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diff --git a/56753-0.txt b/56753-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32c6557 --- /dev/null +++ b/56753-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8719 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 56753 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Satanella + +[Illustration: "His next stride brought him on his head." (Page 133.) + + _Satanella._ _Frontispiece_] + + + + + Satanella + + A Story of Punchestown + + By + G.J. Whyte-Melville + + Author of "Holmby House," "The Gladiators," + "Kate Coventry," &c., &c. + + Illustrated by Lucy E. Kemp-Welch + + London + Ward, Lock & Co., Limited + New York and Melbourne + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. The Black Mare 7 + + II. Miss Douglas 14 + + III. Daisy 23 + + IV. Mrs. Lushington 30 + + V. Through the Mill 37 + + VI. Cutting for Partners 45 + + VII. Getting On 56 + + VIII. Insatiable 64 + + IX. Off and On 71 + + X. At Sea 80 + + XI. Cormac's-Town 91 + + XII. One too Many 102 + + XIII. Punchestown 116 + + XIV. "A Good Thing" 136 + + XV. Winners and Losers 146 + + XVI. A Garden of Eden 158 + + XVII. "Soldier Bill" 169 + + XVIII. Delilah 180 + + XIX. "The River's Brim" 190 + + XX. Taking the Collar 204 + + XXI. A Snake in the Grass 212 + + XXII. An Expert 221 + + XXIII. The Debt of Honour 232 + + XXIV. A Pertinent Question 241 + + XXV. A Satisfactory Answer 252 + + XXVI. Afternoon Tea 260 + + XXVII. A Hard Morsel 271 + + XXVIII. "Seeking Rest and Finding None" 280 + + XXIX. Undivided 289 + + XXX. The Bitter End 304 + + + + +SATANELLA + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BLACK MARE + + +"She'll make a chaser annyhow!" + +The speaker was a rough-looking man in a frieze coat, with wide mouth, +short nose, and grey, honest Irish eyes, that twinkled with humour on +occasion, though clouded for the present by disappointment, not to say +disgust, and with some reason. In his hand he held a broken strap, with +broad and dingy buckle; at his feet, detached from shafts and wheels, +lay the body of an ungainly vehicle, neither gig, dog-cart, nor outside +car, but something of each, battered and splintered in a dozen places: +while "foreaninst" him, as he called it, winced and fretted a young +black mare, snorting, trembling, fractious, and terrified, with ears +laid back, tail tucked down to her strong cowering quarters, and an +obvious determination on the slightest alarm to kick herself clear of +everything once more. + +At her head stood a ragged urchin of fourteen; although her eyes showed +wild and red above the shabby blinkers, she rubbed her nose against the +lad's waistcoat, and seemed to consider him the only friend she had +left in the world. + +"Get on her back, Patsy," said the man. "Faix, she's a well-lepped +wan, an' we'll take a hate out of her at Punchestown, with the +blessin'!--Augh! See now, here's the young Captain! Ye're welcome, +Captain! It's meself was proud when I see how ye cleaned them out last +week on 'Garryowen.' Ye'll come in, and welcome, Captain. Go on in +front now, and I'll show you the way!" + +So, while a slim, blue-eyed, young gentleman, with curled moustache, +accompanied his entertainer into the house, Patsy took the mare to +the stable, where he accoutred her in an ancient saddle, pulpy, +weather-stained, with stirrups of most unequal length; proceeding +thereafter to force a rusty snaffle into her mouth, with the +tightest possible nose-band and a faded green and white front. +These arrangements completed, he surveyed the whole, grinning and +well-pleased. + +That the newcomer could only be a subaltern of Light Dragoons, was +obvious from his trim equestrian appearance, his sleek, well-cropped +head, the easy sit of his garments, also, perhaps, from an air of +imperturbable good-humour and self-confidence, equal to any occasion +that might present itself, social, moral, or physical. + +[Illustration: "These arrangements completed, he surveyed the whole, +grinning, and well pleased." + + _Satanella._ _Page 8_] + +Proof against "dandies of punch" and such hospitable provocatives, he +soon deserted the parlour for the stable. + +"And how is the mare coming on?" said he standing in the doorway of +that animal's dwelling, which she shared with a little cropped jackass, +a Kerry cow, and a litter of pigs. "I always said she could gallop a +bit, and they're the right sort to stay. But can she jump?" + +"The beautifullest ever ye see!" replied her enthusiastic owner. +"She'll go whereiver a cat would follow a rat. If there's a harse in +Connemara that 'ud charge on the sharp edge of a razor, there's the +wan that can do't! Kick--stick _and_ plasther! it's in their breed; +and like th'ould mare before her, so long as you'd hould her, it's my +belief she'd stay in the air!" + +The object of these praises had now emerged from her stall, and a very +likely animal she looked; poor and angular indeed, with a loose neck +and somewhat long ears, but in her lengthy frame, and large clean +limbs, affording promise for the future of great beauty, no less than +extraordinary power and speed. Her head was exceedingly characteristic, +lean and taper, showing every vein and articulation beneath the glossy +skin, with a wide scarlet nostril and flashing eye, suggestive of +courage and resolution, not without a considerable leavening of temper. +There are horses, and women too, that stick at nothing. To a bold +rider, the former are invaluable, because with these it is possible to +keep their mettle under control. + +"Hurry now, Patsy!" said the owner, as that little personage, diving +for the stirrup, which he missed, looked imploringly to his full-grown +companions for a "leg up." + +But it was not in the nature of our young officer, by name John +Walters, known in his regiment as "Daisy," to behold an empty saddle +at any time without longing to fill it. He had altered the stirrups, +cocked up his left leg for a lift, and lit fairly in his seat, before +the astonished filly could make any more vigorous protest than a lurch +of her great strong back and whisk of her long tail. + +"Begorra! ye'll get it now!" said her owner, half to himself, half to +the Kerry cow, on which discreet animal he thought it prudent to rivet +his attention, distrusting alike the docility of his own filly, and the +English man's equestrian skill. + +Over the rough paved yard, through the stone gap by the peat-stack, not +the little cropped jackass himself could have behaved more soberly. But +where the spring flowers were peeping in the turf enclosure beyond, and +the upright bank blazed in its golden glory of gorse-bloom, the devilry +of many ancestors seemed to pass with the keen mountain-air into the +filly's mettle. Her first plunge of hilarity and insubordination would +have unseated half the rough-riders that ever mishandled a charger in +the school. + +Once--twice, she reached forward, with long, powerful plunges, shaking +her ears, and dashing wildly at her bridle, till she got rein enough +to stick her nose in the air, and break away at speed. + +A snaffle, with or without a nose-band, is scarcely the instrument by +which a violent animal can be brought on its haunches at short notice; +but Daisy was a consummate horseman, firm of seat and cool of temper, +with a head that never failed him, even when debarred from the proper +use of his hands. + +He could guide the mare, though incapable of controlling her. So he +sent her at the highest place in the fence before him, and, fast as she +was going, the active filly changed her stride on the bank with the +accuracy of a goat, landing lightly beyond, to scour away once more +like a frightened deer. + +"You _can_ jump!" said he, as she threw up the head that had been in +its right place hardly an instant, while she steadied herself for the +leap; "and I believe you're a flyer. But, by Jove! you're a rum one to +steer!" + +She was quite out of his hand again, and laid herself down to her work +with the vigour of a steam-engine. The daisy-sprinkled turf fleeted +like falling water beneath those long, smooth, sweeping strides. + +They were careering over an open upland country, always slightly on +the rise, till it grew to a bleak brown mountain far away under the +western sky. The enclosures were small; but notwithstanding the many +formidable banks and ditches with which it was intersected, the whole +landscape wore that appearance of space and freedom so peculiar to +Irish scenery, so pleasing to the sportsman's eye. "It looked like +galloping," as they say, though no horse, without great jumping powers, +could have gone two fields. + +It took a long Irish mile, at racing pace, to bring the mare to her +bridle, and nothing but her unusual activity saved the rider from +half-a-dozen rattling falls during his perilous experiment. She bent +her neck at last, and gave to her bit in a potato-ground; nor, if he +had resolved to buy her for the sake of her speed and stamina while +she was running away with him, did he like her less, we may be sure, +when they arrived at that mutual understanding, which links together so +mysteriously the intelligences of the horse and its rider. + +Turning homewards, the pair seemed equally pleased with each other. She +played gaily with the snaffle now, answering hand and heel cheerfully, +desirous only of being ridden at the largest fences, a fancy in which +he indulged her, nothing loth. Trotting up to four feet and a half of +stone wall, round her own stable-yard, she slipped over it without an +effort, and her owner, a discerning person enough, added fifty to her +price on the spot. + +"She's a good sort," said the soldier, patting her reeking neck, as he +slid to the ground; "but she's uncommon bad to steer when her monkey's +up! Sound, you say, and rising four year old? I wonder how she's bred?" + +Such a question could not but entail a voluminous reply. Never, it +appeared, in one strain, had been united the qualities of so many +illustrious ancestors. Her pedigree seemed enriched with "all the blood +of all the Howards," and her great-great-great-grandam was "Camilla by +Trentham, out of Phantom, sister to Magistrate!" + +"An' now ye've bought her, Captain," said our friend in frieze, "ye've +taken the best iver I bred, an' the best iver I seen. Av' I'd let her +out o'my sight wanst at Ballinasloe, the Lord-Liftinint 'ud have been +acrass her back, while I'm tellin' ye, an' him leadin' the hunt, up in +Meath, or about the Fairy House and Kilrue. The spade wasn't soldered +yet that would dig a ditch to hould her; and when them sort's tired, +Captain, begorra! the very breeches 'ud be wore to rags betwixt your +knees! You trust _her_, and you trust _me_! Wait till I tell ye now. +There's only wan thing on this mortial earth she won't do for ye!" + +"And what's that?" asked the other, well pleased. + +"She'll not back a bill!" was the answer; "but if iver she schames with +ye, renaging[1] or such like, by this book, I'll be ashamed to look a +harse, or so much as a jackass in the face again!" + +So the mare was sent for; and Patsy, with a stud reduced to the donkey +and the Kerry cow, shed bitter tears when she went away. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Refusing.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MISS DOUGLAS + + +It is time to explain how the young black mare became linked with the +fate of certain persons, whose fortunes and doings, good or bad, are +related in this story. + +To that end the scene must be shifted, and laid in London--London, +on a mild February morning, when even South Audley Street and its +tributaries seemed to exhale a balmy fragrance from the breath of +spring. + +In one of these, a window stood open on the drawing-room floor--so wide +open that the baker, resting his burden on the area railings below, +sniffed the perfume of hyacinths bursting their bulbs, and beat time +with floury shoes to the notes of a wild and plaintive melody, wailing +from the pianoforte within. + +Though a delicate little breakfast-service had not yet been removed +from its spider-legged table, the performer at the instrument was +already hatted and habited for a ride. Her whole heart, nevertheless, +seemed to be in the tips of her fingers while she played, drawing from +the keys such sighs of piteous plaint, such sobs of sweet seductive +sorrow, as ravished the soul of the baker below, creating a strong +desire to scale the window-sill, and peep into the room. Could he have +executed such a feat, this is what he would have seen. + +A woman of twenty-five, tall, slim-waisted, with a wealth of blue-black +hair, all made fast and coiled away beneath her riding-hat in shining +folds, massive as a three-inch cable. A woman of graceful gestures, +undulating like the serpent; of a shapely figure, denoting rather the +graces of action, than the beauty of repose; lithe, self-reliant, full +of latent energy, betraying in every movement an inborn pride, tameless +though kept down, and incurable as Lucifer's before his fall. + +The white hands moving so deftly over the keys were strong and nervous, +with large blue veins and taper fingers; such hands as denote a +vigorous nature and a resolute will--such hands as strike without pity, +and hold with tenacious grasp--such hands as many a lofty head has +bowed its pride to kiss, and thought no shame. + +Lower and lower, she bent over them while she played--softer and softer +sank and swelled, and died away, the sad suggestive notes, bursting at +last into a peal and crash of harmony, through which there came a short +quick gasp for breath like a sob. Then she shut the pianoforte with a +bang, and walked to the glass over the fire-place. + +It reflected a strangely-fascinating face, so irregular of features +that women sometimes called it "positively plain;" but on which the +other sex felt neither better nor wiser men when they looked. The +cheek-bones, chin, and jaws were prominent; the eyebrows, though +arched, too thick; and for feminine beauty, the mouth too firm, in +spite of its broad white teeth, and dark shade pencilled on the upper +lip, in spite even of its saucy curl and bright bewildering smile. + +But when she lifted her flashing eyes fringed in their long black +lashes, there was no more to be said. They seemed to blaze and soften, +shine and swim, all in one glance that went straight to a man's heart +and made him wince with a thrill akin to pain. + +Pale women protested she had too much colour, and vowed she painted: +but no cosmetics ever yet concocted could have imitated her deep rich +tints, glowing like those of the black-browed beauties one sees in +Southern Europe, as if the blood ran crimson beneath her skin--as if +she, too, had caught warmth and vitality from their generous climate +and their sunny, smiling skies. When she blushed, it was like the glory +of noonday; and she blushed now, while there came a trampling of hoofs +in the street, a ring at the door-bell. + +The colour faded from her brow, nevertheless, before a man's step dwelt +heavily on the staircase, and her visitor was ushered into the room as +"General St. Josephs." + +"You are early, General," said she, giving him her hand with royal +condescension; "early, but welcome, and--and--The horses will be round +in five minutes--Have you had any breakfast? I am afraid my coffee is +quite cold." + +General St. Josephs knew what it was to starve in the Crimea and broil +in the Mutiny; had been shot at very often by guns of various calibres; +had brought into discipline one of the worst-drilled regiments in the +service, and was a distinguished officer, past forty years of age. What +made his heart beat, and his hands turn cold? Why did the blood rush to +his temples, while she gave him greeting? + +"Don't hurry, pray!" said he; "I can wait as long as you like. I'd wait +the whole day for you, if that was all!" + +He spoke in a husky voice, as if his lips were dry. Perhaps that was +the reason she seemed not to hear. + +Throwing the window wide open, she looked down the street. Taking more +of that thoroughfare than was convenient by advancing lengthways, with +many plunges and lashings out, and whiskings of her long square tail, a +black mare with a side-saddle was gradually approaching the door. The +groom who led her seemed not a little relieved when he got her to stand +by the kerb-stone, patting her nose and whispering many expletives +suggestive of composure and docility. + +This attendant, though gloved, booted, and belted for a ride, felt +obviously that one such charge as he had taken in hand was enough. He +meant to fetch his own horse from the stable as soon as his mistress +was in the saddle. + +A staid person, out of livery, came to the door, looking up and down +the street with the weary air of a man who resides chiefly in his +pantry. He condescended to remark, however, that "Miss Douglas was +a-comin' down, and the mare's coat had a polish on her same as if she'd +been varnished." + +While the groom winked in reply, Miss Douglas appeared on the pavement; +and the baker, delivering loaves three doors off, turned round to +wonder and approve. + +"May I put you up?" said the General meekly, almost timidly. + +How different the tone, and yet it was the same voice that had +heretofore rung out so firm and clear in stress of mortal danger, with +its stirring order-- + +"The Light Brigade will advance!" + +"No, thank you," said Miss Douglas coldly; "Tiger Tim does the heavy +business. Now, Tim--one--two--three!" + +"Three" landed her lightly in the saddle, and the black mare stood like +a sheep. One turn of her foot, one kick of her habit--Miss Douglas was +established where she looked her best, felt her best, and liked best to +be in the world. + +So she patted the black mare's neck, a caress her favourite +acknowledged with such a bound as might have unseated Bellerophon; and +followed by Tim, on a good-looking chestnut, rode off with her admiring +General to the Park. + +Who _is_ Miss Douglas? This was the question everybody asked, and +answered too, for that matter, but not satisfactorily. Blanche +Douglas--such was the misnomer of this black-browed lady--had been in +London for two years, yet given no account of her antecedents, shown +no vouchers for her identity. To cross-question her was not a pleasant +undertaking, as certain venturous ladies found to their cost. They +called her "The Black Douglas," indeed, out of spite, till a feminine +wit and genius gave her the nickname of "Satanella;" and as Satanella +she was henceforth known in all societies. + +After that people seemed more reassured, and discovered, or possibly +invented for her, such histories as they considered satisfactory to +themselves. She was the orphan, some said, of a speculative naval +officer, who had married the cousin of a peer. Her father was drowned +off Teneriffe; her mother died of a broken heart. The girl was brought +up in a west-country school till she came of age; she had a thousand +a year, and lived near South Audley Street with her aunt, a person +of weak intellect, like many old women of both sexes. She was oddish +herself, and rather bad style; but there was no harm in her! + +This was the good-natured version. The ill-natured one was the above +travestied. The father had cut his throat; the mother ran away from +him, and went mad; and the west-country school was a French convent. +The aunt and the thousand a year were equally fabulous. She was loud, +bold, horsy, more than queer, and where the money came from that kept +the little house near South Audley Street and enabled her to carry on, +goodness only knew! + +Still she held her own, and the old men fell in love with her. "My +admirers," she told Mrs. Cullender, who told _me_, "are romantic--very, +and rheumatic also, _à faire pleurer_. The combination, my dear, is +touching, but exceedingly inconvenient." + +Mrs. Cullender further affirms that old Buxton would have married and +made her a peeress, had she but held up her finger; and declares she +saw Counsellor Cramp go down on his knees to her, falling forward on +his hands, however, before he could get up again, and thus finishing +his declaration, as it were, on all-fours! + +But she would have none of these, inclining rather to men of firmer +mould, and captivating especially the gallant defenders of their +country by sea and land. Admirals are all susceptible more or less, and +fickle as the winds they record in their log-books. So she scarcely +allowed them to count in her score; but at one time she had seven +general-officers on the list, with colonels and majors in proportion. + +Her last conquest was St. Josephs--a handsome man, and a proud, cold, +reserved, deep-hearted, veiling under an icy demeanour a temper +sensitive as a girl's. How many women would have delighted to lead +such a captive up and down the Ride, and show him off as the keeper +shows off his bear in its chain! How many would have paraded their +sovereignty over this stern and quiet veteran, till their own hearts +were gone, and they longed to change places with their victim, to serve +where they had thought only to command! + +In February London begins to awake out of its winter sleep. Some +of the great houses have already got their blinds up, and their +doorsteps cleaned. Well-known faces are hurrying about the streets, +and a few equestrians spot the Ride, like early flies crawling over a +window-pane. The black mare lashed out at one of these with a violence +that brought his heart into the soldier's mouth, executing thereafter +some half-dozen long and dangerous plunges. Miss Douglas sat perfectly +still, giving the animal plenty of rein; then administered one severe +cut with a stiff riding-whip, that left its mark on the smooth shining +skin; and, having thus asserted herself, made much of her favourite, as +if she loved it all the better for its wilfulness. + +"I wish you wouldn't ride that brute!" said the General tenderly. +"She'll get out of your hand some of these days, and then there'll be a +smash!" + +"Not ride her!" answered Miss Douglas, opening her black eyes wide. +"Not ride my own beautiful pet! General, I should deserve never to get +into a side-saddle again!" + +"For the sake of your friends," urged the other, drawing very close +with a pressure of the leg to his own horse's side; "for the sake of +those who care for you; for--for--_my_ sake--Miss Douglas!" + +His hand was almost on the mare's neck, his head bent towards its +rider. If a man of his age can look "spoony," the General was at that +moment a fit subject for ridicule to every Cornet in the Service. + +Laughing rather scornfully, with a turn of her wrist she put a couple +of yards between them. + +"Not even for _your_ sake, General, will I give up my darling. Do you +think I have no heart?" + +His brow clouded. He looked very stern and sad, but gulped down +whatever he was going to say, and asked instead, "Why are you so fond +of that mare? She's handsome enough, no doubt, and she can go fast; but +still, she is not the least what I call a lady's horse." + +"That's my secret," answered Miss Douglas playfully; "wouldn't you give +the world to know?" + +She had a very winning way, when she chose, all the more taking from +its contrast to her ordinary manner. He felt its influence now. + +"I believe I would give _you_ the world if I had it, and not even ask +for your secret in exchange," was his reply. "One more turn, Miss +Douglas, I entreat you!" (for she was edging away as if for home.) "It +is not near luncheon-time, and I was going to say--Miss Douglas--I was +going to say--" + +"Don't say it now!" she exclaimed, with a shake of her bridle that +brought the mare in two bounds close to the footway. "I _must_ go and +speak to him! I declare she knows him again. He's got a new umbrella. +There he is!" + +"Who?" + +"Why! Daisy!" + +"D--n Daisy!" said the General, and rode moodily out of the Park. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +DAISY + + +Mr. Walters piqued himself on his _sang-froid_. If the _fractus orbis_ +had gone, as he would have expressed it, "to blue smash," "_impavidum +ferient ruinæ_," he would have contemplated the predicament from a +ludicrous rather than a perplexing point of view. Nevertheless, his eye +grew brighter, and the colour deepened on his cheek, when Miss Douglas +halted to lean over the rails and shake hands with him. + +He was very fond of the black mare, you see, and believed firmly in her +superiority to her kind. + +"Oh! Daisy! I'm so glad to see you!" said Miss Douglas. "I never +thought you'd be in London this open weather. I'm so much obliged to +you, and you're the kindest person in the world; and--and--isn't she +looking well?" + +"You're _both_ looking well," answered Daisy gallantly; "I thought I +couldn't miss you if I walked up this side of the Row and down the +other." + +"Oh! Daisy! You didn't come on purpose!" exclaimed the lady, with +rather a forced laugh, and symptoms of a blush. + +For answer, I am sorry to say, this young gentleman executed a +solemn wink. The age of chivalry may or may not be on the wane, but +woman-worshippers of to-day adopt a free-and-easy manner in expressing +their adoration, little flattering to the shrines at which they bow. + +"Did you really want to see me?" continued Miss Douglas; "and why +couldn't you call? I'd have ridden with you this morning if I'd known +you were in town." + +"Got no quad.," answered the laconic Daisy. + +"And yet you lent me your mare!" said she. "Indeed, I can't think of +keeping her; I'll return her at once. Oh! Daisy! you unselfish--" + +"Unselfish what?" + +"Goose!" replied the lady. "Now, when will you have her back? She's +as quiet again as she used to be, and I do believe there isn't such +another beauty in the world." + +"That's why I gave her to _you_," answered Daisy. "It's no question of +lending; she's yours, just as much as this umbrella's mine. Beauty! +I should think she _was_ a beauty. I don't pay compliments, or I'd +say--there's a pair of you! Now, look here, Miss Douglas, I might ask +you to lend her to me for a month, perhaps, if I saw my way into a real +good thing. I don't think I ever told you how I came to buy that mare, +or what a clipper she is!" + +"Tell me _now_!" said Miss Douglas eagerly. "Let's move on; people +stare so if one stops. You can speak the truth walking, I suppose, as +well as standing still!" + +"It's truth I'm telling ye!" he answered, with a laugh. "I heard of +that mare up in Roscommon when she was two years old. I was a year +and a half trying to buy her; but I got her at last, for I'm not an +impatient fellow, you know, and I never lose sight of a thing I fancy I +should like." + +"Watch and wait!" said the lady. + +"Yes, I watched and I waited," he continued, "till at last they gave me +a ride. She'd had a good deal of fun with a sort of go-cart they tried +to put her in; and when I saw her I think her owner was a little out of +conceit with his venture. She was very poor and starved-looking,--not +half the mare she is now; but she ran away with me for nearly two +miles, and I found she _could_--_just_! So I bargained, and jawed, and +bothered, though I gave a hatful of money for her all the same. When I +got her home to barracks, I had her regularly broke and bitted; but she +never was easy to ride, and she never will be!" + +For all comment, Miss Douglas drew the curb-rein through her fingers, +while the mare bent willingly and gently to her hand. + +"Oh! I know they all go pleasant with _you_!" said Daisy. "Men and +horses, you've the knack of bringing them to their bridles in a day! +Well, I hunted her that season in Meath and Kildare; but somehow we +never dropped into a run. At last one morning, late in the Spring, +we turned out a deer in the Dublin country, and took him in exactly +twenty-seven minutes. _Then_ this child knew what its plaything was +made of. Didn't I, old girl?" + +He patted the mare's neck, and her rider, whose eyes brightened +with interest, laid hers on exactly the same spot when his hand was +withdrawn. + +"You found her as good as she looks," said Miss Douglas. "Oh! Daisy! in +that grass country it must have felt like being in heaven!" + +"I don't know about that," said the light dragoon; "but we were not +very far off, sometimes, on the tops of those banks. However, I found +nothing could touch her in jumping, or come near her for pace. Not +a horse was within a mile of us for the last ten minutes; so I took +her down to the Curragh--and--Miss Douglas, can you--_can_ you keep a +secret?" + +"Of course, I can," replied the lady. "What a question, Daisy, as if I +wasn't much more like a man than a woman!" + +His face assumed an expression of solemnity befitting the communication +he had to impart. His voice sank to a whisper, and he looked stealthily +around, as if fearful of being overheard. + +"We tried her at seven pound against Robber-Chief, four Irish miles +over a steeple-chase course. She gave the Chief seven pound, her year, +and a beating. Why, it makes her as good as the Lamb!" + +Notwithstanding the gravity of such a topic, Miss Douglas laughed +outright. + +"How _like_ you, Daisy, to run away with an idea. It does _not_ make +her as good as The Lamb, because you once told me yourself that +Robber-Chief never runs kindly in a trial. You see I don't forget +things. But all the same, I daresay she's as good again, the darling, +and I'm sure she's twice as good-looking!" + +"Now, don't you see, Miss Douglas?" proceeded Daisy, "I've been +thinking you and I might do a good stroke of business if we stood in +together. My idea is this. I enter her at Punchestown for the Great +United Service Handicap. I send her down to be trained on the quiet at +a place I know of, not fifteen miles from where we're standing now. +Nobody can guess how she's bred, nor what she is. They mean to put +crushing weights on all the public runners. She'll be very well in, I +should say, at about eleven stone ten. I'll ride her myself, for I know +the course, and I'm used to that country. If we win, you must have half +the stakes, and you can back her, besides, for as much as you please. +What do you say to it?" + +"I like the idea _immensely_!" answered Miss Douglas. "Only I don't +quite understand about the weights and that-- But, Daisy, are you +_sure_ it isn't dangerous? I mean for _you_. I've heard of such +horrible accidents at those Irish steeple-chases." + +"I tell you she _can't_ fall," answered this sanguine young sportsman; +"and I hope I'm not likely to tumble off _her_!" + +Miss Douglas hesitated. "Couldn't I--" she said shyly; "couldn't I ride +her in her gallops myself?" + +He laughed; but his face clouded over the next moment. + +"I ought not to have asked you," said he; "it seems so selfish to take +away your favourite; but the truth is, Miss Douglas, I'm so awfully +hard up that, unless I can land a good stake, it's all U--P with me!" + +"Why didn't you tell me?" exclaimed Miss Douglas; "Why didn't you--" +Here she checked herself, and continued in rather a hard voice, "Of +course, if you're in a fix, it must be got out of, with as little delay +as possible. So take the mare, by all means; and another time, Daisy-- +Well, another time don't be so shy of asking your friend's advice. If +I'd been your brother-officer, for instance, should I have seemed such +a bad person to consult?" + +"By Jove, you're a trump!" he exclaimed impulsively, adding, in +qualification of this outspoken sentiment, "I mean, you've so good a +heart, you ought to have been a man!" + +She coloured with pleasure; but her face turned very grave and sad, +while she replied, "I wish I had been! Don't you know what Tennyson +says? Never mind, you don't read Tennyson very often, I dare say!" + +"I can't make out what fellows _mean_ in poetry," answered Daisy. "But +I like a good song if it's in English; and I like best of all to hear +_you_ play!" + +"Now, what on earth has that to do with it?" she asked impatiently. "We +are talking about the mare. Send round for her to-morrow morning, and +you can enter her at once. Has she got a name?" + +"It used to be The Dark Ladye," he answered, smiling rather +mischievously, "out of compliment to _you_. But I've changed it now." + +"I ought to be very much flattered. And to what?" + +"To Satanella." + +She bit her lip, and tried to look vexed; but she couldn't be angry +with Daisy, so laughed heartily as she waved him a good-bye, and +cantered home. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MRS. LUSHINGTON + + +With all her independence of spirit, it cannot be supposed that Miss +Douglas went to and fro in the world of London without a chaperon. On +women, an immunity from supervision, and what we may call the freedom +of the city, is conferred by matrimony alone. This franchise seems +irrespective of age. A virgin of fifty gathers confidence under the +wing of a bride nineteen years old, shooting her arrows with the more +precision that she feels so safe behind the shield of that tender, +inexperienced matron. Why are these things so? Why do we dine at +nightfall, go to bed at sunrise, and get up at noon? Why do we herd +together in narrow staircases and inconvenient rooms at the hottest +season of the year? If people bore us, why do we ask them to dinner? +and suffer fools gladly, without ourselves being wise? I wonder if we +shall ever know. + +Blanche Douglas accordingly, with more courage, resolution, and _savoir +faire_, than nine _men_ out of every ten, had placed herself under the +tutelage of Mrs. Francis Lushington, a lady with a convenient husband, +who, like the celebrated courtier, was never _in_ the way nor _out +of_ the way. She talked about "Frank," as she called him, every ten +minutes; but somehow they were seldom seen together, except once a week +at afternoon church. + +That gentleman himself must either have been the steadiest of mortals, +or the most cunning; his wife inclined to think him the latter. + +Mrs. Lushington knew everybody, and went everywhere. There was no +particular reason why she should have attained popularity; but society +had taken her up, and seemed in no hurry to set her down again. + +She was a little fair person, with pretty features and a soft pleading +voice, very much dressed, very much painted; as good a foil as could be +imagined to such a woman as Blanche Douglas. + +They were sitting together in the dining-room of the latter about half +past two P.M. There never was such a lady for going out to luncheon +as Mrs. Lushington. If you were asked to that pleasant meal at any +house within a mile of Hyde Park Corner, it would have been a bad bet +to take five to one about not meeting her. She was like a nice little +luncheon herself. Not much of her; but what there was light, delicate, +palatable, with a good deal of garnish. + +"And which is it to be, dear?" asked this lady of her hostess, +finishing a glass of sherry with considerable enjoyment. "I know +I shall have to congratulate one of them soon, and to send you a +wedding-present; but it's no use talking about it, till I know +which----" + +"Do you think it a wise thing to marry, Clara?" said the other in +reply, fixing her black eyes solemnly on her friend's face. + +Mrs. Lushington pondered. "There's a good deal to be said on both +sides," she answered; "and I haven't quite made up my mind what I +should do if I were you. With me, you know, it was different. If I +hadn't made a convenience of Frank, I should have been nursing my +dreadful old aunt still. You are very independent as you are, and do no +end of mischief. But, my dear, you won't last for ever. That's where we +fair women have the pull. And then you've so many to choose from. Yes; +I think if I were _you_, I _would_!" + +"And--You'll laugh at me, Clara, I feel," said Miss Douglas. "Do you +think it's a good plan to marry a man one don't care for; I mean, who +rather bores one than otherwise?" + +"I did, dear," was the reply; "but I don't know that I've found it +answer." + +"It must be dreadful to see him all day long, and have to study his +fancies. Breakfast with him, perhaps, every morning at nine o'clock." + +"Frank would go without breakfast often enough, if he couldn't make +his own tea, and insisted on such early hours. No, dear, there are +worse things than that. We have to be in the country when they want +to shoot, and in the spring too sometimes, if they're fond of hunting. +But, on the other hand, we married women have certain advantages. We +can keep more flirtations going at once than you. Though, to be sure, +I don't fancy the General would stand much of _that_! If ever I saw a +white Othello, it's St. Josephs." + +"St. Josephs! Do you think I want to marry St. Josephs?" + +Could the General have overheard the tone in which his name was spoken, +surely his honest heart would have felt very sore and sad. + +"Well, he wants to marry _you_!" was the reply; "and, upon my word, +dear, the more I think of it, the more I am convinced you couldn't do +better. He is rich enough, rather good-looking, and seems to know his +own mind. What would you have?" + +"My dear, I _couldn't_!" + +"State your objections." + +"Well, in the first place, he's _very_ fond of me." + +"That shows good taste; but it needn't stand in the way, for you may be +sure it won't last." + +"But it _will_ last, Clara, because I cannot care for _him_ in return. +My dear, if you knew what a brute I feel sometimes, when he goes away, +looking so proud and unhappy, without ever saying an impatient word. +Then I'm sorry for him, I own; but it's no use, and I only wish he +would take up with somebody else. Don't you think you could help me? +Clara, _would_ you mind? It's uphill work, I know; but you've plenty of +others, and it wouldn't tire you, as it does _me_!" + +Miss Douglas looked so pitiful, and so much in earnest, that her friend +laughed outright. + +"I think I should like it very much," replied the latter, "though I've +hardly room for another on the list. But if it's not to be the General, +Blanche, we return to the previous question. Who is it?" + +"I don't think I shall ever marry at all," answered the younger lady, +with a smothered sigh. "If I were a man, I certainly wouldn't; and why +wasn't I a man? Why can't we be independent? go where we like, do what +we like, and for that matter, choose the people we like?" + +"Then you _would_ choose somebody?" + +"I didn't say so. No, Clara; the sort of person I should fancy would be +sure never to care for me. His character must be so entirely different +from mine, and though they say, contrasts generally agree, black and +white, after all, only make a feeble kind of grey." + +"Whatever you do, dear," expostulated Mrs. Lushington, "don't go and +fall in love with a boy! Of all follies on earth, that pays the worst. +They are never the same two days together, and not one of them but +thinks more of the horse he bought last Monday at Tattersalls, than the +woman he 'spooned,' as they call it, last Saturday night at the Opera." + +Miss Douglas winced. + +"I cannot agree with you," said she, stooping to pick up her +handkerchief; "I think men grow worse rather than better, the more +they live in the world. I like people to be fresh, and earnest, and +hopeful. Perhaps it is because I am none of these myself, that I rather +appreciate boys." + +Mrs. Lushington clapped her hands. "The very thing!" she exclaimed. +"He's made on purpose for you. You ought to know Daisy!" + +Miss Douglas drew herself up. "I _do_ know Mr. Walters," she answered +coldly; "if you mean _him_. I believe he is called Daisy in his +regiment and by his very particular friends." + +"You know him! and you didn't tell _me_!" replied the other gaily. +"Never mind. Then, of course you're devoted to him. I am; we all are. +He's so cheery, so imperturbable, and what I like him best for, is, +that he has no more heart than--than--well, than I have myself. There!" + +Miss Douglas was on her guard now. The appropriative faculty, strong in +feminine nature as the maternal instinct, and somewhat akin to it, was +fully aroused. Only in London, no doubt, would it have been possible +for two such intimates to be ignorant of each other's predilections; +but even here it struck Blanche there was something suspicious in her +friend's astonishment, something not quite sincere in her enthusiasm +and her praise. + +So she became exceedingly polite and affectionate, as a fencer goes +through a series of courteous salutes, while proposing to himself the +honour of running his adversary through the brisket. + +"You make yourself out worse than you are, Clara," said she; "it's +lucky I know you so well. Indeed, you mustn't go yet. You always run +away before I've said half my say. You'll be sure to come again very +soon though. Promise, dear. What a love of a carriage!" + +It was, indeed, a very pretty Victoria that stopped at the +door--fragile, costly, delicate, like a piece of porcelain on +wheels--and very pretty Mrs. Lushington looked therein, as she drove +away. + +She had turned the corner of the street some minutes before Miss +Douglas left the window. Passing a mirror, that lady caught the +reflection of her own face, and stopped, smiling, but not in mirth. + +"They may well call you Satanella," she said; "and yet I could have +been so good--so good!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THROUGH THE MILL + + + "She was iron-sinewed and satin-skinned, + Ribbed like a drum, and limbed like a deer, + Fierce as the fire, and fleet as the wind, + There was nothing she couldn't climb or clear; + Rich lords had vexed me in vain to part, + For their gold and silver, with Britomart."[2] + +"It describes your mare exactly, and how the gifted, ill-fated author +would have liked a ride on such a flyer as Satanella." + +The speaker's voice shook, and the cigar quivered between his lips +while they pronounced that ill-omened name. + +"She's better than common, General," was the reply. "Just look at _her +crest_. They're the right sort, when they train on like that!" + +General St. Josephs and Daisy Walters were standing on a breezy upland +common, commanding one of the fairest landscapes in England, backed by +a curtain of dusky smoke from the great metropolis, skirting two-thirds +of the horizon. There was heather at their feet; and a sportsman +set down in that spot from the skies might have expected to flush a +black-cock rather than to hail a Hansom cab at only two hours' distance +from its regular stand in Pall Mall. + +The black mare, stripped for a gallop, stood ten yards off in the glow +of a morning sun. That Daisy meant to give her "a spin," was obvious +from the texture of his nether garments, and the stiff silver-mounted +whip in his hand. + +He had met St. Josephs the night before in the smoking-room of a +military club, and, entertaining a profound respect for that veteran, +had taken him into his counsels concerning the preparations and +performances of the black mare. Daisy was prudent, but not cunning. The +elder man's experience, he considered, might be useful, and so asked +frankly for his advice. + +The General cared as little for steeple-chasing as for marbles or +prisoners'-base, but in the present instance felt a morbid attraction +towards the young officer and his venture, because he associated the +black mare with certain rides, that dwelt strangely on his memory, and +of which he treasured every incident with painful accuracy, sometimes +almost wishing they had never been. + +There is a disease, from which, like small-pox, immunity can only be +purchased by taking it as often as possible in its mildest form. To +contract it sooner or later, seems the lot of humanity, and St. Josephs +had been no exception to the general rule that ordains men and women +shall inflict on each other certain injuries and annoyances, none the +less vexatious because flagrantly imaginary and unreal. + +The General had loved in his youth, more than once it may be, with the +ardour and tenacity of his character; but these follies were now things +of the past. In some out-of-the-way corner, perhaps, he preserved a +knot of ribbon, a scrap of writing, or a photograph with its hair +dressed as before the flood. He could lay his hand on such memorials, +no doubt; but he never looked at them now, just as he ignored certain +sights and sounds, voices, tones, perfumes, that made him wince like +a finger on a raw wound. To save his life, he would not have admitted +that the breath of a fresh spring morning depressed his spirits more +than a sirocco, that he would rather listen to the pipes of a Highland +regiment in a mess-room than to a certain strain of Donizetti, the +softest, the saddest, the sweetest of that gifted composer--softer, +sweeter, sadder to him, that it was an echo from the past. + +Among the advantages of growing old, of which there are more than +people usually imagine, none is greater than the repose of mind +which comes with advancing years--from fatigue, indeed, rather than +satisfaction, but still repose. + +It is not for the young to bask in the sun, to sit over the fire, to +look forward to dinner as the pleasantest part of the day. These must +be always in action, even in their dreams; but at and after middle age +comes the pleasure of the ruminating animals, the quiet comfort of +content. An elderly gentleman, whose liver has outlasted his heart, is +not so much to be pitied after all. + +Yet must he take exceeding care not to leave go of the rock he clings +to, like an oyster, that he may drift back into the fatal flood of +sentiment he ought to have baffled, once for all. If he does, assuredly +his last state will be worse than his first. Very sweet will be the +taste of the well-remembered dram, not so intoxicating as of yore to +the seasoned brain; but none the less a stimulant of the senses, a +restorative for the frame. Clutching the cup to drain perennial youth, +he will empty it to the dregs, till the old sot reels, and the grey +hairs fall dishonoured in the dust. + +If follies perpetrated for women could be counted like runs in a +cricket match, I do believe the men above forty would get the score. + +"Let me see her gallop," said the General, with a wistful look at the +mare, "and I will tell you what I think." + +He too was a fine horseman; but he sighed to reflect he could no longer +vault on horseback like Daisy, nor embody himself at once with the +animal he bestrode, as did that young and supple light dragoon. + +"I never saw a better," said the old officer to himself, as the young +one, sitting close into his saddle, set the mare going at three-quarter +speed. "And if she's only half as good as her rider, the Irishmen will +have a job to keep the stakes on their side of the Channel this time! +Ah, well. It's no use, we can't hold our own with the young ones, and I +suppose we ought not to wish we could!" + +The General fell into a very common mistake. We are apt to think women +set a high price on the qualities we value in each other, forgetting +that as their opinions are chiefly reflected from our own, it is to +be talked about, no matter why, that constitutes merit in their eyes. +What do they care for a light hand, a firm seat, a vigorous frame, or +a keen intellect except in so far as these confer notoriety on their +possessor? To be celebrated is enough. If for his virtues, well. If for +his vices, better. Even the meekest of them have a strong notion of +improving a sinner, and incline to the black sheep rather than all the +white innocents of the fold. + +In the meantime, Daisy felt thoroughly in his element, enjoying it as +a duck enjoys immersion in the gutter. Free goer as she was, the mare +possessed also an elasticity rare even amongst animals of the highest +class; but which, when he has once felt it, no horseman can mistrust +or mistake. As Daisy tightened his hold on her head, and increased her +speed, he experienced in all its force that exquisite sense of motion +which, I imagine, is the peculiar pleasure enjoyed by the birds of the +air. + +Round the common they came, and past the General once more, diverging +from their previous direction so as to bring into the track such a +fence as they would have to encounter in their Irish contest. It was +a high and perpendicular bank, narrow at the top, with a grip on the +taking off, and a wide ditch on the landing side. Anything but a +tempting obstacle to face at great speed. Though she had gone three +miles very fast, the mare seemed fresh and full of vigour, pulling, +indeed, so hard that Daisy needed all his skill to control and keep her +in his hand. Approaching the leap, he urged her with voice and limbs. +They came at it, racing pace. + +"Oh, you tailor!" muttered the General, holding his breath, in fear of +a hideous fall. "I'm wrong!" he added, the next moment. "Beautifully +done, and beautifully ridden!" + +Even at her utmost speed, the mare sprang upright into the air, like +a deer, kicked the farther face of the bank with such lightning +quickness that the stroke was almost imperceptible; and, flying far +beyond the ditch, seemed rather to have gained than lost ground in this +interruption to her stride. + +Away she went again! Over two more fences, done at the same head-long +pace, round the corner of a high black hedge, down into the hollow, up +the opposite rise, and so back into the straight, where Daisy, smiling +pleasantly, and much heightened in colour, executed an imaginary +finish, with his hands down. + +"I've not seen such a goer for years," observed the General, as her +jockey dismounted, and two stable lads scraped a little lather from +the mare. "But she seems to take a deal of riding: and I think she is +almost _too_ free at her fences, even for a steeple-chaser." + +"I'm delighted to hear you say so," was the answer. "_That's_ where we +shall win. When I had her first she was rather cautious; but I hurried +and bustled her till I got her temper up, and she puts on the steam +now as if she was going to jump into next week. I believe she'd do the +great double at Punchestown in her stride!" + +The older man shook his head. "She has capital forelegs," said he; +"but I saw just such another break its neck last year at Lincoln. When +they're so free you must catch hold like grim death; for, by Jove, if +they overjump themselves at that pace, they're not much use when they +get up again!" + +"That _would_ be hard lines," said Daisy, lighting a cigar. "It's the +only good thing I ever had in my life, and it must _not_ boil over. +If you come to _that_, I'd rather she broke _my_ neck than hers. If +anything went wrong with Satanella I could never face Blanche Douglas +again!" + +"Blanche Douglas!" The General winced. It was not his habit to call +young ladies by their Christian names; and to talk familiarly of this +one seemed a desecration indeed. + +"I should hope Miss Douglas will never ride that animal now," said +he, looking very stiff and haughty--"throaty," Daisy called it, in +describing the scene afterwards. + +"Not ride her?" replied the young gentleman. "You can't know much of +Satanella, General, if you suppose she wouldn't ride anything--ah, +or do anything, if you only told her _not_! She's a trump of a girl, +I admit; but, my eyes, she's a rum one! Why, if there wasn't a law +or something against it, I'm blessed if I don't think she'd ride at +Punchestown herself--boots and breeches--silk jacket--make all the +running, and win as she liked! That's her form, General, you may take +my word for it!" + +St. Josephs positively stood aghast. Could he believe his ears? Silk +jacket! Boots and breeches! And this was the woman he delighted to +honour. To have annihilated his flippant young acquaintance on the +spot would have given him intense satisfaction, but he was obliged to +content himself with contemptuous silence and sundry glances of scorn. +His displeasure, however, seemed quite lost on Daisy, who conversed +freely all the way back to town, and took leave of his indignant senior +with unimpaired affability when they arrived. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: From "The Romance of Britomart," not the least stirring +of those spirited verses called "Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes," +composed by the late A. Lindsey Gordon, and published at Melbourne, +Australia, 1870.