousins had ever known a -mother's care. Squire Warrender's wife had been a local beauty, and her -portrait, which hung in Mr. Warrender's study, represented a loveliness -of no common type. - -Both the girls rode well, but neither was horsey nor doggy. One of the -greatest attractions in everybody's eyes about Georgie Warrender was her -openness; she never had a secret from Miss Hood, her father, or her -cousin. In fact, secrecy was foreign to her nature. As to her -appearance, she was a fine, well-developed, thoroughly English girl, -fully justifying the raptures and rhapsodies of her numerous admirers. -But it is not with her appearance that we are at present concerned, but -with the subject of her meditations. - -That subject was a serious one, for in her pocket was a formal proposal -from Reginald Haggard, whom she had known as "Big Reginald Haggard" from -her childhood. It is probably an axiom that every English girl, under -ordinary circumstances, accepts her first offer; the reason of this is -not very manifest, but it is nevertheless a fact, and its being a fact -is doubtless one of the causes of the numerous ill-assorted matches that -constantly take place. But Miss Warrender, now twenty years of age, had -been an exception to the rule. During her first and successful London -season, now just over, she had refused three serious offers. The first -was from an impecunious young barrister, who had attained some repute in -the literary world, and had very nearly killed himself in the process. -Mr. Baliol had admired Miss Warrender, had made careful inquiries as to -her father's position, had discovered that the two girls would probably -be the old man's heiresses, and had promptly proposed to Georgie. He had -been as promptly refused. Mr. Baliol was in no wise disconcerted. He -immediately proceeded to dedicate his new novel, "A Woman's Fickle -Heart," "to Miss G---- W----, in token of respectful admiration." Baliol -scored another success at the circulating libraries, and at once ceased -to trouble himself any more about Miss G---- W----. - -Georgina's second proposal was of a more serious nature. Young Lord -Spunyarn had made her an offer. Lord Spunyarn desired an ornamental -wife. To him the ideal Lady Spunyarn was a young person respectably -connected, good-tempered, and of prepossessing appearance. Not one iota -did Spunyarn care for money, birth or brains; of money he had plenty and -to spare: as to birth, was he not Lord Spunyarn? as to brains, clever -women were considered bores by his lordship. The young nobleman liked -Georgie Warrender, and he liked her people. Though rejected, rather to -his astonishment, it made no difference in his friendship with the -family. "It's an awful bore, you know. Unluckily they all know it at the -club--I mean that I was going to make you an offer--and I heard that one -of the society journals had the announcement of our engagement already -in type. You see, I was to have dined here to-morrow. If you don't mind, -I'll come all the same." He did come, did full justice to the dinner, -sat next to Georgie, whom he took down, and the pair, thoroughly -heartwhole, had a great deal to say to each other. - -Georgina's next experience was of a more comic character; her conquest -was no longer a nobleman, but a "noble." Jones di Monte-Ferrato was a -Maltese noble. He possessed certain rights of nobility in the island, -his income was derived from the sale of Maltese oranges; in fact he was -the titular head of Jones and Co., the well-known fruit house of Thames -Street. In Thames Street, Jones di Monte-Ferrato said nothing about his -nobility, he was "our Mr. Jones." But on his visiting cards was a -portentous crown, and Jones di Monte-Ferrato habitually wore a coloured -_boutonnière_ in his frock coat; being red, this decoration was -popularly supposed to be the Legion of Honour: it had been purchased -however, and purchased cheaply, from the Pope. Jones' nobility carried -him far in Maida Vale and Bayswater. Needless to tell, Miss Warrender -would have nothing to say to him. - -To say that Georgie Warrender was perfectly heartwhole as she unfolded -Haggard's letter, is nothing but the truth. Of course she liked young -Haggard, but so did every one. Haggard had enjoyed an extraordinary -popularity. Related as he was to the Earl of Pit Town, he was a welcome -guest in the best houses. He had been a dancing man, and could dance -well, was exceedingly good-looking, and consequently a catch at the -small and earlies and also at more elaborate entertainments. When a very -young man he had been a detrimental, having rapidly dissipated his -little fortune. Penniless, he went to America; in eight years he -returned, well off, as good-looking as ever, and with the possibility, -the extremely unlikely possibility, of one day succeeding to the earldom -of Pit Town. There are some men who always fall on their feet, some men -for whom fortune is never tired of turning up trumps; Haggard was one of -these men. When it is said that Haggard was a man of the world in its -broadest sense, nothing remains to tell. If he had a religion at all it -was the worship of his own dear self. Big Reginald remembered Georgie -Warrender as a chit of twelve; he met her again one of the brightest -ornaments of London society; he heard her spoken of there as handsome -Miss Warrender; and just as he would have longed for a very valuable -hunter to carry his sixteen stone to hounds, so he desired to obtain -Georgie's hand; because without doubt she was the handsomest, -healthiest, pleasantest and most unexceptionable girl it had ever been -his good fortune to come across. - -The letter seemed honest enough, it was short and to the point. - - "DEAR MISS WARRENDER, - - "You will probably not be surprised at my addressing you on a - subject important to us both. We have known each other since the - time when you were a little girl and I was a big bad boy. I - don't trouble you with business matters, but I have spoken to - Mr. Warrender and fully satisfied him on that head. It is with - his approbation that I ask you to become my wife. I know that - the very remote possibility of a coronet will not weigh with - you, but I do think you ought to let it count against my - disadvantages. You will get this at breakfast time. I shall ride - over about eleven to urge my suit in person; may I hope that - your good nature will spare me the negative I doubtless deserve, - and that you will give me a chance? - - "Yours very affectionately, - - "REGINALD HAGGARD." - -As Georgie replaced the letter in its envelope she blushed; had Haggard -been indifferent to her she would not have hung out this signal of -distress. It is impossible to follow the course of reasoning of a -woman's mind. Georgie Warrender was no raw girl to be caught by the mere -good looks of big Reginald. But first impressions go a great way; she -remembered the young fellow in the reckless daring of his first youth; -she remembered, too, her feeling of pity when she heard of the -prodigal's banishment to a far country to feed the proverbial swine. -Georgie remembered, too, the triumphant return of that prodigal some six -months ago. She had been pleased at the prodigal's attentions, and she -knew that many girls, of far greater social pretensions than her own, -would willingly have accepted the addresses of the bronzed, curly-headed -giant with the big moustache. Perhaps she would have been wiser had she -taken counsel with Miss Hood, or had she deliberated more calmly. But -Georgie was a self-reliant girl. Even now she heard the measured tread -of her lover's hack as he trotted up to the hall door of The Warren. She -looked at her watch, it wanted five minutes of the hour. Miss Warrender -smiled at her lover's excessive punctuality; his impatience boded well -she thought. - -Another instant and he is striding down the path of the rose garden; a -happy look is on his face, though it is slightly pale with suppressed -excitement. Georgie Warrender's pink roses attain a damask hue as she -rises to greet him. - -Fortune, fickle goddess, still befriends her favourite. There was no -outward sign of hesitation or diffidence about Haggard, as he held out -his hand to Miss Warrender. - -"It's very good of you to see me; I'm afraid I don't deserve it," he -said, seating himself beside her on the rustic bench, and, man-like, -commencing to bore holes in the gravel with the stout ash-plant which he -carried. Youth and maid decorously continued to gaze upon the ground and -to critically study their own foot coverings. Haggard was a man who -looked well in any dress, but the grey tweed suit which he wore, the -artistic bit of red of his loosely-tied sailor's knot, his big grey felt -hat, his leggings also of tweed, even his stout but well-made lace-up -boots seem to give the young giant the needful halo of romance. This, -the usual morning dress of a young English gentleman in the country, is -what is generally selected as the costume of the hero of an Adelphi -drama, when that wonderful young man is discovered in his virtuous home -prior to the commencement of his numerous sufferings and hair-breadth -escapes. As for Georgie, the conventional French muslin set off her -faultless figure, a large Leghorn hat protected her delicate complexion -from the sun's rays, her magnificent hair was worn in the rather severe -Grecian style, but then the big plait at the back was all her own, and -the bronze chestnut locks, tightly strained as they were around her -head, disclosed the small shell-like ear, that sign of breeding which it -is impossible to counterfeit. Probably Georgie Warrender had been right -when, as a girl, she had declined to have those pretty ears pierced. If -we accept the hypothesis that beauty unadorned is adorned the most, then -Georgie in her native loveliness was, indeed, highly decorated. But she -was nervous in this formal _tête-à-tête_; this showed itself in her -heightened colour, which was still maintained, and in the occasional -movement of her delicately fashioned little bronze shoes. As Sir John -Suckling said long ago: - - "Her feet beneath her petticoat, - Like little mice peeped in and out, - As though they feared the light." - -The quotation is somewhat hackneyed, perhaps; but it ran through -Reginald Haggard's mind, as he prodded his stick into the gravel. - -"I'm afraid, Miss Warrender, that I have betrayed you into a -_tête-à-tête_. Your father wished me luck, and told me I should find you -here, while your cousin informed me that we should be _quite_ -undisturbed. May I hope that you will give me a chance; that possibly, -after a time, I may not altogether be indifferent to you, Georgie?" -Again the rosy flush mantled on the girl's tell-tale cheek. Haggard -continued, "Of course you have seen, dear Georgie, that I have been -very hard hit this season, for a lazy ne'er-do-weel like myself to dance -attendance at every entertainment that Miss Warrender graced with her -presence, must have made the state of my affections pretty manifest I -suppose. We have known each other a long time. I have never done -anything mean or dirty that I know of, Georgie. Of course I was a young -fool, and kicked up my heels as young fools do. But I think I have had -all the nonsense knocked out of me. My roving life in Mexico and my -chase after the almighty dollar have sobered me. Can you trust me, -Georgie? I'll be good to you, upon my word I will. Good to you and proud -of you, if you'll only give me the chance. You are too clever for me to -attempt to argue you into it. But, dear Georgie, I love you as I never -loved any woman breathing, and not with the mere passing fancy of a boy. -I have seen the world and a good deal of life, the gilded and the seamy -sides. Tell me, Georgie. May I hope? Will you give me a chance?" - -Georgie looked into his eyes and smiled. He had spoken it trippingly on -the tongue, though seemingly spontaneous, it had been well thought out; -for Haggard was an actor, a leading gentleman, well experienced in -lovers' _rôles_. It is not meant by this that Haggard was what the old -song calls a "star-breasted villain." But Georgie Warrender was not by -any means his first love. Haggard looked upon Georgie as a valuable -acquisition; from the physical point of view she was the finest, -freshest, fairest girl he had come across. And he coveted her as an -amateur covets a picture; that it may belong to him, and that others may -fruitlessly desire his pearl of great price. True, no sordid -consideration influenced Haggard. Can we call this love? Let us be -charitable and do so. But we will also be just and qualify. It was love -of the nineteenth century, of the society type. - -"You pay me a great compliment, Mr. Haggard, a very undeserved -compliment. I cannot pretend to be taken by surprise, for, as you say, -your attentions _have_ been very marked. What am I to say to you? With a -girl it is a very serious matter; for once we give our hearts, at least -some of us, Mr. Haggard, we give them for good and all. A mistake once -made, in our case, cannot be set right. Our affections once given away -to a man, and perhaps afterwards flung aside, then leave us with nothing -to bestow but our miserable selves. Are you quite sure you have made up -your mind, and that you won't want to change it?" she said, looking up -archly in his face. - -But his teeth were set, and the muscles of his massive jaw were working -hard, as he gazed intently on the gravel at his feet. It was evidently -no laughing matter with Haggard. The muscles of his jaw had worked in a -similar way only a week ago, when he stood on the grand stand at Epsom, -and saw the favourite, whom he had backed heavily, almost "collared" on -the post; but the favourite had won, and Dark Despair had failed to land -the odds of sixty to one laid against him. So had the muscles of -Reginald Haggard's jaw worked when he had "bluffed" Don Emmanuel Garcia -at the almost historical game of poker, which they had played at -Chihuahua. Haggard had only held knave high, about as small a hand as a -poker player can hold; he had successfully "bluffed" the Mexican, and -won. He is bluffing now, for hearts are trumps at the game that is being -played; and we, who look over the cards of both hands, can see that big -Reginald's at least is a poor one. Will he win? Of course he will. What -chance has Georgie Warrender against so experienced a player? The stakes -were Haggard's before he had cut or shuffled the cards. - -"Sure, Georgie? of course I'm sure. I may hope, then? I may dare to -hope?" - -Wise man as he was, he carried the place by a determined rush. He took -her hand in his, the taper little fingers were not withdrawn. - -"Georgie, darling, how can I thank you? I am not good at this sort of -thing." - -If he had not attained perfection in the art of love, it was certainly -not for want of practice; for if the truth be told, the big Lothario -habitually made love to every pretty woman he met; and if there was no -pretty woman, then to the least unprepossessing one of those present. -The rest of the conversation went on much as such conversations usually -do. Haggard swore eternal constancy. Georgie confessed that she -"supposed she did care for him." But this modified sympathy did not -satisfy Haggard; he pleaded for something more explicit. - -"I have always liked you, Mr. Haggard," she said, for Georgie could not -yet bring herself to address her lover by his Christian name; "but I -fear I must seem a very poor creature after all the dashing -South-American beauties, to say nothing of the many recognized successes -of the past season." - -"But you were the success of the past season, Georgie. Everybody knows -it. Why, they raved about you. You must know very well that Madame -Hortense made a little fortune with the 'Warrender' hat." - -"Ah, that was Lucy's idea, not mine, Mr. Haggard." - -"A very charming idea, Georgie, but never so charming as when you wore -it." - -Georgie Warrender rose and made him a low courtesy. "I see you deal in -sugared compliments," she said. - -He got up and offered his arm. - -The hideous and snobbish custom of taking a lady's arm had not then been -invented. And to do him justice, even if it had, Haggard was too much of -a gentleman to have attempted it. For customs borrowed from the habits -of the _demi monde_ would have been sadly out of place with a girl like -Georgie Warrender. With her cousin it might have been different; but -with Georgie the thing would have been impossible. - -As the extent of his own good luck began to dawn upon Haggard, he felt -that the world had indeed gone very well with him; for as he had marched -down the walk of the old-fashioned rose garden that morning, for the -first time in his life he had felt diffident of success; for the first -time in his life he now vowed in his fickle mind to be true to the -smiling girl who, in the bright glamour of a first love, hung so -confidingly on his arm. Of course he vowed eternal constancy. At lovers' -perjuries they say Jove laughs, and well might the whole Olympian chorus -have joined in the loud guffaw with which the king of all the gods -doubtlessly greeted the protestations of Fortune's favourite. As each -drank deep draughts of the subtle poison from the other's eyes, their -glances grew brighter, and they were only awakened from the dream that -comes to us all, at least once in our lifetimes, by the imperious clash -of the luncheon-bell. Old Mr. Warrender and Lucy appeared upon the lawn, -and the broad smile on her father's face and Lucy's merry laugh told the -happy pair that they might spare any explanation. Georgie, in the pride -of her honest love, disdained to take her hand from the young man's arm. -With womanly dignity she advanced to meet her delighted father. He -kissed her on the forehead, and then the blushing girl took refuge in -her cousin's affectionate embrace. - -"Be good to her, my boy," said Squire Warrender, his honest voice a -little broken as he thought of the old days of his own too short-lived -happiness, and of the proud dead beauty, Georgie's mother. It was a -short speech, but it rang in Reginald Haggard's ears for many a year. - -Will he be good to her? He should be. If not good to her, surely -Reginald Haggard will be less than a dog. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - THE CROQUET PARTY. - - -Everybody agreed that the day had been a success. The lawn at The Warren -was an ideal croquet-lawn, large, level, and daisyless. It was an old -lawn, and was carefully watered. What better place, then, for the local -tournament to be fought out upon, than the old lawn at The Warren. - -At last the final game has been played. The day had been excessively -warm. Everybody was sitting in the shade discussing the claret-cup, the -syllabubs, the strawberries and cream, and the home-made confectionery, -that were so freely pressed upon the large and rather miscellaneous -assemblage which filled the old-fashioned grounds of Diggory Warrender. -The owner of this archaic name we have met for an instant in the -preceding chapter. He was a hale old country gentleman, a J.P. for his -county, and universally liked. Perhaps there was more of the yeoman than -the squire about old Mr. Warrender. Though he farmed many acres, yet he -did so at a profit, strange to say. But perhaps this is hardly to be -wondered at when it is remembered that the acres were his own, and that -consequently there was no rent to pay. - -Mr. Warrender, who rather scorned claret-cup, was about to discuss the -merits of a foaming tankard of home-brewed ale. The ale was good; -perhaps it tasted the better to old Warrender as he drank it from the -silver tankard of the time of Charles I., which bore the name and arms -of his ancestor, Diggory Warrender, _armiger_, of that epoch. - -"Won't you try some, Lord Spunyarn?" old Warrender said; "It has made me -the man I am," and certainly this statement was a flaming testimonial -to the merits of the Warren ale; for old Warrender, who stood six feet -in his socks, seemed to be all muscle, while his white and perfect -teeth, he being a man of sixty-five, proved that, at all events as yet, -physical decay had not set in, in the master of The Warren. - -But Lord Spunyarn shook his head as he signed to the butler to give him -what he termed a B. and S. - -"Beer is too bulky for me, Warrender," said the spindle-shanked -nobleman, as he stretched out his shapely but rather shaky hand for the -panacea. "I object to bulk, Warrender, on principle; it is my terror of -becoming a welterweight that made me go in for athletics. Why, look at -my father, and they had to make a hole in the wall to get my -grandfather's coffin out of the house. No, Warrender, mind and muscle -are my strong points." - -And so they were in Lord Spunyarn's own idea. Spunyarn was perpetually -in training. He was ever matched against somebody, or against that very -successful competitor, Father Time. But Spunyarn was never "fit," to use -a sporting term. Naturally of a weakly constitution, his originally puny -form had been carefully educated and developed at the great public -school where athletics, "tone," and Latin verse, are the only subjects -seriously taught. Spunyarn had failed to catch the "tone," Latin verse -was a closed book to him, but he stuck to athletics. The name of Lord -Spunyarn was constantly to be seen in the sporting prints, and though -Spunyarn pluckily struggled along, coming in last in the foot races, -being knocked about in the middle-weight boxing matches (knockings about -which, to his credit it must be said, he bore with the patience of a -martyr), yet, with all his sufferings, no single trophy as yet adorned -Lord Spunyarn's rooms in Jermyn Street. - -To-day Spunyarn had been beaten in the croquet tournament, and his -partner had put down their united failure to the presence of Lord -Spunyarn, while Spunyarn himself when they were beaten simply remarked, -"Great mistake not taking the matutinal B. and S., you know." This -hardly consoled the smart young lawyer, his lordship's partner, for his -day's loss of time, his hotel bill, and his new and elaborate morning -kit; still, he had had the honour of playing with a lord. - -But metal more attractive soon compelled Spunyarn's attention, for his -eyes fell upon the two pretty Warrender girls as they tripped towards -the aged host, both hanging on the willing arms of the new Essex lion, -Reggie Haggard. - -Big Reginald Haggard was the ideal of the country maiden. He was not -hideously beautiful, as it has become the fashion to depict the heroes -of modern romance. It may at once be said that Haggard was undeniably -good-looking. His long black moustache gave him, in the eyes of the -ladies assembled at The Warren, the necessary romantic air. What is -very much to the point in such matters was the fact that he was also -extremely well dressed. He had the military neatness without the -military swagger, and for the first time in his life Haggard's well-cut -clothes were paid for, to the unspeakable pleasure and astonishment of -his tailor. For Reginald Haggard, who eight years ago had left the -paternal mansion an expatriated black sheep, had returned a man of -comparative wealth. Turned loose a mere boy in London, his money had -been spent, as young men about town usually spend their money. That -young but very fashionable club, the Pandemonium, that club which has an -oyster cellar in its basement, which keeps open all night, and at which -shilling cigars are _de rigueur_, had been the cause of most of young -Haggard's embarrassments. At the Pandemonium Haggard had made the -acquaintance of Captains Spotstroke and Pool, half-pay; that -acquaintance had naturally proved expensive. Bets were made and paid. -Haggard was introduced to the bill-discounting fraternity, and had even -lunched with the great Hyam Hyams; which fact shows how deep he was in -the books of that great connoisseur and money-lender. As a rule Hyams's -business lay only with members of the aristocracy, but Reginald Haggard -was accepted as a client because he was distantly related to the Earl of -Pit Town. Three lives, three good lives, stood between Haggard and the -childless earl. There are such things as contingent post-obits. In these -precarious commodities the fortune of Mr. Hyam Hyams had been made, -under the astute advice of his solicitor, Mr. Morris Israels, of -Bloomsbury Square, and it was to these precious securities that his -dealings with young Haggard were confined. But at length Hyams would -advance no more. Haggard, at an alarming sacrifice, parted with his -jewellery, bid his family farewell, and quitted Essex for South America. -At the expiration of eight years Haggard returned as a landed -proprietor, the owner of numerous ranches, and of countless flocks and -herds. His liabilities in England consisted solely of his debt to Hyam -Hyams. This debt, however, was only payable in the rather unlikely -contingency of his succeeding to the earldom of Pit Town. Also, much in -opposition to the wishes of that respected solicitor, Mr. Morris -Israels, a power had been reserved to Reginald Haggard to pay off both -the principal and its interest at any time, in the extremely unlikely -event of his ever having the money to do so. Such was Haggard's position -when he became engaged, as has been narrated, to Georgina, Squire -Warrender's handsome daughter, at the end of her first and triumphant -London season. It has been noted that among Georgie's numerous and most -assiduous admirers had been our friend Spunyarn. He had proposed to and -been rejected by Georgie, but they still remained sworn friends. - -The two girls, the elder of whom was but twenty, her cousin being two -years younger, presented a striking contrast. Georgie was a remarkably -fine girl of the true English type. Three centuries of Warrenders, a -family which began as yeomen, but soon took its place in the squirearchy -of its county, had transmitted to Georgie that healthy type, that sound -physique and that clear complexion, which is seen only in England; and -even in England, only among healthy rustics, or the women of those -families of the upper class who habitually pass the greater portion of -the year out of London. Not that Georgie Warrender was a mere rustic -beauty, as her taper hands and tiny feet showed. It takes a good foot to -look well in a walking shoe, and even in the trying walking shoe -Georgie's foot was unmistakably a good one. Her clear blue eyes were -honest and sympathetic; Georgie Warrender looked every one straight in -the face, she had evidently nothing to conceal, nothing to be ashamed or -afraid of. The two girls had been carefully educated, the "ologies" -having been wisely omitted. Georgie's magnificent chestnut bronze hair -was her great attraction. It is needless to say that a lock of it was in -Haggard's pocket-book, and that one of Haggard's raven curls was worn -in Georgie's locket. The engagement was an open one. There was no -self-consciousness about either of the parties. They were both evidently -proud of it. - -Lucy was in many respects the exact opposite of her cousin. Lucy was a -blonde; pretty, rather in the American style. But unlike most American -beauties, far from being a mere skeleton in a skin, Lucy was a plump, -well-developed specimen of the dreamy blonde. In type she much resembled -the descriptions of Madame de Pompadour in her youth, before she had -seen and captivated the great-grandson of the Grand Monarque. She was -_mignonne_, no other word will express it. Her strong points were her -pink and white complexion, her masses of wavy golden hair, her dark -eyebrows and her magnificent hazel eyes; those dark dreamy eyes in which -lurked latent fires. Young as she was, Lucy well knew how to use those -eyes, and the way in which she gazed into the face of her cousin's -betrothed seemed to detract nothing from his happiness. But in the same -way she gazed into Spunyarn's face, it was not mere looking, it was -"gazing." So she had gazed into the local general-practitioner's eyes -when that poor young man looked at her tongue for the first time. It was -Lucy Warrender's burning glance that had temporarily made the village -doctor a discontented man, and had caused him to style his mid-day -hashed mutton "muck." - -In direct contrast, too, to her cousin's, was Lucy's mind. She was not a -girl who could be loved by other girls. Save when employed in "gazing" -_she_ never looked any one straight in the face. The servants, our stern -and acute judges, said that "Miss Lucy wasn't to be trusted, but that -Miss Georgie was as good as gold." As usual, the servants were right. - -"Unsuccessful again, Lord Spunyarn," said Lucy, dropping him an ironical -courtesy, and making a provoking little _moue_. - -"As usual, and I suppose my own fault, though my last serious failure -was certainly not my fault, but entirely due to you, Miss Warrender." - -"It was certainly not your lordship's misfortune," smiled the young -lady. - -Haggard and his _fiancée_ seemed to have a good deal to say to each -other, but probably like that of most engaged persons, their -conversation was merely childish. - -And now the little crowd of players and spectators came to make their -_adieux_. For in the country people still retain the fashion of bidding -their hosts good-bye. Nay, more, they are in the habit of even thanking -them for their entertainment, and for the pleasure they have received: -whereas your fashionable, having had all there is to have, and eaten -and drank of what seemeth unto him good, carefully rejecting the less -_recherché_ viands, simply disappears. He was, and is not. - -The Warrender girls were surrounded by a cluster of artless maidens; -these shook hands and kissed, after the manner of their kind, and as -they were more or less intimate with their hostesses. "He is perfect, -quite perfect," whispered the rector's romantic sister, as she squeezed -Georgie's hand, "but, oh, I do hope that you are sure of his principles, -Georgie, dear, for in marriage so much depends, dear, upon principles." -As Haggard's only principles were his personal comfort, filliped by the -gentle stimulus of frequent flirtations, was Georgie quite right in -replying, "Oh, dear Miss Dodd, I am quite sure of his principles?" -Gradually the miscellaneous gathering took its departure. No man or male -person left the premises without one of Lucy's fatal _oeillades_; each -one of the stronger sex, too, received a rather more than necessary -pressure of her soft and dimpled hand. Many among the elders, nay, the -patriarchs even, felt their pulses quicken at the unexpected pressure -and the sly bright glances; it made them feel, not as if they