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diff --git a/57613-0.txt b/57613-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7bdc889 --- /dev/null +++ b/57613-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5363 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57613 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + 1. Page scan source: The Internet Web Archive + https://archive.org/details/barrentitlenovel00spei + (The Library of Congress) + + + + + + +Harper's Handy Series +Issued Weekly + +--------------------- + +Copyright by Harper & Brothers November 27, 1885 +Subscription Price per Year, 52 Numbers, $15 + +--------------------- + +Entered the Post-Office at New York, as Second-class Mail Matter + + + + + + +A BARREN TITLE + +A Novel + + + +BY T. W. SPEIGHT +AUTHOR OF "THE MYSTERIES OF HERON DYKE" ETC. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- +_Books you may hold readily in your hand are the most useful, after all_ +Dr. JOHNSON + + + +NEW YORK +HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS +1885 + + + + + + +CONTENTS + CHAP. + + I. SHABBY-GENTEEL. + II. AT THE BROWN BEAR. + III. NEGOTIATIONS. + IV. TERMS PROPOSED. + V. TERMS ACCEPTED. + VI. MILD LUNACY. + VII. "SWEET COZ." + VIII. "GOOD-BYE." + IX. TRANSFORMATION. + X. INFATUATION. + XI. CONFIDENTIAL. + XII. CECILIA AND THE COUNTESS. + XIII. "YOUNG PILLBOX." + XIV. "TWELVE IT IS." + XV. CECILIA PHILOSOPHIZES. + XVI. PALLIDA MORS. + XVII. GOLDEN DREAMS. + XVIII. UP A LADDER. + XIX. P. P. C. + + + + + + +A BARREN TITLE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. +SHABBY-GENTEEL. + + +It was about half-past two on a sunny February afternoon when Mr. +John Fildew put his nose--aquiline and slightly purple as to its +ridge--outside the door of his lodgings for the first time that day, +and remarked to himself, with a shiver, that the weather was "beastly +cold." After gazing up the street and down the street, and seeing +nothing worth looking at, he shut the door behind him and strolled +leisurely away. + +Hayfield Street, in which Mr. Fildew's lodgings were situate, was, +despite its name, as far removed, both in appearance and associations, +from anything suggestive of country or rural life as it well could be. +It was of the town towny. Every house in it--and they were +substantial, well-built domiciles, dating back some seventy or more +years ago--was let out to three or four families, while in many cases +the ground-floors had been converted into shops, in one or other of +which anything might be bought, from a second-hand silk dress or +sealskin jacket to a pennyworth of fried fish or a succulent cow-heel. + +In whatever part of the street you took your stand a couple of taverns +were well within view, and, as a matter of course, there was a +pawnbroker's emporium "just round the corner." It is needless to say +that the street swarmed with children of all ages and all sizes, and +that you might make sure of having the dulcet tones of a barrel-organ +within earshot every ten minutes throughout the day. It was situate +somewhat to the west of Tottenham-court Road, and ran at right angles +with one of the main arteries that intersect that well-known +thoroughfare. + +In this populous locality Mr. Fildew and his wife rented a +drawing-room floor, consisting of three rooms, and including the use +of a kitchen below stairs; and here they had lived for between six and +seven years at the time we make Mr. Fildew's acquaintance. As we shall +see a great deal of that gentleman before the word Finis is written to +this history, it may perhaps be as well to introduce him with some +particularity to the reader before setting out with him on his +afternoon stroll. + +John Fildew at this time was about fifty-two years of age, but looked +somewhat older. Thirty years previously he had been accounted a very +handsome man, and there were still sufficient traces of bygone good +looks to make credible such a tradition. But the once clear-cut +aquiline nose was now growing more coarse and bibulous-looking with +every year, and the once shapely waist was putting on a degree of +convexity that troubled its possessor far more than any other change +that time had seen fit to afflict him with. As yet he was by no means +bald, and his iron-gray hair, however thin it might be at the crown, +was still plentiful at the sides and back, and being seldom operated +upon by the tonsorial scissors, its long, straggling ends mingled with +the tangled growth of his whiskers and lay on the collar of his coat +behind. Grizzled, too, were whiskers, beard, and mustache, but all +unkempt and apparently uncared for, growing as they listed, and only +impatiently snipped at now and again by Mr. Fildew himself, when his +mustache had grown so long as to be inconvenient at meal-times. His +eyes were his best feature. They were dark, piercing, and deep-set, +and were overhung by thick, bushy brows, which showed as yet no +signs of age. Their ordinary expression was one of cold, quiet +watchfulness, but they were occasionally lighted up by gleams of a +grim, sardonic humor, accompanied by a half-contemptuous smile and at +such times it was possible to understand how it happened that many not +over-observant people came to regard him as a genial, good-hearted, +easy-tempered fellow, when, in truth, there was scarcely one touch of +real geniality in his composition. + +Unshorn and unkempt as Mr. Fildew might appear as regards his hair and +whiskers, shabby-genteel as he might be in point of attire, he still +carried himself as one who holds himself superior in some measure to +the ordinary run of his fellows. His boots might bear unmistakable +traces of having been patched, but they were carefully polished and +well-set up at the heels. His trousers might be old, and it is +possible that they too might be patched on certain parts not visible +to the public eye, but they were well ironed at the knees, and were +strapped over his boots _à la militaire_. His frock-coat--always worn +tightly buttoned--might be threadbare, inked here and there at the +seams, and not after the latest fashion, but it had the merit of being +an excellent fit. His hat, too, might be of ancient date, and +suspiciously shiny in places, but it was always carefully brushed, and +was worn with an air of assurance and _aplomb_ that made its defects +seem superior to the virtues of many newer head-coverings. Mr. +Fildew's linen might be old, possibly darned, but such portion of it +as was visible to the world at large was at least spotlessly white: +there was some one at home who took care of that. His attire was +completed by a deep, military-looking stock, a pair of faded buckskin +gloves, and a substantial Malacca cane with a silk tassel. Being +naturally a little short-sighted, he always carried an eyeglass, but +rarely made use of it in the streets. + +And yet Mr. Fildew's shabby attire was not altogether a matter of +necessity with him. One day his son Clement ventured to say, "Father, +I wish you would go to my tailor, and let him set you up with some new +toggery." + +Clem was brushing the collar of his father's coat at the time, and the +remark was made laughingly, but Mr. Fildew turned with a scowl and +confronted his son. "Confound your tailor, sir!" he cried. "And you, +too," he added next moment. "Do you think I'm a pauper, that you offer +to pay for my clothes? If you are ashamed to be seen out with me, +remember, sir, that there are always two sides to a street." And with +that Mr. Fildew turned on his heel in high dudgeon. + +Clement and his mother exchanged glances of dismay. "You know how +peculiar your father is, dear," said Mrs. Fildew afterwards, "and what +little things sometimes touch his dignity. It was injudicious of you +to say what you did." + +Clement shrugged his shoulders. "I have lived with my father all my +life, and yet I confess that I only half understand him," said the +young man. "At times he is a complete enigma to me." + +"I have lived with him more years than you have, and I think that I +almost understand him: almost, but not quite," responded Mrs. Fildew, +with a smile. "But then a woman always does understand a man better +than another man can hope to do." + +Clement Fildew might well say that his father was an enigma to him. +Although the latter refused so indignantly to allow his son to be at +the expense of refurnishing his wardrobe, he was not too proud to +accept from him his weekly supply of pocket-money. But then the money +in question found its way from Clement's pocket to that of his father +after such a delicate and diplomatic fashion that the susceptibilities +of Mr. Fildew had never hitherto been wounded in the transaction. +Every Friday Clement placed in his mother's hands the sum of one +guinea. The sovereign and shilling in question were wrapped up by Mrs. +Fildew in a piece of tissue-paper, and quietly deposited by her in a +certain drawer in her husband's dressing-table. By Saturday morning +the tiny packet would have disappeared. No questions were asked; +neither Mrs. Fildew nor her husband ever spoke to each other on the +matter but silence has often a meaning of its own, and it had in this +case. + +Mr. Fildew having shut the door of his lodgings behind him, walked +slowly down the street with the preoccupied air of a man who is busily +communing with himself. "I must ask Clem to lend me half a sovereign," +he muttered. "The necessity is an unpleasant one, but there's no help +for it. I feel certain I could have given that fellow last night a +drubbing at a carom game, but he was too many for me at the spot +stroke. _Experientia docet_." + +Unfastening a couple of buttons of his frock-coat, Mr. Fildew inserted +a thumb and finger into his waistcoat pocket, and drew therefrom a +sixpence. "My last coin," he murmured. "I really must not touch a cue +again for another month." + +Mr. Fildew was methodical in many of his habits. There was one tavern +at which he made a point of calling within ten minutes of leaving home +every afternoon. It had a little dark, private bar with cane-bottomed +stools, where the gas was kept half turned on all day long. Here Punch +and other comic papers were always to be found. Somehow, Mr. Fildew +liked the place, but although he had called at it daily for years, no +one behind the bar knew either his name or anything about him. He now +pushed open the swing-doors and went in. In answer to his nod--there +was no need for him to speak--the barman brought him fourpennyworth of +brown brandy and cold water, together with a minute portion of cheese +on the point of a knife. Mr. Fildew munched his cheese, glanced at the +cartoon in Punch, sipped up his brandy-and-water, nodded a second time +to the barman, and went. + +Mr. Fildew walked jauntily along, whistling under his breath. The +brandy had imparted a glow to his feelings and a glow to his +imagination: the flame would soon drop down again, he knew, but he was +philosopher enough to enjoy it while it lasted. + +Elderly, shabby-genteel individuals are by no means scarce about the +West End of London on sunny afternoons--inveterate _flâneurs_ whose +"better days" are over forever. But Mr. Fildew was something more than +merely shabby-genteel there was about him a style, a carriage, an air +undefinable, but not to be mistaken, of broken-down distinction, which +induced many passers-by to turn and glance at him a second time as he +"took" the pavement with his slow military stride, his eyes fixed +straight before him, and his nose held high in air. + +In a few minutes he found himself in Oxford Street. Crossing this as +soon as there was a break in the string of vehicles, he took his way +towards the mazes of Soho. Stopping at a certain door, he gave one +loud rap with the knocker followed by two quick ones, and next moment +the door opened, apparently of its own accord, and Mr. Fildew walked +in, after which the door shut itself behind him. He had evidently been +there before, for without a moment's hesitation he ascended the first +flight of stairs, turned to the left down a short passage, and, +opening a door at the end of it, found himself in a roomy and +well-lighted studio. + +Its only occupant was a very little bandy-legged man with a luxuriant +crop of curly hair, who was sitting on a low stool in front of a big +canvas, palette and brush in hand and a brier-root pipe between his +teeth. John Fildew looked round with an air of disappointment. + +"Clem not at home?" he asked of the little man. + +"Oh, Mr. Fildew, is that you?" said the latter, turning quickly. "I +thought it was Clem come back. He's gone to see Pudgin, the dealer. +Won't be long, I dare say." + +"This is the third time I've called and not found him at home." + +"All, just your luck, ain't it?" said the other, coolly. It would +almost have seemed from the way he spoke as if he held Mr. Fildew in +no particular regard. + +The latter made no reply, but strode across the room and came to a +halt immediately behind the little painter. + +"I'm putting the finishing touches to the _pedes_ of my saint, Mr. +Fildew. I wonder whether the holy men of olden time were ever troubled +with corns or bunions. I suppose it wouldn't do to paint them with +any. Rather too realistic, eh?" + +"Intended for the Academy, I suppose?" + +"If their high mightinesses will deign to find it hanging room--which +is somewhat problematical." + +Mr. Fildew's cough plainly implied, "I should think it very +problematical indeed." + +"Now, about Clem's picture I don't think there can be any doubt +whatever," said the generous-hearted little man. "They must be dolts, +indeed, if they reject that. It's far and away the best thing Clem's +done yet. That boy, sir, has a great career before him." + +"From a painter's point of view, I presume you mean?" said Mr. Fildew, +with a sneer. + +"Precisely so. From a painter's point of view. What other point of +view could you expect me to take?" + +"No other, I suppose. _Chacun à son métier_. But the words, 'a great +career,' hardly associate themselves in my mind with anything achieved +by means of a brush and a paint-pot." + +"A paint-pot, indeed! Let me tell you, sir--but you are only chaffing +me, Mr. Fildew--only trying to set my Welsh blood boiling that you may +have a quiet laugh at me in your sleeve. But, joking apart, sir, you +ought really to have a look at Clem's picture. It's there on the other +easel. Shall I lift the cover for you?" + +"Not to-day, thank you, Macer. I'm not i' the vein. How is it possible +for a man to have any proper appreciation of the fine arts who hasn't +a sou in the world to bless himself with?" + +"If I might venture to offer, Mr. Fildew--" said Macer, doubtfully. He +knew something of his visitor's queer moods and sudden spurts of +temper, and shook in his shoes as he made the offer. + +"Just what I was coming to. You're a good fellow, Macer," responded +Mr. Fildew, with much affability. Tony felt immensely relieved. +"The truth is, I just looked in to see whether Clem had a spare +half-sovereign about him; I've run rather short, as most of us do at +odd times." + +"If you are in a hurry, Mr. Fildew, and you will allow me--" said +Macer, as he opened his purse. + +"Thanks. Yes, I am in a hurry, and you can settle with Clem, you +know;" and so the half-sovereign was quietly transferred to Mr. +Fildew's pocket. + +"Any message for Clem, Mr. Fildew?" + +"No, I think not, Macer. You may just tell him that his mother seems a +little more cheerful and in less pain yesterday and to-day. But, +really, I don't wish you to burden your memory with such a trifle." + +"It won't seem a trifle to Clem. I could not tell him anything that +would please him better." + +"Hum! Not even the news that the Academy had accepted his picture?" +asked Mr. Fildew, dryly. + +"Not even to hear that would afford him the pleasure he would derive +from knowing that his mother was really better." + +"Ah, yes, Clem's a good boy; a model son in every way." Macer looked +up quickly, but Mr. Fildew, with his glass in his eye, was apparently +contemplating a cobweb in a far corner of the room. "But I must go +now," he added, as he turned on his heel. "Don't forget to ask Clem +for the half-sovereign; and if neither of you should be so fortunate +as to have your picture hung by the Academy, I hope you won't go and +hang yourselves instead." And, with one of his peculiar smiles and a +curt nod of the head, he left the room. + +"Poor Clem! What a pity Providence didn't provide him with a different +kind of father," said Tony Macer, as he turned to his work again. +"Egad! if the fellow were worth ten thousand a year, he could hardly +give himself more airs." + + + + +CHAPTER II. +AT THE BROWN BEAR. + + +The Brown Bear, the tavern usually patronized by Mr. Fildew of an +evening, was situate in a quiet street no great distance from +Bloomsbury Square. It was one of the few taverns dating from a bygone +generation that had escaped the hands of the modern innovator. It +could boast no plate-glass windows lighted up with a score of +gas-jets. There was plenty of old mahogany, black with age, to be seen +inside the bar, but there were no mirrors and no gilding; neither was +there any lavish display of colored glass or artificial shrubs. You +went down one step from the street into the bar, the floor of which +was sprinkled with sand, as in the days when George the Third was +king. A huge oaken beam supported the ceiling. On a topmost shelf +stood a couple of immense punchbowls backed by some flagons of antique +design, and below them were several bottles of Schiedam and other +liquors that had been ripening for a dozen years. There was an air of +sombre substantiality about the whole place. + +Behind the bar was the "coffee-room," so called. Straight-backed, +rush-bottomed chairs occupied three sides of it, in front of which +were ranged four or five oblong tables, black with age and much +polishing. At the upper end of the room was an elaborately carved +arm-chair, where the president or chairman for the evening took his +seat, opposite which stood a brass box containing tobacco, the lid of +which flew open as often as a halfpenny was dropped through an orifice +at the opposite end. A few smoke-dried prints of coaching and sporting +subjects, and three or four pipe-racks, decorated the walls. + +The general public were not allowed to invade this sanctum for them +there was another room at the opposite end of the bar. The coffee-room +was set apart and kept sacred for a certain set of regular customers, +and such private friends as they might choose to bring with them from +time to time, who, year in and year out, made a point of spending +their evenings at the Brown Bear. Some there were who put in an +appearance almost every night, some of them showed up only two or +three times a week, but they were all known to each other and to the +landlord, the freemasonry of good-fellowship, or what passed among +them as such, being the one bond that kept them together. Several of +them were small tradesmen of the neighborhood, two or three were +connected with the law, a few of them were men whose work in this +world was over, and who were ekeing out the remainder of their days on +some small pension or private means of their own. + +At nine P.M. such of the company as might be present voted one of +their number into the chair, a post which it was not considered +etiquette to vacate till the clock struck twelve. At ten o'clock they +were generally joined by the landlord, who, on such occasions, ordered +and paid for what he drank like an ordinary customer. The last +proceeding of each evening was for the chairman to treat such of the +company as might be left to "goes" of grog at his own expense; one +cannot expect to have the honors of this world thrust upon one without +having to pay for them. + +It is quite possible that some of the frequenters of the Brown Bear +were drawn thither by the love of hearing themselves talk, and of +having others to listen to them, rather than by any more convivial +motives. As a consequence, the affairs of the nation were discussed +and settled, and the proceedings of the party in power impugned or +approved of, as the case might be, to the satisfaction of everybody +concerned; while such minor topics as the weather, the crops, the last +murder, or the latest scandal in high life, did not fail to come in +for their due share of attention. Some old fogies there were who +scarcely opened their lips except to order their grog, or to interject +an "exactly" or a "just so" at the proper moment, whenever any +particular proposition was pointedly aimed at them, but who otherwise +puffed placidly at their pipes in stolid silence. These non-talkers +were by no means among the least popular of the company, for how can a +man who feels called upon to enlighten his fellow-citizens do so with +any satisfaction to himself unless he has appreciative listeners? That +those others chose to be listeners rather than talkers was by no means +put down to any obtuseness of intellect on their part, for are we not +taught that a still tongue is a sign of a wise head? and a man may be +brimful of wisdom, and yet be at pains to conceal that fact from his +fellows. + +Among such a company as this it might almost have seemed as if a man +like Mr. Fildew would hardly have felt himself at home; but such was +by no means the case. The truth is, that the majority of the +frequenters of the Brown Bear, that is to say, the small tradesmen +portion of them, looked up to our friend and yet looked down upon him. +They looked down upon him because they had a suspicion, which, in +their case, was next to a certainty, that he was always in a chronic +state of impecuniosity; because they themselves had their snug little +investments in one form or other, and could have bought him up, root +and branch, a hundred times over; and, finally, because it is one of +the blessed privileges of those who have money to look down on those +who have none. They looked up to Fildew because there was something +about the man which told them he had at one time belonged to a sphere +from which they were forever debarred. Through all his poverty and +shabbiness, a faint aroma of fashion and high life seemed still to +cling to him. The popular notion at the Brown Bear was that he had at +one time been an officer in some crack regiment, who had ruined +himself by gambling and been discarded by his friends. If he spoke of +the aristocracy, which, to give him credit, was but rarely, he spoke +as though he were one to the manner born. He seemed to know Eton and +Oxford as well as he knew Tottenham-court Road, and to be familiar +with most of the West End clubs. A nobleman's name could hardly be +mentioned without his being able to tell something about him that the +frequenters of the Brown Bear had never heard of before. In his very +way of talking, in his mode of accentuating his words, there was an +indefinable something which marked him out at once from the ordinary +frequenters of the coffee-room of the B. B. They knew, these petty +tradesmen, that "His Grace" looked down upon them from the height of +some, to them, invisible pedestal; and they in turn looked down upon +him from the serene height of their money-bags; and yet, as they +argued among themselves when he was not by, he must, to a certain +extent, have liked their company, else why did he seek it so +persistently night after night the year round? + +It was about half-past eight this evening when John Fildew walked into +the bar of the Brown Bear. He nodded to the landlord, and that worthy +at once touched a spring inside the bar which communicated with the +door of the coffee-room, after which the door opened to Fildew's hand, +and he entered. With one man in the room he shook hands, to the rest +of the company be vouchsafed a general and comprehensive nod. Then he +took a vacant chair, and having called for a "go" of brandy cold, he +proceeded to select a churchwarden pipe from a heap on the table +before him and to charge it with tobacco. + +"How's the weather by this time, your grace?" asked Mr. Nutt, the +shoemaker. "It was just wetting a bit when I came in." + +"The stars are out again," said Fildew, answering to the title as a +matter of course. "Not much likelihood of any rain to-night." + +It was not often that he joined in the discussions, political or +otherwise, that were pretty sure to crop up before the evening was at +an end. He generally sat a silent if not an amused listener. If +appealed to directly he would give his opinion, but not otherwise. +That curious, sneering smile of his would now and then light up his +features at the enunciation by one or other of his friends of some +more wildly outrageous statement than common, but for the most part he +and his pipe held silent session together and troubled no one with +what they thought. + +It was quite understood in the room why Mr. Fildew should shake hands +with Mr. Denzil and no one else. Mr. Fildew was a man who rarely shook +hands with any one. His reasons for making an exception in favor of +the young law-writer may be told in a few words. One evening, about a +year anterior to the particular evening to which we have now come, Mr. +Denzil had made his appearance at the Brown Bear considerably the +worse for liquor. At the moment of his entrance Mr. Fildew was +explaining to the company the ceremonial in connection with a royal +levée at St. James's. "What can a shabby dog like you know about the +interior of a palace?" hiccoughed Denzil. "If you have ever been +inside St. James's it must have been when you were sent for to sweep +the chimneys." + +"Silence, you drunken fool," said Mr. Fildew, in quietly contemptuous +tones. + +But Denzil was not in a mood to be silenced, and would probably have +insulted the company all round had not three or four of his more +intimate friends removed him as quietly as possible. After that +evening he and Mr. Fildew spoke to each other no more. + +Six or seven months had passed away when one evening somebody inquired +what had become of Denzil, upwards of a week having gone by since his +last appearance at the B. B. + +"My pot man told me to-day that he had heard he was queer," remarked +the landlord. + +"What's the matter with him? Not d. t. again, eh?" + +"Some sort of fever, I'm afraid. Catching, too, I hear." + +"Poor Denzil! Let us hope he'll not want for good nursing." + +"How can he have good nursing," said another, "when, as I happen to +know, he hasn't a single relation within a hundred miles of London? He +rents a back bedroom on a third floor, and gets his meals out. That's +the sort of home Denzil has." + +"Poor devil! They ought to have taken him to the hospital. He'd have +been properly cared for there." + +"They say he's too ill to be moved," remarked the landlord, as he +placidly puffed at his pipe. Had the health of his favorite terrier +been in question, some show of feeling might naturally have been +expected from him. + +Then Mr. Fildew spoke. "Gentlemen," he said, "my opinion is that a +deputation of the present company ought without delay to inquire into +the circumstances attendant on Mr. Denzil's illness, and make such +arrangements as may be necessary for having him properly cared for." + +There was a dead silence in the room. Everybody puffed away with +increased energy at their pipes. + +Mr. Pyecroft, the small-ware dealer, a thin man with a squeaky voice, +was the first to speak. "Did you say the fever was a catching one, Mr. +Landlord?" + +"So my potman was given to understand. A bad kind of fever--very." + +"Humph! Well, I for one, as a family man, must say," resumed Pyecroft, +"that much as I respect our friend Denzil, and sincerely as I hope +he'll soon be among us again as jovial as ever, I don't see my way to +go and inquire personally after his health. My duty to my wife and +children tells me that I ought to take the greatest possible care of +my own health, for their sakes, if not for my own." + +"Hear, hear! my sentiments exactly," resounded from three or four +parts of the room. "Number Two is all very well when Number One has +been properly cared for." + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Scoop, the tailor, with a doleful shake of the +head, "I am afraid that this is one of those unfortunate cases in +which friendship finds itself with its hands tied. I don't really see +that we can do anything. James, another go of Scotch with an extra +squeeze of lemon this time." + +Mr. Fildew rose to his feet and put his hat on. + +"Surely your grace is not going already?" said Mr. Nutt. + +"Why, the evening's quite a baby yet," remarked jovial-faced little +Tubbins, the undertaker. "But perhaps there's a lady in the case, eh? +Ah, sly dog, sly dog!" and he gave a comprehensive wink for the +benefit of the company at large. + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Fildew, gravely, "I am going to the lodgings of +Mr. Denzil. If any one here chooses to accompany me, so much the +better. If not, I shall go alone." + +He waited a moment, but no one spoke or moved. + +Then he turned on his heel and walked slowly out. + +He found Denzil in a raging fever, with no one to attend to him but a +poor lad who slept in the next room. For ten days and as many nights +he and this lad took it in turns to nurse the sick man, until the +fever left him and he was on the high-road to recovery. Then an old +aunt was telegraphed for out of Devonshire, and Mr. Fildew went his +way. And that is the reason why ever afterwards he and Denzil shook +hands when they met each other at the B. B. + +To-night the coffee-room was more lively than usual, for Mr. Wimbush, +the funny man of the company, had advanced the humorous proposition +that the moment a prime-minister failed to secure a majority in the +House he ought to be decapitated, and was putting it to his friends +generally which of them would like to take office under such +circumstances. Lumbering witticisms and time-honored jokes were being +bandied about; a joke was hardly looked upon as a joke at the B. B. +till it had done duty some half-dozen times, and came to be recognized +as an old friend. But John Fildew sat as grave as a judge, behind his +pipe, and took no part in the merriment around him. + +By and by in came Mr. Nipper, the auctioneer, with the evening paper +in his hand. He sat down next Mr. Fildew, rubbed up his hair, and +selected a pipe. "Any news this evening worth reading?" asked Fildew, +more for the sake of saying something than because he cared to know +what the news might be. + +"No, everything seems very