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CUTTING FOR PARTNERS + + +"Then you'll--ask a man?" + +"I'll ask a man." + +The first speaker was Miss Douglas, the second Mrs. Lushington. These +ladies, having agreed to go to the play together, the former at once +secured adjoining stalls, for herself, her admirer, her friend, and her +friend's admirer. Only in such little parties of four can the modern +drama be appreciated or enjoyed. + +Miss Douglas had long promised General St. Josephs that she would +accompany him to the performance of a popular farce called _Uncle +Jack_, whereof the humour consisted in an abstraction by "Boots" of a +certain traveller's garments at his hotel, and consequent engagement +of this denuded wayfarer to the lady of his affections. The General +would have walked barefoot to Canterbury for the delight of taking Miss +Douglas to the play; and, after many misfires, a night was at length +fixed for that treat, of course under the supervision of a chaperon. + +Like others who follow "will-o'-the-wisps," St. Josephs was getting +deeper into the mire at every step. Day by day this dark bewitching +woman occupied more of his thoughts, wound herself tighter round his +weary heart. Now for the first time since she died he could bear to +recall the memory of the blue-eyed girl he was to have married long +ago. Now he felt truly thankful to have baffled the widow at Simla, and +behaved like "a monster," as she said, to the foreign countess who used +to ride with him in the Park. + +Hitherto he was persuaded his best affections had been thrown away, +all the nobility of his character wasted and misunderstood. At last he +had found the four-leaved shamrock. He cared not how low he stooped to +pluck it, so he might wear it in his breast. + +For one of his age and standing, such an attachment has its ridiculous +as well as its pitiful side. He laughed grimly in his grizzled +moustache to find how particular he was growing about the freshness +of his gloves and the fit of his coat. When he rode he lengthened his +stirrups, and brought his horse more on its haunches. He even adopted +the indispensable flower in his button-hole; but could never keep it +there, because of his large circle of child-friends, to whom he denied +nothing, and who regularly despoiled him of any possession that took +their fancy. There was one little gipsy, a flirt, three years of age, +who could and would, have coaxed him out of a keepsake even from Miss +Douglas herself. + +Nobody, I suppose, is insane enough to imagine a man feels happier for +being in love. There were moments when St. Josephs positively hated +himself, and everybody else. Moments of vexation, longing, and a bitter +sense of ill-usage, akin to rage, but for the leavening of sadness, +that toned it down to grief. He knew from theory and practice how to +manage a woman, just as he knew how to bridle and ride a horse. Alas! +that each bends only to the careless ease of conscious mastery. He +could have controlled the Satanella on four legs almost as well as +reckless Daisy. He had no influence whatever over her namesake on two. + +Most of us possess the faculty of looking on those affairs in which we +are deeply interested, from the outside, as it were, and with the eyes +of an unbiassed spectator. Such impartial perception, however, while +it increases our self-reproach, seems in no way to affect our conduct. +General St. Josephs cursed himself for an old fool twenty times a day, +but none the more for that did he strive or wish to put from him the +folly he deplored. + +It was provoking, degrading, to know that, in presence of Miss Douglas +he appeared at his very worst; that when he rode out with her, he +was either idiotically simple, or morosely preoccupied; that when he +called at her house, he could neither find topics for conversation, +nor excuses to go away; that in every society, others, whom he rated +as his inferiors, must have seemed infinitely pleasanter, wiser, +better informed, and more agreeable: and that he, professedly a man +of experience, and a man of the world, lost his head, like a raw boy, +at the first word she addressed him, without succeeding in convincing +her that he had lost his heart. Then he vowed to rebel--to wean himself +by degrees--to break the whole thing off at once--to go out of town, +leaving no address--to assert his independence, show he could live +without her, and never see her again! But when she asked him to take +her to the play, he said he should be delighted, and _was_! + +Among the many strange functions of society, few seem more +unaccountable than its tendency to select a theatre as the _rendezvous_ +of sincere affection. Of all places, there is none, I should imagine, +where people are more _en evidence_--particularly in the stalls, a +part of the house specially affected, it would seem, as affording no +protection to front or rear. Every gesture is marked, every whisper +overheard, and even if you might speak aloud, which you mustn't, during +the performances, you could hardly impart to a lady tender truths or +falsehoods, as the case may be, while surrounded by a mob of people who +have paid money with the view of keeping eyes and ears wide open till +they obtain its worth. + +Nevertheless, and notwithstanding all these drawbacks to confidential +communication, no sooner does a fair angler of the present day feel +that, in fisherman's language, she "has got a bite," than straightway +she carries her prey off to a minor theatre, where by some inexplicable +method of her own, she proceeds to secure the gudgeon on its hook. + +St. Josephs got himself up with extreme care on the evening in +question. He was no faded _petit maître_, no wrinkled dandy, curled, +padded, girthed, and tottering in polished boots towards his grave. On +the contrary, he had the wisdom to grow old gracefully, as far as dress +and deportment were concerned, rather advancing than putting back the +hand of time. Yet to-night he _did_ regret the lines on his worn face, +the bald place at the crown of his head. Ten years, he thought, rather +bitterly, only give him back ten years, and he could have held his own +with the best of them! She might have cared for him ten years ago. +Could she care for him now? Yes, surely she must, he loved her so! + +"Your brougham is at the door, sir," said his servant, once a soldier, +like himself, a person of calm temperament and a certain grim humour, +whose private opinion it was that his master had of late been +conducting himself like an old fool. + +The General got into his carriage with an abstracted air, and was +driven off to dine nervously and without appetite at the Senior United. + +How flabby seemed the fish, how tasteless the cutlets, how insufferably +prosy the conversation of an old comrade at the next table--a jovial +veteran, who loved highly-seasoned stories, and could still drink the +_quantum_ he was pleased to call his "whack of Port." Never before had +this worthy's discourse seemed so idiotic, his stomach so obtrusive, +his chuckles so fatuous and inane. What did he mean by talking about +"fellows of _our_ age" to St. Josephs, who was seven years his junior +in the Army List, and five in his baptismal register? Why couldn't he +eat without wheezing, laugh without coughing; and why, oh! why could +he not give a comrade greeting, without slapping him on the back? St. +Josephs, drinking scalding coffee before the other arrived at cheese, +felt his sense of approaching relief damped by remorse for the reserve +and coldness with which he treated his old, tried friend. Something +whispered to him, even then, how the jolly gormandising red face would +turn to him, true and hearty, when all the love of all the women in +London had faded and grown cold. + +Nevertheless, at the doors of the theatre his pulses leapt with +delight. So well timed was his arrival, that Mrs. Lushington and Miss +Douglas were getting out of their carriage when his own stopped. +Pleased, eager as a boy, he entered the house with Satanella on his +arm, placing himself between that Lady and her friend, while he +arranged shawls, foot-stools, scent-bottles, and procured for them +programmes of the entertainment; chary, indeed, of information, but +smelling strong of musk. + +Need I say that he addressed himself at first to Mrs. Lushington? or +that, perceiving a vacant stall on the other side of Miss Douglas, +his spirit sank within him while he wondered when and how it would be +filled? + +Satanella seemed tired and abstracted. "Uncle Jack's" jokes fell +pointless on her ear. When St. Josephs could at last think of +something to say, she bent her head kindly enough, but persistently +refused to accept or understand his tender allusions, interesting +herself, then, and then only, in the business of the stage. In sheer +self-defence, the General felt obliged to do the same. + +The house roared with laughter. A celebrated low comedian was running +up and down before the foot-lights in shirt and drawers. The scene +represented a bedroom at an inn. The actor rang his bell, tripped over +his coal-scuttle, finally upset his water-jug. Everybody went into +convulsions, and St. Josephs found himself thinking of the immortal +Pickwick, who "envied the facility with which the friends of Mr. Peter +Magnus were amused." Turning to his tormentor, he observed the place by +her side no longer vacant, and its occupant was--Daisy! + +Mischievous Mrs. Lushington had "asked a man," you see, and this was +the man she asked. + +Captious, jealous, sensitive, because he really cared for her, St. +Josephs' vexation seemed out of all proportion to its cause. He felt +it would have relieved him intensely to "have it out" with Miss +Douglas--to scold her, take her to task, reproach her roundly--and +for what? _She_ had never asked Daisy to come; _she_ had not kept a +seat for him at her elbow. From her flushed cheek, her bright smile, +it could not but be inferred that this was an unexpected meeting--a +delightful surprise. + +Calm and imperturbable, Daisy settled himself as if he were sitting +by his grandmother. Not till he had smoothed his moustache, buttoned +his gloves, and adjusted his glasses, did he find time to inform Miss +Douglas "that he knew she would be here, but did not think she could +have got away from dinner so soon; that the house was hot, the stalls +were uncomfortable, and this thing was not half bad fun if you'd never +seen it before." The General, cursing him for "a cub," wondered she +could find anything in such conversation to provoke a smile on that +proud beautiful face. + +What was it she whispered behind her fan?--the fan he loved to hold +because of the fragrance it seemed to breathe from _her_. He scarcely +knew whether to be relieved or irritated when he overheard certain +questions as to the progress of the black mare. It vexed him to think +these two should have a common interest, should find it so engrossing, +should talk about it so low. Why couldn't they attend to the farce they +had come on purpose to see? + +Mrs. Lushington, although she must have been surfeited with that +unmeaning and rather tiresome admiration which such ladies find +floating in abundance on the surface of London society, was yet ready +at all times to accept fresh homage, add another captive to the net she +dragged so diligently through smooth and troubled waters alike. Till +the suggestion came from her friend, it had never occurred to her that +the General was worth capturing. She began now in the usual way. + +"What a number of pretty women!" she whispered, "Don't you think +so, General? I haven't seen as much beauty under one roof since Lady +Scavenger's ball." + +Abstracted though he was, her companion had those habits of society +which of all others seem to be second nature, so he answered:-- + +"There are only _two_ pretty women in the house as far as I can see; +and they asked me to come to the play with them to-night." + +She had a fascinating way of looking down and up again, very quick, +with a glance, half shy, half funny, but altogether deadly. Even her +preoccupied neighbour felt its influence, while she replied:-- + +"You say so because you think all women are vain, and like to be +flattered, and have no heart. It only shows how little you know us. Do +you mean to tell me," she added, in a lighter tone, "_that's_ not a +pretty girl, in the second row there, with a _mauve_ ribbon through her +hair?" + +She _was_ pretty, and he thought so; but St. Josephs, being an old +soldier in more senses than one, observed sententiously:-- + +"Wants colouring--too pale--too sandy, and I should say freckled by +daylight." + +"We all know you admire dark beauties," retorted the lady, "or you +wouldn't be here now." + +"_You're_ not a dark beauty," returned the ready General; "and I knew +you were coming too." + +"That '_too_' spoils it all," said she, with another of her killing +glances. "Hush! you needn't say any more. If you won't talk to _her_, +at least attend to the stage." + +Satanella meanwhile was perusing Daisy's profile as he sat beside +her, and wondering whether anybody was ever half so good-looking +and so unconscious of his personal advantages. Not in the slightest +degree embarrassed by this examination, Mr. Walters expressed his +entire approval of the farce as it proceeded, laughing heartily at its +"situations" and even nudging Miss Douglas with his elbow, that she +might not miss the broadest of the fun. Was there another man in the +house who could have accepted so calmly such an enviable situation? +and did she like him more or less for this strange insensibility to +her charms? The question must be answered by ladies who are weary of +slaughter, and satiated with victory. + +"Will she win, Daisy?" hazarded Miss Douglas at last, in a low whisper, +such as would have vibrated through the General's whole frame, but only +caused Daisy to request she would "speak up." Repeating her question, +she added a tender hope that "it was all right, and that her darling +(meaning the black mare) would pull him through." + +"If she don't," replied Daisy, "there's no more to be said. I must +leave the regiment. 'Soldier Bill' gets the troop; and I am simply +chawed up." + +"Oh, Daisy," she exclaimed earnestly, "how much would it take to set +you straight?" + +Mr. Walters worked an imaginary sum on the gloved fingers of his right +hand, carried over a balance of liabilities to his left, looked as +grave as he could and replied, briefly, "Two thou--would tide me over. +It would take _three_ to pull me through." + +Her face fell, and the rich colour faded in her cheek. He did not +notice her vexation; for the crisis of the farce had now arrived, +and the stage was crowded with all its _dramatis personæ_, tumbling +each other about in the intensely humorous dilemma of a hunt for the +traveller's clothes; but he _did_ remark how grave and sorrowful was +her "good-night," while she took the General's proffered arm with an +alacrity extremely gratifying to that love-stricken veteran. She had +never before seemed so womanly, so tender, so confiding. St. Josephs, +pressing her elbow very cautiously against his beating heart, almost +fancied the pressure returned. He was sure her hand clung longer than +usual in his clasp when the time came to say "Good-bye." + +In spite of a headache and certain angry twinges of rheumatism, this +gallant officer had never felt so happy in his life. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GETTING ON + + +Outside the theatre the pavement was dry, the air seemed frosty, and +the moon shone bright and cold. With head down, hands in pockets, +and a large cigar in his mouth, Daisy meditated gravely enough on +the untoward changes a lowered temperature might produce in his own +fortunes. Hard ground would put a stop to Satanella's gallops, and +the horses trained in Ireland--where it seldom freezes--would have an +unspeakable advantage. Thinking of the black mare somehow reminded him +of Miss Douglas, and pacing thoughtfully along Pall Mall, he recalled +their first meeting, tracing through many an hour of sunshine and +lamplight the links that had riveted their intimacy and made them fast +friends. + +It was almost two years ago--though it seemed like yesterday--that, +driving the regimental coach to Ascot, he had stopped his team with +considerable risk at an awkward turn on the Heath, to make room for +her pony-carriage; a courtesy soon followed by an introduction in +the enclosure, not without many thanks and acknowledgments from the +fair charioteer and her companion. He could remember how she kept him +talking till it was too late to back Judæus for the Cup, and recalled +his own vexation when that gallant animal galloped freely in, to the +delight of the chosen people. + +He had not forgotten how she asked him to call on her in London, nor +how he went riding with her in the morning, meeting her at balls and +parties by night, inaugurating a pic-nic at Hampton Court for her +especial benefit, while always esteeming her the nicest girl out, +and the best horse-woman in the world. He would have liked her to be +his sister, or his sister-in-law; but of marrying her himself, the +idea never entered Daisy's head. Thinking of her now, with her rich +beauty, and her bright black hair, he neither sighed nor smiled. He was +calculating how he could "put her on" for a good stake, and send her +back their mutual favourite none the worse in limbs or temper for the +great race he hoped to win! + +All Light Dragoons are not equally susceptible, and Mr. Walters was +a difficult subject, partly from his active habits of mind and body, +partly from the energy with which he threw himself into the business of +the moment whatever it might be. + +Satanella's work, her shoeing, her food, her water, were such +engrossing topics now, that, but for her connection with the mare, the +lady from whom that animal took its name would have had no chance of +occupying a place in his thoughts. He had got back to the probability +of frost, and the possibility of making a tan-gallop, when he turned +out of St. James's Street into one of those pleasant haunts where men +congregate after nightfall to smoke and talk, accosting each other with +the easy good-fellowship that springs from community of tastes, and +generous dinners washed down with rosy wine. + +Notwithstanding the time of year, a member in his shirt-sleeves was +sprawling over the billiard-table; a dozen more were sprinkled about +the room. Acclamations, less loud than earnest, greeted Daisy's +entrance, and tumblers of cunning drinks were raised to bearded lips, +in mute but hearty welcome. + +"You young beggar, you've made me miss my stroke!" exclaimed the +billiard-player, failing egregiously to score an obvious and easy +hazard. "Daisy, you're always in the way, and you're always welcome. +But what are you doing out of the Shires in such weather as this?" + +"Daisy never cared a hang for _hunting_," said a tall, stout man +on the sofa. "He's only one of your galloping Brummagem sportsmen, +always amongst the hounds. How many couples have you scored now, this +season--tell the truth, my boy--off your own bat?" + +"More than _you_ have of foxes, counting those that were fairly +killed," answered Daisy calmly. "And that is not saying much. +Seriously, Jack, something must be done about those hounds of yours. +I'm told they've got so slow you have to meet at half-past ten, and +never get home till after dark. I suppose if once you began to draft +there would be nothing left in the kennel but the terrier!" + +"You be hanged!" answered the big man, laughing. "You conceited young +devil, you think you're entitled to give an opinion because you're not +afraid to ride. And, after all, you can't half do that, unless the +places are flagged out for you in the fences! If you cared two straws +about the _real_ sport, you wouldn't be in London now." + +"How can I hunt without horses?" replied Daisy, burying his fair young +face in an enormous beaker. "_All_ hounds are not like yours, you know. +Thick shoes and gaiters make a capital mount in some countries; but if +I _am_ to put on boots and breeches I want to go faster than a Paddy +driving a pig. That's why I've never been to pay _you_ a visit." + +"D--n your impudence!" was all the other could find breath to retort, +adding, after a pause of admiration, "What a beggar it is to chaff! +But I won't let you off all the same. Come to me directly after +Northampton. It's right in your way home." + +"Nothing I should like better," answered Daisy. "But it can't be done. +I'm due at Punchestown on the seventeenth, and I ought to be in Ireland +at least a fortnight before the races." + +"At Punchestown!" exclaimed half-a-dozen voices. "There's something +up! You've got a good thing, cut and dried. It's no use, Daisy! Tell us +all about it!" + +Walters turned from one to another with an expression of innocent +surprise. He looked as if he had never heard of a steeple-chase in his +life. + +"I don't know what you fellows call 'a good thing,'" said he. "When I +drop into one I'll put you all on, you may be sure. No. I must be at +Punchestown simply because I've got to ride there." + +"I'm sorry for the nag," observed the billiard-player, who had finished +(and lost) his game. "What is it?" + +"She's a mare none of you ever heard of," answered Daisy. "They call +her Satanella. She can gallop a little, I think." + +"Is she going for this new handicap?" asked a shrill voice out of a +cloud of tobacco smoke in the corner. + +"It's her best chance, if she ever comes to the post," replied Daisy. +"They're crushing weights, though, and the course is over four miles." + +"Back her, me boy! And I'll stand in with ye!" exclaimed an Irish peer, +handsome in spite of years, jovial in spite of gout, good-hearted in +spite of fashion, and good-humoured in spite of everything. "Is she an +Irish-bred one? Roscommon did ye say? Ah, now, back for a monkey, and +I'll go ye halves! We'll let them see how we do't in Kildare!" + +Daisy would have liked nothing better; but people do not lay "monkeys" +on steeple-chases at one o'clock in the morning. Nevertheless curiosity +had been excited about Satanella, and his cross-examination continued. + +"Is she thorough-bred?" asked a cornet of the household cavalry, whose +simple creed for man and beast, or rather horse and woman, was summed +up in these two articles--blood and good looks. + +"Thoroughbred?" repeated Daisy thoughtfully. "Her sire is I'm sure, and +she's out of a 'Connemara mare,' as they say in Ireland, whatever that +may be." + +"_I know_," observed the peer, with a wink. "Ah, ye divil, ye've got +your lesson perfect annyhow." + +"Do you want to back her?" asked a tall, thin man, who had hitherto +kept silence, drawing at the same time a very business-like +betting-book from his breast-pocket. + +"You ought to lay long odds," answered Daisy. "The race will fill well. +There are sure to be a lot of starters, and no end of falls. Hang it! I +suppose I am bound to have something on. I'll tell you what. I'll take +twelve to one in hundreds--there!" + +"I'll lay you ten," said the other. + +"Done!" replied Daisy. "A thousand to a hundred." And he entered it +methodically in his book, looking round, pencil in mouth, to know "if +anybody would do it again?" + +"I'll lay you eight to one in ponies." Daisy nodded, and put down +the name of the billiard-player. "And I in tens!" exclaimed another. +"And I don't mind laying you seven!" screamed a shrill voice from the +corner, "if you'll have it in fifties." Whereat Daisy shook his head, +but accepted the offer nevertheless ere he shut up his book, observing +calmly that "he was full now, and must have something more to drink." + +"And who does this mare belong to?" asked a man who had just come in. +"It's a queer game, steeple-chasing, even with gentlemen up. I like +to know something about owners before I back my little fancy, for or +against." + +"Well, she's more mine than anybody else's," answered Daisy, buttoning +his overcoat to depart. "There's only one thing certain about her, and +that is--she'll start if she's alive, and she'll win if she _can_!" + +With these words he disappeared through the swing-doors into the empty +street, walking leisurely homeward, with the contented step of one who +has done a good day's work, and earned his repose. + +In Piccadilly he met a drunken woman; in Curzon Street, a single +policeman; by Audley Square a libertine cat darted swiftly and +noiselessly across his path. Working steadily northward, he perceived +another passenger on the opposite side of the way. Passing under a +lamp, this figure, in spite of hat pushed down and collar pulled up, +proved to be none other than St. Josephs, wrapped in a brown study, and +proceeding as slowly as if it was the hottest night in June. + +"Now what can _he_ be up to?" thought Daisy, deeming it unnecessary to +cross over at so late an hour for polite salutation. "Ought to have +had his nose under the blankets long ago. It must be something _very_ +good to take an old duffer like that out in an east wind at two in the +morning. Might have sown his wild oats by this time, one would think! +Well, it's no business of mine, only I hope he wears flannel next his +skin, and won't catch cold. It would almost serve him right, too, if he +did!" + +Sticking his hands in his pockets, Daisy shook his head in virtuous +disapproval of his senior, never dreaming that a man of the General's +age could be fool enough to pace a wind-swept street under a lady's +window for an hour after she had retired to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +INSATIABLE + + +"My Dear General, + +"As I know it is impossible to catch you for luncheon, come and see me +at three, before I go out. + + "Yours most sincerely, + + "Clara Lushington." + +No date, of course. The General, nevertheless, ordered his hack at +half-past two, in confident expectation of finding his correspondent at +home. + +He was ushered into, perhaps, the prettiest _boudoir_ in London--a +nest of muslin, fillagree, porcelain, and exotics, with a miniature +aviary in one window, a miniature aquarium in the other, a curtain +over the door, and a fountain opposite the fire-place. Here he +had an opportunity of admiring her taste before the fair owner +appeared, examining in turn all the ornaments on her chimney-piece +and writing-table, amongst which, with pardonable ostentation, a +beautifully-mounted photograph of her husband was put in the most +conspicuous place. + +He was considering what on earth could have induced her to marry its +original, when the door opened for the lady in person, who appeared, +fresh, smiling, and exceedingly well-dressed. Though she had kept +her visitor waiting, he could not grudge the time thus spent when he +observed how successfully it had been turned to account. + +"You got my note," said she, pulling a low chair for him close to the +sofa on which she seated herself. "I wonder, if _you_ wondered why I +wanted to see you!" + +The experience of St. Josephs had taught him it is well to let these +lively fish run out plenty of line before they are checked, so he +bowed, and said, "He hoped she had found something in which he could be +of use." + +"Use!" repeated the lady. "Then you want me to think you consider +yourself more useful than ornamental. General, I should like to know if +you are the least bit vain?" + +"A little, perhaps, of your taking me up," he replied, laughing; "of +nothing else, I think, in the world." + +She stole a glance at him from under her eyelashes, none the less +effective that these had been darkened before she came down. "And yet, +I am sure, you might be," she said softly, with something of a sigh. + +The process, he thought, was by no means unpleasant; a man could +undergo it a long time without being tired. + +"Do you know I'm interested about you?" she continued, looking frankly +in his face. "For your own sake--a little; for somebody else's--a great +deal. Have you never heard of flowers that waste their 'sweetness on +the desert air?'" + +"And blush unseen?" he replied. "I'm blushing now. Don't you think it's +becoming?" + +"Do be serious!" she interposed, laying a slim white hand on his +sleeve. "I tell you I have your welfare at heart. That's the reason +you are here now. If I cannot be happy myself, at least I like to help +others. Everybody ought to marry the right person. Don't you think so? +You've got a right person. Why don't you marry her?" + +Watching him narrowly, she perceived, by the catch of his breath, the +quiver of his eyelid, that for all his self-command her thrust had gone +straight home. + +His was too manly a nature to deny its allegiance. + +"Do you think she would have me," said he simply and frankly, "if I was +to ask her?" + +Mrs. Lushington never liked him better than now. To this worldly, +weary, manoeuvring woman, there was something inexpressibly refreshing +in his unaffected self-depreciation. "What a fool the girl is!" +she thought; "why, she ought to _jump_ at him!" But what she said, +was--"_Qui cherche trouve._ If you don't put the question, how can you +expect to have an answer? Are you so spoilt, my dear General, that you +expect women to drop into your mouth like over-ripe fruit? What we +enjoy is, to be worried and teased over and over again, till at last we +are bored into saying "Yes" in sheer weariness, and to get rid of the +subject. How can you be _refused_, much more _accepted_, if you won't +even make an offer?" + +"Do you know what it is to care for somebody very much?" said he, +smoothing his hat with his elbow, as a village-maiden on the stage +plaits the hem of her apron. "What you suggest, seems the boldest game, +no doubt; but it is like putting all one's fortune on a single throw. +Suppose the dice come up against me--can you wonder I am a little +afraid to lift the box?" + +"I cannot fancy _you_ afraid of anything," she answered with an +admiring glance; "not even of failure, though it would probably be a +new sensation. You know what Mr. Walters says--(he winced, and she saw +it)--'When you go to a fighting-house, you should take a fighting man.' +So I say, 'When you are in a tangle about women, ask a woman to get you +out of it.' Put yourself in my hands, and when you dress for dinner, +you shall be a proud and a happy General!" + +His face brightened. "I _should_ be very happy," said he, "I honestly +confess, if Miss Douglas would consent to be my wife. Do you advise me +to ask her at once?" + +"This very day, without losing a minute!" was the answer. "Let me have +to congratulate her, when I call to drive her out at half-past five." + +The General looked at the clock, smoothing his hat more vigorously +than ever. "It's nearly four now," said he, in a faltering voice. +"Mrs. Lushington, I am really most grateful. It's too kind of you to +take such an interest in my affairs. Would you mind telling me? Women +understand these things much better than men. If you were in my place, +do you think I ought? I mean what is the best plan? In short, would you +advise me to call, and ask her point-blank, or to--write a line, you +know--very explicit and respectful, of course, and tell the servant to +wait for an answer?" + +She was very near laughing in his face, but mastered her gravity, after +a moment's reflection, and observed sententiously-- + +"Perhaps in your case a few lines would be best. You can write them +here if you like, or at your club. The shorter the better. And," she +added, shaking hands with him very kindly, while he rose to take leave, +"whichever way it goes, you will let me know the result." + +As the street-door closed, she opened her blotting-book, and scribbled +off the following dispatch-- + +"Dearest Blanche, + +"Alarms! A skirmish! I write to put you on your guard. The General, +_your_ General, has been here for an hour. He seems to have made up his +mind, so prepare yourself for it at any moment. I think you _ought_ +to accept him. He would relapse into a quiet, kind, and respectable +husband. Your own position, too, would be improved and what I call +established. Don't be obstinate, there's a dear. In haste. Ever your +own loving + + "Clara L----. + +"You mustn't forget you dine here. Nobody but ourselves, Uncle John, +the two Gordon girls (Bessie has grown so pretty), and Daisy Walters, +who starts for Ireland to-morrow. As soon after eight as you can." + + * * * * * + +Then she rang the bell, and sent off her note with directions for its +immediate transmission. Henry must take it at once. If Miss Douglas +was not at home, let him find out where she had gone, and follow her. +There was no answer. Only he must be quite sure she got it;--and pretty +Mrs. Lushington sank back on her sofa, with the pleasing reflection +that she had done what she called "a neat stroke of business, vigorous, +conclusive, and compromising nobody if it was ever found out!" + +She saw her way now clearly enough. On Satanella's refusal of her +veteran admirer, she calculated as surely as on her acceptance of an +invitation to meet Daisy at dinner, particularly with so dangerous +a competitor as Bessie Gordon in the field. That last touch she +considered worthy of her diplomacy. But, judging by herself, she was of +opinion that Miss Douglas would so modify her negative as to retain the +General in the vicinity of her charms, contemplating from day to day +the fair prospect that was never to be his own. In such an ignominious +state men are to be caught on the rebound, and he must ere long prove +an easy victim to her kinder fascinations, take his place, submissively +enough, with the other captives in the train of his conqueror. It would +be very nice, she thought, to secure him, and after that she could +turn her attention to Daisy, for Mrs. Lushington was never so happy as +when she had succeeded in detaching a gentleman from the lady of his +affections, if, in so doing, she inflicted on the latter the sorrow of +a wounded spirit and the pain of a vexed heart. + +Therefore had she many enemies of her own sex, ever on the watch to +catch her tripping, and once down must have expected no quarter from +these gentle combatants. + +A generous, masculine-minded woman, who is above these pretty vanities +and rivalries, enjoys considerable immunity in that society, of which +the laws are made by her sisters-in-arms, but they will _not_ forgive +the greedy, unreasonable spoiler, who eyes, covets, and abstracts the +property of others--who, to use their own expressive words, "takes +their men from them, while all the time she has got enough and to spare +of her own!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OFF AND ON + + +But even a woman cannot calculate with certainty on what another woman +will or will not do under given circumstances. The greatest generals +have been defeated by unforeseen obstacles. A night's rain or a sandy +road may foil the wisest strategy, destroy the nicest combinations. + +Miss Douglas never came to dinner after all, and Daisy, too, was +absent. Mrs. Lushington, outwardly deploring the want of a "young +man" for the "Gordon girls," inwardly puzzled her brains to account +for the joint desertion of her principal performers, a frightful +suspicion crossing her mind that she might have been too vigorous in +her measures, and so frightened Satanella into carrying Daisy off with +her, _nolens volens_, once for all. She had short notes of excuse, +indeed, from both; but with these she was by no means satisfied: the +lady pleading headache, the gentleman a pre-engagement, since called to +mind--this might mean anything. But if they _had_ gone away together, +she thought, never would she meddle in such matters again! + +Not till dinner was over, and Bessie Gordon had sat down to sing +plaintive ballads in the drawing-room, did she feel reassured; but the +last post brought a few lines from the General in fulfilment of his +pledge to let her know how his wooing had sped. + +"Congratulate me," he wrote, "my dear Mrs. Lushington, on having +taken your advice. You were right about procrastination" (the General +loved a long word, and was indeed somewhat pompous when he put pen to +paper). "I am convinced that but for your kind counsels I should hardly +have done justice to myself or the lady for whom I entertain so deep +and lasting a regard. I feel I may now venture to hope time will do +much--constant devotion more. At some future period, not far distant, +it may be my pride to present to you your beautiful young charge in a +new character, as the wife of your obliged and sincere friend--V. St. +Josephs." + +"V. St. Josephs?" repeated Mrs. Lushington. "I wonder what V. stands +for. Valentine, if I remember right. And I wonder what on earth he +means _me_ to gather from his letter! I cannot make head or tail of it. +If she has accepted him, what makes him talk about time and devotion? +If she has refused him, surely he never can intend to persevere! +Blanche, Blanche! if you're playing a double game, it will be the worse +for you, and I'll never trust a woman with dark eyes again!" + +The Gordon girls, going home in their hired brougham, voted that "dear +Mrs. Lushington had one of her headaches; that Mr. L. was delightful; +that after all, it seemed very selfish of Clara not to have secured +them a couple of men; finally, that they had spent a stupid evening, +and would be too glad to go to bed!" + +All details of love-making are probably much alike, nor is there great +room for variety in the putting of that direct question, to which the +path of courtship necessarily conducts its dupe. General St. Josephs +kept no copy of the letter in which he solicited Miss Douglas to +become his wife. That lady tore it immediately into shreds, that went +fluttering up the chimney. Doubtless it was sincere and dignified, even +if diffuse; worthy, too, of a more elaborate answer than the single +line she scribbled in reply:-- + +"Come and talk it over. I am at home till seven." + +His courage rose, however, now he had got fairly into action, and never +had he felt less nervous while dismounting at the well-known door, +than on this supreme occasion, when he was to learn his fate, as he +believed, once for all, from the lips of the woman he loved. + +Like most men trained in the school of danger, strong excitement strung +his nerves and cleared his vision, he no longer averted his eyes from +the face that heretofore so dazzled them; on the contrary, entering the +presence of Miss Douglas, he took in her form and features at a glance, +as a man scans the figure of an adversary, while he prepares for attack. + +It did not escape him that she looked flurried and depressed, that her +hand trembled, and her colour went and came. Arguing favourably from +these symptoms, he was somewhat disappointed with the first sentence +she addressed to him. + +"You wrote me a letter, General," said she, forcing a nervous little +laugh. "Such a funny letter! I didn't quite know what to make of it!" + +A funny letter! And his heart had beat, his eyes had filled, his +highest, noblest feelings had been stirred with every line! + +He was conscious that his bow seemed stern, even pompous, while he +answered with exceeding gravity-- + +"Surely I made my meaning clear enough. Surely, Miss Douglas--Blanche; +may I not call you _Blanche_?" + +"Yes; if you like," said she impatiently. "It's a hateful name, I +think. That's not my fault. Well, General, what were you going to say?" + +He looked and indeed felt perplexed. "I was going to observe," said +he, "that as my question was very straightforward, and very much in +earnest, so all my future happiness depends on your reply." + +"I wonder what there is you can see in me to like!" she retorted, with +an impatient movement of her whole body, as if she was in fetters, +and felt the restraint. "I'm not good enough for anybody to care for, +that's the truth, General. There's hardly a girl in London who wouldn't +suit you better than me." + +He was looking in her face with sincere admiration. + +"That is not the question," he replied. "Surely I am old enough to know +my own mind. Besides, you do not seem conscious of your power. You +could make a bishop fall in love with you in ten minutes, if you chose!" + +There came a depth of tenderness in her eyes, a smile, half sad, half +sweet, about her lips, which he interpreted in his own way. + +"Do you think so?" said she. "I wish I could believe you. I've not had +a happy youth, and I've not been brought up in a very good school. I +often tell myself I could, and ought to have been better, but somehow +one's whole life seems to be a mistake!" + +"A mistake I could rectify, if you would give me the right," answered +St. Josephs, disheartened, but not despairing. "I only ask you to judge +me fairly, to trust me honestly, and to love me some day, if you _can_!" + +She gave him her hand. He drew her towards him, and pressed his lips +to her cold, smooth brow. No more, and yet he fancied she was his own +at last. Already half pledged, already half an affianced wife. She +released herself quickly, and sat down on the farther side of her +work-table. + +"You are very generous," she said, "and very good. I still maintain you +deserve somebody far superior to me. How odd these sort of things are, +and why do they never turn out as one--expects?" + +She was going to say "wishes," but stopped herself in time. + +He would _not_ understand. + +"Life is made up of hopes and disappointments," he observed. "You do +not seem to hope much, Blanche. I trust, therefore, you will have +less cause for disappointment. I will do all in _my_ power. And now, +dearest, do not call me impatient, fidgetty; but, when do you think +I may look forward to--to making arrangements in which we are to be +equally interested?" + +"Oh! I don't know!" she exclaimed, with considerable emphasis. "Not +yet, of course: there's plenty of time. And I'm so hurried and worried, +I can hardly speak! Besides, it's very late. I promised to dine with +Mrs. Lushington, and it's nearly eight o'clock now." + +Even from a future help-meet, so broad a hint could not be disregarded. +The General was forced to put on his gloves and prepare for departure. + +"But I shall see you again soon," he pleaded. "Shall you be at the +opera--at Mrs. Cramwell's--at Belgrave House?" + +"Certainly not at Belgrave House!" she answered impatiently. "I hate a +crush; and that woman asks all the casuals in London. It's a regular +refuge for the destitute. I'm not going there _yet_. I may, perhaps, +when I'm destitute!" + +There was a hard ring in her voice that distressed him, and she +perceived it. + +"Don't look so wretched," she added kindly. "There are places in the +world besides Belgrave Square and Covent Garden. What do you say to +Punchestown? It's next week, and I'm sure to be _there_!" + +He turned pale, seeming no whit reassured. "Punchestown," he repeated. +"What on earth takes you to Punchestown?" + +"Don't you know I've got a horse to run?" she said lightly. "I should +like to see it win, and I do _not_ believe they have anything in +Ireland half as good as my beautiful Satanella!" + +"Is that all?" he asked in a disturbed voice. "It seems such an odd +reason for a lady; and it's a long journey, you know, with a horrible +crossing at this time of year! Blanche, Miss Douglas, can you not stay +away, as--as a favour to _me_?" + +There was an angry flush on her cheek, an angry glitter in her eyes, +but she kept her temper bravely, and only said in mocking accents-- + +"Already, General! No; if you mean to be a tyrant you must wait till +you come to the throne. I intend to show at Punchestown the first day +of the races. I have made an assignation with _you_. If you like to +keep it, well and good; if you like to let it alone, do! I shall not +break my heart!" + +He felt at a disadvantage. She seemed so cool, so unimpressionable, +so devoid of the sentiment and sensibility he longed to kindle in her +nature. For a moment, he could almost have wished to draw back, to +resume his freedom, while there was yet time; but no, she looked so +handsome, so queenly--he had rather be wretched with _her_ than happy +with any other woman in the world! + +"Of course, I will not fail," he answered. "I would go a deal further +than Punchestown, only to be within hearing of your voice. When do you +start? If Mrs. Lushington, or anybody you knew well, would accompany +you, why should we not cross over together?" + +"Now, you're too exacting," she replied. "Haven't I told you we +shall meet on the course, when the saddling-bell rings for the first +race. Not a moment sooner, and my wish is the law of the Medes and +Persians--as yet!" + +The two last words carried a powerful charm. Had he been mature in +wisdom as in years, he ought never to have thought of marrying a woman +who could influence him so easily. + +"I shall count the days till then," he replied gallantly. "They will +pass very slowly, but, as the turnspit says in the Spanish proverb, +'the largest leg of mutton must get done in time!' Good-bye, Miss +Douglas. Good luck to you; and I hope Satanella will win!" + +He bowed over the hand she gave him, but did not attempt to kiss it, +taking his leave with a mingled deference and interest she could not +but appreciate and admire. + +"_Why_ can't I care for him?" she murmured passionately, as the +street-door closed with a bang. "He's good, he's generous, he's a +_gentleman_! Poor fellow, he loves me devotedly; he's by no means ugly, +and he's not so _very_ old! Yet I can't, I can't! And I've promised +him, _almost_ promised him! Well, come what may, I've got a clear week +of freedom still. But what a fool I've been, and oh! what a fool I +_am_!" + +Then she sent her excuse to Mrs. Lushington, declined dinner at home, +ordered tea, didn't drink any, and so crept sorrowful and supperless to +bed. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AT SEA + + +In the British army, notwithstanding the phases and vicissitudes +to which it is subjected, discipline still remains a paramount +consideration--the keystone of its whole fabric. Come what may, +the duty must be done. This is the great principle of action; and, +in obedience to its law, young officers, who combine pleasure +with military avocations, are continually on the move to and from +head-quarters, by road, railway, or steam-boat--here to-day, gone +to-morrow; proposing for themselves, indeed, many schemes of sport and +pastime, but disposed of, morally and physically, by the regimental +orders and the colonel's will. + +Daisy, buried in Kildare, rising at day-break, going to bed at nine, +looking sharply after the preparation of Satanella, could not avoid +crossing the Channel for "muster," to re-cross it within twenty-four +hours, that he might take part in the great race on which his fortunes +now depended--to use his own expression, which was to "make him a man +or a mouse." + +Thus it fell out that he found himself embarking at Holyhead amongst +a stream of passengers in the mid-day boat for Dublin, having caught +the mail-train at Chester by a series of intricate combinations, and +an implicit reliance on the veracity of Bradshaw. It rained a little, +of course--it always does rain at Holyhead--and was blowing fresh from +the south-west. The sea "danced," as the French say; ladies expressed +a fear "it would be very rough;" their maids prepared for the worst; +and a nautical-looking personage in a pea-coat with anchor buttons, +who disappeared at once, to be seen no more till he landed, pale and +dishevelled, in Kingstown harbour, opined first that "there was a +capful of wind," secondly, that "it was a ten-knot breeze, and would +hold till they made the land." + +With loud throbs and pantings of her mighty heart, with a plunge, +a hiss, a shower of heavy spray-drops, the magnificent steamer got +under way, lurching and rolling but little, considering the weather, +yet enough to render landsmen somewhat unsteady on their legs, and to +exhibit the skill with which a curly-haired steward balanced himself, +basin in hand, on his errands of benevolence and consolation. + +Two ladies, who had travelled together in a through carriage from +Euston Square, might have been seen to part company the moment they +set foot on board. One of these established herself on deck, with +a multiplicity of cushions, cloaks, and wrappings, to the manifest +admiration of a raw youth in drab trowsers and highlows, smoking +a damp cigar against the wind; while the other vanished into the +ladies'-cabin, there to lay her head on a horse-hair pillow, to sigh, +and moan, and shut her eyes, and long for land, perhaps to gulp, with +watering mouth, short sips of brandy and water, perhaps to find the +hateful mixture only made her worse. + +What a situation for Blanche Douglas! How she loathed and despised the +lassitude she could not fight against, the sufferings she could not +keep down! How she envied Mrs. Lushington the open air, the sea-breeze, +the leaping, following waves, her brightened eyes, her freshened +cheeks, her keen enjoyment of a trip that according to different +organisations, seems either a purgatory or a paradise! Could she have +known how her livelier friend was engaged, she would have envied her +even more. + +That lady, like many other delicate, fragile women of fair complexion, +was unassailable by sea-sickness, and never looked nor felt so well as +when on board ship in a stiff breeze. + +Thoroughly mistress of the position, she yet thought it worth while, +as she was the only other passenger on deck, to favour the raw youth +before-mentioned with an occasional beam from her charms, and accorded +him a very gracious bow in acknowledgment of the awkwardness with +which he re-arranged a cushion that slid to leeward from under her +feet. She was even disappointed when the roll of a cross-sea, combined +with the effect of bad tobacco, necessitated his withdrawal from her +presence, to return no more, and was beginning to wonder if the captain +would never descend from his bridge between the paddle-boxes, when a +fresh, smiling face peeped up from the cabin-door, and Daisy, as little +affected by sea-sickness as herself, looking the picture of health and +spirits, staggered across the deck to take his place by her side. + +"_You_ here, Mr. Walters!" said she. "Well, this is a surprise! Where +have you been? where are you going? and how did you get on board +without our seeing you?" + +"I've been back for 'muster,'" answered Daisy; "I'm going to +Punchestown; and I didn't know you were here, because I stayed below to +have some luncheon in the cabin. How's Lushington? Have you brought him +with you, or are you quite alone, on your own hook?" + +"What a question!" she laughed. "I suppose you think I'm old enough and +ugly enough to take care of myself! No, I'm _not_ absolutely 'on my own +hook,' as you call it. I've given Frank a holiday--goodness knows what +mischief he won't get into!