were -smitten with the good looks of Lucy Warrender, but as if she herself had -been captivated by the prepossessing appearance and manners of each -special victim. That was the art of it. - -The dinner that evening at The Warren was a cheerful one; the humours of -the day were described with biting satire by the gentle Lucy. She it was -who had cruelly incited the stout vicar to elephantine gambols, to the -intense disgust and annoyance of his angular wife. Who but Lucy could -have caused the coldness between young farmer Wurzel and his affianced -bride, Miss Grains, the brewer's daughter? Who but Lucy, as she sat on -the shafts of the horse-roller, listening with apparently rapt attention -to the lucubrations of young Wurzel on the subject of shorthorns. -Perhaps the clasped hands and the ecstatic look were hardly necessary, -for even so interesting a subject as stockbreeding. But Lucy had noted, -out of the corner of her watchful eye, the arrival of Miss Grains, -indignant and perspiring. - -"You'll excuse him, Miss Warrender, it's more thoughtlessness than want -of manners; but he oughtn't to be taking up your time like this," cried -the brewer's daughter, as she bore off her reluctant prize. To this day -nothing will ever persuade the buxom mother of farmer Wurzel's fine -young family that her William was not actually audacious enough to -propose to Miss Lucy Warrender, and that his attentions were favourably -received. So often has poor William Wurzel been twitted on this matter -that he has come to look upon himself as a very Lothario, rescued at the -right moment. - -In the drawing-room things went on much as they always do in country -drawing-rooms in the hot weather. The girls sang; Miss Hood, their -chaperon, played the inevitable Chopin; but (as, unlike zoophites, -chaperons cannot be cut in two pieces, and yet live) Miss Hood felt it -her duty to leave Lucy, and to follow into the verandah Haggard and his -_fiancée_. Perhaps, after all, this may have been rather a relief to the -lovers, for they had had a long innings that day, no one having presumed -to disturb the numerous _têtes-à-tête_ of the engaged couple. - -Squire Warrender sat asleep in his chair, his face covered by a big -brown bandanna, so that actually Spunyarn and Lucy were practically -alone. But the young lord didn't attempt to renew his attentions to -Lucy. In his own mind Spunyarn perhaps felt that he was well out of it. -Lucy, a past-mistress in the art of flirtation, was delicious as a -friend; as a sweetheart there would have been two sides to the question; -but Lucy Warrender as a wife would have been simply appalling and -impossible. Lucy's bygone escapade with her uncle's second footman--for -failing high game, Lucy Warrender was not above captivating even a -second footman--had been carefully hushed up. It was the cause of the -poor young man's receiving a month's wages on the spot and his -dismissal. For Miss Hood had detected him in passing a very pink-looking -letter to Lucy Warrender. Pinker far than the letter were the face and -ears of the guilty domestic, as he placed the intercepted missive in -Miss Hood's hands, on her sternly ordering him to do so. Of course the -letter was shown to Mr. Warrender; he was very angry under the -circumstances. But the letter of the unfortunate Joseph, though it had -caused him many agonies in its composition, was comic in the extreme. It -was full of what the writer called "pottery;" it was the poor young -fellow's first love letter. Alas, it was a mere answer to a letter of -Lucy's; _she_ had commenced the correspondence; it was she who had -thrown the handkerchief. - -Needless to say Lucy was deported at once, and Madame Planchette's, -_née_ Jones, finishing establishment in the Champs Elyseés received a -fresh pupil. Lucy's _minauderies_ could now only be practised on her -own sex. But even there the girl succeeded in setting the whole house by -the ears; and causing the sudden dismissal of the Italian professor, a -gifted Piedmontese, with a gigantic head of black curly hair and long -but dirty nails. At the end of a year she returned to her uncle's roof, -having achieved an intimate acquaintance with French _argot_; her -accent, however, was undeniable. Miss Warrender, too, now added to her -already dangerous fascinations the charms of a French manner and a -Parisian accent. But her persistent secret studies of the works of -Flaubert, Zola and Co. probably had not improved her mind. As soon as -Miss Hood left the room, Lucy seized the opportunity, on finding herself -thus practically alone with Lord Spunyarn, to give him a rather florid -rendering of "_C'est dans le nez que ça me chatouille_," in which she -out-heroded Herod, and was even more piquante and suggestive than Madame -Chaumont herself. However, it did Spunyarn at all events no harm, French -being a sealed book to him. The strains of the syren at last woke her -uncle, and brought back Miss Hood, who suggested that it was late. And -the party broke up at last at her instigation. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - THE VILLAGE DORCAS. - - -The big room at King's Warren Parsonage was already fairly well filled. -Old Mrs. Wurzel and the buxom but not too well-favoured heiress of the -house of Grains were at the head of the table. Old Mrs. Wurzel was a -personage in her way; she it was who made the annual contract with the -local linen-draper; she it was who, as an adept learned in the art, -officiated at the awful ceremony of "cutting-out"; she it was who, with -infinite trouble, obtained for the school children those antiquated -straw bonnets of a forgotten type, which were the despair of the -juvenile village beauties. She herself had worn them in her youth, and -they were the proper bonnets for "growing girls." But, alas! Nemesis had -arrived; the head coverings worn in country places thirty years ago had -become once more the fashion, and the little maids from school had been -voted by Spunyarn "quite smart people." It was Mrs. Wurzel who with her -own fair but energetic hands had, with her famous cutting-out scissors, -shorn away the luxuriant but obnoxious fringe which Jemima Ann Blogg, -the poacher's daughter, had appeared in at the Confirmation. Jemima Ann -had violently resisted, but her struggles were in vain; in this case the -sheep had not been dumb when in the hands of the shearer: the daughter -of the village Radical had returned to her father's roof weeping, but -shorn. It is true that old Mrs. Wurzel had reluctantly paid to Blogg the -sum of five pounds, under the threat of a summons for assault, but the -honest fellow had honourably kept her secret as he had promised, and -Mrs. Wurzel's reputation, as the champion of virtue and respectability, -had in no way suffered, though she had paid her five pounds for it. - -The vicar's wife, whose principal characteristics were her interest in -missionary work and the saliency of her angles, was a mere priestess in -the little circle of which old Mrs. Wurzel was the permanent -archdruidess. Vicars' wives had come and gone, but all had submitted, -some after a brief struggle, to old Mrs. Wurzel's sway. But Mrs. -Dodd, the present vicar's wife, retained the precious prerogative of -choosing the book to be read at the monthly Dorcas. Mrs. Dodd's choice -was invariably the biography of some missionary; and she did her -best to carry out the idea that a Dorcas meeting should provide -self-mortification for the ladies present, in the shape of coarse work -for the fingers and repellent reading for the mind. - -The village Dorcas was that happy neutral ground where the various ranks -of society met on an equality. Here might be seen the three good-looking -and well-educated daughters of the local draper. Nice girls these, but -under the baleful shadow, the bitter blight of trade. For country -places are very conservative: the squire looks down on the yeoman, the -doctor and the lawyer, all three of whom consider themselves -considerably taller in social stature than the tenant farmer, who in his -turn will eat no bread and drink no water in the houses of those -Rechabites, the tradesmen. All these people, however, join in despising -the rich stockbroker who has recently purchased the pretentious place -which he calls "The Park;" the gates of which are almost celestial, -being of bright gilded iron work. The unfortunate inhabitant of "The -Park," notwithstanding his well-appointed barouche and his men in -livery, is but a pariah. For not a year ago, till the big corner -occurred in Mex. Rails in which he made his pile, little Sleek, of Sleek -and Dabbler, of Throgmorton Street, had "been to business" every -morning. Sleek now passes his time in good works, he takes a great -interest in local affairs, and, unless he flings the whole matter up in -a rage, he may yet become a justice of the peace. Sleek finds it far -harder work than fortune-making; but he pursues his Will-o'-the-Wisp -with untiring energy. So do we all. It is for this, that Sleek -contributes so liberally to the local charities. It is for this, that -the two Misses Sleek, clad in shining raiment of needlework, are seated -at the big table, pursuing the unromantic occupation of hemming -huckaback towels of a more than Spartan coarseness. But something has -been already gained by the monthly martyrdom; Mrs. Dodd and her -sister-in-law the ethereal Anastatia address them as "dear," and they -have a bowing acquaintance, which they energetically attempt to -increase, with, the Misses Warrender. - -Within this charmed circle the veterinary surgeon's womankind and the -grocer's daughters also dare to tread, but they are there merely on -sufferance. The line must be drawn somewhere, and the vicar's wife, as -did her predecessor, drew it at that man of blood, the harmless Kubble, -the local butcher. He and the rest of those shut out from Paradise -sought their enjoyment, and a perhaps more congenial society, at those -buttery banquets, the tea meetings of the local Little Bethel. Thus, as -in most country places, Dissent was at a premium among the humbler -classes, and possibly the continued assertion of their position by the -clergy of the State has had a good deal to do with the spread of Dissent -in other villages than King's Warren. - -There were at least a dozen ladies seated round the big table at the -Parsonage. Our friends Lucy and Georgina were among the number, their -simple muslins strikingly contrasting with the more elaborate garments -of the Misses Sleek. Anastatia Dodd fluttered (it is the only word) -round the workers, as they plied their busy needles; she "gave out" the -various garments, or portions thereof, of mysterious shape; and as she -did so whispered her little word of welcome, her little chirrup of -harmless gossip to each. Mrs. Dodd who sat at the bottom of the table as -vice-chairmaness, now opened a thick black book in which various markers -of coloured paper had been inserted. "I think we are all here," she -said, as she put on her spectacles in a determined manner, and ominously -cleared her throat. Nobody disputed this proposition; the hum of -conversation ceased. - -"I think we left off at the second appendix, which contained letters -from the wife of the lamented subject of the biography. I will now -continue. - - "'Quashi-Bungo, - "'July 21st, 18--. - - "'DEAREST MARY, - - "'I received your welcome letter and the boxes of stores. You - were quite right when you said that I seemed to be launching out - in the matter of outfit. But I suddenly find myself (under - Providence) a means of civilization to the poor benighted - natives. These unfortunate heathen, until our arrival, had no - sense of propriety. M'Bongo, the great chief of this - neighbourhood, paid a ceremonial visit to my husband. Of course - we understood that he would wear the court costume of the - Kukulokos. I seized the opportunity to watch what I supposed - would be a most interesting interview, from behind a curtain. Oh - Mary, what was my indignation when I saw the nasty savage enter - our dear little morning room! His great shock head of woolly - hair was dyed a bright yellow with quicklime, in his ears were a - pair of huge ear-rings of massive gold that made my mouth water. - (William told me afterwards that they were worth at least fifty - pounds). On his head was the second-hand hat of some _parvenu's_ - coachman, gold lace, cockade and all. Fancy my horror, dear - Mary, my terror, indignation and astonishment, when I perceived - that the rest of his costume merely consisted of a thick layer - of palm oil, with which the wretch had covered his disgusting - body. I saw no more; I need not say I fainted from the mingled - effects of terror, indignation, and astonishment. On coming to, - William told me that the courtiers, some twenty in number, wore - precisely the same costume, minus the hat and ear-rings. - - "'Such, dear Mary, was the degraded condition of M'Bongo and his - court on our arrival; but it has been my happy lot (under - Providence) to change all this, and my endeavours have not been - without even an earthly reward. Only think, Mary, M'Bongo's - ear-rings are now my own, my very own. They will reach you by - the hands of Mr. Mackenzie, a worldly-minded Scotch merchant, - but honest as to earthly things. On no account, dear Mary, in - disposing of these priceless treasures, have anything to do with - the jewellers, who I am told are extremely dishonest persons. - You had better try to sell them to the South Kensington Museum - as _curios_, or at some fashionable bazaar; or failing these, - to some wealthy but unworldly person, who takes an interest in - our working in Africa. Do not forget to mention that they are - _royal_ ear-rings.'" - -Here one of the Miss Sleeks coughed, but the broad grin on her face -subsided instantly under the severe look which Mrs. Dodd gave her over -her spectacles. After a short pause and a snort of indignation, the -vicar's wife continued: - - "'I have been the blessed instrument, dear Mary, of a great work - in this country. M'Bongo and his whole court are now clothed, I - am happy to say, at least to a certain extent. The greater - portion of the royal garments have been obtained from me; - unfortunately I have been compelled to take payment in cattle - and grain. You remember my scarlet rep underskirt, the one I - wore so much during our last winter in dear old England; with a - little alteration at the waist, to which I have added a green - velvet collar, and an additional placket hole (through which the - royal arms are thrust), and wearing my galoshes, M'Bongo - attended service here yesterday for the first time. Both garment - and galoshes were quite useless to me in this hot country. - William was unable to persuade him to remove the cockaded hat, - which he, in his benighted way, looks upon as a royal crown; but - as my husband's is the only other hat in the country, this does - not perhaps much matter. William has thus been happily able to - report to the society the approaching conversion of M'Bongo and - his imminent civilization. The poor king, however, complains - much of the heat, and I am sorry to say only wears these robes - on ceremonial occasions. Still it has been a great, great - comfort to us both. - - "'Yours lovingly, - - "'AMELIA REES.' - -"Many such interesting letters were received from our self-sacrificing -countrywoman up to the death of her husband and fellow-worker. The sad -end of the mission to King M'Bongo has been narrated in the body of this -work. But Mrs. Rees was loth to leave her sphere in Africa, and is now -happily married to Alonzo P. Jones, an energetic coloured Baptist -minister, of Cape Coast Castle." - -There was a universal sigh of relief. - -"I wonder whether she wears the ear-rings?" remarked the elder Miss -Sleek pertly. - -"Perhaps they were the attraction to Alonzo P. Jones," suggested her -sister, as she triumphantly folded and smoothed her second completed -towel. - -"It's always the way with them," sighed Miss Grains, who suffered from a -complication of romantic tendency and very tight stays. "It's the money -that attracts them, and possibly Mrs. Rees might have been Mrs. Rees to -the end of the chapter, if it hadn't been for the ear-rings and the sale -of her old clothes for countless flocks and herds." - -"Doubtless Miss Grains speaks from painful experience, my dears," -retorted Mrs. Dodd, with a severe look at her victim; "but you may be -quite certain that the acquisition of the ear-rings and the sale of the -clothes were but the blessed means to an end, a mere spoiling of the -Egyptians, that _the work_ might progress." - -"In fact, a robbing of Peter to pay Paul," suggested Lucy Warrender, but -without raising her eyes from her work. - -The needle of the archdruidress broke, as she shook her head viciously -at the scoffer. "Ah, my dear, you shouldn't laugh at sacred things," -said the elder lady. - -"But I don't look upon Mrs. Rees as a sacred thing," cried Lucy, not to -be intimidated. - -"A person no one would wish to know," chimed in Miss Sleek. - -"Ah, but think how she loved the blacks, and gave herself up to them," -cooed the vicaress, in a tone intended at the same time to convey -instruction and reproof. - -"Nasty thing," retorted Lucy, with biting sarcasm. "I suppose it was -because she loved the blacks and gave herself up to them, that she -married the energetic negro ranter with the dreadful name." - -This proved too much for Mrs. Dodd. "I am surprised and ashamed, Lucy -Warrender, at your attempt to depreciate the noble self-immolation of -dear Mrs. Jones. Of course it is a great privilege to be married to a -clergyman, a very precious privilege, but when he is a negro and a -Baptist--hum--I suppose I must say clergyman, then a woman's life must -be indeed a martyrdom." - -"I suppose he beats her?" asked one of the draper's daughters of the -experienced Mrs. Wurzel. - -"I sincerely trust he does," broke in the irreverent Lucy. - -Just at this moment the door was hurriedly opened, and the Reverend John -Dodd entered the room. He was a stout man, his principal characteristics -being an intense pleasure in ladies' society, and an obliviousness of -the fact that he was no longer the pale slim young curate of earlier -days. A life of almost absolute inactivity, which was forced upon him by -his wife's jealousy of the rest of the sex, had rendered the muscular -young Dodd of Oriel a perfect Daniel Lambert. Little irreverent boys -from the village corners were in the habit of shouting "Jumbo" at the -poor vicar. He was accustomed to pursue them, but in vain; a stern chase -is proverbially a long chase, and poor Mr. Dodd's futile efforts to -capture his persecutors had become a bye-word. But the Reverend John -Dodd's weak point, the red rag to the bull, the bee in his bonnet, was -his devotion to the fair sex. Handsome Jack Dodd, as he had been once -called, in his undergraduate and curate days, had been accustomed to -find his attentions very highly appreciated. The habit grew on him, -love-sick maidens sighed, and love-sick maidens wept, but all in vain. -Handsome Jack Dodd, a very clerical butterfly, flitted from flower to -flower. His admiration was freely, openly, ardently expressed for every -variety of female beauty. Was Jack Dodd a flirt? Not a bit of it; he was -merely a fancier, just as there are pigeon fanciers and poultry -fanciers; so Handsome Jack Dodd was a fancier, an admirer, a worshipper -of the entire female sex: that is to say, the select specimens of it. -What he could have seen in Canon Drivel's daughter who can say? though, -when he married Cecilia Drivel, she was a well-known light of London. -She it was who, in the severity of her classic and rather imperial -beauty, had posed to Mahlstick, R.A., for his well-known picture of -Judith with the head of Holofernes. Alas! for poor Jack Dodd, he had -assisted at the numerous sittings. He it was who had had the honour of -sitting (that is to say lying prone on a bedstead of the period) for the -headless trunk of Holofernes. To lie prone on a bedstead of any period, -and have nothing to do for two mortal hours but gaze on the classic -proportions of any lady--for Mahlstick was a strict disciplinarian and -discouraged conversation--is enough to seal the fate of any man, even if -he were of a less inflammable type than Handsome Jack. Miss Drivel was -her father's only daughter, and ambitious; but four seasons, during -which she was much admired, but never once received a serious offer, had -warned the waning beauty not to neglect her opportunities. Miss Drivel -was a lady of no imagination and strong will; the interest of her -father, a notorious pluralist, was very great: Cecilia Drivel was -determined to marry Dodd. She did so, and her victim became her obedient -slave, and was duly inducted to the fat living of King's Warren. In all -things Jack Dodd, as the weaker vessel, yielded to his wife. He had but -one drawback in her eyes, he retained his passion, his innocent passion, -for the fair sex. At the shrine of beauty he remained a constant and -ecstatic worshipper. This was Mrs. Dodd's cross, and she had to bear it. -An idle life at King's Warren Parsonage, and frequent dinner parties, -for the Reverend John Dodd was a popular man, had caused Handsome Jack -to expand into a very Falstaff. Alas, anxiety had had precisely the -reverse effect upon the vicar's wife. The once statuesque "Judith" had -disappeared, and Mrs. Dodd's characteristics were now high principle and -bone. - -"Busy as usual, my dear," said the vicar to his wife, as he proceeded -to welcome each member of the female bevy in turn, devoting perhaps a -little more time than was necessary to handsome Miss Warrender and her -cousin. - -Mrs. Dodd closed the thick black book with a slap. "I suppose work is -over now for the day; you really should not intrude on our Dorcas, -John," she said in a severe tone. - -"My dear, it is my duty to encourage my parishioners in good works, nay, -it is my pleasure," replied the parson. - -"No one doubts it, Mr. Dodd," said the vicaress in an icy manner. - -But Mrs. Dodd was evidently in a minority. The ladies crowded round -their popular vicar. It is easy to spoil a man, and the Reverend John -Dodd had been much spoilt by his parishioners, and seemed to like the -process. - -And now a whispered conference took place between the Misses Sleek. -With smiles and conscious blushes, the elder sister addressed the -vicar. "Oh, dear Mr. Dodd, we do so want you to do us a favour," she -faltered. - -"Granted, my dear young lady, granted before it is asked." - -Mrs. Dodd vainly sought to fix her husband with a freezing look, and -gazed appealingly at old Mrs. Wurzel, but that experienced matron had -been present at many similar scenes, and was rather amused than -otherwise, to watch the discomfiture of the vicar's imperious wife. Mrs. -Wurzel's eagle eye detected the little parcel which the younger Miss -Sleek hesitatingly attempted to hold towards the vicar. "It is our own -work, dear Mr. Dodd," she said, "and we hope, we do hope, we do _so_ -hope that you will accept them." - -"And wear them too," chimed in her sister. - -In an elaborate box, from which Miss Sleek rapidly tore the paper in -which it was wrapped, and hurriedly opened, lay a dozen bands of the -latest ecclesiastical fashion. - -"Oh ladies, dear ladies, so you equip your faithful knight for the fray; -accept my grateful thanks, my very grateful thanks," sighed the vicar. - -"So pleased you like them, dear Mr. Dodd," chorused the stockbroker's -daughters. - -The triumphs of decorative millinery were passed from hand to hand. - -"They never made these," muttered old Mrs. Wurzel to herself, as she -critically held one up to the light. "The minxes," she inwardly added. -Mrs. Wurzel was quite right; they had been supplied, regardless of cost, -from Messrs. Rochet and Stole's well-known establishment. - -"Ah," purred Lucy Warrender, "the ladies used to arm their knights with -their own fair hands in the days of chivalry." - -The parson laughed. "And have the days of chivalry departed, ladies?" -he said, protruding his head, much as the unconscious aldermanic turtle -is said to protrude his, when awaiting the fatal stroke. - -Conny Sleek, the younger and bolder of the two, looked at her sister; -the elder girl nodded maliciously. - -Conny stepped smilingly forward, and proceeded to affix the band around -the vicar's massive throat. - -Fat Jack Dodd was in his glory; "Jumbo" was in the seventh heaven of -bliss. A smile of beatitude spread over his enormous countenance during -the process. But it suddenly disappeared, as a sharp slam of the door -announced the sudden departure of his indignant wife, the outraged -Cecilia. Will it ever dawn on Mrs. Dodd's mind, that parsons, even -married parsons, are but men? - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - WALLS END CASTLE. - - -Walls End Castle was the seat of John, Earl of Pit Town. It had come -into the family through the marriage of a former earl with the heiress -of the great Chudleigh family. It was one of England's show places. The -great park which surrounded it was one of the most celebrated in all -England, celebrated alike for its size and its beauty. The entry to the -park was never denied to artists; and they, their easels, and their -umbrellas, might be seen at the various well-known "bits" all through -the summer and autumn. The boys of the Elizabethan Grammar School had -also the privilege of roaming in the park; and time had been when the -people of the neighbouring town and the public generally were admitted; -but excursionists had arrived in crowds, they had destroyed the poetry -of the place with pieces of greasy newspaper, broken bottles, ham bones, -and the remains of their Homeric banquets. They had shouted and whistled -in the great picture galleries, they had written their names upon the -window panes, they had committed all the innumerable offences that such -people do commit; but the final straw which determined the present earl -to exclude them, was their having played at the game of -Kiss-in-the-ring, one Whit-Monday, directly under the windows of the -noble owner. After that memorable day, Lord Pit Town kept his castle and -his park to himself. - -His lordship during the earlier part of his reign never came near Walls -End Castle. The widowed earl travelled continuously in Southern Europe. -He travelled, and he collected pictures, statuary, gems, plate, -china--nothing came amiss to him. But John, Earl of Pit Town, was wise -in his generation; he remembered that "if you sup with the devil, it is -best to use a long spoon." He never purchased without an expert's aid; -consequently the immense collection he had gradually accumulated was -free from rubbish. Nothing doubtful or "reputed" ever arrived in the -huge packing-cases consigned to Walls End Castle. For years his lordship -was seldom seen in London, the great house in Grosvenor Square was never -opened. When Lord Pit Town was in England, he stayed at Long's Hotel. -Friends he had none; his doctor and his courier were the people who saw -most of him. But as years rolled on his lordship grew tired of travel, -his well-known figure, in the short blue cloak and velvet collar, was -seen no more in the great picture galleries of Europe. Lord Pit Town now -commenced the work of his life, the building of the new galleries at -Walls End Castle. Winter and summer the little old man, for he was over -sixty now, might be seen in the blue cloak, inspecting the growth of the -vast galleries with a critical eye. Emilius Wolff, his German architect, -was his constant companion. The great Mr. Buskin paid him a yearly -visit; on these occasions Dr. Wolff (for Wolff was a doctor of -philosophy) joined his lordship and the great art-critic at dinner. At -length the great Pit Town collection was housed as it deserved to be. -Its principal feature was the picture gallery. This was a vast building -of classical design, resembling a Grecian temple. Dr. Wolff was a -Berliner, and the tradition of Berlin is that a picture gallery should -resemble a Greek temple. The vast galleries were probably among the best -in Europe. They were lighted and heated to perfection. But the great -galleries had one peculiarity; at irregular intervals along the wall -were blank spaces of varying size; in the centre of each space was a -label in his lordship's own writing: on these labels were inscribed the -names of various great painters. It was now the only business of the -Earl of Pit Town to gradually fill these spaces, each with a -representative masterpiece of the artist indicated. Possibly John, Earl -of Pit Town, notwithstanding his boundless wealth, could hardly hope to -complete such a work in his own lifetime. The great Mr. Abrahams had an -unlimited commission to secure at any price, a long list of great works. -There was but one condition attached, any purchase must be above -suspicion. But even the great Mr. Abrahams, on one notable occasion at -least, had been deceived. A new acquisition, purchased from the -collection of a wealthy amateur in the Rue Drouot, had arrived at Walls -End Castle. A furious controversy concerning this picture had arisen -among art critics. Herr Vandenbossche had defended the authenticity of -the work, but old Mr. Creeps had demolished him in an exhaustive article -in the _Friday Review_. Old Mr. Creeps was considerably astonished at -receiving an almost affectionate letter from Lord Pit Town. His lordship -thanked him for the article, and requested what he termed "the exceeding -great pleasure of receiving you here;" the letter was dated from Walls -End Castle. Old Mr. Creeps accepted the invitation for a couple of days. -On his arrival at the local railway station he was met by his lordship -in person. Lord Pit Town, one of the proudest and most exclusive of men, -treated old Mr. Creeps with marked deference. At dinner, at which John -Buskin and Dr. Wolff were present, conversation ran purely upon art -matters. Old Mr. Creeps, the critic, had never enjoyed himself so much; -the sitting was prolonged till the small hours. Next day, at noon, the -council of four sat in solemn conclave upon Lord Pit Town's latest -purchase. Old Mr. Creeps triumphantly proved his case. Lord Pit Town -looked at Mr. Buskin. Mr. Buskin nodded. "Well, Wolff?" remarked his -lordship. - -"It is onhappy, most onhappy," replied the doctor of philosophy, "but I -fear it is drue, too drue." - -"What will your lordship do with it?" said old Mr. Creeps. - -"You shall see," replied that eminent collector with a smile, as he -advanced to the easel on which the doubtful picture stood. His lordship -opened his penknife, carefully and