stale just now," said the auctioneer, as he +blew down the stem of his pipe, and twisted his little finger +appreciatively round the inside of the bowl. "There's an account of a +fatal accident to one of our young swells; but the country could spare +a lot like him without being any the worse off," added Nipper, who +prided himself on his democratic principles. + +"There are swells and swells," responded Mr. Fildew, dryly. "What was +the name of this particular one?" + +"The Earl of Loughton. Pitched off his hunter and broke his neck. Not +quite one-and-twenty." + +Mr. Fildew, who had been in the act of lifting his glass to his lips, +put it down untasted. Mr. Nipper turned and stared at him. + +"Hullo! I say, what's the matter? Was the young lord a friend of your +grace?" This was asked with something of a grin. "By Jove! you are all +of a shake." + +"The Earl of Loughton was no friend of mine. I never saw him in my +life. But I happen to be acquainted with the man who will succeed him +in the title." + +"Bully for you, my boy," responded Mr. Nipper, who could not forget +that he had once spent six months in the States. "Here's the account. +Perhaps you would like to read it." He pointed to a brief paragraph, +which Fildew, with the newspaper held up within an inch or two of his +nose, read carefully through more than once. + +"I must write to my friend to-night and congratulate him," he said, in +his usual quiet, matter-of-fact tone, as he laid down the newspaper. +"It will be a great surprise for him." + +"Let us hope that in the day of his prosperity the friends of his +adversity will not be forgotten," said Nipper, who was one of the +orators of the B. B. + +"It is but a barren honor that he will come into," answered Fildew. +"The title will be his, but the estates go elsewhere;" and nodding a +curt "goodnight" to the auctioneer, he emptied his glass and left the +room. + + + + +CHAPTER III. +NEGOTIATIONS. + + +Whether Mr. Fildew ever wrote that particular letter respecting which +he spoke to Mr. Nipper is more than doubtful. Like many other men, he +hated letter-writing, and it is possible that the incident in +connection with Lord Loughton, to which he had seemed to attach so +much importance when he first heard of it, may have assumed a +different aspect when recalled to mind in the cool light of morning. +In any case, there was no observable difference in his appearance or +mode of life. He came and went, and smoked and drank, as heretofore +only it might be that he was a little more particular in scanning the +newspapers than he had previously been. At the end of a week his +friend Nipper said to him, "I see that poor young fellow was buried +yesterday." + +"You mean Lord Loughton? Yes, I saw the account in this morning's +paper." + +"Written to your friend yet?" + +"No. On second thoughts it seemed to me that it would be better to +wait a few weeks before troubling him. He'll have enough to do and +plenty to think of for a little while." + +"Well, I wouldn't lose sight of him if I were you. It must be rather +nice to be on nodding terms with an earl. Not that I should care about +that sort of thing, you know," added Nipper, hastily. He had forgotten +for the moment that he was in the habit of posing as a democrat. +"And then"--with a glance at Fildew's threadbare coat and patched +boots--"he might do something for you, you know: some snug little +government sinecure, or something of that kind. There's lots of 'em +knocking about." + +Mr. Fildew laughed a little bitterly. "It may be all very well for me +not to forget him, but he may not choose to remember me." + +"Well, that's the way of the world and no mistake," said the +auctioneer, with a shrug. "But, for all that, I shouldn't forget to +jog his memory. Where's the use of having swell friends if you can't +make use of 'em?" + +A few evenings later Mr. Fildew called for pen, ink, and paper, and, +seating himself at a little table, apart from the rest of the company, +he wrote the following letter, which George the potman afterwards took +for him to the nearest post: + + + "The Brown Bear Tavern, Chalcot Street, W. C. + + "_February 25th_, 18--. + +"Messrs. Flicker & Tapp, Bedford Row: + +"Gentlemen,--In common with a great number of other people, I have +heard with extreme regret of the untimely demise of the late Earl of +Loughton. That a life so abounding in promise should be thus suddenly +nipped in the bud must be almost enough to cause those near and dear +to him to arraign the decrees of Providence. + +"I know not whether it may be a matter of any moment either to the +Dowager Countess of Loughton or to yourselves, as business agents for +the family, to be made acquainted with the whereabouts of the present +earl; but should it be so, I think I may safely say that I am the only +person in England who can furnish you with his address. You may +probably be aware that Mr. Lorrimore, as we may still call him, has +resided abroad for several years but as I happen to have had a +communication from him only a fortnight ago, I am fully competent to +supply you with the information stated above. Should you think it +worth your while to take any notice of this communication, I am to be +found here any evening from 8.30 till 11.30 P.M. + + "I am, gentlemen, faithfully yours, + + "John Fildew." + + +Two evenings passed away without any response, but on the third +evening a dapper little man, with a very shiny hat and a pair of +whiskers several sizes too large for him, walked into the bar of the +Brown Bear, and asked for Mr. Fildew. Our friend, being called, came +lounging out of the coffee-room, his glass in his eye and a thumb in +each waistcoat pocket. + +"Are you Mr. John Fildew?" asked the little stranger, taking in the +whole of John's shabby toggery at a glance. + +"I am--unfortunately. I often think it would be a good thing if I +could be somebody else." + +"My name is Perkins. I have called respecting a certain letter +addressed by you to Messrs. Flicker & Tapp. Our senior partner would +like to know--" + +"Pardon me," interrupted Fildew, blandly, "but if I have not the +pleasure of addressing either Mr. Flicker or Mr. Tapp, we need not +proceed further with the matter." + +"Why, sir--how, sir--I don't understand you!" spluttered Mr. Perkins, +becoming as red as a turkey-cock. + +"I am sorry for that. I will put my meaning as plainly as possible. I +never transact business except with principals." + +"But I tell you, sir, I have been sent here specially to--to--" + +"I am sorry that you should have your trouble for nothing, but unless +Mr. Flicker or Mr. Tapp choose to come and consult me in person the +matter must end here. And, really, I shall not be sorry for it to do +so." + +"Mr. Flicker or Mr. Tapp come to a place like this!" + +"Why not, my dear Mr. Perkins? If the place is good enough for me, +surely it is good enough for them." + +"Why, you impertinent, shabby--" + +"Gently, my dear Mr. Perkins, gently. I've rather a partiality for +little men, so long as they behave themselves; but when little men +become impertinent I've a nasty trick of caning them (_verbum sap_.). +But have a drop of something hot before you go. This house has a name +for its old Jamaica, and I've an odd sixpence somewhere in a corner of +my pocket." + +"To the devil with your Jamaica and your sixpence too!" ejaculated Mr. +Perkins. "It's my opinion that you're nothing better than a common +swindler;" and, jamming his hat over his brows, the little man turned +abruptly on his heel and left the bar. Mr. Fildew, after a grim, +silent laugh, went back to his pipe in the coffee-room. + +Three days later Mr. Fildew found a note awaiting his arrival at the +Brown Bear. It ran as follows: + + + "No. 429 Bedford Row. + +"Messrs. Flicker & Tapp will be at liberty to see Mr. John Fildew any +morning between half-past ten and two, if he will favor them with a +call as above." + + +To this the following answer was sent: + + + "The Brown Bear Tavern. + +"Mr. Fildew is sorry to say that his numerous engagements preclude him +from having the pleasure of waiting on Messrs. Flicker & Tapp, as +suggested in their note of yesterday. As previously stated, Mr. Fildew +may be found at the above address any evening prior to 11.30 P.M." + + +"They shall wait upon me, not I upon them," said Mr. Fildew to +himself, with an emphatic bang of his fist upon the unoffending +postage-stamp. + +And so it came to pass for one evening the great Mr. Flicker himself +put in an appearance at the Brown Bear, having left his brougham at +the corner of the street. He was a tall, thin, melancholy-looking man, +like an attenuated life-guardsman who had turned mute for a +livelihood. He stood among the bar-frequenters for a moment or two +while Mr. Fildew was summoned, looking as grim, cold, and +uncompromising as if he had been carved out of monumental marble. + +"I am Mr. Flicker." + +"I am Mr. Fildew." + +Then the latter said a few words to the landlord, and the two +gentlemen were ushered up-stairs into a private room. As soon as the +door was shut, said the lawyer: "We received rather a singular +communication from you a few days ago, Mr. Fildew." + +"In what did the singularity of my communication consist, Mr. +Flicker?" + +"I will be frank with you, and I trust you will be equally frank with +me." + +Mr. Fildew bowed, but said nothing. + +"May I be permitted to ask by what reasons you were influenced in your +assumption that a knowledge of the address of--of--" + +"Of the present Earl of Loughton," suggested Mr. Fildew, blandly. + +"That a knowledge of the address of the person named in your letter," +said Mr. Flicker, loftily, "could be of any possible interest either +to the Dowager Lady Loughton or to myself or partner?" + +"Were I so minded, I might content myself by replying that the fact of +your presence here this evening is a proof that the information +proffered by me has a certain measure of interest for you, and +possibly for her ladyship also. But you have asked me to deal frankly +with you, and I will endeavor to do so. Since writing my first letter +to you, I have had a communication from his lordship containing +certain instructions, and giving me full power to act in his behalf in +this matter." + +Mr. Flicker's eyebrows went up perceptibly, but he simply bowed and +waited to hear more. + +"Before proceeding further," resumed Mr. Fildew, "it may be as well if +I give you our view of the case as it now stands. Of course we are all +aware that the title, as it comes to the present earl, is what may be +called a barren honor, there being no entail. Not one golden guinea, +not one acre of moorland, comes with it. The father of the late earl, +when he drew up his will, might have foreseen the contingency which +the strange irony of events all unlikely as it then seemed--has now +brought about. He took every possible precaution that his scapegrace +cousin the man who on account of his evil doings, had been compelled +to expatriate himself long years before, should not inherit a single +rood of the property, and he would doubtless have willed the title +away also had it been in his power to do so. The greater share of the +property comes to Miss Collumpton, and a lesser share to Mr. Slingsby +Boscombe, both of whom are half-cousins to the late earl, and I +believe it has long been considered a desirable thing in the Lorrimore +family that the two young people in question should unite their +fortunes in wedlock. Should this consummation be brought about, one +thing and one only would be needed to make such a union a matter for +rejoicing among gods and men. The one thing needful would be that the +title should accompany the estates." Mr. Fildew paused for a moment to +relight the pipe he had brought with him from the coffee-room. "Which +is your favorite tobacco, Mr. Flicker?" he asked, as he blew a cloud +of smoke from his lips. "For my part, give me bird's-eye for choice." + +"I never use tobacco in any shape, sir," said Mr. Flicker, with a sort +of lofty scorn. + +"Then let me tell you, sir, that you lose one of the pleasures of +existence. But to return to our muttons. As you and I are well aware, +Mr. Flicker, under present circumstances the title cannot go with the +estates but it may follow them, and that at no distant date. The life +of one elderly gentleman--of a gentleman who has been in infirm health +for years--is all that now stands between Mr. Slingsby Boscombe and an +earldom. But supposing this same elderly gentleman were to marry and +have issue, where would Mr. Boscombe's chance be in that case?" Mr. +Fildew put up his glass and stared across at his companion as if +awaiting a reply but Mr. Flicker merely blew his nose with a +melancholy air, and said nothing. + +"However, as I am instructed," resumed Mr. Fildew, "matrimony is the +last thought in his lordship's mind. At the same time, he does not +relish the idea of succeeding to the title without any income to +support it with. What, therefore, I am empowered to suggest is a +compromise. Provided his lordship will enter into an engagement not to +contract a matrimonial alliance, the question is what amount per annum +the dowager countess, or Miss Collumpton, or Mr. Slingsby Boscombe, or +all three of them together, will be prepared, after due consideration, +to allow him out of the estate." + +Mr. Fildew let his eyeglass drop and resumed smoking. + +Mr. Flicker sat and stared at him across the table. His respect for +the strange, shabby, tobacco-flavored man before him had gone up +thirty per cent. during the last few minutes. + +"Well, Mr. Fildew, really I am at a loss to know in what light to +regard the strange proposition you have put before me. I have no +instructions to--to--" + +"I can't quite understand that," broke in Fildew, "and I am not such +an ass as to expect an answer from you off-hand. Take my proposition +away with you, and you and the dowager can consider it at your +leisure. You know by this time where I am to be found." + +Mr. Flicker rose. His sluggish blood was beginning to simmer. He felt +that he had been quietly put down all through the interview. The +strange being before him had actually had the presumption to address +him in the same tone that he himself might have made use of when +speaking to one of his clerks. + +"By-the-bye, there is one point that I must press specially on your +attention," resumed Fildew, as he too rose. "His lordship informs me +that the first step in the negotiations, should your side agree to +negotiate at all, must be a distinct understanding that the debts, on +account of which he left England so many years ago, shall be +discharged in full. His lordship makes that a _sine quâ non_." + +"If his lordship may be judged by the tone of his mouthpiece," said +Mr. Flicker, dryly, "it seems pretty evident that he looks upon +himself as master of the situation." + +"It is quite possible that such may be the earl's own opinion. But, in +any case, Mr. Flicker, I think that you and I understand each other by +this time." + +Mr. Flicker muttered something that was inaudible and opened the door. +"One moment, if you please," said Mr. Fildew. Then he rang the bell. +"James, be good enough to light this gentleman downstairs and conduct +him through the bar." + +Four days later the following letter was put into Mr. Fildew's hands: +"If Mr. Fildew will call at No. 287 Harley Street, at noon to-morrow +(Tuesday), the Dowager Countess of Loughton will be at home." + +Never had John Fildew looked more uncompromisingly and audaciously +shabby than when he knocked at 287 Harley Street. His hat and coat +might not have been brushed for days. His boots seemed to lack +something of their usual polish. He wore a frayed black satin +stock with long ends, which completely hid whatever portion of his +shirt-front might otherwise have been visible, but which, at the same +time, gave one the idea that perhaps there was nothing to hide. A +faint, a very faint, aroma of stale tobacco floated round him as he +moved. + +The bleak March winds had made the ridge of his nose look more purple +than usual, and when he put a dingy piece of pasteboard into the hand +of the tall footman who answered his knock, that functionary was +evidently disposed to look upon him as a member of the great +fraternity of shabby-genteel beggars. + +"Take that to the Countess of Loughton, and be quick about it," said +Mr. Fildew, in the sharp military way he sometimes affected, for the +man was turning the card over and hesitating. + +Three minutes later Mr. Fildew found himself in the presence of the +countess and Mr. Flicker. + +The Dowager Lady Loughton was nearly eighty years old, but was still a +wonderfully active and bright-eyed little woman. The tradition ran +that she had been accounted a great beauty in her youth, but her nose +and chin nearly touched each other now, and when she grew very earnest +in conversation her head began to nod as if to add emphasis to her +words, but that was simply because she could not keep it still at such +times. All her life she had borne the reputation of being a good +hater, and it was said that her tongue grew more venomous each year +that she lived. The sudden death of her grandson had doubtless been a +great blow to her, but she bore the loss with a stoicism which would +not let any signs of grief be witnessed by those about her. Some of +the countess's dearest friends averred that her grief at the fact of +the title having to lapse into another branch of the family was quite +as poignant as that which she felt for the loss of the young earl; but +then we all know what strange things our dearest friends will say +about us. + +The countess examined Mr. Fildew through her double eyeglass--even at +seventy-eight she would not take to spectacles--as he crossed the room +after the servant had shut the door behind him. Mr. Flicker's +description of the man had made her slightly curious respecting him. +In that elegantly furnished room John Fildew's shabbiness looked +shabbier by contrast. Had he been dressed as an ordinary working man +he would not have looked nearly so much out of place as he did in the +worn and rusty garments of a broken-down man about town. The only +change in his attire that he had made in honor of the occasion +consisted of a pair of very ancient black-kid gloves, which had been +stitched and restitched so often that nothing more could be done for +them, and a narrow mourning band round his hat. + +"You are Mr. Fildew?" asked the countess, with a sort of sweet +condescension in her tones. + +"And you are the Dowager Lady Loughton." + +Her ladyship looked at Mr. Flicker as much as to say, "You were quite +right a strange being, truly." Then she said aloud, "Pray take a +chair, Mr. Fildew." + +This Mr. Fildew did, planting himself close to the little table near +which the countess and the lawyer were seated. Then he stared mildly +through his glass at one and the other of them, as waiting to hear +more. + +"Mr. Flicker has confided to me the purport of his interview with you +a few evenings ago," began the countess. + +"And the decision which her ladyship has arrived at," croaked Mr. +Flicker, "is that the suggestion then put forward by you is totally +inadmissible, and cannot be entertained for a moment." + +"Then may I ask," said Mr. Fildew, with a sort of grave surprise, "why +I have been summoned to Harley Street this morning? All this might +surely have been told me under cover of a penny postage-stamp." + +"Although I cannot at present see my way to entertain the proposition +which Mr. Lorrimore has thought fit to make through you," said the +countess, "it may still be conceded that I am not without a little +natural curiosity to learn some particulars concerning the man +himself, and what he has been doing these many years since he left +England." + +"I have no authority to gratify your ladyship's curiosity. I am here +simply to negotiate a certain business transaction. As there seems no +probability of our coming to terms I may as well take my leave at +once. When Lord Loughton arrives in England he will no doubt be able +to satisfy your ladyship's affectionate inquiries: whether he will +care to do so is another matter." Mr. Fildew rose and pushed back his +chair. + +"Sit down, sir," said her ladyship, with an imperious gesture. "If you +were Lord Loughton himself you could not treat me more cavalierly." +Her head began to nod portentously. + +"Suppose I am Lord Loughton?" said Mr. Fildew, quietly, as he resumed +his seat. + +"Eh!" said her ladyship, with a sudden scared look. + +"I say--suppose I am Lord Loughton?" + +She stuck her double eyeglass across her nose and stared at him for a +moment or two. "You Lord Loughton--you!" she said, with a little +derisive cackle. "Tchut! tchut! that would be a farce indeed." + +"A farce that, like many others in real life, may involve a most +serious meaning. But whether it be a farce or a masquerade, it is high +time it were ended. Permit me, therefore, to introduce myself to your +ladyship as John Marmaduke Lorrimore, ninth Earl of Loughton." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +TERMS PROPOSED. + + +"I don't believe one word you have said. You are nothing but a vile +impostor," exclaimed Lady Loughton, with all the energy at her +command, while her head continued to wag as if at any moment it might +fall off. + +Mr. Flicker rose from his chair, and, with his hands resting on the +table, stared across at the audacious being sitting opposite to him. +His mouth opened and then shut. Finding no language forcible enough to +express a tithe of what he felt, he sat down again without speaking, +and blew his nose. It was a protest more eloquent than words. + +"Your ladyship always had a reputation for speaking your mind. I find +that the old habit still clings to you," said Mr. Fildew, quietly, as +he toyed carelessly with a paper-knife. + +"You are nothing but a charlatan, sir, and my servants shall turn you +out of doors." Her ladyship laid a finger on the tiny silver gong at +her elbow, but Mr. Fildew's next words arrested the movement. + +"I remember on one occasion when I was at Ringwood," he said, "and I +could not have been more than eight or nine years old at the time, +what a scrape Cousin Charley and I got into through bird-nesting in +the woods when we ought to have been learning our lessons. We were +stealing in through the back entrance, as black as two sweeps, when +your ladyship caught us. What a setting down you gave us, to be sure! +Charley being Earl of Loughton--he came into the title, you know, when +he was seven years old--was simply scolded and forgiven, while I, +being merely cousin to the Earl of Loughton, and nobody in particular, +was not only scolded but sent with your ladyship's compliments to Mr. +Pembroke, the tutor, and would he please cane me enough for two. The +sight of you again, madam, brought this little reminiscence quite +freshly to my mind." + +Snarling till she showed the whole of her false teeth, and shaking a +withered finger at Mr. Fildew, the countess said, "I repeat, sir, that +you are nothing but a charlatan. Don't for one moment imagine that you +can bamboozle me with any made-up tales about Ringwood, and what +happened there thirty or forty years ago. Any fool could work up +evidence of that kind." + +"There used to be a good deal of company at the old place in those +days," resumed Mr. Fildew, without heeding her ladyship's outburst in +the least. "Where are the old faces by this time, I wonder? Scattered +to the four quarters of the globe, I suppose, such of them as are +still alive. Does your ladyship remember Captain Bristow? I wonder +whether he is still among the living." + +It was strange to see the hot color mount to her ladyship's forehead. +She blushed like any girl of eighteen. Then she took up her fan. "Mr. +Flicker," she said, "will you oblige me by opening that window a +couple of inches? I feel a little faint. Thank you. And now, sir," +turning to Mr. Fildew, "pray what do you know about Captain Bristow?" + +"I have some very pleasant reminiscences in connection with the +handsome captain. For one thing, he always tipped me liberally when he +came to Ringwood. One day I happened to be the unseen witness of a +little comedietta in which your ladyship and the captain enacted the +chief--indeed, I may say, the only characters. I had been to the +library to fetch a book for Mr. Pembroke, when, happening to hear +voices in the blue boudoir, which, as you may remember, madam, is the +room next the library, and perceiving that the door was ajar, I peeped +in and saw--now, what does your ladyship think that I saw?" + +The countess coughed, and Mr. Flicker, in obedience to an almost +imperceptible sign, rose softly from his chair and walked away to the +farthest window, humming under his breath. + +"I saw," resumed Mr. Fildew, with hardly a break, "the captain on his +knees before your ladyship--the earl had been dead at that time about +two years--I saw him kiss your hand, and I saw that you, madam, did +not repulse him. I was not near enough to hear the words which passed +between you, but presently I saw the captain take a ring out of his +waistcoat pocket and slip it on to your ladyship's finger. Then there +came a knock at the other door, and the captain had barely time to +rise before in came a servant with a letter for him. It was a message +to say that his father was dying. He left Ringwood that night, and +never, so far as I know, entered its doors again. But I notice that +your ladyship still wears the ring which Captain Bristow slipped on +your finger that sunny afternoon. That is the one on the third finger +of your right hand." + +Lady Loughton sank back in her easy-chair, and turned as white as she +had been red before. "Water," she said, faintly, pointing to a carafe +that stood upon a side-table. Mr. Flicker was by her side in a moment. +When she had drunk a little water, he said, "Shall I ring the bell for +your maid?" + +"No. I shall be better presently. I hate having a fuss made about +trifles." Then, after a moment or two of silent thought, she said +suddenly, "Flicker, that man"--pointing to Mr. Fildew with her fan "is +either John Marmaduke Lorrimore or Beelzebub!" + +Mr. Flicker rubbed his chilly hands together and bowed low--very low. +Whether the bow was intended for the Earl of Loughton or for the +Prince of Darkness was best known to himself. + +"I am sorry, my lord," he said, "that with a recent melancholy tragedy +still fresh in my memory, I cannot congratulate your lordship as I +should like to have done on your accession to so distinguished a +title." + +"You are not a bit like a Lorrimore," broke in her ladyship, in the +abrupt way which was habitual with her. + +"And yet you used to say that I had more of a Lorrimore look than even +your own son had." + +"It seems impossible that you can ever have been that long-haired, +fair-skinned boy whom I used to nurse and spoil." + +"And box and scold--don't forget that, madam. I have fought with wild +beasts at Ephesus since those days, and there's little left of me but +a wreck." + +"What are your means of living?" + +"I have a private income of one pound per week." + +"And you exist on that?" + +"On that I exist." + +This statement, if not strictly in accordance with fact, was still +sufficiently near the truth. The countess and Mr. Flicker exchanged +looks. + +"And now, sir, if you are prepared to state categorically to Mr. +Flicker and myself what it is that you think we ought to do for you, +we will listen to what you may have to say." The dowager was careful +not to address him by his title, although she had virtually +acknowledged his right to it. + +"What I think you ought to do is this," said the earl, with quiet +deliberation. "In the first place, to pay my debts, amounting, with +interest, to a trifle over six thousand pounds; and, in the second +place, to allow me twelve hundred a year for life, to be paid +quarterly in advance." + +"Tut-tut-tut!" said the countess. "The man must be mad--crazy. Six +thousand pounds down and twelve hundred a year for life! Where do you +imagine, sir, that any such outrageous sums are to be obtained from?" + +"When Charles came of age I remember that his income was set down as +being a clear eighteen thousand a year, and I don't suppose the estate +has depreciated in value since that time." + +"My life interest in the estate, let me tell you, sir, is only to the +extent of three thousand per annum." + +"Of that, madam, I am quite aware. But there are other people +interested in this question besides yourself. Your niece, Miss +Collumpton, for instance, and Mr. Slingsby Boscombe, who hopes to be +Earl of Loughton whenever Providence may be pleased to snuff me out of +existence." + +"And pray what are the special advantages that might be supposed to +accrue to the family in general, supposing, for the sake of argument +merely, that they were disposed to entertain your ridiculous +proposition?" + +"The advantages are self-evident. The family surely do not wish to see +an honorable and ancient title dragged through the mire at the heels +of a pauper, and what am I but a pauper? Then, again, I am not a +marrying man. I don't want to marry. Miss Collumpton and Mr. Boscombe +may become man and wife with the blissful certainty that the title +will be theirs in ten or a dozen years at the most--it may be in ten +or a dozen months." + +"Suppose, on the other hand, that we decline _in toto_ to have +anything to say to your proposition?" + +"In that case, madam, my course lies clear before me. I cannot, as an +earl, be expected to exist on a pound a week; that would be too +absurd. I have the honor to rent an apartment over a milk-shop in one +of our most populous suburbs. My landlady has one daughter a buxom, +apple-cheeked, red-armed young woman of five-and-twenty, who serves in +the shop. I should make this estimable young person Countess of +Loughton. For I am growing old, madam, and feel to need the comforts +of a home, and what is twenty shillings a week for a nobleman to live +on? I have reason to believe that the milk business is a lucrative +one, and, with an earl at the head of it, it would become ten times +more lucrative than it is now. Of course, I should have my name in +full over the door: 'John Marmaduke Lorrimore, Earl of Loughton.' And +the same on our business cards, with the family escutcheon underneath, +and the family motto _Je puis_. Then would follow the usual +announcements: 'New milk twice a day. Pure Aylesbury butter. Our eggs, +eight a shilling, are guaranteed by the Countess. References kindly +permitted to the Dowager Lady Loughton, No. 287 Harley street, and to +Mr. Flicker, of the eminent firm of Flicker & Tapp. The earl will be +on view in the shop any day from ten till eleven A. M. engaged in the +perusal of the _Morning Post_.' I should send out circulars and cards +to every name enshrined in Debrett. Twelve hundred a year, madam, +would not cover the profits of such a concern. And, by and by, I +should hope to have a son and heir to inherit his father's title and +his mother's business." + +His lordship, for so we must henceforth call him, stared gravely +across the table at Lady Loughton. For a little time no sound was +heard save the obtrusive ticking of Mr. Flicker's watch. + +"Do you think, sir, you are altogether in your right senses?" asked +the countess at length, turning on him in her quick way. + +"Well, really, Aunt Barbara"--she winced at the appellation--"I have +sometimes asked myself the same question. I have a theory that we are +all more or less mad on some point or other, and probably I am neither +better nor worse than the majority of my fellows." + +"You can go now, sir," said the countess, presently. "I have seen +enough of you for one day--more than enough. Should I care to see you +again I will send for you." + +"Flicker knows where a letter will always find me," said the earl, +with easy condescension, as he pushed back his chair and possessed +himself of his dilapidated hat. "You will think over what I have said, +Aunt Barbara, will you not? As I remarked before, I am not a marrying +man, and really, to go into the milk trade would be rather below the +dignity of an earl, would it not?" He was rubbing his hat tenderly +with the sleeve of his threadbare coat as he spoke. + +"Go! go!" was all that the countess could say, as she pointed with a +skinny finger to the door. + +"I have the honor, madam, to wish you a very good morning," said the +earl, bowing low over his hat. "Flicker, I shall, doubtless, see you +again before long." + +Lord Loughton walked slowly down the broad staircase, under the +eyes of the two tall footmen in the hall. But scarcely had he +reached the lowest stair before Mr. Flicker called over the balusters +in his most dulcet tones, "My lord--my lord--you have left your +pocket-handkerchief behind you." Had some one fired off a gun close by +the heads of the two footmen they could not have been more startled. + +"Did you not hear, sir?" said the earl, sharply, to one of them. +"Fetch me my pocket-handkerchief, and be quick about it." + +The man had never climbed those stairs so quickly before. A minute had +hardly elapsed before he came down again, carrying a silver salver on +which lay his lordship's well-worn green-and-red bandana. The earl +took his handkerchief off the salver with the gravest air in the +world, and replaced it in his pocket. Then the massive door was flung +wide open, and he marched slowly forth into the street. Stopping at +the first tavern he came to, and pushing open the swing-doors, he went +in and called for fourpennyworth of brandy-and-water and a mild +cheroot. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +TERMS ACCEPTED. + + +A fortnight passed after Lord Loughton's interview with the dowager +countess before he received any further communication from her. During +that time life went on with him in its ordinary humdrum fashion. No +one either saw or suspected any difference in him. If the misfortunes +and mishaps of his earlier life had taught him nothing else, they had +at least taught him the virtue of patience. He was emphatically a man +who could bide his time. + +But at the end of a fortnight there came a note addressed to Mr. +Fildew, at the Brown Bear, in which he was informed that the countess +would see him at the Charing Cross Hotel at eleven o'clock next +morning. He smiled grimly to himself as he read. "We are ashamed of +our shabby relation, it seems," he muttered. "We don't want him to +call again in Harley Street till he is a little more presentable." + +But he was not one whit more presentable when he was ushered into her +ladyship's room next morning. "A more deplorable object than ever," +were her ladyship's words afterwards to Mr. Flicker. The ends of two +fingers had burst completely through his gloves and refused to be +hidden any longer, while the shiny patch on one side of his hat was +certainly growing in circumference from day to day. It is quite +possible that he had some ulterior object to serve in thus appearing +at his shabbiest before the countess. + +He walked across the room rather more briskly than usual, and when he +reached the countess he put out his hand. But her ladyship made +believe not to see it, and motioned him to a chair. He took it, not in +the slightest degree abashed by her refusal to shake hands with him. +The inevitable Mr. Flicker was seated close by, as monumentally cold +and as mutely observant as ever. + +Her ladyship's first remark was a somewhat singular one. "Mr. +Flicker," she said, "will you oblige me by looking behind the left ear +of--of the person opposite to me, just at the back of the lobe, and +tell me whether you find a large mole there?" + +Mr. Flicker rose from his seat, coughed deferentially, adjusted his +double eyeglass on his nose, and walked gingerly across the floor to +where Lord Loughton was sitting. "Pardon me," he said in his blandest +tones "it is at her ladyship's special request that I do this." + +The earl smiled, or it may be he only sneered--one could not always +feel sure which was intended--but said nothing. Bending his head +slightly forward, he lifted up the tangled masses of his iron-gray +hair with one hand and pulled at the lobe of his ear with the other, +so as to assist Mr. Flicker in his search for the birth-mark. + +That gentleman, with his hands behind his coattails, bent his head and +peered through his glasses as though he were trying to decipher some +half-illegible inscription. "Nothing to be seen, I suppose, is there?" +asked the dowager at last, drumming impatiently on the table with her +fingers meanwhile. + +"Pardon me, madam, but there is certainly a very large mole here, just +behind the lobe of the left ear," replied Flicker, in his slow, +precise way. + +"There is, eh? A mole. You are quite sure?" + +"Quite sure, Lady Loughton. There can be no mistake in the matter, I +give you my word of honor. A very fine mole, indeed." + +Her ladyship sighed. "Ah, well, then," she said, after a moment's +silence, "I suppose we must really put him down as being the Earl of +Loughton." + +"I thought that point was finally settled when I saw your ladyship +last," said the earl. + +"Then it shows, sir, how little you know about it. Nothing is finally +settled in this world, except that there are a vast number of rogues +and vagabonds in it." + +"It would not be half such a diverting place without them," said the +earl, with a chuckle. Mr. Flicker shook his head in his slow, +melancholy way, but did not speak. Such doctrines were dreadful to +listen to, especially when enunciated by a peer of the realm. + +Her ladyship was staring intently at the fire. After a while she said, +without turning round, "The strange proposition which you chose to lay +before me when I saw you last has been received with more +consideration than it deserved. It has been decided by my advisers, +conjointly with the advisers of Miss Collumpton and Mr. Slingsby +Boscombe, in the first place, to pay off the debts contracted by you +some thirty years ago, after receiving from you a full and correct +schedule of the same; and, in the second place, to allow you an income +of six hundred pounds per annum so long as you continue to remain +unmarried; and I must say that I consider the offer a most munificent +one." + +"Oh, yes, most munificent!" sneered the earl. "Six hundred a year out +of eighteen thousand; yes, certainly, most munificent." + +"Do you, or do you not, agree to the terms?" + +"Beggars cannot be choosers, madam; and, as I have said more than once +already, I am not a marrying man." + +"Mr. Flicker will settle all details with you." Mr. Flicker rubbed his +hands and bowed. "You will, of course, sign an undertaking not to +marry so long as the income is continued to you." + +"Pardon me, madam, but I must decline to sign any such document. My +word of honor must be taken as a sufficient guarantee of my +intentions." + +"Your word of honor! Pray, how much would that article fetch if it +were put up to auction?" + +Mr. Flicker crossed the floor and whispered a few words in the +countess's ear. "If you really think so, let it be so," she said to +him. Then she said to the earl, "As I said before, I will leave you +and Flicker to settle details." + +"May I presume that your lordship has never been married?" asked the +lawyer, in his most insinuating tones. He was looking down and +fumbling with some papers on the table before him. + +The countess turned her head quickly. + +"Never, Flicker, never," replied the earl, impressively "on that word +of honor which her ladyship believes would fetch so little if put up +for sale. I have been very near it, though, once or twice--very near +it indeed--but Providence has always intervened." + +Her ladyship turned away in a huff. + +There was an interval of silence. Mr. Flicker was engaged in tying up +his documents, and the earl was watching him. + +"May I ask whether you have formed any plans for the future?" asked +the dowager, presently. + +"No plans in particular. I think that I shall go and live at Brimley, +at least for some time to come." + +"At Brimley! Why, that is only sixteen miles from Ringwood." + +"Precisely so. We shall be neighbors. A dozen miles, more or less, are +not of much consequence in the country." + +The countess did not look over well pleased. "What is your object in +choosing Brimley for a residence?" she asked. + +"I lived near there with my father when a lad, and I still retain some +pleasant recollections of it, so that the place will not seem +altogether strange to me. In addition to which, I see from an +advertisement in today's _Times_ that 'Laurel Cottage' there is to be +let on lease--the very place to suit an elderly bachelor of limited +means and unambitious tastes. I shall run down there to-morrow and see +about it." + +"Well, sir, I hope that when next I see you I shall find some +improvement in your toilet and general appearance." + +"Possibly, madam, possibly. I admit that there is some slight room for +alteration, perhaps for improvement. I have not followed the fashions +very attentively of late. The state of my finances did not allow of my +doing so." + +"Mr. Flicker will send you a check to-morrow." + +"I shall be greatly obliged to Mr. Flicker." + +"What a pity it is that you threw your chances to the dogs in the way +you did when a young man." + +"What a pity it is that my cousin Charles, your good son, madam, could +not see his way to advance me the three thousand pounds which was all +I needed at that time to save me from destruction. But he buttoned his +breeches pocket--saving your ladyship's presence--and allowed me to go +headlong to the deuce." + +"You forget, sir, that you had had five hundred pounds from him only +six months previously." + +"I forget nothing. Three thousand pounds would have been my salvation. +I did not have the three thousand pounds, nor three thousand pence, +and you see the result before you to-day." + +"Charles was building and planting at the time, as I well remember, +and the sum was a much larger one than he could spare." + +"So the building and the planting went on, and Cousin Jack was obliged +to fly like a thief in the night. It was the young fool's own fault, +and it was only right that he should suffer. So ridiculous of him, +wasn't it, to think that because he and Charley had been schoolfellows +and like brothers for years, he could now ask Charley to pull him +through his troubles? I've often laughed since to think what a young +greenhorn he must have been. I'll warrant you he knows the world +better by this time." + +The countess's head was beginning to shake worse than ever. Flicker +made a sign to the earl, and the latter rose. "Good-morning, Aunt +Barbara," he said; "shake hands with me for my mother's sake if you +won't for my own." + +She stared very hard at him for about half a minute, and then she +extended two claw-like fingers. "Get a decent coat to your back before +you let me see you again. And--and I don't want to see those gloves +any more." + +Next day "Mr. Fildew" received from Mr. Flicker a check for one +hundred and fifty pounds, being the first quarterly instalment of his +allowance at the rate of six hundred pounds a year. + +"Greedy old hag!" muttered the earl to himself as he pocketed the +check. "She might just as easily have made it twelve hundred as six. +I'll be even with her for this before I've done with her." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +MILD LUNACY. + + +"THIS must be the house, No. 105 Cadogan Place," said Clement Fildew +to himself, as he stopped in front of an imposing-looking mansion. +Taking the steps two at time, he gave a loud rat-tat-tat at the door. +"Is Miss Collumpton at home?" he asked of the man who answered his +knock. + +Miss Collumpton was at home. + +"Will you give her this card, and say that I have called at the +request of Sir Percy Jones?" + +He was shown into a morning-room while the man took his message. After +three or four minutes the door opened, and a young lady entered, +dressed very plainly in black. As their eyes met they both started, +and then, as if moved by a common impulse, they drew a step or two +nearer each other, while Clem colored up to the roots of his hair. The +young lady, who was by far the more self-possessed of the two, was the +first to speak. "Unless I am much mistaken," she said, "you are the +gentleman to whose kindness I was so greatly indebted when coming up +to town the other day." + +"And you are the lady to whom I had the good-fortune to be of some +slight service." + +"A slight service, do you call it? It seemed to me a very great +service at the time. I missed you in the confusion at the terminus, so +that my aunt was not able to thank you, as she would very much like to +have done." + +"I certainly can't see that any thanks were needed. But, putting that +aside, I am very pleased to have met you again." And as he said this +there was a fire and earnestness in his eyes that in its turn brought +a vivid blush to the young lady's cheeks. "I came here at the request +of Sir Percy Jones," he added, "to see Miss Collumpton respecting a +portrait. I never expected to have the pleasure of finding you under +the same roof." + +"I have been living here for some time," she said. Then to herself she +added, "I wonder whom he takes me for--a nursery governess or a +companion, or what?" + +"I hope Miss Collumpton is not a very exacting young lady. If she is, +I am afraid that I shall scarcely be able to please her. I have +painted very few portraits as yet, but Sir Percy was so pleased with +the one I did of him that he declared he must have one of his +god-daughter to take with him when he goes abroad." + +"I don't think that you will find Miss Collumpton very exacting." + +"I am glad to hear that. I wish it was your portrait I was going to +paint instead of hers." + +It was on the tip of her tongue to ask, "Why do you wish that?" but, +happening to glance at his face, she saw the same look in his eyes +that had troubled her before. She dropped her lids and looked another +way. There was a moment's awkward silence. Then she said, "I think I +had better go and fetch Miss Collumpton. She promised to follow me at +once;" and with that she got out of the room. + +Left alone, Clem went back at once to his examination of the prints +and sketches on the walls. But he saw them without seeing them, and +could remember nothing of them afterwards. He had caught Love's fever, +and the symptoms were declaring themselves already. He was standing +before a little sketch by Stanfield and smiling fatuously, as though +there was something comical about it, which there certainly was not. +When the patient takes to smiling in this purposeless way it is looked +upon by those learned in such matters as a very bad sign. + +About a week previously, as he was coming up to town, a young +lady--the young lady who had just left the room--got into the same +carriage, a second-class one, at Tring, in which he was already +seated. He was not aware that she had been driven to take refuge in +the second-class on account of the first-class seats being all +occupied. They were presently joined by a cad of a fellow, who was +evidently half-drunk, and just as evidently determined to talk to the +pretty girl on the opposite seat, whether she liked it or not. At +length the annoyance reached such a pitch, and the lady became so +plainly distressed, that Clem, whose blood had been simmering for some +time, felt called upon to interfere. Thereupon the cad turned on our +friend like a young bear, and growled out something about wise people +minding their own business, adding a certain epithet which had better +have been left unspoken. The result was that before he knew what had +happened he found himself lying in a heap in a corner of the carriage, +with a discolored eye and a bruised nose, and a feeling as if a fifth +of November cracker had exploded in his head. The train was slackening +speed at the time, and as soon as it stopped the wounded knight +scrambled out of the carriage, holding his handkerchief to his nose +and muttering something about fetching the police. But he was seen no +more. The rest of the journey came to an end far too soon for Clem. +When he alighted at Euston the young lady was at once taken possession +of by an elderly lady, while Clem rushed off in search of his +portmanteau. But Clem had not forgotten the sweet face of his +travelling companion. Being an artist, what more natural than that he +should attempt to sketch it from memory as soon as he reached home, +and not once but twenty times. + +"What do you mean by neglecting your Academy picture in this way?" +Tony Macer had fiercely demanded three days later. "And what do you +mean, sir, by drawing the same simpering face from morn till dewy eve, +and grinning to yourself all the time like a jackass in a fit? You've +not been idiot enough to go and fall in love, have you? By Apelles! if +I thought you had, I would take you _vi et armis_, and hold you under +the back-kitchen tap for half an hour, and see whether that wouldn't +cool your foolish brain!" + +This threat of Tony must be taken _cum grano_, seeing that he was only +about four feet eight inches high and had the arms of a girl of +sixteen, whereas his friend Clem could easily have lifted him up with +one hand and have thrown him across the room. But Tony's objurgations +did Clem good, and he was fast regaining his interest in mutton-chops, +bitter-beer, and the progress of his picture, when the deplorable +meeting we have just recorded took place, and all hopes of his +convalescence were at once scattered to the winds. + +The siren who was the cause of all this commotion in our young +painter's heart, having shut the door behind her, ran quickly +up-stairs and burst into a tiny boudoir, where another young lady, +also dressed in black, was sitting calmly at work. + +"Mora! Mora! what do you think? This Mr. Clement Fildew, whom god-papa +has sent here to paint my portrait, turns out to be the same gentleman +who took my part in the train the other day when that man insulted me +so dreadfully. Is it not strange that we should meet again in this +way, and so soon afterwards?" + +"Very strange, indeed. But such coincidences happen oftener in real +life than many people imagine." + +"But the strangest part is to come, dear. Mr. Fildew doesn't take me +for myself, but for you." + +"How can he take you for me, Cecilia, when he and I have never seen +each other?" + +"I mean that he doesn't take me for Miss Collumpton. He believes me to +be somebody else living under the same roof with that paragon." + +"But why did you not undeceive him the moment you discovered his +mistake?" + +"I don't intend to undeceive him just yet, it is such fun to be +mistaken for somebody else." + +"But you cannot keep him in ignorance much longer. He has come here to +take your portrait." + +"I'll tell you what I mean to do, Mora--it came into my head while I +was talking to him: I mean to introduce you to Mr. Fildew as Cecilia +Collumpton and myself as Mora Browne, your companion and friend. He +can then take your portrait as well as mine." + +Miss Browne's large blue eyes opened wide with astonishment. "Good +gracious! Cecilia, what madcap scheme will you take into your head +next?" + +"I don't know what my next scheme will be, but I think this one will +be immense fun, and I trust to your friendship to enable me to carry +it out." + +"Of course you may trust me for anything; you know that quite well. +But what will your aunt say, and what, in the name of goodness, will +Lady Loughton say, should either of them hear of it? They would never +forgive me for my share in the deception." + +"I don't mean either of them to know anything about it. Surely you and +I can keep our little plot to ourselves." + +"Your scheme frightens me, I must confess. It seems so terribly +audacious." + +"In its audacity lies our security. Besides, what is there to be +afraid of? You certainly look the heiress more than I do. And for +myself, it will be a fresh experience--something altogether novel and +delightful--to be talked to and treated, not as a young woman with so +many thousands a year, but--but--" + +"As her humble friend and companion," interposed Miss Browne, with the +slightest tinge of bitterness in her tone. "As one who esteems herself +passing rich on eighty pounds a year." + +"Forgive me, dear," said Cecilia, contritely. "I had no intention of +hurting your feelings." + +"I know it, dear, I know it. Don't say another word. And now I am at +your service, although I am afraid you have hardly considered how +foolish we shall both look when we have to face the necessity of an +explanation." + +"I don't at all see why we should look foolish. You may leave me to +arrange all that." Miss Browne shook her head, but offered no further +opposition in words. + +Cecilia Collumpton had stated no more than the truth when she said +that Mora Browne looked far more like an heiress than she did--that +is, taking the common idea of what an heiress ought to look like. For +Mora was tall, fair, and stately, with large, limpid blue eyes and a +wealth of yellow hair. Her figure had the ample proportions of a +youthful Juno, but as all her movements seemed tuned to slow music, +there was no perceptible lack of harmony. She had a cold, clear, +incisive voice, and a slight hauteur of manner, which in her case was +not affectation, seeing that it was natural to her and not put on. She +was the daughter of a rector who had ruined himself and his family by +some mad speculations in mining shares. Although she was Cecilia's +dearest friend, and had known her since girlhood, she would not come +to live with her except on the footing of a paid companion, to whom, +and by whom, a month's notice could at any time be given. But none the +less had Mora an intense detestation of poverty and all its +surroundings, and years ago she had made up her mind that if she were +ever to marry it should be only to some man of ample fortune, who +could afford to keep her as she felt she ought to be kept. + +Cecilia Collumpton at this time was just twenty-two years old. She was +a brunette, and rather petite in figure. She had a small, classically +shaped head, a straight, clear-cut nose, and eyes of the darkest gray, +with gleams of opaline light in them whenever she was at all excited. +She was quick, vivacious, and emotional, and brimful of spirits and +energy. She was easily imposed upon. A tale of distress brought tears +to her eyes in a moment, and she never paused to inquire whether it +was a reality or a sham before bringing out her purse. She was fond of +riding, but loved a wild scamper across the downs far more than a +regulation canter in the park. Her aunt called her "undisciplined," +and Lady Loughton termed her "a hoyden," while Slingsby Boscombe, in +some verses he once addressed to her--the feet of which, truth to +tell, halted so wofully that Sir Percy Jones, who happened to come +across them one day, gave it as his opinion that they must have been +composed by a cripple--wrote of her as his "sweet wild rose," and yet +Slingsby had never been in love with her. + +Miss Browne, followed by Cecilia, sailed slowly into the room where +Clement was waiting. He broke his reverie with a start, and advanced a +few steps to meet them. "You are Mr. Fildew?" said Mora. Clem bowed. +"And you have called respecting a portrait which Sir Percy Jones has +commissioned you to paint?" + +"Yes, Sir Percy asked me to call without delay, as his time in England +was now getting very short. I am desirous of knowing on what days and +at what hours it will be convenient for you to give me the requisite +sittings." + +Mora put a finger to her lips, and considered for a moment. + +"To-day is Tuesday. Suppose we say Thursday next, at eleven, for the +first sitting. We can arrange for future sittings afterwards. Will +that suit you, Mr. Fildew?" + +"Any time will suit me, madam. On this card you will find the address +of my studio." + +"I wish you to bear in mind, Mr. Fildew," said Mora, as she took the +card, "that there will be two portraits for you to paint." + +"Two portraits, Miss Collumpton!" + +"Mine and that of my friend, Miss Browne. I have decided that we shall +both be taken at the same time and in the same style." + +"Oh." + +It was a sort of ecstatic sigh drawn from the bottom of his +heart--wherever that may have been. + +The two girls glanced at each other. + +"I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Browne a few days ago," stammered +Clement. He felt that he was making a great idiot of himself. + +"I have told Miss Collumpton," said Cecilia, "how much I owed to your +kindness on that occasion." + +"For Mora's sake, Mr. Fildew," said Miss Browne, "I am glad to be able +to thank you in person for the service you rendered her. She was +coming up to town to stay with me at the time you met her." + +"How well she acts her part," said Cecilia, to herself, with an +admiring glance at her friend. "And how well she would carry out such +a part in real life." + +Clem muttered something about the service he had rendered being a very +slight one, after which he took a rather hurried leave. He was glad to +get out into the cold, wintry afternoon. It seemed to him that he +walked home that day as the gods of old are fabled to have walked--on +ambient air. Surely those were not the cold, slushy streets of dreary, +commonplace London. Everything seemed as if it had been touched by a +necromancer's wand. + +"Mora." He whispered the word to himself again and again. What a sweet +and romantic name it was! He did not venture to say, even to himself, +that Mora's surname was either sweet or romantic. But that surname +should be changed for another, by and by, or he would know the reason +why. + + + + +CHAP TER VII. +"SWEET COZ." + + +Clement Fildew had not left Cadogan Place more than half an hour when +Mr. Slingsby Boscombe was announced. Slingsby had not seen Cecilia +since the funeral of the young Earl of Loughton, which had taken place +at Ringwood, the family seat, in Bedfordshire. Slingsby had attended +as one of the mourners in chief. + +"I don't think that I was ever in poor Alexander's company more than +five or six times in my life," said Mr. Boscombe, in answer to a +question put by Cecilia. He was a round-faced, boyish-looking young +fellow of two-and-twenty, with a tendency to become abnormally stout +even at that early age. "The dowager never cared to cultivate our +branch of the family over much, and I have often heard my father speak +of her in no very friendly terms." + +"I believe that Lady Loughton was always noted for having a temper of +her own," said Miss Collumpton. "I have been told that when her son's +wife was alive--I mean, poor Alic's mother--she stood so much in awe +of the dowager's temper that she never would see her when the latter +called at Ringwood, but used to lock herself up in her own rooms till +she was gone." + +"When Alic's mother died, of course the dowager went back to +Ringwood." + +"Yes, and there she has lived ever since, and would, doubtless, have +continued to live, but for this terrible accident, till Alic got +married, in which case I suppose she would have had to find a home +elsewhere." + +"And very proper, too. From what little I have seen of her I should +hardly care to live under the same roof with her." + +"And yet she must be nearly eighty years old." + +"And looks likely to live to be a hundred. She is certainly a very +wonderful old lady." + +"I used to like her very well when I went to Ringwood as a child, +although, of course, I stood in great awe of her. But after that she +and Aunt Percival had some words, and I have not seen her for several +years. Fortunately I met poor Alic in the Park only three months ago: +we had a long talk about old times. How little I thought that I should +never see him again!" + +There were tears in Cecilia's eyes, and Slingsby forebore to speak for +a minute or two. Then he said, "Do you know, Cis, my father never told +me till a week ago what a very large slice of the Loughton property +was left to me by Alic's father in case Alic should die without heirs! +I was perfectly astounded. I suppose the governor's reason for not +speaking to me about it before was because he thought the chance of +its coming to me seemed so very remote that it was not worth while +troubling me about it in any way. But what an absurd proviso is that +which precludes me from touching a penny of it till I am twenty-five +years old! You can do as you like with your share, although you are +four months younger than I, while I shall have to wait another three +years for mine. It is really too ridiculous!" + +"I suppose that when Uncle Charles drew up his will he had an idea +that boys remain boys till they are five-and-twenty, which, indeed, +quite a number of them seem to do." + +"And meanwhile I have to depend on my father for my income." + +"Instead of earning it for yourself, as so many other young men are +obliged to do. How thankful you ought to be that you have such a +father!" + +"As for that, the governor