--but I've got a companion, and a very nice +one, though perhaps not quite so nice as usual just at this moment." + +"Then it's a lady," said Daisy, apparently but little interested in the +intelligence. + +"A lady," she repeated, with a searching look in his face; "and a very +charming lady, too, though a bad sailor. Do you mean to say you can't +guess who it is?" + +"Miss Douglas, for a pony!" was his answer; and the loud, frank +tones, the joyous smile, the utter absence of self-consciousness or +after-thought, seemed to afford Mrs. Lushington no slight gratification. + +"You would win your pony," she replied gently. "Yes, Blanche and I are +going over to Ireland, partly to stay with some very pleasant people +near Dublin, partly--now, I don't want to make you conceited--partly +because she has set her heart on seeing you ride; and so have I." + +Practice, no doubt, makes perfect. With this flattering acknowledgment, +she put just the right amount of interest into her glance, let it dwell +on him the right time, and averted it at the right moment. + +"She's a deuced pretty woman!" thought Daisy. "How well she looks with +her hair blown all about her face, and her cloak gathered up under +her dear little chin!" He felt quite sorry that the Wicklow range was +already looming through its rain-charged atmosphere as they neared the +Irish coast. + +"I should like to win," said he, after a pause, "particularly if +_you're_ looking on!" + +"Don't say _me_," she murmured, adding in a louder and merrier voice, +"You cannot deny you're devoted to Blanche, and I dare say, if the +truth were known, she has made you a jacket and cap of her own colours, +worked with her own hands." + +"I like her very much," he answered frankly. "It's partly on her +account I want to land this race. She's so fond of the mare, you know. +Not but what I've gone a cracker on it myself; and if it don't come +off, there'll be a general break-up! But I beg your pardon, I don't see +why that should interest _you_." + +"_Don't_ you?" said she earnestly. "Then you're as blind as a bat. +Everything interests me that concerns people I like." + +"Does that mean you like _me_?" asked Daisy with a saucy smile, +enhanced by a prolonged lurch of the steamer, and the blow of a wave on +her quarter, that drenched them both in a shower of spray. + +She was silent while he wrung the wet from her cloak and hood, but +when he had wrapped her up once more, and readjusted her cushions, she +looked gravely in his face. + +"It's an odd question, Mr. Walters," said she, "but I'm not afraid +to answer it, and I always speak the truth. Yes, I _do_ like you--on +Blanche's account. I think you've a pretty good head, and a very good +heart, with many other qualities I admire, all of which seem rather +thrown away." + +Daisy was the least conceited of men, but who could resist such subtle +flattery as this? For a moment he wished the Emerald Isle sunk in +the sea, and no nearer termination to their voyage than the coast of +Anticosti, or Newfoundland. Alas! the Hill of Howth stood high on the +starboard quarter, the Wicklow mountains had risen in all their beauty +of colour and majesty of outline, grand, soft, seductive, robed in +russet and purple, here veiled in mist, there golden in sunshine, and +streaked at intervals with faint white lines of smoke. + +"I'm glad you like me," said he simply. "But how do you mean you think +I'm thrown away?" + +"By your leave!" growled a hoarse voice at his elbow, for at this +interesting juncture the conversation was interrupted by three or four +able seamen coiling a gigantic cable about the lady's feet. She was +forced to abandon her position, and leave to her companion's fancy the +nature of her reply. No doubt it would have been guarded, appropriate, +and to the point. Daisy had nothing for it, however, but to collect her +different effects, and strap them together in proper order for landing, +before he ran down to fetch certain articles of his own personal +property out of the cabin. + +They were in smooth water now. Pale faces appeared from the different +recesses opening on the saloon. People who had been sick tried to look +as if they had been sleeping and the sleepers as if they had been +wide-awake all the way from Holyhead. A child who cried incessantly +during the passage, now ran laughing in and out of the steward's +pantry; and two sporting gentlemen from the West--one with a bright +blue coat, the other with a bright red face--finished their punch at a +gulp, without concluding a deal that had lasted through six tumblers, +for a certain "bay brown harse by Elvas--an illigant lepped wan," to +use the red-faced gentleman's own words, "an' the bouldest ever ye +see. Wait till I tell ye now. He's fit to carry the Lord-Liftinint +himself. Show him his fence, and howld him if ye can!" As the possible +purchaser for whom blue-coat acted, was a timid rider hunting in a +blind country, it seemed doubtful whether so resolute an animal was +likely to convey him as temperately as he might wish. + +"Ah! it's the Captain," exclaimed both these sitters in a breath, as +Daisy slid behind them in search of his dressing-case and his tall hat. +"See now, Captain, will the mare win? Faith, she's clean-bred, I know +well, for I trained her dam meself, whan she cleaned out the whole +south of Ireland at Limerick for the Ladies' Plate!" exclaimed one. + +"_You_ ride her, Captain," added the other. "It's herself that can +do't! They've a taste of temper, have all that breed; but you sit +still, an' ride aisy, Captain. Keep her back till they come to race and +loose her off then like shot from a gun. Whew! She'll come out in wan +blaze, and lave thim all behind, as I'd lave that tumbler there, more +by token it's been empty this ten minutes. Ye'll take a taste of punch +now, Captain, for good luck, and to drink to the black mare's chance?" + +But Daisy excused himself, shaking hands repeatedly with his cordial +well-wishers ere he hurried on deck to disembark. + +Moving listlessly and languidly into upper air, the figure of a lady +preceded him by a few steps. All he saw was the corner of a shawl, the +skirt of a dress, and a foot and ankle; but that foot and ankle could +only belong to Blanche Douglas, and in three bounds he was at her +side. A moment before, she had been pale, languid, dejected. Now, she +brightened up into all the flush and brilliancy of her usual beauty, +like a fair landscape when the sun shines out from behind a cloud. Mrs. +Lushington, standing opposite the companion-way, noted the change. +Daisy, in happy ignorance, expressed the pleasure, which no doubt he +felt, at a meeting with his handsome friend on the Irish shore. + +No woman, probably, likes anything she _does_ like one whit the worse +because deprived of it by force of circumstances. The fox in the +fable that protested the grapes were sour, depend upon it, was not +a vixen. Satanella thoroughly appreciated her friend's kindness and +consideration, when Mrs. Lushington condoled with her on her past +sufferings, and rejoiced in her recovery, informing her at the same +time that Daisy was a capital travelling companion. + +"He takes such care of one, my dear." (She spoke in a very audible +_aside_.) "So gentle and thoughtful; it's like having one's own maid. I +enjoyed the crossing thoroughly. Poor dear! I wish you could have been +on deck to enjoy it too!" + +Done into plain English, the above really meant--"I have been having +great fun flirting with your admirer. He's very nice, and perhaps I +shall take him away from you some day when I have a chance." + +By certain twinges that shot through every nerve and fibre, Blanche +Douglas knew she had let her foolish heart go out of her own keeping. +If she doubted previously whether or not she had fallen in love with +Daisy, she was sure of it now, while wrung by these pangs of an +unreasoning jealousy, that grudged his society for an hour, even to her +dearest friend. + +There was but little time, however, for indulgence of the emotions. +Mrs. Lushington's footman, imposing, broad-breasted, and buttoned +to the chin, touched his hat as a signal that he had all _his_ +paraphernalia ready for departure. Two ladies'-maids, limp and +draggled, trotted helplessly in his footsteps. The steward, who knew +everybody, had taken a respectful farewell of his most distinguished +passengers, the captain had done shouting from his perch behind the +funnel, and the raw youth in highlows, casting one despairing look at +Mrs. Lushington, had disappeared in the embrace of a voluminous matron +the moment he set foot on shore. There was nothing left but to say +good-bye. + +Satanella's voice faltered, and her hand shook. How she had wasted the +preceding three hours that she might have spent on deck with Daisy! and +how _mean_ of Clara to take advantage of her friend's indisposition by +making up to him, as she did to every man she came near! + +"I hadn't an idea you were going to cross with us," said she, in +mournful accents, while he took his leave. "Why didn't you tell me? And +when shall I see you again?" + +"At Punchestown," replied Daisy cheerfully. "Wish me good luck!" + +"Not till _then_!" said Miss Douglas. And having so said in Mrs. +Lushington's hearing, wished she had held her tongue. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +CORMAC'S-TOWN + + +If a _man_ has reason to feel aggrieved with the conduct of his dearest +friend, he avoids him persistently and sulks by himself. Should +circumstances compel the unwilling pair to be together, they smoke and +sulk in company. At all events, each lets the other see pretty plainly +that he is disgusted and bored. Women are not so sincere. To use a +naval metaphor, they hoist friendly colours when they run their guns +out for action, and are never so dangerous or so determined, as while +manoeuvring under a flag of truce. + +Mrs. Lushington and Miss Douglas could no more part company than they +could smoke. Till they should arrive at their joint destination, +they must be inseparable as the Siamese twins, or the double-headed +Nightingale. Therefore were they more than usually endearing and +affectionate, therefore the carman who drove them through Dublin, from +station to station, approved heartily of their "nateral affection," as +he called it, wishing, to use his own words, that he was "brother to +either of them, or husband to both!" + +If they sparred at all, it was with the gloves--light hitting, and +only to measure each other's reach. Some day,--the same idea occurred +to them at the same moment,--they meant to "have it out" in earnest, +and it should be no child's play then. Meantime they proceeded to +take their places in a fast train which seemed to have no particular +hour of departure, so long was it drawn up beside the platform after +the passengers had seated themselves and the doors were locked. Miss +Douglas possessed good nerves, no doubt, yet were they somewhat shaken +by a dialogue she overheard between guard and station-master, carried +on through many shrieks and puffings of the engine at the first halt +they made, a few miles down the line. + +"Is the express due, Denis?" + +"She is." + +"Is the mail gone by?" + +"She would be, but she's broke intirely." + +"Is the line clear?" + +"It is _not_." + +"Go on, boys, an' trust in God!" + +Nevertheless, in accordance with an adage which must be of Irish +extraction, "Where there is no fear there is no danger," our two +ladies, their two maids, and Mrs. Lushington's footman, were all +deposited safely at a wayside station in the dark; the last named +functionary, a regular London servant, who had never before been ten +miles from the Standard, Cornhill, arriving in the last stage of +astonishment and disgust. He cheered up, however, to find a man, in a +livery something like his own, waiting on the platform, with welcome +news of a carriage for the ladies, a car for the luggage, and a castle +not more than three miles off! + +"You _must_ be tired, dear," said Mrs. Lushington, sinking back among +the cushions of an easy London-built brougham. "But, thank goodness, +here we are at last. Three miles will soon be over on so good a road as +this." + +But three Irish miles, after a long journey, are not so quickly +accomplished on a dark night in a carriage with one of its lamps gone +out. It seemed to the ladies they had been driven at least six, when +they arrived at a park wall, some ten feet high, which they skirted for +a considerable distance ere they entered the demesne through a stately +gateway, flanked by imposing castellated lodges on either side. + +Here a pair of white breeches, and the indistinct figure of a horseman, +passed the carriage-window, flitting noiselessly over the mossy sward. + +"Did you see it, Blanche?" asked Mrs. Lushington, who had been in +Ireland before. "It's a banshee!" + +"Or a Whiteboy!" said Miss Douglas laughing. "Only I didn't know they +wore even BOOTS, to say nothing of the other things!" + +But the London footman, balancing himself with difficulty amongst his +luggage on the outside car, was more curious, or less courageous. + +"What's _that_?" he exclaimed, in the disturbed accents of one who +fears a ghost only less than a highwayman. + +"Which?" said the driver, tugging and flogging with all his might to +raise a gallop for the avenue. + +"That--that objeck!" answered the other. + +"Ah! that's the masther. More power to him!" replied the carman. "It's +foxin' he'll have been likely, on the mountain, an' him nivir off the +point o' the hunt. Divil thank him with the cattle he rides! Begorra! +ye nivir see the masther, but you see a great baste!" + +All this was Greek to his listener, whose mind, however, became easier, +with the crunching of gravel under their wheels, and the looming of a +large, irregular mass of building, about which lights were flashing in +all directions, showing not only that they had arrived, but that they +were expected and welcome. + +As Blanche Douglas stepped out of the brougham, she found her hand +resting in that of the supposed banshee, who had dismounted not a +minute before to receive his guests. He was a tall, handsome old +gentleman, fresh-coloured and grey-haired, with that happy mixture of +cordiality and good-breeding in his manner, to be found in the Emerald +Isle alone; yet was there but the slightest touch of brogue on the deep +mellow accents that proffered their hospitable greeting. + +"You've had a long journey, Miss Douglas, and a dark drive, but glad I +am to see you, and welcome you are to the castle at Cormac's-town." + +Then he conducted the ladies across a fine old hall, furnished with +antlers, skins, ancient weapons, and strange implements of chase, +through a spacious library and drawing-room, to a snug little chamber, +where a wood-fire blazed, not without smoke, and a tea-table was drawn +to the hearth. Here, excusing himself on the score of dirty boots and +disordered apparel, he left the new arrivals to the care of his wife. + +Lady Mary Macormac had once been as fresh and hearty an Irish lass as +ever rode a four-foot wall, or danced her partners down in interminable +jigs that lasted till daylight. An earl's daughter, she could bud +roses, set fruit trees, milk a cow, or throw a salmon-fly with any +peasant, man or woman, on her father's estate. She slept sound, woke +early, took entire charge of the household, the children, the garden, +the farm, everything but the stables, was as healthy as a ploughman +and as brisk as a milkmaid. Now, with grown-up daughters, and sons +of all ages, down to a mischievous urchin home from school, her eyes +were blue, her cheeks rosy as at nineteen. Only her hair had turned +perfectly white, a distinction of which she seemed rather proud, +curling and crimping it with some ostentation and no little skill +over her calm unwrinkled brow. To Blanche Douglas this lady took a +fancy, at first sight, reserving her opinion of Mrs. Lushington for +future consideration, but feeling her impulsive Irish heart warm to +Satanella's rich low voice, and the saddened smile that came so rarely, +but possessed so strange a charm. + +"Mrs. Lushington, Miss Douglas, me daughters." + +The introduction was soon over, the tea poured out, and some half-dozen +ladies established round the fire to engage in that small talk which +never seems to fail them, and for which the duller sex find smoking so +poor a substitute. + +It appeared there was a large party staying at the castle. Not that the +house was full, nor indeed could it be, since only one-half had been +furnished: but there were country neighbours, who came long distances; +soldiers, both horse and foot; a "Jackeen"[3] or two, sporting friends +of Mr. Macormac; a judicial dignitary, a Roman Catholic bishop, and a +cluster of London dandies. + +Mrs. Lushington's eyes sparkled, like those of a sportsman who proceeds +to beat a turnip field into which the adjoining stubbles have been +emptied of their coveys. + +"How gay you are, Lady Mary," said she, "on this side of the Channel! I +am sure you have much more fun in Ireland than we have in London!" + +"I think we have," answered her ladyship. "Though my experience of +London was only six weeks in me father's time. I liked Paris better, +when Macormac took me there, before Louisa was born. But Punchestown +week, Mrs. Lushington, ye'll find Dublin as good as both." + +"Sure! I'd like to go to Paris next winter, mamma," exclaimed the +second girl, with a smile that lit up eyes and face into sparkling +beauty. "Just you and me and Papa, and let the family stay here in the +castle, to keep it warm." + +"And leave your hunting, Norah!" replied her mother. "Indeed, then, I +wonder to hear you!" + +"Are you fond of hunting?" asked Miss Douglas, edging her chair nearer +this kindred spirit. + +"It's the only thing worth living for," answered Miss Norah decidedly. +"Dancing's not bad, with a real good partner, if he'll hold you up +without swinging you at the turns; but, see now, when you're riding +your own favourite horse, and him leading the hunt, that's what I call +the greatest happiness on earth!" + +Mrs. Lushington stared. + +"Ye're a wild girl, Norah!" said Lady Mary, shaking her handsome head. +"But, indeed, it's mostly papa's fault. We've something of the savage +left in us still, Miss Douglas, and even these children of mine here +can't do without their hunt." + +"I can feel for them!" answered Satanella earnestly. "It's the one +thing I care for myself. The one thing," she added rather bitterly, +"that doesn't disappoint you and make you hate everything else when +it's over!" + +"You're too young to speak like that," replied the elder lady kindly. +"Too young, and too nice-looking, if you'll excuse me for saying it." + +"I don't _feel_ young," replied Miss Douglas simply, "but I am glad you +think me nice." + +If Lady Mary liked her guest before, she could have hugged her now. + +"Ye're very pretty, my dear," she whispered, "and I make no doubt +ye're as good as ye're good-looking. But that's no reason why ye would +live upon air. The gentlemen are still in the dining-room. It's seldom +they come out of that before eleven o'clock; but I've ordered some +dinner for ye in the library, and it will be laid by the time ye get +your bonnets off. Sure it's good of ye both to come so far, and I'm +glad to see ye, that's the truth!" + +The visitors, however, persistently declined dinner at half-past ten, +P.M., petitioning earnestly that they might be allowed to go to bed, a +request in which they were perfectly sincere; for Blanche Douglas was +really tired, while Mrs. Lushington had no idea of appearing before the +claret-drinkers at a disadvantage. + +To-morrow she would come down to breakfast rested, fresh, radiant, +armed at all points, and confident of victory. + +Lady Mary herself conducted them to their chambers, peeping into the +dining-room on her way back, to hear about the good run that had kept +her husband out so late, and to see that he had what he liked for +dinner at a side-table. Her appearance brought all the gentlemen to +their feet with a shout of welcome. Her departure filled (and emptied) +every glass to her health. + +"Not another drop after Lady Mary," was the universal acclamation, +when Macormac proposed a fresh magnum; and although he suggested +drinking the same toast again, a general move was at once made to the +music-room, where most of the ladies had congregated with tact and +kindness, that their presence might not add to the discomfort of +the strangers, arriving late for dinner to join a large party at a +country-house. + +With Satanella's dreams we have nothing to do. Proserpine seldom +affords us the vision we most desire during the hours of sleep. Think +of your sweetheart, and as likely as not you will dream of your doctor. +Miss Norah helped her new friend to undress, and kissed while she bade +her good-night; but with morning came her own maid, looking very cross +(the servants' accommodation at Cormac's-town was hardly on a par with +the magnificence of the mansion), complaining first of tooth-ache from +sleeping in a draught; and, secondly, with a certain tone of triumph, +that the closet was damp where she had hung her lady's dresses in a +row like Bluebeard's wives. The morning looked dull, rain beat against +the windows, the clouds were spongy and charged with wet. It was not +enlivening to have one's hair brushed by an attendant vexed with a +swelled face, that constantly attracted her own attention in her lady's +looking-glass. + +Miss Douglas, I fear, had no more toleration than other mistresses for +short-comings in an inferior. If she passed these over it was less from +the forbearance of good-humour than contempt. The toilette progressed +slowly, but was completed at last, and even the maid pronounced it +very good. Masses of black hair coiled in thick, shining plaits, plain +gold earrings, a broad velvet band tight round the neck, supporting +the locket like a warming-pan, a cream-coloured dress, trimmed with +black braid, pulled in here, puffed out there, and looped up over a +stuff petticoat of neutral tint, the whole fabric supported on such a +pair of Balmoral boots as Cinderella must have worn when she went out +walking, formed a sufficiently fascinating picture. Catching sight of +her own handsome figure in a full-length glass, her spirits rose, and +Miss Douglas began to think better of her Irish expedition, persuading +herself that she had crossed the Channel only to accompany her friend, +and not because Daisy was going to ride at Punchestown. + +She would have liked him to see her, nevertheless, she thought, now in +her best looks, before she went down to breakfast, and was actually +standing, lost in thought, with her hand on the door, when it was +opened from without, and Mrs. Lushington entered, likewise in gorgeous +apparel, fresh, smiling, beautiful in the gifts of nature as from +the resources of art; to use the words of a "jackeen" who described +her later in the day, "glittering in paint and varnish, like a new +four-in-hand coach!" + +"Who do you think is here, dear," was her morning salutation, "of all +people in the world, under this very roof? Now guess!" + +"Prester John? The Archbishop of Canterbury? The great Panjandrum? How +should _I_ know?" + +"I don't believe you _do_ know. And I don't believe _he_ knows. It will +be rather good fun to see you meet." + +"Who is it, dear?" (Impatiently.) + +"Why, St. Josephs. He came yesterday morning." + +Blanche's face fell. + +"How _very_ provoking!" she muttered; adding, in a louder voice, and +with rather a forced laugh, "That man seems to be my fate! Let's go +down to breakfast, dear, and get it over!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: Jackeen--a small squire of great pretensions.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ONE TOO MANY + + +At breakfast, for an old soldier, the General showed considerable want +of military skill. Miss Douglas, indeed, assumed an admirable position +of defence, flanked by Norah Macormac on one side, and the corner +of the table on the other; but her admirer, posting himself exactly +opposite, never took his eyes off her face, handed her everything he +could reach, and made himself foolishly conspicuous in paying her those +attentions to which ladies do not object so much as they profess. Like +many other players, he lost his head when risking a large stake. + +Had he cared less, he would have remembered that wisest of all maxims +in dealing with others--"_Il faut se faire valoir_," and she might +have appreciated his good qualities all the more, to mark the esteem +in which he was held by her own sex. The General could fix a woman's +attention, could even excite her interest, when he chose; and many +of these laughing dames would have asked no better cavalier for the +approaching races than this handsome, war-worn veteran, who "made such +a fool of himself about that tall girl with black hair!" + +Breakfast in a country house is usually a protracted and elastic meal. +The "jackeens," whose habits were tolerably active, came down in +good time, but the London young gentlemen dropped in, one later than +another, gorgeously apparelled, cool, composed, hungry, obviously proud +of being up and dressed at eleven o'clock, A.M. + +Miss Norah whispered to Satanella that "she didn't like dandies, and +dandies didn't like _her_!" + +Looking in the girl's bright, handsome face, the latter proposition +seemed to Miss Douglas wholly untenable. + +"What sort of people _do_ you like, dear?" said she, in answer to the +former. + +"The army," replied Miss Norah, with great animation. "And the cavalry, +ye know--they're beautiful; but a man must have something besides a +fine uniform to please _me_." + +"What more _can_ you want?" asked Blanche, with a smile. + +"Well, a good seat on his horse, now," laughed the other, "that's +the first thing, surely, and a good temper, and a good nerve, and a +pleasant smile in his face, when everything goes wrong." + +"You're thinking of somebody in particular," said Blanche. + +"I am," answered Miss Norah boldly, though with a rising blush. "I'm +thinking of somebody I should wish my brothers to be like--that I +should wish to be like myself. He's never puzzled; he's never put out. +Let the worst happen that will, he knows what to do, and how to do +it--a fair face, a brave spirit, and a kind heart!" + +She raised her voice, for the subject seemed to interest her deeply. +Some of the guests looked up from their breakfasts, and the General +listened with a smile. + +"It sounds charming," remarked Miss Douglas. "A hero--a paladin, and a +very nice person into the bargain. I should like immensely to see him." + +"Would ye now?" said the Irish girl. "And so ye shall, dear. He'll be +at the races to-morrow. Ye'll see him ride. I'll engage he'll come to +the Ladies' Stand. Say the word, and I'll introduce him to ye myself." + +"Is he an Irishman?" asked Miss Douglas, amused with her animated +manner and perfect good faith. + +"An Irishman!" exclaimed Norah. "Did ever ye hear of Walters for an +Irishman's name? They call him Daisy that know him best, though mamma +says I am never to mention him, only as Captain Walters." + +The shot was quite unexpected, but Blanche knew the General's eye was +on her, and she neither started nor winced. Scarcely even changed +countenance, except that she turned a shade paler, and looked sternly +in her admirer's face while he carried on the conversation. + +"Not Captain Walters _yet_, Miss Macormac," said the old soldier +stiffly. "First for a troop though, and one going immediately. I know +him very well, but never heard so flattering an account of him before. +What a thing it is to have a charming young lady for a partisan! _We_ +think him a good-humoured rattle enough, and he can ride, to do him +justice, but surely--eh?--there's not much _in_ him. Miss Douglas here +sees him oftener than I do, what does _she_ say?" + +"A pleasant companion, quite as clever as other people, and a right +good fellow!" burst out Blanche, her dark eyes flashing defiance. +"That's what _she_ says, General! And what's more, she always stands up +for her friends, and _hates_ people who abuse them!" + +The General, though he opened his mouth, was stricken dumb. Norah +Macormac clapped her hands, and Mrs. Lushington, looking calmly down +the table, afforded the discomfited soldier a sweet and reassuring +smile. + +Lady Mary, reviewing her guests from behind an enormous tea-urn, judged +the moment had arrived for a general move, and rose accordingly. As, +late in the autumn, coveys get up all over the ground when you flush a +single bird, so the whole party followed her example, and made for the +door, which was opened by St. Josephs, who sought in vain a responsive +glance from Miss Douglas while she passed out, with her head up, and, a +sure sign she was offended, more swing than usual in the skirts of her +dress. He consoled himself by resolving that, if the weather cleared, +he would ask her to take a walk, and so make friends before luncheon. + +Gleams of sunshine sucking up a mist that hung about the hills above +the park, disclosing like islands on a lake, clumps of trees, and +patches of verdure, in the valley below, glittering on the surface of a +wide and shallow river that circled and broke, over its rocky bed, in +ripples of molten gold, would have seemed favourable to his project, +but that the fine weather which might enable him to walk abroad with +his ladye-love, was welcomed by his host for the promotion of a hundred +schemes of amusement to while away a non-hunting day after the shooting +season had closed. + +"It's fairing fast enough," exclaimed the cheerful old man. "We call +that a bright sky in Ireland, and why not? Annyhow it's a great light +to shoot a match at the pigeons; and if ye'd like to wet a line in the +Dabble there, I'll engage ye'll raise a ten-pound fish before ye'd say +'Paddy Snap.'" + +"I'll go bail ye will!" assented a Mr. Murphy, called by his familiars, +"Mick," who made a point of agreeing with his host. "I seen them rising +yesterday afternoon as thick as payse, an' me riding by without so much +as a lash-whip in me hand." + +Two of the party, confirmed anglers, proposed to start forthwith. + +"There's a colt by Lord George I'd like ye to look at, General," +continued Macormac, who would have each amuse himself in his own way. +"We're training him for the hunt next season, and a finer leaper wasn't +bred in Kildare. D'ye see that sunk fence now parting the flower +garden from the demesne? It's not two years old he was when he broke +loose from the paddock, and dashed out over it like a wild deer. +There's five-and-twenty feet, bank and ditch, ye can measure it for +yourself!" + +"Thirty! if there's wan!" assented Mr. Murphy. "An' him flyin' over it +in his stride, an' niver laid an iron to the sod!" + +The General, however, declined an inspection of this promising animal, +on the plea that he was not much of a walker, and had letters to write. + +"The post's gone out this hour and more," said his host. "But ye'd like +to ride now. Of course ye would! See, Mick! Sullivan's harriers will be +at the kennel as usual. Wait till I tell ye. Why, wouldn't the boys get +a fallow deer off the old park, and we'll raise a hunt for ye in less +than an hour?" + +"I'll engage they can be laid on in twenty minutes from this time," +declared Mick. "Say the word, an' I'll run round to the stable, and bid +Larry saddle up every beast that can stand." + +"The General might ride Whiteboy," said his host, pondering, "and +Norah's got her own horse, and I'll try young Orville, and ye shall +take the colt yerself, Mick. We'll get a hunt, annyways!" + +Mr. Murphy looked as if he would have preferred an older, or as he +termed it, "a more accomplished hunter;" but he never dreamed of +disputing the master's word, and was leaving the room in haste to +further all necessary arrangements, when St. Josephs stopped him on +the threshold. + +"You'll think me very slow," said he graciously. "But the truth is, I'm +getting old and rheumatic, and altogether I feel hardly fit for the +saddle to-day. Don't let me interfere with anybody's arrangements. I'll +write my letters in the library, and then, perhaps, take a turn in the +garden with the ladies." + +Mick screwed up his droll Irish mouth into a meaning but inaudible +whistle. Satisfied by the courtesy of his manner that the General was +what he called "a real gentleman," it seemed impossible such a man +could resist the temptations of a pigeon match, a salmon river, above +all, an impromptu hunt, unless he had nobler game in view. Till the old +soldier talked of "a turn in the garden with the ladies," Mr. Murphy +told himself he was "bothered entirely," but now, failing any signs +of disapproval on the master's face, felt he could agree, as was his +custom, with the last speaker. + +"Why wouldn't ye?" said he encouragingly. "An' finer pleasure gardens +ye'll not see in Ireland than Macormac's. That's for cucumbers, anyhow! +An' the ladies will be proud to take a turn with ye, one and all. Divil +thank them, then, when they get a convoy to their likin'!" + +So the General was allowed to follow his own devices, while his host +arranged divers amusements for the other guests according to programme, +with the exception of the deer hunt. By the time a fallow buck was +secured the hounds had been fed, and, under any circumstances, Larry, +the groom, reported so many lame horses in the stable, it would have +been impossible to mount one-half of the party in a style befitting the +occasion. + +St. Josephs walked exultingly into the drawing-room, where he +discovered Lady Mary alone, stitching a flannel petticoat for an old +woman at the lodge. She thought he wanted the _Times_ newspaper, and +pointed to it on a writing-table. + +"Deserted, Lady Mary?" said this crafty hunter of dames, "even by +your nearest and dearest. Left, like a good fairy, doing a work of +benevolence in solitude." + +"It is the--the skirt you mean?" replied her ladyship, holding up the +garment in question without the slightest diffidence. "Sure, then, I'll +get it hemmed and done with this afternoon. I'd have asked Norah to +help me,--the child was always quick at her needle,--but she's off to +show Miss Douglas the waterfall: those two by themselves. It's as much +as they'll do to be back by luncheon; though my girl's a jewel of a +walker, and the other's as straight as an arrow, and as graceful as a +deer." + +The General's letters became all at once of vital importance. Excusing +himself with extreme politeness to Lady Mary, who kept working on at +the petticoat, he hastened to the library, where he did not stay two +minutes, but, gliding by a side door into the hall, got his hat, and +emerged on the park, with a vague hope of finding some one who would +direct him to the waterfall. + +The two young ladies, meanwhile, were a good Irish mile from the +castle, in an opposite direction. Norah, of course, knew a short cut +through the woods, that added about a third to the distance. They +walked a good pace, and exhilarated by the air, the scenery, and the +sound of their own fresh young voices, skipped along the path, talking, +laughing, even jeering each other, as though they had been friends from +childhood. + +Their conversation, as was natural, turned on the approaching races. +To Norah Macormac, Punchestown constituted, perhaps, the chief gala of +the year. For those two days, alas! so often rainy, she reserved her +freshest gloves, her newest bonnet, her brightest glances and smiles. +To the pleasure everybody experiences in witnessing the performances +of a good horse, she added the feminine enjoyment of showing her own +pretty self in all her native attractions, set off by dress. It was no +wonder she should impart to her companion that she wouldn't give up the +races even for a trip to Paris. She calculated their delights as equal +to a whole month's hunting, and at least twenty balls. + +Miss Douglas, too, anticipated no little excitement from the same +source. Her trip across the Channel, with its concomitant discipline, +a new country, wild scenery, the good humour and cordiality that +surrounded her, above all, the prospect of seeing Daisy again, had +raised her spirits far above their usual pitch. Her cheek glowed, her +eye sparkled, her tongue ran on. She could hardly believe herself the +same reserved and haughty dame who was wont to ride from Prince's Gate +to Hyde Park Corner, and find nothing worthy to cost her a sigh or win +from her a smile. + +"Everybody in Ireland goes there, absentees and all," said laughing +Norah. "It's such fun, you can't think, with the different turn-outs, +from the Lord Lieutenant's half-dozen carriages-and-four to Mr. +Murphy's outside car, with Mrs. Murphy and nine children packed all +over it. She never goes anywhere else with him; but you shall see her +to-morrow in all her glory. We like to be on the course early, it's +so amusing to watch the arrivals, and then we get good places on the +Stand." + +"Can you see well from the Ladies' Stand?" asked Blanche eagerly. "I'm +rather interested in one of the races. You'll think me very sporting. +I've not exactly got a horse to run, but there's a mare called +Satanella going to start, and I confess I want to see her win." + +Norah bounded like a young roe. "Satanella!" she repeated. "Why, that's +Daisy's mount! It is to win, dear? Oh! then, if she doesn't win, or +come very near it, I'll be fit to cry my eyes out, and never ask to go +to a race again." + +Her colour rose, her voice deepened, both gait and accent denoted the +sincerity of her good wishes; and Miss Douglas, without quite admitting +she had just cause for offence, felt as a dog feels when another dog is +sniffing round his dinner. + +"I've no doubt the mare will have justice done to her," she said +severely. "He's a beautiful rider." + +"A beautiful rider, and a beautiful mare entirely!" exclaimed her +impulsive companion. "Now to think he should be such a friend of yours, +and me never to know it! I can't always make him out," added Miss Norah +pondering. "Sometimes he'll speak up, and sometimes he'll keep things +back. You'll wonder to hear me when I tell you I haven't so much as +seen this mare they make such a talk about!" + +"I have ridden her repeatedly," observed Miss Douglas, with a +considerable accession of dignity. "In fact, she is more mine than his, +and I had to give him leave before he ever sent her to be trained." + +"Did ye, now?" replied the other, looking somewhat disconcerted. "And +does he ride often with you in London--up and down the Park, as they +call it? How I'd long for a gallop in a place like that, where they +never go out of a walk!" + +Blanche was obliged to admit that such rides, though proposed +very frequently, came off but rarely, and Norah seemed in no way +dissatisfied with this confession. + +"When he's here, now," she said, "if there isn't a hunt to be got up, +we gallop all over the country-side, him and me, the same as if we'd a +fox and a pack of hounds before us. It's him that taught me the real +right way to hold the bridle, and I never could manage papa's Orville +horse till he showed me how. It's not likely I'd forget anything Daisy +told me! Here we are at the waterfall. Come off the rock now, or ye'll +not have a dry thread on ye in five minutes!" + +Miss Douglas, keeping back a good deal of vexation, had the good sense +to follow her guide's advice, and leaped lightly down amongst the +shingle from the broad flat rock to which she had sprung, as affording +a view of the cascade. + +It was a fine sight, no doubt. Swelled by the spring rains, and +increased by many little tributaries from the neighbouring hills, a +considerable volume of water came tumbling over a ledge of bold bare +rock, to roar and brawl and circle round a basin fifty feet below, not +less than ten feet deep, from which it escaped in sheets of foam over +certain shallows, till it was lost in a black narrow gorge, crowned by +copses already budding and blooming with the first smiles of spring. + +"We're mighty proud of the Dabble in these parts," observed Norah +Macormac, when she had withdrawn her friend from the showers of spray +that quivered in faint and changing rainbows under the sunshine. +"There's not such a river for fish anywhere this side the Shannon. And +where there's fish there's mostly fishers. See, now; Captain Walters +killed one of nine pounds and a half in the bend by the dead stump +there. He'd have lost him only for little Thady Brallaghan and me +hurrying to fetch the gaff, and I held it while we landed the beast on +the gravel below the rocks." + +It was getting unbearable! Blanche had started in such good spirits, +full of life and hope, enjoying the air, the scenery, the exercise; +but with every word that fell from her companion's lips the landscape +faded, the skies turned grey, the very turf beneath her feet seemed +to have lost its elasticity. Norah Macormac could not but perceive +the change; attributing it, however, to fatigue, and blaming herself +severely for thus tempting a helpless London girl into an expedition +beyond her strength,--anticipating, at the same time, her mother's +displeasure for that which good Lady Mary would consider a breach of +the laws of hospitality,--"Sure ye're tired," said she, offering to +carry the other's parasol, which might have weighed a pound. "It's +myself I blame, to have brought you such a walk as this, and you not +used to it, may be, like us that live up here amongst the hills." + +But Blanche clung to her parasol, and repudiated the notion of fatigue. +"She had never enjoyed a walk so much. It was lovely scenery, and a +magnificent waterfall. She had no idea there was anything so fine in +Ireland. She would have gone twice the distance to see it. Tired! She +wasn't a bit tired, and believed she might be quite as good a walker as +Miss Macormac." + +There were times when Miss Douglas felt her nickname not altogether +undeserved. She became Satanella now to the core. + +Luncheon was on the table when the young ladies got back to the castle, +and although several of the guests had absented themselves, the General +took his place with those who remained. St. Josephs was not in the +best of humours, for a solitary walk in a strange district which had +failed in its object. He sat, as it would seem, purposely a long way +from Miss Douglas, and the servants were already clearing away before +he tried to catch her eye. What he saw, or how he gathered from an +instantaneous glance that his company was more welcome now than it had +been at breakfast, is one of those mysteries on which it seems useless +to speculate; but he never left her side again during the afternoon. + +The General was true to his colours, and seldom ventured on the +slightest act of disloyalty. When he returned, as in the present +instance, to his allegiance, he always found himself under more +authority than ever for his weak attempt at insubordination. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +PUNCHESTOWN + + +"I tell ye, I bred her myself, and it's every hair in her skin I know, +when I kept her on the farm till she was better than three year old. +Will ye not step in here, and take a dandy o' punch, Mr. Sullivan?" + +The invitation was promptly accepted, and its originator, none other +than the breeder of Satanella, dressed in his best clothes, with an +alarming waistcoat, and an exceedingly tall hat, conducted his friend +into a crowded canvas booth, on the outside of which heavy rain was +beating, while its interior steamed with wet garments and hot whisky +punch. + +Mr. Sullivan was one of those gentlemen who are never met with but in +places where there is money to be made, by the laying against, backing, +buying, or selling of horses. From his exterior the uninitiated might +have supposed him a land-steward, a watch-maker, or a schoolmaster in +reduced circumstances; but to those versed in such matters there was +something indisputably _horsey_ about the tie of his neck-cloth, the +sit of his well-brushed hat, and the shape of his clean, weather-beaten +hands. He looked like a man who could give you full particulars of +the noble animal, tell you its price, its pedigree, its defects, its +performances, and buy it for you on commission cheaper than you could +yourself. While his friend drank in gulps that denoted considerable +enjoyment, Mr. Sullivan seemed to absorb his punch insensibly and as a +matter of course. + +"There's been good beasts bred in Roscommon beside your black mare, +Denis," observed this worthy; "and it's the pick of the world for +harses comes into Kildare this day. Whisper now. Old Sir Giles offered +four hundred pounds, ready money, for Shaneen in Dublin last night. I +seen him meself!" + +"Is it Shaneen?" returned Denis, with another pull at the punch. +"I'll not deny he's a nate little harse, and an illegant lepper, but +he wouldn't be in such a race as this. He'll niver see it wan, Mr. +Sullivan, no more nor a Quaker'll never see glory! Mat should have +taken the four hundred!" + +"Mat knows what he's doing," said Mr. Sullivan; "the boy's been forty +years and more running harses at the Curragh. May be they're keeping +Shaneen to lead the Englishman over his leps; and why wouldn't he take +the second money, or run for a place annyways?" + +"An' where would the black mare be?" demanded her former owner. "Is it +the likes of her ye'd see coming in at the tail of the hunt, and the +Captain ridin' and all! I wonder to hear you then, Mr. Sullivan." + +"In my opinion the race lies betwixt three," replied the great +authority, looking wise and dropping his voice. "There's your own mare, +Denis, that you sold the Captain; there's Leprauchan, the big chestnut +they brought up here from Limerick; there's the English horse,--St. +George they call him--that's been training all the time in Kilkenny. +Wait till I tell ye. If he gets first over the big double, he'll take +as much catching as a flea in an ould blanket; and when thim's all +racing home together, why wouldn't little Shaneen come in and win on +the post?" + +Denis looked disconcerted, and finished his punch at a gulp. He had +not before taken so comprehensive a view of the general contest as +affecting the chance of his favourite. Pushing back the tall hat he +scratched his head and pondered. "I'd be thinkin' better of it, av' the +Captain wouldn't have changed the mare's name," said he. "What ailed +him at 'Molly Bawn' that he'd go an' call the likes of such a baste as +that Satanella? Hurry now, Mr. Sullivan, take another taste of punch, +and come out of this. You and me'll go and see them saddle, annyways!" + +Leaving the booth, therefore, with many "God save ye's" and greetings +from acquaintances crowding in, they emerged on the course close to the +Grand Stand, at a spot that commanded an excellent view of the finish, +and afforded a panorama of such scenery as, in the sportsman's eye, is +unequalled by any part of the world. + +The rain had cleared off. White fleecy clouds, drifting across the +sky before a soft west wind, threw alternate lights and shadows over +a wild expanse of country that stretched to the horizon, in range on +range of undulating pastures, broken only by scattered copses, square +patches of gorse, and an occasional gully, marking the course of some +shallow stream from the distant uplands, coyly unveiling, as the mist +that rested on their brows rolled heavily away. Far as sight could +reach, the landscape was intersected by thick irregular lines, denoting +those formidable fences, of which the nature was to be ascertained +by inspecting the leaps that crossed the steeple-chase-course. These +were of a size to require great power and courage in the competing +animals, while the width of the ditches from which the banks were +thrown up necessitated that repetition of his effort, by which the +Irish hunter gets safely over these difficulties much as a retriever +jumps a gate. A very gallant horse might indeed fly the first two or +three such obstacles in his stride, but the tax on his muscles would be +too exhaustive for continuance, and not to "change," as it is called, +on the top of the bank, when there is a ditch on each side, would be a +certain downfall. With thirty such leaps and more, with a sufficient +brook and a high stone wall, with four Irish miles of galloping before +the judge's stand can be passed, with the running forced from end to +end by some thorough-bred flyer not intended to _win_, and with the +best steeple-chase horses in Great Britain to encounter, a conqueror +at Punchestown may be said to win his laurels nobly--laurels in which, +as in the wreath of many a two-legged hero, the shamrock is profusely +intertwined. + +"The boys has got about the big double as thick as payse," observed +Mr. Sullivan, shading his eyes under his hat-brim while he scanned +the course. "It's there the Englishman will _renage_ likely, an' if +there's wan drops in there'll be forty of them tumblin' one above the +other, like Brian O'Rafferty's pigs. Will the Captain keep steady now, +and niver loose her off till she marks with her eye the very sod she's +after kickin' with her fut?" + +"I'll go bail he will!" answered Denis. "The Captain he'll draw her +back smooth an' easy on the snaffle, and when onc'st he lets her +drive--Whooroo! Begorra! it's not the police barracks nor yet the +County Gaol would hould her, av' she gets a fair offer! I tell ye that +black mare,--Whisht--will ye now? Here's the quality comin' into the +stand. There's clane-bred ones, Mr. Sullivan, shape an' action, an' the +ould blood at the back of it all." + +An Irishman is no bad judge of good looks in man or beast. While the +Roscommon farmer made this observation, Miss Douglas was leaving Lady +Mary Macormac's carriage for the stand. Her peculiar style of beauty, +her perfect self-possession, the mingled grace and pride of her +bearing, were appreciated and admired by the bystanders as, with all +her triumphs, they had never been on her own side of the Channel. + +The crowd were already somewhat hoarse with shouting. Their Lord +Lieutenant, with the princely politeness of punctuality, had arrived +half an hour ago. Being a hard-working Viceroy, whose relaxation +chiefly consisted in riding perfectly straight over his adopted +country, he was already at the back of the course disporting himself +amongst the fences to his own great content, and the unbounded +gratification of "The Boys." Leaping a five-foot wall, over which his +aide-de-camp fell neck and crop, they set up a shout that could be +heard at Naas. The Irish jump to conclusions, like women, and are as +often right. That a statesman should be wise and good because he is a +bold rider, seems a position hardly to be reasoned out; yet these wild +untutored spirits acknowledged instinctively that qualities by which +men govern well are kept the fresher and stronger for a kindly heart to +sympathize with sport as with sorrow, for a manly courage that, in work +or play, trouble or danger, loves always to be in front. + +So the "more powers" to his Excellency were not only loud but hearty, +while for _her_ Excellency, it need hardly be said of these impulsive, +chivalrous and susceptible natures, they simply went out of their +senses, and yelled in a frenzy of admiration and delight. + +Nevertheless the applause was by no means exhausted, and Miss Douglas +taking her place in the ladies' stand, could not repress a thrill of +triumph at the remark of a strapping Tipperary boy in the crowd, made +quite loud enough to be overheard. + +"See, now, Larry, av' ye was goin' coortin', wouldn't ye fling down +your caubeen, and hid her step on to't? I'll engage there's flowers +growin' wherever she lays her fut." + +To which Larry replied, with a wink, "Divil a ha'porth I'd go on for +the coortin'--but just stay where I am!" + +Our party from Cormac's Town formed no unimportant addition to the +company that thronged the stand. Amongst these neither Norah Macormac +nor Mrs. Lushington could complain they had less than their share +of admiration, while St. Josephs observed, with mingled sentiments +of triumph and apprehension, that a hundred male eyes were bent on +Satanella, and as many female voices whispered, "But who is that tall +girl with black hair?