quietly he cut the canvas out of the -frame, he folded it in half; again he cut it, as though he were cutting -up a sheet of brown paper; he repeated the process several times, then, -handing the pieces to the German, he merely remarked, "Oblige me by -burning these, Wolff." - -"They shall make a vamous blaze," said the philosopher, as he left the -room to carry out the sentence. - -"Would that all collectors could afford to do the same, Lord Pit Town," -remarked John Buskin with a sigh. - -"Your lordship has done a noble act," cheerfully cried old Mr. Creeps, -as he rubbed his hands. "Of course you will trounce Abrahams. When the -artistic world hears of this morning's work, Lord Pit Town, it will know -what it owes to England's most distinguished amateur." - -"No, no, Mr. Creeps. I must ask you to keep this business a secret; no -cheap popularity for me," replied the old lord. - -"Cheap!" echoed the critic, as he raised his eyes to the skylight. "Good -heavens! he calls it cheap," whispered the old man to John Buskin. - -"His lordship is right," was the oracle's oracular reply. - -Men said that Lord Pit Town was eccentric. Gossips said that he was mad. -Perhaps after all he was only honest according to his lights. Next day -the handsome frame, carefully packed, was returned to Mr. Abrahams; it -was duly deducted from his account. But he got his cheque for the price -of the picture, and his very liberal commission. - -In vain did the artists who frequented Walls End Park attempt to stalk -the old nobleman in his lonely walks. They never succeeded in selling -him a picture from the easel. "Capital, capital," his lordship would -remark with great alacrity, when there was no other way of escape. The -eldest Miss Solomonson, the most talented member of that clever Hebrew -family--she is great at animals--tried to shoot the wary old lord with -her well-known picture of "The Timid Fawn," but she ignominiously -failed. - -"The old wretch called me 'my dear,' and said he liked my sky, when I -hadn't even indicated the sky," she indignantly remarked to her amused -father. - -Miss Solomonson's masses of jetty hair, and the fire from the glances of -her oriental eyes, were said to have melted the stony hearts even of -dealers who were her co-religionists. But with all her advantages Miss -Solomonson failed with the old lord, and she abuses him to this day. She -had her revenge, however, for in her well-known Academy picture of the -following year, "Balaam and his Ass," the angel was represented by a -glorified portrait of Miss Solomonson herself, who glared down in an -indignant manner upon the terrified and kneeling Balaam. Old Mr. Creeps -and the other art-critics chuckled as they recognized the angelic -portrait; but they chuckled still more, when they saw that the terrified -Balaam was but an ill-natured caricature of John, Earl of Pit Town. - -"I'd have done him as the ass, you know, only he was too ugly. I hope -he'll like the figures better than the sky this time," snorted the -indignant Hebrew maiden. - -The curse of the Earl of Pit Town's life was the so-called gallery of -old masters in Walls End Castle. He couldn't sell them; he couldn't burn -them; he was even compelled to insure them, to his intense disgust. For -when a former lord had inherited Walls End Castle from the Chudleighs, -old masters had been the fashion; and the purchaser, delighted with his -toy, had made the pictures heirlooms. But the present lord had shut up -what to him was a mere chamber of horrors. He and Dr. Wolff had actually -composed a catalogue _raisonné_ of the entire collection, in which the -fictitious nature of the claims to respect of each monstrous daub was -triumphantly demonstrated. The sprawling Rubenses were shown to be but -inferior copies, the Paul Veronese was proved a transparent sham, while -the great Vandyck, representing the Martyr-King seated on a gigantic -grey horse, was demonstrated to be but a wretched replica of a miserable -original. There they hung, the old Pit Town heirlooms, grimy with dirt; -for as the old lord used to say, "To have cleaned them would have been -only to make their natural hideousness still more apparent." Each -picture bore a label, giving a true description of the once-honoured -gem. Alas! these veracious tablets cruelly contrasted with the -flourishes of the old housekeeper's descriptions. - -Two only of his heirlooms had stood the crucial inspections of Lord Pit -Town and his experts. These were the great Raphael, and the celebrated -portrait of Barbara Chudleigh, the well-known beauty of Charles the -Second's time, by Sir Peter Lely. Wicked Bab Chudleigh, as a wood nymph, -simpered upon the walls of the new gallery in which the Chudleigh -Raphael occupied the post of honour. - -We have seen what manner of man John, Earl of Pit Town, was. We have -seen how his heirlooms troubled him not a little. We have seen how he -passed his life with the faithful Wolff at Walls End Castle, patiently -waiting to fill the numerous blanks on the walls of the new galleries, -in fact to accomplish his destiny. For if ever there was a born -collector, a real collector, to whom the actual intrinsic value of a -painting was absolutely of no importance, it was John, Earl of Pit Town. -And this indifference to the value at the hammer of their acquisitions, -marks the distinction between the genuine collector or connoisseur and -the ruck of the people who buy pictures; the bulk of whom are after all -but amateur dealers. When the successful stock-jobber leaves off dealing -in shares and takes to art, he merely deals in another more or less -intangible security of very fluctuating value. With childlike confidence -he follows the advice of some more or less honest dealer. He buys from -the easel with a hope of a "rapid rise." Works are knocked down to him -at Christie's simply because they are apparently cheap, and he is -carrying out the old axiom of his trade, "always buy rubbish." In the -same way he is perpetually buying and selling pictures upon the time -honoured maxim of Capel Court, "nail your profit, and cut your loss." He -will even go so far as to develop a taste for a particular master in -the hope that he may succeed ultimately in making a "corner" in that -special security. And the sole dream of such a man is the result in -pounds, shillings and pence of the auction that will inevitably take -place at his death. The possession of a certain number of valuable works -of art confers an amount of distinction upon their proprietor, and -Brown, who as Brown is a nobody, becomes a somebody as the owner of the -Brown collection. Of this fact Manchester "men" and Liverpool -"gentlemen" are well aware. But, as has been seen, a deep gulf divided -these amateur dealers from John, Earl of Pit Town. - -The old earl's property, the source of his wealth, as from his title the -reader will have shrewdly guessed, was in collieries. With the -management of these, however, the Earl of Pit Town did not trouble -himself. His various agents paid yearly increasing sums into that -aristocratic bank in the Strand, which never allows interest on -deposits, which never advises any investment except Consols, and whose -clerks from time immemorial have worn white chokers. - -For many years it had been the old lord's habit to entertain those -members of his family, never exceeding four in number, who were nearest -to the title. Twice a year the formal invitation was sent out by the old -nobleman to his only son, and to his two nephews. Once in the height of -the summer and once at Christmas these invitations were issued. They -were never refused, for their recipients looked upon them much in the -light of a royal command. - -Lord Hetton, the earl's only son, and his heir, was always one of the -guests on these occasions; to him it was an exceedingly unpleasant time; -for father and son had quarrelled years ago, the old lord having sternly -declined to increase his son's very liberal allowance of five thousand a -year. A man can do a great deal on five thousand a year, but not much -is left for the annuitant when he is possessed by the idea that, some -day or other, it will be his good fortune to win the Derby. In all other -things but race-horses, Hetton was a man of frugal mind. For the sake of -his stud he had remained a bachelor; for he felt that were he to marry, -yet another obstacle would be raised to the attainment of his ambition. -Ever since his majority Lord Hetton had annually entered a colt in the -great race. His nominations had on two occasions even run into places. -Four years ago Hetton's horse had been first favourite, but it was -ignominiously beaten. This very year, that rank outsider, Dark Despair, -who, starting at sixty to one, had just been beaten on the post, was the -property of his persevering, but unlucky, lordship. Twice a year did -Lord Hetton present himself at Walls End Castle. He used to walk through -the park, and note with pleasure the care that his father bestowed on -the gigantic property. It pleased him to see how well kept was -everything about the place. It gratified him to find his opinions -deferentially listened to by the steward, and to perceive that year by -year the family solicitors treated him with a still greater -obsequiousness. But in his heart, he cursed what he called his father's -folly, as he looked at the new galleries; and he would have liked to -stamp and swear, as at every visit he dutifully admired each new and -costly acquisition of the old earl's. He would walk discontentedly up -and down the old picture gallery where hung the worthless heirlooms -that, in the ordinary course of nature, must one day be his own: and he -wondered whether he should ever possess the Golconda contained in the -new galleries. Perhaps it was only human nature that caused him to -watch, and watch in vain, for any apparent sign of increasing infirmity -in the old earl. But he never quarrelled with his father, for on the -morning of his departure from the paternal roof, he was accustomed to -receive a very considerable _solatium_ to his wounded feelings, in the -shape of a heavy cheque on the bank in the Strand. The amount of this -cheque was invariable; it kept Hetton on his good behaviour, and he had -learned to look upon it as part of his allowance. On one memorable -occasion he had presumed to remonstrate with his father on the enormous -cost of his last artistic acquisitions; the earl had merely shrugged his -shoulders. That visit had been indignantly remembered by Lord Hetton, -for when the venerable connoisseur bade his lordship good-bye, there had -been no cheque, though there was no change in his lordship's manner -towards his son. - -Mr. Haggard, of the Home Office, a faultlessly-dressed gentleman, whose -principal characteristic was his brilliant whist, which it was said -brought him in a certain but variable income, was the next heir in -direct succession; he was the nephew of his lordship, and a childless -bachelor. His presence, also, always graced Walls End Castle at the -regulation periods. - -Mr. John Haggard, of Ash Priory, the father of big Reginald, was always -the third guest. John Haggard, the second nephew of Lord Pit Town, was a -J.P. for his county, of the Shakespearian type. He was fond of good -living, his eye was severe, and his beard of sober cut. He embodied the -law, in his own immediate neighbourhood, to the intense terror of local -delinquents. He had meted out stern justice to his own son, when he had -banished big Reginald to South America; but he had his virtues. He lived -within his means, he entertained his neighbours at rather heavy dinners, -he gave his wife and daughters a fortnight in town during the season, -and he habitually took the first prize at the county show for black -pigs. He never forgot that he was third in succession to the title. He -never doubted his capacity, should he ever be called to occupy the -position of a hereditary legislator; and now that his son had returned a -considerably wealthier man than he himself was, he chuckled, when in his -mind's eye he thought of him as some day bearing the courtesy title of -Lord Hetton. - -The earl and the doctor of philosophy sat at breakfast in a little oak -wainscoted room whose windows commanded a full view of the new -galleries. In this little room the galleries had been designed; the -windows had looked upon the commencement of the great work. An army of -navvies had dug out the earth for the gigantic foundations. Then arose a -very forest of scaffold-poles. Two huge steam engines had snorted and -puffed for three whole years. A colossal steam "traveller" had -ceaselessly carried great blocks of stone and long steel girders from -point to point. The clink of the stone-masons' chisels had resounded -year after year from morning till night. Then came the carpenters, and -the noise of their busy hammers had been deafening. When not actually -on the works, Lord Pit Town had viewed them from the window of his -favourite room. But scaffold poles, steam engines and labourers had -disappeared; the rubbish had been cleared away, and the huge white block -stood out in the clear air; dominating the grey weather-stained gables -of Walls End Castle much as Aladdin's palace is said to have dominated -the more ancient but less magnificent residence of his father-in-law the -Emperor of China. There was an air of spick-and-spanness about the whole -thing that annoyed the earl. The new galleries had been finished four -whole years, but they still looked painfully fresh. - -"I hear that I am to have the pleasure of welcoming another of your -lordship's relatives this year," said the doctor of philosophy to the -earl. - -"Yes; Wolff 'where the carcase is there shall the eagles be gathered -together.' I have kept them waiting for some years, and I don't feel a -bit like dying, Wolff. Though I confess I dread Hetton's critical -examination. He always looks me over in his stud-groom sort of way. But -I suppose, as he is my nearest relative, it is but natural he should be -anxious about my health. As for the young fellow, I have never even seen -him. My nephew wished to bring him, and he is about to marry. In fact he -and his father will be the only married men among my direct heirs." - -"And does the young man love art?" - -"No. I think his talents are confined to spending money and getting into -trouble. But my nephew tells me that he is now going to forswear sack -and live cleanly." - -"That is what I cannot understand, my lord. I had a cold the other day, -a most severe cold. I tell the young man to bring me a cup of sack; he -sends to me the butler. I say to him, 'Give me the sack.' He replied to -me, 'I cannot do that, sir, it's only his lordship can do that.' What -is, then, this precious drink I read of in my Shakespeare--so precious, -that your lordship will not trust him to his butler? And now you tell me -that your nephew will drink him no more. I never see your lordship drink -him. Has, then, your lordship forsworn him too?" - -His lordship laughed as he finished his coffee. "No one drinks sack -now-a-days, Wolff, and the quotation was merely figurative; while the -other sack the butler talked about was but a vulgarism used by his -class. You will never get that either, in my lifetime at least." - -"I understand it not. But your grand-nephew, the young man, it pleases -you that he shall marry?" - -"It is indifferent to me, Wolff; if I can only live to fill the vacant -wall spaces in the new galleries, I can seriously say, _après moi le -déluge_. But here comes the first arrival." - -One of his lordship's close carriages was coming up the great chestnut -avenue; Lord Hetton was its sole occupant. As the old butler received -him in the hall, with the deference due to his master's son, the -sporting nobleman laughingly commiserated him. - -"We have neither of us any luck, Russell, as usual," he said. "I thought -I had a real good thing this time. As usual, I put you on for a fiver, -Russell; as usual, it didn't come off." Lord Hetton was of a frugal -mind. He was continually presenting innumerable imaginary fivers to -little people. He was always putting them on for them at tremendous -odds, but the good things never came off, and the recipients of his -favours were never informed of his munificence _till after the event_. - -"I most humbly thank your lordship," replied the butler with an air of -profound gratitude, as he chuckled in his sleeve. For the old man too -was of a sporting turn. He knew all about Dark Despair, and annually he -had carefully laid the odds against Lord Hetton's nomination for the -great race. - -"The same rooms, I suppose, Russell?" - -"Always the same rooms, your lordship." - -Lord Hetton mechanically proceeded to his quarters. - -On joining the earl, father and son met as if they had parted only the -previous day. The pursuits of neither interested the other. Art and -horse-flesh were subjects tabooed by mutual consent. A desultory -conversation on politics, in which neither took the slightest interest, -was a safe neutral ground. It was with a feeling of relief on both sides -that the arrival of Mr. Haggard, of the Home Office, was announced. His -lordship retired shortly to his study, Hetton and Mr. Haggard betook -themselves to the billiard-room. - -At dinner the family party was increased by the presence of John Haggard -and his son, both of whom were well received by the earl, who now saw -his grand-nephew for the first time. Big Reginald's magnificent -physique made its due impression; his father was evidently proud of him, -and the old lord congratulated the young man on his approaching -marriage. - -Reginald Haggard was not diffident, he truckled to no one. He frankly -avowed to his grand uncle that he knew nothing of art. When his lordship -retired early, as was his custom, the other men adjourned once more to -the billiard-room. Big Reginald took their lives at pool, and pocketed -their half-crowns in an easy genial way, which almost made losing a -pleasure. - -During the fortnight in which Lord Pit Town entertained his relatives, -nothing occurred to mar the harmony of the meeting. During that -fortnight Big Reginald got on friendly terms with everybody. - -Nothing seemed to overawe or intimidate the ingenuous youth. He saw with -evident pleasure the outward and visible signs of the old earl's immense -wealth. As he looked round upon the priceless collection in the new -galleries, as he thought of the old nobleman's huge estates, he -remembered that the investment that Mr. Hyam Hyams had made in his own -contingent post obits was probably a good one; he prudently determined -to pay off the Jew as soon as he should realize his American properties. -In his own mind he determined already that, should he ever be his -great-uncle's successor, he would distribute the great Pit Town -collection to the four winds of heaven. But he made one mental -reservation, as he stood before Sir Peter Lely's masterpiece, and gazed -on the lovely features and roving eye of "Wicked Bab Chudleigh:" "A -monstrous fine girl. Yes, I should stick to her." If Reginald Haggard -did come into the estates after all, and did "stick to her," she would -be the first one of her sex he had ever stuck to. - -Walls End Castle, when the party broke up, returned to its normal state. -The earl and the philosopher continued the even tenour of their ways. -Lord Hetton took away his big cheque, which was duly honoured at the -old-fashioned bank in the Strand. A cheque for a like amount had been -given to Reginald Haggard by the earl. "Buy something for your wife -that-is-to-be," he said to his grand-nephew, as he handed him the folded -paper. "Warrender was one of my friends years ago, when I had friends," -said the old nobleman with a sigh "They are good old-fashioned people -the Warrenders, and honest. Don't thank me," he said, as he shook hands -with the young fellow. "Of course you will come here with your father in -the winter. I shall hope to see the new Mrs. Haggard too," he added. -"Good-bye. I shall send you a formal invitation." - -When big Reginald told his father of this interview, as they were -driving to the station, Justice Haggard did not conceal his -satisfaction. "He will outlive all of _us_, my boy, Hetton into the -bargain. Who knows but _you_ may be one day Earl of Pit Town? Keep in -with the old man if you can. His place, as you have seen, is perfect, -all but the piggeries. He doesn't go in for pigs though, he goes in for -pictures--every man to his taste. I prefer pigs." - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - AT THE PANDEMONIUM CLUB. - - -It was Wednesday night; over forty men sat down to the house-dinner at -the Pandemonium Club. As usual the dinner was _recherché_, for the -Pandemonium _chef_ enjoyed a world-wide reputation. It is to be feared -that the attractions of the house-dinner were not the sole inducement to -many of those sitting there. A house-dinner always secured a large party -in the card-room afterwards, and though the Pandemonium was a celebrated -dining club, it was notoriously also a gambling one. Though the -Pandemonium was a gambler's paradise, and many scandals had occurred -there, yet the dirty linen had been always washed at home, and the exact -details of these affairs had never leaked out. Young Spooner, of the -Foreign Office, Sir John Spooner's, the Warwickshire baronet, eldest -son, had certainly left London as fourth secretary to the Teheran -Embassy, where he still remained; while Rolls, a briefless barrister, -who was fond of backing himself at the whist table, had taken his name -off the books, though he had honourably paid his losses, and suddenly -accepted the not over-brilliant position of an Assistant-Judgeship on -the Gold Coast: pay there was high and promotion rapid, but no one had -ever been known to live long enough to take a pension. - -Magnums of the driest and most expensive champagne seemed to be the -favourite beverage. But the whisters as a rule drank claret, in -anticipation of the more serious _business_ that was sure to follow the -weekly house-dinner. Captains Spotstroke and Pool were equally careful; -the rest of those present drank freely. The elaborate dessert was -followed by a general move. Old Sir Peter Growler and Canon Drivel, -D.D., retired to the smoke-room, where they retailed their old, but -exceedingly improper anecdotes, to a select circle of the very youngest -men. In the billiard-room, pool at half sovereign lives, was commenced, -and promised to run into the small hours--a sure harvest for Captains -Spotstroke and Pool. In confidence it may be said that Spotstroke's -little place in the south of Ireland only existed in his own -imagination, his rents being entirely derived from his skill with his -cue, and the certain income that he extracted from the very safe little -book that he made on most of the great events of the year. A small -contingent of the members hurried off to applaud the successful comic -opera of the hour. - -The card-room attracted its usual _habitués_, these sat down to whist; -and if an unskilled unfortunate joined the fatal tables, he soon had -reason to regret his temerity. Pound points were habitually played at -the Pandemonium, and as the evening went on, though the points never -varied, betting among the players and the "gallery" usually became -extremely heavy. Discussions never arose at the whist tables of this -rather fast club, for the players had Cavendish and Pole at their -fingers' ends. General Pepper, C.B., had raised his eyes in unfeigned -astonishment and horror, when an old Worcestershire baronet, his -partner, once made a reference to Hoyle, and professed himself -unacquainted with "the Peter." Needless to say, the Worcestershire -baronet had returned to his ancestral acres a sadder but a wiser man. He -showed his wisdom in giving the Pandemonium card-room a very wide berth -for the rest of his days. He subsequently had the good sense to join the -comic opera division, and to finish his evenings with the undeniable -oysters, for which the Pandemonium is so celebrated. No one was ever -seen at this well-known club after lunch time or before dinner, save a -few miserable veterans, to whom perpetual whist was a necessity. The -bulk of the servants even, only commenced their daily duties at dusk, -while the steward never appeared till the dinner hour; but then he, poor -man, had to be to the fore all night, for it was a stern rule in the -card-room that I O U's were never seen, the play being always for ready -money, in notes and gold. Mr. Levison, the amiable steward (originally -from Hamburg), had a very Pactolus ready for the accommodation, for a -consideration, of his numerous masters, in his iron safe. Levison's -relations think he will cut up well at his death; Levison's relations -are right. - -It is one in the morning. Though it is in the height of summer the -Pandemonium card-room is cool; they burn wax candles here, and gas is -absolutely banished from this particular chamber of the club, where -fortunes are sometimes lost and won. In most club card-rooms smoking is -not permitted, but at the Pandemonium it is the fashion to smoke -everywhere. One whist table only is at work; General Pepper and three -old hands of the same kidney are hard at it. The four old men rub their -blear old eyes at the conclusion of each deal, and then pull down their -faultless cuffs over their eager and bony old hands. The card table -profitably occupies some six to eight hours daily of these old fellows' -attention. There is not much harm in it after all. Probably none of them -are very much the better or very much the worse at the end of the year; -their sole ambition is the saving of a game, particularly when there is -a good "gallery" to admire their efforts. One dreaded Nemesis awaits -these men--the inevitable day when memory will begin to fail, and they -shall trump their partner's best card. Or the still more horrible -apprehension of dimness of sight; for a pair of wicked old eyes will not -last for ever; then the unhappy old player will begin to revoke, and -find himself perforce relegated to "bumble-puppy," or to -whiskey-and-water and solemn slumbers in the smoke-room, or, more -horrible still, the prolonged society of Sir Peter Growler and Canon -Drivel, D.D. - -Rule XXXV. of the club states that "Cards, chess and billiards may be -played. The sum played for shall not exceed one pound points; no play is -permitted after two a.m." Rule XXXVI. says, "No game of hazard shall on -any account be played in the club-house." Rule XXXVII. sternly goes on -to assert that "any deviation from the last two rules shall be attended -with expulsion." Truly good and moral regulations. But these Draconic -laws are, unfortunately, a dead letter. Nothing is said in them about -bets. As in all clubs, only members enter the card-room; and most of the -members come to "flutter," as they term it, and to "flutter" heavily. - -In the centre of the room is an oval table; some dozen men are sitting -at it; as many more stand behind their chairs. Two many-branched -candelabra, holding wax lights, brilliantly illuminate the game. Young -Lamb, who six months ago ran a "tick" for "tuck" at Eton, and trembled -_coram pædagogo_, sits, his eyes bloodshot, as, with nails driven into -his palms, he watches, in an anguish of excitement, the movements of the -dealer. Young Lamb's big cigar has been out long ago; but he pulls hard -at it, wholly unaware of the fact. It is easy enough to distinguish, -among those who smoke at least, the more innocent from the habitual -gamblers; the cigars of these latter, even at the most exciting crises, -are steadily smoked at a uniform rate, while the new hand is continually -taking a light, as often blowing sudden vast clouds, or his cigar all -unknown to him goes out, as has been described. Your young player, too, -sits with his feet tucked tightly under his chair; he never moves them, -and consequently suffers much from that hitherto undescribed -disease--that awful pain across the knees, which, for want of a better -name, may be called "gamblers' rheumatism." Are you quite sure you have -never suffered from this rather common disorder, gentle reader, at -least, if you be of the male sex? Perhaps you may remember having -occasionally walked home through the rain, utterly cleared out, without -even the needful silver for a cab, with a dry throat, and finding out -for the first time what "gamblers' rheumatism" really means. If so, it -is to be hoped that, wise man as you are, the first attack of this -disorder was also your last. But at the Pandemonium matters never went -to the extremity of a member suffering the degradation of having to walk -home in the rain. Was not kind Mr. Levison ever to the fore, with his -neat little _rouleaux_ of sovereigns, and his fat pocket-book full of -new and crisp bank-notes? Levison, as he sat at the little table in the -corner, on which were writing materials and many packs of new cards, -never refused a loan in so many words. "I wouldn't go on if I were you, -sir; the luck's dead against you to-night; I wouldn't go on, indeed I -wouldn't." This was his invariable formula. It meant that the astute -Hebrew declined to do business on any terms. No one ever argued with -Levison; all understood that this particular phrase was final. The -unhappy applicant was naturally obliged to temporarily retire from the -game, at all events for that night. No man would have been idiot enough -to have asked a loan from a fellow player; that would have been quite -contrary to the unwritten code of ethics of the Pandemonium Club: -fathers have flinty hearts, but no fathers are so proverbially -flinty-hearted as the fathers of the card-room. - -Among the players were the usual club _habitués_. They are much the same -everywhere, the only difference being their clothes. The _viveurs_ at -the Pandemonium, in their faultless evening dress; the _gommeux_ at -Monte Carlo, in their tall collars and their shiny boots; the -Bohemians, in their tobacco-scented and eccentric garments; or the -thieves playing at sixpenny loo in St. Luke's--all these people are at -heart the same. But we must not class in this unclean category Lord -Spunyarn and his friend Haggard, who were both playing at the big table. -Haggard merely played for the excitement, and Spunyarn because it was a -lesser bore to play than to look on. - -The game was baccarat. - -The table is covered with a tightly-stretched green cloth, which is -divided by yellow lines into fourteen spaces; two larger ones in the -centre of the table are the places of the banker and the croupier; -twelve other spaces of a smaller size indicate the seats of the rest of -the players, or "punters," as they are technically termed. The table is -full, as has been stated: a bank has just been terminated, and the -banker retires, having lost the whole amount of his bank. The croupier, -who is, of course, a professional--a bald Frenchman, nominally one of -the card-room waiters--looks round the table with the air of an -auctioneer. "Fifty pounds--seventy-five--a hundred--two hundred--two -hundred and fifty--three hundred; thank you, sir. Mr. Haggard takes the -bank, gentlemen, at three hundred pounds." - -Haggard rises with a smile, seats himself in the dealer's vacant place, -opposite the croupier; he places in front of him a pile of gold and -notes. With the rapidity of one of Messrs. Coutts' young men, the French -croupier counts the money; he arranges the gold in little piles, and the -notes in three little heaps, placing a small paper-weight on each heap. -Then the croupier tears open two packets of new cards, flinging the old -ones into a waste-paper basket at his side. He invites various players -to make the cards; this is done in rather a perfunctory manner. With a -sort of huge paper-knife the Frenchman passes the cards to Haggard, and -as he does so, remarks in a clear, but mechanical voice: "Gentlemen, the -bank is opened for three hundred pounds." Haggard takes the cards, and, -dividing them into two equal parts, rapidly shuffles them, by raising a -corner of each parcel simultaneously, and letting the corners slip with -a rapid "brrr." Evidently, from the dexterity and precision with which -this feat is accomplished, Georgie Warrender's affianced lover is no -novice. He hands the cards to his right-hand neighbour, who carefully -cuts them; each player puts forth his stake towards the middle of the -table, in front of the space allotted him. These stakes are gold only as -yet, and no man's venture seems over five pounds. Haggard takes up about -a sixth part of the cards. "Gentlemen," cries the croupier, "the game is -made." Haggard places a card to the left, for that half of the table; -another at his right, for the other half; a third one he takes himself: -he repeats the process. The croupier slips the blade of his huge -paper-knife underneath the two cards which are on either side of the -dealer, and deposits them, unexposed, with marvellous adroitness, before -the punter on either side whose turn it is to play. Court cards and tens -count as nothing, the ace as one; should the player make either eight or -nine he invariably rests contented, and exhibits it; if below eight, he -exercises his fancy or discretion, and takes or refuses a third card. -Then Haggard turns up his own hand, doing precisely the same. He has -drawn a knave and a six; he takes another card; this turns out to be an -ace. "I have seven," he says. The player to his right holds eight, the -player to his left has only six--the right side wins, the left side -loses. In an instant the croupier, with his huge paper-knife, sweeps up -the cards, and, with the rapidity of a conjuring trick, he casts them -into a wooden bowl in the middle of the table; then he rapidly sweeps -off all the stakes on one side of the table; with equal celerity he -places each man's winnings before the players on the other side. There -are no quarrels, and no mistakes. Everybody is terribly polite. And so -the game goes on. - -Though the amount played for is serious, a good deal of rather bald -conversation and chaff goes on. There is a considerable amount of give -and take. If any one has lost his temper, as well as his money, he takes -good care not to show it; to do so here would be indeed bad form. Young -Lamb has already paid several visits to Mr. Levison's little table. -Haggard's deal goes on, no very startling _coup_ coming off, but it has -been a good bank as yet, for the pile in front of Haggard has increased -to nearly six hundred pounds. Young Lamb having gnawed his extinguished -cigar till it somewhat resembles a quid, and having consequently -swallowed a considerable amount of nicotine, flings it away with a -curse. As the last note of his last loan from Levison is swept up by -the remorseless _pelle_ (for so the gigantic paper-knife is technically -termed), Lamb gives an order to the waiter, and pays another visit to -the smiling little Jew. Their business is rapidly transacted; Lamb -redeems some half-dozen I O U's which he had previously given to the -steward, hurriedly signs a formal-looking instrument, which is duly -witnessed, and stuffs into his breast-pocket a big roll of notes, which -he does not even stop to count. "I do hope you'll be careful, sir," -remarks the steward to Lamb in an affectionate whisper, and in the tone -of an anxious mother to her favourite child. Lamb returns to his seat at -the table; he has lost eight hundred pounds already, but the bulgey lump -in his breast-pocket is another five thousand pounds. The waiter places -by his side a small gueridon on which is a little _carafe_ of green -Chartreuse and a liqueur-glass; he also hands to the young fellow a box -of big full-flavoured cigars, of the brand of _Anselmo del Valle_. Lamb -fills his case, and lights this the _ne plus ultra_ of a soothing weed. - -"Dutch courage, Lammy, my boy," remarked Spunyarn, as he calmly helps -himself to one of the youth's cigars. - -"You'd be doing the same, Shirtings, if you'd been hit at this beast of -a game as I have." - -"Shirtings" was the playful name bestowed on the noble lord, in -reference to the well-known fact that the Spunyarn money had been made -in a Manchester cotton mill, and with that money it was said that the -Spunyarn title had been paid for; the first gentleman in Europe not -disdaining such bargains. Lamb swallows a second glass of his panacea. -The real fact is that the boy likes it because it is sweet, the -after-taste indistinctly resembling the distant memories of the -peppermint bull's-eyes of his early youth. But green Chartreuse -unhappily is not innocent; it is more than a spirit, it is a powerful -drug. Fired by this second draught, his tired eyes already a ferrety -red, his mouth dry with the tobacco, the drink and the excitement, Lamb -in a rasping voice shouts, "Banco." - -There is a sudden hush. The whist players, who had finished for the -evening, hurry to the baccarat table; the other players, some of whom -had already staked their money, reluctantly withdraw their various -amounts. The croupier announces, intoning as does a high-church curate, -"There is seven hundred and forty pounds in the bank, gentlemen." - -Lamb with shaking fingers places the required amount in front of him. -Haggard, the dealer, apparently unconcerned, continues the game. There -is a dead silence. Neither dealer or punter take a third card. The cards -are turned. The dealer has an eight and king, the punter a five and -three. _A tie._ The perspiration stands on young Lamb's face; again his -cigar goes out. The croupier pushes the seven hundred and forty pounds -of the unlucky player a foot nearer to the bank. The next _coup_ will -decide the matter. If Lamb wins, he will get his own money back, if he -loses, then his money is gone for good. Again a dead silence, again the -cards are dealt; this time the bank wins; there is a loud noise of -excited talking, above which rises the monotonous chant of the croupier, -"There is fourteen hundred and eighty pounds in the bank, gentlemen." - -The wretched young man persistently exercises his right of crying -"Banco," and so practically going double or quits each time. But "the -cards never forgive," and as a rule Dame Fortune is relentless to the -reckless player. Three more _coups_ are played, each of which the -banker, that is to say Haggard, wins. At the end of the third _coup_, -Lamb loses, at a single blow, nearly three thousand pounds; he calls the -steward to his side, a short whispered conversation takes place. "Five -thousand nine hundred and twenty pounds in the bank." Again the young -fellow repeats his fatal "Banco," as he stakes a fresh pile of notes -handed to him by the obsequious Jew. Again he loses. Haggard has won, of -him alone, eleven thousand pounds. Nobody feels inclined to go on; every -one is rather scandalized, for it is apparent to all that the boy has -become suddenly, thoroughly intoxicated. - -"Damned shame, I call it," growled old General Pepper, who in his heart -envied Haggard his luck. "Why, the man's drunk, beastly drunk, sir." - -Haggard rises, glaring at old Pepper in a menacing manner. "Am I to -regard your remark as any insinuation upon me, General Pepper?" he said -fiercely. - -"I say it's a damned shame," repeated the veteran. - -The hubbub became general. What was to be done? Of course, there would -be a scandal, but in the eyes of most men at the Pandemonium Club, -Haggard was not to be blamed, he was merely to be envied. Probably the -real fact was that the weak young fellow was suddenly carried off his -legs by the repeated draughts of the fiery cordial, the effect of which -only became apparent to the on-lookers after the final bet had been made -and the game had recommenced. Who shall cast a stone, then, at Haggard? -He merely backed his luck, as the saying is. There was nothing unfair -about the matter. But the nasty part of the whole thing was, that -Haggard had won eleven thousand pounds from a weak-headed boy. The -society newspapers for the week alluded to the matter in veiled, but -unmistakable terms. And when Haggard announced to his friend Spunyarn -his intention of returning to America, to realize his property, on the -termination of his wedding tour, the young lord acquiesced in that -decision, casually remarking, "It would be as well if you fought shy a -bit, you know, old man, for I am heartily sick of being bothered about -the baccarat matter, and of looking in the paper to see if that young -prig Lamb has hung himself. Ta ta, you lucky beggar. I shall be to the -fore at your diggings to-morrow, in the regulation shiny boots." They -parted. - -Next day Reginald Haggard was to lead Georgina Warrender to the altar, -and Spunyarn's allusion to shiny boots merely referred to the fact that -he was to be his friend Haggard's best man. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - GEORGIE'S WEDDING. - - -In newspaper descriptions of the last moments of celebrated criminals, -we constantly read that "the unfortunate man did full justice to a -substantial meal;" but nobody ever yet heard of a bridegroom who had any -appetite for his breakfast; his own real breakfast is meant, and not the -elaborate entertainment which follows close upon the ceremony. Reginald -Haggard and his friend, Lord Spunyarn, were the vicar's guests at King's -Warren Parsonage, but in vain did Mrs. Dodd press upon Haggard the -numerous dainties with which her hospitable board was provided. Haggard -was in a state of suppressed excitement, and he couldn't eat a mouthful. -They were a cheerful enough party though, and Lord Spunyarn made up for -his friend's deficiencies, for the young nobleman had an almost Homeric -appetite. Justice Haggard, Reginald's father, and Lord Hetton, who had -passed the night at the "Dun Cow," were present, for the sporting -nobleman was supposed to represent the head of the family, his father, -Lord Pit Town; and though he looked upon the whole matter as a very -great nuisance indeed, still it was a family function at which his -presence was a matter of course. - -That breakfast at the Parsonage seemed interminable to Haggard, but even -clerical breakfasts must have an end, and at length Mrs. Dodd rose, to -the general relief of all present. There were yet two mortal hours to -get through, and the men of the party sought the cool shades of the -vicarage garden. - -"Pull yourself together, old man," said Spunyarn to his friend, for -Haggard was looking pale and miserable; "you're as sulky as a bear with -a sore head. It's quite unnecessary to pose as a hero of romance. -What's up with you, man; boots too tight?" - -"I'll be hanged if I can tell you what's up," said his friend, "but this -I know, I'm confoundedly depressed." - -"Perhaps it's your natural timidity," said the other. - -"Don't chaff, Shirtings; you're a very good fellow, you know, but I'm -not in a laughing humour." - -"Well, you needn't sulk all the same," said Spunyarn; "take my advice -and have a glass of brandy." - -Justice Haggard looked far more like a bridegroom than his son; the old -gentleman, in his blue frock coat, his blue bird's-eye neckerchief, and -with a flower in his button-hole, was the picture of health and -happiness; while his white hat, which was cocked a little on one side, -completed his festal appearance. He gave his son a hearty smack on the -back. - -"When I married your mother, Reginald, my boy, I was as jolly as a man -could be; why, there's nothing to be alarmed about, unless you've lost -the ring, you know; and the ladies wouldn't let you off with that -excuse, for there's always the key of the church door in case of an -emergency." - -Haggard forced a smile. - -"The ring's safe enough, father," he said. - -"Don't worry him, gentlemen," cried the vicar; "it's only natural. I've -had a good deal of experience with bridegrooms; believe me, it's the -general symptom. I felt just the same when I was married myself; but -it's nothing to preaching one's first sermon. It's all very well for you -to talk, Haggard; but I'll be bound we were both just as miserable as -our young friend, though we've forgotten all about it now. But here -comes my wife with the sacrificial emblems." - -There was no compromise about Mrs. Dodd, as she advanced straight to the -bridegroom and proceeded to firmly secure a large white favour to his -breast. The rest of the party were soon similarly decorated. - -"There's one comfort, we haven't far to go," said Lord Hetton. "I feel -we look rather like a parcel of fools." - -"At all events, we haven't any time to lose," suggested the vicar, as he -looked at his watch; "and, unless we mean to keep the bride waiting, we -had better be off." - -The whole party passed through the little wicket, crossed the -churchyard, which was thronged with the whole population of King's -Warren in its Sunday best, and entered the church, and the bridegroom -and his friends at once took their place at the altar rails. - -If Georgie Warrender had acted with proper decorum, she would have wept -upon her father's bosom; but this ill-regulated young person did nothing -of the kind. They must have been all very glad to get rid of her at The -Warren, for nobody shed a single tear; there was a great deal of -running about; the young person from the West End milliner's, her mouth -full of pins, issued innumerable orders in a muffled whisper; and Miss -Lucy Warrender and her three fellow bridesmaids appeared completely -attired, at least half-a-dozen times, to submit themselves to old -Warrender's inspection in the drawing-room quite half-an-hour before the -carriages drew up at the door to take them to the church. - -Georgie was not sufficiently old-fashioned to be married in a bonnet. -Even a plain girl looks well in white, and Georgie was not a plain girl -by any means. Of course, according to all proper precedent she ought to -have rushed into her father's arms, and with floods of tears have bid -him a touching farewell. What she did do, however, as she entered the -room, was to rapidly advance and affectionately embrace him, then she -stepped back and dropped him a low courtesy. - -"Shall I do, papa?" she said with a loving smile. - -"My dear, you're a credit to all of us," said the old gentleman, and her -appearance certainly justified the ecstatic looks of Miss Hood, the four -bridesmaids, and the young person from the West End. - -Georgie was fully conscious of her privileges. No woman can twice in her -life dress in white satin and orange blossoms, and if she mars the -effect by the regulation tears, it is quite certain that there must be a -screw loose somewhere. There was a great deal of tittering, smiling, and -blushing; but the squire glanced at the clock, Lucy handed the bridal -bouquet to her cousin, then the squire gave his daughter his arm, and, -preceded by the bridesmaids, the little procession entered the -carriages, and five minutes' drive brought them to the church. - -Haggard, when he cast his eyes upon Georgie Warrender, seemed to regain -his composure at once; there must have been a terrible amount of -forwardness about this young lady, for according to rule and the -pictures in the illustrated papers, her eyes should have been fixed upon -the ground; and as the latest etiquette book says, "the bride should -only acknowledge the bridegroom's presence by an assumption of shrinking -timidity suitable to the occasion." But the bride smiled at Haggard, and -so did the vicar, and so did the four bridesmaids. - -The Reverend John Dodd didn't take long in tying the knot. The village -organist had distinguished himself by his florid rendering of the -Wedding March. As Lord Spunyarn gave his arm to Lucy Warrender, he -almost felt as if he had been married himself, and that it was a rather -pleasant process than otherwise. - -"It's rather rough on us, Miss Warrender, having to play second fiddle," -he said, while they were standing in the vestry during the signing of -the register. - -"Well, we can look upon it as a dress rehearsal, Lord Spunyarn; but we -mustn't forget that it is a solemn moment, for I see that Mrs. Dodd is -looking this way." - -The bells were clashing merrily from the village spire as the party -passed out of the church porch. As Haggard handed his wife into the -carriage, she appeared still lost to all sense of the proprieties, for -she nodded and smiled in every direction at the King's Warren villagers, -among whom she had grown up; even poor Blogg, the poacher, and his -hoyden daughter, Jemima Ann, were not unnoticed. And the patriarchal -blessing of the village veteran, "Master" Jasper, as he was called (who -had represented King's Warren on the field of glory some five-and-forty -years before, and stood bobbing his palsied head, arrayed in his holiday -garment, a linen ephod or smock frock, to which his Waterloo medal was -proudly affixed), was given heartily enough. "God bless 'ee, Missy," -cried the old man in the shrill cracked voice of age, as he pressed up -to the carriage window. - -"Thank you, Jasper," said the girl with a sunny smile. Strange to say, -those two words gave the old fellow more pleasure than the thought of -the unlimited potations he knew he would enjoy that afternoon at the -squire's expense. - -The wedding breakfast very much resembled the similar festivities at -which most of us have assisted. The usual speeches were made, nobody -seemed very much inclined to eat, but everybody's health was drunk; and -I think it was rather a relief to all present when young Mrs. Haggard -appeared in travelling dress, ready to quit, for the first time in her -life, the happy home of her childhood. Then, and then only, did the -young person from the West End millinery establishment remove the pins -from her mouth, which enabled her to swallow a much needed glass of -sherry; and then the squire's voice failed him, and he saw his daughter -rather dimly as he pressed her to his heart for the last time upon the -steps. The bridesmaids relieved their feelings by many salutes and much -tittering. As the carriage moved off there was a perfect shower of satin -slippers, and it wasn't till it got quite out of King's Warren village -that the bride was able to leave off bowing and kissing her hand to her -numerous well-wishers. - -Then the wedding party broke up into little groups in the garden; at -first they didn't amalgamate; the men smoked, and came to the universal -conclusion that Haggard was a lucky beggar; while the ladies talked over -the interesting details of the ceremony. Old Warrender retired to his -study in a rather excited frame of mind, excusing himself on the ground -of his age. - -And now everybody turned out with a feeling of intense relief to witness -the rejoicings on the village green. The school children were there -enjoying rustic games in a somewhat half-hearted manner, for they had -partaken with the appetites of young boa constrictors of the squire's -hospitality, and each of them had a brand new shilling or half-crown in -his or her pocket, according to age. A cricket-match was in progress, -but the bowling and batting were extremely wild, thanks to The Warren -strong beer. But soon the Rev. John Dodd imparted fresh vigour into the -proceedings. The youths and maids pulled themselves together on his -approach; the more bibulous among the men left the proximity of the big -barrels of strong ale, over which the squire's head gardener was -presiding. Lovers, who had been promenading arm-in-arm, separated for -the moment by mutual consent, the swains touched their forelocks to the -vicar, while Phyllis and Chloe smoothed their skirts and courtesied low -to Mrs. Dodd as Lady Paramount. But the vicar meant that they should -enjoy themselves, and he whispered to the squire, the squire nodded, -and the vicar called loudly for Blogg. - -"Where's your father, Jemima Ann?" he said to the poacher's daughter, -who, in all the glories of a pink print dress and a much beribboned -straw hat, had gone off into a succession of courtesies. - -"Please, sir, he's gone to fetch _it_," she said. - -At that moment the sound of a fiddle was heard, and the smiling rascal -who played it, stopping his melody for an instant, made a low and -sweeping bow, which took in the vicar, the squire and the gentry -generally. Then he clapped his fiddle under his chin and without more -ado struck up "Bobbing Joan." - -"That's right, my man," said the vicar, "you couldn't do better. Now -men, now girls." - -But not one of them stirred. - -"Goodness me!" cried the vicar, and then he forgot himself. Could Mrs. -Dodd believe her eyes? Her husband seized Jemima Ann Blogg by the hand. - -"Come, gentlemen, set them a good example," he said, and he commenced to -turn Miss Blogg violently round. Before her father had got through -another two bars of "Bobbing Joan," every soul on the green had -commenced to gyrate, the frown died off Mrs. Dodd's face, as she too -began to turn with slow but majestic movements, her hand clasped by old -Warrender's, her virtuous waist encircled by his aged though still -vigorous arm. Lord Spunyarn pounced upon Lucy Warrender, Lord Hetton -seized another bridesmaid, Justice Haggard somehow got possession of a -third; every village Jack gripped his Jill, and all the parish of King's -Warren, gentle and simple, twirled with one accord to the fine old tune -of "Bobbing Joan." Once started there was no stopping them, the fun -became fast and furious, and I fancy that it was with some regret that -the wedding party itself, having set the ball a-rolling, retired to the -more dignified festivities which awaited them in the great drawing room -at The Warren. - -It wasn't a large party; they were most of them Warrenders and Haggards, -and offshoots and branches of those prolific trees, or people connected -with the families from old association or friendship, but there were -quite enough of them to fill the big drawing-room. Old Biggs, the family -solicitor, who had come down to The Warren the day previously about the -settlements, and Blatherwick, of Lincoln's Inn, who had fought him tooth -and nail over every item, in the interest of the Haggard family, got -their rubber; but both the legal lights had soon declared that it was -impossible to play whist with dance music ringing in their ears. The -lawyers looked rather sheepishly at each other when they found -themselves _vis-à-vis_ in a quadrille, Miss Hood having honoured the -one, while Stacey Dodd clung lovingly to the arm of old Mr. -Blatherwick. Of course it was most unprofessional, but they probably -kept their indiscretions to themselves, and no doubt charged them to -their clients under the head of "sundry attendances." As for the -Reverend John Dodd he seemed to be everywhere at once, no one refused -the Reverend John. When the youngest and best-looking of the bridesmaids -told him that she was danced off her feet the clerical Lothario -overpersuaded her in a few seconds, and round they went like a couple of -dancing dervishes, being the last to hold the floor. - -But even wedding parties must come to an end, though it was midnight -before they finally broke up, and at last Justice Haggard and Lord -Hetton walked over to their rooms at the "Dun Cow." - -"It went off wonderfully well," said Hetton to the Justice. - -"Capital, capital," assented the bridegroom's father. "It's a great -weight off my mind, you know, Hetton. Reginald's been an awful anxiety, -but he's a lucky beggar, he manages somehow to always turn up trumps." - -"Yes," remarked his lordship, "that's been his principal occupation -since I've known him." - -"Boys will be boys, my dear fellow; he'll sober down now, of course he -will. I know I did when I married," said the Justice. - -"I'll tell you what it is, Justice. Warrender's daughter is a very -plucky girl; if she had known half you and I know, Justice, she would -have thought twice about it." - -"The reformed rake, cousin, makes proverbially the best husband. Why, -'pon my word," continued the Justice, "when I was a young fellow I was a -regular devil." - -Lord Hetton blew out a big volume of smoke, and looked at his companion -with some curiosity. - -When an old gentleman, in the fulness of his heart, tells you that he's -been a regular devil, you are bound to believe him, particularly if he's -a Justice of the Peace. - -"We were all devils in those days, my dear fellow, but a man outgrows -it; he marries, and he lives it down; he takes to a hobby. I did. I -can't tell how I drifted into pigs; much in the same way as you drifted -into horses, I suppose. You may take my word for it that pigs are far -more interesting and far more respectable, though they're expensive, -mind you. Yes, they're uncommonly expensive; so are horses for the -matter of that," continued the Justice. "Every man has his ideal, you -see, Hetton. The perfect pig must ultimately be produced. You mustn't -look upon me, you know, as a mere breeder of pigs. I am a benefactor of -my species." Here the pair reached the "Dun Cow" and retired to their -respective quarters. - -So ended Georgie Warrender's wedding-day. As Lord Hetton had remarked, -in engaging herself to Haggard she had done a very plucky thing. -Marriage is like Mayonnaise sauce, either a great success or an absolute -and entire failure. The materials which are blended together to form a -perfect whole are dissimilar and have nothing whatever in common, but -once really thoroughly amalgamated the result is very happy. Perhaps the -marriage celebrated in King's Warren church may turn out well after all. -It is to be feared that like the sauce of sauces in the hands of the -inexperienced cook, the result is more than doubtful. Fortunatus, though -a good fellow enough, is, like his patroness, notoriously fickle. All we -have got to do, however, is to make ourselves as comfortable as possible -in our stalls. The overture is over, the curtain is about to rise on the -drama of Georgie's married life. We haven't a play bill, and don't know -whether we are to listen to some pretty pastoral, to a long three-act -farce, dignified by the title of a comedy, or whether we are to be -thrilled with horror by a gruesome drama of intrigue, limelight effect, -and blood. We haven't even seen a review of the piece; the footlights -go up with a jump, and now the curtain rises. Let us watch the players. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - LORD MAYOR'S DAY. - - -It was Lord Mayor's Day. Haggard and his wife sat in the little -drawing-room of their bijou house in May Fair. The room was prettily -furnished, and Georgie had often accused herself of extravagance. The -regulation chairs and tables of the furnished house had been banished -from Mrs. Haggard's drawing-room. It had been a pleasure to choose the -various tasteful specimens of the upholsterer's art. The nesting faculty -is perhaps even more strongly developed in young married ladies than in -birds; young Mrs. Haggard was no exception to this rule. Many had been -the happy pilgrimages made by Georgie and her lover, for Haggard was her -lover still, to the great firm in Pall Mall and to the world-famed -house in Bond Street. - -"Pick up what you like, my dear, and make our drawing-room, your drawing -room, as pretty as you please; nothing can be good enough in the little -kingdom in which my Georgie deigns to reign." - -But sugared compliments and furniture-buying cannot go on for ever. A -pile of invitations attested the Haggards' popularity. Dance-giving -mammas were anxious to secure the success of their entertainments by -obtaining the presence of "lovely Mrs. Haggard." - -A well-known professional beauty in the heyday of her charms was -"sitting-out" at a great ball, the observed of all observers, in a -_dos-à-dos causeuse_ with a Royal Highness. - -"And is your Royal Highness also a worshipper at the shrine of budding -bucolic beauty? I mean pretty Mrs. Haggard," said the spoilt darling of -society, as with a little _moue_ she had indicated Georgie, who entered -the room on her husband's arm. The good-natured prince glanced -carelessly in the direction indicated; his lazy eyes sparkled as he -quickly replied in a tone of reproof: - -"Pretty is not the word, Mrs. Charmington; if that is the lady you -allude to, she is lovely, absolutely lovely, and must count amongst her -admirers every member of the human race who has had the happy privilege -of beholding her." His Royal Highness rose. - -Mrs. Charmington hastened to spread the report that his Royal Highness -was seriously smitten. - -"Royals ripen early, I suppose; naturally they age as quickly; perhaps -his Royal Highness is arriving at a second childhood, and his heart -turns to people of the Dolly the Dairymaid type." - -But in her first rage Mrs. Charmington had been weak enough to let out -that the prince had called young Mrs. Haggard "lovely." Mrs. -Charmington had received her own unsigned patent as a recognized beauty -from the discriminating admiration of his Royal Highness. The _fiat_ had -gone forth, and Julia Charmington had commenced her reign. The -Charmington boot and the Charmington Bouquet were very freely -advertised. A reproduction of Mrs. Charmington herself decorated the -interior of the omnibuses. - -"Why use dangerous cosmetics when Jones' soap retains youth and health -for the complexion, and fosters the development of beauty?" Underneath -the portrait was a facsimile of Mrs. Charmington's fashionable scrawl, -"I owe you so much, so very much. I have never used any other soap than -yours. Very faithfully yours, Julia Charmington." - -Ill-natured people said that Mrs. Charmington owed a great deal to -Messrs. Jones. That the cheque that paid for her well-known turn-out -had been signed by the firm; that they had twice paid her dress-maker's -bill, when that terrible person had become importunate; that they had -settled the account of Monsieur Alphonse, the great _coiffeur_; that -they had paid her husband's debts. Some of them, more imaginative, -declared that Mrs. Charmington was even a sleeping partner in the -saponaceous firm. But the ill-natured people were quite wrong; it was -not Messrs. Jones who paid Mrs. Charmington's bills. Little Jack -Charmington, her husband, had a snug four hundred a year of his own, -which quite sufficed for his modest needs. Mrs. Charmington's graceful -letter had been written by her in a moment of good nature, and, it may -be said in confidence, at the instigation, some eight years ago, of Big -Reginald Haggard, who had looked on the whole matter as a joke, and who -had, at that stormy period of his career, been very much in Mrs. -Charmington's confidence. The real fact was that Mrs. Charmington kept -Messrs. Jones before the public, and those astute advertisers did the -same kind office for the lady. - -Thus it was that Georgie became "lovely Mrs. Haggard." This is what the -writers of serious books pompously call "the _secret history_ of the -whole matter." - -Georgie now, to her astonishment, found her movements invariably -chronicled in the society journals. It rather annoyed her than -otherwise, but her husband was pleased, and that was enough for Georgie. - -The lazy giant was sprawling on the most comfortable of the sofas; the -pair were alone in the dainty little drawing-room. Young Mrs. Haggard's -eyes were full of tears. "Won't you take me with you," she sobbed -appealingly, "it's only for six months, Reginald?" - -"I can't, my darling; it's a beast of a climate, and the mosquitos would -eat you up. I shall only be away for six months; you know I have made -up my mind to get rid of the whole bag of tricks. It's quite true the -land can't run away, but there are always rows and revolutions and -smashes going on; you can't trust anybody. Of course, Georgie, I should -like you to go; but think of the risk. It won't wash at all. We'll stay -over Christmas here in England. I suppose I must take you down to see -the old man, and then we'll go straight off to Rome, and finish the -winter there. I'm getting rather bored, you know, Georgie, with the fuss -people make in town. It's deuced fine fun for you of course." - -The fact was that this excellent husband hated playing second fiddle, -and he found, to his astonishment, that young Mrs. Haggard's social -success had far eclipsed that of Georgie Warrender. As a good-looking -young bachelor, though a detrimental, he had been very popular. As a -wealthy _parti_ and a sort of lion he had been the fashion himself the -previous season, and to his own knowledge his curly hair and big -moustache had caused a quicker beating of the heart in many a female -breast. But as Beauty's husband he felt out of his element. "You lucky -beggar!" had been repeated to him so often that he hated the phrase. Of -course, he still admired his wife as the handsomest woman he had ever -clapped eyes upon; he wasn't even jealous of the great attention that -Georgie habitually received. First, because he knew he could trust her -implicitly; but secondly, and this was far the more powerful reason, -because he was too much a man of the world ever to render himself -ridiculous. - -"You know we can have rather a jolly time of it in Rome, Georgie," he -said. "You must by this time be as heartily sick of the eternal -_tête-à-tête_ as I am. I don't mean that," he said, springing to his -feet as he noticed that his young wife shuddered and turned pale; "but -the fact is, Georgie, I don't want to be pointed at like poor old Jack -Charmington, and I confess, dear," he added with a smile, "that I should -like a little more of 'lovely Mrs. Haggard's' society." - -A very little crust thrown to the very hungry is always accepted with -gratitude. Georgie Haggard brightened up at once. "I suppose I must make -the best of it, dear," she said with a pleased smile; "at all events, I -shall have you all to myself in Rome." - -"Yes; it will be quite a second honey-moon; but I half promised your -cousin Lucy that she should join us. It'll be beastly dull for her at -The Warren, you see, poor girl; and she doesn't seem to jump at -Spunyarn, though he does hang on. Is there any one else in the wind, do -you think, Georgie?" he said with some interest. - -"No; Lucy seems perfectly heartwhole," replied his wife. - -"I often wonder you two hit it off so well," mused Haggard as he gazed -into the blue flames that flickered over the little wood fire, for his -wife affected a wood fire as more cheerful. "Why, Lucy has been your -only serious competitor this season; I wonder you aren't jealous of each -other." - -"How can you talk such nonsense, Reginald?" the wife replied with a -sunny laugh. - -"Then you don't mind her coming with us on the Roman trip?" - -It showed that Mrs. Haggard had considerable confidence in her own -attractions, as she innocently replied, "If you don't mind, why should -I, dear?" - -"Well, then it's all settled, old girl; we'll put in the dull time in -Italy. Old Pit Town knows lots of good people, and would give us -letters, I suppose. In the spring I'll just rush across and polish off -the Mexican affair." - -His gaze again returned to the fire which smouldered on the hearth. - -There was a silence. - -Gradually Haggard raised his eyes; they rested on his wife, they took -her in from head to foot, and seemed to appraise each of her numerous -points. The husband's countenance was lighted up by a pleased -expression. - -"By Jove! Georgie," he said, "people are quite right; you are an -uncommonly fine woman." - -He kissed her. - -It was the kiss of proprietorship, similar to the appreciative pat he -would have given to a prize dog or a valuable horse that was his own -property. - -Yes, Georgie loved the man, and looked up at him with wistful, trusting -eyes. She was his, body and soul. - -But the door opens, and a peal of merry laughter caused Haggard and his -wife to subside into seats on either side of the fireplace. - -"Oh, Georgie! I'm so sorry you missed it, it's been such fun, and Mr. -Sleek has been so attentive. I really think the two girls thought I was -setting my cap at their father. What with the procession outside, and -the farce indoors, we've had a delightful morning," cried Lucy -Warrender, as she entered the room. - -"I fear it was rather a tragedy to poor little Sleek," said Lord -Spunyarn, who followed her; "a tiger when a-lashing of his tail was -nothing to Sleek. I shall never forget the look he gave me after lunch." - -"When inflamed with love and wine, you know," said Lucy pertly. "Behold -his scalp." - -Lucy triumphantly extended an enormous formal bouquet. Alas, for poor -little Sleek! his flowers were carelessly tossed upon the table. - -"Oh, they were very confidential, you know," lisped Spunyarn; "I was -quite out in the cold." - -"Ungrateful man, when you had a window all to yourself, and a smiling -Miss Sleek on either side of you, gazing into your eyes. You neglected -your opportunities, Lord Spunyarn. Let me tell you that the daughters of -my last conquest are two very pretty girls." - -"Not when Miss Warrender is present." - -"I rather think you forgot Miss Warrender's presence," retorted the -coquette. - -"Anyhow, two's company and three isn't, you'll all allow that. How happy -could I have been with either were t'other dear charmer away." - -"Did they both propose to you, Lord Spunyarn?" said Mrs. Haggard with a -smile. - -"If I were a vain man I should confess that they rather gave themselves -away." - -"Much as Hanibal Peter Gray did for love of the beautiful cannibal," -said Lucy. - -"Oh, they were quite safe in my case, not being a _mangeur de -coeurs_," replied the discreet young nobleman. "But my attention was -not sufficiently absorbed by those guileless girls that I failed to -perceive the doings of the other couple." - -"You are quite wrong, as usual. Mr. Sleek was merely explaining who the -various people were." - -"In that case, Miss Warrender, he might at least have given us all the -benefit of his information, instead of conveying it in an inaudible -whisper to Miss Warrender's private ear. And he needn't have blushed -till he looked like a pickled cabbage." - -"It's not fair, Lucy," said Mrs. Haggard reprovingly, with an attempt at -matronly dignity. - -"Well, you know," laughed the girl, "it wasn't my fault. Spunyarn -declined to come to the rescue. There I was, practically _tête-à-tête_ -with the man; the noise of the crowd drowned my cries and remonstrances. -Besides, after the scalp, and the elaborate lunch which was awaiting us -in the middle of the room, I felt myself bound to listen to the voice of -the charmer. I was cheered, too, by Lord Spunyarn's masterly defeat of -Dabbler. _Poor_ Dabbler!" - -"'Pon my word, I didn't know it. When we came in there was a fat man -messing with the things on the table. He was dressed like a waiter, and -he looked like one--a regular City waiter, you know. He held out his -hand. Of course, I gave him my hat and coat. He has no business to dress -like a waiter and to hold out his hand." - -"Lord Spunyarn, he is a common councilman, and he is going to dine with -the Lord Mayor," cried Lucy. - -"All the same, he has no business to be dressed like a waiter in the -morning, if even he be a common councilman and going to dine with the -Lord Mayor. Anyhow, he took the hat and coat, and then, thank heaven, he -bolted." - -"What's Dabbler to him, or he to Dabbler, that he should weep?" -misquoted Georgie's husband, who had enjoyed Dabbler's discomfiture. - -"It's all very well for you all to laugh, but Mr. Sleek didn't seem to -like it at all. What did he mean by saying that Mr. Dabbler was a warm -man?" asked Lucy. - -"Oh, piles of money of course; all the common councilmen have piles of -money," said Spunyarn. - -"And do they all dress like waiters in the morning, and then dine with -the Lord Mayor?" - -"Yes. I suppose it's an old City custom, you know. Anyhow they always -dine with the Lord Mayor. That's what they die of." - -"And now I have something to tell you, Lucy," said Mrs. Haggard. "It's -all been decided. After the Christmas festivities at the Castle we are -to go to Rome, and we hope you will come too." - -Lucy clapped her hands with girlish glee. "Go with you, Georgie dear? Of -course I will. How good of you to ask me." The girl was evidently -delighted. - -"And have you the heart, Miss Warrender, to leave me, Mr. Sleek, and -your other countless admirers, here in England to 'dree our weary -weirds alone?'" - -And so the idle talk ran on. The Italian trip was discussed, and -considerable ignorance of geography was, as is usual, manifested by all -present. Lucy expressed her disappointment, on being informed that there -were now no brigands in Italy, save those behind the shop counters, or -in the choruses of the opera. - -A trim maid then brought in the tea equipage, and Georgie did the -honours with her usual unaffected grace. - -And now Parson Dodd and his sister were announced. The Dodds presented a -rather dishevelled appearance. They, too, had seen the Lord Mayor's -Show. But the vicar, in a moment of weakness, had yielded to Anastatia's -wish to see something of the real Londoner, whom "dear Dickens has -described so well," as she had put it. - -Great had been her indignation at the want of respect shown to the -Reverend John Dodd's cloth. With horror she had heard her brother -addressed by a disreputable costermonger in a mangy fur cap, as "Old -pal." And though the Reverend John stood all unmoved in the surging -crowd, muscular pillar of the Church that he was, it was only by -clutching him very tightly that poor Anastatia preserved herself from -annihilation. She had seen the Lord Mayor's Show indeed, but at what a -price! The long grey cloak which she wore, a sort of semi-religious garb -which Miss Dodd, as a clergyman's sister, affected, had been splashed -with mud and creased into a thousand wrinkles. Her maiden feet, which -had never felt the sacrilegious touch of the toe of obtrusive -appreciation, had been trampled on by an exhilarated London mob. And -after several hours of agony, just as the Lord Mayor was actually -passing, she had heard and felt a horrid rending, crackling sound, and -had almost shrieked into her awe-stricken brother's ear, "Oh, Jack, I'm -gone at the gathers!" What she meant neither the Reverend John Dodd, or -any other male person, could ever truly know. But evidently something -dreadful had occurred. "Take me back, Jack; take me back to Mrs. -Haggard's at once," the poor little woman had pleaded to the parson. He -got her into a cab at last, and they had reached the Haggards' house in -May Fair, at which, they were stopping for the night. But Georgie -Haggard came to the poor lady's rescue; she and her cousin bore her off -to her hostess's own quarters, where she detailed her sufferings to -their sympathizing ears. Eau de Cologne was duly dabbed upon her -temples, strong tea was administered, but at length the wounded feelings -of the vicar's sister found vent in a little gentle fit of sobbing, and -she was accordingly put to bed. - -"What possessed me I can't imagine," said the Reverend Jack to his two -male friends; "we were quite comfortable at first, you know," said poor -Jumbo, warm with the remembrance of his numerous humiliations. "I had -put Anastatia on a bench; the man made an exceedingly moderate charge of -threepence. I gave him sixpence, and strange to say he had no change. I -didn't like to be done; the man urged me to occupy one place that was -yet vacant; my evil genius prompted me to do so. Alas! I had no sooner -stepped upon the frail structure when it suddenly and unaccountably gave -way in the middle. I was precipitated to the ground in a sitting -posture. Anastatia was fortunately unhurt, but she was much frightened. -Those who had paid for the use of the bench demanded their money _from -me_; while the miserable proprietor, who had previously been most -respectful, in a truculent manner, and with horrible menaces, claimed a -sovereign, and on my declining to comply with his extortionate demand, -he actually offered to fight me, me a clergyman of the Church of -England. From a sense of justice, I hastened to remunerate those who had -been deprived of their coign of vantage, but, alas! the claimants were -innumerable; every man and boy in my vicinity declared that he had paid -for a place. The mob cheered me with derisive epithets. The climax was -reached when a most offensive policeman in a dictatorial manner ordered -me to 'Move on.' The Church of England, in my person, was ordered to -'move on.' I attempted to remonstrate, but I and the proprietor of the -broken bench were both suddenly propelled by the Jack in-office into a -bye street, and I discovered, to my horror, that I had lost Anastatia. -Of course I had to satisfy the ruffian's insolent demands, but I did so -under protest. The officer, however, now became more civil, and I, -fortunately, with his assistance, was able to rescue my sister from the -mob. I _will_ take another cup of tea, if you please. Thank you, three -lumps. I _have_ seen the Lord Mayor's Show, never again will I assist at -that degrading spectacle." - -In vain did Haggard and Lord Spunyarn attempt to reassure the indignant -vicar. Only on the return of Mrs. Haggard and Lucy did the Reverend John -Dodd become comparatively tranquil. Under the soothing influence of -beauty, however, the vicar forgot his woes. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - AT THE CASTLE. - - -The Haggards were heartily glad to leave town. The nasty scandal at the -Pandemonium had been particularly irritating to Haggard personally. -"Thank God," he said to himself, "the head of the family will probably -never hear of it, unless Hetton should go out of his way to tell him; -but I don't think he'd do that, he's not too particular himself, so it -would be only a case of the pot calling the kettle, after all. It wasn't -my fault. How could I know the young idiot was drugging himself with -Chartreuse? I was too much interested in the game. Besides, some one was -bound to have his money sooner or later; in fact," pondered the big man, -"I've been rather ill-used, when I come to think of it. It's just my -luck." - -Just his luck! Yes, it was just his luck; just his luck to squander -every farthing he possessed, and to be pitied by everybody when deported -to do the best he could for himself. Just his luck to have what the -Americans call a "high-old time" in Mexico, to hunt, to shoot, to enjoy -the free wild life and absence of restraint in America. Just his luck to -thoroughly clear out that wealthy gambler Don Emanuel Garcia, at poker; -but then Haggard had all the qualifications for a poker player: he had -the very luck which he grumbled at; good temper, for your thoroughly -selfish man is far too fond of himself ever to be other than -good-tempered; his "cheek" was unlimited, and in the big "flutter" with -the Mexican, he had also had good cards. Given good luck, good temper, -good "cheek," and good cards, a poker player is always invincible; so -the Americans say, and they ought to know. Just his luck to become the -possessor of a large sum of ready cash, when valuable land was going -a-begging; just his luck at that precise moment to invest his easily-got -winnings in the Mexican ranches and pastures, now worth ten times what -they cost him. Just his luck to come home at the right moment to be -accepted by the loveliest girl in Essex, a girl whose beauty had now -even received the _imprimatur_ of so fastidious a judge as his Royal -Highness. Just his luck to be adored by his young wife, and looked upon -by her as a king of men; to be clothed in purple and fine raiment, with -the possibility of a peerage and the possession of immense wealth in the -future. But he was quite right in carping at her, for fortune, like -other fickle jades, is more likely to be true if steadily abused. - -The two girls, his wife and her cousin, interrupted his soliloquy. The -gaieties of the season had, if possible, rendered Georgie's beauty -still more perfect. A succession of _recherché_ entertainments, of -concerts, balls and routs, and their attendant late hours and -excitement, had given the young wife that almost indefinable stamp of -delicate refinement for which we have no word, which is so seldom seen -in England, and which the Italians call _morbidezza_. - -But there was no _morbidezza_ about Lucy; she, too, had shone, perhaps -with a certain amount of reflected lustre; but she had shone, she had -dazzled. When a very young woman is exceedingly good-looking, no prude, -and prepared to go any lengths, being at the same time perfectly -heartless, she is bound to be a success, and Lucy had been a great -success. The Duc de la Houspignolle, the French Ambassador in London, -that duke who was so much missed from the cotillions at the Tuileries of -his imperial mistress, had pronounced Lucy _pétillante_. M. Barbiche, -his second secretary, the best valseur of the season, had declared that -Miss Warrender was the lightest stepper in town. "She make my heart to -beat as it never beat before," said the young diplomatist to his chief; -"but she is not distinguished like her cousin, she is a woman. I think -her cousin is only a goddess after all. They are cold, these married -English. I suppose it is the 'spleen.'" - -"You'll get back your roses, old woman, at the Castle," said Haggard to -his wife. "I think we've both had about enough of it," said he, as he -poured out a brandy and soda. "I'm getting rather sick of seeing my wife -twirled round like a teetotum by a succession of well-dressed idiots, -while twenty more noodles round me are all saying how very charming she -is, and consequently hating and envying me. It's all devilish fine for -you girls, but I really think I shall enjoy a fortnight's dulness and -the counting of possible chickens which may never be hatched at Walls -End. Anyhow, one will get one's rubber." - -"And I shall have two new strings to my bow in the shape of Hetton and -his cousin. By-the by, what is Hetton like? One can't judge of a man at -a wedding breakfast," said Lucy. - -"Oh, horsey; when you say that you say everything." - -"I've a good mind to upset all your plans, Reginald, after all," said -the girl. "Lady Hetton would look well on my cards. And then I should -come in for the Walls End diamonds. By-the-way, are the Walls End -diamonds black diamonds?" - -"Bother Hetton; you've got about as much chance with him as with the old -man, my dear," for it annoyed Haggard to see the slightest cloud to his -prospects, even were it no bigger than a man's hand. - -"Anyhow, there are two bachelors, Reginald, besides his lordship, who is -hardly a bachelor, being, I suppose, wedded to art." - -"Oh! three, my dear; you have forgotten my father; he, too, is aged, but -impressionable. If you'll only talk about pigs, Lucy, and manifest an -intelligent interest, especially in black ones, you can put my nose out -of joint most effectually!" - -"I should make a stern stepmother, Reginald." - -"Of course, _injusta noverca_, and all the rest of it, I suppose. I -don't know about the sternness, my dear, but I can answer for the -crispness." - -"Thank you for nothing, Reginald; however, I shall certainly take a dip -in the lucky-bag at the Castle." - -"By Jove, Lucy! there's Wolff for you." - -"And who is Wolff?" asked his wife. - -"Wolff, my dear, is the toad-eater. In the old days every great man kept -a toad-eater; sometimes his functions were highly paid--Wolff's are, I -fancy. A dish of toads of the largest and most repulsive variety used to -be offered one by one to the big man's relatives and guests. A good -many would partake of them. It was the toad-eater's office to devour the -remainder with apparent gusto." - -"Reginald, you're a wretch! and I don't believe a word of it," said -Lucy. - -Haggard yawned, drained his glass, and they retired to prepare -themselves for the journey to Walls End Castle, which was to take place -on the morrow. - -Lord Pit Town was determined, on this occasion at least, to break -through the rule which he had stringently observed since his return to -Walls End Castle. For many years no lady had graced the great old house -with her presence. It was considerably to Justice Haggard's astonishment -that he heard of the invitation to his son and his son's wife. "Hetton -won't like it," he muttered to himself, as with the point of his stick -he gently titillated the back of one of his favourite black pigs. The -animal stood perfectly still, grunting with suppressed delight. "Hetton -will be decidedly savage," mused the old gentleman. "I wonder whether -Reginald will get something in the will?" pondered his father, his eyes -fixed on the black pig's ears. "He's a lucky beggar, Reginald, a very -lucky beggar, and Warrender's daughter is more than he deserves." Few -fathers think that any woman is more than their son deserves, -particularly when that son is an only son, wealthy, and a possible heir -to a peerage; but we may take it that Justice Haggard knew pretty well -what his son deserved, and that when he considered Georgie "more than -his son deserved," Justice Haggard was probably right. If the prodigal -really had his deserts he would still be chewing husks with the Mexican -swine--husks which the magnificent specimen of the porcine race who was -so delightedly submitting to the caresses of the Justice's stick would -doubtlessly have indignantly rejected. "I wonder why," continued the -meditating Justice, "Hetton don't marry?" Perhaps Mademoiselle Zizine, -of the French theatre, was the reason--who knows? Hetton didn't go into -society, not that society wouldn't have been very glad to receive Lord -Hetton, being Lord Hetton, even if he had been a Siamese twin or a -Spotted Boy, which he wasn't. But Lord Hetton found that society cost -money, and only placed an additional barrier between him and the object -of his ambition--the blue ribbon of the turf. Hence when Lord Hetton -sought distraction from race meetings and Tattersall's, he found it in -the society of Mademoiselle Zizine and her like. - -Evidently the question of why Hetton didn't marry perplexed the Justice; -he paused in his attentions to the pig; the animal, who was black but -comely, missing the accustomed caress, gave a little snort of -impatience. "Bother Hetton!" said the Justice, administering a sudden -and unexpected prod to that tender but irritable skin. The injured and -indignant animal gave vent to a succession of eldritch screams. The -callous Justice passed on to the next stye, immersed in thought. - -Great were the preparations at Walls End Castle, and greater still the -astonishment of the old housekeeper when she heard that the winter house -party was to be graced with the presence of ladies. Not that what were -termed the state apartments were in any way disturbed. The old show -rooms were left to the mice and ghosts, but the more modern suites were -all to be occupied. My lady's own rooms had been allotted to Haggard and -his wife. The rather Spartan simplicity of the late Lady Pit Town had -made her own rooms sombre, if not grim. It had been a labour of love -with the old lord to change all this. The æsthetic gentleman Messrs. -Spick and Span, the great upholsterers, had sent down, had been severely -snubbed by Dr. Wolff; the upholsterer had submitted elaborate coloured -pictures of his idea, his firm's idea, of what a suite of rooms should -be. Part of that idea was sham _bric-à-brac_, the rest was _carte -blanche_ to Messrs. Spick and Span. "We should like," said that -well-dressed and self-satisfied individual, "to turn out a job worthy of -our house's reputation and that of his lordship. We should suggest that -the boudoir be hung with Japanese embroideries; of course, there would -be an Aubusson carpet, and we should cover the whole flooring"--which -Mr. Veneer contemptuously indicated with his umbrella--"with our patent -_parquet_; probably a mediæval pattern would be the most suitable. We -should restore the ceiling and liven up the mouldings with a free use of -gold; in fact, my advice in the matter is, that his lordship should -place himself entirely in our hands. Of course, money's no object. His -lordship cannot do better than to rely upon the taste of our Mr. -Spick." - -"I do not think it shall be so, my friend," Wolff had replied. "You will -put fresh and pretty papers on the walls. Your hangings must be of -chintz, of pretty chintz, and you will put a cheerful carpet on the -floor. As for furniture, there is plenty of that here, but the chairs -and the sofas you shall provide; one thing only you shall remember--they -shall be comfortable. His lordship will sit in every chair; if it is not -comfortable it will go back. As for the ceiling you shall not touch -him." - -Messrs. Spick and Span's representative was wounded in his tenderest -point, but his firm carried out the order to the letter. The old lord -had sat in each chair and was satisfied. The ceiling, which represented -the triumph of Venus, by Verrio, was left untouched. If we were -permitted to penetrate the secret mysteries of the bedchamber, we should -make the reader's mouth water by telling of the toilet table, which was -stamped "Riesener," and bore the mark, "_Meubles de la reine_." We -should tell of the ormolu mounts of the little table, and how it really -once belonged to Marie Antoinette. All the decorative furniture of this -suite of rooms had been carefully selected by the old lord from the vast -accumulation of such things that Walls End Castle contained. For several -weeks he and Dr. Wolff had pottered about the set of rooms that were to -be graced by Georgie's presence. When, to Wolff's astonishment, the -priceless Meissonier, "The Gray Musketeer," was selected as the one -picture to adorn the boudoir, he attempted a remonstrance. - -"Nothing can be too good for her, Wolff," said the earl, as he smiled -upon the picture. - -Other rooms had been set apart for Lucy, but their arrangement had been -left to Wolff. - -It was evident to the German doctor that his patron looked forward to -his great-niece's visit with pleasure. On the day of her arrival, for -the first time in his life, Lord Pit Town failed to visit the new -galleries. - -At dinner, Hetton himself was surprised at the amount of attention paid -to Georgie by the head of the house. Haggard did not attempt to conceal -his satisfaction. Lucy Warrender, ever ready for mischief, feigned an -intense interest in racing matters, but failed to draw Lord Hetton. That -guileless bachelor, Mr. Haggard, of the Home Office, proved more -amenable to her fascinations; he knew that he should get his rubber -after dinner, and Miss Warrender's conversation helped to while away the -time until what was to him the real business of life should commence. As -for the Justice he was in the best of humours, he enjoyed his dinner, he -enjoyed his wine. But the '34 port was so good that he revoked twice, to -the indignation and despair of his unhappy brother and partner. - -The girls sang to the old man at his express desire, and Hetton noticed -with a feeling of secret indignation that the antiquated Broadwood grand -had been replaced by a magnificent Erard. - -The place seemed changed. Lord Pit Town appreciated with mingled -pleasure and astonishment the brightening influence of the ladies' -presence; the party, if not gay, was at least cheerful; the little -leaven had leavened the whole lump. They broke up early, satisfied with -themselves and with each other. But Hetton's equanimity was again -disturbed in the morning when his lordship actually proposed to drive -Mrs. Haggard and her cousin in the park. He retired in disgust to his -own quarters, where he consoled himself by the inspection of his betting -book and the reading of his trainer's last report. Haggard, of the Home -Office, in his own room, with two packs of cards, worked out historical -games of whist and studied the _coups_ of Lachapelle and the other -great masters. Dr. Wolff walked aimlessly up and down the new -galleries, and stopping before Bab Chudleigh's portrait, soliloquized, -as is the manner of his race, "Ah, lovely English woman, you are but a -bainted bortrait, but all