says that I shall have plenty to do by and +by in looking after the estates and attending to the property. I am +sure that he works as hard as any laborer." + +"Then why not take some of his work on to those broad shoulders of +yours?" + +"Bless you, he won't let me have anything to do with the management of +the property. He says it will be time enough for me to think about +that when he is gone." + +"But you will no longer have to wait for any such mournful +contingency. Three years will soon pass away, and then this Loughton +property, which will be yours, will find you plenty to do." + +"And will make me my own master into the bargain, and that is by no +means the most unimportant feature in the case. You will, perhaps, +hardly credit it, Cis, but I never knew till after Alic's death that +the estates were not entailed." + +"I believe the entail was cut off about eighty years ago." + +"And a good thing for you and me that it was cut off! By-the-bye, how +is his new lordship supposed to be able to keep up the traditional +state and dignity of an Earl of Loughton?" + +"I believe it is not at present known where his new lordship is to be +found, or even whether he is alive or dead. If he be alive, it is +quite possible that he may have means of his own. If it be proved that +he is dead, I suppose we shall have to address you, sir, as my lord +earl." + +"Provided the missing earl has not left a son and heir behind him." + +From this it will be seen that the conversation we are now recording +took place before that first interview between "Mr. Fildew" and the +dowager countess. + +Mr. Fildew, senior, was cousin to Charles, the seventh earl, who was +father of the young lord recently killed. Mr. Slingsby Boscombe was +grandson to the youngest brother of the sixth earl, while Miss +Collumpton was granddaughter to the only sister of the same nobleman. + +"It seems rather strange, doesn't it, Cis," resumed Slingsby, "that +Earl Charles should pass over his own cousin, the man who, if he +lived, must come into the title in case of Alic dying without heirs, +in favor of two such insignificant people as you and I?" + +"The missing earl is said to have been very wild and dissipated when +young, and to have got at length into such dreadful difficulties that +he was compelled to go abroad. I suppose there was a great scandal +about it, and very probably the earl's will was made about the time he +felt so much annoyed at his cousin's outrageous conduct." + +"And this disgrace to the family has never been heard of since?" + +"Not to my knowledge: most probably he is dead." + +"Even if he be, the difficulty will be to prove it." + +Slingsby, having contemplated this difficulty in silence for a minute +or two, said: "Do you know, Cis, that my father has been badgering me +again about that old family scheme for making you and me man and +wife?" + +"And Lady Loughton has been stirring up my aunt about the same thing. +They have become friends again since Alic's death." + +"I wish they would mind their own business." + +"So do I, with all my heart." + +"Do you think we care enough for each other, Cis, to marry." + +"I think it very doubtful, Slingsby, whether we do." + +"When you are told from youth upward that you must marry one person +and no other, you naturally begin to rebel in your secret heart." + +"My own feelings exactly." + +"You know, Cis, I am very fond of you, and always have been." + +"And I of you, Slingsby--in a cousinly sort of way." + +"Just so in a cousinly sort of way. But that's hardly how a husband +and wife ought to feel towards each other, is it?" + +"I've had no experience either one way or the other, but I should +think not." + +"Now that we so thoroughly understand each other, may I tell you a +secret, Cis?" + +"A hundred if you like, Slingsby. Being a woman, I am fond of +secrets." + +"But, being a woman, can you keep one?" + +"I'll try. I daren't say more than that." + +"In any case I'll trust you. I'm in love." + +"Slingsby?" + +"Desperately, devotedly in love. I--I've actually taken to writing +verses, and if that's not a sure sign of being in love, I should like +to know what is." + +"Is the lady any one with whom I am acquainted?" + +"No. She's a doctor's daughter. She lives down in Hampshire, and her +father's dead." + +"What is she like? Pretty, of course." + +"Not so pretty as you, Cis." + +"You have no right to say that, sir. If you love her, as you say you +do, she ought to be perfection in your eyes." + +"She is perfection in my eyes, but for all that she's not so pretty as +you are. I don't know," added Slingsby, musingly, "that I should care +to have a very pretty woman for my wife. I might grow jealous, you +know, and that must be a jolly uncomfortable sort of feeling." + +"Does your father know anything of this affair?" + +"No--there's the rub. I dare not tell him on any account. His heart is +set on my marrying you, and as I'm altogether dependent on him, and +shall be for three more years, it would never do to let him into the +secret. But you can help me in my difficulty, Cis?" + +"In what way can I help you, Slingsby?" + +"By not letting any one know that there is nothing serious between you +and me. You have not refused me yet, have you, because I have never +made you an offer?" + +"No; you have certainly not made me an offer, and till you do that, of +course I can't refuse you." + +"Then, of course, I can tell my father that you have not refused me; +and if I were further to hint to him that you are hardly prepared to +marry just yet, that you would prefer to wait, say, a year or eighteen +months longer, would that be a very wide departure from the truth?" + +"It would be no departure from the truth so far as I am concerned. I +certainly am not prepared to take to myself a husband for a long time +to come." + +"You know I can continue to look in here once or twice a week as +usual; and perhaps you wouldn't mind my being seen with you in the +Row, now and then, or at the opera, or the theatre?" + +"Not at all. Come with me as often as you like. I have very few +engagements." + +"And if your Aunt Percival or Lady Loughton should hint anything to +you 'about our supposed engagement, could you not give them to +understand that you and I are on excellent terms with each other, and +that the less they interfere in the matter the better?" + +"I certainly could do all that, although the doing of it would involve +a certain amount of deception on my part." + +"But deception that can harm nobody. If these worthy old souls would +only leave you and me to look after our own happiness, there would be +no occasion for subterfuge of any kind." + +"Then, under cover of all this, you intend to carry on your flirtation +with the doctor's daughter?" + +"It's no flirtation, Cis, but a real downright serious case of spoons. +I've promised to marry her, and I shall do so in spite of everything. +If I can only keep my father in the dark till I'm five-and-twenty, +then all will come right, and with your help, Cis, I shall be able to +do that without much difficulty." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +"GOOD-BYE." + + +"I am rather glad to have found you alone, Clem," said Lord Loughton, +as he walked into his son's studio in the course of the day following +that on which he had received Mr. Flicker's check for a hundred and +fifty pounds. "I have something rather particular to say to you." + +Clem knew of old that his father's "something particular" generally +took the shape of a request for a loan, so he merely said, "Macer +won't be back for a couple of hours. Will you have a weed and some +bottled ale?" + +"Thank you, no. I can't stay many minutes. How are you progressing +with your Academy picture? That, of course, is the most important +affair in the universe just now. I believe, if there were an +earthquake to-morrow that swallowed up a thousand people, all that you +painter fellows would do would be to cry, 'Save my pictures.' The +egotism of art is something sublime." + +"We dignify it with another name," answered Clem, with a laugh. "With +us it becomes 'devotion to art.'" He had had too much experience of +his father's tirades to take much notice of them. "I shall get my +picture done, I suppose, and send it in. Beyond that I know nothing. +But as you don't care about modern paintings, I need not bore you by +asking your opinion of it." + +"Well, no, it's hardly worth while. I never see anything later than +Sir Joshua that I care about. English art is dead--defunct as a +door-nail." + +"I am glad that the people with money don't all think as you do. But +you had something particular to say to me." + +"Yes; I am going to leave London for a time." + +Clem suspended his brush in mid-air and stared at his father. + +"A friend of mine, a gentleman whom I knew many years ago, has just +succeeded to a very large property. As he is obliged to reside abroad +on account of his health, he has asked me to undertake the management +of his affairs for a time. He has extensive estates in different parts +of the country, all of which require to be carefully looked after, so +that I shall have no fixed location for any length of time. For +reasons which you will not ask me to explain, I cannot give the name +of my friend, nor can I tell you with certainty where I may be found +at any particular date; but that will not matter, as I shall run up to +London for a day or two to see _la mère_ and you every month or six +weeks. Should any occasion arise for you to communicate with me while +I am away, a letter will always find me, addressed 'John Fildew, +Esquire, Post-office, Shallowford, Northamptonshire.' You had better +put the address down in your pocket-book so as to make sure of it." + +"Have you broken the news to my mother?" asked Clem, as he wrote down +the address. + +"Yes; I mentioned it to her this morning, and though, of course, poor +creature, she was rather cut up at first, she soon recovered her +equanimity and agreed with me that it was all for the best. You see, +Clem, this is just the sort of thing I have been looking out for for +years--gentlemanly, dignified, not too much to do, and yet with an +honorarium attached to it that, in the present state of our finances, +we cannot afford to despise. For one thing, my dear boy, there will no +longer be any necessity for my imposing on your good-nature, in +addition to which I shall be in a position to make your mother an +allowance of five guineas per month. I gave her the first five guineas +this morning before leaving home." + +"You need not have done that, sir," interposed Clem. "My mother should +not have wanted for anything during your absence." + +"I am quite sure of that, my boy. But in making this little +arrangement I feel that I am simply doing my duty--and what a luxury +for one's conscience that is!" His lordship's conscience had not been +used to such luxuries for a long time, and probably appreciated them +all the more by reason of their rarity. + +"In addition to my allowance of five guineas per mensem," continued +the earl, "your mother will have her own private income of fifty +pounds a year, and will no longer have me for an encumbrance; so that, +all things considered, she ought to be, and doubtless will be, +tolerably comfortable. There is one thing, however, Clem, that she +wishes you to do. After I am gone she would like you to go back and +sleep in your old room. She is rather timorous, poor thing, at the +thought of being left alone." + +"Of course I shall do that, sir," said Clem. + +"Then I need not detain you longer. If you have half an hour to spare +this evening before your mother's bedtime, look in and we will talk +these matters over more in extenso." And extending a couple of fingers +to his son and nodding a good-morning, the earl went, leaving Clem at +a loss whether to be more pleased or sorry at what he had just heard. + +The private income of fifty pounds a year to which Lord Loughton had +referred when speaking of his wife was all that was now left of the +fortune he had received with her on her wedding-day. It would hardly +be too much to say that it was on account of that fortune he had +married her. She was an orphan, the daughter of English parents who +had emigrated to America. Her father had been originally a poor man, +but had made a fortune during the last three or four years of his +life. She fell in love with the handsome English scapegrace at a +boarding-house where they happened to meet, and being her own mistress +and well-to-do, and divining that he was poor--how poor she did not +know till afterwards--she was not long in letting him see the +preference which she felt for him. He, on his side, when once +satisfied that her fortune was not a myth, was an ardent lover enough, +and at the end of a few weeks they were married. Not till the wedding +morn did the bride know that her husband's name was not John Fildew, +but John Marmaduke Lorrimore, and that same evening she was made to +take a solemn oath never to divulge to living soul the secret of her +husband's real name. So faithfully had the promise then given been +kept that not even her own son had the remotest suspicion that the +name he called himself by was not his own. As years slipped away Mrs. +Fildew's fortune also slipped away, till nothing of it was left save +the aforesaid fifty pounds per year, the principal of which neither +she nor her husband could touch. With the struggling, poverty-stricken +years that followed when the bulk of the fortune was gone we have +nothing here to do. + +It was owing to Clem's persuasions that his father and mother had at +length agreed to remove all the way from Long Island to London. The +lad had developed a remarkable talent for painting, but had got the +idea into his head that he could have better instruction and make more +rapid progress in London than elsewhere. But, in addition to that, Mr. +Fildew, senior, was heartily sick of the States. So to London they had +come, and there they had lived ever since. Clem, what with painting +and what with drawing on wood for the magazines, was slowly but surely +making his way, and was not only able to keep himself--in very modest +style, it is true--but could also spare his father a pound a week for +pocket-money. What he did in the way of helping his mother at odd +times was known to no one but him and her. He had lived at home till +home was no longer comfortable for him; and even his mother had at +length urged him to go into lodgings on his own account. That mother, +whom he loved so well, was slowly but surely dying of an incurable +complaint. She had been ill for years, and might be ill for years +longer, before the end came; but that it was surely coming both she +and those about her knew full well. And this knowledge it was that +made the one great trouble of Clem's life. + +The earl felt that he had much to do before his departure from London. +After again seeing his son in the evening, but without giving him many +more details as to his future proceedings than he had given him in the +morning, he set out for the Brown Bear. This would be his last evening +at the old haunt for a long time to come, if not forever; and when he +called to mind the many pleasant hours he had spent in the little +coffee-room, he felt quite sentimental--far more sentimental than he +had felt at the thought of parting from his wife and son. + +There was an extraordinary muster at the Brown Bear this evening, it +having got noised about that it was Mr. Fildew's farewell visit. As a +consequence, Mr. Fildew had to enter into particulars, which he +detested doing, as to the why and the wherefore of his going away. He +told them the same story that he had told to his son, with certain +variations, the gist of it being that a very old friend of his had +come into a large fortune and needed his, Mr. Fildew's, services as +guide, philosopher, and friend. + +Mr. Nutt was unanimously voted into the chair, and a very pleasant and +convivial evening followed. Mr. Fildew's health was drunk with musical +honors, to which "His Grace" responded in a few well-chosen sentences, +and wound up by ordering the landlord to bring in his biggest +punch-bowl filled to the brim. On the heels of the first bowl came +another; and when twelve o'clock struck several of the gentlemen +present were hardly in a condition to find their way unaided to their +homes, so that, as several of them afterwards averred, it was one of +the pleasantest evenings they ever remembered to have spent. + +At dusk, next afternoon, Lord Loughton bade farewell to his humble +lodgings. His last words to his wife were to the effect that she might +expect to see him again in three weeks or a month. Clem's offer to +accompany him to the station was firmly negatived. However, Clem saw +him into the cab, and heard him give instructions to be driven to +King's Cross. Then there was a last wave of the hand and he was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +TRANSFORMATION. + +When the Earl of Loughton left home in a four-wheeled cab it was by no +means his intention to drive direct to the railway. His first +stopping-place, as soon as he got clear of the neighborhood where he +was known, was at a French hairdresser's. When he came out of the +shop, half an hour later, the cabman did not recognize him till he +spoke. He had gone into the shop with a wild tangle of hair, beard, +and mustache about his face, neck, and throat. He came out with his +hair cropped after the military style, and with his face close shaved +except for an imperial, and a thick, drooping mustache with carefully +waxed tips, both of which had been artistically dyed. From the +hairdresser's he drove to a certain well-known outfitting emporium, +and here the transformation previously begun was consummated. Again +the cabman opened his eyes, this time very wide indeed. His +exceedingly shabby fare, respecting whose ability to pay him his legal +charge he might well have had some reasonable doubts, was transformed +into a military-looking, middle-aged gentleman (most people would have +taken him for an officer in mufti), in a suit of well-fitting dark +tweed, and an ulster. The frayed black satin stock and the patched +boots had disappeared with the rest, and when his fare with delicately +gloved hand drew forth a snowy handkerchief, and a celestial odor of +Frangipanni was wafted to his nostrils, the man could only touch his +hat and say, in a sort of awed whisper, "Where to next, colonel?" Had +he been bidden to drive to Hades he could hardly have wondered more. + +The earl slept that night at the Great Northern Hotel, and went down +to Brimley next morning after a late breakfast. He took up his +quarters for the time being at the Duke's Head, the only really good +hotel in the little town. Everybody was anxious to see the new Lord +Loughton, concerning whose early life and long disappearance from the +world many romantic tales were afloat, and he was just as willing to +let himself be seen. For the first week or two he derived an almost +childlike pleasure from hearing himself addressed as "my lord" and +"your lordship," and from being the recipient of that adulation, +mingled with a mild sort of awe, with which a nobleman is almost +always regarded in small provincial towns. Twenty times a day he would +gaze admiringly at the reflection of himself in the cheval-glass in +his bedroom. He could hardly believe it was John Fildew of Hayfield +Street, that shabby, bepatched individual, who smiled back at him from +the glass. "And yet I am just the same that I was before," he said to +himself with a sneer. "The only change in me is that which the barber +and the tailor have effected." + +He had several suits of clothes sent down after him, and he took a +boyish pleasure in frequently changing them. He always dressed for +dinner, although there was no one to dine with him. When a young man +he had been noted for his white hands, and he was determined that they +should be white again, to which end he smeared them every night with +some sort of unguent and slept in kid gloves. Every morning he +measured himself carefully round the waist, and when at the end of a +fortnight he found that his convexity in that region was less by three +quarters of an inch, he felt as if he could go out into the street and +play leap-frog with the boys. He had made up his mind from the first +to go in for popularity. With the change in his fortunes he had in a +great measure dropped that curt, sneering, cynical manner which had +not contributed to render him popular in days gone by. There was now +an easy condescension, a sort of genial affability, about him which +charmed every one with whom he came in contact; but then, how little +is needed to make us feel charmed with a lord! Everybody knew that he +was poor--how poor they did not know--but everybody knew also that he +was an earl, and as earls, even when their antecedents are somewhat +shady, are no more plentiful than green pease in December, we are +bound to make much of such as we have. + +The news of Lord Loughton's sojourn at Brimley spread far and wide +through the county, and he need never have lacked company had he been +so minded. Nearly all the best families in the neighborhood left their +cards, and he might have had a dozen visitors a day had he not given +it out that he did not intend to see any one till he was safely housed +in his new home. + +Laurel Cottage was not much of a place for a peer to take up his abode +in, but even peers must live according to their means. It was a +little, white, two-storied house, containing only eight or nine rooms +in all. Its front windows looked on to a circular grass-plot and a +tiny carriage drive that opened from the main road. From its back +windows could be seen a lawn, bordered by a terrace, and interspersed +with clumps of flowers, with meadow after meadow beyond. Stable and +coach-house were hidden away behind a shrubbery to the left. + +Such as it was it was quite big enough for the needs of Lord Loughton, +and he at once secured it. There was one stipulation connected with +the letting of it which posed him for a moment, but for a moment only. +It was a _sine quâ non_ that the substantial, old-fashioned furniture +should be taken at a valuation by the incoming tenant. The valuation +was fixed at two hundred pounds. To this the earl, when he had walked +slowly through the rooms, made no demur. The same evening he wrote as +under to the dowager countess: + + +"My Dear Aunt,--I have taken Laurel Cottage, near this place, for a +term of years, as I told you that I should do. It contains nine rooms. +The rent is £60 a year, and it will suit me admirably. But I could not +obtain possession till I agreed to take the furniture, which has been +valued at £200. As it was an impossibility to live in a house without +furniture, the opportunity seemed to me too good a one to be missed. +Will you therefore kindly send me a check for the amount in question +as early as possible, and oblige, + + "Your affectionate nephew, + + "Loughton." + + +After three days came the following laconic reply: + + +"Check for £200 enclosed, but don't do this sort of thing again. An +agreement is an agreement, and no further demands beyond the usual +allowance will receive attention." + + +The letter was undated and unsigned, but it was evidently in the +countess's own writing. A few days later the earl removed to his new +home. + +He started his modest establishment with two women and one man +servant. A gardener was engaged to come once a week to attend to the +lawn and flowers. When the earl had paid his hotel bill and a few +other expenses he found that upwards of two thirds of his 1150 had +gone already, while more than two months of the quarter had yet to +run. But this did not trouble him. He calculated, and rightly, that +when once he was established in Laurel Cottage he might go on credit +for everything he wanted for several months to come. As a matter of +fact, he was inundated with offers from tradespeople of all kinds, so +that his only difficulty lay in choosing which of them he should +patronize. Even horses and carriages were pressed on him, but he +decided that for the present both stable and coach-house should remain +empty. He might, perhaps, have afforded to buy a cheap cob if an +opportunity for doing so had offered itself however, there would be +time enough to think about such luxuries by and by. But in this +matter, as in most others, he was probably actuated by some motive +other than appeared on the surface. + +Long before the earl had got quietly settled down one carriage after +another came flashing up to the little green gate of Laurel Cottage. +His lordship was at home to everybody that called. Everybody was +charmed with his affability and the simple kindliness of his demeanor. +"What delightful manners!" exclaimed the ladies, with one accord. +"What ease and polished courtesy! A thorough man of the world, +evidently." Could these fair dames have seen his lordship six weeks +previously, as he sat behind a long pipe in the coffee-room of the +B. B., with his brandy-and-water in front of him, what would their +thoughts of him have been? + +Calls, as a matter of course, were succeeded by pressing invitations +to dinner. But the earl frankly pleaded his poverty in fact, he almost +made a parade of it before his newly found friends. "You say that you +live three miles away. Pray tell me how I am to reach you when I have +neither a hoof nor a wheel on the premises." Then, of course, came +offers to send the brougham or other conveyance for him, which, +equally as a matter of course, involved the sending of him home when +the evening was at an end. For the earl had made up his mind that if +people wanted him they must both send for him and send him back, and +before long this necessity came to be accepted as a well-understood +fact among those whom he honored with his company. + +The vicar of the parish was one of the first to call at Laurel +Cottage. Before leaving he expressed a hope that he should +occasionally see his lordship at church, and his lordship was good +enough to promise that next Sunday morning should find him in the +vicar's pew. It was quite a novel sensation for the earl to find +himself inside a place of worship. The vicar's wife handed him an +elegantly bound, large-print prayer-book, which he accepted with a +smile and a little bow, but when he tried to follow the service and +find the different places he got "terribly fogged," as he afterwards +expressed it; and as he was afraid to let people see the dilemma he +was in, he shut the prayer-book up altogether by and by, and tried to +put on the air of a man who was so thoroughly familiar with the service +that the book was rather an encumbrance to him than otherwise. "The +places used to be easy enough to find when I was a lad," he muttered to +himself; "but I suppose the Rubric has been altered since then, and +evidently altered for the worse." + +He had been rather dubious on his arrival at Brimley whether some of +the very big people of the neighborhood might not still bear in mind +some of the escapades of his early years, and decline to acknowledge +him. But his uneasiness on this score was quickly dispelled. A new +generation had grown up since he was a young man, and whatever any of +the older people might remember, they held their tongues in public, +and welcomed him as warmly as if he were the most immaculate of men +and peers. + +The nearest house to Laurel Cottage was a large redbrick mansion of +modern erection and imposing appearance. It bore the dignified name of +Bourbon House, from the fact of a certain French prince having at one +time made it his home for a few months. As the earl was passing the +lodge gates one day a basket-carriage containing two very pretty young +ladies was coming out. It then struck him for the first time that he +had never been at the trouble to inquire who lived at Bourbon House, +neither could he call to mind that any one from there had ever left a +card at the Cottage. As soon as he reached home he sent for his man +and questioned him. It then came out that Bourbon House was the home +of a certain Mr. Orlando Larkins and his two sisters--the pretty girls +whom the earl had remarked. The youthful Orlando, it appeared, was the +son of a celebrated father--Larkins _père_ having been none other than +the inventor and vender of a certain world-famed pill. Everybody has +heard of Larkins's pills, and hundreds of thousands of people have +swallowed them. As the result, Mr. Larkins, senior, amassed a very +comfortable fortune, which he more than doubled by certain lucky +speculations. Having done this, there was nothing left him to do but +to die; so die he did, and Orlando reigned in his stead. "He's said to +be very rich, and he's nothing to do with the pill trade now, my +lord," concluded the man. "He's a good-natured, sappy sort o' young +gentleman; but somehow the swell people about here don't seem to take +to him, and even the lads shout after him, 'How are you, young +Pillbox?' when he goes riding into the town." + +"Very rich and very good-natured, and not received into society," said +the earl to himself. "It might, perhaps, answer my purpose to +cultivate the acquaintance of Mr. Orlando Larkins." + + + + +CHAPTER X. +INFATUATION. + + +At a quarter-past eleven on the morning of the Thursday following +Clement Fildew's visit to Cadogan Place, Mrs. Percival's brougham +stopped at the corner of Elm Street, Soho, and from it alighted Miss +Collumpton and Miss Browne. They were not long in finding No. 19, and +when, in answer to their ring, the door opened apparently of its own +accord, they might have been puzzled what to do next had not Clement +come rushing downstairs and piloted them the way they were to go. + +Tony Macer had gone out in deep dudgeon. He was disgusted with Clem +for having engaged himself to paint a couple of portraits when he +ought to be devoting the whole of his attention to putting the +finishing touches to his Academy picture. Indeed, Tony, who had a +great opinion of Clem's abilities, did not like the idea of his friend +taking to portrait-painting at all. "You will only spoil yourself for +better work," he kept repeating. "Why should you fritter away your +time in painting the commonplace features of a couple of nobodies? You +had better set up as a photographer at once." + +"Only these two," Clem had pleaded. "When I have finished these I +won't try my hand at another portrait for a whole year." + +Mr. Macer having ascertained at what hour the ladies were expected +to arrive, set off