--so handsome, and in such a peculiar style!" + +A proud man, though, doubtless, was the General, walking after his +young lady with her shawls, her glasses, her parasol. Choosing for her +an advantageous position to view the races, obtaining for her a card +of the running horses, and trying to look as if he studied it with the +vaguest notion of what was likely to win. + +A match had just come off between Mr. McDermott's "Comether" and +Captain Conolly's "Molly Maguire," of little interest to the general +public, but creating no small excitement amongst friends and partisans +of the respective owners. "Molly Maguire" had been bred at Naas--within +a stone's-throw as it were. "Comether" was the pride of that well-known +western hunt, once so celebrated as "The Blazers." Each animal was +ridden by a good sportsman and popular representative of its particular +district. The little Galway horse made all the running, took his leaps +like a deer, finished like a game-cock, but was beaten by the mare's +superior stride in the last struggle home, through a storm of voices, +by a length. + +The crowd were in ecstasies. The gentlefolks applauded with far more +enthusiasm than is customary at Bedford or Lincoln. A lovely Galway +girl, with eyes of that wondrous blue only to be caught from the +reflection of the Atlantic, expressed an inclination to kiss the plucky +little animal that had lost, and blushed like a rose when a gallant +cornet entreated he might be the bearer of that reward to the horse +in its stable. The clouds had cleared off, the sun shone out. The +booths emptied themselves into the course. A hungry roar went up from +the betting-ring, and everybody prepared for the great race of the +day--"The United Service handicap, for horses of all ages, _bonâ-fide_ +the property of officers who have held Her Majesty's commission within +the last ten years. Gentlemen riders, Kildare Hunt Course and rules." + +Betting, alas! flourishes at every meeting, and even Punchestown is +not exempt from the visits of a fraternity who support racing, it may +be, after a fashion, but whose room many an Irish gentleman, no doubt, +considers preferable to their company. On the present occasion they +made perhaps more noise than they did business; but amongst real lovers +of the sport, from the high-bred beautifully-dressed ladies in the +stand, down to lads taking charge of farmers' horses, and "raising a +lep off them" behind the booths, speculation was rife, in French gloves +and Irish poplins, as in sixpenny pieces and "dandies" of punch. Man +and woman, each had a special fancy, shouted for it, believed in it, +backed it through thick and thin. + +The race had created a good deal of attention from the time it was +first organized. It showed a heavy entry, the terms were fair, a large +sum of money was added, public runners were heavily weighted, the +nominations included many horses that had never been out before. In one +way and another the United Service Handicap had grown into the great +event of the meeting. + +The best of friends must part. Denis could not resist the big +double, taking up a position whence he might hurl himself at it, in +imagination, with every horse that rose. Mr. Sullivan, more practical, +occupied a familiar spot that commanded a view of the finish, and +enabled him to test the merits of winner or loser by the stoutness with +which each struggled home. + +Neither had such good places as Miss Douglas and Miss Macormac. Norah +knew the exact angle from which everything could best be seen. There, +like an open-hearted girl, she insisted on Blanche taking her seat, +and planting herself close by. The General leaned over them, and Mrs. +Lushington stood on a pile of cushions behind. She had very pretty +feet, and it was a pity they should be hid beneath her petticoats. + +A bell rang, the course was cleared (in a very modified sense of the +term), a stable-boy on an animal sheeted to its hocks and hooded to its +muzzle (erroneously supposed to be the favourite), kicked his way along +with considerable assurance, a friendless dog was hooted, a fat old +woman jeered, and the numbers went up. + +"One, two, five, seven, eight, nine, eleven, fifteen, and not another +blank till you come to twenty-two. Bless me, what a field of horses!" +exclaimed the General, adding, with a gallant smile, "The odd or the +even numbers, ladies? Which will you have? In gloves, bonnets, or +anything you please." + +The girls looked at each other. "I want to back Satanella," was on the +lips of both, but something checked them, and neither spoke. + +Macormac, full of smiles and good humour, in boots and breeches, out of +breath, and splashed to his waist, hurried up the steps. + +"See now, Norah," said he. "I've just left Sir Giles. He's fitting the +snaffle himself in Leprauchan's mouth this minute, and an awkward job +he makes of it, by rason of gout in the fingers. Put your money on the +chestnut, Miss Douglas," he continued. "Here he comes. Look at the +stride of him. He's the boy that can do't!" + +While he spoke, Leprauchan, a great raking chestnut, with three white +legs, came down the course like a steam-engine. No martingale that ever +was buckled, even in the practised hands now steering him, could bring +his head to a proper angle, but though he went star-gazing along, he +never made a mistake, possessed a marvellous stride, especially in deep +ground, and, to use a familiar phrase, could "stay for a week." "Hie! +hie!" shouted his jockey, standing well up in his stirrups to steer +him for a preliminary canter through the crowd. "Hie! hie!" repeated +a dozen varying tones behind him, as flyer after flyer went shooting +by--now this way, now that--carrying all the colours of the rainbow, +and each looking like a winner, till succeeded by the next. + +For a few minutes St. Josephs had been in earnest conversation with one +of the "jackeens," who earlier in the day, might have been seen taking +counsel of Mr. Sullivan. + +"I've marked your card for you, Miss Douglas," said the General. "I've +the best information from my friend here, and the winner ought to be +one of these four--Leprauchan, Shaneen, St. George, or Satanella. The +English horse for choice if he can keep on his legs." + +"I _must_ have a bet on Satanella," exclaimed Miss Douglas +irrepressibly, whereat the General looked grave, and Norah gave her an +approving pat on the hand. "Send somebody into the ring, General, to +find out her price, and back her for ten pounds at evens, if they can't +do better, on my behalf." + +"I'd like to share your wager," said Norah kindling. + +"And so you shall, dear," replied Miss Douglas. "You and I, at any +rate, want him to win, poor fellow; and good wishes will do him no +harm." + +"Here he comes!" replied Norah; and while she spoke, Satanella was seen +trotting leisurely down the course, snorting, playing with her bit, and +bending to acknowledge the caresses Daisy lavished on her beautiful +neck with no sparing hand. + +The mare looked as fine as a star. Trained to perfection, her skin +shining like satin, her muscles salient, her ribs just visible, her +action, though she trotted with rather a straight knee, stealthy, +cat-like, and as if she went upon wires. + +It is the first quality of a rider to adapt himself easily to +every movement of the animal he bestrides, but this excellence of +horsemanship is much enhanced when the pair have completed their +preparation together, and the man has acquired his condition, morning +after morning, in training walks and gallops on the beast. This was +Daisy's case. Satanella, to a sensitive mouth, added a peculiar and +irritable temper. Another hand on her rein for an hour would undo +the work of days. Nobody had therefore ridden her for weeks but +himself, and when the two went down the course at Punchestown together, +they seemed like some skilful piece of mechanism, through which one +master-spring set all parts in motion at once. + +"He's an illigant rider," groaned Mr. Sullivan, who stood to win on +Leprauchan. "An' 'a give-and-take horseman's' the pick of the world +when there's leps. But it's not likely now they'd all stand up in such +a 'rookawn,'"[4] he added, "an' why wouldn't the Captain get throw'd +down with the rest?" + +Such admiration was excited by the black mare's appearance, +particularly when she broke into a gallop, and Daisy with pardonable +coxcombry, turned in his saddle to salute the ladies smiling on him +from the Stand, that few but those immediately interested noticed +a little shabby, wiry-looking horse come stealing behind the crack +with that smooth, easy swing which racing men, though they know it so +thoroughly, will sometimes neglect to their cost. + +This unassuming little animal carried a plain snaffle in its mouth, +without even a restraining nose-band. It seemed quiet as a sheep, and +docile as a dog. There was nothing remarkable about it to those who +cannot take a horse in at a glance, but one of the Household left his +Excellency's Stand and descended into the Ring with a smile on his +handsome, quiet face. When he returned the smile was still there, and +he observed he had "backed Shaneen for a pony, and had got four to one." + +Mr. Sullivan, too, as he marked the little animal increase its stride, +while its quick, vibrating ears caught the footfall of a horse +galloping behind it, drew his mouth into many queer shapes suggestive +of discomfiture, imparting to himself in a whisper, "that if he rightly +knawed it, maybe Sir Giles wasn't too free with his offer at all, for +such a shabby little garron as that!" + +So the cracks came sweeping by in quick succession, St. George, +perhaps, attracting most attention from the Stand. A magnificent +bay horse of extraordinary beauty, he possessed the rich colour +and commanding size of the "King Tom" blood, set off by a star of +white in his forehead, and a white forefoot. No sooner did he appear +with his scarlet-clad jockey, than the ladies, to use Macormac's +expression, were "in his favour to a man!" The property of a popular +English nobleman, a pillar of support to all field-sports, ridden by +a gentleman jockey, capable, over that course, of giving weight to +most professionals, in the prime of blood, power, and condition, he +was justly a favourite with the public as with the Ring. In the whole +of that multitude, there were probably but two individuals who wished +he might break his neck at the first fence, and these two sat in the +Ladies' Stand. + +"They're all weighed and mounted now but one," observed the General, +studying his card. "What is it? Fandango? Yes, Fandango; and here he +comes. What a hideous drab jacket! But I say, I'll trouble you for a +goer! Why this is Derby form all over!" + +"He's a good mile horse anywhere," said the quiet man, who had backed +Shaneen; "but he's not meant to win here, and couldn't if he tried. +They've started him to make running for St. George." + +"What a pretty sight!" exclaimed the ladies, as something like a score +of horses, ridden by the finest horsemen in the world, stood marshalled +before the Stand. Though the majority were more sedate in their +demeanour than might have been expected, three or four showed a good +deal of temper and anxiety to get _somewhere_. Amongst these Satanella +made herself extremely conspicuous for insubordination, contrasting +strikingly with little Shaneen, who stood stock-still, playing with his +bit, through two false starts, till the flag was fairly down, when he +darted away like a rabbit, without pulling an ounce. Win or lose, his +jockey was sure of a pleasant ride on Shaneen. + +"They're really off!" said the General getting his glasses out, as a +young officer, extricating himself from the betting ring, announced, +breathlessly-- + +"They've made the mare first favourite, and are laying three to two!" + +"What's that in front?" said everybody. "Fandango! Well, they _are_ +going a cracker. Fancy jumping at such a pace as that!" + +Yet not a mistake was made at the first fence. To lookers-on from the +Stand, all the horses seemed to charge it abreast, as their tails +went up simultaneously, while they kicked the bank like lightning, +and darted off again faster than before, but turning a little to the +right, though the ground sloped in their favour, half-a-dozen were seen +lengthening out in front of the rest, and it seemed as if the pace was +already beginning to tell. + +"Fandango still leading," said the General, scanning the race through +his glasses, and thinking aloud as people always do on such occasions. +"St. George and Satanella close behind, and--yes--by Jove it is! the +little mud-coloured horse, Shaneen, lying fourth. Over you go! Ah, one +down--two--another! I fear that poor fellow's hurt! Look at the loose +horse galloping on with them! Well done! They're _all_ over the brook! +St. George second! What a fine goer he is! And now they're coming to +the Big Double!" + +But the Big Double is so far from the Stand that we will place +ourselves by the Roscommon farmer on a knoll that commands it, and +watch with him the gallant sight offered by such a field of horses +charging a fence like the side of a house at racing pace. + +"Augh, Captain! keep steady now, for the love of the Virgin!" roared +Denis, as if Daisy, a quarter of a mile off, and going like the wind, +could possibly hear him. "More power to the little harse! He's leading +them yet! Nivir say it! the Englishman has the fut of him! Ah, catch +hoult of his head, ye omadawn![5] He'll never see to change av' you're +loosin' him off that way! Now, let the mare at it, Captain! She's doin' +beautiful! An' little Shaneen on her quarters! It's keepin' time, +he is, like a fiddler! Ah, be aisy, you in scarlet! By the mortial, +there's a lep for ye! Whooroo!!! Did ever man see the like of that?" + +It was indeed a heavy and hideous fall. St. George--whose education in +the country of his adoption had been systematically carried out--could +change his footing with perfect security on the narrowest bank that was +ever thrown up with a spade. To the astonishment of his own and every +other jockey in the race, his "on and off" at all the preceding fences +had been quick and well-timed as that of Shaneen himself; but his blood +got up when he had taken the brook in his stride. He could pull hard +on occasion. Ten lengths from the Big Double he was out of his rider's +hand, and going as fast as he could drive. Therefore Denis desired +that gentleman to "catch hoult;" but with all his skill--for never was +man less "an omadawn" in the saddle--his horse had broke away, and was +doing with him what it liked. + +Seeing the enormous size of the obstacle before him, St. George put +on a yet more infuriated rush, and with a marvellous spring, that is +talked of to this day, cleared the whole thing--broad-topped bank, +double ditches, and all--in his stride, covering nearly eleven yards, +by an effort that carried him fairly over from field to field: nothing +but consummate horsemanship in his jockey--a tact that detects the +exact moment when it is destruction to interfere--enabled the animal to +perform so extraordinary a feat. But, alas! where he landed the surface +was poached and trodden. His next stride brought him on his head; the +succeeding one rolled him over with a broken thigh, and the gallant, +generous, high-couraged St. George never rose again! + +The appearance of the race was now considerably altered. Fandango +dropped into the rear at once--there was nothing more for him to do in +the absence of his stable-companion, and indeed he had shot his bolt +ere half the distance was accomplished. The pace decreased slightly +after the accident to St. George, and as they bounded over the wall, +nearly together, not a man on the course doubted but that the contest +lay between the first three--Satanella, Leprauchan, and Shaneen. Of +these, the mare so far as could be judged by spectators in the stand, +seemed freshest and fullest of running. Already they were laying a +trifle of odds on her in the Ring. + +Now Daisy had planned the whole thing out in his own mind, and hitherto +all had gone exactly as he wished. In Satanella's staying powers he +had implicit confidence, and he intended, from the first, that if he +could have the race run to suit him, he would win it about a mile from +home. After crossing the wall, therefore, he came away faster than +ever, the leaps were easy, the ground inclined in his favour, and he +rattled along at a pace that was telling visibly on Leprauchan, who +nevertheless kept abreast of him, while little Shaneen, lying four +lengths behind, neither lessened nor increased his distance from the +leaders, but galloped doggedly on, in exactly the same form as when he +started. + +"Never saw a steeple-chase run so fast!" said everybody in the stand. +"Why, the time will be as good as the Liverpool." + +"It _can't_ go on!" thought Leprauchan's jockey, feeling the chestnut +beginning to roll, while pulling more than ever. "If I can but keep +alongside, she _must_ run herself out, and there's nothing else left in +the race." + +But his whip was up when they made their turn for a run in, and he +landed over his last fence with a scramble that lost him at least a +length. + +"Leprauchan's beat!" shouted the crowd. "Satanella wins! It's all +over--it's a moral. The mare for a million! The mare! The mare!!" + +Blanche Douglas turned pale as death, and Norah Macormac began to cry. + +Satanella was approaching the distance with Leprauchan beat off, and +Shaneen a length behind. + +Here occurred one of those casualties which no amount of care avails to +prevent, nor of caution to foresee. + +The crowd in their eagerness had swayed in on the course. A woman +carrying a child lost her footing, and fell helpless, directly in front +of the black mare. + +Daisy managed to avoid them, with a wrench at the bridle that saved +their lives, and lost him some twenty feet of ground. In the next three +strides, Shaneen's brown muzzle was at his quarters--at his knee--at +his breast-plate. + +Never before had Satanella felt whip or spur. These were applied to +some purpose, and gamely she answered the call; nevertheless, that +shabby little horse drew on her, inch by inch. + +They were neck and neck now, Shaneen's jockey sitting in the middle of +his saddle, perfectly still. + +"It's a race!" shouted the lookers-on. "The little 'un's coming up! +He's gaining on her. Not a bit of it! The mare has him safe. Keep at +her, Daisy! Now, Satanella! Now, Shaneen! Did ever ye see such a fight? +Neck and neck--head and head. By the powers, it's a dead heat!" + +But the judge gave it to Shaneen by a neck, and when the numbers went +up, though not till then, Daisy and Daisy's backers knew that Satanella +had only taken the second place. + +Leprauchan and the rest came lobbing in by twos and threes. Nobody +cared for them. Nobody had attention to spare for anything but the +shabby little brown horse that had beaten the favourite. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 4: "Rookawn," a general scrimmage.] + +[Footnote 5: "You fool!"] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +"A GOOD THING" + + +Poor Daisy! Everybody was sorry for him, everybody except the owner and +a few friends who won largely on Shaneen, regretted his disappointment, +and shrugged their shoulders at the heavy losses it was known to have +entailed. His brother-officers looked grave, but bestirred themselves, +nevertheless, for the next race. His trainer shook his head, glancing +wistfully at the spur marks on the mare's reeking sides. The very crowd +condoled with him, for he had ridden to admiration, and the accident +that discomfited him was patent to all. Even Mr. Sullivan, whose own +hopes had been blighted by the defeat of the chestnut, expressed an +opinion that "Av' it could be run again, though there wasn't a pound +between them, it was his belief the mare would win!" + +Mr. Walters, however, true to his nature, kept a bold face over a +troubled heart, yet had a difficult task to control his feelings, when +he emerged from the enclosure after weighing, and found his hand seized +by the Roscommon farmer in a grip that inflicted no slight physical +pain. + +"Ah! now, Captain," exclaimed Denis, who had flung himself on a horse, +and galloped back from the Big Double, just too late to witness the +finish. "Sure ye rode it beautiful! An' the mare, I seen her myself, +come out from them all in wan blaze, like a sky-rocket! Bate, says +they, by a neck? I'll niver believe it! Annyways, ye'll need to pay +the wagers. See, now, Captain, I parted a score o' heifers, only last +Friday was it, by good luck, and I've got the money here--rale Dublin +notes--inside my coat-tail pocket. Take as much as ye'd be likely to +want, Captain. What's a trifle like that betwixt you an' me? Oh! the +mare would have wan, safe enough, av' she had fair play. See to her +now, she's got her wind back. Begorra! She's ready to go again!" + +Daisy was no creature of impulse,--the last man in the world to be +fooled by any sentiment of the moment,--yet tears filled his eyes, +and he could scarce find a voice to thank his humble friend, while +he declined an offer that came straight from the farmer's warm and +generous heart. + +Denis looked disappointed, wrung "the Captain's" hand hard, and +vanished in a convenient booth to console himself with another "dandy" +of punch. + +Patting the mare fondly, and even laying his cheek against her warm, +wet neck, the losing jockey retired to change silk and doeskin for his +usual dress, in which, with his usual easy manner, he swaggered up to +the stand. Here, as has been said, his defeat excited considerable +sympathy, and, indeed, in one quarter, positive consternation. Two +young ladies had accompanied him through the race, with their hearts +as with their eyes. When his efforts ended in defeat, both were deeply +affected, though in different ways. Norah Macormac could not refrain +from tears, but conscious that mamma was on the watch, hid her face in +a ridiculously small pocket-handkerchief, pretending to sneeze and blow +her nose, as if she had caught cold. Blanche Douglas, on the contrary, +looked round fierce, wistful, and defiant, like a wild creature at bay. +Even Daisy, approaching jauntily to receive his friends' condolences +could not but observe how pale she was, yet how collected and composed. + +"I've not punished her much," said he, addressing himself, in the first +instance, to the real owner of the vanquished mare. "She's as good as +I told you, Miss Douglas. It was no fault of hers. If I hadn't been a +muff I'd have killed the old woman, and won in a canter! Never mind; +your favourite, at least, has not disgraced her name, and I'm very glad +I called her Satanella." + +She laid her hand softly on his arm, and looked straight into his eyes. +"Did you stand it all?" said she. "Is it as bad as you said? Tell me! +Quick! I cannot bear suspense." + +"Never laid off a shilling," he answered lightly. "Never even backed +her for a place. I swore I'd be a man or a mouse, as you know, and it's +come up--mouse!" + +"In two words, Mr. Walters, you're ruined!" She spoke almost angrily in +her effort at self-control. + +"That's the way to say it!" was his careless reply. "General break +up--horse, foot, and dragoons. No reason, though, you should call me +_Mr. Walters_." + +"Well, _Daisy_, then," she murmured, with a loving, lingering +tenderness on those syllables she was resolved never to utter above her +breath again. "You know how I hoped you'd win. You know how vexed I am. +You know--or rather you don't, and never _shall_ know--that it's worse +for _me_ than for _you_!" + +The last sentence she spoke so low he did not catch its purport, but +thinking she regretted the loss of her own wagers, he began to express +sorrow for having advised her so badly. + +She stopped him angrily. "I would have backed her for thousands," she +exclaimed. "I would have laid my life on her. I believe I _have_!" + +"Then you don't owe the mare a grudge!" he answered cheerily. "I +thought you wouldn't. She's not a pin the worse for training. You'll +take her back, won't you?--and--and--you'll be kind to her for her own +sake?" + +She seemed to waver a moment, as if she weighed some doubtful matter +in her mind. Presently with cleared brow, and frank, open looks, she +caught his hand. + +"And for _yours_!" said she. "I'll never part with her. So long +as we three are above ground, Satanella--my namesake--will be +a--a--remembrance between you and me!" + +Then she beckoned the General, who was talking to some ladies behind +her, and asked for information about the next race, with a kindness of +tone and manner that elevated the old soldier to the seventh heaven. + +Meanwhile, Miss Macormac had found time to recover her composure. +Turning to Mr. Walters she showed him a bright and pretty face, with +just such traces of the vexation that had clouded it as are left by +passing showers on an April sky. Her eyes looked deeper and darker +for their late moisture, her little nose all the daintier that its +transparent nostrils were tinged with pink. + +She gave him her hand frankly, as though to express silent sympathy +and friendship. Sinking into a seat by her side, Daisy embarked on a +long and detailed account of the race, the way he had ridden it, the +performances of St. George, Leprauchan, Shaneen, and his own black mare. + +Though he seldom got excited, he could not but break into a glowing +description, as he warmed with his narrative. "When I came to the +wall," he declared, "I was as sure of winning as I am of sitting by +you now. St. George had been disposed of, and he was the only horse +in the race whose form I did not know to a pound. Leprauchan, I felt +satisfied, could never live the pace, if I made it hot enough. And as +for little Shaneen, the mare's stride would be safe to beat _him_, +if we finished with a set-to, in the run-in. Everything had come off +exactly to suit me, and when we rounded the last turn but one I caught +hold of Satanella, and set her going down the hill like an express +train!" + +"Did ye now?" she murmured, her deep grey eyes looking earnestly into +his, her sweet lips parted as though with a breathless interest that +drank in every syllable he spoke. + +"_Did ye now?_" Only three words, yet carrying with them a charm +to convince the most practical of men that the days of spells and +witchcraft are not yet gone by. An Englishwoman would have observed, +"Really!" "Oh, indeed!" "You don't say so!" or made use of some +such cold conventional expression to denote languid attention, not +thoroughly aroused; but the Irish girl's "_did ye now?_" identified +her at once with her companion and his doings, started them both +incontinently on that path of congenial partnership, which is so +seductive to the traveller, smooth, pleasant all down hill, and +leading--who knows where? + +Perhaps neither deep liquid eyes, nor dark lashes, nor arched brows, +nor even smiles and blushes, and shapely graceful forms, would arm +these Irish ladies with such unequalled and irresistible powers, were +it not for their kindly womanly nature that adapts itself so graciously +to those with whom it comes in contact--their encouraging "Did ye now?" +that despises no trifle, is wearied with no details, and asks only for +his confidence whom they honour with their regard. Perhaps, also, it is +this faculty of sympathy and assimilation, predominant in both sexes, +that makes Irish society the pleasantest in the world. + +Thus encouraged, Daisy went off again at score, described each fence +to his eager listener, dwelt on every stride, and explained the +catastrophe of the woman and child, observing, in conclusion, with a +philosophy all his own, that it was "hard lines to be done just at the +finish, and lose a hat-full of money, by three-quarters of a yard!" + +She looked up anxiously. "Did ye make such heavy bets now?" she said in +a tone of tender reproach. "Ah! Captain Walters, ye told me ye never +meant to run these risks again!" + +"It was for the last time," he answered rather mournfully. "If the old +woman had been at home and in bed, I should have been my own master at +this moment, and then--never mind what _then_! It's no use bothering +about that now!" + +She blushed to the very roots of her hair--why she would have been at +a loss to explain,--crumpled her race-card into a hundred creases, and +observed innocently-- + +"Why should it make any difference now? Do ye think we'd like you +better for being a hundred times a winner? I wouldn't then, for one!" + +He was sitting very close, and nobody but herself heard the whisper, in +which he asked-- + +"Then you don't despise a fellow for losing, Miss Macormac, do you?" + +"Despise him?" she answered with flashing eyes. "Never say the word! +If I liked him before, d'ye think I wouldn't like him ten times better +after he'd been vexed by such a disappointment as that! Ye're not +understanding what I mean, and maybe I'm not putting it into right +words, but it seems to me----Yes, dear mamma, I'm minding what you say! +Sure enough, it is raining in here fit to drown a fish! I'm obliged to +ye, Captain. Will ye kindly shift the cloak and cushions to that dry +place yonder by Lady Mary. How wet the poor riders will be in their +silk jackets! I'm pleased and thankful now--indeed I am--that ye're +sheltered safe and dry in the stand." + +The last remark in a whisper, because of Lady Mary's supervision, who +thinking the _tête-à-tête_ between Daisy and her daughter had lasted +long enough, took advantage of a driving shower and the state of the +roof to call pretty Miss Norah into a part of the stand which she +considered in every respect more secure. + +The sky had again darkened, the afternoon promised to be wet. +Punchestown weather is not proverbial for sunshine, and Mrs. +Lushington, who had done less execution than she considered rightly +due to a new toilette of violet and swansdown, voted the whole thing a +failure and a bore. The last race was run off in a pelting shower, the +Lord Lieutenant's carriages and escort had departed, people gathered +up their shawls and wrappings with little interest in anything but +the preservation of dry skins. Ladies yawned and began to look tired, +gentlemen picked their way through the course ankle-deep in mud, to +order up their several vehicles, horse and foot scattered themselves +over the country in every direction from a common centre, the canvas +booths flapped, wind blew, the rain fell, the great day's racing was +over, and it was time to go home. + +Norah Macormac's ears were very sharp, but they listened in vain for +the expected invitation from Lady Mary, asking Daisy to spend a few +days with them at the castle. Papa, whose hospitality was unbounded and +uncontrollable, would have taken no denial, under any circumstances; +but papa was engaged with the race committee, and intended, moreover, +to gallop home across country by himself. There seemed nothing for it +but to put as much cordiality into her farewell as was compatible with +the presence of bystanders and the usages of society. + +Miss Norah no doubt acquitted herself to Daisy's satisfaction--and her +own. + +Mr. Sullivan, whose experience enabled him to recover his losses on the +great handicap by a judicious selection of winners in two succeeding +races, did not, therefore, depart without a final glass of comfort, +which he swallowed in company with the Roscommon farmer. To him he +expounded his views on steeple-chasing, and horses in general, at far +greater length than in the forenoon. It is a matter of regret that, +owing to excitement, vexation, and very strong punch, Denis should +have been much too drunk to understand a word he said. The only idea +this worthy seemed clearly to take in, he repeated over and over again +in varying tones of grief and astonishment, but always in the same +terms:-- + +"The mare can do it, I tell ye! an' the Captain rode her beau-tiful! +Isn't it strange, now, to see little Shaneen comin' in like that at the +finish, an' givin' her a batin' by a neck!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WINNERS AND LOSERS + + +Dinner that day at the castle seemed less lively than usual. Macormac, +indeed, whose joviality was invincible, ate, drank, laughed, and talked +for a dozen; but Lady Mary's spirits were obviously depressed; and the +guests, perhaps not without private vexation of their own, took their +cue rather from hostess than host. An unaccountable sense of gloom and +disappointment pervaded the whole party. The General having come down +early, in hopes of a few minutes with Miss Douglas in the drawing-room +before the others were dressed, had been disappointed by the protracted +toilette and tardy appearance of that provoking young lady, with whom +he parted an hour before on terms of mutual sympathy and tenderness, +but who now sat pale and silent, while the thunder clouds he knew and +dreaded gathered ominously on her brow. His preoccupation necessarily +affected his neighbour--a budding beauty fresh from the school-room, +full of fun and good humour, that her sense of propriety kept down, +unless judiciously encouraged and drawn out. Most of the gentlemen +had been wet to the skin, many had lost money, all were tired, and +Norah Macormac's eyes filled every now and then with tears. These +discoveries Mrs. Lushington imparted in a whisper to Lord St. Abbs as +he sat between herself and her hostess, whom he had taken in to dinner, +pausing thereafter to mark the effect of her condescension on this +raw youth, lately launched into the great world. The young nobleman, +however, betrayed no symptoms of emotion beyond screwing his eye-glass +tighter in its place, and turning round to look straight in her face, +while it dropped out with a jump. Even Mrs. Lushington felt at a +disadvantage, and took counsel with her own heart whether she should +accost him again. + +Why Lord St. Abbs went about at all, or what pleasure he derived +from the society of his fellow-creatures, was a puzzle nobody had +yet been able to find out. Pale, thin, and puny in person, freckled, +sandy-haired, bearing all outward characteristics of Scottish +extraction, except the Caledonian's gaunt and stalwart frame, he +neither rowed, shot, fished, sang, made jokes, nor played whist. He +drank very little, conversed not at all, and was voted by nearly all +who had the advantage of his acquaintance "the dullest young man out!" + +Yet was he to be seen everywhere, from Buckingham Palace or Holland +House to Hampton races and the fire-works at Cremorne; always alone, +always silent, with his glass in his eye, observant, imperturbable, and +thinking, no doubt, a great deal. + +It was rumoured, indeed, that on one memorable occasion he got drunk +at Cambridge, and kept a supper-party in roars of laughter till four, +A.M. If so, he must have fired all his jokes off at once, so to speak, +and blown the magazine up afterwards; for he never blazed forth in such +lustre again. He came out a Wrangler of his year, notwithstanding, +and the best modern linguist, as well as classical scholar, in the +university. Though the world of ball-goers and diners-out ignores such +distinctions, a strong political party, hungering for office, had its +eye on him already. As his father voted for Government in the Upper +House, a provident director of the Opposition lost no time in sounding +him on his views, should he become a member of the Lower. How little, +to use his own words, the _whip_ "took by his motion" may be gathered +from the opinion he expressed in confidence to his chief, that "St. +Abbs was either as close as wax or the biggest fool (and it's saying a +great deal) who ever came out of Cambridge with a degree!" + +Gloomy as a dinner-party may appear at first, if the champagne +circulates freely, people begin to talk long before the repast is half +over. What must children think of their seniors when the dining-room +door opens for an instant, and trailing upstairs unwillingly to bed, +they linger to catch that discordant unintelligible gabble going on +within? During a lull Mrs. Lushington made one more effort to arouse +the attention of Lord St. Abbs. + +"We're all getting better by degrees," said she, with a comic little +sigh. "But it has been a disastrous day, and I believe everybody feels +just as I do myself." + +"How?" demanded his lordship, while the eye-glass bounced into his +plate. + +"Like the man who won a shilling and lost eighteen-pence," she +answered, laughing. + +"Why?" he asked, yet more austerely, screwing the instrument into +position the while with a defiant scowl. + +She was out of patience--no wonder. + +"Good gracious, Lord St. Abbs!" said she. "Haven't we all been on the +wrong horse? Haven't we all been backing Daisy?" + +She spoke rather loud, and was amused to observe the effect of her +observation. It was like dropping a squib in a boy's school during +lessons. Everybody must needs join in the excitement. + +"A bad job indeed!" said one. + +"A great race entirely!" added another. "Run fairly out from end to +end, and only a neck between first and second at the finish!" + +"I wish I'd taken old Sullivan's advice," moaned a third; "or backed +the mare for a place, annyhow." + +"Ye might have been wrong even then, me boy," interrupted a jolly, +red-faced gentleman, "unless ye squared the ould woman! I wonder would +she take three half-crowns a day to come with me twice a year to the +Curragh?" + +"I knew of the mare's trial," drawled one of the London dandies, "and +backed her to win me a monkey. Daisy put me on at once, like a trump. +It was a real good thing and it has boiled over. (Champagne, please.) +Such is life, Miss Douglas. We have no hope of getting home now till +Epsom Spring." + +Miss Douglas, not the least to his discomfiture, stared him scornfully +in the face without reply. + +"I'm afraid it's a severe blow to young Walters," observed the General. +"They tell me he has lost a good deal more than he can afford." + +"Got it, I fancy, very hot!" said the dandy. "Gad, he rode as if he'd +backed his mount. I thought his finish one of the best I ever saw." + +Norah Macormac threw him the sweetest of glances, and wondered why she +had considered him so very uninteresting till now. + +"They say he hasn't a shilling left," continued the General, but +stopped short when he caught the flash of Satanella's eye, under its +dark, frowning brow. + +"I dare say he'll pull through," said she bitterly, "and disappoint his +dearest friends, after all." + +"I'll engage he will, Miss Douglas!" exclaimed Macormac's hearty voice +from the end of the table. "It's yourself wouldn't turn your back on a +friend, lose or win. Take a glass of that claret, now. It'll not hurt +ye. Here's the boy's health, and good luck to him! A pleasanter fellow, +to my mind, never emptied a bottle, and a better rider never sat in a +saddle, than he's proved himself this day!" + +Norah would have liked to jump up and hug papa's handsome white head +in her embrace on the spot, but Lady Mary had been watching the girl +to-night with a mother's anxiety, and fearful lest her daughter should +betray herself if subjected to further trial, gave the signal rather +prematurely for the ladies to withdraw. + +While they trooped gracefully out, the gentlemen were still discussing +Daisy's defeat, and the catastrophe of the Great United Service +Handicap. + +Everybody knows what men talk about when left alone after dinner; but +none, at least of the rougher sex, can venture to guess the topics with +which ladies beguile their seclusion in the drawing-room. Whatever +these might be, it seems they had little interest for Mrs. Lushington, +whose habit it was to retire for ten minutes or so to her own chamber, +there, perhaps, to revise and refresh her charms ere she descended once +more upon a world of victims. + +Her bedroom was gorgeously furnished, supplied with all the luxuries +to which she was accustomed; but the windows did not shut close, and +a draught beneath the door lifted the hearth-rug at her fire-place; +therefore she made but a short stay in her apartment, stealing softly +down-stairs again, so as to be well settled in the drawing-room before +the gentlemen came in. + +Traversing the library, she heard Lady Mary's voice carrying on, as +it seemed, a subdued, yet sustained conversation, in a little recess +adjoining, which could hardly be called a boudoir, but was so far +habitable, that in it there usually stood a lamp, a chess-board and +a card-table. Mrs. Lushington would not have _listened_, be sure, to +save her life, but the _Dublin Evening Mail_ lay close at hand on a +writing-table. She became suddenly interested in a Tipperary election, +and the price of pigs at Belfast. + +Lady Mary's accents were low, grave, even sorrowful. It was difficult +to catch more than a sentence here and there; but, judging by the +short, quick sobs that replied to these, they seemed to produce no +slight effect on the other party to the conversation. + +Mrs. Lushington smiled behind her paper. What she heard only confirmed +what she suspected. Her eyes shone, her brow cleared. She felt like a +child that has put its puzzle together at last. + +Lady Mary warmed with her subject; presently she declared, distinctly +enough, that something was "not like _you_, my dear. In any other girl +I'd have called it bold, forward, unwomanly!" + +"Oh, mamma! mamma! don't say that!" pleaded a voice that could only +belong to poor Norah. "If _you_ think so, what must _he_ have thought? +Oh dear! oh dear! what shall I do? What shall I do?" + +"It's never too late to remember your duty, my child," answered Lady +Mary, "and I'm sure your father thinks as I do;" but though the words +sounded brave enough, there was a tremble in the mother's voice that +vibrated from the mother's heart. + +"And I'll never see him again now, I _know_!" murmured Norah so +piteously that Lady Mary could hardly keep back her tears. + +"Well, it's not come to that yet," said she kindly. "Annyways, it's +wise to make ready for the worst. Kiss me, dear, and mind what I've +been telling ye. See now, stay here a bit, till you're more composed. +I'll send in little Ella to keep ye company. The child won't take +notice, and ye can both come back together into the drawing-room, and +no more said." + +But long ere Lady Mary could finish her caresses, and get her motherly +person under weigh, Mrs. Lushington had slipped into the billiard-room, +where she was found by the gentlemen practising winning hazards in +solitude, and where, challenging Lord St. Abbs to a game, she was left +discomfited by his very uncivil rejoinder-- + +"I don't play billiards," said his lordship, and turned on his heels +without further comment or excuse. + +It was a new sensation for Mrs. Lushington to find herself thus thrown +on general society, without at least one particular admirer on whose +devotion she could rely. She didn't like it. She longed to have a +finger in that mischief which is proverbially ready for "idle hands to +do." On three people she now resolved to keep close and vigilant watch. +These were Norah, St. Josephs, and Satanella. + +The conduct of this last seemed baffling in the extreme. She had +scarce vouchsafed a word to the General during dinner, had scowled at +him more than once with the blackest of her black looks, and comported +herself altogether like the handsome vixen she could be when she chose. +Now, under pretence of setting down her coffee-cup, she had brought +him to her side, and was whispering confidences in his ear, with a +tenderness of tone and bearing he accepted gratefully, and repaid a +hundredfold. + +"How tolerant are these _old_ men!" thought Mrs. Lushington, "and how +kind! What lovers they make, if only one can bring oneself not to mind +wrinkles, and rheumatism and grey hair! How gentle and how chivalrous! +What patience and consideration! They don't expect a woman to be an +angel, because they _do_ know a little about us; and perhaps because it +_is_ only a little, they believe there is more than one degree between +absolute perfection and utter depravity. If jealous, they have the +grace to hide it; if snubbed, they do not sulk; if encouraged, they +do not presume. They know when and where to speak, and to hold their +tongues; to act, and to refrain. Besides, if one wants to make them +unhappy, they are so sensitive, yet so quiet. A word or a look stings +them to the quick, but they take their punishment with dignity; and +though the blow be sharp and unprovoked, they never strike again. Let +me see. I don't think I've had an admirer above forty--not one who +owned to it, at least. It's a new experience. I declare, I'll try! This +romantic old General would suit the place exactly, and I couldn't do +a kinder thing for both, than to detach him from Blanche. The man is +regularly wasted and thrown away. My gracious! isn't it ridiculous? If +he could see us as we really are! If he only knew how much more willing +a woman is to be controlled than a violent horse; how much easier to +capture than a Sepoy column, or a Russian gun. And there he sits, a man +who has ridden fearlessly against both, shrinking, hesitating, before a +girl who might be his daughter--afraid, absolutely afraid, the gallant, +heroic coward, to look her in the face! Is she blind? Is she a fool, +not knowing what she throws away? or is she _really_ over head and ears +in love with somebody else? She can't be breaking her heart for Daisy, +surely, or why has she taken the General up again, and put herself so +much _en evidence_ with him to-night? I'm puzzled, I own, but I'm not +going to be beat. I'll watch her narrowly. I've nothing else to do. And +it's an awful temptation, even when people are great friends. Wouldn't +it be fun to cut her out with both?" + +Thus reasoned Mrs. Lushington, according to her lights, scrutinising +the couple she had set herself to study, while languidly listening to +Lady Mary's conversation, which consisted, indeed, of speculations on +the weather in the Channel, mingled with hospitable regrets for the +departure of her guest, and the breaking-up of the party, which was to +take place on the morrow. + +"But ye'll come again next year," said this kind and courteous +lady, who, anywhere but in her own house, would have disliked Mrs. +Lushington from her heart. "And ye'll bring Miss Douglas with ye--if +Miss Douglas she continues to be (with a significant glance at the +General, holding, clumsily enough, a skein of much tangled silk). But, +annyhow, I'll be lookin' for ye both Punchestown week, if not before, +to give us a good long visit, and we'll teach ye to like Ireland, that +we will, if kind wishes and a warm welcome can do't." + +But even while she spoke, Lady Mary looked anxiously towards the +door. Little Ella, a flaxen-haired romp of eleven, had jumped off +long ago with a message for sister Norah, but neither having yet +returned, the mother's heart ached to think of her handsome darling, +smarting, perhaps, even under the mild reproof she had thought it +wise to administer, perhaps weeping bitterly, to her little sister's +consternation, because of the pain that burns so fiercely in a young +unwearied heart--the longing for a happiness that can never be. + +Presently, Lady Mary's brow cleared, and she gave a little sigh of +relief, for Miss Ella's voice was heard, as usual, chattering loudly +in the passage; and that young person, much elated at being still out +of bed, came dancing into the room, followed by Norah, from whose +countenance all traces of recent emotion had disappeared, and who +looked, in her mother's eyes, only the prettier, that she was a shade +paler than usual. While the younger child laughed and romped with the +company, fighting shy of Lord St. Abbs, but hovering with great glee +about papa, and entreating not to be sent upstairs for five more +minutes, her sister stole quietly off to a lonely corner, where she +subsided into an unoccupied sofa, with the air of being thoroughly +fatigued. + +Mrs. Lushington, covertly watching Satanella, wondered more and more. + +Breaking away from her General, her silks, and her unfinished cup of +tea, Miss Douglas walked across the room like a queen, took Norah's +head in both hands, kissed her exactly between her eyebrows, and sat +down composedly by her side. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A GARDEN OF EDEN + + +In a comic opera, once much appreciated by soldiers of the French +nation, there occurs a quaint refrain, to the effect that the gathering +of strawberries in a certain wood at Malieux is a delightful pastime, + + "Quand on est deux, + Quand on est deux--," + +and the sentiment, thus expressed, seems applicable to all solitudes, +suburban or otherwise, where winding paths and rustic seats admit of +two abreast. But however favoured by nature, the very smoothest of +lawns and leafiest of glades surely lose more than half their beauty, +if we must traverse them unaccompanied by somebody who makes all the +sunshine, and perhaps all the shade, of our daily life. + +To wait for such a companion, is nevertheless an irritating ordeal, +even amidst the fairest scenery, trying both to temper and nerves. It +has been said that none realise the pace at which time gallops, till +they have a bill coming due. On the other hand none know how slow he +can crawl, who have not kept an uncertain tryst with over-punctuality +"under the greenwood tree!" + +General St. Josephs was not a man to be late for any preconcerted +meeting, either with friend or foe. It is a long way from Mayfair to +Kensington Gardens; it seemed none the shorter for an impatient spirit +and a heart beating with anxiety and hope. Yet the old soldier arrived +at the appointed spot twenty minutes too soon, there to suffer torments +from a truly British malady called "the fidgets," while diligently +consulting his watch and reconnoitering his ground. + +How many turns he made, pacing to and fro, between the round pond and +the grove, through which he longed to behold his goddess advancing in a +halo of light and beauty, he would have been ashamed to calculate. + +Some women never _can_ be in time for anything, even for a lover; and +after half an hour's waiting, that seemed a week, he drew a little note +from his breast-pocket, kissed it reverently, and read it once more +from end to end. + +It said twelve o'clock, no doubt, and certainly was a very short +epistle to be esteemed so sweet. This is what, through many perusals, +he had literally learned by heart-- + + "My dear General, + + "I want a long talk. Shall I find you in Kensington Gardens, where you + say it's so pretty, at twelve o'clock? + + "Ever yours, + + "Blanche." + +Now, in the composition, there appeared one or two peculiarities that +especially delighted its recipient. + +She had hitherto signed herself B. Douglas, never so much as writing +her Christian name at length; and here she jumped boldly to "Blanche," +the prettiest word, to his mind, in the English language, when standing +thus, like Falstaff's sack, "simple of itself." Also, he had not +forgotten the practice adopted by ladies in general of crossing a page +on which there is plenty of space, to enhance its value, as you cross +a cheque on your banker, that it may be honoured in the right quarter. +One line had Satanella scrawled transversely over her note to this +effect, "Don't be late; there is nothing I hate so much as waiting." + +Altogether the General would not have parted with it for untold gold. + +But _why_ didn't she come? Looking round in every direction but the +right, she burst upon him, like a vision, before he was aware. If he +started, and turned a little pale, she marked it, we may be sure, and +not with displeasure. + +It was but the middle of May, yet the sky smiled bright and clear, +the grass was growing, butterflies were already on the wing, birds +were singing, and the trees had dressed themselves in their fairest +garments of tender, early green. She too was in some light muslin robe, +appropriate to the weather, with a transparent bonnet on her head, and +a pink-tinted parasol in her hand. He thought, and she _knew_, she had +never looked more beautiful in her life. + +She began with a very unnecessary question. "Did you get my note?" said +she. "Of course you did, or you wouldn't be here. I don't suppose you +come into Kensington Gardens so early to meet anybody else!" + +"Never did such a thing in my life!" exclaimed the General, quite +frightened at the idea--but added, after a moment's thought--"It was +very good of you to write, and better still to come." + +"Now what on earth do you suppose I wanted to speak to you about?" she +continued, in rather a hard voice. "Let us turn down here. I daresay +you'd like all London to see us together; but that wouldn't suit me at +all." + +This was both unprovoked and unjust, for a more discreet person in such +matters than the accused never existed. He felt hurt, and answered +gravely, "I don't think I deserve that. You cannot say I have ever +shown myself obtrusive or impatient with regard to _you_." + +"Don't look vexed," she replied; "and don't scold me, though I deserve +it. I am in one of my worst tempers this morning; and who can I wreak +it on but _you_?--the kindest, the bravest, the most generous of men!" + +His features quivered; the tears were not far from his eyes. A little +boy with a hoop stood still, and stared up in his face, marvelling to +see so tall a gentleman so greatly moved. + +He took her hand. "You can always depend on _me_," he said softly; and, +dropping it, walked on by her side in silence. + +"I know I can," she answered. "I've known it a long time, though you +don't think so. What a hideous little boy! Now he's gone on with his +hoop, I'll tell you what I mean.--One of the things that first made me +like you, was this--you're a gentleman down to the heels of your boots!" + +"There's not much in that," he replied, looking pleased, nevertheless. +"So are most of the men amongst whom you live. A fellow ought to have +something more than a good coat and decent manners, to be worthy of +your regard; and you _do_ like me, Miss Douglas? Tell me so again. It +is almost too much happiness for me to believe." + +"That's not the question. If I hated anybody very much, do you think +I would ask him to come and walk with me in Kensington Gardens at an +hour when all respectable people are broiling in the Park?" said she, +with one of her winning laughs. "You're wrong, though, about the people +in good coats. What I call a gentleman is--well--I can't think of +many--King Arthur, for instance, in 'Guinevere.'" + +"Not Launcelot?" he asked. "I thought you ladies liked Launcelot best." + +"There are plenty of Launcelots," she answered dreamily, "and always +will be. _Not Launcelot, nor another_, except it be _my_ General!" + +Could he do less than take her arm and press it fondly to his side? + +They had loitered into the seclusion of a forest glade, that might +have been a hundred miles from London. The little boy had vanished +with his hoop, the nursery-maids and their charges were pervading the +broad gravel walks and more frequented lawns of this sylvan paradise; +not a soul was to be seen threading the stems of the tall trees but +themselves, and an enthusiastic thrush straining its throat in their +ears, seemed to ensure them from all observation less tolerant than its +own. + +"Now or never!" thought Satanella. "It _must_ be done; and it's no use +thinking about it!" + +Turning round on her companion, she crossed her slender hands over his +arm, looked caressingly in his face and murmured-- + +"General, will you do me a favour?" + +Pages could not have conveyed the gratification expressed by his +monosyllable, "Try!" + +She looked about, as if searching for some means of escape, then said +hurriedly-- + +"I am in a difficulty. I want money. Will you help me?" + +Watching his face, she saw it turn very grave. The most devoted of +lovers, even while rejoicing because of the confidence reposed in +him, cannot but feel that such a question must be approached with +caution--that to answer it satisfactorily will require prudence, +fore-thought, and self-sacrifice. To do the General justice, which +Satanella at the moment did _not_, his circumspection was far removed +from hesitation; he had no more idea of refusing, than the gallant +horse who shortens his stride, and draws himself together, for a larger +fence than common, that he may collect his energies, and cover it +without a mistake. + +For one delightful moment Miss Douglas felt a weight lifted from her +heart, and was already beginning to unsay her words as gracefully as +she might when he stopped her, with a firm, deliberate acquiescence. + +"Of course I will! And you ought to know by this time nothing can +make me so happy as to be of use to you in any way. Forgive me, Miss +Douglas--business is business--how much?" + +Her face fell; she let go of his arm, and her lips were very dry, while +she whispered, "Three thousand!" + +He was staggered, and showed it, though he tried hard not to look +surprised. Few men can lay their hands on three thousand pounds of +hard money, at a moment's notice, without some personal inconvenience. +Now the General was no capitalist, though in easy circumstances, +and drawing the half-pay of his rank; to him such an outlay meant a +decreased income for the rest of his life. + +She was quite right about his being a gentleman. In a few seconds he +had recovered his composure; in half a minute he said quietly-- + +"You shall have it at once. I am only so glad to be able to oblige you, +that I wish it was more difficult. And now, Miss Douglas, you always +say I'm a sad fidget, I'll go about it directly: I'll only ask you to +come with me to the end of the walk." + +She was crying beneath her veil; he saw the tears dropping on her +hands, and would have liked to kiss them away on any other occasion but +this. + +"To the end of the world!" she answered, with the sobs and smiles of +a child. "There's nobody like you--nobody!