men admired you because they could not help -it; if all they say be true, Madame Jezebel, you were as bad a woman as -lived in your bad old days. Gott in Himmel! but you are very like the -leetel Warrender lady. God forbid the leetel lady shall have a heart -like yours. No, I wrong that innocent English _mädchen_. But you are -both _wunderschön_. Hein!" And then the doctor continued his -perambulations, and in his dreamy way, he pondered on Lucy's seraphic -smile, and on her wealth of golden hair. "Such things are not for me," -he thought. "I must go on loving the baintings and the bortraits to the -end of the chapter," and then he sat down to write a business letter -about Fra Filippo Lippi to old Mr. Creeps. Justice Haggard and his son -wandered about the home farm; the father criticized the piggeries, -while the son smoked a big cigar and thought of nothing at all. - -"Gad! Reginald," said the old man, "there's one thing I can't -understand. Pit Town, who looks after most things, neglects these poor -beasts in a most shameful way; if ever I came into the title I should -make it my first business to pull down the whole range of buildings," -here he indicated the piggeries in an indignant manner; "they are a -disgrace to the place, sir; the sight of them offends me." - -"Well, father, I hope you may, I sincerely hope you may carry out your -own ideas here some day," said the dutiful son; "but I don't think the -old man cares very much for your hobby, you know." - -"Then he neglects his duties, that's all," replied the old gentleman -with an indignant snort. "Of course, Pit Town's in the fashion," he -continued, "for we hear about nothing but art now-a-days; but I should -like to know where he benefits his race. His ambition is a purely -selfish one, while mine is distinctly benevolent. The dream of my life, -Reginald, is unrealizable. I know that I can never succeed in producing -the being I see in my dreams, a perfectly boneless pig; a sort of -animated sausage, where fat and lean shall be deliciously blended in the -requisite proportions. I know I strive after the unattainable, but still -every year I get nearer and nearer to the goal. When I remember, sir, -what black pigs were when I was a boy, and what they are now, thanks to -my efforts and those of the noble little band of enthusiasts like -myself, I feel that I am leaving a lasting monument behind me. Why, only -yesterday, sir, when Dr. Wolff pointed out to me what he called a -specimen of George Morland's best manner, I felt what giant strides of -progress we have made. There were the pigs of _his_ day, represented as -great gaunt bony bristly creatures, wallowing at large, sir, in muck and -mire. We never see such horrors now; and I actually envied Pit Town the -possession of that picture. I should like to hang it up, sir, in my -piggeries at The Priory, that the world might look upon what the animal -was, and in contrasting him with the superb creatures I possess, -appreciate what can be done by care, breeding, feeding, and proper -selection. The time will come, Reginald, when every English speaking man -or woman who puts a piece of pork or bacon into his mouth will bless the -name of Haggard. But these are but ambitious dreams, Reginald, never -perhaps to be realized." - -The party at Walls End Castle, though its elements were decidedly -heterogeneous, was a success. Everybody was sorry to go when they left, -and their host regretted the departure of his visitors. - -"The place seems quite dull without them, Wolff," he remarked. "I think -I shall try to see more of my relatives, but we must make up for lost -time, Wolff. Why, since the ladies have been here we have neglected -work shamefully." - -"It has been a pleasant time, Lord Pit Town, for me, for I love -enthusiasm in the young. It has never yet been my fortune to meet with -so delightful and innocent a thirst for information as that displayed by -the charming Miss Warrender. The soul's confessions of that dear young -lady were delightful in their naïve innocence. She has learnt much -during her stay here of the canons of true art; it will be to me an -ever-to-be-remembered epoch." - -The old lord looked up from the great manuscript catalogue _raisonné_ at -the German doctor. - -"So she made a fool of you too, Wolff, did she?" - -"My lord, she respected me too much to attempt to make a fool of me. -She, the young neophyte, recognized in me a humble priest of art." - -"Ah, Wolff," said the old lord with a look at the great portrait of -Barbara Chudleigh, "there are some women who don't even respect doctors -of philosophy." - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - ANASTATIA'S COURTSHIP. - - -The Reverend John Dodd drew back one morning from the breakfast-table -with the air of a giant refreshed; his wife stared at him over the -silver breakfast-kettle as she had stared at him for the last twenty -years. For the last twenty years Mrs. Dodd had wondered at the -plenteousness of her husband's breakfasts; she was astonished twenty -years ago, and she still stared, an awed woman to the present day. -"John," she said, in a severe tone, "it is my duty." Whenever Mrs. Dodd -differed from her husband she nailed her colours to the mast; she said -it was her duty, and she invariably carried her point. "It's dogged as -does it," is not only the maxim of agricultural labourers in remote -country districts. It is the secret of success in every married lady's -life; it is the talisman confided to the young wife by her more -experienced mother, if she have one, if not her aunt tells her the -secret, and it comes to the same thing. - -"Well, my dear, if you look upon it in that light there is no more to be -said," acquiesced the husband. - -"It is my duty, and yours too, John; above all it is Anastatia's. What -can cement the natural alliance between the squire and the vicar of the -parish, more strongly than the former's union with that vicar's sister? -Besides, I have another reason. It is our bounden duty, Jack," here the -vicar's wife relapsed into familiarity, as she always did when she meant -to carry her point, "our bounden duty to rescue the squire from that -designing woman." - -"Good gracious, Cecilia, who is Anastatia's rival?" - -"You may not have seen it, John, but I have observed it ever since the -girls have been away. Miss Hood means to marry the old man!" This latter -sentence was uttered in a sepulchral whisper. - -"Nonsense, Cecilia, you're joking." - -"Do I ever talk nonsense or joke, Mr. Dodd?" answered the wife in a -judicial tone. - -"Well, my dear," apologetically rejoined the vicar, "I don't think I -ever remember your doing the latter," and he felt much as an unfortunate -man would feel who had dared to accuse the Lord Chancellor himself of -joking and talking nonsense. - -"There can't be a doubt of it. Ever since those girls have gone Miss -Hood has called here in The Warren brougham, never on foot or in the -pony chair." - -"But, my dear, the weather has been wet and cold." - -"'Tis not the weather, John, it is that woman's arrogance, her way of -preparing the minds of the neighbourhood for the catastrophe." - -"Diggory Warrender, my dear, is no more thinking of marrying again than -I am," said the vicar. - -"The thought of marrying again, Mr. Dodd," retorted his wife severely, -"is constantly occurring to the mind of every married man." - -"I assure you it never occurred to mine, my dear." - -"John, you're ungrateful," replied his wife, and burst into tears. - -"If my thinking of marrying again, my dear, will prove my gratitude to -you, I will consider the matter at once," said the vicar of King's -Warren, with a dreary smile. - -But Canon Drivel's daughter did not deign to answer, she merely rang for -prayers. In filed the servants, the two grim housemaids and the parlour -maid of portentous plainness, for Mrs. Dodd made it a rule in her -austere household that the abigails should be unattractive. Mrs. Dodd -opened the book--her father, the Canon's, well-known book of Family -Prayers. Although it was the second Thursday in the month she turned to -the portion appointed for the first Wednesday. Alas! her copy of the -Canon's work opened almost mechanically at the first Wednesday in the -month, for in that Wednesday's selection there was a phrase which was -very dear to Mrs. Dodd; it was the following: "And if there be one among -us whose heart is yet hard," &c., &c. This was Mrs. Dodd's _ultima -ratio_, the last drop that invariably wore away any resistance on the -part of the man who, to her mind, was stony-hearted. When the Reverend -John Dodd heard the commencement of that prayer he trembled in his -inmost soul; when his wife reached the favourite passage she dwelt on -the words with unction; and as the servants filed out of the room he, -who had once been "Handsome Jack Dodd," felt himself a slave. - -"I had better speak to Anastatia," said Mrs. Dodd. - -"Do as you please, my dear," replied the vicar, "but I don't see how -she's to propose to old Warrender, all the same." - -"Men don't understand these things," sententiously remarked his wife, as -she gave a vicious shake to the missionary box, which was always on the -sideboard. Missionary boxes are not seen so often now as they used to -be, but this old-fashioned engine of torture was clung to by the -vicaress. Rosy-cheeked children had received many a bright sixpence from -the vicar, their faces wreathed in smiles; the smiles had faded when -Cecilia Dodd had proved to them, by chapter and verse, that the proper -place for the bright silver was the drab sarcophagus on the sideboard. -Even the vicar's friends, at the termination of their rubber for -threepenny points, dreaded the appearance of the box; they invariably -contributed, the more daring among them sighing as they did so. - -Anastatia Dodd, on the particular morning in question, had not appeared -at breakfast. The fragile little lady was suffering from a cold in her -head. She was in bed, perusing in undisturbed comfort a harmless novel. -But the novel disappeared under the clothes with amazing celerity as the -voice of her sister-in-law demanded admission. The mistress of the house -affectionately inquired if she felt equal to a short conversation. In -some trepidation Anastatia signified her acquiescence. Her sister-in-law -pointed out to her that old Mr. Warrender had been very attentive -lately. Anastatia innocently answered that "He was a dear old man." - -"Oh, my dear, I am so glad, so very glad, to hear you say so," said Mrs. -Dodd. - -"But why glad, Cecilia?" - -"My love, your brother and I thought it _was_ so, and that you -encouraged him. Has he spoken to you yet? He has said nothing to John." - -"Spoken, Cecilia, to me; about what?" - -"This is affectation, dear; you can't pretend to be blind to what is -apparent to all of us." - -"Oh, Cecilia, how can you?" sobbed the vicar's sister, blushing to her -ears and burying her face in her pillows. - -For forty years Anastatia Dodd had lived in maiden meditation fancy -free. True, she had taken a lively interest in all her brother's -curates, but it was always a professional interest and purely Platonic. -But now she blushed, blushed as she had never blushed before. - -What woman is displeased at hearing that she has an admirer? Who among -us would fail to believe what we have, perhaps, secretly wished for in -our heart of hearts? - -That arch Machiavel, the vicar's wife, did not leave her sister-in-law -till she was thoroughly convinced that Diggory Warrender was only -waiting a favourable opportunity to make her a formal offer of his hand -and heart. - -All this was sufficiently exciting to poor Miss Dodd, but what was her -horror, her horror mingled with astonishment, when she heard that, like -the heroines in the story books, she too had a detested rival. Till now -Anastatia Dodd had not known what it was to detest anybody, but her -sister-in-law pointed out to her that detestation was her duty; that -Miss Hood was but a ravening and roaring lion seeking to devour the old -squire, and then to pick his bones. Unconsciously, as she stood by her -sister-in-law's bed, Cecilia Dodd assumed the awful pose, the statuesque -attitude, of the Judith at the bedside of Holofernes of her former days; -her hand, as it grasped the brass ball at the foot of the bed, seemed to -be clutching the head of her victim. Poor Anastatia, as a hare nestles -in its form, had almost shrunk beneath the bed-clothes. - -"It is your duty, my dear," said Judith, "to rescue this man from the -hands of the harpy at The Warren. He has evidently loved you for years, -Anastatia; _it is your duty_; and your brother feels deeply in the -matter, more deeply than I do, my dear; we are but weak women, he is a -clergyman, and, I regret to add, a man of the world. You must, of -course, give Mr. Warrender every encouragement. And do not forget that -your brother is the head of the family, the master of this house, a -clergyman, and a man of the world. _He_ will not see you wronged." - -The vicar's wife left the room and her trembling victim. The voice of -duty called her to the kitchen, where her cook patiently awaited her -inevitable, and always painful, audience. - -In the meanwhile, Squire Warrender and Miss Hood pursued the even tenour -of their ways at The Warren; frequent letters from his daughter, -describing the delights of their foreign tour, cheered the old man. All -unconsciously, the squire sent his hares and his pheasants to the -vicar's wife, his peaches and his flowers to her sister-in-law. In his -cracked old voice, he still paid his Grandisonian compliments to the two -ladies. He was somewhat surprised perhaps to notice that Miss Dodd was -by degrees abandoning her semi-religious garb; and that his visits to -the two ladies invariably procured him the pleasure of _tête-à-tête_ -interviews with the spinster. He noticed too that the vicar's sister now -shook hands with him with an unwonted pressure. One afternoon he -actually came home with a button-hole, a white passion flower, which the -trembling fingers of Miss Dodd had placed in his coat. - -"'Pon my word," he said to Miss Hood, wearing this decoration as they -took their habitual cup of tea together, "I really think that Stacey -Dodd gets younger every day." - -Miss Hood pricked up her ears. Was the hale old gentleman going to make -a fool of himself after all? - -Old Mrs. Wurzel and the buxom Miss Grains sat in the little room at the -vicarage, which was known to everybody as Mrs. Dodd's own room. The -vicar's wife sat before a huge book, in front of her were little piles -of copper money. She and her two visitors, and, of course, the vicar -_ex-officio_, formed the committee of the village coal club. After much -counting and recounting of the coppers, the total was pronounced -correct, and the real work for which the ladies had met was over. The -window of the room commanded a view of the lovely old-fashioned garden, -which had been the care and pride of many successive vicars of King's -Warren. The close-shaven lawn had the inevitable sun dial in its centre. -The garden was not at its best, for the trees had not yet commenced to -bud, but it was a fine clear day, and the trim little figure of the -vicar's sister was seen briskly pacing up and down the well-kept walks. - -"I don't think your sister-in-law seems to care so much for parish work -as once she did, Mrs. Dodd," remarked the old lady to the vicar's wife. - -"No, poor thing, I fear she has anxieties of her own just now, she seeks -solitude a good deal." - -"Is there any attachment, dear Mrs. Dodd?" said Mrs. Wurzel with -interest. - -"Oh, Mrs. Dodd, not an unrequited attachment?" burst forth the brewer's -daughter. For that strapping young woman was romantic, and though the -course of her own love ran smoothly enough, still she felt a sentimental -interest in the woes of others, real or supposed. Her fat red cheeks -would quiver with emotion, and be wet with briny tears, over the sorrows -of Mr. Trollope's heroines. Fat people are always sentimental, though -they may not seem so, and beneath Miss Grains' tightly-laced corset beat -a sympathetic heart. "An unrequited attachment," she repeated, "is so -very, very sad." - -The vicar's wife answered her reprovingly, "You must not think, Miss -Grains, that Mr. Dodd would allow his sister to form such a disgraceful -thing as an unrequited attachment." - -"Oh, but dear Mrs. Dodd, suppose she couldn't help it," said the artless -maiden with a blush and a little sigh. - -"No well-brought-up girl would allow herself to do so, my dear, she -would have far too much self-respect." - -The brewer's daughter blushed deeply, as she thought of the many heroes, -real and imaginary, from Marmion down to the last curate but two, for -each of whom she herself had felt an unrequited passion, or a more than -secret liking. But these hidden passions were before young farmer -Wurzel, in his blue tie and white hat, had proposed to her. - -"Well, at all events, Miss Dodd is hardly a girl," she said defiantly. - -"Miss Grains," retorted the vicar's wife, "every unmarried woman, even -though not in the first bloom of youth, is a 'girl' till she marries. -Certainly Stacey Dodd is a 'girl'; and I have known cases, Miss Grains, -in my experience, where flighty young ladies, though they may have been -temporarily engaged, have remained 'girls' to the end of the chapter." - -To this gruesome suggestion Miss Grains made no reply. - -Old Mrs. Wurzel turned confidentially to the vicar's wife and said, "Is -her engagement generally known?" - -"Perhaps," replied the president of the coal club, "it would be -premature to speak of it as an engagement, but it is talked of all over -the village. I believe there has been an attachment for some years, the -gentleman's attentions are very marked. In fact, I don't think I am -betraying her confidence, when I say that the whole village seems to be -aware of it. Of course, I mention no names. I should scorn to attempt to -precipitate matters. It is a suitable match, I am happy to say, for both -parties, but there is an obstacle, my dear; adverse interests are in the -field. My sister-in-law is somewhat of a prude. I too was a prude, and I -can understand her feelings." - -Here Mrs. Wurzel peered at the vicaress with unfeigned surprise. - -"It's not quite fair, you know, to Stacey," said Mrs. Dodd. - -How was she to tell them, without mentioning his name, that the man who -did not come to the point was the old squire himself, and yet she was -anxious to do so? - -At this moment the austere parlour maid entered the room. "Squire -Warrender is in the drawing-room, madam," she announced. Never in her -life had the vicar's wife been guilty of profanity till now, but the -opportunity was too golden to be missed. - -"Talk of the devil," she said. The four words spoke volumes. Her -visitors took their leave, to spread the report over the village and -parish of King's Warren. - -Mrs. Dodd was a woman who, as we know, did her duty according to her -lights. She was determined at all hazards to do her duty now, without -flinching, to her sister-in-law, for she had already burnt her ships, -and she entered the drawing-room with the deliberate intention of -bringing the old squire to the point. - -The unsuspecting squire asked for the vicar, after shaking hands with -the vicar's wife, and on being informed that his old friend was from -home he innocently hoped that the vicar's sister was quite well. - -"Ah," said Mrs. Dodd with a sigh, "we're a little concerned about -Stacey." - -"You should let Pestle see her," replied the sympathizing squire. - -Now Dr. Pestle was the parish doctor, and he deservedly enjoyed the -confidence of every soul in King's Warren. - -"I fear, squire, hers is not a bodily affection," said Mrs. Dodd with a -deep sigh. - -"Good Gad! you don't mean to say her mind's giving way?" anxiously -demanded the prosaic squire. - -"Oh no, we fancy it's an affection of the heart." - -"Impossible! at her age. Why she's fifty," emphatically asserted the old -gentleman. - -"Not fifty, Mr. Warrender; Stacey Dodd is but forty-one." - -"You don't say so. I should never have thought it." - -The opening of the engagement had egregiously failed. At present the -campaign seemed most unpromising. When a gentleman of mature years looks -upon a lady as fifty, he can hardly be suspected of designs upon her -virgin heart, or of a wish to destroy her peace of mind. Beaten in her -attack on the outposts, Mrs. Dodd changed her strategy with that -multiplicity of resource that always distinguishes the greatest -generals--she determined at once to carry the war into the enemy's -country. - -"You must miss the girls very much, squire," she said as she took up a -little painted hand-screen, to protect her complexion, on which she -lavished much anxious care, from the fierce blaze of the fire. "Yes," -she continued, "you must feel it very dull at The Warren now. Quite -lonely, I fear." - -"No," answered the squire cheerfully, "I have Miss Hood, you know, and -we play bezique or backgammon of an evening." - -"Ah," replied Mrs. Dodd severely, and horrible visions of those -dangerous evenings flashed through the mind of the indignant woman. In -her mind's eye she fancied the squire sitting at the backgammon board -gazing at Miss Hood's shapely arm and hand, for though Miss Hood was the -same age as her sister-in-law, she still had a very shapely arm and -hand. - -"Yes," said the squire, "and she reads me the girls' letters; they are a -great consolation, for Georgie seems so thoroughly happy." - -What more dangerous occupation for a hale old gentleman than to sit and -listen by the hour to the written raptures of his daughter on the -subject of married bliss, read to him by a lady of prepossessing -appearance, by his own fireside, and after having partaken of at least -three glasses of old port? - -"I suppose," said the vicar's wife with assumed carelessness, "that Miss -Hood will be leaving you soon?" - -The squire's eye twinkled with suppressed merriment. - -"Oh no," he said in a determined tone, "I couldn't afford to lose Miss -Hood. For Lucy's sake," he added maliciously. - -The lady fanned herself. There are limits to the endurance of -long-suffering woman. Mrs. Dodd felt that she was being trampled on. The -sensation was new to her, and unpleasant. - -"You appear to cling to her, squire," she said. - -"Naturally, naturally," answered the squire, "so do the girls. She has -been more than a mother to them." - -"Why not make her so in reality?" retorted the exasperated woman, losing -her head. Here the fanning became more furious. - -"The fact is, Mrs. Dodd," said the squire, "I have been screwing myself -up to that point for the last dozen years, but I am close on the age of -the patriarchs, and I don't think she'd have me. If you are of a -different opinion, Mrs. Dodd, I will reconsider the matter; of course it -would be most appropriate. There's no fool like an old fool, I suppose." - -Was the seemingly innocent squire referring to himself, or had this -abominable old gentleman the temerity to allude to the wife of the -vicar of King's Warren as "an old fool?" Who shall say? - -"Do you seriously advise it?" went on her tormentor; "do you think I may -dare to hope?" - -But the vicar's wife answered him never a word. - -He rose to go and shook hands with her in his usual hearty manner. By no -outward sign did Mrs. Dodd manifest her indignation, but when the squire -had left the room she sank into her chair and burst into tears. - -"The serpent!" she ejaculated as she pressed her handkerchief to her -streaming eyes. - -Not one word did Mrs. Dodd utter for many days to her husband of her -momentous conversation with the squire. In a statuesque attitude, she -sat, like Marius on the ruins of Carthage, or Patience on a monument -smiling at grief. - -And then she thought with horror of the confidence she had made to old -Mrs. Wurzel and the brewer's daughter, not an hour before. _On a tiré le -vin, il faut payer la bouteille._ - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - ROME.--THE BALLO PAPAYANI. - - -The party had been in Rome three weeks, they had all thoroughly enjoyed -themselves, and Georgie Haggard had made no objection whatever to her -husband's putting in an appearance at the Ballo Papayani. The great -Carnival ball had been for years one of the sights of Rome. Although the -red English guide-book merely discreetly remarked that "the scene at -Papayani's at Carnival time should on no account be missed," Baedeker -and the other foreign mentors devoted whole pages to glowing -descriptions of these more than Olympian revels. - -An Italian, as a rule, in Carnival time is like an English boy on the -fifth of November--he is not happy unless he dresses up. In this -country, we are apt to think when any one dresses himself up, that he is -disguising a fool. In Italy, on the contrary, all the world is -continually occupied in masquerading in some way or other. Costume -balls, in all classes of society, are favourite entertainments. -Historical masques, though not got up with the elaborate attention to -minute detail which is bestowed upon them by the thoughtful -beer-drinking and sausage-devouring German, are yet of very frequent -occurrence. Every city, every town, nay every hamlet, in Italy, has its -long and glorious history, often written in letters of blood, always -deeply engraven on the hearts of the people. The mementoes of a bygone -time are cherished by the Italians. Consequently, dressing up in Italy -is universal, and even the man who dines upon a penny roll and a quarter -of a melon, can afford five centessimi, or one halfpenny, for a paper -nose, and it costs him nothing to flour his face and hair. - -Let us take an instance. Ivrea is a little place, a small garrison town, -celebrated for its coolness and its cheapness; thither the Piedmontese -flock in crowds when the heat of the city is no longer bearable. There -is nothing remarkable about the place; it has its opera house, at which -ambitious young ladies, principally English and Americans, pupils of the -Conservatorio at Milan, make their _débuts_. Happy garrison, happy -sojourners in the little Italian town; they are provided with a -succession of interesting, though perhaps undeveloped, prima donnas, who -make their little successes or their tiny fiascoes at this nursery of -Art. But Ivrea, like all the other Italian towns, has its history, its -glorious legend, which is never allowed to die, and the Carnival of -Ivrea is the time chosen for representing the story and commemorating -the tragic history of the local heroine. In the Middle Ages, Ivrea had -its feudal lord. The Count Arduino, as may be fancied from his name, was -a bold, bad man; he possessed the terrible _Droit de Seigneur_, which -he rigorously exacted. The belle of the village was a miller's daughter: - - "We never see such maidens now, - Such mill-wheels turn not round." - -She was married. No sooner was the ceremony over than the wicked count -ordered her to present herself at the castle. The command of the feudal -lord could not be disobeyed. Bride and bridegroom, accompanied by the -weeping crowd, proceeded to the castle gate. Count Arduino advanced to -meet her with a smile, unarmed and unattended. He was but claiming his -rights. As he stepped forward to salute her, she presented her cheek to -him, and suddenly stabbed him dead at her feet. The mob of relatives and -friends wrecked and burned the castle, massacring the retainers to a -man. The brave young bride was safely escorted home, where the wedding -feast was triumphantly celebrated, and the miller's daughter lived to be -the happy mother of many children, and died at a good old age. From -that day the _Droit de Seigneur_ ceased to exist in Ivrea. - -This is the origin of the yearly ceremony at the little Italian town. A -pretty boy of seven or eight years of age is chosen by each parish. The -boys are dressed in fancy costumes and mounted on horses, escorted by -the general of the Carnival, who wears a black uniform, and accompanied -by his officers, who are clothed in scarlet. During the Carnival the -town is under the rule of the general and his officers. The party are -received in state by the mayor, the bishop, and the personages of Ivrea. -A poetical address is given at each notable's house. On the second day, -the children, some eight or ten in number (they are called _Abba_), on -horseback, and escorted by the general and his officers, head a -procession, which passes through the town, and which is joined by all -the carriages of the place, filled with ladies in gala costume and men -in fancy dresses. Everybody dresses up. Then are thrown from windows and -balconies, oranges, flowers, and real _confetti_, not the chalk -_coriandoli_ of Milan, but good eatable sugar-plums. In the evening the -little theatre is illuminated regardless of expense, a fabulous sum -being expended on extra lamps. Between the acts the Carnival hymn is -sung by the whole strength of the company, the _Abba_ children, the -general and his officers, who appear upon the stage; and it is a _sine -quâ non_ that every one should wear the republican red cap, even the -_Abba_ children and the lady artists. The more enthusiastic among the -audience, male and female, also sport the red cap of liberty. Secreted -in the omnibus box has been seated the prettiest girl in the town. The -_Mugnaia_, as she is called, is carefully arrayed in the costume of the -bygone time when the tragedy took place, and now she is escorted by the -general of the Carnival to the footlights, a drum and fife band -preceding her, the Carnival hymn is sung, vociferously encored and -joined in by the audience. The _Mugnaia_ now returns to the box in which -she sits in royal state, the observed of all observers. Of course, she -is got up regardless of expense. She, too, wears the little red cap, -and, as has been said, has been chosen for her good looks. The opera is -concluded, a masked ball follows. - -Next day, at seven a.m., in every parish the bride who was last married -proceeds in procession to the Piazza of that parish, and with a mallet -she indicates the place for the annual _scarlo_, or bonfire. She is -accompanied by her husband. The object of these _scarli_ is to manifest -the popular exultation at the annihilation of feudal tyranny. The pair -now return home, preceded by a drum and fife band, and escorted by an -enthusiastic crowd singing songs of liberty at the full pitch of their -voices. - -At two o'clock, the general of the Carnival opens the public ball with -the _Mugnaia_. This is held in the Piazza Carlo Alberto, which is the -largest square in the town. The orchestra is placed