growlingly for Hampstead in company with his +sketch-book and his pipe. + +"And this is a studio!" exclaimed Cecilia, as she halted for a moment +on the threshold and looked round. "What a very strange place!" + +"I hope you did not expect to find any halls of dazzling light," said +Clem, with a laugh. "If so, it is a pity that you should be +disenchanted. A poor painter's workshop is necessarily a poor sort of +place." + +"I think it quite delightful, and I like it immensely. So thoroughly +unconventional, is it not?" she added, turning to Miss Browne. "For my +part, I'm tired of drawing-rooms and fine furniture. One can breathe +here." + +Clem had nailed down a square of green baize on one part of the floor +and had hired a couple of chairs and a few "properties" from Wardour +Street. Miss Browne walked across the floor in her slow, stately way, +and seated herself on one of the chairs. To her the studio was nothing +but a dingy, commonplace room. How to arrange her draperies most +effectively for the forthcoming sitting was the subject of paramount +importance in her thoughts just now. She wore a pearl-gray satin robe +this morning. She hoped that Mr. Fildew was clever at painting satin. + +"Are both these pictures yours, Mr. Fildew?" asked Cecilia, pointing +to two covered-up canvases standing on easels in the middle of the +room. + +"No. That one is my friend Macer's; this one is mine." + +"If I am very good and promise not to make a noise or ask too many +questions, may I see them, Mr. Fildew--both of them?" + +"Certainly you may see them, Miss Browne, and that without making a +promise of any kind. But I must warn you that neither of them is +finished, and must therefore deprecate any severe criticism." + +"I don't want to criticise them, but simply to see them," said +Cecilia, as Clem flung back the coverings. + +She looked at Tony's picture first. After contemplating it in silence +for a little while, she said softly, and more as if talking to herself +than to Clem, "I think that I should like to know Mr. Macer." Then she +passed on to Clem's picture. But she had not looked at it more than +half a minute before she discovered that one of the two faces depicted +in it was an exact reproduction of her own. Sly Master Clem had +painted her portrait from memory, and had stuck it into his picture. +The warm color mounted to Cecilia's face, her eyes dropped, and she +turned away without a word. + +Clem readjusted the coverings, and when he turned Cecilia was sitting +in the chair next to Miss Browne's, apparently immersed in the pages +of _Punch_. + +Clem got his colors, brushes, and palette, with the view of +immediately setting to work. He had already planted his easel on the +spot where he intended it to stand. The cause of Cecilia's blush had +been patent to him in a moment, and, while sorry to think that his +audacity might possibly have annoyed her, he yet could not help +feeling flattered by the fact of her having so quickly recognized her +own likeness. "I have scared her a little," he said to himself. So for +the present he addressed himself exclusively to Miss Browne, of course +under the mistaken belief that she was Miss Collumpton, posing her and +arranging her so as to suit best with his ideas of artistic effect. + +Three quarters of an hour passed quickly, and then Miss Browne +declared that she was tired. All this time Cecilia had scarcely +spoken. "Now, Mora, dear, it's your turn," said Miss Browne to +Cecilia. + +"I am ready any time." Then it was her turn to be posed and arranged. +For a little while no one spoke. Then Cecilia said, "Are both those +pictures destined for the Academy, Mr. Fildew?" + +"That is their destination if the Hanging Committee will deign to find +room for them." + +"Then, of course, they are intended for sale?" + +"But whether they will find purchasers is another matter," answered +Clement, with a shrug. + +Cecilia said no more, and Mora, seeing that she was disinclined for +talking, exerted herself for once, and kept up a desultory +conversation with Clem till the sitting came to an end: Then the +ladies went. There was no sign of lingering vexation or annoyance in +Cecilia's way of bidding Clem good-morning, but she took care not to +lift her eyes to his while she did so. The next sitting was fixed for +the following Monday. + +One, two, three sittings followed in rapid succession. Cecilia's +brightness and gayety did not long desert her. She chattered with Clem +as easily and lightly as at first, only she never alluded to the +Academy pictures. When the third sitting was over, just as Cecilia was +leaving the room, Clem slipped a brief note into her hand. Her fingers +closed over it instinctively. She and Mora were to have called at +several other places before going home, but Cecilia pleaded a +headache, and they drove back direct to Cadogan Place. + +After two hours spent in her own room, Cecilia went downstairs. But +she was restless and uneasy, and seemed unable to settle to anything +for many minutes at a time. Sketching, reading, needlework were each +tried in turn, and each in turn discarded. Several times Mora looked +at her with inquiring eyes, but said nothing. Twice her aunt said, +"Cecilia, I do wish you wouldn't fidget so you are as bad as any child +of six." + +The ladies dined early when they had no company. After dinner +Mrs. Percival went out. The two girls sat by themselves in the +drawing-room. By and by Mora went to the piano and began to play. +Cecilia sat and looked into the fire and listened, or, without +listening, felt, half-unconsciously, the sweet influence of the music +steal into her senses. Then the twilight deepened, and Binks came in +and lighted the lamps. But still Mora went on playing, and still +Cecilia sat and gazed dreamily into the fire. + +By and by Mora looked round and saw that she was alone. Cecilia had +slipped through the curtains that shrouded one end of the room from +the conservatory beyond. There was just enough light in the +conservatory to enable Mora to see Cecilia as she sat among the +orange-trees at the foot of a statue of Silence, that loomed white and +ghost-like above her. Mora knelt by her friend and took one of +Cecilia's hands in hers and pressed it to her lips. "What is it, +darling?" she whispered. "Tell me what it is that is troubling you." +Cold and calculating in many ways as Mora Browne might be, there was +at least one sweet, unselfish impulse in her heart, and that was her +love for Cecilia Collumpton. + +Cecilia responded to her friend's question by stooping and kissing +her. Then she whispered--but it was a whisper so faint that if the +statue bending over her with its white finger on its white lips had +been endowed with life it could not have overheard what she said--"He +has written to me and told me that he loves me!" + +Mora started, but Cecilia's arms held her fast and would not let her +go. "Who has written to you? Not Mr. Fildew?" + +"Yes--Mr. Fildew." + +"How sorry I am to hear this!" + +"I am not sorry." + +"You don't mean to say that--" + +"Yes, I do. Why not?" Then Cecilia's arms were loosened, and Mora rose +to her feet. + +"Oh, Cecilia, I cannot tell you how grieved I am that I ever was a +party to this deception!" + +"Why should you be grieved, Mora?" + +"Because if Mr. Fildew had been told from the first who you were, this +terrible business would never have happened." + +"I am not so sure of that. Men are sometimes very audacious. But it is +no such terrible business after all." + +"To me it certainly seems so, and I shall never forgive myself for +helping to bring it about." + +"And I can never be sufficiently grateful to you for the share you +have had in it." + +"This is infatuation, Cecilia. But don't, pray don't, tell me that you +have any thought of encouraging Mr. Fildew's attentions." + +"Encouraging his attentions! What phrases are these, Mora? Did I not +tell you just now that--that Mr. Fildew has told me that he loves me, +and did I not give you to understand that I care for him in return?" + +"How wretched you make me feel! But you have not told him that you +return his love?" + +"Not one syllable has he heard from my lips." + +"Then it is not too late to undo all this." + +"I don't understand you, dear." + +"You have never spoken to him--you have given him no encouragement--he +knows nothing of your infatuation. Such being the case, he need never +know. We will go to his studio no more. Some other artist shall paint +your portrait. Mr. Fildew shall be quietly dropped, and in few weeks +you will have forgotten that any such person had an existence in your +thoughts." + +Cecilia laughed, but there was a ring of bitterness in her mirth. "I +might be listening to the maxims of Lady Loughton or my Aunt +Percival," she said. "But you have never loved, therefore I cannot +expect you to sympathize with me." + +"But you certainly would not marry this man, Cecilia?" + +"I have never thought of marrying either 'this man,' as you call him, +or any other man. But I certainly should not marry any one unless I +did love him." + +"I consider it a great impertinence on the part of Mr. Fildew to have +addressed you at all." + +"In what way is it an impertinence, Mora? However much we poor women +may care for a man we cannot write to him and tell him so. We must +wait till it pleases him to write or speak. Mr. Fildew is an artist +and a gentleman. Perhaps I should not be far wrong in calling him a +man of genius. It is I who ought to feel honored by the love of such a +man." + +"I cannot think where you contrive to pick up your strange ideas." + +"Strange ideas, indeed! Why, Mora, with all my love for you, I believe +you are one of those women who would rather marry a dunderhead with +ten thousand a year than a Milton in a ragged coat." + +"I certainly should not care for love in a garret, even with one of +your so-called men of genius. And as for Milton, from what I have read +of him, he was not one of the most agreeable of men to live with." + +"The author of Paradise Lost' agreeable! Oh, Mora, Mora! have you no +sense of the incongruous?" With this Cecilia rose, and putting her arm +in Miss Browne's, went back into the drawing-room. + +"Since papa died I have not felt so unhappy as I do to-night," said +Mora, presently. + +"And I never so happy in my life." Then, turning to kiss her friend +for goodnight, Cecilia added, "There is one thing to be said he is +not making love to me because I am rich, and that, with me, goes for +much. There is another thing to be said," she added, in a whisper; "he +has asked me to meet him." + +"An appointment! Oh, Cecilia!" + +"Yes, an appointment. Why not?" + +"But--" + +"Not another word," said Cecilia, smilingly laying her hand on Mora's +lips. "You have heard enough to fill your thoughts for a little while. +Goodnight and happy dreams." + +Next morning Miss Browne was called away by a telegram. Her mother was +seriously ill. + +There was no opportunity before she went for any more confidences +between Cecilia and herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +CONFIDENTIAL. + + +_Letter from_ Miss Collumpton, _in London, to_ Miss Browne, _in +the country_. + +"My Dearest Mora,--Your telegram of yesterday, followed by your +letter, which came to hand this morning, was a great relief to our +anxiety. Pray give our joint love (Aunt Percival's and mine) to your +dear mother, and say how happy it has made us to hear of such a +decided change for the better. + +"Had you not in your letter made a special point of asking me to +furnish you with all particulars anent a certain affair, I should not +have thought of troubling you at a time like the present. As, however, +you want 'to know, you know,' I shall be glad to do my best to satisfy +your curiosity. + +"If you remember, dear, you seemed terribly shocked at the idea of Mr. +Fildew having asked me to meet him. And yet, what else could the poor +man do? Pray bear in mind that in his eyes I am only an indigent young +lady, who earns her living by filling the post of companion to a rich +young lady. He could not come to Cadogan Place and ask for me. He +knows nothing of my friends and connections. Having very foolishly +fallen in love with me, how else was he to plead his cause, how else +say all that he wanted to say? I have no expectation of making a +convert of you, simply because this is one of those questions that you +and I look at from totally different points of view. In the first +place, you would never fall in love with an artist--at least, not with +one who, like Mr. Fildew, had still his way to fight; in the second +place, you would never give any man who had not an assured income the +slightest encouragement to fall in love with you. Still, without +hoping that anything I can say will induce you to modify your views, I +must, in justice to myself, put down some of the reasons by which I +have been influenced in doing as I have done. All through the affair I +have argued with myself in this wise: Supposing I were really a poor +girl who was earning her living in a shop or a warehouse, or it +matters not how, and Clement had fallen in love with me, what form +would our courtship have taken? how and where should we have seen each +other? and so on. Thousands of such courtships are going on around us +every day. It was only to imagine that Cis Collumpton had lost the +whole of her fortune, or had never had any to lose. In short, I wanted +to be loved for myself alone; I wanted to be courted as if I were a +girl without a 'tocher.' + +"Well, I met him by appointment at seven o'clock one evening, in a +quiet crescent not far from Sloane Street. He lifted his hat, shook +hands, and said how pleased he was to see me. Then he put my hand +under his arm, and so took possession of me. 'We can talk better +thus,' he said; 'I have something particular to say to you; besides, I +want to have you as close to me as possible.' + +"Would you believe it, Mora, I seemed to have altogether lost my +tongue,' as we used to say when I was a little girl. For aught I had +to say for myself, I might have been brought up in the farthest +Hebrides. However, he did not seem to mind whether I answered him or +not; he had taken me into custody, as it were, and I had no power to +resist--nor any inclination either, for the matter of that. + +"He began by apologizing for the liberty he had taken in asking me to +meet him; 'but as you are here,' he added, 'I may, perhaps, hope that +I have not transgressed beyond forgiveness; although, indeed,' he went +on, 'I knew of no other mode of obtaining an opportunity of saying all +that I want to say.' Still I was tongue-tied, still the words refused +to come. The next ten minutes were the most memorable of my life. How +my heart beat! how his words thrilled me from head to foot! What he +said you can perhaps faintly imagine; if you cannot, I cannot tell +you. + +"He pressed me for an answer. Then my tongue was loosened. It would +not be worth while to put down here what I said, even if I could do +so, which I very much doubt. The result was that I promised to meet +him again the following Friday evening at the same time and place, and +give him an answer of some kind. + +"What that answer would be was a foregone conclusion from the first. I +might just as well have said 'Yes' then and there, but that I would +not have him think I was to be quite so easily won. He pressed my hand +to his lips at parting. I left him at the corner at which I had met +him, and ran nearly all the way home. Of course, dear, you may be sure +that the first thing I did when I found myself alone was to have a +good cry. But what happy tears they were! From all which you will +understand that your poor Cecilia's case is a desperate one indeed. + +"How the time passed till Friday came round I hardly know. I wanted it +to come and yet I didn't, if you can understand such a paradox. I +longed and yet I trembled, and when Friday evening was really here I +wished it were only Thursday. However, I met him as agreed, and was +again taken possession of. 'I am afraid you are cold,' he said. 'You +ought to have wrapped yourself up more warmly.' I was trembling a +little, but not with cold. We walked slowly along, and for some +minutes Clement said very little. I think he saw that I was put out, +and he was giving me time to recover myself. At length my hand ceased +to tremble, and then he spoke, asking me whether I had thought over +his words--whether I felt that I could accept his love and give him +mine in return? A church clock was beginning to strike eight as he +finished speaking. Not till the last stroke had ceased to reverberate +did I make any reply. Then for answer I laid one of my hands softly on +one of his. 'God bless you, dear one!' he said. 'May you never regret +the gift you have given me to-night.' Then, before I knew what had +happened, a strong arm was passed round my waist and Clement's lips +were pressed to mine. A lamp was no great distance off and a policeman +was passing at the moment. The man turned his head and coughed +discreetly behind his hand. I turned hot all over, but Clement only +laughed, and said it would not have mattered if all the world had been +there to see. + +"After that we had a long, delicious walk through quiet streets and +squares where there were few passers-by. There was a sweet, new +feeling at my heart of belonging to some one and of some one belonging +to me. Clement asked whether he should write to or see my father. Then +I told him that I was an orphan and my own mistress. 'In that case our +marriage need not be long delayed,' he said. This frightened me. I had +never contemplated such a contingency except as something very remote +and far-off indeed. After that he began to talk to me about his +position and prospects. He was far from rich at present, he said, and +could not give me such a home as he would have liked; but he hoped to +be better off by and by. He was getting higher prices for his +pictures, and people were beginning to seek him out. If only his +Academy picture found a purchaser there was no reason why we should +not be married before midsummer. Knowing what I did, I could have +clapped my hands for glee as I listened to him. I said I was afraid +that I could not make arrangements to be married before Christmas at +the very soonest. I could see that he was disappointed. 'I shall +certainly hold you to midsummer,' he said, 'unless you can give some +good and valid reason for delay.' + +"' You must come and see my mother before you are many days older,' he +said, presently. 'I have spoken to her about you already.' Would you +believe it, Mora, a little jealous pang shot through my heart when he +said this? I felt as if I did not want even a mother to come between +him and me. But next moment I put away the thought as utterly +unworthy, and said how pleased I should be to see and know Mrs. +Fildew. + +"Then he told me that his mother had been an invalid for years, and +that there was no hope of her ever being any better. He told me, too, +how cheerful she was---how bravely she bore up against the insidious +disease that was slowly but surely eating away her life. I hated +myself for allowing even a moment's jealous feeling to find room in my +heart. I would try to love her as much as Clement loved her; but what +if she should turn against me and say that her son's choice was a +foolish one? + +"This evening Clement would insist on walking with me nearly to the +door. I was in mortal fear lest my aunt should chance to be passing +and should recognize me. But nothing happened except that, when the +moment came for saying goodnight, Clement repeated the process which +had frightened me so much before. But I don't think that even a +policeman saw us this time: still I must admit that it was very +dreadful. All that night I hardly slept a wink. I felt that I had +taken the great, irrevocable step of my life. Did I regret it? you +will perhaps ask. No; a thousand times no! + +"It was arranged that at our next meeting I should accompany Clement +to his mother's to tea. Mrs. Fildew's hour for tea is six o'clock, +from which you will at once infer that she belongs to the old school, +and having grown up when people took their meals at more rational +hours than they do now, she still keeps up the traditions of other +days. I had hitherto had no difficulty in stealing out for an hour +without my aunt knowing anything about it, but to leave home at +half-past five and not get back till ten or eleven, without saying +where I was going, or ordering the brougham to take me, was a matter +that required a little diplomacy. I hit on a plan at last which I need +not detail here, and that without having to tell my aunt any absolute +fib about it. It is sufficient to say that I met Clement at the +appointed time and place, and that three minutes later I found myself +with him in a hansom cab and being whirled along Piccadilly at a +tremendous pace. It was not nearly dark yet, and we passed several +people whom I had seen only an hour previously in the Row. What their +thoughts would have been had they seen Miss Collumpton flashing past +them in a hansom, I leave you to imagine. + +"I am quite aware, Mora, that in confessing to all this I am shocking +some of your most cherished prejudices. But where is the use of having +prejudices unless you can have them pleasantly shocked now and again? +Does not the process put you in mind of an electrical machine, and of +the brass rods we used to touch so tremblingly when we were girls at +school? + +"It is almost worth while being poor for the sake of riding about in a +hansom. A ride in a brougham or a victoria is the tamest of tame +affairs in comparison. I had never been in a hansom before that +evening when I went to see Mrs. Fildew, but I have been in one several +times since--of course, with Clement to keep me company. How 'jolly' +it is when you happen to have a good horse and a skilful driver! (The +adjective may sound objectionable, dear Mora, but I can't hit on +another just now that expresses my meaning half so clearly.) How +quickly you get over the ground! How you dash in and out among +carriages, carts, and busses, leaving them behind one after another! +Everybody and everything seem to get out of your way. The wind blows +in cheerily perhaps a few drops of rain dash against your face now and +then, but you don't mind them in the least. You experience a sense of +freedom, of brisk open-air enjoyment, such as no other mode of +conveyance that I know of can give you. And then how cosey inside! +Just room for two, and none to spare. But that doesn't matter in the +least if your companion is some one you like to sit close to. I wonder +whether it would be wrong, Mora, for you and me to be driven out in a +hansom some afternoon by our two selves. But you are such a slave to +Mrs. Grundy that I almost despair of being able to persuade you to +join me in such an expedition. + +"Here I am at the end of my paper and I have not introduced you to +Mrs. Fildew. I must consequently defer that pleasure till I write to +you again, which will be not later than the day after to-morrow. I +have much to tell you yet. Pray let me hear from you by return, if +only a word to say how your mother is progressing. I cannot tell you +how lonely I feel while you are away. + + "Your affectionate friend, + + "Cecilia Collumpton." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. +CECILIA AND THE COUNTESS. + + +_Second Letter From_ MISS COLLUMPTON _in London to_ Miss Browne _in the +country_. + +"My Dearest Mora,-- . . . The close of my last letter left Clement and +me in a hansom cab in the act of being driven to the lodgings of Mrs. +Fildew. Clement told me that his mother had lately moved into fresh +apartments no great distance from his studio. I cannot tell you how +nervous I became as the moment of my introduction to Mrs. Fildew drew +near. What if I should read in her eyes that she thought her son had +chosen unwisely? It would not have mattered so much if Clement had not +set such store by her opinion--if his love had been of that lukewarm +kind which many grown-up sons have for their mother. But in this case +it was different, and unless I were loved and liked by Clement's +mother I should feel as if I possessed only half of Clement's heart. + +"At length the cab stopped and my pulses beat faster than ever. Three +minutes later I found myself in Mrs. Fildew's presence--found myself +on my knees by her side, while her hands, that trembled a little, +rested for a few moments on my hair and her eyes gazed anxiously and +inquiringly into mine. Then she bent forward a little and pressed her +lips to my forehead. + +"'My boy has told me how much he loves you,' she said. 'But I welcome +you here, not for his sake only, but for your own also. I often used +to wish that Heaven had given me a daughter. At last my prayer has +been answered.' Then she kissed me again, and after that I sat down +close beside her, but she still kept possession of one of my hands and +caressed it softly with hers. + +"Mrs. Fildew is a pale and delicate-looking elderly lady, with a thin, +worn face and a profusion of snow-white hair. When young she must have +been very beautiful. I think I told you in my last letter that she has +been a confirmed invalid for years. She cannot walk more than a few +yards without great pain and difficulty. From the time she rises till +the time she goes to bed she sits in a large easy-chair that runs on +noiseless wheels, which Clement has had specially made for her. She +can work the wheels with her hands, and so propel herself to any part +of the room at will. She keeps one servant, a strong, middle-aged +woman, who has been with her several years. Sometimes, on sunny +afternoons, Mrs. Fildew and her chair are carried downstairs, and +Martha takes her mistress for an airing up and down some of the +streets where there is not much traffic, or as far as a certain +florist's where they have fresh flowers in the window every morning. + +"Once a week Clement comes with an open carriage and takes his mother +for a drive into the country. The next time they go on one of these +expeditions I am to go with them. + +"Presently Martha brought in tea, which we drank out of quaint old +biscuit-china, the cups being without handles, and the saucers +excessively shallow. We had thin bread-and-butter, watercresses, +sardines, damson jam, and a cake from the confectioner's. The tea +itself was simply delicious--far superior to any that we ever have at +home. The truth is, I suppose, that our servants don't know how to +make tea properly; or else, which is quite as likely, they keep the +best of it for themselves and only send us up what they leave. I don't +think that I ever tasted watercresses before that afternoon; you have +no idea how nice they are. To eat them is to be put in mind of country +streamlets and all the sights and sounds that go with them--of hidden +waterways that betray themselves by their babbling, and--But I 'loiter +round my cresses.' + +"This six-o'clock tea, with thin bread-and-butter and watercresses, is +an 'institution' that I shall never despise again. + +"When tea was over Clement had to go out on business, and Mrs. Fildew +and I were left alone. Why do women seem all at once to become so +confidential towards each other the moment there is no longer a man in +the room? I say 'seem,' because such confidences are generally more +apparent than real. Mrs. Fildew and I followed the universal rule. +Although Clement was so dear to us, and although we talked of nothing +in his absence that we might not have said freely before his face, yet +the moment he had left the room a spell seemed taken off our tongues, +and we both felt that we were going to enjoy a good long talk. + +"I hope your situation is a comfortable one, my dear, and that you +like it?' said Mrs. Fildew. + +"I had to think for a moment, and call to mind what my situation was +supposed to be before answering her that I liked it exceedingly. + +"'Companion to a young lady, is it not? Yes. Well, I'm glad to hear +that you are comfortable. Of course, you have nothing to do with +cooking or the superintendence of housework?' + +"'Nothing whatever, Mrs. Fildew.' + +"'Do you know, my dear, I think that's rather a pity.' + +"Why so, Mrs. Fildew?' + +"'Because Clement is far from being a rich man, although, of course, +there is no knowing what his talents may do for him in time to come, +and it would be just as well that his wife should know how to manage +and look after a small establishment without trusting too implicitly +to her servants. But probably you had some training in such matters +when you were a girl at home?' + +"'Very little training of that kind,' I said rather bitterly. My face +burned, and I felt humiliated by my ignorance. + +"'Dear, dear! all young girls ought to be taught how to manage a +house,' continued Mrs. Fildew, in that soft, low voice of hers, which +seems as if it could never have spoken an unkind word to any one. + +"'One is never too old to learn if one has a mind to do so, Mrs. +Fildew,' I said. + +"'Well spoken, my dear. The will to learn and a little perseverance +will work wonders. I don't suppose that Clement will be able to afford +more than one servant at first, and for twelve or fourteen pounds a +year you can't expect to get a good cook, especially when she has to +do the rest of the housework as well. Therefore it is all the more +necessary that her mistress should be able to take an active part in +all home matters. But I am afraid that you are underrating your +knowledge. A woman who can roast a leg of mutton--or see it properly +roasted--and who is not above beating up a pudding now and then, or +turning out a little light pastry, need never be afraid of getting +married.' + +"'But, dear Mrs. Fildew, I can't do any of the things you mention,' I +cried, with consternation. 'I never made a pudding or a bit of pastry +in my life; and as for cooking a joint, I am afraid it would not be +fit to send to table by the time I had done with it.' + +"The dear old lady's busy fingers ceased their movements. She looked +at me in silence for a moment, but I thought that her look seemed to +say, 'Then, pray, young lady, what is there that you can do?' + +"'People are generally what, they are taught to be,' I said, between +laughing and crying. 