--not even King Arthur! Ask +what you will, I'll never refuse you--never--as long as I live!" + +But it need hardly be said that the General would rather have cut +off his right hand, than presumed on the position in which her +confidence had placed him. Though she appreciated his consideration, +she hardly understood why his manner became so unusually respectful +and courteous, why his farewell under the supervision of a cabman and +a gate-keeper--should be almost distant; why he lifted his hat to her, +at parting, as he would to the queen--but, while he replaced it on his +bald and grizzled head, Blanche Douglas was nearer being in love than +she suspected with this true, unselfish admirer, who was old enough to +be her father. + +In women, far more than in men, there can exist an affection that +springs from the head alone. It is the result of respect, admiration, +and gratitude. It is to be won by devotion, consistency, above all, +self-control; and, like a garden flower, so long as it is tended with +attention, prospers bravely till autumn cools the temperature, and +saddens all the sky. But this is a very different plant from the weed, +wild rose, nightshade--call it what you will--that is sown by the +winds of heaven, to strike root blindly and at haphazard in the heart; +sweeter for being trampled, stronger for being broken, proof against +the suns that scorch, the winds that shatter, the worm that eats away +its core, and, refusing to die, even in the frown of winter, under the +icy breath of scorn and unmerited neglect. + +Which of these kindred sentiments the General had succeeded in +awakening, was a problem he shrank from setting himself honestly to +solve. He tried to hope it might be the one; he felt sadly convinced it +was only the other. Traversing the gardens with swift, unequal strides, +so as to leave them at the very farthest point from where his companion +made her exit, for he was always loyal to _les convenances_, he argued +the question with his own heart, till he dared not think about it +any longer, subsiding at last into composure, with the chivalrous +reflection, that, come what might, if he could but minister to the +happiness of Blanche Douglas, he would grudge no sacrifice, even the +loss of his money--shrink from no disappointment, even the destruction +of his hopes. + +Satanella meanwhile had selected a Hansom cab, in which to make her +homeward journey, characteristically choosing the best-looking horse +on the stand. To be seen, however, spanking along, at the rate of +twelve miles an hour, in such a vehicle, she reflected, might be +considered _fast_ in a young unmarried lady, and originate, also, +surmises as to the nature of her expedition; for it is quite a mistake +to suppose that people in London are either blind or dumb, because +they have so much on hand of their own, that they cannot devote all +their attention to the business of their neighbours. With commendable +modesty, therefore, she kept her parasol well before her face, so as to +remain unrecognised by her friends, while she scanned everything about +her with the keen, bright glances of a hawk. Bowling past Kingston +House, then, and wondering whether it would not be possible, in time, +to raise a domestic pedestal for General St. Josephs, on which she +might worship him as a hero, if she could not love him as a Cupid, her +Hansom cab passed within six inches of another, moving rapidly in the +opposite direction; and who should be seated therein, smoking a cigar, +with a white hat and light-coloured gloves, but ruined, reckless, +never-to-be-forgotten Daisy! + +She turned sick, and white even to the lips. In one glance, as women +will, she had taken in every detail of his face and person, had +marked that the one seemed devoid of care, the other well dressed +as usual. Like a stab came the conviction, that ruin to _him_ meant +only a certain amount of personal inconvenience, irrespective of any +extraneous sorrow or vexation; and in this she misjudged him, not quite +understanding a nature she had unwittingly chosen for the god of her +idolatry. + +Though they passed each other so quickly, she stretched her arms out +and spoke his name, but Daisy's whole attention was engrossed by a +pretty horse-breaker in difficulties on his other side. Satanella felt, +as she rolled on, that he had not recognised her, and that if she acted +up to her own standard of right, this miserable glimpse must be their +last meeting, for she ought never to see him again. + +"He'll be sure to call, poor fellow!" she murmured, when she reached +her own door. So it is fair to suppose she had been thinking of him for +a mile and a quarter. "I should like to wish him good-bye, _really_ for +the last time. But no, no! Honour, even among thieves. And I'm sure +_he_ deserves it, that kind, noble, generous old man. Oh! I wish I was +dead! I wish I was dead!" Then she paid the cabman (more than his fare) +told her servant, in a strange, hoarse voice, that "she was at home to +nobody this afternoon--nobody, not even Mrs. Lushington!" and so ran +fiercely upstairs, and locked herself into her room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"SOLDIER BILL" + + +Daisy placidly smoking, pursued the even tenor of his way, thinking of +the pretty horse-breaker more than anything else; while disapproving, +in a calm, meditative mood, of her hat, her habit, her bridle, and the +leather tassels that danced at her horse's nose. + +The particular business Mr. Walters had at present on hand in London, +or rather Kensington must be explained. + +Perhaps it may be remembered how, in a financial statement made by this +young officer during the progress of a farce, he affirmed that, should +he himself "burst up," as he called it, a certain "Soldier Bill" would +become captain of that troop which it was his own ambition to command. +With the view of consulting this rising warrior in his present monetary +crisis, Daisy had travelled, night and day, from Ireland, nor could +he have chosen a better adviser in the whole Army-List, as regarded +kindness of heart, combined with that tenacious courage Englishmen call +"pluck." + +"I'm not a clever chap, I know," Bill used to acknowledge, in moments +of expansion after dinner. "But what I say is this: If you've got to do +a thing, catch hold, and do it! Keep square, run straight, and ride the +shortest way! You won't beat _that_, my boy, with all the dodges that +ever put one of your nobblers in the hole!" + +It is but justice to admit that, in every relation of life, sport or +earnest, this simple moralist acted strictly in accordance with his +creed. That he was a favourite in his regiment need hardly be said. The +younger son of a great nobleman, he had joined at seventeen, with a +frank childish face and the spirits of a boy fresh from school. Before +he was a week at drill, the very privates swore such a young dare-devil +had never ridden in their ranks since the corps was raised. Utterly +reckless, as it seemed, of life and limb, that fair-haired, half-grown +lad, would tackle the wildest horse, swim the swiftest steam, leap +the largest fence, and fight the strongest man, with such rollicking, +mirthful enjoyment, as could only spring from an excess of youthful +energy and light-heartedness. But, somehow, he was never beat, or +_didn't know_ it when he _was_. Eventually, it always turned out that +the horse was mastered, the stream crossed, the fence cleared, and the +man obliged to give in. His war-like house had borne for centuries on +their shield the well-known motto, "Go on!" To never a scion of the +line could it have been more appropriate than to this light-footed, +light-headed, light-hearted light dragoon! + +In his own family, of course, he was the pet and treasure of all. His +mother worshipped him, though he kept her in continual hot water with +his vagaries. His sisters thought (perhaps reasonably enough) that +there was nobody like him in the world. And his stately old father, +while he frowned and shook his head at an endless catalogue of larks, +steeple-chases, broken bones, etc., was more proud of Bill in his heart +than of all his ancestors and all his other sons put together. + +They were a distinguished race. Each had made his mark in his own line. +It was "Soldier Bill's" ambition to attain military fame; every step in +the ladder seemed to him, therefore, of priceless value. And promotion +was as the very breath of his nostrils. + +But a man that delights in personal risk is rarely of a selfish nature. +In reply to Daisy's statement, made with that terseness of expression, +that total absence of circumlocution, complimentary or otherwise, +which distinguishes the conversation of a mess-table, Bill ordered his +visitor a "brandy-and-soda" on the spot, and thus delivered himself. + +"Troop be d----d, Daisy! It's no fun soldiering without your 'pals.' +I'd rather be a 'Serrafile' for the rest of my life, or a 'batman,' or +a trumpeter, by Jove! than command the regiment, only because all the +good fellows in it had come to grief. Sit down. Never mind the bitch, +she's always smelling about a strange pair of legs, but she won't lay +hold, if you keep perfectly still. Have a weed, and let's see what can +be done!" + +The room in which their meeting took place was characteristic of its +occupant. Devoid of superfluous furniture, and with an uncarpeted +floor, it boasted many works of art, spirited enough, and even +elaborate, in their own particular line. The series of prints +representing a steeple-chase, in which yellow jacket cut out all +the work, and eventually won by a neck, could not be surpassed for +originality of treatment and fidelity of execution. Statuettes of +celebrated acrobats stood on brackets along the walls, alternating with +cavalry spurs, riding-whips, boxing-gloves, and basket-hilted sticks, +while the place of honour over the chimney-piece was filled by a +portrait of Mendoza in fighting attitude, at that halcyon period of the +prize-ring-- + + "When Humphreys stood up to the Israelite's thumps, + In kerseymere breeches, and 'touch-me-not' pumps." + +"It's very pleasant this," observed Daisy, with his legs on a chair, +to avoid the attentions of Venus, an ill-favoured lady of the "bull" +kind, beautiful to connoisseurs as her Olympian namesake, but for +the uninitiated an impersonation of hideous ferocity and anatomical +distortion combined. + +"Jolly little crib, isn't it?" replied Bill; "and though I'm not much +in 'fashionable circles,' suits me down to the ground. Wasn't it luck, +though, the small-pox and the regimental steeple-chase putting so many +of our captains on the sick-list, that they detached a subaltern here +to command? We were so short of officers, my boy, I thought the Chief +would have made you 'hark back' from Ireland. Don't you wish he had? +You'd better have been in bed on the 17th; though, by all accounts, you +rode the four miles truly through, and squeezed the old mare as dry as +an orange!" + +"Gammon!" retorted Daisy. "She had five pounds in hand, only we got +jostled at the run-in. I'll make a match to-morrow with Shaneen for +any sum they like, same course, same weights, and---- But I'm talking +nonsense! I couldn't pay if I lost. I can't pay up what I owe now. +I'm done, old boy; that's all about it. When a fellow can't swim any +farther, there's nothing for it but to go under!" + +His friend pulled a long face, whistled softly, took Venus on his lap, +and pondered with all his might. + +"Look here, Daisy," was the result of his cogitations; "when you've got +to fight a cove two stone above your weight, you don't blunder in at +him, hammer-and-tongs, to get your jolly head knocked off in a couple +of rounds. No; if you have the condition (and that's everything), you +keep dodging, and waiting, and out-fighting, till your man's blown. +Then you tackle to, and finish him up before he gets his wind again. +Now this is just your case. Ask for leave; the Chief will stand it well +enough, if he knows you're in a fix. _I'll_ do your duty, and you must +get away somewhere, and keep dark, till we've all had time to turn +ourselves round." + +"Where can I go to?" said Daisy. "What a queer smell there is in this +room, Bill. Something between dead rats and a Stilton cheese." + +"Smell!" answered his host. "Pooh; nonsense. That's the badger; he +lives in the bottom drawer of my wardrobe. We call him 'Benjamin.' +Don't you _like_ the smell of a badger, Daisy?" + +Now "Benjamin" was a special favourite with his owner, in consideration +of the creature's obstinate and tenacious courage. Bill loved it from +his heart, protesting it was the only living thing from which he "took +a licking;" because on one occasion, after a _very_ noisy supper, the +man had tried, and failed, to "draw" the beast from its lair with his +teeth! Therefore, "Benjamin" was now a free brother of the Guild, well +cared for, unmolested, living on terms of armed neutrality with the +redoubtable Venus herself. + +Ignoring as deplorable prejudice Daisy's protest that he did _not_ like +the smell of a badger, his friend returned with unabated interest to +the previous question. + +"You mustn't stay in London, that's clear; though I've heard there's +no covert like it to hang in for a fellow who's robbed a church! But +it wouldn't suit _you_. You're not bad enough; besides it's too near +Hounslow. The Continent's no use. Travelling costs a hat-full of money, +and it's very slow abroad now the fighting's over. A quiet place, not +too far from home; that's the ticket!" + +"There's Jersey," observed Daisy doubtfully. "I don't know where it is, +but I daresay it's quiet enough." + +"Jersey be hanged!" exclaimed his energetic friend. "Why not Guernsey, +Alderney, or what do you say to Sark? No, we must hit on a happier +thought than that. You crossed last night, you say. Does any one know +you're in town?" + +"Only the waiter at Limmer's. I had breakfast there, and left my +portmanteau, you know." + +"Limmer's! I wish you hadn't gone to Limmer's! Never mind; the waiter +is easily squared. Now, look here, Daisy, you're not supposed to be in +London. Is there no retired spot you could dodge back to in Ireland, +where you can get your health, and live cheap? Who's to know you ever +left it?" + +His friend Denis occurred to Daisy at once. + +"There's a farm up in Roscommon," said he, "where they'd take me in and +welcome. The air's good, and living _must_ be cheap, for you can't get +anything to eat but potatoes! I shouldn't wonder if they hunted all the +year round in those hills, and the farmer is a capital fellow, never +without a two-year-old that can jump!" + +"That sounds like it," responded the other, with certain inward +longings of his own for this favoured spot. "Now, Daisy, will you ride +to orders, and promise to be guided entirely by _me_?" + +"All right," said Daisy; "fire away." + +"Barney!" shouted his friend, in a voice that resounded over the +barracks, startling even the sergeant of the guard. "Barney! look +sharp. Tell them to put a saddle on Catamount, and turn him round ready +to go out; then come here." + +In two minutes a shock-headed batman, obviously Irish, entered the +apartment and stood at "attention," motionless, but for the twinkling +of his light blue eyes. + +"Go to Limmer's at once," said his master; "pay Mr. Walters's bill. +Breakfast and B. and S., of course? Pack his things, and take them to +Euston Station. Wait there till he comes, and see him off by the Irish +mail. Do you understand?" + +"I do, sur," answered Barney, and vanished like a ghost. + +"You've great administrative powers, Bill," said his admiring friend. +"Hang it! you're fit to command an army." + +"I could manage the Commissariat, I think," answered the other +modestly; "but of course you're only chaffing. I'm not a wise chap, I +know; never learnt anything at school, and had the devil's own job to +pass for my cornetcy. But I'll tell you what I _can_ do. When a course +is marked out, and the stewards have told me which side of the flags +I'm to go, I _do_ know my right hand from my left, and that's more +than every fellow can say who gets up for a flutter in the pig-skin! +And now I'm off to head-quarters to see the Chief, and ask leave for +you till Muster, at any rate." + +"You won't find him," observed Daisy. "It must be two o'clock now." + +"Not find him!" repeated the other. "Don't you know the Chief better +than that? He gets home-sick if he is a mile from the barrack-yard. +It's my belief he was born in spurs, with the 'state' of the regiment +in his hand! Besides he's ordered a parade for fitting on the new +nose-bags at three. He wouldn't miss it to go to the Derby." + +"You _are_ a good chap," said his friend. "It's a long ride, and a +beastly hard road!" + +Bill was by this time dressing with inconceivable rapidity, and an +utter disregard of his comrade's presence. + +"A long ride," he repeated, in high scorn, while he dashed into a +remarkably well-made coat. "What do you call a long ride with a quad. +like Catamount? Five-and-forty minutes is what he allows me from gate +to gate; and it takes Captain Armstrong all his time, I can tell you, +to keep him back to _that_! The beggar ran away with me one night from +Ashbourne to the Royal barracks in Dublin; and though it was so dark +you couldn't see your hand, he never made a wrong turn, nor let me get +a pull at him, till he laid his nose against his own stable door. Bless +his chestnut heart! he's the worst mouth and the worst temper of any +horse in Europe. Look at him now. There's a pair of iron legs, and a +wicked eye! It's rather good fun to see him kick directly I'm up. But +I've never had such a hack, and I wouldn't part with him to be made +Commander-in-Chief." + +Daisy could do no less than accompany his host to the door, and see him +mount this redoubtable animal, the gift of a trainer at the Curragh, +who could do nothing with it, and opined that even Soldier Bill's +extraordinary nerve would be unequal to compete with so restive a +brute. He had miscalculated, however, the influence utter fearlessness +can establish over the beasts of the field. + +Catamount's first act of insubordination, indeed, was to run away +with his new master for four miles on end, across the Curragh, but +over excellent turf, smooth as a bowling-green: he discovered, to +his surprise, that Bill wished no better fun. He then repeated the +experiment in a stiffly-fenced part of Kildare; and here found himself +not only indulged, but instigated to continue, when he wanted to leave +off. He tried grinding his rider's leg against the wall: Bill turned a +sharp spur inwards, and made it very uncomfortable. He lay down: Bill +kept him on the ground an hour or two by sitting on his head. + +At last he confined himself to kicking unreasonably, at intervals, +galloping sullenly on, nevertheless, in the required direction, and +doing a vast amount of work in an incredibly short space of time. He +was never off his feed, and his legs never filled, so to Bill he was +invaluable, notwithstanding their disputes, and a certain soreness +about a Cup the horse ought to have won, had he not sulked at the +finish: they loved each other dearly, and would have been exceedingly +loth to part. + +"My serjeant's wife will get you some dinner," said the rider, between +certain sundry preliminary kicks in getting under way. "She's an +outside cook, and I've told her what you'd like. There's a bottle of +brandy on the chimney-piece, and soda-water in the drawer next the +badger. I'll be back before it's time for you to start. Cut along, +Catamount! Hang it! don't get me off the shop-board, before half the +troop. Forrard! my lad! Forrard! away!" and Bill galloped out of the +barracks at head-long speed, much to the gratification of the sentry +manipulating his carbine at the gate. This true friend proved as good +as his word. In less than three hours, he was back again, Catamount +having hardly turned a hair in their excursion. The colonel had been +kindness itself. The leave was all right. There was nothing more to be +done, but to pack Daisy off in a Hansom, for Euston Square. + +"Take a pony, old man," said Bill, urging his friend to share his +purse, while he wished him "good-bye." "If I'd more, you should have +it. Nonsense! I don't want it a bit. Keep your pecker up and fight +high. Write a line if anything turns up. I'll go on working the job +here, never fear. We won't let you out of the regiment. What is life, +after all, to a fellow who isn't a light dragoon?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +DELILAH + + +In consoling his friend, _Xanthias Phoceus_, for the result of a little +flirtation, in which that Roman gentleman seems to have indulged +without regard to station, Horace quotes for us a triad of illustrious +persons whose brazen-plated armour, and bulls-hide targets were of +no avail to fence them from the shaft of love. If neither petulant +Achilles, nor Ajax, son of Telamon, nor the king of men himself, +could escape, it is not to be supposed that a young cavalry officer +in her Majesty's service, however simple in his habits and frank in +his demeanour, should be without some weakness of the same nature, +unacknowledged perhaps, yet none the less a weakness on that account. + +"Soldier Bill," notwithstanding his kindly disposition and fresh comely +face, seemed the last man in the world to be susceptible of female +influence, yet "Soldier Bill" felt, to a certain extent, in the same +plight as Agamemnon. Though in dress, manners and appearance, anything +but what is usually termed a "ladies' man;" he was nevertheless a +prime favourite with the sex, on such rare occasions as threw him in +their way. Women in general seem most to appreciate qualities not +possessed by themselves, and while they greatly admire all kinds of +courage, find that which is mingled with good-humoured haphazard +recklessness, perfectly irresistible. They worship their heroes too, +and believe in them, with ludicrous good faith. Observe a woman in a +pleasure boat. If there comes a puff of wind, she never takes her eyes +off the boatman, and trusts him implicitly. The more frightened she +feels, the more confidence she places in her guardian, and so long as +the fancied danger lasts, clings devotedly to the pilot, be he the +roughest, hairiest, tarriest son of Neptune that ever turned a quid. + +Now the converse of this relation between the sexes holds equally good. +To live entirely with men and horses; to _rough_ it habitually; from +day to day enduring hardships, voluntary or otherwise, in the pursuit +of field-sports; to share his studies with a dog, and take his pastime +with a prize-fighter, does not necessarily unfit a man for the society +of gentler, softer, sweeter, craftier creatures. On the contrary, in +many natures, and those, perhaps, the strongest, such habits produce +a longing for female society deeper and keener, that it has to be +continually repudiated and repressed. + +When he had started Daisy for the station, Bill renewed his toilet +with peculiar care, and in spite of a few scars on his face, some the +effects of falls, others, alas! of fights, a very good-looking young +gentleman he saw reflected in his glass. Smoothing a pair of early +moustaches, and sleeking a close-cropped head, he searched about in +vain for a scent-bottle, and actually drew on a pair of kid gloves. +Obviously, "Soldier Bill" was going to call on a lady. He could not +help laughing, while he thought how the cornets would chaff him, if +they knew. Nevertheless, with a farewell caress to the badger, fresh, +radiant, and undaunted, he sallied forth. + +It was quite in accordance with the doctrine of opposites, propounded +above, that Bill should have experienced a sensation of refreshment +and repose, in the society of a charming married woman, very much his +senior, who made light of him no doubt, but amused, indulged, and +instructed him while she laughed. Her boudoir was indeed a pleasant +change from his barrack-room. He could not but admit that in her +society tea seemed a more grateful beverage than brandy and soda; the +tones of a pianoforte sweeter than any stable call; and the perfume +that pervaded every article about her, far more delightful, if less +pungent, than that which hung round his retiring friend "Benjamin," in +the bottom drawer of the wardrobe. + +In his wildest moments, however, Bill never dreamed of making love to +her; and it is not difficult to understand, that his goddess, being no +less experienced a person than Mrs. Lushington, was well able to take +care of herself. + +"I like the boy," she used to say to any one who would listen, even +to her husband, if nobody else could be found. "He is so fresh and +honest, and he looks so _clean_! It's like having a nice child about +one, and then I can do him so much good. I form his manners, teach him +the ways of society, prevent his being imposed upon, and generally +make him fit for civilised life. If there were no good-natured people +like me, Frank, these poor young things would fall a prey to the +first designing girl who comes across them on the war-path, looking +out to catch a husband _coûte que coûte_. I'm sure his mother ought +to be infinitely obliged to me. She couldn't take more pains with him +herself! When he began coming here, he didn't know how to waltz or +to take off his hat, or to answer a note even; in short, he couldn't +say Boo to a goose! And now I've made him learn all these things, and +he does them well, particularly the last. He's still absurdly shy, I +grant you, but it's wearing off day by day. When I'm grown old, Frank, +and wrinkled (though I'd sooner die first), he'll be grateful, and +understand what care I've taken of him, and what a sad fate might have +befallen him, but for _me_! Isn't there something in Dr. Watts, or +somebody, + + Regardless of their doom, + The little victims play. + +Frank! I don't believe you're listening!" + +"Oh yes, I am," answers Frank, whose thoughts have wandered to +Skindle's, Richmond, Newmarket--who knows where? "What you say is very +true, my dear--very true--and nobody understands these things better +than yourself. Good gracious! is that clock right! I had no idea it +was so late! I must be off at once, and--let me see--I'll get back to +dinner if I _can_; but don't wait." + +So _exit_ Mr. Lushington on his own devices, and enter a footman with +tea, closely followed by the butler ushering in "Soldier Bill." + +"Talk of somebody," says the lady, graciously extending her hand, "and, +we are told, he is sure to appear. How odd, I was abusing you not five +minutes ago to Frank--you must have met him as you came in,--and, +behold, here you are--not having been near me for a month!" + +"A week," answered her visitor, who always stuck to facts. "You told me +yourself one ought never to call again at the same house till after a +decent interval. A week is decent surely! It seems a deuced long time, +I know." + +"You don't suppose I've missed you?" said she, pouring out the tea. +"It's all for your own good I have you here. You'd get back to savage +life again, if I neglected you for a fortnight; and it _is_ provoking +to see all one's time and trouble thrown away! Now put your hat down, +have some tea, make yourself agreeable, and you may stay here for +exactly three-quarters of an hour!" + +To "make himself agreeable" at short notice, and to order, is a +difficult task for any man. For Bill it was simply impossible. He +fidgeted, gulped hot tea, and began to feel shy. She had considerable +tact, however, and no little experience in the ways of young men. +She neither laughed at him nor took notice of the blush he tried to +keep down, but bade him throw the window open, and while he obeyed, +continued carelessly, though kindly-- + +"In the first place, tell me all about yourself. How's Catamount?" + +She knew every one of his horses by name, and even some of the men +in his troop, leading him to talk on such congenial topics with +considerable ingenuity. It was this tact of hers that rendered Mrs. +Lushington such a pleasant member of society, enabling her to keep +her head above water deep enough to have drowned a lady with less +_savoir-faire_, and consequently fewer friends. + +His face brightened. "As fresh as paint!" he replied. "I beg your +pardon; I mean as well as can be expected. I rode him two-and-twenty +miles to-day in an hour and a half, and I give you my word, when I got +off him he looked as if he'd never been out of the stable." + +"I should pity _you_ more than your horse," she replied, with a +commendable air of interest; "only I know you are never so happy as +when you are trying to break your neck. You've had the grace to dress +since, I see, and not badly, for once, only that handkerchief is too +light a shade of blue. Now, confess! Where does she live? and is she +worth riding eleven miles, there and back, to see?" + +"I never know whether you're chaffing or not!" responded Bill. "You +cannot believe I would gallop Catamount twenty-two miles on a hard road +for any lady in the world. I didn't suppose he'd take me if I wanted +to go. _She_, indeed! There's no _she_ in the matter!" + +"You might have made _one_ exception in common politeness," said Mrs. +Lushington, laughing. "But I'm not satisfied yet. You and Catamount are +a very flighty pair. I still think there's a lady in the case." + +"A lady in boots and spurs, then," he answered; "six foot high, with +grey moustaches and a lame leg from a sabre-cut--a lady who has been +thirty years soldiering, and never gave or questioned an unreasonable +order. Do you know _many_ ladies of that stamp, Mrs. Lushington? I only +know one, and she has made _my_ regiment the smartest in the service." + +"I _do_ know your colonel a little," said she. "I met him once at +Aldershot, and though he is anything but an old woman, I consider him +an old _dear_! So I am not very far wrong, after all. Now what did he +want you for? Sent for you, of course, to have--what do you call it?--a +_wigging_. I'm afraid, Master Bill, you're a sad bad boy, and always +getting into scrapes." + +"Wigging!" he repeated indignantly. "Not a bit of it; nothing could +have been kinder than the Chief. He's the best old fellow in the world! +I wasn't sent for. I didn't go on my own account; I went down about +Daisy." + +Then he stopped short, afraid of having committed himself, and +conscious that at the present crisis of his brother-officer's affairs, +the less said about them the better. + +But who, since the days of Samson, was ever able to keep a secret from +a woman resolved to worm it out? As the strong man in Delilah's lap, so +was Bill in the boudoir of Mrs. Lushington. + +"Daisy," she repeated; "do you know anything of Daisy? Tell me all +about him. We're so interested, you can't think, and so sorry for his +difficulties. I wish I could help him. Is there nothing to be done?" + +Touched by her concern for his friend's welfare, he trusted her at once. + +"You won't mention it," said he; "Daisy was with me at Kensington +to-day. He can't show yet, you know; but still we hope to make it all +right in time. He's got a month's leave for the present; and I packed +him off, to start by the Irish mail to-night, just before I came to +see you. He'll keep quiet over there, and people won't know where he +is; so they can't write, and then say he doesn't answer their letters. +Anything to put off the smash as long as possible. One can never tell +what may turn up." + +"You're a kind friend," she replied approvingly, "and a good boy. +There! that's a great deal for me to say. Now tell me _where_ the poor +fellow is gone." + +"You won't breathe it to a soul," said honest Bill--"not even to Mr. +Lushington?" + +"Not even to Mr. Lushington!" she protested, greatly amused. + +He gave her the address with profound gravity, and an implicit reliance +on her secrecy. + +"A hill-farmer in Roscommon!" she exclaimed. "I know the man. His name +is Denis; I saw him at Punchestown." + +"You know everything," he said, in a tone of admiration. "It must be +very jolly to be clever, and that." + +"It's much jollier to be 'rich and that,'" was her answer. "Money is +what we all seem to want--especially poor Daisy. Now, how much do you +suppose it would take to set him straight?" + +He was not the man to trust any one by halves. "Three thousand," he +declared, frankly: "and where he is to get it beats me altogether. Of +course he can't hide for ever. After a time he must come back to do +duty; then there'll be a show up, and he'll have to leave the regiment." + +"And you will get your troop," said Mrs. Lushington. "You see I know +all about that too." + +His own promotion, however, as has been said, afforded this +kind-hearted young gentleman no sort of consolation. + +"I hope it won't come to that," was his comment on the military +knowledge of his hostess. "I've great faith in luck. When things are at +their worst they mend. Never say die till you're dead, Mrs. Lushington. +Take your 'crowners' good-humouredly. Stick to your horse; and don't +let go of the bridle!" + +"You've been here more than your three-quarters of an hour," said +Mrs. Lushington, "and you're beginning to talk slang, so you'd better +depart. But you're improving, I _think_, and you may come again. Let me +see, the day after to-morrow, if the Colonel don't object, and if you +can find another handkerchief with a deeper shade of blue." + +So Bill took his leave, and proceeded to "The Rag," where he meant to +dine in company with other choice spirits, wondering whether it would +ever be his lot to marry a woman like Mrs. Lushington--younger, of +course, and perhaps, though he hardly ventured to tell himself so, with +a little less chaff--doubting the while if he could consent so entirely +to change his condition and his daily, or perhaps rather his _nightly_, +habits of life. He need not give up the regiment, he reflected, and +could keep Catamount, though the stud might have to be reduced. But +what would become of Benjamin? Was it possible any lady would permit +the badger to occupy a bottom drawer in her wardrobe? This seemed a +difficult question. Pending its solution, perhaps he had better remain +as he was! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"THE RIVER'S BRIM" + + +Daisy was sick of the Channel. He had crossed and recrossed it so often +of late as to loathe its dancing waters, yawning in the face of Welsh +and Wicklow mountains alike, wearied even of the lovely scenery that +adorns the coast on either side. + +He voted himself so tired in body and mind that he must stay a day or +two in Dublin to refresh. + +A man who balances on the verge of ruin always has plenty of money in +his pocket for immediate necessities. The expiring flame leaps up with +a flash; the end of the bottle bubbles out with a gush; and the ebbing +tide of wealth leaves, here and there, a handful of loose cash on the +deserted shore. + +Daisy drove to the most expensive hotel in Dublin, where he ordered +a capital breakfast and a comfortable room. The future seemed very +uncertain. In obedience to an instinct of humanity that bids men pause +and dally with any crisis of their fate, he determined to enjoy +to-day, and let to-morrow take care of itself. + +Nobody could be more unlikely to analyse his own sensations. It +was not the practice of the Regiment; but had Daisy been given to +self-examination it would have puzzled him to explain why he felt in +such good humour, and so well satisfied--buoyed up with hope, when he +ought to have been sunk and overwhelmed in despair. + +"Waiter," said the fugitive, while he finished his tea and ordered a +glass of curaçao, "has Mr. Sullivan been here this morning?" + +"He _did_, sur," answered the waiter, with a pleasant grin. "Sure he +brought a harse for the master to see. Five years old, Captain. A +clane-bred one, like what ye ride yerself. There's not the aqual of +him, they do be braggin', for leppin', in Westmeath an' thim parts +where he was trained." + +Now Daisy wanted a horse no more than he wanted an alligator. He could +neither afford to buy nor keep one, and had two or three of his own +that it was indispensable to sell, yet his eye brightened, his spirits +rose, with the bare possibility of a deal. He might see the animal, at +any rate, he thought, perhaps ride it--there would be others probably +to show; he could spend a few pleasant hours in examining their points, +discussing their merits, and interchanging with Mr. Sullivan those +brief and pithy remarks, intelligible only to the initiated, which +he esteemed the essence of pleasant conversation. Like many other +young men, Daisy was bitten with hippomania. He thoroughly enjoyed the +humours of a dealer's yard. The horses interested, the owners amused +him. He liked the selection, the bargaining, the running up and down, +the speculation, and the slang. To use his own words--"He never could +resist the _rattle of a hat_!" + +It is no wonder then that "the Captain," as Mr. Sullivan called him, +spent his whole afternoon at a snug little place within an easy drive +of Dublin, where that worthy, though not by way of being in the +profession, inhabited a clean whitewashed house, with a few acres of +marvellously green paddock, and three or four loose boxes, containing +horses of various qualities, good, bad, and indifferent. Here, after +flying for an hour or two over the adjoining fields and fences, Daisy, +with considerable difficulty, resisted the purchase (on credit) of +a worn-out black, a roan with heavy shoulders, and a three-year-old +engaged in the following autumn at the Curragh, but afforded their +owner perfect satisfaction by the encomiums he passed on their merits, +no less than by the masterly manner in which he handled them, at the +formidable fences that bordered Mr. Sullivan's domain. + +"An' ye'll take nothing away with ye but a fishing-rod," said the +latter, pressing on his visitor the refreshment of whiskey, with or +without water. "Ye're welcome to't, anny how--more by token that ye'll +bring it back again when ye done with it, Captain, and proud I'll be to +get another visit from ye, when ye're travelling the country, to or +from Dublin, at anny time. May be in the back end of the year I'll have +wan to show ye in thim boxes that ye niver seen the likes of him for +lep-racin'. Whisper now. He's bet the Black Baron in a trial; and for +Shaneen, him that wan the race off _your_ mare at Punchestown,--wait +till I tell ye,--at even weights, he'd go and _lose_ little Shaneen in +two miles!" + +Promising to return at a future time for inspection of this paragon, +and disposing the borrowed fishing-rod carefully on an outside car +he had chartered for his expedition, Daisy returned to Dublin, ate a +good dinner, drank a bottle of dry champagne, and went to sleep in the +comfortable bedroom of his comfortable hotel, as if he had not a care +nor a debt in the world. + +Towards morning his lighter slumbers may have been visited by dreams, +and if so it is probable that fancy clothed her visions in a similitude +of Norah Macormac. Certainly his first thought on waking was for that +young lady, as his opening eyes rested on the fishing-rod, which he had +borrowed chiefly on her account. + +In truth, Daisy felt inclined to put off as long as possible the +exile--for he could think of it in no more favourable light--that he +had brought on himself in the Roscommon mountains. + +Mr. Sullivan, when the sport of fly-fishing came in his way, was +no mean disciple of the gentle art. Observing a salmon-rod in that +worthy's sitting-room, of which apartment, indeed, with two foxes' +brushes and a barometer it constituted the principal furniture, Daisy +bethought him that on one of his visits to Cormac's-town its hospitable +owner had given him leave and licence to fish the Dabble whenever +he pleased, whether staying at the Castle or not. The skies were +cloudy--as usual in Ireland, there was no lack of rain--surely this +would be a proper occasion to take advantage of Macormac's kindness, +protract his stay in Dublin, and run down daily by the train to fish, +so long as favourable weather lasted and his own funds held out. + +We are mostly self-deceivers though there exists something _within_ +each of us that is not to be hoodwinked nor imposed upon by the most +specious of fallacies. + +It is probable Daisy never confessed to himself how the fish he +_really_ wanted to angle for was already more than half-hooked: how it +was less the attraction of a salmon than a mermaid that drew him to +the margin of the Dabble; and how he cared very little that the sun +shone bright or the river waned so as he might but hear the light step +of Norah Macormac on the shingle, look in the fair face that turned so +pale and sad when he went away, that would smile and blush its welcome +so kindly when he came again. + +He must have loved her without knowing it; and perhaps such insensible +attachments, waxing stronger day by day, strike the deepest root, +and boast the longest existence: hardy plants that live and flourish +through the frowns of many winters, contrasting nobly with more +brilliant and ephemeral posies, forced by circumstances to sudden +maturity and rapid decay-- + + "As flowers that first in spring-time burst, + The earliest wither too." + +Nevertheless, for both sexes, + + "'Tis all but a dream at the best:" + +and Norah Macormac's vision, scarcely acknowledged while everything +went smoothly, assumed very glowing colours when the impossibility of +its realisation dawned on her; when Lady Mary pointed out the folly +of an attachment to a penniless subaltern unsteady in habits, while +addicted overmuch to sports of the field. + +With average experience and plenty of common-sense, the mother had been +sorely puzzled how to act. She was well aware, that advice in such +cases, however judiciously administered, often irritates the wound +it is intended to heal; that "warnings"--to use her own words--"only +put things in people's heads;" and that a fancy, like a heresy, +sometimes dies out unnoticed when it is not to be stifled by argument +nor extirpated with the strong hand. Yet how might she suffer this +pernicious superstition to grow, under her very eyes? Was she not a +woman? and must she not speak her mind? Besides, she blamed her own +blindness, that her daughter's intimacy with the scape-grace had been +unchecked in its commencement, and, smarting with self-reproach, could +not forbear crying aloud, when she had better have held her tongue! + +So Miss Norah discovered she was in love, after all. Mamma said so! no +doubt mamma was right. The young lady had herself suspected something +of the kind long ago, but Lady Mary's authority and remonstrances +placed the matter beyond question. She was very fond of her mother, +and, to do her justice, tried hard to follow her ladyship's advice. +So she thought the subject over, day by day, argued it on every side, +in accordance with, in opposition to, and independent of, her own +inclinations, to find as a result, that during waking and sleeping +hours alike, the image of Daisy was never absent from her mind. + +Then a new beauty seemed to dawn in the sweet young face. The very +peasants about the place noticed a change; little Ella, playing at +being grown-up, pretended she was "Sister Norah going to be married;" +and papa, when she retired with her candle at night, turning fondly to +his wife, would declare-- + +"She'll be the pick of the family now, mamma, when all's said and done! +They're a fair-looking lot, even the boys. Divil thank them, then, on +the mother's side! But it's Norah that's likest yourself, my dear, +when we were young, only not quite so stout, maybe, and a thought less +colour in her cheek." + +Disturbed at the suggestion, while gratified by the compliment, Lady +Mary, in a fuss of increased anxiety, felt fonder than ever of her +child. In Norah's habits also there came an alteration, as in her +countenance. She sat much in the library, with a book on her knee, of +which she seldom turned a page; played long _solos_ on the pianoforte, +usually while the others were out; went to bed early, but lay awake for +hours; rode very little, and walked a great deal, though the walks were +often solitary, and almost invariably in the direction of a certain +waterfall, to which she had formerly conducted Miss Douglas, while +showing off to her new friend the romantic beauties of the Dabble. + +The first day Mr. Walters put his borrowed rod together on the banks of +this pretty stream, it rained persistently in a misty drizzle, borne +on the soft south wind. He killed an eight pound fish, yet returned to +Dublin in an unaccountable state of disappointment, not to say disgust. +He got better after dinner, and, with another bottle of dry champagne, +determined to try again. + +The following morning rose in unclouded splendour--clear blue sky, +blazing sun, and not a breath of wind. A more propitious day could +scarcely be imagined for a cricket-match, an archery-meeting, or a +picnic; but in such weather the crafty angler leaves rod and basket +at home. Daisy felt a little ashamed of these _paraphernalia_ in the +train, but proceeded to the waterside, nevertheless, and prepared +deliberately for his task, looking up and down the stream meanwhile +with considerable anxiety. + +All at once he felt his heart beating fast, and began to flog the +waters with ludicrous assiduity. + +It is difficult to explain the gentleman's perturbation (for why was he +there at all?), though the lady's astonishment can easily be accounted +for, when Norah, thinking of him every moment, and visiting this +particular spot only because it reminded her of his presence, found +herself, at a turn in the river, not ten paces from the man whom, a +moment before, she feared she was never to see again! + +Yet did she remain outwardly the more composed of the two, and was +first to speak. + +"Daisy!" she exclaimed--"Captain Walters--I never thought you were +still in Ireland. You'll be coming to the Castle to dinner, anyhow." + +He blushed, he stammered, he looked like a fool (though Norah didn't +think so), he got out with difficulty certain incoherent sentences +about "fishing," and "flies," and "liberty from your father," and +lastly, recovering a little, "the ten-pounder _I_ rose and _you_ +landed, by the black stump there, under the willow." + +As he regained his confidence, she lost hers--almost wishing she hadn't +come, or had put her veil down, or, she didn't exactly know what. In +a trembling voice, and twining her fingers nervously together, she +propounded the pertinent question:-- + +"How--how did you find your brother-officers when you got back to the +regiment?" + +Its absurdity struck them both. Simultaneously, they burst out +laughing: their reserve vanished from that moment. He took both her +hands in his, and the rod lay neglected on the shingle, while he +exclaimed-- + +"I _am_ so pleased to see you again! Miss Macormac--Norah! I fished +here all yesterday, hoping you'd come. I'm glad though you didn't; +you'd have got such a wetting." + +"Did you, now?" was her answer, while the beautiful grey eyes deepened, +and the blood mantled in her cheek. "Indeed, then, it's for little I'd +have counted the wetting, if I'd only known. But how _was_ I to know, +Captain Walters--well, Daisy, then--that you'd be shooting up the +river, like a young salmon, only to see _me_? And supposing I _had_ +known it, or thought it, or wished it even, I'm afraid I ought never to +have come." + +"But now you _are_ here," argued Daisy, with some show of reason, +"you'll speak to me, won't you? and help me to fish, and let me walk +back with you part of the way home?" + +It seemed an impotent conclusion, but she was in no mood to be +censorious. + +"I'm very pleased to see you, and that's the truth," she answered; "but +as for fishing, I'll engage ye'll never rise a fish in the Dabble with +a sky like that. I'll stay just five minutes, though, while ye wet your +line, anyhow. Oh! Daisy, don't you remember what a trouble we had with +the big fish down yonder, the time I ran to fetch the gaff?" + +"Remember!" said Daisy, "I should think I _do_! How quick you were +about it. I didn't think any girl in the world could run so fast. I can +remember everything you've said and done since I've known you. That's +the worst of it, Norah. It's got to be different after to-day." + +She had been laughing and blushing at his recollections of her +activity; but she glanced quickly in his face now, while her own turned +very grave and pale. + +"Ye're coming to the Castle, of course," said she. "I'll run home this +minute, and tell mamma to order a room, and we'll send the car round to +the station for your things." + +She spoke in hurried nervous accents, dreading to hear what was coming, +yet conscious she had never felt so happy in her life. + +Formerly she considered Daisy the lightest-hearted of men. Hitherto she +scarcely remembered to have seen a cloud on his face. She liked it none +the worse for its gravity now. + +"I've been very unlucky, Norah," said he, holding her hand, and looking +thoughtfully on the river as it flowed by. "Perhaps it's my own fault. +I shall never visit at Cormacs'-town, nor go into any society where +I've a chance of meeting _you_ again. And yet I've done nothing wrong +nor disgraceful as yet." + +"I knew it!" she exclaimed; "I'd have sworn it on the Book! I told +mamma so. He's a _gentleman_, I said, and that's enough for _me_!" + +"Thank you, dear," answered Daisy, in a failing voice. "I'm glad _you_ +didn't turn against me. It's bad enough without that." + +"But what _has_ happened," she asked, drawing closer to his side. +"Couldn't any of us help you? Couldn't papa advise you what to do?" + +"_This_ has happened, Norah," he answered gravely; "I am completely +ruined. I have got nothing left in the world. Worse still, I am afraid +I can scarce pay up all I've lost." + +The spirit of her ancestors came into her eyes and bearing. Ruin to +these, like personal danger, had never seemed a matter of great moment, +so long as, at any sacrifice, honour might be preserved. She raised her +head proudly, and looked straight in his face. + +"The last _must_ be done," said she. "_Must_ be done, I'm telling you, +Daisy, and _shall_ be, if we sell the boots, you and me, off our very +feet! How near can you get to what you owe for wages and things? Of +course they'll have to be paid the first." + +"If _everything_ goes, I don't see my way to pay up all," he answered. +"However, they _must_ give me a little time. Where I'm to go, though, +or what to do, is more than I can tell. But Norah, dear Norah! what I +mind most is, that I mustn't hope to see _you_ again!" + +Her tears were falling fast. Her hands were busy with a locket she +wore round her neck, the only article of value Norah possessed in the +world. But the poor fingers trembled so they failed to undo the strip +of velvet on which it hung. At last she got it loose, and pressed it +into his hand. "Take it, Daisy," said she, smiling with her wet eyes; +"I don't value it a morsel. It was old Aunt Macormac gave it me on my +birth-day. There's diamonds in it--not Irish, dear--and it's worth +something, anyway, though not much. Ah, Daisy! now, if ye won't take +it, I'll think ye never cared for me one bit!" + +But Daisy stoutly refused to despoil her of the keepsake, though he +begged hard, of course, for the velvet ribbon to which it was attached; +and those who have ever found themselves in a like situation will +understand that he did not ask in vain. + +So Miss Macormac returned to the Castle, and the maternal wing, too +late for luncheon; but thus far engaged to her ruined admirer that, +while he vowed to come back the very moment his prospects brightened, +and the "something" turned up--which we all expect, but so few of us +experience, she promised, on her part, "never to marry (how could you +think it now, Daisy!) nor so much as look at anybody else till she saw +him again, if it wasn't for a hundred years!" + +I am concerned to add that Mr. Sullivan's rod remained forgotten on the +shingle, where it was eventually picked up by one of Mr. Macormac's +keepers, but handled by its rightful owner no more. There was nothing +to keep Daisy in Dublin now, and his funds were getting low. In less +than twenty-four hours from his parting with Norah Macormac he found +himself crossing that wild district of Roscommon where he had bought +the famous black mare that had so influenced his fortunes. Toiling on +an outside car, up the long ascent that led to the farmer's house, he +could scarcely believe so short a time had elapsed since he visited +the same place in the flush of youth and hope. He felt quite old +and broken by comparison. Years count for little compared to events; +and age is more a question of experience than of time. He had one +consolation, however, and it lay in the shape of a narrow velvet ribbon +next his heart. + +Ere he had clasped the farmer's hand, at his own gate, and heard his +cheery hospitable greeting, he wondered how he could feel so happy. + +"I'm proud to see ye, Captain!" said Denis, flourishing his hat round +his head, as if it was a slip of blackthorn. "Proud am I an' pleased +to see ye back again--an' that's the truth! Ye're welcome, I tell +ye! Step in, now, an' take something at wanst. See, Captain, there's +a two-year-old in that stable; the very moral of your black mare. +Ye never seen her likes for leppin'! Ye'll try the baste this very +afternoon, with the blessin'. I've had th' ould saddle mended, an' the +stirrups altered to your length." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +TAKING THE COLLAR + + +The General thought he had never been so happy in his life. His voice, +his bearing, his very dress seemed to partake of the delusion that +gilded existence. Springing down the steps of his club, with more waist +in his coat, more pretension in his hat, more agility in his gait, than +was considered usual, or even decorous, amongst its frequenters, no +wonder they passed their comments freely enough on their old comrade, +ridiculing or deploring his fate, according to the various opinions and +temper of the conclave. + +"What's up with St. Josephs now?" asked a white-whiskered veteran of +his neighbour, whose bluff, weather-beaten face proclaimed him an +Admiral of the Red. "He's turned quite flighty and queer of late. +Nothing wrong _here_, is there?" and the speaker pointed a shaking +finger to the apex of his own bald head. + +"Not _there_, but _here_," answered the sailor, laying his remaining +arm across his breast. "Going to be spliced, they tell me. Sorry for +it. He's not a bad sort; and a smartish officer, as I've heard, in +_your_ service." + +"Pretty well--so, so. Nothing extraordinary for _that_," answered the +first speaker, commonly called by irreverent juniors "Old Straps." "He +hadn't much to do in India, I fancy; but he's been lucky, sir, lucky, +and luck's the thing! Luck against the world, Admiral, by sea or land!" + +"Well, his luck's over now, it seems," grunted the Admiral, whose +views on matrimony appeared to differ from those of his profession +in general. "I'm told he's been fairly hooked by that Miss Douglas. +Black-eyed girl, with black hair--black, and all black, d-- me!--and +rides a black mare in the park. Hey! Why she might be his daughter. How +d'ye mean?" + +"More fool he," replied Straps, with a leer and a grin that disclosed +his yellow tusks. "A fellow like St. Josephs ought to know better." + +"I'm not so sure of that," growled the Admiral. "Gad, sir, if I was +idiot enough to do the same thing, d'ye think I'd take a d--d old +catamaran, that knew every move in the game? No, no, sir; youth and +innocence, hey? A clean bill of health, a fair wind, and a pleasant +voyage, you know!" + +"In my opinion, there's devilish little youth left, and no innocence," +answered "Straps." "If that's the girl, she's been hawked about, to my +certain knowledge, for the last three seasons; and I suppose our friend +is the only chance left--what we used to call a 'forlorn hope' when +I was an ensign. He's got a little money, and they might give him a +command. You never know what this Government will do. It's my belief +they'd give that crossing-sweeper a command if they were only sure he +was quite unfit for it." + +"Command be d--d!" swore the Admiral. "He'll have enough to do to +command his young wife. What? She's a lively craft, I'll be bound, +with her black eyes. Carries a weather-helm, and steers as wild as you +please in a sea-way. I'll tell you what it is--Here, waiter! bring me +the _Globe_. Why the --- are the evening papers so late?" + +In the rush for those welcome journals, so long expected, so eagerly +seized, all other topics were instantaneously submerged. Long before +he could reach the end of the street, General St. Josephs was utterly +forgotten by his brother officers and friends. + +Still he _thought_ he had never been so happy in his life. The +word is used advisedly, for surely experience teaches us that real +happiness consists in tranquillity and repose, in the slumber rather +than the dream, in the lassitude that soothes the patient, not the +fever-fit of which it is the result. Can a man be considered happy +who is not comfortable? and how is comfort compatible with anxiety, +loss of appetite, nervous tremors, giddiness, involuntary blushing, +and the many symptoms of disorder, who could be cured heretofore by +advertisement, and which are the invariable accompaniments of an +epidemic, invincible by pill or potion, and yielding only to the +homoeopathic treatment of marriage. + +In this desperate remedy St. Josephs was anxious to experimentalise, +and without delay. Yet his tact was supreme. Since the memorable walk +in Kensington Gardens, when he laid her under such heavy obligations, +his demeanour had been more that of a friend than a lover--more, +perhaps, that of a loyal and devoted subject to his sovereign mistress, +than either. She wondered why he never asked her, what she had done +with all that money? Why, when she alluded to the subject, he winced +and started, as from a touch on a raw wound. Once she very nearly +told him all. They were in a box at the Opera, so far unobserved that +the couple who had accompanied them seemed wholly engrossed with each +other. Satanella longed to make her confession--ease her conscience of +its burden, perhaps, though such a thought was cruel and unjust--shake +the yoke from off his neck. She had even got as far as, "I've never +half thanked you, General--" when there came a tap at the box-door. +Enter an irreproachable dandy, then a confusion of tongues, a laugh, a +solo, injunctions to silence, and the opportunity was gone. Could she +ever find courage to seek for it again? + +Nevertheless, day by day she dwelt more on her admirer's forbearance, +his care, his tenderness, his chivalrous devotion. Though he never +pressed the point, it seemed an understood thing that they were +engaged. She had forbidden him to visit her before luncheon, but he +spent his afternoons in her drawing-room; and, on rare occasions, was +admitted in the evening, when an elderly lady, supposed to be Blanche's +cousin, came to act chaperone. The walks in Kensington Gardens had been +discontinued. Her heart could not but smite her sometimes, to think +that she never gave him but one, when she wanted him to do her a favour. + +Had he been more exacting, she would have felt less self-reproach, but +his patience and good humour cut her to the quick. + +"You brute!" she would say, pushing her hair back, and frowning at her +own handsome face in the glass. "You _worse_ than brute! Unfeeling, +unfeminine, I wish you were dead!--I wish you were dead!" + +She had lost her rich colour now, and the hollow eyes were beginning to +look very large and sad, under their black arching brows. + +Perhaps it was the General's greatest delight to hear her sing. This +indulgence she accorded him only of an evening, when the cousin +invariably went to sleep, and her admirer sat in an armchair with the +daily paper before his face. She insisted on this screen, and this +attitude, never permitting him to stand by the pianoforte, nor turn +over the leaves, nor undergo any exertion of mind or body that should +break the charm. Who knows what golden visions gladdened the war-worn +soldier's heart while he leaned back and listened, spellbound by the +tones he loved? Dreams of domestic happiness and peaceful joys, and a +calm untroubled future, when doubts and fears should be over, and he +could make this glorious creature wholly and exclusively his own. + +[Illustration: "Perhaps it was the General's greatest delight to hear +her sing." + + _Satanella._ _Page 208_] + +Did he ever wonder why in certain songs the dear voice thrilled with +a sweetness almost akin to pain ere it was drowned in a loud and +brilliant accompaniment, that foiled the possibility of remonstrance, +while the ditty was thrown aside to be replaced by another, less +fraught, perhaps, with painful memories and associations? If so, he +hazarded no remark nor conjecture, satisfied, as it seemed, to wait +her pleasure, and in all things bow his will to hers, sacrificing his +desires, his pride, his very self-respect to the woman he adored. + +For a time nothing occurred to disturb the General's enforced +tranquillity, and he pursued the course he seemed to have marked out +for himself with a calm perseverance that deserved success. In public, +people glanced and whispered when they saw Miss Douglas on his arm; +in private, he called daily at her house, talked much small-talk and +drank a great deal of weak tea; while in solitude he asked himself how +long this probation was to last, resolving nevertheless to curb his +impatience, control his temper, and if the prize was only to be won by +waiting, wait for it to the end! + +Leaving his club, then, unconscious of the Admiral's pity and the +sarcasms of "Old Straps," St. Josephs walked jauntily through Mayfair, +till he came to the well-known street, which seemed to him now +even as a glade in Paradise. The crossing-sweeper blessed him with +considerable emphasis, brushing energetically in his path; for when +going the General was invariably good for sixpence, and on propitious +days would add thereto a shilling as he returned. + +On the present occasion, though his hand was in his pocket, it remained +there with the coin in its finger and thumb; for the wayfarer stopped +petrified in the middle of the street; the sweeper held his tattered +hat at arm's-length, motionless as a statue; and a bare-headed +butcher's-boy, standing erect in a light cart, pulled his horse on its +haunches, and called out-- + +"Now then, stoopid! D'ye want all the road to yerself?" grazing the old +officer's coat-tails as he drove by with a brutal laugh. + +But neither irreverence nor outrage served to divert the General's +attention from the sight that so disturbed his equanimity. + +"There's that d--d black mare again!" he muttered, while he clenched +his teeth, and his cheek turned pale. "I'll put a stop to this one way +or the other. Steady, steady! No; my game is to be won by pluck and +patience. It's very near the end now. Shall I lose it by failing in +both?" + +The black mare, looking but little the worse for training, was indeed +in the act of leaving Blanche's door. Miss Douglas had evidently +ridden her that morning in the Park. She might have told the General, +he thought. She might have asked him to accompany her as he used. +She ought to have no secrets from him now; but was he in truth any +nearer her inner life, any more familiar with her dearest thoughts +and wishes than he had been months ago? Surely she was not treating +him well! Surely he deserved more confidence than this. The General +felt very sore and angry; but summoning all his self-command, walked +upstairs,--and for this he deserves no little credit,--with an assured +step, and a calm, unruffled brow. + +"Miss Douglas was dressing," the servant said. "Miss Douglas had been +out for a ride. Would the General take a seat, and look at to-day's +paper? Miss Douglas had said '_partic'lar_' she would be at home." + +It was irritating to wait, but it was soothing to know she was at home +"_partic'lar_" when _he_ called. The General sat down to peruse the +advertisement sheet of the paper, reading absently a long and laudatory +description of the trousseaux and other articles for family use +supplied by a certain house in the city at less than cost price! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +A SNAKE IN THE GRASS + + +His studies were soon interrupted by the rustle of a dress on the +staircase. With difficulty he forbore rushing out to meet its wearer, +but managed to preserve the composure of an ordinary morning visitor, +when the door opened, and--enter Mrs. Lushington! She must have +read his disappointment in his face; for she looked half-amused, +half-provoked, and there was no less malice than mirth in her eyes +while she observed-- + +"Blanche will be down directly, General, and don't be afraid I shall +interrupt your _tête-à-tête_, for I am going away as soon as I've +written a note. You can rehearse all the charming things you have got +to say in the meantime." + +He had recovered his _savoir-faire_. + +"Rehearse them to _you_?" he asked, laughing. "It would be pretty +practice, no doubt. Shall I begin?" + +"Not now," she answered, in the same tone. "There is hardly time; +though Blanche wouldn't be very cross about it, I dare say. She is +liberal enough, and knows she can trust _me_." + +"I am sure you are a true friend," he returned gravely. "Miss +Douglas--Blanche--has not too many. I hope you will always remain one +of her staunchest and best." + +She smiled sadly. + +"Do you _really_ mean it?" said she, taking his hand. "You can't +imagine how happy it makes me to hear you say so. I thought you +considered me a vain, ignorant, frivolous little woman, like the rest." + +Perhaps he did, but this was not the moment to confess it. + +"What a strange world it would be," he answered, "if we knew the real +opinions of our friends. In this case, Mrs. Lushington, you see how +wrong you were about mine." + +"I believe you, General!" she exclaimed. "I feel that you are truth +itself. I am sure you never deceived a woman in your life, and I +_cannot_ understand how any woman could find it in her heart to deceive +_you_. One ought never to forgive such an offence, and I can believe +that _you_ never would." + +He thought her earnestness unaccountable, and wholly uncalled for; but +his senses were on the alert to catch the first symptoms of Blanche's +approach, and he answered rather absently-- + +"Quite right! Of course not. Double-dealing is _the_ thing I hate. You +may cheat me once; that is _your_ fault. It is my own if you ever take +me in again." + +"No wonder Blanche values your good opinion," said Mrs. Lushington +meaningly. "She has not spent her life amongst people whose standard +is so high. Hush! here she comes. Ah! General, you won't care about +talking to _me_ now!" + +She gave him one reproachful glance in which there was a little +merriment, a little pique, and a great deal of tender interest, ere she +departed to write her note in the back drawing-room. + +It was impossible not to contrast her kind and deferential manner with +the cold, collected bearing of Miss Douglas, who entered the room, like +a queen about to hold her court, rather than a loving maiden, hurrying +to meet her lord. + +She had always been remarkable for quiet dignity in motion or repose. + +It was one of the many charms on which the General lavished his +admiration, but he could have dispensed with this royal composure now. +It seemed a little out of place in their relative positions. Also he +would have liked to see the colour deepen in her proud impassive face, +though his honest heart ached while he reflected how the bright tints +had faded of late, how the glory of her beauty had departed, leaving +her always pale and saddened now. + +He would have asked a leading question, hazarded a gentle reproach, or +in some way made allusion to the arrival of his _bête noir_, but her +altered looks disarmed him; and it was Satanella herself who broached +the subject, by quietly informing her visitor she had just returned +from riding the black mare in the Park. "Do you _mind_?" she added, +rising in some confusion to pull a blind down, while she spoke. + +Here would have been an opportunity for a confession of jealousy, an +appeal to her feelings, pleadings, promises, protestations,--to use +the General's own metaphor,--"an attack along the whole line;" but +how was he thus to offer decisive battle, with his flank exposed and +threatened, with Mrs. Lushington's ears wide open and attentive, while +her pen went scribble, scribble, almost in the same room? + +"I _mind_ everything you do," said he gallantly, "and object to +nothing! If I _did_ want to get up a grievance, I should quarrel with +you for not ordering me to parade in attendance on you in the Park. My +time, as you know, is always yours, and I am never so happy as with +you. Blanche (dropping his voice), I am never _really_ happy when you +are out of my sight." + +She glanced towards the writing-table, and though the folding-doors, +half-shut, concealed that lady's person, seemed glad to observe, by +the continual scratching of a pen, that Mrs. Lushington had not yet +finished her note. + +"You are always good and kind," said Blanche, forcing a smile. "Far +more than I deserve. Will you ride another day, early? Thanks; I knew +you would. I should have asked you this morning but I had a headache, +and thought I should only be a bore. Besides, I expected you in the +afternoon. Then Clara came to luncheon, and we went upstairs, and now +the carriage will be round in five minutes. That is the way the day +goes by; yet it seems very long too, only not so bad as the night." + +Again his face fell. It was uphill work, he thought. Surely women +were not usually so difficult to woo, or his own memory played him +false, and his friends romanced unpardonably in their narratives. But, +nevertheless, in all the prizes of life that which seemed fairest and +best hung highest out of reach, and he would persevere to the end. Aye! +even if he should fail at last! + +Miss Douglas seemed to possess some intuitive knowledge of his +intention; and conscious of his determination to overcome them, was +perhaps the more disposed to throw difficulties in his path. He +should have remembered that in love as in war, a rapid flank movement +and complete change of tactics will often prevail, when vigilance, +endurance, and honest courage have been tried in vain. + +Satanella could not but appreciate a delicacy that forbade further +inquiry about the black mare. No sooner had she given vent to her +feelings, in the little explosion recorded above, than she bitterly +regretted their expression, comparing her wayward petulant disposition +with the temper and constancy displayed by her admirer. Sorrowful, +softened, filled with self-reproach, she gave him one of her winning +smiles, and bade him forgive her display of ill-humour, or bear with +it, as one of many evil qualities, the result of her morbid temperament +and isolated lot. + +"Then I slept badly, and went out tired. The Ride was crowded, the sun +broiling, the mare disagreeable. Altogether, I came back as cross as +two sticks. General, are _you_ never out of humour? And how do you get +rid of your ill-tempers? You certainly don't visit them on _me_!" + +"How _could_ I?" he asked in return. "How can I ever be anything but +your servant, your slave? Oh! Blanche, you must believe me _now_. How +much longer is my probation to last? Is the time to be always put off +from day to day, and must I----" + +"Clara! Clara!" exclaimed Miss Douglas to her friend in the back +drawing-room, "shall you never have done with those tiresome letters? +Have you any idea what o'clock it is? And the carriage was ordered at +five!" + +The General smothered a curse. It was invariably so. No sooner did he +think he had gained a secure footing, wrested a position of advantage, +than she cut the ground from under him, pushed him down the hill, and +his labour was lost, his task all to begin again! It seemed as if she +could not bear to face her real position, glancing off at a tangent, +without the slightest compunction, from the one important topic he was +constantly watching an opportunity to broach. + +"Just done! and a good day's work too!" replied Mrs. Lushington's +silver tones from the writing-table, and it must have been a quicker +ear than either Satanella's or the General's to detect in that playful +sentence the spirit of mischievous triumph it conveyed. + +Mrs. Lushington was delighted. She felt sure she had fathomed a secret, +discovered the clue to an intrigue, and by such means as seemed +perfectly fair and justifiable to her warped sense of right and wrong. + +Finding herself a third person in a small party that should have +been limited to two, she made urgent correspondence her excuse for +withdrawing to such a distance as might admit of overhearing their +conversation, while the lovers, if lovers indeed they were, should +think themselves unobserved. + +So she opened Satanella's blotting-book, and spread a sheet of +note-paper on its folds. + +Mrs. Lushington had a quick eye, no less than a ready wit. Blanche's +blotting-paper was of the best quality, soft, thin, and absorbent. +Where the writing-book opened, so shrewd an observer did not fail to +detect the words "Roscommon, Ireland," traced clear and distinct as +a lithograph, though reversed. Looking through the page, against the +light, she read Daisy's address in his hiding-place with his humble +friend Denis plainly enough, and the one word "Registered" underlined +at the corner. + +"_Enfin je te pince!_" she muttered below her breath. It was evident +Satanella was in Daisy's confidence, that she knew his address,--which +had been extorted indeed with infinite trouble from a lad whom he had +sent to England in charge of the precious mare,--and had written to +him within the last day or two. It was a great discovery! Her hand +shook from sheer excitement, while she considered how best it could +be turned to account, how it might serve to wean the General of his +infatuation, to detach him from her friend, perhaps at last to secure +him for herself. But she must proceed cautiously; make every step good, +as she went on; prove each link of the chain, while she forged it; and +when Blanche was fairly in the toils, show her the usual mercy extended +by one woman to another. + +Of course, she wrote her notes on a fresh page of the blotting-book. +Of course, she rose from her employment frank, smiling, unsuspicious. +Of course, she was more than usually affectionate to Blanche, and that +young lady, well-skilled in the wiles of her own sex, wondering what +had happened, watched her friend's conduct with some anxiety and yet +more contempt. + +"Good-bye, Blanche." + +"Good-bye, Clara." + +"Come again soon, dear!" + +"You may depend upon me, love!" + +And they kissed each other with a warmth of affection in no way damped +or modified because Blanche suspected, and Clara resolved, henceforth +it must be war to the knife! + +In taking her leave of the General, however, Mrs. Lushington could not +resist an allusion to their previous conversation, putting into her +manner so much of tender regard and respectful interest as was pleasing +enough to him and inexpressibly galling to her friend. + +"Have you said your say?" she asked, looking very pretty and +good-humoured as she gave him both hands. "I'm sure you had lots +of time, and the best of opportunities. Don't you think I'm very +considerate?" + +"More--very generous!" + +"Come and see me soon. Whenever you like. With or without dear Blanche. +She won't mind; I'm always at home, to either of you--or both." + +Then she made a funny little curtsey, gave him one more smile, one +sidelong sorrowful glance, with her hand on the door, and was gone. + +Blanche's spirit rose to arms; every instinct of her sex urged her +to resist this unconscionable freebooter, this lawless professor of +piracy and annexation. After all, whether she cared for him or not, +the General was her own property. And what right had this woman to +come between mistress and servant, with her becks and leers, her +smiles and wiles, and meretricious ways? She had never valued her +lover higher than at the moment Mrs. Lushington left the room; but he +destroyed his advantage, kicked down all his good fortune, by looking +in Miss Douglas's face with an expression of slavish devotion, while he +exclaimed-- + +"How different that woman is from you, Blanche. Surely, my queen, there +is nobody like you in the world!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +AN EXPERT + + +Returning from morning stables to his barrack-room, Soldier Bill +found on his table a document that puzzled him exceedingly. He read +it a dozen times, turned it up-side down, smoothed it out with his +riding-whip, all in vain. He could make nothing of it; then he summoned +Barney. + +"When did this thing come, and who brought it?" + +"Five minutes back," answered the batman. "Left by a young man on +fatigue duty." + +So Barney, with military exactitude, described a government official, +in the costume of its telegraphic department. + +"Did the man leave no message?" continued Bill. + +"Said as there was nothing to pay," answered Barney, standing at +"attention" and obviously considering this part of his communication +satisfactory in the extreme. + +"Said there was nothing to pay!" mused his master, "and I would have +given him a guinea to explain any two words of it." Then he took his +coat off, and sat doggedly down to read the mysterious sentences again +and again. + +The soldier, as he expressed it, was "up a tree!" That the message +must be of importance, he argued from its mode of transmission. The +sender's name was legible enough, and his own address perfectly +correct. He felt sure Daisy would not have telegraphed from the wilds +of Roscommon but on a matter of urgency; and it did seem provoking +that the only sense to be got out of the whole composition, was in +the sentence with which it concluded--"Do not lose a moment." In his +perplexity, he could think of no one so likely to help him as Mrs. +Lushington. + +"She has more 'nous' in that pretty little head of hers," thought Bill, +as he plunged into a suit of plain clothes, "than the Horse Guards and +the War Office put together. _She'll_ knock the marrow out of this, if +anybody can! I've heard her guess riddles right off, the first time she +heard them; and there isn't her equal in London for acting charades +and games of that kind, where you must be down to it, before they can +say 'knife.' By Jove, I shouldn't wonder if this was a double acrostic +after all? Only Daisy wouldn't be such a flat as to telegraph it all +the way from Ireland to _me_. I hope she'll see me. It's awfully early. +I wonder if she'll blow me up for coming so soon." + +These reflections, and Catamount's thorough-bred canter, soon brought +him to Mrs. Lushington's door. She was at home, and sufficiently +well prepared for exercises of ingenuity, having been engaged, after +breakfast,--though it is but fair to say, such skirmishes were of +unusual occurrence,--in a passage-of-arms with Frank. + +The latter was a good-_natured_ man, with a bad _temper_. His wife's +temper was excellent; but her enemies, and indeed her friends, said she +was ill-_natured_. Though scarcely to be called an attached couple, +these two seldom found it worth while to quarrel, and so long as the +selfishness of each did not clash with the other, they jogged on +quietly enough. It was only when domestic affairs threw them together +more than common, that the contact elicited certain sparks, such +as crackled on occasion into what observers below-stairs called a +"flare-up." + +To-day they happened to breakfast together. After a few "backhanders," +and some rapid exchanges, in which the husband came by the worst, their +conversation turned on money-matters--always a sore subject, as each +considered that the other spent more than a due share of their joint +income. Complaints led to recriminations, until at length, goaded +by the sharpness of his wife's tongue, Mr. Lushington exclaimed: +"Narrow-minded, indeed! Paltry economy! I can tell you, if I didn't +keep a precious tight hand, and deny myself--well--lots of things. +I say if I didn't deny myself _lots_ of things, I should be in the +Bench--that's all." + +"Then you are a very bad financier," she retorted, "worse than the +Chancellor of the Exchequer even. But I don't believe it. I believe +you're saving money every day." + +He rose from his chair in a transport of irritation, the skirts of his +dressing-gown floating round him, like the rags of a whirling dervish. + +"Saving money!" he repeated, in a sort of suppressed scream. "I can +only tell you I had to borrow five hundred last week, and from little +Sharon too. That doesn't mean getting it at three per cent.!" + +"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" said she. "No gentleman +borrows money from Sharon." + +"No gentleman!" he vociferated. "Upon my life, Mrs. Lushington, I wish +you would try to be more temperate in your language. No Gentleman, +indeed! I should like to know what you call General St. Josephs? I +fancy he is rather a favourite of yours. All I can tell you is, _he_ +borrows money of Sharon. Lumps of money, at exorbitant interest." + +"It's very easy to _say_ these things," she replied. "But you can't +prove them!" + +"Can't I?" was his rejoinder. "Well, I suppose you won't doubt my +word, when I give you my honour, that he consulted me himself about a +loan from this very man. Three thousand pounds, Mrs. Lushington--three +thousand pounds sterling, and at two days' notice. Didn't care what he +paid for it, and wanted it; well, _I_ didn't ask him why he wanted it; +_I_ don't pry into other people's money-matters. _I_ don't always think +the worst of my neighbours. But you'll allow I'm right, I hope! You'll +admit so much at any rate!" + +"That has nothing to do with it," replied his wife; and in this highly +satisfactory manner their matrimonial bicker terminated. + +Mrs. Lushington, while remaining, in a modified sense, mistress of the +position--for Frank retired to his own den, when the servants came +to take away breakfast--found her curiosity keenly stimulated by the +little piece of gossip thus let fall under the excitement of a conjugal +wrangle. What on earth could St. Josephs want with three thousand +pounds? She had never heard he was a gambler. On a race-course, she +knew, from personal observation, that beyond a few half-crowns with the +ladies, he would not venture a shilling. He had told her repeatedly how +he abhorred foreign loans, joint-stock companies, lucrative investments +of all sorts, and money speculations of any kind whatever; yet here, if +she believed her husband, was this wise and cautious veteran plunging +overhead in a transaction wholly out of keeping with his character and +habits. "There _must_ be a woman at the bottom of it!" thought Mrs. +Lushington, not unreasonably, resolving at the same time never to rest +till she had sifted the whole mystery from beginning to end. + +She felt so keen on her quest, that she could even have found it +in her heart to seek Frank in his own snuggery, and, sinking her +dignity, there endeavoured to worm out of him further particulars, +when Catamount was pulled up with some difficulty at her door, and +his master's card sent in, accompanied by a humble petition that the +early visitor might be admitted. Having darkened her eyelashes just +before breakfast, and being, moreover, dressed in an unusually becoming +morning toilet, she returned a favourable answer, so that Soldier +Bill, glowing from his ride, was ushered into her boudoir without delay. + +Her womanly tact observed his fussed and anxious looks. She assumed, +therefore, an air of interest and gravity in her own. + +"There's some bother," said she kindly; "I see it in your face. How can +I help you, and what can I do?" + +"You're a conjuror, by Jove!" gasped Bill, in a paroxysm of admiration +at her omniscience. + +"_You're_ not, at any rate!" she replied, smiling. "But, come, tell me +all about it. You're in a scrape? You've been a naughty boy. What have +you been doing? Out with it!" + +"It's nothing of my own; I give you my honour," replied Bill. +"It's Daisy's turn now. Look here, Mrs. Lushington. I'm completely +puzzled--regularly knocked out of time. Read that. I can't make head or +tail of it." + +He handed her the telegram, which she perused in silence, then burst +out laughing, and read it again aloud for his edification:-- + +"_Very strong Honey just arrived--bulls a-light on Bank of +Ireland--Sent by an unknown Fiend--fail immediately--Sell +Chief--consult a Gent, and strip Aaron at once--Do not lose a moment._" + +"Mr. Walters must be gone raving mad, or is this a practical joke, and +why do you bring it here?" + +"I don't think it's a joke," answered Bill ruefully. "I brought it +because you know everything. If _you_ can't help me, I'm done!" + +"Quite right," said she. "Always consult a woman in a tangle. Now this +thing is just like a skein of silk. If we can't unravel it at one end, +we begin at the other. In the first place, who is Aaron? and how would +you proceed to strip him?" + +"Aaron," repeated Bill thoughtfully. "Aaron--I never heard of such a +person. There's Sharon, you know; but stripping _him_ would be out of +the question. It's generally the other way!" + +"Sharon's a money-lender, isn't he?" she asked. "What business have +_you_ to know anything about him, you wicked young man?" + +"Never borrowed a sixpence in my life," protested Bill, which was +perfectly true. "But I've been to him often enough lately about this +business of Daisy's. We've arranged to get fifteen hundred from _him_ +alone. Perhaps that is what is meant by stripping him. But it was all +to be in hard money; and though I know Sharon sometimes makes you take +goods, I never heard of his sending a fellow bulls, or strong honey, or +indeed, anything but dry sherry and cigars." + +She knit her brows and read the message again. "I think I have it," +said she. "'_Strip Aaron._' That must mean 'Stop Sharon.' '_Sell +the Chief_',--that's 'Tell the Colonel.' Then '_fail immediately_' +signifies that the writer means to cross by the first boat. Where does +it come from--Dublin or Roscommon?" + +"Roscommon," answered Bill. "They're not much in the habit of +telegraphing up there." + +"Depend upon it Daisy has dropped into a good thing. Somebody must +have left, or lent, or _given_ him a lot of money. I have it! I have +it! This is how you must read it," she exclaimed, and following the +lines with her taper finger, she put them into sense with no little +exultation, for the benefit of her admiring listener. "'_Very strange! +Money just arrived. Bill at sight, on Bank of Ireland. Sent by an +unknown Friend. Sail immediately. Tell Chief. Consult Agent, and stop +Sharon at once._ Do not lose a moment.' There, sir, should I, or should +I not, make a good expert at the Bank." + +"You're a witch--simply a witch," returned the delighted Bill. "It's +regular, downright magic. Of course, that's what he means. Of course, +he's come into a fortune. Hurrah! hurrah! Mrs. Lushington, have you any +objection? I should like to throw my hat in the street, please, and put +my head out of window to shout!" + +"I beg you'll put out nothing of the kind!" she answered, laughing. "If +you must be a boy, at least be a good boy, and do what I tell you." + +"I should think I _would_ just!" he protested, still in his paroxysm of +admiration. "You know more than the examiners at Sandhurst! You could +give _pounds_ to the senior department! If you weren't so--I mean if +you were old and ugly--I should really believe what I said at first, +that you're a witch!" + +She smiled on him in a very bewitching manner; but her brains were +hard at work the while recapitulating all she had learned in the last +twenty-four hours, with a pleasant conviction that she had put her +puzzle together at last. Yes, she saw it clearly now. The registered +envelope of which she found the address, in reverse, on Blanche's +blotting-paper, must have contained those very bills, mentioned in +Daisy's telegram. It had struck her at the time that the handwriting +was stiff and formal, as if disguised; but this served to account for +the mysterious announcement of an "unknown fiend!" She was satisfied +that Miss Douglas had sent anonymously the sum he wanted to the man +she loved. And that sum Bill had already told her was three thousand +pounds--exactly the amount, according to her husband's version, lately +borrowed by the General from a notorious money-lender. Was it possible +Satanella could thus have stripped one admirer to benefit another? +It must be so. Such treachery deserved no mercy, and Mrs. Lushington +determined to show none. + +She considered how far her visitor might be trusted with this startling +discovery. It was as well, she thought, that he should be at least +partially enlightened, particularly as the transaction was but little +to the credit of any one concerned, and could not, therefore, be made +public too soon. So she laid her hand on Bill's coat-sleeve, and +observed impressively-- + +"Never mind about my being old and ugly, but attend to what I say. +Daisy, as you call him, has evidently found a good friend. Now I know +who that friend is. Don't ask me how I found it out. I never speak +without being sure. That money came from Miss Douglas." + +Bill opened his eyes and mouth. "Miss Douglas!" he repeated. "Not the +black girl with the black mare?" + +"The black girl with the black mare, and no other," she answered. "Miss +Douglas has paid his debts, and saved him from ruin. What return can a +man make for such generosity as that?" + +"She's a trump, and he ought to marry her!" exclaimed the young +officer. "No great sacrifice either. Only," he added, on reflection, +"she looks a bit of a Tartar--wants her head let quite alone at her +fences, I should think. She'd be rather a handful; but Daisy wouldn't +mind that. Yes; he's bound to marry her no doubt; and I'll see him +through it." + +"I quite agree with you," responded Mrs. Lushington, "but I won't have +you talk about ladies as if they were hunters. It's bad style, young +gentleman, so don't do it again. Now, attend to what I tell you. Jump +on that poor horse of yours; it must be very tired of staring into +my dining-room windows. Go to your agent, and send _him_ to Sharon. +Let your Colonel know at once. When Daisy arrives, impress on him all +that he is bound in honour to do, and you may come and see me again, +whenever you like, to report progress." + +So Bill leapt into the saddle in exceedingly good spirits, while Mrs. +Lushington sat down to her writing-table, with the self-satisfied +sensations of one who has performed an action of provident kindness and +good-will. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DEBT OF HONOUR + + +Daisy's astonishment, on receiving by post those documents that +restored him to the world from his vegetation in Roscommon, was no +less unbounded than his joy. When he opened the registered letter, +and bills for the whole amount of his liabilities fluttered out, +he could scarcely believe his eyes. Then he puzzled himself to no +purpose, in wild speculations as to the friend who had thus dropped +from the skies at his utmost need. He had an uncle prosperous enough +in worldly matters, but this uncle hated parting with his money, +and was, moreover, abroad, whereas the welcome letter bore a London +post-mark. He could think of no other relative nor friend rich enough, +even if willing, to assist him in so serious a difficulty. The more +he considered his good luck, the more inexplicable it appeared; nor, +taking his host into consultation, did that worthy's suggestions tend +to elucidate the mystery. + +In the first place, recalling many similar instances under his own +observation, Denis opined that the money must have been hidden up +for his guest, long ago, by his great grandmother, in a stocking, +and forgotten! Next, that the Prussian Government, having heard of +the mare's performances at Punchestown, had bought her for breeding +purposes, at such a sum as they considered her marketable value. And, +lastly (standing the more stoutly by this theory, for the failure of +its predecessors), that the whole amount had been subscribed under +a general vote of the Kildare Street Club, in testimony of their +admiration for Daisy's bold riding and straightforward conduct as a +sportsman! + +Leaving him perfectly satisfied with this explanation, Daisy bade +his host an affectionate farewell, and started without delay for +London, previously telegraphing to his comrade at Kensington certain +information and instructions for his guidance. Warped in its +transmission by an imaginative clerk in a hurry, we have seen how this +message confused and distracted the honest perceptions of its recipient. + +That young officer was sitting down to breakfast, with Venus under his +chair, while Benjamin, the badger, poked a cautious nose out of his +stronghold in the wardrobe, when the hasty retreat of one animal, and +formidable growlings of the other, announced a strange step on the +stairs. Immediately Daisy rushed into the room, vociferated for Barney +to look after his "traps" and pay the cab, seized a hot plate, wagged +his head at his host, and began breakfast without further ceremony. + +"Seem peckish, young man," observed Bill, contemplating his friend +with extreme satisfaction. "Sick as a fool last night, no doubt, and +sharp-set this morning in consequence. Go in for a cutlet, my boy. +Another kidney, then. That's right. Have a suck of the lemon, and at +him again!" + +Munching steadily, Daisy repudiated the imputation of sea-sickness, +with the scorn of a practised mariner. "It seems to me that I live +on that Channel," said he, "like a ship's-steward, Bill, or a +horse-marine! Well, I've done with it now, I hope, for some time. How +jolly it is to feel straight again! It's like your horse getting up, +when he's been on his head, without giving the crowner you deserve. It +was touch-and-go this time, old chap. I say, you got my telegram?" + +Bill laughed. "I did, indeed!" he answered; "and a nice mull they made. +Read it for yourself." + +Thus speaking, he tossed across the breakfast-table that singular +communication which his unassisted ingenuity had so failed to +comprehend. + +Daisy perused it with no little astonishment. "The fools!" he +exclaimed. "Why, Bill, you must have thought I'd gone mad." + +"We _did_," replied Bill gravely. "Stark staring, my boy. We said we +always _had_ considered you 'a hatter,' but not so bad as this." + +"_We!_" repeated his friend. "What d'ye mean by _we_? You didn't go +jawing about it in the regiment, Bill?" + +"When I say we," answered the other, with something of a blush, "I mean +me and Mrs. Lushington." + +"What had _she_ to do with it?" asked Daisy, pushing his plate away, +and lighting a cigar. "_She_ didn't send the stuff, I'll take my oath!" + +"But she knows who did," said Bill, filling a meerschaum pipe of +liberal dimensions, with profound gravity. + +Then they smoked in silence for several minutes. + +"It's a very rum go," observed Daisy, after a prolonged and thoughtful +puff. "I don't know when I've been so completely at fault. Tell me what +you've heard, Bill, for you _have_ heard something, I'm sure. In the +first place, how came you to take counsel with Mrs. Lushington?" + +"Because she is up to every move in the game," was the answer. "Because +she's the cleverest woman in London, and the nicest. Because I was +regularly beat, and could think of nobody else to help me at short +notice. The telegram said, 'Do not lose a moment.'" + +"And what did _she_ make of it?" asked Daisy. + +"Tumbled to the whole plant in three minutes," answered Bill. "Put the +telegram straight--bulls, honey, and all--as easy as wheeling into +line. I tell you, we know as much as you do now, and _more_. You've got +three 'thou,' Daisy, ready-money down, to do what you like with. Isn't +that right?" + +Daisy nodded assent. + +"The Chief's delighted, and I've sent the agent to Sharon. Luckily, +the little beggar's not so unreasonable as we thought he'd be. That +reckons up the telegram, doesn't it?" + +Again Daisy nodded, smoking serenely. + +"Then there's nothing more for you to bother about," continued his +host; "and I'm glad of it. Only, next time, Daisy, you won't pull for +an old woman, I fancy, in a winning race." + +"Nor a young one either," said his friend. "But you haven't told me now +who the money came from." + +"Can't you guess? Have you no idea?" + +"Not the faintest." + +"What should you say to Miss Douglas?" + +"Miss Douglas!" + +By the tone in which Daisy repeated her name, that young lady was +obviously the last person in the world from whom he expected to receive +pecuniary assistance. + +Though no longer peaceful, his meditations seemed deeper than ever. At +length he threw away the end of his cigar with a gesture of impatience +and vexation. + +"This is a very disagreeable business," said he. "Hang it, Bill, I +almost wish the money had never come. I can't send it back, for a +thousand's gone already to our kind old major, who promised to settle +my book at Tattersall's. I wonder where she got such a sum. By Jove, +it's the handsomest thing I ever heard of! What would you do, Bill, if +you were in my place?" + +"Do," repeated his friend; "I've no doubt what I should _do_. I should +order Catamount round at once; then I think I'd have a brandy-and-soda; +in ten minutes I'd be at Miss Douglas's door, and in fifteen I'd +have--what d'ye call it?--proposed to her. Proposed to her, my boy, all +according to regulation. I'm not sure how you set about these things. I +fancy you go down on your knees; I know you ought to put your arm round +their waists; but lots of fellows could coach you for all that part, +and even if you did anything that's not in the book, this is a case of +emergency, and, in my opinion, you might chance it!" + +Having thus delivered himself, the speaker assumed a judicial air, +smoking severely. + +"In plain English, a woman buys one for three thousand pounds!" said +Daisy, laughing rather bitterly. "_And only three thousand bid for him. +Going! Going!!_" + +"_Gone!!!_" added Bill, bringing his fist down on the table with a bang +that startled the badger, and elicited an angry bark from Venus. "A +deuced good price, too; I only hope I shall fetch half as much when I'm +brought to the hammer. Why you ought to be delighted, my good fellow. +She's as handsome as paint, and the best horse-woman that ever wore a +habit!" + +"I don't deny her riding, nor her beauty, nor her merit in every way," +said Daisy, somewhat ruefully. "In fact, she's much too good for a +fellow like me. But do you mean, seriously, Bill, that I must marry her +because she has paid my debts?" + +"I do, indeed," answered his friend; "and Mrs. Lushington thinks so +too." + +Before Daisy's eyes rose the vision of an Irish river glancing in the +sunshine, with banks of tender green and ripples of molten gold, and +a fishing-rod lying neglected on its margin, while a fair, fond face +looked loving and trustful in his own. + +There are certain hopes akin to the child's soap-bubble which we +cherish insensibly, admiring their airy grace and radiant colouring, +almost persuading ourselves of their reality, till we apply to them +some practical test--then behold! at a touch, the bubble bursts, +the dream vanishes, to leave us only a vague sense of injustice, an +uncomfortable consciousness of disappointment and disgust. + +"I conclude Mrs. Lushington understands these things, and knows exactly +what a fellow ought to do," said Daisy, after another pause that +denoted he was in no indiscreet hurry to act on that lady's decision. + +"Of course she does!" answered Bill. "She's a regular authority, you +know, or I wouldn't have gone to her. You couldn't be in safer hands." + +Both young men seemed to look on the whole transaction in the light +of a duel, or some such affair of honour, requiring caution no less +than courage, and in the conduct of which the opinion of a celebrated +practitioner like Mrs. Lushington was invaluable and unimpeachable. + +"But if I--if I don't like her well enough," said poor Daisy, looking +very uncomfortable. "Hang it, Bill, when one marries a woman, you +know, one's obliged to be always with her. Early breakfast, home to +luncheon, family dinner, smoke out of doors, and in by ten o'clock. I +shouldn't like it at all; and then perhaps she'd take me to morning +visits and croquet parties. Think of that, Bill! Like poor Martingale, +whose only holiday is when he gets the belt on, and can't stir out of +barracks for four-and-twenty hours. To be sure, Miss Douglas is a good +many cuts above Mrs. Martingale!" + +"To be sure she is!" echoed his adviser. "And I dare say, after all, +Daisy, it is not quite so bad as we think. Wet days and that you'd +have to yourself, you know, and she wouldn't want you when she had a +headache. Mrs. Martingale often has headaches, and so should I if I +liquored up as freely!" + +"But supposing," argued Daisy, "I say only _supposing_, Bill, one liked +another girl better; oughtn't that to make a difference?" + +"I'm afraid _not_," replied Bill, shaking his head. "I didn't think of +putting the case in that way to Mrs. Lushington, but I don't imagine +she'd admit the objection. No, no, my boy, it's no use being shifty +about it. You've got to jump, and the longer you look, the less you'll +like it! If it was a mere matter of business, I wouldn't say a word, +but see how the case stands. There are no receipts, no vouchers; she +has kept everything dark, that you might feel under no obligation. Hang +it, old fellow, it's a regular debt of honour; and there's no way of +paying up, that I can see, but this." + +Such an argument was felt to be unanswerable. + +"A debt of honour," repeated Daisy. "I suppose it is. Very well; I'll +set about it at once. I can't begin to-day though." + +"Why not?" asked his friend. + +"No time," answered the other, who in many respects was a true +Englishman. "I've got lots of things to do. In the first place, I must +have my hair cut, of course!