in the centre of the -square. Then there is a procession headed by the _Mugnaia_, seated on a -scarlet velvet throne, and borne in a gilded car; then comes a military -band, then the carriages filled with shouting masqueraders and ladies in -elaborate toilettes; flowers, sweets, and oranges, are thrown with -amazing prodigality as before. In the evening, again the opera, again -the masquerade. Next day the procession takes place again, and there is -a public ball in the square till ten, then the _Abba_ of each parish -solemnly applies the light to his appointed _scarlo_. When the last -_scarlo_ is burned out a funeral march is played and all disperse to -their homes. It may be mentioned that the _scarlo_ is not literally a -bonfire in our sense of the word, but what we should call a Venetian -mast, bound with furze and inflammable material, decorated with gaudy -ribbons and surmounted by a flag. - -It is not likely that the inhabitants of Ivrea, who thus commemorate her -heroic deed, will ever forget their _Mugnaia_. - -But we have wandered away from Papayani's, where the door was -surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of the poorer among the gay -pleasure-seekers of the Carnival. It was a rather trying thing for the -arrivals as they stepped from their carriages and passed into the -building through a double line of sarcastic or appreciative critics six -deep. A quiet brougham draws up at the entrance, the door is flung open -by a ragged masker, with an enormous paper nose, in a tattered _pierrot_ -costume. As he opens the door he bows to the ground with an exaggerated -humility; and Haggard, in his faultless evening dress, steps out, with a -frown upon his face, his big form towering above the puny Italian crowd -as though he were a king of men in a horde of pigmies. He hands a lady -out; her pale blue silk domino hides her effectually from the -inquisitive gaze of the crowd. Her tiny gloved hand clutches Haggard's -arm as he hurries her into the building, which is one blaze of light, -and from which issue sounds of gay music and of the rhythmic tramp of -thousands of dancing feet. The lady is discreetly masked, but though her -personal identity is thoroughly disguised, she does not escape a fire of -compliment from the appreciative ragamuffins on the pavement. "_Ah! che -ragazza bellisima._" "_Che figlia incomparabile._" And as an antithesis -to this flowery Italian praise, said one British 'Arry to another -British 'Arry in the crowd, "Did you see her ankles, George? Do you know -who that lady is?" Certainly the white satin dress of the Watteau -costume that the lady whom Haggard was escorting wore, disclosed an -undeniable instep, and 'Arry's favourable criticism was not undeserved. -"I know one thing," said his friend, "there was no humbug in the single -stone brilliants she wore as ear-rings." The pair disappeared among the -glittering and gaily-dressed crowd that thronged the portico. - -M. Barbiche, formerly of the French Embassy to the Court of St. James's, -his eyeglass tightly screwed into one of his wicked little eyes, was -lolling against one of the pillars of the _foyer_. He was criticizing -the arrivals to Lord Spunyarn, who yawned by his side, evidently -thinking the whole affair a bore. - -"Our Haggard, my friend, is what you call an old fox, I fear. Who was -the charming girl in the blue domino he was dancing with? I failed to -recognize her. She is no _habitué_ here. He intrigues me, this Haggard -of ours." - -"Pooh!" replied the philosophic lord, as he drove an unusually large -volume of cigarette smoke through both nostrils; "some milliner's -apprentice probably, got up regardless of expense." - -"No, my friend, the shepherdess was too well _chausée_ for that; -besides, her mask hides her face too well. Your milliner would not be so -_farouche_ as to hide her face, unless, _ma foi_, she had perchance a -bad complexion; but our Haggard is too great a connoisseur for that. -However, he shall introduce me to this mystery, and we shall see." - -"I wouldn't try if I were you, Barbiche." - -"And why not, my friend? Why not, if you please? Is this Haggard, this -English Adonis of yours, with the manners of a prize-fighter, is he to -_croquer_ all to himself all the pretty girls of Rome? Is it not enough -that he shall have the prettiest wife in Rome? No, I wrong that angel, -the most beautiful and the most virtuous of her sex. Is it not enough -that this man shall every morning sit down to breakfast with the lovely -Mees Lucy? Ah! when I think of Mees Lucy, I remember myself once more, -and I think of those happy days in the Quartier Latin, before my uncle -does me the honour to die, and I embark myself in the diplomatic career. -I study your language in your Dickens, in your Thackeray; at last I -attain proficiency. You see it for yourself, no Englishman ever shall -suspect me, when we shall converse, of being other than a Briton. It is -the same thing with the charming Mees Lucy. I, a Frenchman, feel my -heart beat in sympathy with hers; she is to me a _compatriote_. We speak -to each other as I used to speak to Cascadette in those old happy times. -_Vlan ça y est._ This Haggard of yours he shall have his most beautiful -wife, her most lovely cousin, but what shall he want with this little -shepherdess in the blue domino. Bah," said the indignant man as he -stamps his foot and settles himself down into his enormous collar, "I -say he _shall_ introduce me. Think you, my friend, that I fear this -'la-out?' No, I am of the first force, my Shirtings, at the _savate_." - -"What's that?" said Lord Spunyarn stolidly. - -"My friend, _nous autres_, we do not box like you, but we use the -_savate_. Behold, then, what is the _savate_." And here M. Barbiche -suddenly threw himself into the attitude of an enraged and aggressive -monkey. "A ruffian, he strike me, P-r-r-r-r-r," and here M. Barbiche -sprang suddenly high in air, and with one adroit and well-directed kick -knocked off the hat of the astonished Spunyarn. - -In the tohu bohu at Papayani's this singular action of M. Barbiche -excited not the slightest surprise; he simply received a vociferous -round of applause from the bystanders in his immediate neighbourhood. -Excited by the success of his achievement, Barbiche for the moment -forgot the Embassy, the Duc de la Houspignolle, and the proprieties; he -had been wound up by Papayani's music, and by more than one glass of -Papayani's champagne. The Frenchman became for the moment once more Le -petit Furibon, the darling of the Closerie de Lilas, the champion of the -Quartier Latin, the Elisha upon whose worthy shoulders had descended the -mantle of the prophet, the vanished Caouchouc. - -At this moment the strains of Arditi's immortal waltz, "Il Bacio," -resounded through the place. The head of M. Barbiche kept time to the -music, and he regarded the dancers with a scrutinizing gaze; his eye -evidently sought Haggard and the mysterious shepherdess. As the ring of -maskers which surrounded the space set apart for the dancers thinned, as -numerous couples joined in the waltz, the watchful Frenchman was -rewarded. "_La voila, mon ami_," he said, for Barbiche, when excited, -forgot the English of which he was so proud. - -Directly opposite Lord Spunyarn and his French friend stood Haggard and -his shepherdess. She nestled at his side, clinging to his arm and gazing -up into his eyes. The hood of the pale blue silk domino was now thrown -back, disclosing a magnificent head of powdered hair; the complexion of -the lady's neck and shoulders was dazzling, and evidently natural; her -rounded arms had more of the Venus than the Juno about them; her -figure, as she gazed up into Haggard's face, was seen to be perfection. -The little foot beat time to the music of the waltz. But a black silk -mask with a heavy fall of lace hid every feature, save a rounded chin -and a pair of magnificent eyes, which seemed to be pleading to Haggard, -and the shell-like ears in which blazed the diamond solitaires which had -attracted the attention of the British "'Arry" in the street. - -Haggard's face was suddenly lit up with pleasure, his arm slipped round -the little waist, the left hand of the shepherdess was confidingly -placed on the shoulder of her champion; they started and joined the -numerous pairs whirling round to the music of "Il Bacio." Soon the -couple excited attention, of which both seemed to be wholly unaware. -Haggard, though he was a married man, was still a good dancer, and even -here in a foreign ball-room, where, as a rule, the dancing Englishman -is an object of ridicule, he distinguished himself. For Haggard, unlike -most of the dancers present (at all events those of the male sex), was -perfectly sober; not that the proverbially moderate Italians had -exceeded in the use of their light but notoriously nasty wines, but an -Italian easily becomes intoxicated, exalted, exhilarated, beside himself -under the combined influences of a Carnival ball, the lights, the -perfumes, the music, the dancing, and above all the eyes of his -_inamorata_. Can we blame Petrarch for being cheerful when Laura smiles? -But no Italian present was in so exalted a state as M. Barbiche of the -French Embassy, once so well known as Le petit Furibon, of the Latin -Quarter. - -As the pairs gradually dropped out, Haggard and his partner became the -cynosure of every eye. In vain did Pasquino whirl his Contadina with the -ruddled cheeks, varying his saltatory gymnastics with an occasional -scream; in vain did young Mr. Simon E. Brown, that very rough diamond -from New York city, who had come to Europe for polish, and was -undergoing the process (in the costume of one of the Wise Men of Gotham -who went to sea in a bowl) at the hands of the Signorina Esperanza, of -the Scala, or any of the motley crew, attempt to attract the public -gaze: every eye was riveted with admiration on the shepherdess, that is -to say, every male eye; the female organs of vision turned from her in -disgust, to admire or criticize her partner, and in the end to feel -dissatisfied with their own peculiar victims. For if the masked -shepherdess turned the heads of most of those present, Haggard was -undeniably the best-looking man in the vast arena. But even the -strength of a muscular English dancing man must give way at length to -the power of an Italian waltz played fast at past midnight. As for his -partner, I believe she could have gone on for ever, but she had -perceived that they were attracting attention; she discreetly drew the -hood of her pale blue silk domino over her head and hid herself in the -recesses of that mysterious garment. As ill luck would have it, the -pair pulled up close to the excited Furibon. - -"_Ah, mon vieux_," cried the Frenchman, advancing with extended hands, -"you have rejoiced our eyes. _Ah, gredin_," whispered Furibon, as he -indiscreetly poked his friend in the ribs. - -"Ta ta, old man, I must be off," replied Haggard with a frown, as the -shepherdess clung in evident trepidation to his arm. "For God's sake, -Shirtings, take him away, or there'll be a row," muttered Haggard to his -friend below his breath, his white teeth showing beneath his black -moustache in a menacing manner. - -The crowd of revellers was thick around them. Barbiche was, as we know, -a gentleman, but our ideas of courtesy are not a Frenchman's, and, as -has been said before, he had ceased to be Mr. Barbiche the _viveur_, for -the moment he was Furibon, the daring Furibon of former days. - -"_Saperlotte_," he hissed, and his out-stretched hand touched the pale -blue domino on the shoulder. - -The domino shrank as to avoid him. - -Crash! - -With one cruel but well-aimed blow Haggard smote the Frenchman in the -mouth, and down he went among the feet of the crowd of indignant -maskers. - -"Look to him, Spunyarn," cried Haggard, as he hustled his way through -the crowd, and in an instant disappeared, bearing in his arms the -fainting form of the shepherdess. - -_Væ victis_, alas for poor Furibon, where was his boasted skill as a -kicker? Why had he not sprung high in air and delivered his unexpected -assault? We must say of the _savate_ respectfully, as our Gallic -neighbours said of the Balaclava charge, _c'est magnifique, mais ce -n'est pas la guerre_. Seated on the floor, the unfortunate Frenchman -presented a piteous appearance, as he shed mingled tears of pain and -rage, tore his hair, and wiped his cut lip. "_Insolente birbone!_" -"_Bestia!_" "_Cane!_" Such were the cries of the dancers on seeing the -blow struck, but they were levelled not so much at the assailant as at -his victim. In the eyes of the bystanders, Haggard was evidently looked -upon as the protector of beauty in distress. But as Valour bore off -fainting Beauty, and made his suddenly triumphant exit, everybody's -attention was directed to the unhappy Furibon. A gentleman tearing his -hair, in the eyes of Italians, is a common, interesting, and dignified -object. The cause of this performance is usually romantic, time and -place generally appropriate, but Italians do not tear their hair at -masked balls. As everywhere else, a foreigner in distress in Rome is -looked upon as a grotesque object, and poor Barbiche was no exception to -the rule. At first he sat and wept, now he sat and swore, but all the -time he tore hard at his hair. Haggard had disappeared with the celerity -of a harlequin who jumps through a trap. - -Lord Spunyarn was somewhat bewildered; he, as a boxer, as an amateur -though unsuccessful athlete, knew what a good knock-down blow was; he -had seen them delivered, with varying degrees of energy, force, and -viciousness, but never in all his lordship's experience till now had he -seen a master-stroke which combined all the above qualities in the -superlative degree. At last he got poor Furibon upon his legs. The -Frenchman carefully felt his front teeth, doubtful if they were still -there, then he ceased to swear and to mutter in his own tongue; he -ceased to be Furibon, he became once more the correct M. Barbiche of the -French Embassy. - -"Milor, you have seen the insult. Monsieur Haggard takes advantage of -his physique, of his brutal boxing skill, to maim me, perhaps, _Mon -Dieu_, for life, and to render me an object of contempt and ridicule to -these grimacing apes," here he glowered at the laughing crowd. - -"But, my dear boy, it was your own fault, you know; what did you want -to lay hands on the domino for?" - -"In that there is nothing, Lord Spunyarn. Black dominoes, pink dominoes, -blue dominoes. Bah! they are but public property, milor, but I shall -teach this Don Quixote a lesson, this chivalrous protector of dominoes. -Yes," he added solemnly, as he crossed himself, "please God." - -Lord Spunyarn shook his head. There seemed no other way out of it; the -Frenchman had been struck, the insult was in a public place; an apology -or arrangement was impossible. Spunyarn was well aware that Barbiche was -by no means an antagonist to be despised. He had been a journalist, a -career which in France may enable a man to attain the highest positions; -from journalism he had drifted into diplomacy, as French journalists -sometimes do. This was after his accession to the fortune of a deceased -uncle. Of course, he was skilled with the small-sword, as all French -journalists are bound to be; his reputation with the pistol was equally -deadly. - -"I shall send my friend to him in the morning," said M. Barbiche calmly, -as leaning on Lord Spunyarn's arm he left the ball-room. "I suppose you -will act for him?" - -"Don't know, I'm sure. I'm not up to these things, but I don't see why -you should shoot each other over it." - -The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders as he stepped into his -perfectly-appointed but funereal-looking little brougham. As he drove -home he meditated on his wrongs, and in his heart of hearts he swore -that four-and-twenty hours should not elapse ere the insult should be -avenged by his own skilful hand. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - A MEETING IN THE GOOD OLD STYLE. - - -Lord Spunyarn woke with a very bad headache indeed, the morning after -the ball at Papayani's. He hurried to commence his dressing, for his -valet on awakening him had presented a thin and varnished card, bearing -a portentous coronet and the name of the Comte de Kerguel. The man told -him that the visitor had come on business of the most urgent nature. -What his business was, Spunyarn was well aware. Knowing that, next to -getting married, a Frenchman looks upon the delivery of a hostile -message, as the most important, pleasant, and serious event of life; -Spunyarn wisely dressed himself with care and deliberation. When he -entered his sitting-room M. de Kerguel rose and profoundly saluted him. - -"Milor Spunyarn. I have the honour of addressing him?" - -"Yes, it's quite right, that's me Please be seated." - -The Frenchman sat himself down bolt upright. - -"I suppose, Lord Spunyarn, that my visit is not unexpected. I had the -honour to call upon your friend Monsieur Haggard, to demand satisfaction -from him on the part of my friend, Monsieur Barbiche. You, I believe, -were present at the whole affair. Monsieur Haggard has referred me to -you as his friend." - -Spunyarn bowed, stretched out his long legs towards the fire, and -opening his cigarette case offered it to Monsieur de Kerguel. - -"Won't you smoke?" he said. - -A French gentleman in a new frock coat, on the most serious of all -missions, the bearer of a hostile message to a man he has never met in -his life before, is asked to smoke! - -A crowd of strange thoughts passed through his mind. Are these -Englishmen cowards? He drew himself up more stiffly than before, as he -declined the offer. - -"Have you breakfasted?" said his hospitable lordship, ignoring the -gesture. - -"Lord Spunyarn," replied the Frenchman, "I come to you this morning -purely as the emissary of my insulted friend; not to accept of your -kindness, or to trespass on your hospitality." - -"Oh, of course I understand that; but you see we English don't fight -duels as a rule. Of course I should be sorry to balk you, but can't it -be arranged?" - -"Lord Spunyarn, you are aware that my friend was struck. In my country, -no gentleman receives a blow without avenging it. Least of all a -journalist or a diplomate. My friend Monsieur Barbiche was one, and is -the other. In speaking of arrangement, milor, I would suggest that we -are wasting time." - -"But I don't quite see that," persisted Spunyarn, strong in his idea -that the man who fights a duel is a fool. "You see there was a lady in -the matter, and your friend insulted her. Why man, he actually touched -her, I saw him do it." - -"Milor, ladies who go to masked balls are accustomed to such marks of -attention. What my friend did was but a condescension on his part. But -there was a blow struck, milor. Besides this, Monsieur Haggard has -referred me to his friend Lord Spunyarn, I suppose with a definite -purpose, and not with the intention of causing me to listen to, shall we -say homilies, from his lordship." - -"The whole affair's a beastly nuisance. I don't understand these things, -but I will try to settle the matter." - -"Milor, the matter admits of no settlement," said the Breton menacingly, -rising from his chair. - -"I tell you plainly, Monsieur de Kerguel, it is very much against the -grain that I have anything to do with the matter. Unfortunately, as you -say, I was present, and I tell you that our friend Barbiche behaved like -a lunatic. Why he kicked _my_ hat off, and I don't want to call him -out." - -Monsieur de Kerguel smiled. "If your lordship is in any way aggrieved by -my friend's conduct, you have your remedy." - -"Oh, I could have had my remedy last night; if I had felt aggrieved, as -you call it, I should have done exactly what Haggard did--I should have -punched his head, you know." - -"Milor, no man of whatever nationality, as you happily express it, -'punches the head' of a French gentleman with impunity, unless -peradventure," said de Kerguel with an insolent smile, "he is a coward -as well as a boxer." - -"Do sit down," said Lord Spunyarn imperturbably. "He's no coward," and -taking from his pocket a note, he handed it to the Frenchman. - -The letter was short but emphatic. - - "DEAR SHIRTINGS, - - "That ass Barbiche will send a friend to you asking for a meeting. - Agree to anything he wishes and oblige - - "Yours, - - "R. HAGGARD." - -The Frenchman read the letter, reseated himself, and with a bow handed -back the note. - -"I was precipitate, Milor. All this is very irregular; but we advance, -though slowly." - -"Yes, I suppose we do, worse luck. I'll tell you what I'll do. Old -Pepper is stopping in this hotel; there seems to be nothing else for it, -I'll send for him," said his lordship with a sigh, and he rang the bell. - -The waiter who answered it was directed to present his lordship's -compliments to General Pepper, and to request his immediate presence. - -The Indian warrior had just breakfasted, and entered the room in a few -minutes. He was introduced to the Frenchman; a few words from Lord -Spunyarn sufficiently explained the matter. - -"I understand then, Monsieur de Kerguel," said the general, "that we are -the challenged party. As such we are entitled to a choice of weapons?" - -Monsieur de Kerguel bowed. "Assuredly, Monsieur le Général," he replied. - -"You will excuse us then for an instant?" said he, as he motioned -Spunyarn to the window. "This is a beastly affair, your lordship. It -won't admit of arrangement. Do you know if the Frenchman is best at -swords or pistols?" - -"Can't say, I'm sure," replied his lordship; "probably he's a dab at -both. I know he was a newspaper man. They all are fighting men." - -"It's most unfortunate for our man; they'll have to fight. Is Haggard -any good at either?" - -"I don't think he can shoot, at least not in a regulation affair. I know -he can use a revolver, and he is very good at single-stick." - -"It's a heavy responsibility," replied the general seriously. "If it had -been arranged for this morning at dawn we might have had a chance with -the pistols, for perhaps the Frenchman's hand would have been unsteady. -I suppose it was a good knock-down blow?" - -"A regular snorter!" said his lordship with enthusiasm. - -"Most unfortunate. Well, we must try our luck with a regulation sabre; -they can't well refuse it; ours is the stronger and bigger man. I don't -think there's any room for doubt, eh? But it's a precious nuisance. -Man's got his wife here too. It's sure to be in the papers. Beastly -nuisance; we shall all have to clear out, for I suppose it won't be a -mere matter of scratches. It must come off at once too, or we shall be -suspected of shirking. I think that's the only course," said the general -as he pulled down his wristbands. - -"I'm afraid so," said his lordship. - -They rejoined the Frenchman. - -"Monsieur de Kerguel," said the general, seating himself, "we have -elected to choose sabres, regulation sabres; you have no objection, I -suppose?" - -"Sir, the weapon is unusual. As you are doubtless aware, between -civilians the small-sword, the rapier and the pistol are what are -usually employed. The sabre is unusual, and as a rule only employed in -settling the little differences of officers of cavalry." - -"Monsieur de Kerguel, his lordship and I are here in the interests of -our friend Haggard. You are possibly unaware that among English -gentlemen the duel has ceased to be a means in these degenerate days of -settling disputes. Unfortunately our principal has directed us in -writing to agree to your wishes; and his lordship here has, somewhat -indiscreetly, I must remark, taken you into his confidence. As he has -done so, sir," said the general, "and bearing in mind that we are in a -foreign country, and that unfortunately a blow has been struck, we feel -ourselves reluctantly compelled to accept the proposed meeting. It is -therefore our duty, sir, to protect our principal, and we cannot consent -to abate one jot or tittle of our rights. Should you decline the weapon -proposed no meeting can evidently take place," here the general gave a -little sigh; "Lord Spunyarn is of the same opinion. It is then for you -to accept or refuse; in the latter case the matter must definitely end -here." - -The Frenchman paused and thought. - -"Unfortunately, gentlemen," he replied, "my principal has left me no -choice; he naturally declines any apology----" - -"You will please to observe. Monsieur de Kerguel, that we have offered -none," interrupted the general; "in our humble opinion the original -insult, as well as the challenge, comes from you, and we cannot deviate -from our position. We decline to modify our terms in any way. And I -would respectfully suggest that this interview must definitely terminate -the matter one way or the other. I would remark," fiercely added the -general, "that neither we nor our principal are to be cajoled or -intimidated." - -"It shall be as you say, general. Nothing remains then, I think, for us -but to name a time and place. The weapons, the most unusual weapons, we -are reluctantly compelled to accept under protest. Have you any -suggestion to offer, general?" - -"None whatever, sir. One party shall provide a surgeon, the other a pair -of ordinary cavalry sabres. You as a resident in this infernal hole can -doubtless suggest a suitable spot for the meeting. Of course you will -be provided with a second friend. As to time, the sooner the better. We -then, if it suits you, will bring a pair of regulation sabres. You, -perhaps, will bring a doctor who will act for both men. Perhaps you will -also oblige us by naming the time and place of meeting." - -"Gentlemen, the mill at St. Stefano is only four miles off; it is -secluded; we shall not be disturbed. You know the place? Five o'clock -will, I think, suit us all? Is it agreed?" - -The general bowed. - -"Gentlemen, I have the honour to salute you," said Monsieur de Kerguel -with a profound obeisance. - -The general rang the bell, and Monsieur Barbiche's friend took his -leave. - -"Thank God!" piously exclaimed the general. "I had him there; Haggard is -the bigger and more powerful man, of that there is no doubt. It shall -not be my fault if they don't settle their differences with the longest -and heaviest pair of regulation sabres to be had in Rome for love or -money. It's quite against the rule, you know, but you say our man is -good at single-stick, so he may have the luck to smash him or cut him -down before the Frenchman spits him, as he is bound to do if he gets the -chance. And I'll tell you what it is, my lord, I'll take a glass of -curaçao, for I'm dry with talking." - -The curaçao was duly brought, and certainly the general deserved it. The -experienced warrior had perceived that De Kerguel was bent on mischief, -and by his own coyness he had succeeded in beguiling the Frenchman into -accepting a weapon of the use of which his principal was probably -totally ignorant. The men would then theoretically meet on an equality. -But a cavalry sabre is a big and comparatively awkward weapon, and -supposing that both were equally unskilled in its use, Haggard, as the -taller and stronger man, would certainly have the advantage. Besides -this the old general meant it, when he had stated his design to provide -a specially heavy pair of weapons. - -In his great anxiety to secure a meeting at any price, De Kerguel had -been compelled to accept the general's ultimatum with regard to weapons, -"these or none;" but he knew that his principal thirsted for blood, so -he gave way, and it seemed to him at the time that the trifling matter -of providing the weapons was of little moment. But ere he reached his -friend's hotel he felt that he had been caught napping. - -Barbiche was extended upon a couch. A huge piece of black court plaister -hid the wound on his swollen lip, a cup of _tisane_ stood upon the -table. He was dabbing his forehead with toilet vinegar. His head was -bound with a scarlet and yellow silk handkerchief which he wore after -the manner of a nightcap, as is the custom of his country. As his friend -entered he sprang to his feet. - -"Have you arranged it, De Kerguel? Will he meet me, or are these -Englishmen brave only with their fists?" - -"Do not excite yourself, Emile; you will have need of all your skill, of -all your courage." - -"He will come, then, this protector of the _demi-monde_, this model -moral English husband. Say, is it sword or pistols, De Kerguel?" - -"Ah! my poor Barbiche, I fear that I have, as our American friends say, -'given you away.'" - -"You don't mean to say that the coward has apologized? This was no case -for an apology, De Kerguel, as you know." - -"I wish it had been," said his friend; "unfortunately you are to fight." - -Barbiche instantly threw himself into a Napoleonic attitude. Under such -circumstances a Frenchman always feels himself a hero, and invariably -unconsciously assumes the favourite pose of the Little Corporal. - -"Yes, you are to fight, my poor friend, but with cavalry sabres." - -Barbiche suddenly buried his face in his hands, and exclaimed in a -broken voice, "Oh, my mother!" - -When a Frenchman is in a very deep hole indeed, he always apostrophizes -his mother; on ordinary occasions he thinks little enough about her. - -"Kerguel," he cried at length, looking up reproachfully at his friend, -"you must have been mad. The sabre, as you know, is only used among -cavalry officers; the pistol or the small-sword are the arms of -gentlemen." - -"And also of journalists, my friend. Of that the _rusé_ old general, our -man's friend, was unfortunately too well aware. You had tied me down too -tightly, my Barbiche; my instructions were to obtain a meeting at any -price. It was the choice of Hobson, that or none." - -Barbiche placed his hand to his swollen lip. - -"And you were right, my friend. Let us embrace." - -They did so with effusion. - -De Kerguel explained all the arrangements to his principal. Then they -drove to the nearest cavalry barrack, where they had acquaintances; and -that excellent fencer, Monsieur Barbiche, received an hour's lesson in -the use of the sabre from the _maître d'armes_. But he found the weapon -unwieldy, and he returned to his hotel a sadder man than he left it. - -Old General Pepper ate his lunch with considerable relish. He was sick -and tired of Rome, its churches, its ruins, and its priests. He longed, -with an ardent longing, for that paradise of retired military men, "the -sweet shady side of Pall Mall;" he longed, too, for the whist tables at -the Pandemonium, and his so-called friends at that establishment. He -felt that if he only got safely across the frontier