'I cannot bake, or boil, or make preserves, but I +know how to do one or two useless things. I can read Dante or Goethe +in the originals. I can sketch from nature. I can play on the piano +and the harp. People tell me that I can sing tolerably. I can drive, I +can ride, and I can swim.' + +"'Then, my dear, you are far too clever a young lady to enter a +kitchen or look after the cooking of your husband's dinner. Clement +ought to be, and no doubt is, very proud to think that he has won your +heart; but you and he ought not to get married on less than a thousand +a year.' + +"I looked at Mrs. Fildew, in doubt whether her last speech was not +meant as a sarcasm. But one glance into her dear face was enough to +satisfy my mind on that point. I don't believe that she ever gave +utterance to a sarcastic speech in her life. I am not aware, Mrs. +Fildew, that I have expressed any anxiety to get married for ever such +a long time to come. I am quite willing to wait--for years.' + +"'Perhaps so, my dear, but Clement may not be possessed of your +patience.' + +"'But surely I shall have a voice in a matter of so much importance?' + +"'Undoubtedly. But for all that, men generally contrive to get their +own way in these things, as you will find.' + +"I confess, Mora, that the thought of this early marriage frightens +me. I ought to have bargained at the outset that it should not take +place for a couple of years at the soonest. I know that you, with your +strong mind, would say that it is not too late even now to 'put my +foot down' and vow that I won't be married till I'm ready to be. But +then, dear, I neither possess your strength of mind nor have you ever +been in love, so that, all things considered, I'm afraid my resistance +would be a very futile one. Methinks I hear you say, 'How humiliating +of Cecilia to make such a confession!' Even so, sweet one. +_N'importe_. I would not exchange my fetters for your freedom. + +"'What a useless, good-for-nothing creature you must take me to be, +Mrs. Fildew,' I said, glad to get away from the marriage question. + +"'Indeed, my dear, but there is no such thought in my head. You have +been brought up as if you were a young lady of fortune--that is all. +And, now I come to think of it, I doubt very much whether Clement +would allow his wife to trouble herself about kitchen arrangements or +the proper cooking of a dinner. Men nowadays seem to think their wives +are only made to be ornamental, and I suppose my boy will be no +exception to the rule. When I was young things were different.' + +"'I'll buy a cookery-book to-morrow,' I cried in desperation. 'It is +never too late to learn.' + +"Mrs. Fildew smiled at me, a little compassionately, as I thought. + +"'It is never too late to make a good resolution,' she said. 'But if a +young woman has not been trained up to housekeeping ways at home, it +is not to be expected that she can take kindly to them when she grows +up. I wouldn't bother about it if I were you, my dear. I dare say +Clement will like you all the better for having been brought up as a +fine lady.' + +"But I kept my word, and next day I made myself the happy possessor of +a cookery-book. My aunt never suspected that it was anything but a +novel when I brought it out after luncheon. I read page after page of +it, dipping here and there, till I had got a jumble of recipes mixed +higgledy-piggledy in my brain, and was in a pitiable state of +imbecility. + +"Next morning I sought a private interview with Hannah, the cook, the +result of which was that, in return for a certain consideration, she +was to give me a lesson in the art of cookery of one hour's duration, +each morning. I have had five lessons already; they are immense fun, +and I can safely say that I never enjoyed my music-lessons half so +much. You shall have a practical proof of the progress I have made as +soon as you get back to Cadogan Place. We will have a little dinner +'all by our two selves,' as we used to say at school, every dish at +which shall be cooked by your Cecilia. I have written out the _menu_ +already. + +"Of course your comment on all this will be, 'Just like Cecilia--just +like her, to waste time and money over some scheme that can never +possibly be of any practical use either to herself or anybody else.' +But don't you know, dear, that knowledge is power? Besides, one never +can tell what may happen. Some day my husband may be a poor man, and +then I shall be able to astonish him. By-the-bye, do you know what a +roly-poly dumpling is? If you don't there is a treat in store for you. +I made a monster one yesterday for the servants. I will make a little +one for you and me when I get you back again. + +"I don't think I have told you yet how Mrs. Fildew occupies her time. +She mends old lace for a large emporium at the West End. The way in +which she does it, so as to all but defy detection, is marvellous. It +seems to me a charming occupation for a poor gentlewoman, combining in +itself the practical and the æsthetical. I could sit and watch her for +hours as she deftly takes up stitch after stitch and loop after loop +till ragged leaf and frayed flower look as good as new. + +"Clement had never talked to me much about his father, but from Mrs. +Fildew I learned several particulars concerning him. That he was a +gentleman born and a gentleman bred Mrs. Fildew was very particular in +striving to impress on my mind. It appears that they were married in +America, and there my Clement was born. Mr. Fildew, senior, it would +seem, was so entirely a gentleman that it was never expected of him +that he should do anything for a living. 'You know, dear, I am not a +lady by birth,' said Mrs. Fildew, frankly; therefore, of course, it is +only right and proper that I should work--in fact, I could not live +without it. And then there is Clement; so that, altogether, we are +very comfortable in our humble way.' + +"Not knowing what to say, I said nothing. + +"'My husband is from home just now,' continued Mrs. Fildew. 'If you +had been here three days ago you would have seen him. Some old friend +of his has come into a large property and has asked John to go down to +his place and put it into something like order for him. Of course, +this is not like any ordinary kind of work, or I should not have been +willing for him to go. It is merely a little service rendered by one +friend to another. My husband has been a gentleman all his life, and +it would never do for him to lower himself to any commonplace drudgery +now.' + +"'I should very much like to see Mr. Fildew,' I said--and so I should. +I think I can understand now why Clement hardly ever mentions his +name. + +"I don't expect him in town for two or three weeks, but when he does +come Clement must bring you and introduce you to him. There is an +aristocratic style, an air of distinction, about Mr. Fildew, which you +will not fail to recognize at once. Clement has the same style, only +in a lesser degree; but he will never be as handsome a man as his +father.' + +"Presently Clement came in, and then we had some music. I find that my +boy,' as his mother fondly calls him, plays the violin. With that and +the piano, and your Cecilia's thin soprano, the evening was gone far +too quickly. It was a happy time. Ten o'clock brought a cab, and half +an hour later I was at home. Goodnight and God bless you. More +another day. + + "Your affectionate friend, C. C." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. +"YOUNG PILLBOX." + + +One day, at a dinner at Sir Harry Yoxford's, among other people to +whom Lord Loughton was introduced was a certain Mr. Wellclose, a +lawyer, who had the charge of Sir Harry's legal business, together +with that of various other great people of the neighborhood. Mr. +Wellclose, a fussy, talkative, middle-aged man, who dearly loved a +lord, contrived to seat himself next the earl in the smoking-room. He +seemed to know everything about everybody and before the evening was +over Lord Loughton had contrived to extract from him a considerable +amount of information which might or might not be useful to him at +some future time. "By-the-bye, Mr. Wellclose," said the earl, "are you +at all acquainted with my next-door neighbor at Bourbon House?" + +"I have had occasion to meet Mr. Orlando Larkins several times on +business," said the attorney, "and a very pleasant young gentleman I +have found him to be." + +"I think I have heard somewhere that he doesn't get on very well with +the county folk hereabouts? Probably his antecedents are against him." + +"That's just it, my lord. His father was a celebrated pill-maker; and +his name being rather an uncommon one, people can't forget the fact." + +"What a pity it is that the world is not more good-natured! What on +earth have a man's progenitors to do with the man himself?" + +"My own sentiments exactly, if I may make so bold as to say so," said +Mr. Wellclose, who always made a point of agreeing with his superiors. +"I'm sure I've not the remotest idea who or what my great-grandfather +was, and I shouldn't be a bit better man if I had. But as regards +young Larkins, I was talking with him the other day, and he seems +quite down-hearted. Of course, there are plenty of people about +here--such as they are--who would only be too happy to visit him, or +to see his feet under their mahogany, simply because he is rich; but +the tip-top people, among whom it is the ambition of his life to mix, +give him the cold shoulder, and no mistake. His name seems to cling to +him wherever he goes. The poor fellow was telling me about his tour on +the Continent a little while ago. Wherever he went people looked at +him--or he fancied they did--and whispered to each other; and on one +or two occasions some low cads at the _table d'hôte_ ranged half a +dozen pill-boxes in front of their plates, and made believe to swallow +a bolus or two between every course, and so drove the poor fellow +away." + +"He must be rather foolishly sensitive about such matters." + +"Well, he is. I don't think he can be said to possess a very +strong mind at the best of times; but for all that he is a very +generous-hearted, good-natured fellow, and I'm sorry for him." + +"I've been told that his father left him tolerably well off." + +"So he did, my lord--and all out of pills; or, rather, pills laid the +foundation of his fortune, and lucky speculations did the rest. The +son's income is as near twelve thousand a year as makes no matter. +Then there are the two young ladies, his sisters, who will have twenty +thousand apiece on their wedding-day." + +"Why didn't you and I go into the pill-trade, eh, Wellclose?" + +"Just the question I often put to Mrs. W., my lord." + +"The only way for Larkins to get out of his difficulty is for him to +marry and change his name to that of his wife." + +"A capital idea, my lord, which I won't fail to suggest to him the +next time I see him. Talking about matrimony reminds me that Mr. +Larkins has an unmarried aunt--a younger sister of his mother--who +also has twenty thousand pounds settled on her. Thirty-six years of +age and twenty thousand pounds!" As he said these words with much +unction the keen-eyed lawyer glanced up sharply in the earl's face. + +"I'm afraid the lady must be too fastidious or she would surely have +been snapped up long ago," said the earl, as he knocked the ash off +his cigar. + +"Perhaps so--perhaps an early disappointment or something of that +kind. But, by Jove! what a prize, eh, my lord? What a galleon to +capture and tow safely into the harbor of Matrimony!" Again he glanced +up keenly into the earl's face. + +"I tell you what, Wellclose," said his lordship, presently, "I think I +must get you to introduce me to young Larkins one of these days." + +"I shall be only too happy, my lord." + +It fell out, however, that Lord Loughton was enabled to make the +acquaintance of Mr. Larkins without the assistance of Mr. Wellclose. +Twice a week the earl took a return-ticket between Brimley and +Shallowford. The two places were thirty miles apart. At the latter +town the earl was quite unknown, and it was to the post-office there +that he had requested Clem to write to him, if necessary, under his +old name of Mr. Fildew. Twice a week he went over to see if any +letters were waiting for him. As he was coming back one day, about a +week after the dinner at Sir Harry's, he found a gentleman in the +carriage into which he got at Shallowford. At the next station some +one came up to the window and addressed the stranger as Mr. Larkins. + +As soon as the train was under way again the earl spoke. "Have I the +pleasure of addressing Mr. Larkins of Bourbon House?" he said. + +Mr. Larkins blushed, and stammered out a reply to the effect that he +was the individual in question. + +"I am the Earl of Loughton, and I am very glad to be able to make the +acquaintance of my next-door neighbor. One can afford to be isolated +in town, but that rule hardly holds good in the country." Then he held +out his hand and wrung the young man's fingers very cordially. "Why +did you not call upon me, Mr. Larkins, or at the very least send in +your card?" + +"I--I was afraid of being considered an intruder. The difference in +our social status and all that, my lord." + +"Pooh, pooh, my dear sir, I trust the age we live in is too +enlightened to retain many antiquated prejudices of that kind. A +gentleman is a gentleman all the world over, whether he be a duke or a +ploughman." + +"I assure you, my lord, that I have been snubbed and slighted in a +great many quarters, simply because my father was--well, simply +because he made his money in business." + +"Can it be possible! Thank Heaven, there is no nonsense of that kind +about me. If I like a man, I like him, and I never stop to ask him who +was his grandfather." + +"Ah, my lord, if all the aristocracy were only like you!" + +"Oh, I don't want to set myself up as a pattern, but those are my +sentiments. I think that you and I, being such near neighbors, ought +to be good friends. What do you say to dropping in to-morrow morning +about eleven, and having a bit of breakfast with me? I don't give +dinner-parties, because I'm too poor. But I like to have somebody to +breakfast with me." + +Mr. Larkins was overwhelmed by the earl's condescension. At last the +golden portals were about to open to his touch. Would the Viponds +and the Cossingtons dare to snub him in future when they found him +hand-and-glove with an earl? Mr. Larkins's trap was waiting at the +station. It was one of the happiest half-hours of that young man's +life when he was seen by the good people of Brimley driving Lord +Loughton home to Laurel Cottage. + +Mr. Larkins did not fail to put in an appearance next morning at the +earl's breakfast-table. On the following day his lordship dined _en +famille_ at Bourbon House, on which occasion Orlando's sisters were +introduced to him. They were two really pretty and well-mannered girls +of seventeen and nineteen. There was a vein of simplicity and effusive +good-nature running through the young Man's character that the earl +was not slow to note, and appraise at its proper value. From that time +forward the pill-maker's son and Lord Loughton were very frequently to +be seen in each other's company. They drove out together, they rode +together (in Orlando's carriages and on Orlando's horses), they played +billiards together, they dined together, and they smoked together. +Hardly a week passed without a hamper of wine or a box of cigars +finding its way to Laurel Cottage. Fruit was sent nearly every day. A +saddle-horse and a brougham were specially retained for the earl's own +use. The quidnuncs of Brimley found much food for gossip anent these +proceedings; but as the earl was notoriously poor and Mr. Larkins as +notoriously rich, they rather admired the arrangement than otherwise. +It was, of course, patent to everybody why the earl so persistently +patronized the pill-maker's son, but none the less on that account +were several doors now thrown open to Orlando which had heretofore +been inexorably shut in his face. People began to discover virtues and +good qualities in the young man the existence of which they had never +suspected before. The Honorable Mrs. Templemore and Lady Wildman, +neither of whom were rich and both of whom had several unmarried +daughters, began to angle for him openly. When, a little later on, and +at the earl's suggestion, he ventured to send out invitations for a +garden-party, to be followed by a carpet-dance, nearly everybody who +was asked came, and it was universally admitted to have been one of +the most successful things of the season. From that time forward Mr. +Larkins was accepted without question as "one of us." + +All this suited well with the earl's grim and mordant humor. He +laughed at Larkins and he laughed at those who, having at first +tabooed him, were now willing to welcome him with open arms. He +generally spent a solitary hour in his little smoking-room before +going to bed, musing over the events of the day, and planning the +morrow's campaign. At such times--his servants being all in bed, he +indulged himself in a long clay pipe and a couple of glasses of hot +brandy-and-water. The brandy and the pipe, together with a supply of +the strong tobacco which he used to smoke during his evenings at the +Brown Bear, were all kept under lock and key, in company with the worn +and shabby pouch which had done him such good service in days gone by. +It amused him at such times to think how people must talk about him, +and he acknowledged to himself that he liked being talked about. His +coming had caused quite a commotion among the stagnant circles of +Brimley and its neighborhood. His sayings and doings, his habits and +mode of life, supplied an unfailing topic of conversation at a hundred +dinner-tables and twice as many tea-tables. He was already acquiring a +reputation for eccentricity. It was a reputation that suited him, and +he determined to cultivate it. + +It was not till the lapse of two months after his arrival at Brimley +that he went up to London to see his wife and son. He dressed himself +for the occasion in a suit of sober tweed, and left behind him the +gold watch and chain which a Brimley tradesman had only been too happy +to press upon him, and the diamond ring that Larkins had made him a +present of. From the moment he got out of the train at King's-Cross +till the moment he got into it on his return he was to be plain John +Fildew again. He quite enjoyed the masquerade, and chuckled to himself +several times in the cab before he was set down at the corner of +Oxford Street. Clem had apprised him of the change in Mrs. Fildew's +lodgings. When he walked into his wife's sitting-room without +knocking, that lady stared at him for a moment in utter surprise, and +then said, "Have you not mistaken the room, sir?" + +"Why, Kitty, dear, don't you know me?" he asked, and then he crossed +the room and kissed his astonished wife. + +"How was it likely I should know you, John? You are not a bit like +your dear old self," and with that she began to cry. + +Clement, when he came in, was almost as much surprised, but he showed +it in a different way. The change in his father was so thorough and so +striking that he could hardly believe him to be the same man who had +left them only a few weeks previously and that evening he felt a +degree of respect for him such as he had never experienced before. He +had heard his mother insist a thousand times on the fact of his father +being a gentleman bred and born, but for the first time in Clem's +experience he looked the character. The earl dilated in a hazy but +grandiloquent sort of way about his new prospects and his new mode of +life. It was not to be expected that he should condescend to +particulars; and as both his wife and son knew that he had a horror of +being questioned, they listened to all he had to say, and troubled him +with no inconvenient queries. Clement was well content that matters +should remain as they were, but Mrs. Fildew, in addition to the grief +she felt at her husband's absence, was somewhat fearful in her mind +lest her "dear John" should have compromised his dignity by engaging +in work that was derogatory to his status as a gentleman. + +Mr. Fildew's stay in London was only from the dusk of one afternoon +till the evening of the next. His avocations were of such a pressing +and important nature, he said, that it was impossible for him to make +a longer stay just then. In the state of his wife's health--a subject +respecting which he was anxious for more reasons than one--there was +little apparent change since he left London. She was certainly no +better, but neither did there seem any perceptible alteration for the +worse. He longed to go and spend an evening with his old cronies at +the Brown Bear, but after mature consideration he deemed it better not +to do so. He looked and felt so changed that his old friends would +hardly welcome him as being any longer one of themselves. Besides, for +anything he knew to the contrary, some of them might some day find +themselves at Brimley and encounter him there but if they were not +made acquainted with the alteration in his appearance, he flattered +himself that, even so, they would hardly recognize him. It was +decidedly to his interest to give the Brown Bear as wide a berth as +possible. + +Great, therefore, was the earl's surprise and chagrin when, as he was +walking down the platform in search of a smoking-carriage on his +return journey, he nearly stumbled over Mr. Cutts, the landlord of the +Brown Bear. "I really beg your pardon," exclaimed the earl, before he +had time to recognize the man. At the sound of the familiar voice +Cutts stared, and then the earl saw that it was too late to retreat. +Grasping the landlord by the hand, and making believe that he was +delighted to see him, he hurried him off to the refreshment bar. In +order to keep Cutts from questioning him, which might have been +inconvenient, he kept on questioning Cutts. Everybody, it appeared, +with one exception, was quite well, and going on much as usual. "Of +course you remember Pilcher?" said Cutts. "Ah, well, he's come to +grief, poor devil, and quite suddenly too. It seems that a scamp of a +brother persuaded him to accept a bill for a big amount. The brother +bolted, Pilcher couldn't meet the bill, some other creditors came down +on him, and his stock was seized. Meanwhile his wife died, and the +result of the blooming business was that poor Pilcher was turned +adrift on the world without a penny to bless himself with, and with +three young 'uns, all under eight, to call him father." + +"Poor Pilcher, indeed! But, of course, you did something for him at +the Brown Bear?" + +"Yes--what we could. Couldn't do much, you know. Sent the hat round +and got about six pounds--enough to bury his wife, I dare say. He +shouldn't have been such a fool. I'd sooner trust a stranger than a +relation any day." + +"And where's Pilcher now?" + +"Can't say. Somewhere about the old quarter, no doubt." + +"Ah, well, I am sorry for him, poor devil. Goodnight. Shall see you +again before long." And with that the earl made a rush for his +carriage. + +Next day he wrote to Clement, asking him to hunt up Pilcher's address. +A week later "poor Pilcher" received by post a twenty-pound note +simply endorsed, "From a friend." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. +"TWELVE IT IS." + + +We must now go back a little space in our history. + +When Lord Loughton, on the occasion of his first dinner at Bourbon +House, was introduced to Miss Tebbuts, the aunt of Mr. Larkins, he did +not forget what he had been told respecting that lady. "Wellclose said +she was thirty-six, but she looks at least half a dozen years older +than that," muttered the earl to himself. "But twenty thousand pounds +can gild with youth and beauty a demoiselle of even that mature age." +And his lordship became at once very attentive to Miss Tebbuts. + +Hannah Tebbuts was sister to Orlando's mother. In conjunction with +another sister, also unmarried, she had for several years kept a +select seminary for young ladies in a little town in one of the +midland counties. When her sister married Mr. Larkins that gentleman +had not risen to fame and fortune. He was still brooding over the Pill +that was ultimately to make his name known to the ends of the earth. +Even then Hannah Tebbuts saw but little of her married sister, and she +saw still less of her when Mrs. Larkins went to live in a big mansion +in the outskirts of London. + +By and by Mrs. Larkins died, and after that a dozen years passed away +without Miss Hannah catching even a passing glimpse of her rich +relations in London. But at the end of that time there came a message +for her to go up to town with the least possible delay. Her famous +brother-in-law was dangerously ill, and he had asked that she might be +sent for to go and nurse him. Miss Hannah was less loath to go because +she had lately lost the sister with whom she had lived for so many +years, and had, in consequence, given up her school. Once in London, +there she remained till Mr. Larkins died. His illness was a long and +tedious one, but through it all Miss Hannah nursed her brother-in-law +with the most devoted care and attention. As a reward for her +services, and a token of the high esteem in which he held her, the +sick man, by a codicil added to his will only a few days before his +death, bequeathed to her the very handsome legacy of twenty thousand +pounds. + +Never was a simple-minded woman more puzzled what to do with a legacy. +Her tastes were so inexpensive, and her mode of life so quiet and +sedate, that she could find no use for the money. All she could do was +to place the amount in the hands of her nephew, begging him to allow +her a hundred a year out of it, and invest the remainder for her in +any way he might think best. + +Miss Tebbuts had never been handsome, but no one who studied her face +could doubt her amiability and good-temper. There was nothing +fashionable, nothing modish, about her. Her gown was after a style +that had been in vogue some dozen years previously. She wore elaborate +caps, and little sausage-like curls, now beginning to turn gray. She +was of a retiring disposition, and her greatest trouble was having to +fill the position of hostess at Bourbon House to the numerous +strangers her nephew took there. Mr. Wellclose was wrong when he +surmised that she might possibly be the victim of some early +disappointment. Miss Tebbuts had never had an offer in her life, and +if she had ever entertained any hopes in that direction she had +trampled them under foot long ago, so that nothing was now left of +them save a faint, sweet memory, like the sweetness of crushed flowers +exhaled from a _pot pourri_. And this was the lady to whom John +Marmaduke Lorrimore began to pay very marked attention. + +He sat next her at the dinner-table, he made his way to her side in +the drawing-room, and he favored her with more of his conversation +than any one else. After a little while he began to call two or three +times a week and take her for drives in the basket-carriage, with +little Mabel Larkins to play propriety. He was seen with her at the +Brimley spring flower-show, and at the garden-party, of which mention +has already been made, his attentions to her were the theme of public +comment. In short, people began to talk in all directions, and before +long everybody knew for a fact, or thought they did, that the earl and +Miss Tebbuts were going to make a match of it. This notoriety was just +what the earl wanted. On one point he was particularly careful: he +never spoke a word of love to Miss Tebbuts, nor gave utterance to any +sentiments that could possibly be construed into the faintest shadow +of a declaration. + +One day Orlando said, smilingly, "If you play your cards properly, +aunt, you may yet be Countess of Loughton." + +Miss Tebbuts colored up. "But I don't want to be Countess of +Loughton," she said, "and you don't know what you are talking about. +Make your mind easy on one point: Lord Loughton and I will never be +more than friends." + +"Such attentions as his can have but one meaning." + +"You talk like a very young man, Orlando. According to your theory, no +gentleman can pay a lady a few simple attentions without having +certain designs imputed to him." + +"A few simple attentions, aunt! Pardon me, but they seem to me most +marked attentions." + +"Well, whatever they may seem, they won't end in matrimony; on that +point you may make yourself quite sure." + +Orlando was terribly disappointed, but did not dare to show it. What a +splendid thing it would have been to have an aunt who was a countess +and an uncle who was an earl! Such a dream was almost too blissful to +contemplate. And yet he firmly believed it might become a glorious +reality if only his aunt were not so foolishly weak-minded. If she did +not care greatly for such a marriage on her own account, she ought to +remember what was due to her nephew and nieces. Never could they hope +that such an opportunity would offer itself again. + +One day the earl was surprised by a visit from the dowager countess, +or, rather, he was not surprised. He had quite expected to see her +before long. Certain rumors had reached her ears, and she had driven +over from Ringwood to satisfy herself as to their truth or falsity. +Mr. Flicker was with her, as monumentally severe as ever. + +The countess had not seen Lord Loughton since his transformation. She +remembered him as a shabby, buttoned-up individual, with long +straggling hair, and patched boots, and a generally mouldy and decayed +appearance, who was known to the world as "Mr. Fildew." She saw before +her a good-looking, well-preserved, elderly gentleman, clean shaved +and carefully dressed, and of a spruce and military aspect. This +personage called himself Lord Loughton, and the countess recognized at +once his likeness to certain traditional types of the Lorrimore +family. So far she was gratified. It was evident that the new earl was +not likely to prove such a discredit to his connections as had at one +time seemed but too probable. + +"Welcome to Laurel Cottage, aunt," said the earl, as he assisted her +ladyship to alight. "I thought I should have had the pleasure of +seeing you here long ago." + +The countess vouchsafed no word in reply, but glanced round at the +house and the grounds, and then, turning to Flicker, she said, "Quite +a little paradise." + +"But without a peri to do the honors of it," remarked the earl, with a +chuckle and a tug at his mustache. + +"Ah, I'm coming to that part of the business presently," said the +dowager, in her most acidulated tones. "And now, have you a place, +where I can sit down?" + +The earl led the way into his little sitting-room. The countess +followed him, and Mr. Flicker brought up the rear. The countess seated +herself on an ottoman, and, putting up her glasses, took a quiet +survey of the room. "Rather different from the sort of home you have +been used to of late years--eh?" she said, sharply. + +"Yes, for an earl I can't say that I'm badly lodged," sneered her +nephew. + +"You are lodged far beyond your deserts, sir, I do not doubt." + +"The Lorrimore family have generally been fortunate in that respect." + +"I did not come here to bandy personalities with you." The earl bowed. +"I came in consequence of a certain rumor that has reached my ears." +The dowager paused, but apparently the earl had nothing to say. He was +stroking his chin, and gazing through his glass at a Parian Venus +bracketed on the opposite wall. + +"A most absurd rumor," continued the countess, with added asperity, +"but one, nevertheless, that I feel called upon to investigate. May I +ask you, sir, whether it is true that you are going to be married to a +creature of the name of--of--what is the creature's name, Mr. +Flicker?" + +"Tebbuts, my lady. Hannah Tebbuts." + +"Just so. Tebbuts. I knew it was some horrid word. Pray, sir, is there +any foundation for the rumor in question?" + +The earl withdrew his gaze from the Venus, and, producing his +handkerchief, he began to polish his eyeglass with slow elaboration. +"May I ask, madam, by whose authority I, a man fifty-three years old, +am catechised as though I were a schoolboy caught _in delicto?