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A PERTINENT QUESTION + + +A letter, without date or signature, written in an upright, clerkly +hand, correctly spelt, sufficiently well-expressed, and stamped at the +General Post Office! St. Josephs had no clue to his correspondent, +and could but read the following production over and over again with +feelings of irritation and annoyance that increased at each perusal:-- + +"You have been grossly ill-treated and deceived. A sense of justice +compels the writer of these lines to warn you before it is too late. +You are the victim of a conspiracy to plunder and defraud. One cannot +bear to see a man of honour robbed by the grossest foul play. General +St. Josephs is not asked to believe a bare and unsupported statement. +Let him recapitulate certain facts, and judge for himself. He best +knows whether he did not lately borrow a large sum of money. He can +easily discover if that amount corresponds, to a fraction, with the +losses of a young officer celebrated for his horsemanship. Let him +ascertain why that person's debts have stood over till now; also, how +and when they have been settled. Will he have courage to ask himself, +or _somebody_ he trusts as himself, whence came these funds that have +placed his rival in a position to return to England? Will he weigh +the answer in the balance of common-sense; or is he so infatuated by +a certain dark lady that he can be fooled with his eyes open, in full +light of day? There is no time to lose, or this caution would never +have been given. If neglected, the General will regret his incredulity +as long as he lives. Most women would appreciate his admiration; many +would be more than proud of his regard. There is but one, perhaps, in +the world who could thus repay it by injury and deceit. He is entreated +to act at once on this communication, and to believe that of all his +well-wishers it comes from the sincerest and the most reliable." + +Everybody affects to despise anonymous letters. No doubt it is a wise +maxim that such communications should be put in the fire at once, +and ignored as if they did not exist. Nevertheless, on the majority +of mankind they inflict unreasonable anxiety and distress. The sting +rankles, though the insect be infinitesimal and contemptible; the blow +falls none the less severely that it has been delivered in the dark. + +On a nature like the General's such an epistle as the above was +calculated to produce the utmost amount of impatience and discomfort. +To use a familiar expression, it _worried_ him beyond measure. +Straightforward in all his dealings, he felt utterly at a loss when +he came in contact with mystery or deceit. Nothing could furnish +plainer proof of the General's sincere attachment to Miss Douglas than +the fortitude with which he confronted certain petty vexations and +annoyances inseparable from the love affairs of young and old. + + "Ah me! what perils do environ, + The man who meddles with cold iron," + +quoth Hudibras, but surely his risk is yet greater, who elects to heat +the metal from hilt to point in the furnace of his own affections, and +burns his fingers every time he draws the sword, even in self-defence. +To St. Josephs who, after a manhood of hardship, excitement, and some +military renown, had arrived at a time of life when comfort and repose +are more appreciated, and more desirable every day, nothing could have +been so distasteful as the character he now chose to enact, but for +_her_ charms, who had cast the part for him, and with whom, by dint of +perseverance and fidelity, he hoped to play out the play. + +Though he often sighed to remember how heavily he was weighted with his +extra burden of years, he never dreamed of retiring from the contest, +nor relaxed for one moment in his efforts to attain the goal. + +Twenty times was he on the point of destroying a letter that so annoyed +him, and twenty times he checked himself, with the reflection, that +even the treacherous weapon might be wrested from the enemy, and turned +to his own advantage by sincerity and truth. After much cogitation, +he ordered his horse, dressed himself carefully, and rode to Miss +Douglas's door. + +That lady was at home. Luncheon, coming out of the dining-room +untouched, met him as he crossed the hall, and the tones of her +pianoforte rang in his ears, while he went upstairs. When the door +opened she rose from the instrument and turned to greet him with a pale +face, showing traces of recent tears. + +All his self-command vanished at these tokens of her distress. + +"You've been crying, my darling," said he, and taking her hand in both +his own, he pressed it fondly to his lips. + +It was not a bad beginning. Hitherto he had always been so formal, so +respectful, so unlike a lover; now, when he saw she was unhappy, the +man's real nature broke out, and she liked him none the worse. + +Withdrawing her hand, but looking very kindly, and speaking in a softer +tone than usual, she bade him take no notice of her agitation. + +"I'm nervous," said she. "I often am. You men can't understand these +things, but it's better than being cross at any rate." + +"Cross!" he repeated. "Be as cross and as nervous as you like, only +make _me_ the prop when you require support, and the scapegoat when you +want to scold." + +"You're too good," said she, her dark eyes filling again, whereat he +placed himself very close and took her hand once more. "Far too good +for _me_! I've told you so a hundred times. General, shall I confess +why I was--was making such a fool of myself, and what I was thinking of +when you came in?" + +"If it's painful to _you_, I'd rather not hear it," was his answer. "I +want to be associated with the sunshine of your life, Blanche, not its +shade." + +She shook her head. + +"Whoever takes that part in _my_ life," she replied, "must remain a +good deal in the dark. That's what I was coming to. General, it is +time you and I should understand each other. I feel I could tell _you_ +things I would not breathe to any other living being. You're so safe, +so honourable, so punctiliously, so _ridiculously_ honourable, and I +_like_ you for it." + +He looked grateful. + +"I want you to like me," said he. "Better and better every day. I'll +try to deserve it." + +"They say time works wonders," she answered wistfully, "and I feel +I shall. I _know_ I shall. But there are some things I _must_ tell +you now, while I have the courage. Mind, I am prepared to take all +consequences. I have deceived you, General. Deceived you in a way you +could never imagine nor forgive." + +"So people seem to think," he observed coolly, producing, at the +same time, the anonymous letter from his pocket. "I should not have +troubled you with such trash, but as you have chosen to make me your +father-confessor, perhaps I ought to say your _grand_-father confessor, +this morning, you may as well look through it, before we put that +precious production in the fire." + +He walked to the window, so as not to see her face while she read it, +nor was this little act of delicacy and forbearance lost on such a +woman as Blanche Douglas. + +Her temper, nevertheless, became thoroughly roused before she got to +the end of the letter, causing her to place herself once more in the +position of an adversary. Her eyes shone, her brows lowered, and her +words came in the tight concentrated accents of bitter anger while she +bade him turn round, and look her in the face. + +"This has only anticipated me," said she, pale and quivering. "I stand +here, arraigned like any prisoner in the dock, but with no excuses to +offer, no defence to make. It is a fine position, truly; but having +been fool enough to accept it, I do not mean to shrink from its +disgrace. Ask me what questions you will, I am not afraid to answer +them." + +"Honestly?" said he, "without quibbles or after-thought, and once for +all?" + +She looked very stern and haughty. + +"I am not in the habit of shuffling," she replied. "I never yet feared +results from word or action of mine. And what I say, you may depend +upon it, I mean." + +On the General's face came an expression of confidence and resolution +she had never noticed before. Meeting his regard firmly, it occurred to +her that so he must have looked when he rode through that Sepoy column, +and charged those Russian guns. He was a gallant fellow, no doubt, +bold and kind-hearted too. + +If he had only been twenty years younger, or even ten! + +He spoke rather lower than usual; but every syllable rang clear and +true, while his eyes looked frankly and fearlessly into her own. + +"Then answer my question once for all. Blanche, will you be my wife? +Without farther hesitation or delay?" + +"Let me explain first." + +"I ask for no explanation, and will listen to none. Suppose me to +repose implicit confidence in the vague accusations of an anonymous +slander. Suppose me to believe you false and fickle, a shameless +coquette, and myself an infatuated old fool. Suppose anything and +everything you please; but first answer the question I ask you from the +bottom of my heart, with this anonymous statement, false or true, I +care not a jot which, in my hand." + +He held it as if about to tear it across and fling it in the grate. She +laid a gentle touch on his arm and whispered softly-- + +"Don't destroy it till I've answered your question. Yes. There is +nobody like you in the world!" + +We need not stop to repeat a proverb touching the irreverent +persistency of Folly in travelling hand-in-hand with Age; and of what +extravagances the General might have been guilty, in his exceeding joy, +it is impossible to guess, had she not stopped him at the outset. + +"Sit down there," she said, pointing to a corner of the sofa, +while establishing herself in an armchair on the other side of the +fire-place. "Now that you have had your say, perhaps you will let me +have _mine_! Hush! I know what you mean. I take all that for granted. +Stay where you are, hold your tongue, and listen to me." + +"The first duty of a soldier is obedience," he answered in great glee. +"I'll be as steady as I can." + +"It is my _right_ now to explain," she continued gravely. "Believe +me. I most fully appreciate; I never can forget. Whatever happened +I never _could_ forget the confidence you have shown in me to-day. +Depend upon it, when you trust people so unreservedly, you make it +_impossible_ for them to deceive. I have always honoured and admired +you. During the last hour I have learned to--to--well--to think you +deserve more than honour and esteem. Any woman might be proud and +happy--yes--happy to belong to you. But now, if I am to be your +wife--don't interrupt. Well, _as_ I am to be your wife, you must let me +tell you everything--everything--or I recall my promise." + +"Don't do that," he answered playfully. "But mind, I'm quite satisfied +with you as you are, and ask to know _nothing_." + +She hesitated, and the colour came to her brow while she completed +her confession. "You--you lent me some money, you know; _gave_ it me, +I ought to say, for I'm quite sure you never expected to see it back +again. It was a good deal. Don't contradict. It _was_ a good deal, and +I wonder how I could have the face to ask for it. But I didn't want it +for myself. It was to save from utter ruin a very old and dear friend." + +"I know all about it," said he cheerfully. "At least, I can guess. Very +glad it should be so well employed. But all that was _your_ business, +not mine." + +"And you never even asked who got it!" she continued, while again there +gathered a mist to veil her large dark eyes. + +"My dear Blanche," he answered, "I was only too happy to be of service +to you. Surely it was your own, to employ as you liked. I don't want to +know any more about it, even now." + +"But you _must_ know," she urged. "I've been going to tell you ever so +often, but something always interrupted us; and once, when I had almost +got it out, the words seemed to die away on my lips. Listen. You know +I'm not very young." + +He bowed in silence. The reflection naturally presented itself that if +_she_ was not very young, _he_ must be very old. + +Miss Douglas proceeded, with her eyes fixed on her listener, as if she +was looking at something a long way off. + +"Of course I've seen and known lots of people in my life, and had +some great friends--I mean _real_ friends--that I would have made any +sacrifice to serve. Amongst these was Mr. Walters. I used to call him +Daisy. General, I--I liked him better than all the rest. Better than +anybody in the world--" + +"And now?" asked the General anxiously, but carrying a bold front +notwithstanding. + +"_Now_, I know I was mistaken," she replied. "Though that's not the +question. Well, after that horrid race--when my beautiful mare ought +to have won, and _didn't_--I knew Daisy--Mr. Walters, I mean--had lost +more than he could afford to pay--in plain English, he was ruined; and +worse, wouldn't be able to show, unless somebody came to the rescue. +I hadn't got the money myself. Not a hundredth part of it! So I asked +_you_, and--and--sent it all to _him_. Now you know the whole business." + +"I knew it long ago," said he gently. "At least, I might have known it, +had I ever allowed the subject to enter my head. Does _he_ know it too, +do you think, Blanche?" + +"Good heavens! No!" she exclaimed. "That _would_ be a complication. +You don't think there's a chance of it! I took every care--every +precaution. What _should_ I do? General, what would you advise?" + +He smiled to mark how she was beginning to depend on him, drawing +a good augury from this alteration in her character, and would no +doubt have replied in exceedingly affectionate terms, but that he was +interrupted by the opening of the drawing-room door, and entrance of +a servant, who, in a matter-of-fact voice, announced a visitor--"Mr. +Walters!" + +Blanche turned white to her lips, and muttered rapidly, "Won't you +stay, General? _Do!_" + +But the General had already possessed himself of his hat, and, with +an air of good-humoured confidence, that she felt did honour both +to herself and him, took a courteous leave of his hostess, and gave +a hearty greeting to the newcomer as they passed each other on the +threshold. + +"I think I've won the battle," muttered the old soldier, mounting his +horse briskly in the street; "though I've left the enemy in possession +of the ground!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A SATISFACTORY ANSWER + + +Daisy, with his hair cut exceedingly short, as denoting that he was +on the eve of some great crisis in life, entered the apartment in the +sheepish manner of a visitor who is not quite sure about his reception. +Though usually of cheerful and confident bearing, denoting no want of +a certain self-assertion, which the present generation call "cheek," +all his audacity seemed to have deserted him, and he planted himself +in the centre of the carpet, with his hat in his hand like the poor, +spiritless bridegroom at Netherby, who stood "dangling his bonnet and +plume" while his affianced and her bridesmaids were making eyes at +young Lochinvar. + +Miss Douglas, too, required a breathing-space to restore her +self-command. When they had shaken hands, it was at least a minute +before either could find anything to say. + +The absurdity of the situation struck them both, but the lady was the +first to recover her presence of mind; and, with a laugh not the least +genuine, welcomed him back to England, demanding the latest news from +Paddy-land. + +"You've been at Cormac's-town, of course," said she. "You can tell us +all about dear Lady Mary, and your pretty friend Norah. I hope she +asked to be remembered to _me_." + +He blushed up to his eyes, turning his hat in his hands, as if he would +fain creep into it bodily and hide himself from notice in the crown. + +She saw her advantage, and gained courage every minute, so as to stifle +and keep down the gnawing pain that made her so sick at heart. + +"I wonder Norah trusts you in London," she continued, with another of +those forced smiles. "I suppose you're only on short leave, as you call +it, and mean to go back directly. Will you have the black mare to ride +while you are in town? I've taken great care of her, and she's looking +beautiful!" + +To her own ear, if not to his, there was a catch in her breath while +she spoke the last words, that warned her she would need all her +self-command before the play was played out. + +He thanked her kindly enough, while he declined the offer; but his tone +was so grave, so sorrowful, that she could keep up the affectation of +levity no longer. + +"What is it?" she asked, in an altered voice. "Daisy!--Mr. Walters! +What is the matter? Are you offended? I was only joking about Norah." + +"Offended!" he repeated. "How could I ever be offended with _you_? But +I didn't come here to talk about Miss Macormac, nor even Satanella, +except in so far as the mare is connected with your generosity and +kindness." + +"What do you mean?" she asked, in considerable trepidation. "_You_ +were the generous one, for you gave me the best hunter in your stable, +without being asked." + +"As if you had not bought her over and over again!" he exclaimed, +finding voice and words and courage now that he was approaching the +important topic. "Miss Douglas, it's no use denying your good deeds, +nor pretending to ignore their magnificence. It was only yesterday I +learned the real name of my _unknown friend_! I tell you that money of +yours saved me from utter ruin--worse than ruin, from such disgrace as +if I had committed a felony, and been sent to prison!" + +"I'm sure you look as if you had just come out of one," she interposed, +"with that cropped head. Why do you let them cut your hair so short? It +makes you hideous!" + +"Never mind my cropped head," he continued, somewhat baffled by the +interruption. "I hurried here at once, to thank you with all my heart, +as the best friend I ever had in the world." + +"Well, you've done it," said she. "That's quite enough. Now let us talk +of something else." + +"But I _haven't_ done it," protested Daisy, gathering, from the +obstacles in his way, a certain inclination to his task or at least a +determination to go through with it. "I haven't said half what I've got +to say, nor a quarter of what I feel. You have shown that you consider +me a near and dear friend. You have given me the plainest possible +proof of your confidence and esteem. All this instigates me--or rather +induces me, or, shall I say, encourages me--to hope, or perhaps +persuade myself of some probability. In short, Miss Douglas--can't you +help a fellow out with what he's got to say?" + +Floundering about in search of the right expressions, she would have +liked him to go on for an hour. It was delightful to be even on the +brink of that paradise from which she must presently exclude herself +for ever with her own hands, and she forbore to interrupt him till he +came to a dead stop for want of words. + +"Nonsense!" she said. "Any friend would have done as much who had the +power. It's nothing to make a fuss about. I'm glad you're out of the +scrape, and there's an end to it." + +"You were always generous," he exclaimed. "You ought to have been a +man; I've said so a hundred times--only it's lucky you're _not_, or I +couldn't ask you a question that I don't know how to put in the right +form." + +She turned pale as death. It was come, then, at last--that moment +to which she had once looked forward as a glimpse of happiness too +exquisite for mortal senses. Here was the enchanted cup pressed to +her very lip, and she must not taste it--must even withdraw her eyes +from the insidious drink. And yet even now she felt a certain sense +of disappointment in her empty triumph, a vague misgiving that the +proffered draught was flatter than it should be, as if the bottle had +been already opened to slake another's thirst. + +"Better not ask," she said, "if the words don't come naturally,--if the +answer is sure to be _no_." + +In his intense relief he never marked the piteous tone of her voice, +nor the tremble of agony passing over her face, like the flicker of a +fire on a marble bust, to leave its features more fixed and rigid than +before. + +Even in her keen suffering she wished to spare _him_. Already she was +beginning to long for the dull insensibility that must succeed this +hour of mental conflict, as bodily numbness is the merciful result of +pain. She dreaded the possibility that his disappointment should be +anything like her own, and would fain have modified the blow she had no +choice but to inflict. + +Daisy, however, with good reason no doubt, was resolved to rush on his +fate the more obstinately, as it seemed, because of the endeavours to +spare both him and herself. + +"I am a plain-spoken fellow," said he, "and--and--tolerably +straightforward, as times go. I'm not much used to this kind of +thing--at least, I've never regularly asked such a question before. +You mustn't be offended, Miss Douglas, if I don't go the right way to +work. But--but--it seems so odd that you should have come in and paid +my debts for me! Don't you think I ought--or don't you think _you_ +ought--in short, I've come here on purpose to ask you to marry me. I'm +not half good enough, I know, and lots of fellows would make you better +husbands, I'm afraid. But, really now--without joking--won't you try?" + +He had got into the spirit of the thing, and went on more swimmingly +than he could have hoped. There was almost a ring of truth in his +appeal, for Daisy's was a temperament that flung itself keenly into +the excitement of the moment, gathering ardour from the very sense of +pursuit. As he said himself, "He never could help riding, if he got a +start." + +And Miss Douglas shook in every limb while she listened with a wan, +weary face and white lips, parted in a rigid smile. It was not that +she was unaccustomed to solicitations of a like nature; whatever might +be her previous experience, scarcely an hour had passed since she +sustained a similar attack--and surely to accept an offer of marriage +ought to be more subversive of the nervous system than to refuse; yet +she could hardly have betrayed deeper emotions had she been trembling +in the balance between life and death. + +That was a brave heart of hers, or it must have failed to keep its own +rebellion down so firmly, and gather strength to answer in a calm, +collected voice-- + +"There are some things it is better not to think about, for they can +never be, and this is one of them." + +How little she knew what was passing in his mind! How little she +suspected that _her_ sentence was _his_ reprieve! And yet his self-love +was galled. He had made a narrow escape, and was thankful, no doubt, +but felt somewhat disappointed, too, that his danger had not been +greater still. + +"Do you mean it?" said he. "Well, you'll forgive my presumption, +and--and--you won't forget I asked you." + +"_Forget!_----" + +It was all she said; but a man must have been both blind and deaf not +to have marked the tone in which those syllables were uttered, the look +which accompanied them. Daisy brandished his hat, thinking it high time +to go, lest his sentence should be commuted, and his doom revoked. + +She put her hand to her throat, as if she must choke; but mastered her +feelings with an effort, forcing herself to speak calmly and distinctly +now, on a subject that must never be approached again. + +"Do not think I undervalue your offer," she said, gathering fortitude +with every word; "do not think me hard, or changeable, or unfeeling. If +you must not make me happy, at least you have made me very proud; and +if everything had turned out differently, I do hope I might have proved +worthy to be your wife. You're not angry with me, are you? And you +won't hate me because it's impossible?" + +"Not the least!" exclaimed Daisy, eagerly. "Don't think it for a +moment! Please not to make yourself unhappy about _me_." + +"I _am_ worthy to be your friend," she continued saddened, and it may +be a little vexed, by this remarkable exhibition of self-denial; "and +_as_ a friend I feel I owe you some explanation, beyond a bare 'No, +I won't.' It ought rather to be 'No, I _can't_;' because--because, to +tell you the honest truth, I have promised somebody else!" + +"I wish you joy with all my heart!" he exclaimed, gaily, and not the +least like an unsuccessful suitor. "I hope you'll be as happy as the +day is long! When is it to be? You'll send me an invitation to the +wedding, won't you?" + +Her heart was very sore. He did not even ask the name of his fortunate +rival, and he could hardly have looked more pleased, she thought, if he +had been going to marry her himself. + +"I don't know about that," she answered, shaking her head sadly. "At +any rate, I shall not see you again for a long time. Good-bye, Daisy," +and she held out a cold hand that trembled very much. + +"Good-bye," said he, pressing it cordially. "I shall never forget your +kindness. Good-bye." + +Then the door shut, and he was gone. + +Blanche Douglas sank into a sofa, and sat there looking at the opposite +wall, without moving hand or foot, till the long summer's day waned +into darkness and her servant came with lights. She neither wept, +nor moaned, nor muttered broken sentences, but remained perfectly +motionless, like a statue, and in all those hours she asked herself but +one question--"Do I love this man? and, if so, how can I ever bear to +marry the other?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +AFTERNOON TEA + + +"I wish you'd come, Daisy. You've no idea what it is, facing all those +swells by oneself!" + +"I have _not_ the cheek," was Daisy's reply. "They would chaff one so +awfully, if they knew. No, Bill, I'll see you through anything but +that." + +"Then I must show the best front I can without a support," said the +other ruefully. "Why can't she let me off these tea-fights? They're +cruelly slow. I don't see the good of them." + +"_She_ does," replied Daisy. "Not a woman in London knows what she is +about better than Mrs. Lushington." + +"How d'ye mean?" asked his less worldly-minded friend. + +"Why, you see," explained Daisy, "one great advantage of living in this +wicked town is, that you've no duty towards your neighbour. People +don't care two straws what you do, or how you do it, so long as you +keep your own line, without crossing theirs. They'll give you the best +of everything, and ask for no return, if only you'll pretend to be glad +to see them when you meet, and not forget them when you go away. That's +the secret of morning visits, card-leaving, wedding-presents, and the +whole of the sham. Now Mrs. Lushington goes everywhere, and never has +a ball, nor a drum, nor even a large dinner-party of her own, but she +says to her friends, 'I love you dearly, I can't exist without you. +Come and see me every Wednesday, except the Derby Day, all the London +season through, from five to seven P.M. I'll swear to be at home, and +I'll give you a cup of tea!' So, for nine pen'orth of milk, and some +hot water, she repays the hospitalities of a nation. She's pleased, +the world is gratified, and nobody's bored but _you_. It's all humbug, +that's the truth, and I'm very glad I'm so soon to be out of it!" + +"But you won't leave the Regiment?" said his brother officer kindly. + +"Not if I know it!" was the hearty response. "Norah likes soldiering, +and old Macormac doesn't care what we do, if we only visit _him_ in the +hunting season. Besides, my uncle put that in the conditions when he +'parted,' which he did freely enough, I am bound to admit, considering +all things." + +"You've not been long about it," observed Soldier Bill in a tone of +admiration. "It's little more than a month since you pulled through +after that 'facer' at Punchestown; and now, here you are booked to +one lady, after proposing to another, provided with settlements, +_trousseau_, bridesmaids, and very likely a bishop to marry you. Hang +it, Daisy, I've got an uncle _smothered_ in lawn; I'll give him the +straight tip, and ask him to tie you up fast." + +"You'll have to leave the Park at once," was Daisy's reply, "or you'll +be returned absent when the parade is formed. You know, Bill, you +_daren't_ be late, for your life." + +The two young men were by this time at Albert Gate, having spent a +pleasant half-hour together on a couple of penny chairs, while the +strange medley passed before them that throngs Hyde Park on every +summer's afternoon. Daisy was far happier than he either hoped or +deserved. After Satanella's refusal, he had felt at liberty to follow +the dictates of his own heart, and lost no time in prosecuting his suit +with Norah Macormac. The objections that might have arisen from want of +means were anticipated by his uncle's unlooked-for liberality, and he +was to be married as soon as the necessary arrangements could be made, +though, in consideration of his late doings, the engagement was at +present to be kept a profound secret. + +Notwithstanding some worldly wisdom, Daisy could believe that such +secrets divided amongst half-a-dozen people, would not become the +property of half-a-hundred. + +In mood like his, a man requires no companion but his own thoughts. +We will rather accompany Soldier Bill, as he picks his way into +Belgravia, stepping daintily over the muddy crossings, cursing the +water-carts, and trying to preserve the polish of his boots, up to +Mrs. Lushington's door. + +Yet into those shining boots his heart seemed almost sinking, when he +marked a long line of carriages in the streets, a crowd of footmen on +the steps and pavement. No man alive had better nerve than Bill, to +ride, or fight, or swim, or face any physical danger; but his hands +turned cold, and his face hot, when about to confront strange ladies, +either singly or in masses; and for him, the rustling of muslin was as +the shaking of a standard to the inexperienced charger, a signal of +unknown danger, a flutter of terror and dismay. + +Nevertheless, he mastered his weakness, following his own name +resolutely upstairs, in a white heat, no doubt, yet supported by +the calmness of despair. Fortunately, he found his hostess at her +drawing-room door. The favourable greeting she accorded him would have +reassured the most diffident of men. + +"You're a good boy," she whispered, with a squeeze of his hand. "I was +almost afraid you wouldn't come. Stay near the door, while I do the +civil to the arch-duchess. I'll be back directly. I've got something +very particular to ask you." + +So, while Mrs. Lushington did homage (in French) to the arch-duchess, +who was old, fat, good-humoured, and very sleepy, Bill took up a +position from which he could pass the inmates of the apartment in +review. Observing his welcome by their hostess, and knowing _who he +was_, two or three magnificent ladies thought it not derogatory +to afford him a gracious bow; and as they forbore to engage him in +discourse, a visitation of which Bill had fearful misgivings, he soon +felt sufficiently at ease to inspect unconcernedly, and in detail, the +several individuals who constituted the crush. + +It was a regular London gathering, in the full-tide of the season, +consisting of the best-dressed, best-looking, and idlest people in +town. There seemed an excess of ladies, as usual; but who would +complain of a summer market that it was over stocked with flowers? +While of the uglier sex, the specimens were either very young or +very mature. There was scarcely a man to be seen between thirty and +forty, but a glut of young gentlemen, some too much and some too +little at their ease, with a liberal sprinkling of ancient dandies, +irreproachable in manners, and worthier members of society, we may +be permitted to hope, than society believed. A few notabilities were +thrown in, of course: the arch-duchess aforesaid; a missionary, who had +been tortured by the Chinese, dark, sallow, and of a physiognomy that +went far to extenuate the cruelty of the Celestials; a lady who had +spent two years at Thebes, and, perhaps for that reason, dressed almost +as low as the Egyptian Sphinx; a statesman out of office; a celebrated +preacher at issue with his bishop; a foreign minister; a London banker; +and a man everybody knew, who wrote books nobody read. Besides these, +there was the usual complement of ladies who gave, and ladies who went +to, balls; married women addicted to flirting; single ladies not +averse to it; stout mammas in gorgeous apparel; tall girls with baby +faces promising future beauty; a powdered footman winding, like an eel, +through the throng; Frank Lushington himself, looking at his watch to +see how soon it would be over; and Pretty Bessie Gordon, fresh and +smiling, superintending the tea. + +All this Bill took in, wondering. It seemed such a strange way of +spending a bright summer's afternoon, in weather that had come on +purpose for cricket, boating, yachting, all sorts of out-of-door +pursuits. Putting himself beside the question, for he felt as much on +duty as if he had the belt on in a barrack-yard, it puzzled him to +discover the spell that brought all these people together, in a hot +room, at six o'clock in the day. Was it sheer idleness, or the love +of talking, or only the follow-my-leader instinct of pigs and sheep? +Catching sight of General St. Josephs and Miss Douglas conversing apart +in a corner, he determined that it must be a motive stronger than any +of these, and looking down on her broad deep shoulders, marvelled how +such motive might affect his next neighbour, a lady of sixty years, +weighing some sixteen stone. + +It is fair to suppose, therefore, that Bill was as yet himself +untouched. His intimacy with Mrs. Lushington, while sharpening his wits +and polishing his manners, served, no doubt, to dispel those illusions +of romance that all young men are prone to cherish, more or less; and +Soldier Bill, with his fresh cheeks and simple heart, believed he was +becoming a thorough philosopher, an experienced man-of-the-world, +rating human weaknesses at their real value, and walking about the +battle of life sheathed in armour-of-proof. Honest Bill! How little he +dreamt that his immunity was only a question of time. The hour had not +yet come--nor the woman. + +Far different was St. Josephs. If ever man exulted in bondage and +seemed proud to rattle his chains, that man was the captive General. He +never missed an opportunity of attending his conqueror: riding in the +Park--"walking the Zoo"--waiting about at balls, drums, crush-rooms, +and play-houses,--he never left her side. + +Miss Douglas, loathing her own ingratitude, was weary of her life. Even +Bill could not help remarking the pale cheeks, the heavy eyes, the dull +lassitude of gait and bearing, that denoted the feverish unrest of one +who is sick at heart. + +He trod on a chaperone's skirt, and omitted to beg pardon; he stumbled +against his uncle, the bishop, and forgot to ask after his aunt. +So taken up was he with the faded looks of Miss Douglas, that he +neither remembered where he was, nor why he came, and only recovered +consciousness with the rustle of Mrs. Lushington's dress and her +pleasant voice in his ear. + +"Give me your arm," said she, pushing on through her guests, with many +winning smiles, "and take me into the little room for some tea." + +Though a short distance, it was a long passage. She had something +pleasant to say to everybody, as she threaded the crowd; but it could +be no difficult task for so experienced a campaigner, on her own +ground, to take up any position she required. And Bill found himself +established at last by her side, in a corner, where they were neither +overlooked nor overheard. + +"Now I want to know if it's true?" said she, dashing into the subject +at once. "_You_ can tell, if anybody can, and I'm sure you have no +secrets from _me_." + +"If _what's_ true?" asked Bill, gulping tea that made him hotter than +ever. + +"Don't be stupid!" was her reply. "Why, about Daisy of course. Is he +going to marry that Irish girl? I want to find out at once." + +"Well, it's no use denying it," stammered Bill, somewhat unwillingly. +"But it's a dead secret, Mrs. Lushington, and of course it goes no +farther." + +"Oh, of course!" she repeated. "Don't you know how safe I am? But +you're quite sure of it? You have it from himself?" + +"I've got to be his best man," returned Bill, by no means triumphantly. +"You'll coach me up a little, won't you, before the day? I haven't an +idea what to do." + +She laughed merrily. + +"Make love to the bridesmaids, of course," she answered. "Irish, no +doubt, every one of them. I'm not quite sure I shall give you leave." + +"I can't get out of it!" exclaimed Bill. "He's such a 'pal,' you know, +and a brother-officer, and all." + +She was amused at his simplicity. + +"I don't want you to get out of it," she answered, still laughing. "I +can't tell you what sort of a best man you'll make, but you're not +half a bad boy. You deserve something for coming to-day. Dine with us +to-morrow--nobody but the Gordon girls and a stray man. I must go and +see the great lady off. That's the worst of royalty. Good-bye," and she +sailed away, leaving Bill somewhat disconcerted by misgivings that he +had been guilty of a breach of trust. + +The party was thinning visibly upstairs, while people transferred +themselves with one accord to the hall and staircase, many appearing +to consider this the pleasantest part of the entertainment. Mrs. +Lushington had scarcely yet found time to speak three words to Blanche +Douglas, but she caught her dear friend now, on the eve of departure, +and held her fast. The General had gone to look for his lady-love's +carriage. They were alone in Mr. Lushington's snuggery, converted +(though not innocent of tobacco-smoke) into a cloak-room for the +occasion. + +"So good of you to come, dear Blanche, and to bring _him_," (with a +meaning smile). "I waited to pounce on you _here_. I've got _such_ a +piece of news for you!" + +Miss Douglas looked as if nothing above, upon, or under the earth could +afford her the slightest interest, but she was obliged to profess a +polite curiosity. + +"Who _do_ you think is going to be married? Immediately! next week, I +believe. Who but our friend Daisy!" + +The shot told. Though Miss Douglas received it with the self-command of +a practised duellist, so keen an observer as her friend did not fail to +mark a quiver of the eye-lids, a tightening of the lips, and a grey hue +creeping gradually over the whole face. + +"Our fickle friend Daisy, of all people in the world!" continued +Mrs. Lushington. "It only shows how we poor women can be deceived. I +sometimes fancied he admired _me_, and I never doubted but he cared +for _you_, whereas he has gone and fallen a victim to that wild Irish +girl of Lady Mary Macormac's--the pretty one--that was such a friend of +yours." + +"I always thought he admired her," answered Miss Douglas in a very +feeble voice. "I ought to write and wish Norah joy. Are you quite sure +it's true?" + +"Quite!" was the reply. "My authority is his own best man." + +Fortunately the General appeared at this juncture, with tidings of the +carriage, while through a vista of footmen might be seen at the open +door a brougham-horse on his hind legs, impatient of delay. + +"Good-bye, dear Blanche! You look so tired. I hope you haven't done too +much." + +"Good-bye, dear Clara! I've had such a pleasant afternoon." + +Putting her into the carriage, the General's kind heart melted within +him. She looked so pale and worn. She clung so confidingly, so +dejectedly to his arm. She pressed his hand so affectionately when he +bade her good-bye, and seemed so loth to let it go that, but for the +eyes of all England, which every man believes are fixed on himself +alone, he would have sprung in too, and driven off with her then and +there. + +But he consoled himself with the certainty of seeing her next day. That +comfort accompanied him to his bachelor lodgings, where he dressed, and +lasted all through a regimental dinner at the London Tavern. + +While a distinguished leader proposed his health, alluding in +flattering terms to the services he had rendered, and the dangers he +had faced, General St. Josephs was thinking far less of his short +soldier-like reply than of the pale face and the dark eyes that would +so surely greet him on the morrow; of the future about to open before +him at last, that should make amends for a life of war and turmoil, +with its gentle solace of love, and confidence, and repose. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A HARD MORSEL + + +Like the feasts of Apicius, that dinner at the London Tavern was +protracted to an unconscionable length. Its dishes were rich, various, +and indigestible, nothing being served _au naturel_ and without +"garnish" but the brave simplicity of the guests. + + "Wines too there were, that would have slain young Ammon," + +and old comrades seldom part under such conditions without the +consumption of much tobacco in the small hours. Nevertheless, St. +Josephs rose next morning fresh and hopeful as a boy. He ordered +his horse for an early canter in the Park, and shared the Row with +divers young ladies of tender years but dauntless courage, who crammed +their ponies along at a pace that caused manes, and tails, and golden +hair to float horizontal on the breeze, defiant even of that mounted +inspector, whose heart though professionally intolerant of "furious +riding," softened to a pigmy with snub nose and rosy cheeks, on a tiny +quadruped as round, as fat, and as saucy-looking as itself. + +St. Josephs felt in charity with all mankind, and returned to breakfast +so light of heart that he ought to have known, under the invariable law +of compensation, some great misfortune was in store. + +He had little appetite; happiness, like sorrow, when excessive, never +wants to eat; but he dressed himself again with the utmost care, and +after exhausting every expedient to while away the dragging hours, +started at half-past eleven for the abode of his ladye-love. + +Do what he would, it was scarcely twelve when he arrived at her door, +where his summons remained so long unanswered, that he had leisure to +speculate on the possibility of Miss Douglas being indisposed and not +yet awake. So he rang next time stealthily, and, as it were, under +protest, but in vain. + +The General then applied himself to the area bell. "They'll come +directly, now," he argued; "they'll think it's the beer!" And sure +enough the street-door was quickly unfastened, with more turning of +keys, clanking of chains, and withdrawal of bolts than is usual during +the middle of the season, in the middle of the day. + +A very grimy old woman met him on the threshold, and peering +suspiciously out of her keen, deep-set eyes, demanded his business in a +hoarse voice, suggestive of gin. + +"Miss Douglas b'aint here," was the startling answer to his inquiries. +"She be gone away for good. Hoff this morning, I shouldn't wonder, +afore you was out of bed." + +"Gone!" he gasped. "This morning! Did she leave no message?" + +"None that I knows of. The servants didn't say nothink about it; +leastways, not to _me_." + +"But she's coming back?" + +"Not likely! The maid _did_ suppose as they was a-going for good and +all. It's no business of mine. I'm not Miss Douglas's servant. I'm +a-taking care of the 'ouse for the landlord, I am. It's time I was +a-tidying of it up now." + +With this broad hint, she proceeded to shut the door in his face, when +the General, recovering his presence of mind, made use of the only +argument his experience had taught him was universal and conclusive. + +Her frown relaxed with the touch of money on her palm. "You're a +gentleman, you are," she observed approvingly. "Won't ye step in, sir? +It's bad talking with the door in your 'and." + +He complied, and sat down on one of the bare hall-chairs, feeling as he +had felt once before, when badly hit, in the Punjaub. + +She went on with her dusting, talking all the time. "You see they +sent round for me first thing in the morning; and I says to Mrs. +Jones--that's my landlady, sir,"--(dropping a curtsey), "'Mrs. Jones,' +says I, 'whatever can they be up to,' says I, 'making such an early +flitting?' says I--" + +"But do you mean they've left no letter?" he interrupted, starting from +his seat; "no directions--no address? Are all the servants gone? Has +Miss Douglas taken much luggage with her? Did she go away in a cab? Oh, +woman! woman! tell me all you know! It's a matter of life and death!" + +She looked at him askance, privately opining that, early as it was, the +gentleman had been drinking, and sympathising with him none the less +for that impression. + +"They're off," said she stubbornly; "and they've took everythink along +with them--bags and boxes, and what not. There was a man round after +the keys--not half an hour gone. I should say as they wasn't coming +back, none of 'em, no more." + +This redundancy of negatives forcibly expressed her hopelessness of +their return, and the General's good sense told him it was time wasted +to cross-question his informant any further. Summoning his energies, +he reflected that the post-office would be the best place whereat to +prosecute inquiries, so he bade the old woman farewell, with all the +fortitude he could muster, leaving her much impressed by his manners, +bearing, and profuse liberality. + +At the post-office, however (an Italian warehouse round the corner), +they knew nothing. The General, at his wits' end, bethought him of +those livery-stables where Satanella kept her namesake, the redoubtable +black mare. + +Here his plight excited the utmost interest and commiseration. +"Certainly. The General should have all the assistance in their power. +Of course, the lady had forgotten to leave her address, no doubt. +Ladies _was_ careless, sometimes, in such matters. A _beautiful_ +'orse-woman," the livery-stable keeper understood, "an' kep' two +remarkably clever ones for her own riding. Had an idea they went away +this very morning. Might be mistaken. John could tell. John was the +head-ostler. It was John's business to know." So a bell rang, and John, +in a long-sleeved waistcoat, sleeking a close-cropped head, appeared +forthwith. + +"Black mare and chestnut 'oss," said John decidedly. "Gone this +morning; groom took with him saddles, clothing, and everything. Paid up +to the end of their week. Looked like travelling--had their knee-caps +on. Groom a close chap; wouldn't say where. Wish he (John) could find +out. Left a setting-muzzle behind, and would like to send it after him." + +There seemed nothing to be done here, and the General was fain to +retrace his steps, hurt, anxious, angry, and more puzzled when he +reached home than he had ever been in his life. + +For an hour or two, the whole thing seemed so impossible, and the +absurdity of the situation struck him as so ridiculous, that he sat +idly in his chair to wait for tidings. In this nineteenth century, he +told himself, people could not disappear from the surface of society, +and leave no sign. Rather, like the sea-bird diving in the waves, if +they go down in one place, they must come up in another. There were +no kidnappings now, no sendings off to the Plantations, no forcible +abductions of ladies young or old. Then his heart turned sick, and his +blood ran cold, while he recalled more than one instance in his own +experience, where individuals had suddenly vanished from their homes +and never been heard of again. + +Stung to action by such thoughts, he collected his ideas to organise +a comprehensive system of pursuit, that should embrace enquiries at +all the railway-stations, cab-stands, and turnpikes in and about the +metropolis, with the assistance of Scotland Yard in the background. +Then he remembered how an old brother-officer had told him, only the +other day, of a similar search made by himself, and attended with +success. So he resolved to consult that comrade without delay. It was +now two o'clock. He would find him eating luncheon at his club. In five +minutes, the General was in a hansom cab, and in less than ten, leaped +out on the steps of that military resort. + +Had he gone there an hour ago, it would have spared him a good deal of +mental agitation, though perhaps any amount of anxiety would have been +preferable to the dull, sickening resignation which succeeded a blow +that could no longer be modified, parried, nor escaped. In after-times, +the General looked back to those ten minutes in the hansom cab as the +close of an era in his life. Henceforth, every object in nature seemed +to have lost something of its colouring, and the sun never shone so +bright again. + +In the hall an obsequious porter handed him a letter. He staggered when +he recognised the familiar handwriting on the envelope, and drew his +breath hard for the effort before he tore it open. + +There were several pages, some of them crossed. He retired to the +strangers'-room, and sat down to peruse the death-warrant of his +happiness. + +"You will forgive me," it began, "because you are the kindest, the +best, the most generous of men; but I should never forgive myself the +blow I feel I am now inflicting, were it not that I regard your pride, +your character, your high sense of honour, before your happiness. +General, I am unfit to be your wife; not because my antecedents are +somewhat obscure--_you_ know my history, and that I have no reason to +be ashamed of it; not because I undervalue the happiness of so high and +enviable a lot--any woman, as I have told you more than once, would +be proud of your choice; but because you deserve, and could so well +appreciate, the unalloyed affection, the utter devotion, that are not +mine to give. _Your_ wife should have no thought but for you, no hopes +independent of you, no memories in which you do not form a part. She +should be wrapped up in your existence, identified with you, body and +soul. All this I am _not_. I never have been--I never can be now. Had I +entertained a lower opinion of your merits, admired and _cared for_ you +less, I would have kept my promise faithfully, and we might have jogged +on like many another couple, comfortably enough. But _you_ ought to win +more than mere _comfort_ in married life. You merit, and would expect, +_happiness_. How could I bear to see my hero disappointed? For you are +my hero--my _beau-idéal_ of a gentleman--and my standard is a very +high one, or you and I had never been so unhappy as I firmly believe +we both are at this moment. It is in vain to regret, and murmur, and +speculate on what might have been, if everything, including one's own +identity, were different. There is but one line to take now, even at +the eleventh hour. Some day you will acknowledge that I was right. We +must never meet again. I have taken such precautions as can baffle, I +do believe, even your energy and resource. You have often said nobody +was so determined when I had made up my mind. I am resolved that you +shall never find out what has become of me; and I entreat you--I +adjure you--if you love me--nay, as you love me--not to try! So now, +farewell--a long farewell, that it pains me sore to say. I shall never +forget you. In all my conflict of feelings, in all my self-reproach and +bitter sorrow, when I think of your pain, I cannot bring myself to wish +we had never met. I am proud of your notice and your regard--proud to +remain under obligations to you--proud to have loved you so far as my +false, wicked nature had the power. Even now I can say, though you put +me out of your heart, do not let me pass entirely from your memory. +Think sometimes, and not unkindly, of your wilful, wayward-- + + "Blanche." + +So it was all over. + +"It's a good letter," murmured the General; "but I prefer the one Julia +wrote to Juan." Then he read it through again, and found, as is usually +the case, that the second perusal reversed his impression of the first. +Did she _really_ mean he was to abstain from all attempt to follow her? +He examined the envelope; it bore the stamp of the General Post Office; +the contents certainly afforded him no clue, yet, judging by analogy, +he argued that no woman would lay such stress on the precautions +she had taken if she did not wish their efficacy to be proved. When +he found, however, that nothing short of police-detectives and +newspaper advertisements would avail him, he took a juster view of her +intentions, and in the chivalry of his nature resolved that under this +great affliction, as in every other condition of their acquaintance, he +would yield implicitly to her wish. + +So he went back into the world, grave, kindly, and courteous as before. +There were a few more grey hairs in his whiskers, and he avoided +ladies' society altogether; otherwise, to the unobservant eye, he +was little altered; but a dear old friend whom he had nursed through +cholera at Varna, and dragged from under a dead horse at Lucknow, took +him into a bay-window of the club-library, and thus addressed him-- + +"My good fellow, you're looking shamefully seedy. Idleness never suited +you. Nothing like work to keep old horses sound. Why don't you apply +for employment? There's always something to do in the East." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +"SEEKING REST AND FINDING NONE" + + +But great nations do not plunge recklessly into war, nor even do +mountain tribes rise suddenly in rebellion because an elderly gentleman +is suffering like some sentimental school-girl from a disappointment of +the heart. General St. Josephs extorted, indeed, from a great personage +the promise that if anything turned up he would not be forgotten, and +was fain to content himself, for the time, with a pledge in which he +knew he could place implicit trust. So the weary, hot months dragged +on, and he remained in London, solitary, silent, preoccupied, wandering +about the scenes of his former happiness, like a ghost. He went +yachting, indeed, with one friend, and agreed on a pedestrian excursion +through Switzerland with another; but the "sad sea waves" were too +sad for him to endure, and the energy that should have taken him over +a mountain, or up a glacier, seemed to fail with the purchase of a +knapsack and the perusal of a foreign Bradshaw, so the walking tour was +abandoned, and the friend rather congratulated himself on escaping such +a mournful companion. + +When autumn came round with its many temptations to Scotland, where the +muir-fowl were crowing about their heathery knolls, and the red-deer +sunning their fat backs on the leeward side of the corrie, he did +indeed avail himself of certain invitations to the hospitable North; +and the General, who could level rifle or fowling-piece, breast a hill, +or plunge through a moss with his juniors by twenty years, strove +hard in fatigue of body to earn repose for the mind. But he did not +stay long; the grand, grave beauty of those silent hills oppressed +and tortured him. He pitied the wild old cock, flapping its life out +on its own purple heather, fifty yards off, mowed down by his deadly +barrel, even as it rose. When he had stalked the "muckle red hart" with +antlered front of royalty, and three inches of fat on those portly +sides, up the burn, and under the waterfall, and through the huge +grey boulders of eternal rock, to sight the noble beast fairly from a +leeward ambush, and bring it down, pierced through the heart with a +long and "kittle" shot, his triumph was all merged in sorrow for the +dead monarch lying so calm and stately in the quiet glen, not perhaps +without a something of envy, for a creature thus insensible, and at +rest for evermore. + +The foresters wondered to see him in no way triumphant, and when they +heard next morning he was gone, shook their heads, opining that "It was +a peety! She was a pratty shot, and a fery tight shentlemans on a hill." + +It was _work_ the General required, not amusement; so he journeyed +sadly back, to await in London the command he hoped would ere long +recall him to a profession he had always loved, that seemed now to +offer the sympathy and solace of a home. + +Sometimes, but this only in moments of which he was ashamed, he would +speculate on the possibility of meeting Miss Douglas by accident in the +great city, and it soothed him to fancy the explanations that would +ensue. He never dreamed of their resuming their old footing; for the +General's forbearance hitherto had sprung from the strength, not the +weakness of his character, and the same stubborn gallantry that held +his position was available to cover his defeat; but it would be a keen +pleasure, he thought, though a sad one, to look in her face just once +more. After that he might turn contentedly Eastward, go back into +harness, and never come to England again. + +In the meantime, the days that dragged so wearily with St. Josephs, +danced like waves in the sunshine through many of those other lives +with which he had been associated in his late history. Amongst all +gregarious animals, it is the custom for a sick or wounded beast to +withdraw from the herd, who in no way concern themselves about its +fate, but continue their browsings, baskings, croppings, waterings, +and friskings, with a well-bred resignation to another's plight worthy +of the human race. If the General's friends and acquaintance asked +each other what had become of him, and waited for an answer, they were +satisfied with the conventional surmise-- + +"Gone to Scotland, I fancy. They tell me it's a wonderful year for +grouse!" + +Mrs. Lushington, yachting at Cowes, and remaining a good deal at +anchor, because it was "blowing fresh outside," thought of him perhaps +more than anybody else. Not that she felt the least remorseful for the +break-up she believed to have originated solely in her own manoeuvres. +She was persuaded that her information conveyed through the anonymous +letter had aroused suspicions which, becoming certainties on inquiry, +detached him from Satanella, and, completely mistaking his character, +considered it impossible, but that their dissolution of partnership +originated with the gentleman. How the lady fared interested her but +little, and in conversation with other dearest friends, she usually +summed up the fate of this one by explaining-- + +"It was _impossible_ to keep poor Blanche straight. Always excitable, +and unlike other people, you know. Latterly, I am afraid, _more_ than +flighty, my dear, and _more_ than odd." + +Besides, Mrs. Lushington, as usual, had a great deal of business on +hand. For herself and her set Cowes was nothing in the world but London +gone down to the sea. Shorter petticoats, and hats instead of bonnets, +made the whole difference. There were the same attractions, the same +interests, the same intrigues. Even the same bores went to and fro, +and bored, as they breathed, more freely in the soft, Channel air. +Altogether, it was fresher and quieter, but, if possible, stupider than +Pall Mall. + +Nevertheless, Mrs. Lushington, being in her natural element, exercised +her natural functions. She was hard at work, trying to mate Bessie +Gordon, nothing loth, with a crafty widower, who seemed as shy of +the bait as an old gudgeon under Kew Bridge. She had undertaken, in +conspiracy with other frisky matrons, to spoil poor Rosie Barton's game +with young Wideacres, the catch of the season; and they liked each +other so well that this job alone kept her in constant employment. She +had picnics to organise, yachting parties to arrange, and Frank to keep +in good humour; the latter no easy task, for Cowes bored him extremely, +and, to use his own words, "he wished the whole place at the devil!" +She felt also vexed and disappointed that the General had withdrawn +himself so entirely from the sphere of her attractions, reflecting that +she saw a great deal more of him before he was free. Added to her other +troubles was the unpardonable defection of Soldier Bill. That volatile +light dragoon had never been near her since Daisy's marriage--a +ceremony in which he took the most lively interest, comporting himself +as "best man" with an unparalleled audacity, and a joyous flow of +spirits, that possessed, for a gathering composed of Hibernians, the +greatest attractions. People said, indeed, that Bill had shown himself +not entirely unaffected by the charms of a lovely bridesmaid, the +eldest of Lady Mary's daughters; and it was impossible to over-estimate +the danger of his position under such suggestive circumstances as must +arise from a wedding in the house. + +Then a grey hair or two had lately shown themselves in her abundant +brown locks; while of the people she chose to flirt with, some +neglected her society for a cruise, others afforded her more of the +excitement produced by rivalry than she relished, none paid her the +devoted attention she had learned to consider her due. Altogether, Mrs. +Lushington began to find life less _couleur de rose_ than she could +wish, and to suspect the career she had adopted was not conducive to +happiness, or even comfort. Many people make the same discovery when it +is too late to abandon the groove in which they have elected to run. + +Daisy, in the meantime, true to his expressed intention of turning over +a new leaf, found no reason to be dissatisfied with his lot. You might +search Ireland through, and it is saying a good deal, without finding +a more joyous couple than Captain and Mrs. Walters. The looked-for +promotion arrived at last, and the bridegroom had the satisfaction of +seeing himself gazetted to a troop on the very morning that provided +him with a wife. Old Macormac was pleased, Lady Mary was pleased, +everybody was pleased. The Castle blazed with light and revelry, the +tenants drank, danced, and shouted. The "boys" burnt the mountain with +a score of bonfires, consuming whisky, and breaking each other's heads +to their own unbounded satisfaction. In short, to use the words of +Peter Corrigan, the oldest solvent tenant on the estate, "The masther's +wedding was a fool to't! May I never see glory av' it wasn't betther +divarsion than a wake!" + +But Norah's gentle heart, even in her own new-found happiness, had +a thought for the beautiful and stately Englishwoman, whom, if she +somewhat feared her as a rival, she yet loved dearly as a friend. + +"What's gone with her, Daisy?" she asked her young husband, before they +had been married a fortnight. "Sure she would never take up with the +nice old gentleman, a general he was, that marked the race-cards for us +at Punchestown. Oh, Daisy! how I cried that night, because you didn't +win!" + +They were walking by the river-side, where they landed the big fish at +an early period of their acquaintance, and Norah brought the gaff to +bear in more ways than she suspected; where they parted so hopelessly, +when, because of his very desolation, the true and generous girl had +consented to plight him her troth; and where they had hardly dared to +hope they would meet again in such a glow of happiness as shone round +them to-day. It was bright spring weather when they wished each other +that sorrowful good-bye. Now, the dead leaves were falling thick and +fast in the grey autumn gloom. Nevertheless, this was the real vernal +season of joy and promise for both those loving hearts. + +"What a goose you were to back me!" observed Daisy, with a pressure of +the arm that clung so tight round his own. "It served you right, and I +hope cured you of betting once for all!" + +"That's no answer to my question," persisted Mrs. Walters. "I'm asking +you to tell me about my beautiful Blanche Douglas, and why wouldn't the +old General marry her if she'd have him." + +"That's it, dear!" replied her husband. "She _wouldn't_ have him! +She--she accepted him, I _know_, and then she threw him over." + +"What a shame!" exclaimed Norah. "Though, to be sure, he might have +been her father." Then a shadow passed over her fair young brow, and +she added wistfully, "Ah, Daisy! I'm thinking I know who she wanted all +the time." + +"Meaning _me_?" said Daisy, with a frank, saucy smile, that brought the +mirth back to her face, and the sunshine to her heart. + +"Meaning _you_, sir!" she repeated playfully. "But it's very conceited +of you to think it, and very wrong to let it out. It's not so +wonderful, after all," she added, looking proudly in his handsome young +face. "I suppose I'm not the only girl that's liked you, dear, by a +many. I oughtn't to expect it!" + +"The only one that's _landed_ the fish," laughed Daisy, stopping in +the most effectual manner a little sigh with which she was about to +conclude her peroration. "You're mistaken about Miss Douglas, though," +he added, "I give you my word. She hadn't your good taste, my dear, and +didn't _see_ it! Look, Norah, there's the very place I left Sullivan's +fishing-rod. He'll never get it again, so it's lucky I bought his +little brown horse. I wonder who found it? What a day that was! Norah, +do you remember?" + +"_Remember!_" + +So the conversation turned on that most interesting of +topics--themselves, and did not revert to Satanella nor her doings. If +Norah was satisfied, Daisy felt no wish to pursue the subject. However +indiscreet concerning his successes, I think when a man has been +refused by another lady, he says nothing about it to his wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +UNDIVIDED + + +The late autumn was merging into early winter, that pleasantest of +all seasons for those sportsmen who exult in the stride of a good +horse, and the stirring music of the hound. Even in Pall Mall true +lovers of the chase felt stealing over them the annual epidemic, +which winter after winter rages with unabated virulence, incurable +by any known remedy. A sufferer--it would be a misnomer to call him +a _patient_--from this November malady was gaping at a print-shop +window, near the bottom of St. James's Street, wholly engrossed in the +performances of a very bright bay horse, with a high-coloured rider, +flying an impossible fence, surrounded by happy hunting-grounds, where +perspective seemed unknown. + +"D'ye think he'll get over, Bill?" said a familiar voice, that could +only belong to Daisy Walters, who had stolen unperceived behind his +friend. + +"Not if the fool on his back can pull him into it," answered the other +indignantly. And these comrades, linking arms, turned eastward, in the +direction of their club. + +"How's the Missis?" said Bill, whose boast it was that he never forgot +his manners. + +"Fit as a fiddle," replied the happy husband. "Had a long letter from +Molly this morning. Sent her best love--no, scratched that out, and +desired to be kindly remembered to _you_." + +Molly, called after Lady Mary, was the eldest and, in Bill's opinion, +the handsomest daughter, so he changed the subject with rather a red +face. + +"About to-morrow now," said Bill. "I've got Martingale to do my +orderly. Are you game for a day with the stag?" + +"Will a duck swim!" was the answer. "Norah is coming too. I shall mount +her on Boneen; he's own brother to the little horse that beat our mare +at Punchestown." + +"Couldn't do better in that country," asserted his friend. "He'll +carry her like a bird, if she'll wake him up a bit, and it's simply +_impossible_ to get him down. By Jove, Daisy, there's St. Josephs going +into the Club. How seedy he looks, and how old! Hang me, if I won't +offer him a mount to-morrow. I wonder if he'll come?" + +So this kind-hearted young sportsman, in whose opinion a day's hunting +was the panacea for all ills, mental or bodily, followed his senior +into the morning-room, and proffered his best horse, with the winning +frankness of manner that his friends found it impossible to resist. + +"He's good enough to carry the Commander-in-Chief," said Bill. "I've +more than I can ride till I get my long leave. I should be _so_ proud +if you'd have a day on him; and if he makes a mistake, I'll give him to +you. There!" + +St. Josephs was now on the eve of departure for the employment he had +solicited. While his outfit was preparing, the time hung heavy on his +hands, and he had done so many kindnesses by this young subaltern that +he felt it would be only graceful and friendly to accept a favour in +return, so he assented willingly, and Bill's face glowed with pleasure. + +"Don't be late," said he. "Nine o'clock train from Euston. Mind you get +into the drop-carriage, or they'll take you on to the Shires. I'll join +you at Willesden. And if we don't have a real clinker, I'll make a vow +never to go hunting again." + +Then he departed on certain errands of his own connected with the +pugilistic art, and the General reflected sadly how it was a quarter of +a century since he used to feel as keen as that reckless light-hearted +boy. + +He waited on high authorities at the War-office, dined with the +field-marshal, and, through a restless night, dreamed of Satanella, for +the first time since her disappearance. + +A foggy November morning, and a lame horse in the cab that took him +to Euston Station did not serve to raise his spirits. But for Bill's +anticipations of "a clinker," and the disappointment he knew it would +cause that enthusiast, the General might have turned back to spend one +more day in vain brooding and regret. Arrived on the platform, however +he got into a large saloon-carriage, according to directions, and found +himself at once in the midst of so cheerful a party that he felt it +impossible to resist the fun and merriment of the hour. + +St. Josephs was too well known in general society not to find +acquaintances even here, though he was hardly prepared to meet +representatives of so many pursuits and professions, booted and spurred +for the chase, and judging by the ceaseless banter they interchanged, + + "All determined to ride, each resolved to be first." + +Soldiers, sailors, diplomatists, bankers, lawyers, artists, authors, +men of pleasure, and men of business, holding daily papers they +never looked at, were all talking across each other, and laughing +incessantly, while enthroned at one end of the carriage sat the best +sportsman and most popular member of the assemblage, whose opinions, +like his horses, carried great weight, and were of as unflinching a +nature as his riding, so that he was esteemed a sort of president +in jack-boots. Opposite him was placed pretty Irish Norah, now Mrs. +Walters, intensely excited by her first appearance at what she called +"an English hunt," while she imparted to Daisy, in a mellower brogue +than usual, very original ideas on things in general, and especially +on the country through which they were now flying at the rate of forty +miles an hour. + +"It's like a garden where it's in tillage, and a croquet-lawn where +it's in pasture," said Norah, after a gracious recognition of the +General, and cordial greeting to Bill, who was bundled in at Willesden, +panting, with his spurs in his hand. "Ah! now, Daisy, it's little of +the whip poor Boneen will be wanting for easy leaps like them." + +"Wait till you get into the vale," said Daisy; "and whatever you do let +his head alone. Follow me close, and if I'm down, ride over me. It's +the custom of the country." + +The General smiled. + +"I haven't been there for twenty years," said he; "but I can remember +in my time we were not very particular. I shall follow my old friend," +he added, nodding to the president, whose nether garments were of the +strongest and most workmanlike materials; "when a man has no regular +hunting things, he wants a leader to turn the thorns, and from all I +hear, if I can only stick to mine, I shall be in a very good place." + +Everybody agreed to this, scanning the speaker with approving glances, +the while, St. Josephs, though wearing trousers and a common morning +coat, had something in his appearance that denoted the practised +horseman; and when he talked of "twenty years ago," his listeners gave +him credit for those successes which in all times, are attributed to +the men of the past. + +"Mrs. Walters must be a little careful at the doubles," hazarded a +quiet good-looking man who had not yet spoken, but whose nature it was +to be exceedingly courteous, where ladies were concerned. "A wise horse +that knows its rider is everything in the vale." + +Norah looked into the speaker's dark eyes with a quaint smile. + +"Ah, then! if the horse wasn't wiser than the rider," said she, +"it's not many leaps any of us would take without a fall!" and in +the laughter provoked by this incontestable assertion, a slight jerk +announced that their carriage was detached from the train, and they had +arrived. + +Though it requires a long time to settle a lady in the saddle for +hunting, even when in the regular swing of twice or thrice a week, and +though Norah was about to enjoy her first gallop of the season in a +new habit, on a new horse, she and Daisy had ample leisure for a sober +ride to the place of meeting, arriving cool and calm, pleased with +the weather, the scenery, the company, and, above all, delighted with +Boneen. + +They were accompanied by the General on a first-class hunter belonging +to Bill, and soon overtaken by its owner, who, having lingered behind +to jump a four-year-old over a tempting stile for educational purposes, +had crushed a new hat, besides daubing his coat in the process. + +"Down already?" said St. Josephs. "What happened to him? What did he +do?" + +"Rapped very hard," answered Bill; "found his friend at home, and went +in without waiting to be announced;" but he patted the young pupil +on its neck, and promised to teach it the trade before Christmas, +nevertheless. Certainly, if practice makes perfect, no man should have +possessed a stud of cleverer fencers than Soldier Bill. + +And now, as she reached the summit of a grassy ascent, there broke on +Norah's vision so extensive and beautiful a landscape as elicited an +exclamation of amazement and delight. + +Mile after mile, to the dim grey horizon, stretched a sweep of smooth +wide pastures, intersected by massive hedges, not yet bare of their +summer luxuriance, dotted by lofty standard trees, rich in the gaudy +hues of autumn, lit up by flashes of a winding stream that gleamed +here and there under the willows with which its banks were fringed. +Enclosures varying from fifty to a hundred acres, gave promise of as +much galloping as the heart of man, or even woman, could desire. And +scanning those fences the Irish lady admitted to herself, though not +to her companions, that from a distance they looked as formidable +obstacles as any she had confronted in Kildare. + +"It's beautiful," said Norah. "It's made on purpose for a hunt. Look, +Daisy, there's the hounds! Oh, the darlings! And little Boneen, he sees +them, too!" + +Gathered round their huntsman, a wiry, sporting-looking man on a +thorough-bred bay horse, they were moving into sight from behind a +hay-stack that stood in a corner of the neighbouring field. Rich in +colour, beautiful in shape, and with a family likeness pervading the +lot as if they were all one litter, a fox-hunter would have grudged +them for the game they were about to pursue--a noble red deer, in so +far tame, that he was fed in the paddock, and brought to a condition +that could tax the speed and endurance even of this famous pack. The +animal had already arrived in a large van on wheels, drawn by a pair of +horses, and surrounded by a levee of gaping rustics, whose eagerness +and love for the sport reminded Norah of her countrymen on the other +side of the Channel. + +"Will they let him out here, Daisy?" said she, in accents of trembling +excitement. "I wish they'd begin. What are we waiting for?" + +"Your patience will not be tried much longer," said the General, +lighting a cigar. "Here comes the master, at a pace as if the mare that +landed him the Thousand Guineas, the Oaks, and the St. Leger, had been +made a cover-hack for the occasion!" + +"With the Derby-winner of the same year for second horse!" added her +husband. "If you want a pilot, Norah, you couldn't do better than stick +to _him_, heavy as he is!" + +"I mean to follow _you_, sir," was the rejoinder. "If you don't mind, +Daisy, maybe I'll be before ye." + +Even while she spoke a stir throughout the whole cavalcade, and a +smothered shout from the foot-people, announced that the deer had been +enlarged. + +With a wild leap in the air, as though rejoicing in its recovered +liberty, the animal started off at speed, but in the least favourable +direction it could have taken, heading towards the ascent on the +side of which the horsemen and a few carriages were drawn up. Then +slackened its pace to a jerking, springing trot--paused--changed its +mind--lowered its head--dashed wildly down the hill to disappear +through a high bull-finch, and after a few seconds came again into +view, travelling swift and straight across the vale. + +The General smoked quietly, but his eye brightened, and he seemed ten +years younger for the sight. + +"It's all right now," said he; "the sooner they lay them on the better." + +Soldier Bill, drawing his girths, looked up with a beaming smile. + +"They say there's a lady, a mysterious unknown, in a thick veil, who +beats everybody with these hounds," he observed. "I wonder why she's +not out to-day." + +"I think she _is_," replied Daisy, shooting a mischievous glance at his +wife. "I fancied I caught the flutter of a habit just now behind the +hay-stack. I suppose she's determined to get a good start and cut Norah +down!" + +Ere the latter could reply, the hounds dashed across the line of the +deer. Throwing the tongues in full musical notes, they spread like a +fan, with noses in the air; then, stooping to the scent, converged, in +one melodious crash and chorus, ere they took to running with a grim, +silent determination that denoted the extremity of pace. Every man set +his horse going at speed. Nearly a dozen selected their places in the +first fence--a formidable bull-finch. The rest, turning rather away +from the hounds, thundered wildly down to an open gate. + +Amongst those who meant riding straight, it is needless to say, were +Mrs. Walters and her three cavaliers. These landed in the second field +almost together. Daisy, closely pursued by his wife, stealing through a +weak place under a tree, the General sailing fairly over all, and Bill, +unable to resist the temptation of a gap, made up with four strong +rails, getting to the right side with a scramble, that wanted very +little of a nasty fall. + +The hounds were already a quarter of a mile ahead with nobody near +them but a lady on a black hunter, who was well alongside, going, to +all appearance, perfectly at her ease; while her groom, on a chestnut +horse, left hopelessly behind, rode in the wake of the General, and +wished he was at home. + +Daisy, whose steeple-chasing experience had taught him never to lose +his head, was the only one of our party who did not feel a little +bewildered by the pace. Taking in everything at a glance, he observed +the black hunter in front sail easily over a fence that few horses +would have looked at. There was no mistaking the style and form of +the animal. "Of course it is!" he muttered. "Satanella, by all that's +inexplicable! We shall not catch them at _this_ pace, however!" Then, +pulling his horse to let his wife come up, he shouted in her ear, +"Norah, that's Miss Douglas!" + +Whether she heard him or not, the only answer Mrs. Walters vouchsafed +was to lean back in her saddle and give Boneen a refresher with the +whip. + +Unlike a fox, whose reasons are logical and well-considered, a deer +will sometimes turn at right angles for no conceivable cause, pursuing +the new line with as much speed and decision as the old. + +In the present instance the animal, after leaping a high thorn fence +with two ditches, broke short off in a lateral direction, under the +very shadow of the hedge it had just cleared, and, at the pace they +were going, the hounds, as a natural consequence, over-ran the scent. + +Miss Douglas pulled up her horse, and did not interfere. There being, +fortunately, no one to assist them, they flung themselves beautifully, +swinging back to the line and taking it up again with scarcely the +loss of a minute. The President, two fields off, struggling hard to +get nearer, was perhaps the only man out who sufficiently appreciated +their steadiness. Like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, "he blessed them +unawares." Bill, I fear, did the _other_ thing, for the fence was so +high he never saw them turn, and jumped well into their midst, happily +without doing any damage. + +This slight delay, however, had the effect of bringing Daisy, his wife, +Soldier Bill, and the General into the same field with Miss Douglas. +She heard the footfall of their horses, looked round, and set the +black mare going faster than before. If, as indeed seemed probable, +she was resolved not to be overtaken, the pack, streaming away at +speed once more, served her purpose admirable. No horse alive could +catch them; and Satanella herself seemed doing her best to keep on +tolerable terms at that terrific pace. The majority of the field had +already been hopelessly distanced. The General found even the superior +animal he rode fail somewhat in the deep-holding meadows. Bill was in +difficulties, although he had religiously adhered to the shortest way. +Even Daisy began to wish for a pull, and only little Boneen, quite +thorough-bred and as good as he was sluggish, seemed to keep galloping +on, strong and full of running as at the start. For more than a mile +our friends proceeded with but a slight alteration in their relative +positions--Satanella, perhaps, gradually leaving her followers, and +the hounds drawing away from all five. In this order two or three +flying fences were negotiated, and a fair brook cleared. Daisy, looking +back in some anxiety, could not but admire the form in which Norah +roused and handled Boneen. That good little horse, bred and trained in +Ireland, seemed to combine the activity of a cat with the sagacious +instincts of a dog. Like all of his blood, he only left off being lazy +when his companions began to feel tired; and Mrs. Walters, coming up +with her husband, as they rose the hill from the waterside, declared, +though he did not hear her, "I could lead the hunt now, Daisy, if you'd +let me. Little Boneen's as pleased as Punch! He'd like to pull hard, +only he's such a good boy he doesn't know how!" + +[Illustration: "Taking fast hold of his horse's head, he got over with +a scramble." + + _Satanella._ _Page 301_] + +Bill's horse dropped its hind legs in the brook, and fell, but was +soon up again with its rider. The General got over successfully; +nevertheless, his weight was beginning to tell, and the ground being +now on the ascent, he found himself the last of the five people with +the hounds. + +At the crest of the hill frowned a black, forbidding-looking +bull-finch: on this side a strong rail; on the other, if a horse ever +got there, _the uncertainty_, which might or might _not_, culminate +in a rattling fall. Daisy glanced anxiously to right and left, on his +wife's behalf, but there was no forgiveness. They must have it, or go +home! Then he watched how the famous black mare would acquit herself a +hundred yards ahead of him, and felt little reassured to detect such a +struggle in the air while she topped the fence, as by no means inferred +a pleasant landing where she disappeared on its far side. + +He wavered, he hesitated, and pulled his horse off for a stride; but +Norah's impatient--"Ah, Daisy! go on now!" urged him to the attempt, +and he _chanced_ it, with his heart in his mouth, for her sake, not his +own. + +Taking fast hold of his horse's head, he got over with a scramble, +turning afterwards in the saddle to watch how it fared with his wife +and little Boneen. Her subsequent account described the performance +better than could any words of mine. + +"When I loosed him off at it," said she, "I just touched him on the +shoulder with the whip, to let him know he wasn't in Kildare. He +understood well enough, the little darling! for he pricked his ears, +and came back to a slow canter; but I'd like ye to have felt the bound +he made when he rose to it! Such a place beyond! 'Twas as thick as a +cabbage-garden--dog-roses, honeysuckles, I'm not sure there wasn't +cauliflowers, and all twisted up together to conceal a deep, wide, +black-looking hole, like a boreen.[6] Well, I just felt him give a sort +of a little kick, while he left the entire perplexity ten feet behind +him, and when he landed, as light as a fairy, Daisy, I'm sure I heard +him laugh!" + +Mrs. Walters, like most of her nation, abounded in enthusiasm. She +could not forbear a little cry of delight at the panorama that opened +before her, when she had effected the above-mentioned-feat. To the +very horizon lay stretched a magnificent vale of pasture, brightened +by the slanting rays of a November sun. Far ahead, fleeting across the +level below, sped a dark object, she recognised for the deer; a field +nearer were the hounds, running their hardest, in a string that showed +they too had caught sight of their game. Half-way down the hill she +was herself descending, the other lady was urging the black mare to +head-long speed, very dangerous on such a steep incline. Fifty yards +behind Satanella, came Daisy, and close on his heels, Norah, wild with +delight, feeling a strong inclination to give Boneen his head, and go +by them all. The little horse, however, watched his stable-companion +narrowly, while his rider's eyes were riveted on the hounds. Suddenly +she felt him shorten his stride and stop, with a jerk, that nearly +shot her out of the saddle. Glancing at Daisy, for an explanation, she +screamed aloud, and covered her face with her hands. + +When she looked again, she was aware of her husband's horse staring +wildly about with the bridle over its head; of Daisy himself on foot, +and, a few yards off, the good black mare prostrate, motionless, rolled +up in a confused and hideous mass with her hapless rider. + +Down hill, at racing pace, Satanella had put her fore-feet through +a covered drain, with the inevitable result--the surface gave way, +letting her in to the shoulders, and a few yards farther on, she lay +across her mistress, with her neck broken, never to stir those strong, +fleet limbs again. + +"Oh! Daisy, they're both killed!" whispered Norah, with a drawn, white +face, while her husband, busying himself to undo the girths, and thus +extricate that limp helpless figure from beneath the weight that +crushed it so sorely, shouted for assistance to Soldier Bill and the +General, who at that moment entered the field together. + +"I trust in heaven, _not_!" he replied aloud; and, below his breath, +even while his heart smote him for the thought, "It might have been +worse. My darling, it might have been _you_!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 6: "Boreen," Irish for a deep, stone-paved lane.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE BITTER END + + +It was indeed a sad sight for those joyous riders, exulting but a +moment before, in all the triumph and excitement of their gallop. +Saddest and most pitiable for the General, thus to find and recognise +the woman he had loved and lost. While they took her gently out from +under the dead mare's carcase, she groaned feebly, and they said, +"Thank God!" for at least there seemed left a faint spark of life. +Assistance, too, was near at hand. As Norah observed, "'Twasn't like +Kildare, where ye wouldn't have seen a shealing or may be so much +as a potato-garden for miles! But every farm here was kept like a +domain, and they'd built a dwelling-house almost in every field!" +Within a short distance stood the comfortable mansion, surrounded by +its well-stocked fold-yards, of a substantial yeoman; and Bill, with +two falls, was there in two minutes! A few of the second flight also, +persevering resolutely on the line the hounds had gone, straggled up +and did good service. What became of the Field, and where the deer was +taken, none of these had opportunity to ascertain. All their energies, +all their sympathies, were engrossed by that helpless, motionless form, +that beautiful rigid face, so wan and white, beneath its folds of +glossy raven hair. + +Carrying her softly and carefully on a gate to her place of shelter, +it looked as if they formed a funeral procession, of which the General +seemed chief-mourner. + +His bearing was stern and composed, his step never faltered, nor +did his hand shake; but he who wrestled with the angel of old, and +prevailed against him, could scarcely have out-done this loving, +longing heart in earnestness of purpose and passionate pleading of +prayer. + +"But once more!" was his petition. "Only that she may know me, and look +on me once more!" and it was granted. + +For two days Blanche Douglas never spoke nor stirred. Mrs. Walters +constituted herself head-nurse, and never left her pillow. The General +remained the whole time at the threshold of her chamber. + +The surgeon, a country practitioner of high repute, who saw her within +an hour of her accident, committed himself to no opinion by word or +sign, but shook his head despondingly the moment he found himself +alone. The famous London doctor, telegraphed for at once, preserved an +ominous silence. He, too, getting into the fly that took him back to +the station, looked grave and shook his head. The hospitable yeoman, +who placed his house and all he had freely at the sufferer's disposal, +packing off the very children to their aunt's, at the next farm, felt, +as he described it, "Down-hearted--uncommon." His kindly wife went +about softly and in tears. Daisy and Bill hurried to and fro, in every +direction, as required, by night and day; while Norah, watching in the +darkened room, tried to hope against hope, and pray for that which she +dared not even think it possible could be granted. + +The General looked the quietest and most composed of all. Calm and +still, he seemed less to watch than to wait. Perhaps some subtler +instinct than theirs taught him the disastrous certainty, revealed to +him the inevitable truth. + +Towards evening of the second day Norah came into the passage and +laid her hand on his shoulder, as he sat gazing vacantly from the +window, over the fields and orchards about the farm. They loomed hazy +and indistinct in the early winter twilight, but the scene on which +he looked was clear enough--a bright sunny slope, a golden gleam in +the sky above, and on earth a dark heap, with a trailing habit, and a +slender riding-whip clenched in a small gloved hand. + +"She has just asked for you," whispered Norah. "Go to her--quick! God +bless you, General! Try and bear it like a man!" + +The room was very dark. He stole softly to her bedside, and felt his +fingers clasped in the familiar clinging touch once more. + +"My darling!" he murmured, and the strong man's tears welled up, thick +and hot, like a child's. + +Her voice came, very weak and low. "The poor mare!" she said; "is she +much hurt? It was no fault of hers." + +He must have answered, and told her the truth without knowing it; for +she proceeded more feebly than before. + +"Both of us! Then it's no use. I was going to give her to you, dear, +and ask you to take care of her for my sake. Have you--have you +forgiven?" + +"Forgiven!" His failing accents were even less steady than her own. + +"I vexed you dreadfully," she continued. "I was not good enough for +you. I see it all; and, if it could come again, I would never leave +you--never! But I did it for the best. I took great pains to hide +myself away down here; but I'm glad. Yes, I'm very glad you found me +out at last. How dark it is! Don't let go my hand. Kiss me, my own! I +know now that I _did_ love you dearly--far better than I thought." + +The feeble grasp tightened, stronger, stronger, yet. The shadows fell, +the night came down, and a pale moon threw its ghostly light into the +chamber. But the face he loved was fixed and grey now, the hand he +still clasped was stiff and cold in death. + + * * * * * + +The General carried to India a less sore heart, perhaps, than he had +expected. There was no room left for the gnawing anxiety, the bitter +sense of humiliation, the persistent struggle against self, that +distressed and troubled him in his previous relations with her he had +loved so dearly, and lost so cruelly even in the hour she became his +own. He was grave and silent, no doubt, in feelings and appearance, +many years beyond his real age; but every fresh grey hair, every +additional symptom of decay, seemed only a milestone nearer home. +Without speculating much on its locality, he cherished an ardent hope +that soon he might follow to the place where she had gone before. None +should come between them there, he thought, and they need never part +again. + +Soldier Bill and Daisy saw the last of him when he left England; the +former rather envied every one who was bound for a sphere in which +there seemed a possibility of seeing real service, the latter comparing +his senior's lonely life and blighted hopes with his own happy lot, +felt a humbler, a wiser, and a better man for the contrast. + +Mrs. Walters, though losing none of her good nature and genial Irish +humour, became more staid in manner, altogether more matronly; and +though she went out hunting on occasion, certainly rode less boldly +than before the catastrophe. Her sister Mary, however, who came over +to stay with her about this time, kept up the family credit for +daring, and would have taken Bill's heart by storm if she had not won +it already with the fearlessness she displayed in following him over +the most formidable obstacles. After a famous day on Boneen, when she +bustled that lazy little gentleman along in a manner that perfectly +electrified him, Bill could hold out no longer, but placed himself, +his fortunes, Catamount, and Benjamin, at her disposal. All these she +was good enough to accept but the badger; and that odorous animal was +compelled to evacuate his quarters in the wardrobe for a more suitable +residence out of barracks, at a livery-stable. So they were married in +London, and inaugurated the first day of their honeymoon by a quick +thing with the Windsor drag-hounds. + +Of Mrs. Lushington there is little more to be said. The sad fate of her +former friend she accepted with the resignation usually displayed by +those of her particular set in the face of such afflictions as do not +immediately effect themselves and their pleasures. She vowed it was +very sad, talked of wearing black--but didn't! and went out to dinner +much as usual. Even Bessie Gordon showed more feeling, for she _did_ +cry when she heard the news, and appeared that night at a ball with +swollen eyelids and a red place under her nose. Many people asked what +had become of Miss Douglas? The answer was usually something to this +effect-- + +"Don't you remember? Painful business; shocking accident. Killed out +hunting. Odd story; odd girl. Yes, handsome, but peculiar style!" + +They buried the good black mare where she fell. Long before the grass +was green over her grave, rider and horse had been very generally +forgotten. Yet in their own circle both had created no small sensation +in their time. But life is so far like the chase, that it admits of +but little leisure for hesitation; none whatever for regret. How should +we ever get to the finish if we must needs stop to pick up the fallen, +or to mourn for the dead? + +In certain kind and faithful hearts, however, it is but justice to say +the memory of that hapless pair remains fresh and vivid as on the day +of their fatal downfall. + +There is a stern, grey-headed soldier in the East who sees Blanche +Douglas nightly in his dreams; and Daisy Walters, in his highest state +of exultation, when he has been well-carried, as often happens, through +a run, heaves a sigh, and feels something aching at his heart, that +recalls the black mare and her lovely wayward rider, while it reminds +him in a ghostly whisper that "there never was one yet like Satanella!" + + +UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON. + + + + +New Complete Library Edition of + +G.J. Whyte=Melville's Novels. + +Complete in about 25 Volumes. + +_Large Crown 8vo, Cloth Gilt, 3s. 6d. each._ + + +The publishers have pleasure in announcing a monthly issue of novels by +the late G.J. Whyte-Melville, who, uniting, as he did, the qualities +of poet, novelist, sportsman, and leader of society, has long been +acknowledged to stand above rivalry when dealing with sport and the +romance of old. Each volume will be illustrated by front-rank artists, +well printed from type specially cast, on best antique paper, and +handsomely bound. + + 1 KATERFELTO. With four illustrations by Lucy E. Kemp-Welch. + + 2 CERISE. With four illustrations by G.P. Jacomb-Hood. + + 3 SARCHEDON. With four illustrations by S.E. Waller. + + 4 SONGS AND VERSES, and THE TRUE CROSS. + With five illustrations by S.E. Waller. + + 5 MARKET HARBOROUGH, and INSIDE THE BAR. + With four illustrations by John Charlton. + + 6 BLACK BUT COMELY. With four illustrations by S.E. Waller. + + 7 ROY'S WIFE. With four illustrations by G.P. Jacomb-Hood. + + 8 ROSINE, and SISTER LOUISE. + With four illustrations by G.P. Jacomb-Hood. + + 9 KATE COVENTRY. + With four illustrations by Lucy E. Kemp-Welch. + + 10 THE GLADIATORS. + With four illustrations by J. Ambrose Walton. + + 11 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. + With four illustrations by John Charlton. + + 12 THE BROOKES OF BRIDLEMERE. + With four illustrations by S.E. Waller. + + 13 SATANELLA. With four illustrations by Lucy E. Kemp-Welch. + + 14 HOLMBY HOUSE. With four illustrations by Lucy E. Kemp-Welch. + + + + +Novels by Guy Boothby. + +SPECIAL AND ORIGINAL DESIGNS. + +Each volume attractively illustrated by Stanley L. Wood and others. + +_Crown 8vo, Cloth Gilt, Trimmed Edges, 5s._ + + +Mr. RUDYARD KIPLING says: + + "Mr. Guy Boothby has come to great honours now. His name is large upon + hoardings, his books sell like hot cakes, and he keeps a level head + through it all. I've met him several times in England, and he added to + my already large respect for him." + + + LOVE MADE MANIFEST. + PHAROS, THE EGYPTIAN. + ACROSS THE WORLD FOR A WIFE. + THE LUST OF HATE. + BUSHIGRAMS. + THE FASCINATION OF THE KING. + DR. NIKOLA. + THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL. + A BID FOR FORTUNE; or, Dr. Nikola's Vendetta. + IN STRANGE COMPANY: A Story of Chili and the Southern Seas. + THE MARRIAGE OF ESTHER: A Torres Straits Sketch. + + + + +New Library Edition of + +Henry Kingsley's Novels. + +Edited by Clement K. Shorter. + + _Well printed on good paper, from type specially cast._ + _Neatly and handsomely bound. Illustrated by eminent artists._ + _Cloth gilt, 3s. 6d. per volume._ + + +Press Opinions. + + "To Mr. Clement Shorter and to the publishers the unreserved thanks + of the public are warmly due. There can be no finer mission from the + world of fiction to the world of fact than the putting forth of these + ennobling novels afresh and in a fitting form."--_Daily Chronicle._ + + "To renew your acquaintance with Henry Kingsley is for Henry Kingsley + to stand forth victorious all along the line. His work, in truth, is + moving and entertaining now as it was moving and entertaining thirty + odd years ago."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + +1. THE RECOLLECTIONS OF GEOFFRY HAMLYN. With a Photogravure Portrait +of Henry Kingsley, and a Memoir by Clement K. Shorter. Illustrated by +Herbert Railton. + +2. RAVENSHOE. With Frontispiece by R. Caton Woodville. + +3. THE HILLYARS AND THE BURTONS. With a note on Old Chelsea Church by +Clement K. Shorter. Illustrated by Herbert Railton. + +4. SILCOTE OF SILCOTES. With Frontispiece by Lancelot Speed. + +5. STRETTON. With Frontispiece by George M. Henton. + +6. AUSTIN ELLIOT, and THE HARVEYS. With Frontispiece by Walter Paget. + +7. MDLLE. MATHILDE. With Frontispiece by Holland Tringham. + +8. OLD MARGARET, and Other Stories. With a Frontispiece by Robert +Sauber. + +9. VALENTIN, and NUMBER SEVENTEEN. With a Frontispiece by R. Caton +Woodville. + +10. OAKSHOTT CASTLE, and THE GRANGE GARDEN. With a Frontispiece by W.H. +Overend. + +11. REGINALD HETHEREGE, and LEIGHTON COURT. With a Frontispiece by +Gordon Browne. + +12. THE BOY IN GREY, and Other Stories. With a Frontispiece by A. +Forestier. + + + + +Novels by Joseph Hocking. + +_CROWN 8vo, CLOTH GILT, 3s. 6d. EACH._ + +(EACH VOLUME UNIFORM.) + + +Though Mr. Joseph Hocking's novels have been (by the _Spectator_) +compared to Mr. Baring-Gould's and (by the _Star_) to Mr. Thomas +Hardy's--next to whom it placed him as a writer of country life--and +by other journals to Mr. Hall Caine and Mr. Robert Buchanan, they are, +one and all, stamped with striking and original individuality. Bold +in conception, pure in tone, strenuously high and earnest in purpose, +daring in thought, picturesque and life-like in description, worked out +with singular power and in nervous and vigorous language, it is not to +be wondered at that Mr. Hocking's novels are eagerly awaited by a large +and ever increasing public. + + +WEAPONS OF MYSTERY. + + With Frontispiece and Vignette. + +FIELDS OF FAIR RENOWN. + + With Frontispiece and Vignette by J. Barnard Davis. + +ALL MEN ARE LIARS. + + With Frontispiece and Vignette by Gordon Browne. + +ISHMAEL PENGELLY: An Outcast. + + With Frontispiece and Vignette by W.S. Stacey. + +THE STORY OF ANDREW FAIRFAX. + + With Frontispiece and Vignette by Geo. Hutchinson. + +JABEZ EASTERBROOK. + + With Frontispiece and Vignette by Stanley L. Wood. + +ZILLAH. + + With Frontispiece by Powell Chase. + +THE MONK OF MAR-SABA. + + With Frontispiece and Vignette by W.S. Stacey. + + + + +WORKS BY + +E. Phillips Oppenheim. + +_Crown 8vo, Cloth Gilt Uniform, 3s. 6d._ + + +THE MAN AND HIS KINGDOM. + + Illustrated by J. Ambrose Walton. + + "A thoroughly interesting and exciting story."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + "This is a brilliant and virile story of adventure, and the reader's + interest is maintained at a high pitch throughout a long series of + exciting and romantic adventures."--_St. James's Budget._ + + +MYSTERIOUS MR. SABIN. + + Illustrated by J. Ambrose Walton. + + "One of the brightest and best managed yarns we have read for many a + day. We can recommend Mr. Sabin to all who like a thoroughly robust + mystery tale."--_Sheffield Independent._ + + "A distinctly clever and interesting story of state-craft and + intrigue.... Full of dramatic incidents and surprises."--_St. James's + Gazette._ + + +AS A MAN LIVES. + + Illustrated by Stanley L. Wood. + + "If you feel the need of a stimulant of this kind (an exciting story), + I can recommend you a singularly stirring sensational novel."--_Truth._ + + "A deeply interesting volume. The story is a strangely exciting + one."--_Manchester Courier._ + + +A MONK OF CRUTA. + + "Mr. Oppenheim excels himself in 'A Monk of Cruta.' His latest is his + greatest work. A high standard of merit is maintained from end to + end, and there is enough of thrilling incident to satisfy the most + exacting."--_The Scotsman._ + + +A DAUGHTER OF THE MARIONIS. + + "As a story pure and simple, we have read few books for a long time to + be compared with it."--_Weekly Sun._ + + "The story is not only intensely interesting and exciting, but the + characters are powerfully drawn, and their individuality preserved. + This is a book to read breathlessly from start to finish."--_Pall Mall + Gazette._ + + + + +Works by Ethel Turner. + +(MRS. H.R. CURLEWIS.) + + +_Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, bevelled boards, gilt edges, 3s. 6d. each._ + + + "Miss Ethel Turner is Miss Alcott's true successor. The same healthy, + spirited tone is visible which girls and boys recognised and were + grateful for in 'Little Women' and 'Little Men,' the same absence of + primness, and the same love of adventure."--_The Bookman._ + + +THE CAMP AT WANDINONG. + + Illustrated by Frances Ewan and others. + +MISS BOBBIE. + + Illustrated by Harold Copping. + +THE LITTLE LARRIKIN. + + Illustrated by A.J. Johnson. + +SEVEN LITTLE AUSTRALIANS. + + Illustrated by A.J. Johnson. + +THE FAMILY AT MISRULE. + +A SEQUEL TO THE ABOVE. + + Illustrated by A.J. Johnson. + + * * * * * + +_Square Fcap. 8vo, cloth elegant, gilt top, 2s. 6d. each._ + + +THE STORY OF A BABY. + + Illustrated by St. Clair Simmons. + +THE LITTLE DUCHESS, & other Stories. + + Illustrated by Sidney Cowell. + + + + +Recent 3/6 Novels. + +_CROWN 8vo, CLOTH GILT, ILLUSTRATED._ + + +THE DATCHET DIAMONDS. + + By Richard Marsh. Illustrated by Stanley L. Wood. + +THE CRIME AND THE CRIMINAL. + + By Richard Marsh. Illustrated by Harold Piffard. + +A SENSATIONAL CASE. + + By Florence Warden. Illustrated by St. Clair Simmons. + +THE UNSEEN HAND. + + By Lawrence L. Lynch. Illustrated by St. Clair Simmons. + +A SOCIAL HIGHWAYMAN. + + By E.P. Train. Illustrated by F. McKernan. + +THE SWORD OF ALLAH. + + By T.R. Threlfall. Illustrated by Powell Chase. + +OUT FROM THE NIGHT. + + By Alice Maud Meadows. Illustrated by St. Clair Simmons. + +THE DEATH THAT LURKS UNSEEN. + + By J.S. Fletcher. Illustrated by Hounson Byles. + +THE HOUSE OF RIMMON. + + By Mrs. Coulson Kernahan. Illustrated by R. Anning Bell. + +PHILLIPI, THE GUARDSMAN. + + By T.R. Threlfall. Illustrated by Powell Chase. + +COURTSHIP AND CHEMICALS. + + By Emily Cox. Illustrated by St. Clair Simmons. + + + + +2/= Copyright Novels. + +_Crown 8vo, Litho Picture Boards, Cloth Back._ + + +1 THE CURSE OF CLEMENT WAYNFLETE. + + By Bertram Mitford. Illustrated by Stanley L. Wood. + +2 THE CRIME AND THE CRIMINAL. + + By Richard Marsh. Illustrated by Harold Piffard. + +3 CAPTAIN SHANNON. + + By Coulson Kernahan. Illustrated by F.S. Wilson. + +4 CHRONICLES OF MARTIN HEWITT. + + By Arthur Morrison. Illustrated by D. Murray Smith. + +5 THE QUEEN OF NIGHT. + + By Headon Hill. Illustrated by Harold Piffard. + +6 A MAN'S FOES. + + By E.H. Strain. Illustrated by A. Forestier. + +7 A SECRET SERVICE. + + By William Le Queux. Illustrated by Harold Piffard. + +8 A VELDT OFFICIAL. + + By Bertram Mitford. Illustrated by Stanley L. Wood. + +9 WOMAN, THE MYSTERY. + + By Henry Herman. Illustrated by George Hutchinson. + +10 MARTIN HEWITT, INVESTIGATOR. + + By Arthur Morrison. Illustrated by Sidney Paget. + +11 A STOLEN LIFE. + + By M. McDonnell Bodkin. Illustrated by Frances Ewan. + +12 A SOCIAL HIGHWAYMAN. + + By E.P. Train. Illustrated by F. McKernan. + +13 THE DATCHET DIAMONDS. + + By Richard Marsh. Illustrated by Stanley L. Wood. + +14 AT MIDNIGHT. + + By Ada Cambridge. Illustrated by F. Frenzeny and others. + +15 LADY TURPIN. + + By Henry Herman. Illustrated by Stanley L. Wood. + +16 ADVENTURES OF MARTIN HEWITT. + + By Arthur Morrison. Illustrated by T.S.C. Crowther. + + + + +THE + +Nineteenth Century Classics + +Edited by Clement K. Shorter. + + +_CROWN 8vo, ART CANVAS GILT. 2s. 6d._ + + +Throughout the whole history of English literature there is no period +which impresses one with its variety and helpfulness in any way +comparable to the first half of the nineteenth century. No period +certainly has produced so many books which it is essential for our +own age to read. The idea of "The Nineteenth Century Classics" is to +place these permanent treasures of the century before the public in an +attractive and serviceable form. Each volume is beautifully printed on +fine paper, well bound, with photogravure frontispiece. + + +1 SARTOR RESARTUS. By Thomas Carlyle. With an Introduction by Edward +Dowden, LL.D. + +2 ALARIC AT ROME, and other Poems. By Matthew Arnold. With an +Introduction by Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D. + +3 HEROES AND HERO-WORSHIP. By Thomas Carlyle. With an Introduction by +Edmund Gosse. + +4 PROMETHEUS BOUND, and other Poems. By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. +With an Introduction by Alice Meynell. + +5 BELLS AND POMEGRANATES, and other Poems. By Robert Browning. With an +Introduction by Thos. J. Wise. + +6 BELLS AND POMEGRANATES (_Second Series_). By Robert Browning. + +7 PAST AND PRESENT. By Thomas Carlyle. With an Introduction by Frederic +Harrison. + +8 THE OPIUM EATER. By Thomas de Quincey. With an Introduction by +Richard le Gallienne. + +9 CRANFORD. By Mrs. Gaskell. With an Introduction by W. Robertson +Nicoll, LL.D. + +10 THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. With +an Introduction by Andrew Lang. + +11 SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE. By George Eliot. + +With an Introduction and Biography by Clement K. Shorter. + + + + +_You cannot beat the Best._ + + + + + THE + Windsor + MAGAZINE + + ... Always contains the ... + + + BEST WORK BY THE + ... BEST AUTHORS ... + AND BEST ARTISTS. + +It has eclipsed every other Sixpenny Magazine, and has achieved the +most Brilliant Success of the day. + +Holds the Record + +for giving the Best Serial Story of the Year. + +Holds the Record + +for giving Splendid Exclusive Articles by recognised specialists. + +Holds the Record + +for being the Most Varied, the Most Entertaining, and the Most +Instructive of Magazines. + +The "Times" calls it "Wonderful." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Satanella, by +G. J. Whyte-Melville and Lucy E. Kemp-Welch + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 56753 *** |