he would be one of -the lions of the season; for he was certain that the business he was -bent upon that afternoon would be no child's play. He himself was no -particular friend of Haggard's; but he was proud of having done his best -for his man. "After all," said he to himself, "it's six of one, and -half-a-dozen of the other. It's lucky for Haggard that Spunyarn sent for -me, or that cursed Frenchman would have had his life to a certainty, for -the friend meant fighting; I could see it in his eye." - -Such thoughts as these passed through the worthy officer's mind as he -carefully packed his portmanteau. Then he paid his bill. "Now," he -soliloquized, "this is what I call being sacrificed. Of one of these -fellows I know absolutely nothing, and precious little of the other. But -in the cause of honour I shall probably have to run half across Europe, -and the worst of it is, at my own expense." - -Then the general started out to secure the longest and heaviest pair of -cavalry sabres he could find in Rome. - -Haggard was equally active. He informed his wife and her cousin that -they must leave Rome at once; the convenient excuse of an outbreak of -cholera in the city was a sufficiently valid one for the ladies. By two -o'clock Mrs. Haggard and Lucy, their maid Hephzibah, and Haggard's -useful and polyglot valet, a Swiss, named Capt, were _en route_ for -Geneva. - -"Business, my dear, will detain me here till over to-morrow," said -Haggard, as he embraced his pretty wife upon the platform; "but, please -God, I shall see you then." Perhaps his voice faltered a little, as the -possibility flashed through his mind that perchance, in this world, he -might never gaze again into those loving, trustful eyes. One more kiss -at the carriage-window and the train started, for even Italian trains -must start at last. Haggard stood gazing after the disappearing -carriages. Then he lit a big cigar and went back to his hotel. Then, as -a good man of business, he made his will. It was short and to the -point. He left everything he had in the world to his dear wife, Georgina -Haggard. He rang for a couple of waiters, who duly witnessed it. And -then from his pocket-book he took a little packet of tissue-paper. In it -was a magnificent lock of hair. Alas, its colour was other than the deep -chestnut bronze of Georgie Haggard's. He twined it round his finger, -smoothing its glossy threads, and then he carefully dropped it into the -hottest part of the wood fire which smouldered on the hearth. It curled -and twisted in the embers as if it had been a living thing; a puff of -smoke, a pungent odour, and it was gone. Haggard flung himself upon the -sofa, and then he slept the dreamless sleep of a little child. - -Punctually as the clock struck five, Monsieur Barbiche's faultless -brougham and high-stepping horse drew up at the old mill, the only -building which remained of the ancient village of St. Stefano. The -place was well chosen. There was not a soul about. Barbiche, his face -still very pale, dressed in spotless black, in his button-hole the red -ribbon, so dear to every Frenchman's heart, and accompanied by his -friend De Kerguel, stepped out. They were followed by a little dried-up -Italian army surgeon, who carried under his arm an ominous-looking black -case. They made for the miller's orchard at once. - -They were not destined to be kept in suspense, for Haggard and his party -had preceded them. All three Englishmen, Haggard, the general and Lord -Spunyarn, were attired in ordinary walking dress; the general and -Spunyarn advanced to meet De Kerguel. Barbiche and the surgeon remained -a little apart. - -"Gentlemen," said De Kerguel, as he courteously raised his hat, "we owe -you an apology." - -General Pepper's ruddy face assumed a purple hue. "Did these fellows -mean to cry off after all?" But he was soon reassured. - -"We have thought it better," said the Frenchman with a smile, "to avoid -mixing up any one else in this unfortunate affair. Hence, gentlemen, we -have dispensed with the usual second _témoin_. Dr. Battista, of the -Papal Zouaves, is present. We had better perhaps lose no time." - -"Be good enough," said the general, "to look at these." And from under -his blue military cloak, which lay upon the ground, he drew a pair of -regulation sabres, perhaps a little exceeding the ordinary length. They -were heavy, murderous-looking weapons. - -"I cannot object, gentlemen," said the Frenchman, as he carefully -measured them and weighed them in either hand. "But----" here he -eloquently shrugged his shoulders. - -The expectant adversaries lost no time. They divested themselves of -their coats and vests, and, bare-headed, each advanced to receive his -weapon. - -The general traced two lines on the dusty earth, about eight feet apart. -Barbiche and Haggard took their places. The old general stood between -them, but a little to one side; he held his stick, with the point raised -a little from the ground, ready to dash aside the blades the instant -that blood should be drawn. - -"_En garde, messieurs_," exclaimed De Kerguel. - -Both men put themselves at once on the defensive: their blades crossed, -but the attitudes were different and characteristic. Barbiche, drawing -himself up to his full height, raised his left arm while standing face -to face with his adversary, brought the point of his weapon close to his -finger tips in salute, and then fell at once into the regulation -position of the French fencing schools--the right foot well forward, -both knees considerably bent, the left arm high in air, the elbow at a -right angle. He kept his sword pointed at the eyes of his adversary; -but he never rested for an instant. He evidently meant business. -Haggard, on the contrary, assumed a totally different posture. His left -arm was behind his back, the hand clenched, the right leg perfectly -straight. He held the sabre lower, but the point was kept unwaveringly -at the chest of his enemy; his teeth were set. On his face was that -quasi-good-humoured smile, which is alike assumed by the British boxer -and the British ballet-girl when exhibiting their arts. - -The Frenchman's blade scintillated in the setting sun around Haggard's -more stiffly held weapon. As it grated against it, first on one side -then on the other, Barbiche made pass after pass, feint after feint at -his impassive adversary. Suddenly he sprang forward with cat-like -agility, his left hand touching the ground, and he made a rapid pass -from below upwards at the Englishman; his point passed dangerously near -his ribs. It was the well-known extension _en seconde_; a favourite -trick among Parisian swordsmen of the Romantic school. The attempt -failed, and was followed by a rapid succession of miscellaneous thrusts -and passes in bewildering variety. The Frenchman never withdrew his -blade; but his very anxiety to make a hit was defeating itself. Such -tactics with the light rapier or small-sword are doubtless correct; but -Barbiche forgot the weight of his weapon, and the muscles of his arm -were already beginning to tire. - -As that experienced swordsman, General Pepper, standing with stick -extended, viewed the fight, it seemed to him that Haggard, by remaining -purely on the defensive, ran a considerable risk, but that was Haggard's -business. Perhaps after all his principal meant to take a flesh wound, -and so end the matter. "But," thought the general to himself, "he'll -find out his mistake, if that dancing devil gets in one of his vicious -thrusts." Spunyarn looked on, and the perspiration streamed from his -face. De Kerguel was no less excited, but he preserved a calm exterior. - -More than two minutes had now elapsed since the combat had first -commenced. These things take longer to tell than to do. Suddenly, in an -instant, Barbiche made a furious lunge at his opponent; the Englishman -parried it with ease, dropping his point lower than usual. As if blind -to the consequences, the Frenchman rushed forward with a short sharp -cry, his sword passed across Haggard's chest without touching him, but -poor Barbiche had literally impaled himself on his adversary's extended -weapon. His sabre dropped from his hand. He flung both his arms high in -air, giving one bitter shriek. His face assumed the expression of one -enduring intense torture, and then was calm again. The body, for he was -dead, _slipped off_ Haggard's sword in a heap at his feet. Haggard flung -his weapon to the ground, and all four men crowded round the corpse. - -"He is stone dead," said the surgeon. - -There was a solemn silence. - -"Save yourselves, gentlemen," at length cried De Kerguel. "I will see to -my unfortunate friend. It was his own fault and _mine_," he said with a -sigh. - -The Englishmen saluted. Haggard resumed his garments, and they hurried -from the field, unobserved and unmolested. - -Next morning Rome rang with the affair; by noon all three Englishmen -were safely over the frontier. - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - - THE VILLA LAMBERT. - - -Twenty-four hours at a Genevese hotel were got through by Georgie and -her cousin without difficulty. - -"I do think," said Lucy, "that Reginald might have brought us here -himself. I confess that a _tête-à-tête_ of two women is dull; when they -are almost sisters, as a rule it's duller still; though the dulness is -frequently enlivened by a pitched battle. Georgie, why are you not of a -pugnacious disposition? My fingers literally itch to box some one's -ears; as for Hephzibah, I've no patience with her." - -"I noticed that you had set her crying again, Lucy, for about the tenth -time to-day." - -"And serve her right, she's over head and ears in love with that -priceless jewel, your husband's man; it's as plain as the nose on her -face, and there's no doubt of the plainness of that. I know the -symptoms, they are unmistakable: they always are, among the ministering -classes. He was Capt before, now it's 'Mr. Capt' here and 'Mr. Capt' -there. Mistering is always the first sign, Georgie. No, I've no patience -with her at all. It appears he gave her a thermometer about a week ago; -she has carried this thing about in her pocket ever since; the mercury -has got separated, and she passes her whole time in weeping and shaking -the horrid thing, and trying to get it back again. Now I ask you, -Georgie, just look at her." - -A mirror, turned towards an open door, disclosed the lovelorn Hephzibah -in the next room. Her proceedings were sufficiently grotesque. In her -hand she held a small ornamental thermometer; she would shake it -violently in the air, she would then regard it intently with a puzzled -expression, then she would shake her head and proceed to furiously -agitate it once more. Failing in her purpose, she wept bitterly. - -Good-natured as Georgina was, she could not resist a smile. - -"Hephzibah, you fool, come here," cried Lucy. - -The maid at once secreted the thermometer in her bosom. - -"Why do you hide the nasty thing?" said Lucy. - -"Oh, miss, I'm ashamed." - -"And what are you crying for?" - -"Please, miss, because of the omen." - -"What do you mean?" said Georgina; "do calm yourself, Hephzibah." - -"Oh, miss, only look," cried the girl, as she took the scientific -love-token from its hiding place; "the quicksilver have separated, never -to be re-united, and isn't that an omen, miss?" Here the maid shook the -thermometer with redoubled fury. - -"You stupid creature, so you believe in all that nonsense, do you?" - -"I may be stupid, Miss Lucy, but I've never known a sign or omen fail. -Didn't the cook at The Warren, miss, predict, with coffee grounds, that -I should be engaged to a foreign gentleman, but that some one younger -and more beautiful would prove a jealous rival? Here I am engaged, miss, -or as good, to Mr. Capt; and I know what this omen means. You may laugh, -miss, but it's a very serious thing." - -"I shouldn't wonder at all, Hephzibah; the hotel prospectus says there -are no less than fifty chambermaids here. Perhaps even fifty jealous -rivals." - -"Mr. Capt don't demean himself to chambermaids, Miss Lucy," retorted the -abigail with angry scorn. - -"Oh, I've no doubt Capt is ambitious; perhaps he looks higher. Perhaps I -shall be your rival, Hephzibah." - -"You wouldn't have the heart to do it, miss," said the girl in all -seriousness. - -Mrs. Haggard gave her cousin a reproving glance, but Lucy imperturbably -continued: - -"Well, Hephzibah," she said, "I think you may consider yourself safe -from me, at least; but I'll help you if you'll let me." - -Ladies don't wink, they only imperceptibly droop their eyelids, but the -glance that Lucy gave her cousin was terribly like a wink, and brimming -over with malice. - -"Yes," she went on. "Light that candle, you stupid creature; now hold -your thermometer close to the flame; we shall soon see what the omen is -worth." - -The maid did as she was bid, and carefully watched the tube. - -"Well, are the separated fates getting any nearer?" inquired the young -mistress with affected solicitude. - -"Oh, miss, they are coming together gradually, but very slowly, miss." - -"Get the thing nearer to the candle, then." - -Poor Hephzibah obeyed; she little suspected the heartless trick played -at her expense. - -"Oh, miss," she delightedly exclaimed, "they'll join in another -instant." - -Bang went the fragile bulb, as it splintered into a thousand atoms, and -the mercury shot in sparkling globules over the table. - -Lucy's ringing laugh resounded through the room. - -But the matter was no joke to Hephzibah, her pale lips became -colourless; she pressed her hand to her heart with a gesture full of -anguish, recovered herself with difficulty, gave forth a few short sharp -sobs, cast an almost menacing look upon her younger mistress, then -turned and rushed from the room. - -"How could you have the heart to tease her so?" said Georgie with honest -indignation. "I'm ashamed of you, Lucy; you've no right to trifle with -her feelings." - -"Trifle with her fiddlesticks," laughed the girl. - -But a knock at the door interrupted them; the discreet Capt entered, -bearing a telegram upon a salver. - -Mrs. Haggard, to whom the envelope was addressed, tore it open with some -anxiety; her face assumed a pleased expression. - -"Order a carriage at once, Capt," she said. - -The valet withdrew to execute the command. - -The telegram was from Haggard; it was as follows: - - "_Spunyarn and I are on the road, and shall reach Geneva by last - train. You had better go to the Villa Lambert and arrange for - taking up our quarters there, if you like the place. All - well--H._" - -Georgie handed the paper to her cousin, the latter clapped her hands -with glee. In a woman's life there is nothing more delightful than -arranging a home, though it be but a temporary one. - -The girls hurried to prepare for their drive. And Mrs. Haggard, after -attempting to soothe the wounded feelings of her maid, directed her to -accompany them. - -With Capt on the box, the young wife and her cousin, and their still -ruffled attendant, started on the lovely drive along the margin of the -lake for the villa which Haggard had secured, should it meet with their -mutual approval, as a home for his wife and cousin during his short -projected necessary absence in America. - -As seen from the lake the Villa Lambert, which stood quite alone, gave -one the idea of the place a poet would choose for his meditations. The -villa and its terrace were built of white stone, but a large portion of -the walls was covered with ivy. The house itself was embedded in a -thickly-wooded garden where the trees were just budding into leaf. -Privacy was evidently what had been aimed at in the arrangement of the -place. On looking at it one would instinctively say, _here_ is rest. A -large _porte cochère_, which had evidently been long unused, was the -chief entrance to the place, and a small wicket, pierced by a grille, -and surmounted by a big bell in an iron cage, was the only other means -of getting into the garden. The active Capt descended, and seizing the -substantial handle rang loudly. The bark of a dog was the only answer, -but after repeating the summons several times, the trap in the wicket -opened and disclosed the surly face of an old Savoyard. The gifted Capt -addressed the old man in numerous dialects, but no answering smile of -intelligence illuminated the sulky wooden face; the barred aperture was -closed with an angry slam, and Capt instantly recommenced his solo upon -the bell. Again the trap opened and a weather-beaten crone answered his -summons; at length the door itself was unbarred, and Mr. Capt hastened -to assist his mistresses to alight. He explained to them that the -guardians of the villa were a Savoyard and his wife, and that the man -was probably deaf, but that the woman had expressed her readiness to -show them over the house and grounds. - -The garden was full of trees and thick with evergreen shrubs; the walls -covered, as they are in most gardens on the Continent, with carefully -trained espaliers, many of which were already white with blossom, which -promised an abundant crop. Huge clumps of narcissus gave out their heavy -odour; it was too early for other flowers, save the China roses and -fuchsias, whose bright colours enlivened the place. The beds were -bordered, as in many foreign gardens, by pieces of plank painted a -bright blue; the paths, so different from our hard trim English gravel -walks, were loose shingle, which had been carefully raked. A goat, -chained to a peg, grazed on the unmown lawn; the house itself was -jealously shut up, storm blinds and jalousies covering every window. - -The uncommunicative old gardener continued his interrupted vocation; his -wife, quitting the party and entering the house by a back door, suddenly -flung open the windows of the drawing-room, and so admitted the -visitors. - -There is always an air of discomfort about a furnished house, a kind of -grim bareness that suggests an asylum or a prison, rather than a home; -and in foreign furnished houses this is specially apparent: there are -the regulation amount of chairs and tables it is true; if there are any -ornaments they are always either damaged or in bad taste: they generally -combine both qualities. It was so at the Villa Lambert; but everything -was spotlessly clean, everything was scrupulously cared for; the chairs -stood ranged against the wall in a melancholy manner, cruel -Philistine-looking chairs and guiltless of cushions. There were two hard -formal-looking couches, with straight backs and spider legs. There was a -sort of creepy look about the whole place. - -"I wonder where the last proprietor hung himself, dear?" whispered Lucy -in her cousin's ear. - -But from the rather dismal _salon_ they passed into a more cheerful -room. As the old housekeeper opened the shutters one by one streams of -strong sunlight entered the place; the floor was inlaid wood, the walls -were panelled to the ceiling, and elaborately carved; the ceiling itself -was of polished wood, beautifully veined; the furniture was of oak, -heavy and substantial; attempt at ornament there was none, nor was -ornament needed, for from the windows of this room one looked out -straight over the blue waters of the lake. The cheerful sound of music -came from the deck of a big saloon steamer, bearing its crowd of noisy -tourists. On the opposite shore, at Villeneuve, were the wooded grounds -of the hotel Byron; Chillon, a white spot in the turquoise sea, was -plainly visible to the right. The cousins stepped to the open windows -and descended the flight of stairs that led from the centre one; it -brought them to a little terrace which overhung the lake. - -Lucy clapped her hands with delight, her more staid cousin was rapt in -pleased astonishment. In an instant the thousand and one well-known -descriptions ran through her mind, and she thought of the impassioned -picture of the palace on the Como lake, which Claude Melnotte had poured -into Pauline's delighted ear. Ought she not to be happy? Was not her -handsome husband the very ideal Claude? - -Both girls were enthusiastic; they spent a long afternoon determining -this, arranging that. But spring evenings in Switzerland are chilly; -Capt suggested their return to the hotel. They reluctantly bade farewell -to the little villa; but during all the long drive back they talked of -nothing but the furnishing of the various rooms, the things that must be -had, the things they could not do without. All this was argued _pro_ and -_con._; colours were vital matters, fashion equally important; but not -one thought did the ladies give themselves as to the cost. Happy girls, -they were quite right; money in such a case as this was no object. Lucky -are they who have not to count the cost, these are the people who are -the real privileged classes; it's easy enough not to count the cost at -all, in fact it's like a pleasant dream, a dream which has an unpleasant -awakening at the shrill sounds of the piper who has to be paid. - -The girls sat up till midnight, at which time Haggard and his friend -were due from Rome. They were both travel-worn and had not much to -tell. Their business in Rome had been transacted. No, they were not -hungry; they had dined in the sleeping-car. - -The next day, as gently as possible, Haggard broke to his wife the fact -that it was incumbent upon him to start at once for his American -property. The blow came not unexpectedly, and Georgie made the best of -it. But the husband stayed a couple of days in Geneva; there were papers -to sign in reference to the little villa, a pair of ponies had to be -bought; and the numerous little matters of business to settle, which -somehow or other it falls invariably to the lot of man to transact. - -The parting came at last; it took place on the platform of the station. -There is among women always a melancholy satisfaction in seeing the very -last of the beloved object. Georgie was no exception to the rule. -Spunyarn, who was to accompany his friend, at a discreet distance was -laughing and chatting merrily with the younger girl. True that at one -time there had been rumours of an attachment between the pair; we, who -are behind the scenes, know that both were perfectly heartwhole. - -"Will the train never start, Lord Spunyarn? I'm afraid all this will -upset my cousin; these partings are dreadful things after all." - -"Think what my feelings must be, Miss Warrender. I, who have been -congratulated by my friends over and over again in reference to my -supposed good luck, and who will have now to face the fire of their -chaff at my cruel rejection." - -"Your lordship seems to bear it bravely enough." - -"With profoundest equanimity, Miss Warrender. I leave the lady who has -rejected me, in maiden meditation fancy free, at least, I suppose so; -that thought is balm to my wounded soul. Hope, they say, springs -eternal in the human breast. Miss Warrender may yet change her mind." - -"She will not fail to let you know by telegram should that unlikely -event occur, Lord Spunyarn." - -"I'm afraid you've destroyed my future peace of mind. I now shall never -hear a double knock with equanimity; depend upon it our time has not yet -come." - -"Yours has at all events, Lord Spunyarn, for if you don't get in you -will certainly be left behind." - -"Good-bye, then, Miss Warrender; parting is such sweet sorrow, I e'en -could say good-bye until to-morrow." - -"Now that is very sweet of you. I little thought you were Romeo still." - -"Now and ever, Miss Warrender," said the young man with mock passion, as -they laughingly shook hands, and he hastened to enter the carriage. "One -thing I have forgotten, though," he said, "don't let your cousin see the -Society papers." - -The parting between Haggard and his wife was necessarily what such -partings usually are: it was painful to both; it would not be amusing to -the reader. - -Georgie's eyes were full of tears as her husband embraced her for the -last time. He only tore himself from her reluctant arms as the final -whistle sounded from the engine. As the train slowly moved from the -platform, the girls walked hurriedly along for a few yards. Haggard -leant from the window, waving his hand; his wife gazed after the -vanishing train, standing like Niobe, dissolved in tears. - -Even Haggard, case-hardened as he was, didn't light his cigar for full -twenty minutes. - -That evening Lucy Warrender obtained with some difficulty a copy of -'_The Sphere_;' this is what she read there: - -"Seldom indeed now-a-days do Englishmen fight duels. In this they are -wise, for with us the man who fights a duel receives no sympathy, and -what is more unpleasant, generally becomes an object of ridicule. -Sometimes, however, a duel is unavoidable. We understand that this was -the case in the late unfortunate affair at Rome. The provocation was -given by the man who fell. M. Barbiche was well known in London society. -As usual, the cause of the quarrel was a lady. A correspondent in Rome, -upon whose information we can rely, informs us that a blow was struck by -Mr. R---- H----, but only after the grossest provocation. The meeting -took place within twenty-four hours; unfortunately the result was fatal. -The survivor and the seconds of both parties crossed the frontier at -once, but one of the friends of the deceased took the precaution to draw -up a _procès verbal_ of the affair before he left, and transmitted it to -the authorities. Society in Rome has been stirred to its foundations, -for both the parties were well known. The weapons were sabres. We -understand that the seconds of Mr. R---- H----, a well-known sporting -nobleman and General C----, are, as well as their principal, members of -the P----m Club. General C---- is now in England." - -To Lucy Warrender, who now heard of the matter for the first time, these -initials were no enigma. The cause of Haggard's mysterious detention in -Rome, and of their own sudden flitting, became at once clear to her. "It -was very thoughtful of Spunyarn," she said to herself; "he was quite -right, Georgie certainly shouldn't see this." - -The careful Lucy took every precaution. The consequences of the incident -at Papayani's ball remained a secret to the young wife. - -The ladies were glad of the temporary excitement of their move to the -Villa Lambert, which they made the day after the departure of the two -men. And now commenced a life of seclusion and retirement, which both of -them enjoyed from its very novelty. The old quiet life that they had -led at The Warren seemed to recommence once more. They gardened, they -drove out, they rowed and sailed upon the lake, but they declined all -acquaintances. The life was monotonous enough and devoid of incident. - -Hephzibah Wallis had recovered her spirits, her Swiss lover was more -attentive than ever; he escorted her on a Sunday evening to the -Protestant place of worship, and though she didn't understand a word, -Hephzibah enjoyed the service. In the mysterious rite of "walking out" -going to church together forms an important factor; it is the outward -and visible sign of "keeping company;" it is the inevitable step to -being "asked in church," a kind of probationary period, a sort of trial -trip. Mr. Capt was more loquacious than the British man-servant, under -similar circumstances, would be. He was never tired of drawing out Miss -Wallis on the subject of her young mistresses. The juvenile escapades -of the younger of them were to him a source of endless amusement; he -heard all that his inamorata had to tell, nay his interest was so great -in her artless narratives that he would make her repeat them over and -over again. The Swiss soon found out that in Hephzibah he was dealing -with a truthful girl; for the tale, though oft repeated, never varied. -What girl has any secret from the man she loves? Hephzibah Wallis formed -no exception to the rule. But it never dawned on her, at least not then, -that she was being "pumped." She put down Mr. Capt's complaisance to his -interest in her; and though, as servants will, she at times asked him -questions about his master, she merely admired him the more when they -were dexterously parried, for the confidential valet, in regard to -Haggard, ever remained discretion itself. - -Great was Georgie's delight when she got the first letter from her -husband. Till now they had never been separated; is it to be wondered -at, then, that she locked herself up with the treasure? After the usual -protestations and the regulation amount of sentiment, sentiment which, -hackneyed though it was, brought ready tears of pleasure into the young -wife's eyes, Haggard announced his immediate departure by the mail -steamer. "I'm off to-morrow, Georgie," he said, "for I find life in -London without you perfectly unbearable. I am hastening my departure -that we may the sooner meet again," here followed several sentences of -the usual thing. The fact was that Haggard found himself once more a -sort of lion in spite of himself, but he also detected a rather chilling -reception in many quarters; he was most gushingly received by the least -reputable of his lady acquaintances. Mrs. Charmington, in a long -_tête-à-tête_ with which she had favoured him, had called him "her -hero." But Mrs. Charmington was already on the wane, and as he had no -wish to be her hero now he rather fought shy of her. At the Pandemonium -he was as popular as ever, rather more so in fact; for since the -baccarat affair, particularly as he was away, he had acted as a sort of -scapegoat for the sins of the many. It was rather a nuisance, too, to -find that wherever he went he excited a considerable amount of -attention. Even when seated in the stalls of his favourite theatres, -those temples where the sacred lamp of burlesque is so carefully tended, -it was annoying to find the glances of all those airily-costumed and -magnificently-developed females, who are known as the Lotties and the -Totties, concentrated on himself. - -He had received no invitation to go down to The Warren, but his father -the Justice had written him in no measured terms. - -"I had thought," he said, "that by this time you would have got tired of -making an ass of yourself; you'd better give old Warrender a wide berth; -he is furious." - -All these things then tended to make a long stay in town distasteful to -Haggard, so he went down to Southampton, took his passage for Mexico in -that magnificent steam-ship, the "Capua," and he started, feeling -himself an ill-used man. - - - END OF VOL I. - - - - - * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber's note: - -The oe ligature has been expanded. - -Most of the apparent printers' errors have been retained. 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