_" + +The countess fairly gasped for breath. Mr. Flicker raised his hands +and turned up his eyes till nothing but the dingy whites of them were +visible. "Catechise you, indeed! I am here, sir, because I want to +know the truth, and the truth I must have," said the ruffled countess. +"If this rumor be correct, you have been obtaining money under false +pretences, and acting as no honorable man would act." + +The earl had actually the audacity to lean back in his chair and +laugh. "Really, aunt," he said, "you amuse me. A little more, and your +language would be actionable. Nobody could tell you better than Mr. +Flicker here that, even if I were to marry to-morrow, I should not be +doing that which you assert I should be. The agreement between us was +that I was to be paid a certain quarterly stipend as long as I +remained unmarried. There was no absolute promise on my part that I +would never marry. But the moment I do marry, if I ever do, the +stipend will cease. Where are the false pretences that your ladyship +accuses me of?" + +For a few moments the dowager could not speak. Then she said--and her +head by this time was nodding portentously--"I always asserted from +the first that you were nothing better than a--a--" + +"Common swindler, madam," remarked the earl, pleasantly. "You always +did say so. I give you credit for that much. But I remember also that +long ago your epithets were more remarkable for their vigor than for +their accuracy. Consequently, I have learned to appraise them at their +proper value." + +"This man is insufferable," exclaimed the countess. Mr. Flicker tried +to look sympathetic, but only succeeded in looking a little more +miserable than before. "May I ask you, sir, to give me a plain answer +to a plain question? Is it, or is it not, your intention to marry?" + +"Now we are becoming business-like, which is much better than being +personal," said the earl, placably. "A straightforward question +deserves a straightforward answer. I have no present intention of +getting married; but still, more remote contingencies than that have +come to pass in the history of the world." + +"A--h! then it is true that this creature has designs on you." + +"If by 'this creature' your ladyship means Miss Tebbuts, I say +emphatically no. Allow me to add that Miss Tebbuts is a lady, and +incapable of forming designs against any man." + +"A lady, forsooth! Her father, or her brother, or somebody connected +with her, was a common quack." + +"Her brother-in-law created a pill and made a fortune. Had he been a +great captain, and killed ten thousand men, a grateful nation would +have erected a statue to him; but seeing that he only invented a pill, +and probably saved ten thousand lives, society votes him vulgar, and +passes him by on the other side. What a strange, topsy-turvy state of +things we have got to at the end of our nineteen centuries of +practical religion!" + +The countess looked mutely at Flicker, but her look plainly said, +"Surely this fellow must be crazy." Mr. Flicker responded by a +melancholy shake of the head. "Are we to infer from this rigmarole, +sir, that the report is nothing more than a foolish _canard_, and that +you have no more intention of getting married than I have?" + +"Well, I will hardly venture to go as far as that. You see, aunt, Miss +Tebbuts is a very charming lady, and her charms are enhanced by a +fortune of twenty thousand pounds. At five per cent. that fortune +would yield an annual income of one thousand pounds." + +"Yes, but there would be two of you to keep out of it. As the case +stands now, you have six hundred a year, and only yourself to keep." + +"I assure your ladyship that Miss Tebbuts's tastes are of the most +simple and inexpensive kind. She is one of those admirable women who +would live on a hundred a year and save fifty of it." + +"Have you no more respect for your family, sir, than to marry a quack +doctor's sister?" + +"Have my family no more respect for me than, out of an aggregate +income of twenty thousand a year, to expect me to live on, and be +satisfied with, a paltry six hundred? Are you aware, madam, that the +Earl of Loughton's boots let water in, and that he hasn't enough money +in his purse to pay for a pair of new ones?" + +"So, sir, we are getting sit your motives by degrees. You threaten us +with this marriage unless we agree to buy you off." + +The earl laughed silently. "I threaten you with nothing I merely put +before you a plain statement of facts, and leave you to draw what +inference you please. Remember, pray, that it is you who have come to +me and not I who have appealed to you. Take back your six hundred a +year, madam, if it so please you; I shall not want for bread and +cheese, I dare say." + +For the first time since the discussion began, Mr. Flicker now spoke. +"If I remember rightly, my lord, the amount of income suggested by you +at our first meeting was twelve hundred a year--just double the sum +you are now in receipt of? If the family, taking into consideration +all the circumstances of the case, could see their way to fall in with +your first suggestion, is there not a possibility that these +disquieting rumors respecting a presumptive matrimonial alliance might +prove to be without the slightest foundation in fact?" + +"In other words, Flicker, would not a golden bullet bring down this +_canard_ at once and forever?" + +The ghost of a smile flitted across the lawyer's hard-set face. "My +meaning precisely, my lord." + +"Well, golden bullets are wonderful things, and really, now I come to +think of it, I shouldn't be surprised if, in the present case, one of +them, properly aimed, were to have the effect hinted at by you." + +The countess glowered at the lawyer as though she could scarcely +believe the evidence of her ears. "Mr. Flicker," she said, in her most +imperious way, "may I ask by whose authority you have dared even to +hint at a course which, if carried out, would be a disgrace to +everybody concerned?" + +"My lord," said Mr. Flicker, turning to the earl, "may I take the +liberty of asking to be permitted to have five minutes' private +conversation with her ladyship?" + +"Certainly, Flicker, certainly. I'll go and have a cigarette in the +garden. Touch the bell and send the servant for me when you are +ready." And with that the earl strolled leisurely out. As he was +shutting the door he heard the countess say with much emphasis, "That +man will be the death of me." + +At the end of ten minutes a servant came in search of him. He found +the lawyer alone. "What has become of her ladyship?" he asked. + +"She has gone to her carriage. She is a great age, and the interview +has somewhat tried her strength. I have, however, much pleasure in +informing your lordship that--that, in fact--" + +"That our wild duck is to be shot with a golden bullet after all. Is +not that so?" + +"It is so, my lord." + +"Twelve?" + +"Twelve it is, my lord. After this, I presume we need not disquiet +ourselves in the least as to any matrimonial intentions on the part of +your lordship?" + +"Not in the least, Flicker. I give you my word of honor on that score. +As I said once before, I am not a marrying man, and am in no want of a +wife." + +Mr. Flicker rose and pushed back his chair. "We are quite prepared to +take your lordship's word in the matter. I shall have the honor of +forwarding you a check as soon as I get back to town." + +The earl expressed his thanks, and was going with Flicker to the door +when the latter said, "Pardon me, my lord, but I think it would be as +well not to let the countess see you again to-day. There is a tendency +to irritation of the nervous system, and I am afraid that your +presence would hardly act as a sedative." + +The earl laughed. "Perhaps you are right," he said. "Anyhow, give my +love to her, and tell her that I hope to visit her before long at +Ringwood." + +Mr. Flicker shook his head, as implying that he knew better than to +deliver any such message. Then the earl shook hands with him, and they +parted. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. +CECILIA PHILOSOPHIZES. + + +The courtship of Cecilia Collumpton and Clement Fildew progressed as +such affairs generally do progress. Each of their meetings was looked +forward to as an event of immense importance, for the time being quite +dwarfing into insignificance all other occupations and engagements. +Between times they seemed to think of little or nothing but what they +had said to each other at their last meeting, and what might possibly +be said at their next. They met twice a week, sometimes for an hour +only, sometimes for a whole delicious evening. Oftener than that +Cecilia could not have got away from home without exciting her aunt's +suspicions. Miss Browne was now back at Cadogan Place. She usually +accompanied her friend to the trysting-place, which was the corner of +a quiet street leading out of a certain crescent, and then, after +walking with the pair of lovers for a short distance, she would leave +them and go back home. Clement, of course, still believed that Cecilia +was Mora and Mora Cecilia. Miss Browne often implored her friend to +undeceive Mr. Fildew, but Cecilia had gone too far to retreat. "Not +till the very day he goes to Doctors' Commons will I tell him," she +said; "it is too sweet to me to feel that I am loved for myself and +not for my money to allow of my undeceiving him till the last moment. +He believes that I have not twenty sovereigns in the world, and when +I'm with him I try to fancy that I haven't. I make believe to myself +that I am as poor as a church mouse." + +"Ah, it may be pleasant to play at being poor, just as children play +at being soldiers," said Mora, "but there's nothing pleasant about the +reality." + +The two portraits were finished by this time, as were also the two +Academy pictures--Clem's and Tony Macer's--and the pair of them sent +in. Then ensued a period of suspense before it was known what their +fate would be. + +It was about this time that Lord Loughton's first visit to his wife +took place. Clem forbore to say anything to his father about his +love-affairs, and also begged his mother to keep her own counsel in +the matter. He did not want to provoke any opposition from his father, +which a knowledge of his engagement probably would have done. Silence +was best till the wedding should be close at hand. Meanwhile Cecilia +took tea with Mrs. Fildew once a week. + +Clem knew nothing about the long talks and discussions that took place +in his absence, chiefly concerning housewifery and the best mode of +making a small income go as far as possible. He did not know, and he +would have blushed if he had known, how often he himself formed the +topic of conversation on such occasions. To both these loving hearts, +one young and one old, he was the dearest object on earth; why, then, +should they not talk about him? All Clem knew was that they seemed to +agree together remarkably well. His mother sometimes told him jokingly +that Cecilia was far too good for him, far beyond his deserts; and +Cecilia often asseverated that she only tolerated him for the sake of +darling Mrs. Fildew. + +By and by came pleasant news. Both Mr. Macer's picture and Clem's were +accepted at the Academy. As soon as Cecilia heard this she went to a +dealer with whom she had had some previous transactions, and +instructed him to go on the private-view day and buy the two pictures +for her in his own name. Clem pressed her to go with him on the +opening-day, but, knowing that her aunt would almost certainly be +there, as well as a number of her acquaintances, she put her lover off +till later in the week. Clem resolutely refused to go without her. He +heard that his picture was sold, for news of that kind soon finds its +way to the studios; but thinking to afford Cecilia a pleasant +surprise, he said nothing to her about it. On the fourth day they went +together. Cecilia, feeling sure there would be several people there +whom she knew, was very plainly dressed and wore a veil. She would +fain have hurried off to the picture the moment she entered the +building, but Clem, catalogue in hand, persisted in going to work in +the orthodox way. + +When, at length, they did reach it, they found quite a little crowd of +people in front of it. Cecilia pressed her lover's arm. "Whether the +critics appreciate your picture or not, it is quite evident that the +general public do," she whispered. + +"It would be the general public who would appreciate me if I were to +grin through a horse-collar at a fair," whispered Clem in return. + +"Is not _that_ the truest test of appreciation?" asked Cecilia, +pointing with brightened eyes and glowing cheeks to the tiny ticket +stuck in the frame. For the first time since entering the building she +had now thrown back her veil. Clem thought he had never seen her look +so lovely as at that moment. + +"You see, dear, there are still a few people in the world with more +money than brains," he said, quietly. "What would become of us poor +painters if Providence had not kindly arranged matters so?" + +"I wonder what your secret admirer would say if he could hear you +giving utterance to such heresies." + +"Were my secret admirer here I would thank him for one thing, if for +no other." + +"May I ask what the one thing is that you would thank him for?" + +"For enabling me, by the purchase of my picture, to get married at +midsummer. Bless him for a good man!" + +As Cecilia said afterwards to Mora, "I was struck dumb. All that I +could do was to let my veil drop and move on. When I instructed +Checkly to buy the pictures for me, I never dreamed that from a cause +so simple an event so dire would spring. Perhaps it is fortunate for +us that we can so rarely foresee all the consequences of our actions." + +"Supposing for a moment," said Mora, slyly, "that the gift of +foreknowledge had been yours in this case, would you or would you not +have bought the picture?" + +Cecilia gazed silently out of the window for a few moments. "I don't +know what I should have done," she said at last. "I certainly object +to being married at midsummer, but, on the other hand, if Clem's +picture had not been sold, what a disappointment it would have been to +him." + +"But what a surprise when he finds out who the purchaser is!" + +"That he shall never find out till we are married, not if it's a dozen +years first. Well, we went next and looked at Mr. Macer's picture. I +verily believe that Clement was far better pleased that his friend's +work should have found a purchaser than that his own had. Anyhow, he +was in such high spirits that when we left the Academy he insisted on +our having a hansom and going to look at two empty houses that he had +seen advertised in one of the newspapers. One of the houses was at +Haverstock Hill, the other at Camden Town suburbs of London, both of +them, hitherto known to me only by name. + +"The rent of both houses was the same--sixty pounds a year. I told +Clement that I thought we could do with a house at a much less rent +than that, and begged of him not to go beyond his means." + +"Gracious me, Cecilia, how could you?" + +"Oh, it was great fun. After seeing the houses we drove to a furniture +emporium, and there, after due deliberation, I chose a pattern for our +drawing-room suite: a pale-blue figured silk, with a narrow black +stripe running through it, my dear Mora, and the price twenty-five +guineas." + +"How could you let Mr. Fildew go to such an expense?" + +"Shall I not make it up to him a thousandfold one of these days? The +day before yesterday we bought a lot more things--carpets, china, what +not. I can't tell you how delightful it is to go about in this way, +and not finally fix on anything till you feel sure that you can really +afford it. Poor people must value their homes far more than rich +people can. They have had to work and think and contrive, and get +their things together an article or two at a time, as they could spare +the money. We well-to-do people give _carte blanche_ to a firm, and +our mansion is fitted up from garret to basement almost without our +having a voice in the matter. In many ways it is better to be poor +than rich, and this is one of them." + +"What a pity it is, my dear Cis, that Providence did not make you a +governess at sixty guineas a year, or a curate's wife at a hundred and +fifty." + +"In either case I should have led a much more useful existence than I +do now. Which reminds me that as I was parting from Clement last +evening he put a sealed envelope into my hands, with a request that I +would not open it till I was alone. You would never guess what was +inside: a twenty-pound note towards my wedding outfit." + +"Oh, Cecilia!" + +"Of course there were a few words with it. He said he felt sure that +out of my small income it was impossible for me to have saved more +than a trifle, and, as I had no parents, to fall back upon, would I +make him happy by accepting the enclosure to buy my wedding dress +with. What a dear fellow he is! I hope to be able to keep that note +unchanged as long as I live. Perhaps you think I ought not to have +accepted it?" + +"I hardly know what to think," answered Miss Browne. "Certainly, to +accept money, even from the gentleman to whom one is engaged, seems--" + +"Very shocking, does it not, to us, with our petty conventional +notions? If the money were offered in the shape of a bracelet, that +would make all the difference. But here am I, a poor girl about to be +married, who cannot afford to buy her wedding-gown. My sweetheart +offers me money to buy it with. Am I to be so nonsensical, so stuffed +up with silly pride, as to refuse his offer, and say, 'If you can't +marry me in my old dress, you sha'n't marry me at all'? I think I have +acted as a sensible girl would act under such circumstances. Anyhow, I +mean to keep that note." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. +PALLIDA MORS. + + +As Lord Loughton became more familiarized with his fresh mode of life, +and as the novelty which waits upon all things new gradually wore +itself away, there came times and seasons when he was at a loss how to +get through the day with that degree of satisfaction to himself which, +as an elderly man of the world, he thought he had a right to expect. +He found the morning hours--say, from ten till four--hang the most +heavily on his hands. Some men would have stayed in bed till noon, +have lounged over breakfast till two o'clock, and have made their +cigar and newspaper last them well on into the afternoon. But the earl +had never been used to lying late in bed, and he felt no inclination +to begin the practice now. Besides which, that ever-increasing +tendency to corpulence had to be fought against in various ways. His +medical adviser told him that, in addition to the riding exercise +which he took, he ought to take more exercise on foot. But the earl +detested walking along the dull country roads. To have them, and them +alone, to ride and drive on was bad enough, while everybody else was +enjoying the delights of town, but to be condemned to trudge along +them on foot, as though he were a pedlar or a tramp, was more than he +was prepared to endure. He would have given much to be able to go up +to London for a few weeks during the season, and take up that position +in society to which his rank entitled him. But he durst not venture on +a step so hazardous. Too many people in London knew him as Mr. Fildew +to allow of its being safe for him to appear there as Lord Loughton. +Perhaps one of the first people whom he might chance to meet in the +Row or in Piccadilly would be his own son. He knew well that if the +faintest suspicion of his having a son, or even of his being married, +were to reach the ears of the dowager countess, he might say farewell +forever to his twelve hundred a year. Evidently the game was not worth +the candle. Evidently the risk he would run by such a step was far too +great to be rashly incurred. His periodical journeys to London to see +his wife were another thing. They could be made without much risk of +discovery. He arrived at dusk and departed at dusk, and hardly stirred +out of doors during his stay. + +The earl was not a reading man. Sometimes on a Sunday he would skim +through a few pages of _Blackwood_ or _The Quarterly_ (they were good, +old-fashioned periodicals to have lying about when anybody called), +till drowsiness crept over him, and the thread of what he had been +reading became entangled in the webs of sleep. But on weekdays he +rarely read anything except the _Times_. Of that he was a diligent +student, his maxim being that a man may pick enough out of his +newspaper to enable him to hold his own in almost any company. Most +people said, "What a well-informed man the Earl of Loughton seems to +be." It was simply that he had the knack of presenting other people's +ideas from his own point of view, and thereby giving them a gloss of +originality which only one person here or there was clever enough to +see through. But he seldom originated ideas of his own. + +But even when the _Times_ had been conscientiously waded through, +several hours were still left before dinner. He could not go out every +day riding on Mr. Larkins's hack, or driving about the country with +Miss Tebbuts and the young ladies. The attractions of Brimley were of +a very limited character, and the nearest town of any consequence was +a dozen miles away. Now and then there was a flower-show, or a picnic, +or an archery meeting, to break the monotony of country life but +such excitements were few and far between. Sometimes the earl, in +dressing-gown and smoking-cap, would potter about his garden for an +hour or two, and simulate an interest he was far from feeling in the +prospects of his wall-fruit or the progress of his marrowfats. Oh, for +the glories of Piccadilly or Regent Street, on a warm spring +afternoon! The life, the brightness, the gay shops, the well-watered +streets, the sunny pavement, the ever-changing panorama--with a +sovereign in one's pocket, and no social obligations to deter one from +slaking one's thirst as often as one might feel inclined to do so! + +When once the time to dress for dinner was reached the earl was +himself again. He rarely dined at home more than once or twice a week. +When such a contingency did happen, he generally walked into the town, +and found his way in the course of the evening to the billiard-room at +the George. It was a private subscription table, but his lordship was +always made welcome. It was not every day that the small gentry of +Brimley had the privilege of playing billiards with an earl, and such +opportunities were made the most of. Indeed, they never thought of +begrudging their half-crowns, of which his lordship generally took +half a pocketful back home with him, for he was rather a fine player +when he chose to put forth his strength, and none of the Brimley +amateurs were a match for him. + +Still, life at Laurel Cottage sometimes grew rather monotonous, as, +indeed, it well might do to a man who had been a confirmed _flâneur_ +for years. Often of a night the earl longed for the jolly company of +the Brown Bear. As a rule the Brimley magnates were intensely sedate +and decorous, whereas the earl had Bohemian proclivities which not +even the gray hairs of middle life had power to eradicate. A jorum of +toddy and a long pipe, with a congenial companion, had far more +attractions for him than the Clicquot and hot-house fruit of +smug-faced respectability. Alas! in all Brimley he could find no +companion who would say Bo to his goose--no one who would forget that +there were such people as earls, who, if needs were, would contradict +him to his face, and to whom such phrases as "Yes, my lord," and "No, +my lord," were absolutely unknown. + +One morning, while Lord Loughton was dawdling over his breakfast, a +brougham drove up to Laurel Cottage, from which three gentlemen +alighted. Only one of the three proved to be known to the earl. He was +a certain Mr. Wingfield, a retired merchant of ample means, whom he +had met once or twice at dinner. Mr. Wingfield, after introducing his +two companions, proceeded to state the object of his visit, which was +neither more nor less than to solicit his lordship to become chairman +of the new line of railway between Brimley and Highcliffe. The line +was near completion, and the opening was to take place some time in +July. "Our late chairman died last week," said Mr. Wingfield, "and we +want a good name to fill up the vacancy." + +"But I know nothing whatever about rail management," urged the earl. + +"That's of no consequence whatever," answered Mr. Wingfield. "_We_ +understand it, and I am the vice-chairman, so that your lordship will +be well supported. At present we meet for two hours twice a week. +After each meeting we have luncheon. The chairman's honorarium, as +fixed at present, is two hundred guineas a year." + +"But before accepting such a position would it not be requisite that I +should qualify myself by holding a certain number of shares in the +company?" + +"If your lordship will leave that little matter to me and my +colleagues, we will take steps to have you duly qualified." + +"In that case you may make use of my name in any way you think +proper." + +The earl took to his new duties _con amore_. His two visits per week +to the Brimley board-room enabled him to get through a couple of +mornings very pleasantly without interfering with the after-part of +the day. Then the luncheon with which each meeting broke up was by no +means to be despised. More than all, the check for a hundred guineas, +which was to come to him every half-year, would form a very welcome +addition to his limited income. + +His position as chairman of the railway board brought Lord Loughton +into contact with a number of well-to-do people, connected more or +less with trade, who thought it a great thing to be hand-and-glove +with an earl. His lordship was always affable to men who gave good +dinners, and the consequence was that he was now less at home than +ever. Mr. Wingfield had a brother in the City who was well known as a +promoter and launcher of new companies. Before long an offer was made +to the earl to become chairman to two new schemes that were on the eve +of being floated. The duties were light--to meet the board twice a +month for a couple of hours--the honorarium liberal, and the liability +in case of disaster next to nothing. The earl closed with the offer at +once. It is true that his visits to the City would involve a certain +degree of risk, but he was quite prepared to face it. Even if some old +acquaintances should chance to meet him as he was being whirled past +them in a cab, it did not of necessity follow that they should know +him as any other than Mr. Fildew. And then, as Wingfield had assured +him more than once, his connection with the City was sure to bring +under his notice some of the "good things" that were always going +about on the quiet, to participate in which the leverage of a little +capital was all that was needed. That capital he was determined by +hook or by crook to obtain. Old as he was, there was still time for +him to lay the foundation of an ample fortune before he died. Clem +should be no pauper peer, dependent on the bounty of relatives for his +daily bread. + +These golden dreams were interrupted for a time by the news of his +wife's serious illness, and the necessity for his immediate presence +in London. The letter conveying the news had been lying for three days +at the Shallowford post-office when he called there. He hurried off at +once, but when he reached Soho be found that had he stayed away +another day he would probably have been too late. + +"Why, Kitty, my dear, what is this?" he said, as he stooped over the +bed and kissed his wife's white face. There was a tremor in his voice +that sounded as strange to himself as it could possibly have done to +any one else. Now that the end was so near, old chords, the existence +of which he had forgotten, began to vibrate again in his heart; +countless memories burst through the crust of years, and bloomed again +for a little while with the fragrance of long ago. Now that his +treasure was about to be taken from him he began to realize its value +as he had never realized it before. + +"This means, John, dear, that my summons to go has come at last--the +summons I have waited for, oh! so wearily." She pressed his hand to +her lips and then nestled it softly against her cheek. + +"It's these confounded east winds," said the earl, huskily. "They are +enough to lay anybody by the heels. When the warm weather sets in +you'll soon be all right again." + +"Not in this world, darling. Perhaps in the next. I began to be afraid +that you would not be here in time for me to see you," she added, +presently. "It would have seemed very hard to die and you not by my +side." + +"I came as soon as the letter reached me. I--I had been from home, and +the letter was waiting for me on my return." + +"I knew that you would come, dear, as soon as possible, and now that +you are here I am quite happy. I told Moggy to put a steak on the fire +the moment she heard you knock. I am sure you must be hungry after +your long journey." + +Later on in the evening, when they were alone, the sick woman +said to her husband--and by this time her voice was very weak and +uncertain--"I have been thinking a great deal about our wedding-day +this afternoon. Why, I cannot tell. When I was lying half asleep just +now, every little incident came back to me as freshly as though they +only dated from yesterday, even to the smell of the musk-roses on the +breakfast-table. And then I remembered something that I have hardly +thought of for years. I remembered that your name is not John Fildew, +but John Marmaduke Lorrimore. You told me never to mention that name +to any one, and I never have--not even to Clement. You told me never +to ask you any questions about it, and I never have. But you told me +also that some day, and of your own accord, you would reveal to me the +reasons that had compelled you to change your name. A woman's +curiosity is one of the last things to leave her. It is not too late, +dear, to tell me now." + +The earl mused for a moment. The doctor had told him that it was quite +impossible for his wife to live, consequently no valid reason existed +why he should not tell her everything. "I changed my name," he said, +"because when I was young and foolish I did something that disgraced +both my friends and myself. Not a crime, mind you; in fact, nothing +more heinous than incurring debts of honor which I was totally unable +to meet. That was bad enough in all conscience, but I was young and +sensitive in those days, and probably felt things more keenly than I +should now. Anyhow, I thought that in a new country, and under a new +name, I could bury the past, and perhaps do wonders in the future. +Then I met you, dear, and you know the rest. Only I have never done +the wonders I intended to do." + +"You have been the best and dearest husband in the world." The earl +winced, and shook his head in mild dissent. "But what a pity that +after all these years you are not able to resume your own proper name +and station in the world." + +"I hope to be able to do so before long. Death has made strange havoc +among the Lorrimores of late years, and your husband is now the head +of the family." + +"I have always said that you were a gentleman bred and born." + +"And you are a lady, Kitty--if not by birth at least by merit and by +rank. If the world knew you by your proper title it would call you +Countess of Loughton." + +The sick woman stared at her husband as though unable to take in the +meaning of his words. "I am the Earl of Loughton, Kitty, and you are +my countess," he said. "The thing is simple enough." + +"You tell me this and I am dying!" she said, after a minute's silence. +"It is of little use to tell me now." + +"The time was not ripe for you to be told before. Nor has the time yet +come to tell it to the world." + +"And Clement?" + +"He knows nothing, and at present it would not be wise to tell him. It +would only unsettle his mind and do him harm instead of good. When the +proper time comes he will be told everything. At present I am working +both for his interests and my own. A pretty thing it would be thought +that Lord Shoreham, the son of the Earl of Loughton, should have to +paint pictures for his bread and cheese! He had far better go on +painting them as 'Clement Fildew' till he can afford to give up +painting altogether." + +"My dear boy a lord! It seems all a strange, foolish dream." + +"It is a very simple reality. Clement is Lord Shoreham as surely as I +am sitting by your side. But of this he must know nothing for some +time to come." + +"And I am Countess of Loughton! How wonderful it seems! But I could +not have loved you more than I have had I known this all along. +Perhaps I should not have loved you so much. God is good, and he +orders everything for the best. I have been very happy, and the queen +on her throne can't be more than that." + +She closed her eyes and lay silent a little while, thinking over what +she had just heard. "John, dear," she said after a time, "if you ever +put a stone over my grave, will you say on it, 'Here lies Catharine, +Countess of Loughton,' or will you say, 'Here lies Kitty, wife of John +Fildew'?" + +"Why do you talk of such things? I hope and trust you will be with us +for many a day to come." + +"You know better than that, dear. My time is very short how. But I +think I should like to have my real name on my tombstone--if my real +name is what you tell me." + +"It is your real name, and everything shall be as you wish." + +A smile of satisfaction crept over the dying woman's face. "I think I +can sleep a little now," she said, "and you must be tired, sitting +here so long. There's your Turkish pipe in the cupboard downstairs, +and I told Moggy to have some of your favorite mixture in readiness +for you." + +Mrs. Fildew died the following afternoon. She sank into a sleep as +calm as that of an infant, and did not wake again. Her husband and son +were with her at the last. Cecilia had seen her two days before the +earl's arrival. "It is not half such a trouble to leave my boy as I +thought it would be," Mrs. Fildew said to her. "I know that you and he +love each other, and that I leave him in the best of hands. Don't +worry your mind about the housekeeping, dear--you will have servants +to do all that for you. Clement will like to see you nicely dressed +when he comes home. Those pretty hands were never made to be spoiled +by pickles and preserves." + +The earl buried his wife under the name she had so long been known by. +To have made use of any other would have led to questions which as yet +he was not prepared to meet. "By and by, when I put up the tombstone, +the world shall know her by her proper name and title, but not +now--not now." To his son's surprise he bought a private lot in one of +the cemeteries, and had an expensive bricked grave made. The cost +seemed to be no object to him. Clem wondered, but said nothing. On the +evening of the day after the funeral the earl bade farewell to his son +for a little while, and went back to Laurel Cottage. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. +GOLDEN DREAMS. + + +It was impossible for Lord Loughton to wear deep mourning for his wife +without provoking sundry inconvenient inquiries, so he simply put a +narrow band round his hat, and wore gloves stitched with black. "I've +lost an old and very dear friend," he remarked, incidentally, here and +there. "Some one I knew when I was abroad many years ago. Quite cut me +up to hear that he was gone." + +Over the solitary pipe in which he indulged the last thing before +going to bed he often found his thoughts wandering off in the +direction of Miss Tebbuts. Here were twenty thousand pounds ready to +drop into his hands for, without self-flattery, in which, to do him +justice, he rarely indulged, he fully believed that if he were to ask +the lady to become Countess of Loughton he need not fear a refusal. It +was true, he had promised Flicker that in consideration of his +augmented income all thoughts of matrimony should be banished from his +mind. But circumstances when he made that promise were different with +him from what they were now, and, in any case, such a promise could +hardly be held to be finally binding. Should he decide to become a +Benedick once more, he would give due notice to the countess. +Everything should be fair and above-board. He often chuckled to +himself when he tried to picture the dismay and rage with which the +dowager would greet any notice of his impending marriage. And yet the +real fun of the affair lay, not in the fact of his contracting a +second marriage, but in the much more significant fact of his having a +grown-up son and heir ready to his hand. What the dowager would say +and do in case it ever came to her ears that there was already in +existence a strapping young man of five feet eleven inches who was +entitled to call himself Lord Shoreham if he only knew it, was more +than even the earl could imagine. The news would almost be enough to +kill her. He would be amply revenged on her for all her slights and +insults one of these days. + +Then again, provided he made up his mind to go on with his matrimonial +scheme, it would hardly do for either Miss Tebbuts or her friends to +be made aware of the existence of Clement. Were that fact to come to +their ears, the twenty thousand pounds might not so readily drop into +his hands. After the marriage it would not matter how soon he +introduced his son to them. They might then digest their +disappointment as they best could. Their feelings in the matter would +be nothing to him. + +His frequent conversations with money-making Mr. Wingfield tended more +than anything else to direct his thoughts into the channel of +matrimony. "With five thousand to start with, you ought to be worth +fifty thousand at the end of five years," was one of the several +maxims with which Mr. Wingfield was in the habit of making our +impecunious peer's mouth water. As a sort of corollary to the doctrine +he was in the habit of preaching, the merchant on one occasion lent +the earl three hundred pounds in order that the latter might +participate, to an infinitesimal extent, in one of the many "good +things" that seemed as plentiful as blackberries in those halcyon days +of unlimited confidence. At the end of two months the earl sold out, +by the advice of his friend, realizing thereby, on his original +investment of three hundred pounds, a clear profit of as much more. It +was no wonder that the earl began to court his City friends more and +more, and that he came to find his most interesting reading in the +money articles of his favorite newspaper. + +One grain of justice we must do him. In all his dreams of wealth and +prosperity to come he had Clement's future at heart almost as much as +his own. It should not be his fault if Clement did not come into +fortune as well as title. In so far he was unselfish, and no farther. +If only Clem would supplement his father's efforts by making a rich +marriage, then would all be well. The earldom of Loughton, in the +hands of the junior branch of the family, might ultimately shine with +a lustre equal to that which had emanated from it in days gone by. + +It was during the time these thoughts were fermenting in his mind that +the earl was surprised by a visit from Miss Collumpton and Mr. +Slingsby Boscombe. They had been summoned to Ringwood by the countess, +who was anxious to see for herself how matters were progressing with +the two young people. When the present detestable individual who held +the title should die--and surely Providence would be considerate +enough to remove him before long--then Slingsby would be Earl of +Loughton, and, what with his own fortune and that of Cecilia, he would +be in a position to make a very respectable figure as a nobleman. The +marriage of these two was the last pet scheme of the dowager's life, +but we know already what small likelihood there was of its fulfilment. +Cecilia and Slingsby, knowing for what purpose they had been summoned +to Ringwood, agreed between themselves, before their interview with +the countess, what each of them should say. + +Keen-sighted as the old lady usually was, they contrived to hoodwink +her most effectually. They walked and talked and sat together, and +seemed full of private confidences with each other. When the countess +spoke about Slingsby to Cecilia, the latter said, with a smile, "Yes, +we are very good friends, are we not? I always did like Slingsby." + +"But it's a question of something more than liking. You know what I +mean?" + +"Quite well, aunt." + +"You know how I have set my heart on this matter. I hope you are not +going to disappoint me." + +"As I said before, aunt, Slingsby and I are the best of friends. We +understand each other thoroughly; is not that enough?" + +"I suppose I must make it so. But young people nowadays do their +courting so frigidly that one can never tell when they are in earnest +and when they are not." + +It was not without certain qualms of conscience that Cecilia consented +to deceive her aunt thus. It was only at Slingsby's earnest entreaty +that she agreed to do so. He had committed the imprudence of a secret +marriage, and was most anxious that his father should have no +suspicion of the fact, otherwise his allowance would be stopped, and +his wife and himself reduced for a couple of years to come to a +condition of genteel pauperism. + +When Cecilia and Slingsby set out from Ringwood on the morning of +their visit to Laurel Cottage they had no intention of adventuring so +far. It was only when they had been riding for an hour that Slingsby +said, "Now that we have come so far we may as well go on to Brimley +and hunt up his lordship. What say you, Cis?" + +"I should like it of all things. Only, we have never been introduced +to him." + +"I don't suppose he will mind that in the least. We are his relations, +and it's only right that we should know each other." + +"Then let us go. But the dowager will be dreadfully annoyed if she +hears of it." + +"Who's to tell her? Not you or I." + +The earl received them with much _empressement_, and made them stay to +luncheon. Slingsby was greatly taken with him; the earl had always had +a happy knack of making himself agreeable to young men. To Cecilia he +was an enigma. There was about him a certain indefinable something +which seemed familiar to her. It was not his features, nor his voice, +nor his walk, nor anything on which she could definitely fix, that put +her in mind of some other person whom she had at some time met. It +seemed to her rather as if she must have known the earl when she was a +very little girl--though that was an impossibility--or else that she +must have met him in some previous state of existence, and have not +quite forgotten him in this. + +"Surely these young people must abound with generous instincts," said +the earl to himself. "It would be a pity not to develop and encourage +them." So he showed them round the garden, which was really a charming +little spot, and came to the stable and coach-house last of all. "I +have no use for these," said the earl, with a doleful shake of his +head. "I am thinking of advertising them as being to let." + +"But is not your lordship fond of riding and driving?" + +"Yes; no one more so. But then, I am a poor man. Even a hack for +riding is a luxury beyond my reach." + +A meaning look passed between Cecilia and Slingsby, which the earl's +quick eyes did not fail to note. + +About a fortnight later the railway people at Brimley advised the earl +that a brougham and two horses had arrived at the station, and awaited +his orders there. The next post brought a pretty little note from +Cecilia, in which she requested, on the part of herself and Mr. +Boscombe, the earl's acceptance of a brougham and horse, together with +a cob for riding. The earl smiled grimly as he read the note. "Two +good children--very," he muttered. "I suppose they intend to make a +match of it. I hope they won't regret their generosity when they find +out that there is such a person in existence as Clement Fildew +Lorrimore, otherwise Lord Shoreham." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. +UP A LADDER. + + +Now that his income had been doubled, now that he could afford to +keep his brougham, now that his position as chairman of the Brimley +Railroad Company, and his seats at the two other boards in London, +enabled him to fill up his time with so much pleasure and profit to +himself, it might reasonably have been expected that the Earl of +Loughton would settle down into the comfortably padded groove in which +he found himself, and tempt fortune no more. But such was not the +case. There was about him a restlessness of disposition, an uneasy +longing for something more than the present could give him, however +sunny that present might be. And yet, strange to say, this +restlessness and this longing had only developed themselves in him of +late. In his old days of poverty all ambition had been crushed out of +him by the hopelessness of his condition. The prospect of any change +for the better had seemed so infinitesimal that he had long ago made +up his mind, with a sort of dogged despair, to live and die, unknowing +and unknown, as plain John Fildew, of Hayfield Street, W. C. + +But now, as if by a touch of a necromancer's wand, everything had been +changed, and that change had called into existence hopes and wishes +undreamed of before. A golden mirage glittered forever before his +eyes. Now that he had come to mix among financial circles, he saw +men on every side of him in the process of coining fortunes, and +either founding families for themselves, or allying themselves by +marriage--giving gold in exchange for position--to families already +made. What was a paltry twelve hundred a year for a man of his rank to +live on and keep up his station in the eyes of the world?--and even +that would die with him. His son would have a barren title, indeed, +unless he should be able to coax some heiress into becoming his wife. +Instead of resting satisfied with twelve hundred a year, it seemed to +the earl that he might just as well be in receipt of ten thousand a +year. A few lucky speculations would do that for him. But in order to +avail himself fully of such speculative opportunities he must have a +certain leverage of capital to work with; and was there not a splendid +lever ready to his hand in Miss Tebbuts's twenty thousand pounds? His +friend Wingfield would turn twenty thousand pounds into a hundred +thousand in a very short space of time. Why should not he, Lord +Loughton, do the same--with Wingfield's help? + +Meanwhile the railway was rapidly approaching completion, and the +opening-day was already fixed. Every morning brought the earl a number +of applications for appointments of various kinds. The labor of +adjudicating on the merits of the different candidates was one that +suited him exactly. The power of patronage is sweet to all men, and +the earl was no exception to the rule. His popularity grew daily. The +new hotel that was being built near the station was to be called The +Loughton Arms, and the new street was to be Lorrimore Road, while the +joint names, John Marmaduke, became quite common sponsorial +appellations among the infantile population of Brimley. When his +lordship rode slowly through the town to his office at the +railway-station, bows and smiles greeted him on every side. Everybody +knew him even the lads in the streets used to shout to each other, as +soon as they caught sight of him, "Here comes the earl." + +At length came the day appointed for the government inspector to go +over the line. A week later brought the opening-day. The ceremony +differed in nowise from that in vogue on various occasions of a +similar kind. The directors and their friends, the latter consisting +of several county magnates, with two or three M.P.'s, and their wives +and daughters, travelled over the line by the first train--a special +one--and after that the general public came with a rush. The stations +at Brimley and Highcliffe were gayly decorated, and enlivened by the +strains of two brass bands. There was a _déjeuner_ at Highcliffe, and +a dinner at the George at Brimley later on. + +After dinner some of the gentlemen, of whom Lord Loughton was one, +sat rather late over their wine, so that it was close upon midnight +before they finally broke up. Their carriages were waiting for them at +the door, the earl's brougham among the number. Just as they were +lighting a last cigar on the steps of the hotel, and wishing each +other goodnight, they were struck by a sudden ruddy glare in the sky +no great distance away, and next minute a man rushed from a narrow +turning close by, crying "Fire! fire!" at the top of his voice. + +"Let us go and see the fire," said Captain Van Loo, on whom the +champagne had not been without its effect. + +The earl, who was probably the most sober of the party, and who had +seen many big fires in London in his time, was far more inclined for +going home to bed than for going anywhere else at that untimely hour; +but Mr. Plume, the great contractor, had already taken one of his arms +and Van Loo the other, and as the rest of the gentlemen seemed +desirous of going, the earl gave way and went with them, their +broughams being left in front of the hotel. + +The gentlemen made rather a noisy party, but were not so far gone as +not to know what they were about. Following the flying feet of the +ever-growing crowd, they found themselves in a few minutes in one of +the lowest streets of the town, and close to the burning house. A +number of police were already there--Brimley could only boast about a +dozen men all told--together with the town engine, which was too small +to be of any real service in an emergency like the present one. + +The sergeant on duty, recognizing the earl and his friends, made way +for them to pass into the inner ring, volunteering at the same time +the information that the burning house had been let out in floors to +different families, that a woman who took in mangling had rented the +ground floor, and that it was in one of her rooms that the fire had +originated. That the whole house was doomed any one could see at a +glance; indeed, the two lower floors were partly burned out already, +and every minute the exultant flames were climbing higher. It was a +house of four or five stories, and had evidently at one time been +inhabited by well-to-do people. + +"Another half-hour and the roof will go," said Mr. Plume, regarding +the affair from a contractor's point of view. "Every misfortune brings +a blessing in its train. This place will have to be rebuilt by +somebody, and just now trade is anything but lively." + +"I suppose there's no fear, constable, of any one having been left +inside the house?" queried the earl. + +"Not much fear of that, my lord; the first thing we did after the +alarm was to rouse the people and get them all out." + +Van Loo passed his cigar-case round. "Almost as good as a firework +night at the Palace," he remarked. "Another bottle or two of Heidsieck +would improve the occasion vastly." + +"What squirts the fire-engines are in these provincial towns," said +Mr. Wingfield. "When once the flames get fairly hold they seem of no +use whatever." + +Flames and smoke were now issuing from all the windows except those of +the top story, which peered out, like two black and sullen eyes, +heedless of everything that was happening below. + +Suddenly a woman, who had made her way through the crowd by main +force, appeared on the scene. Haggard and wild-eyed, with streaming +hair, torn shawl, and bedraggled gown, she fell on her knees before +the constable, and, seizing him by the arm, cried, in a voice that was +hoarse with agony: "My child--where's my child? Has anybody seen her? +Has anybody got her out of the burning house? Oh, sir, tell me where +is she!" + +"How old was your child, and in which room was she sleeping?" asked +the policeman. + +"She's three years old, and she was in bed in the top back room. Oh, +sir, do tell me where she is!" + +The constable called to another one, and the two held a brief +conference in whispers. Then, turning to the woman, he said, "No such +child as the one you speak of was found in the house. Are you sure she +was there?" + +"Sure! Good heavens! didn't I put her to bed with my own hands at +eight o'clock, and the darling never wakes till morning! As soon as my +little one was in bed I set off for my sister's at the other end of +the town, who's ill, and there I've been ever since. Oh, sir, I must +have my child! God has taken them all from me but her. He can't intend +that she should be burned to death!" + +The sergeant whispered to his companion again, who ran off to another +group of policemen a little distance away, but only to return next +minute, bringing word that no such child had been rescued from the +burning tenement. Meanwhile word had run through the crowd that Dinah +King's little girl was still in the house. The news thrilled all there +as if they had one pulse and one heart. One sharp-witted fellow, +calling to his friends, ran in search of a ladder. Fortunately he had +not far to go. In a very few minutes the ladder, borne on a dozen +stalwart shoulders, pierced the crowd, and was reared on end so that +its top rested against the sill of one of the upper windows. From the +windows in a line below that one came long, flickering tongues of +flame which strove to lick the ladder and wrap round its rungs as if +they would fain claim it also as their prey. The lower floor had +fallen in by this time, and the interior was like a glowing furnace, +but the strong beams of the upper stories still held their own, +although the flooring here and there was burned through, and thin +snakes of flame were coiling round the doors and window-sills. + +Now that the ladder was in position there was a moment's hesitation +among the little crowd at the foot of it. In order to reach the +topmost window it was necessary to pass the two lower ones, which were +as open mouths to the furnace inside. "Let me have a try," said one of +the firemen, and next moment he was climbing the ladder with nimble +feet. Past the two windows he went without pause, although the heat +must have been all but unbearable, and was quickly perched on the sill +of the upper window and breaking away the framework with his axe. Then +from the throbbing crowd came a wild cheer of encouragement. But the +moment the framework was broken away dense volumes of black smoke came +swirling out, and it was then seen how fallacious was the hope that +the fire had not yet made its way as far as the upper rooms. Durham, +the fireman, plunged into the thick smoke, but only to struggle back +to the window next minute, blinded and half stifled. Another fireman +sprang to the assistance of his mate, and climbed the ladder like a +lamplighter. Again a ringing cheer burst from the crowd. As soon as +the second man had joined the first they disappeared together inside +the room. A brief, breathless interval, and then, as the smoke cleared +away a little, the two men could again be seen standing at the +window--but without the child. + +"The staircase is on fire and we can do nothing," one of them shouted. + +In the silence that followed the crackling of the burning rafters +could plainly be heard. + +The mother had been on her knees all this time, her fingers pressed to +her eyes, praying audibly to Heaven to give her back her little one. +She now sprang to her feet and rushed to the foot of the ladder. "Let +me go!" she cried. "The fire sha'n't keep me back! She's the only one +I've left, and I can't lose her." + +It was evident that the woman was half distraught. Up the ladder she +would have gone had not strong arms held her back. + +"It's no use, mistress, not a bit," said the kindly sergeant. "If they +two can't reach the child nobody can. The poor thing's out of its +suffering by this time." + +"No--no--no!" cried the woman, passionately. "The fire hasn't +reached the little room at the back yet. My pretty one's waiting +there--waiting for her mother to fetch her, and--O my God!--you won't +let me go!" + +From the midst of the little crowd of gentlemen quietly smoking their +cigars Lord Loughton stepped forth and walked to the foot of the +ladder. "What-are you going to do, my lord?" asked Mr. Wingfield, +anxiously. + +"I am going to see for myself whether the child cannot be got at," +answered the earl, as he proceeded to turn up the collar of his +overcoat and to fix his glass in his eye. + +"But it's madness--sheer madness!" urged Sir James Bence. + +"If anybody could save the child the firemen could," said Mr. Plume. + +"In any case I'll go and see for myself," persisted the earl. + +"Let me beg of you, my lord, to listen to reason," said Mr. Wingfield, +laying a hand on the earl's arm. + +"Only a washerwoman's brat," said Captain Van Loo, with a shrug. "The +world holds plenty more of the same breed." + +The earl said no word more, but began to mount the ladder. Up he +went, slowly and carefully--being no longer so young as he once had +been--past the first window, past the second, with their greedy +tongues of fire that strained forth to sting him. An utter silence +fell upon the crowd. They all knew by this time who the third man was. +Nothing could be heard save the regular beat of the engine and the +subdued roar of the flames. Men's hearts throbbed faster, women's eyes +brimmed with tears. The poor despairing creature down on her knees +gripped fast hold of the policeman's hand as though it were an anchor +of hope, and prayed as she had never prayed before that the brave +gentleman might find her one pet lamb and bring it back alive to its +mother's arms. + +The top was reached at last, and the firemen held out their hands and +helped the new-comer into the room. Of what passed among the three men +those below knew nothing, but a minute after the earl joined the +others they were all lost in the smoke that filled the room. It was a +time of slow agony to the waiting mother below. A thousand eyes were +fixed on the little window. First one dark figure and then another +could be dimly discerned for a moment, as they came for a breath of +air before plunging into the smoke again. + +All at once a great shout rent the sky, and the mother knew without +looking up that her child was saved. "That's him in the middle--that's +the earl with the child in his arms?" she heard those round her say. +"Now he's given the young 'un to Jim Durham, and Jim's coming down +with it first of all. That's the earl following him, and that's Frank +Webber coming last." + +Down they came, one after another, the foremost fireman with the child +in his arms. Nothing could now restrain the mob. They swept away the +thin barrier of police and crowded round the ladder, every one +pressing forward to shake hands with the earl. + +But the earl could not shake bands with any one. While he was still +some five or six feet from the ground a veil seemed to drop suddenly +over his eyes, the strength went out of his hands and knees, and he +fell backward like one dead. A hundred arms were held out to catch +him. Then, and then only, it was seen how terribly he was burned. + +"We must carry him to the George," said Mr. Wingfield, sadly "and let +some one hurry for the best doctor that can be had for love or money." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. +P. P. C. + + +The Earl of Loughton lay dying at the George Hotel, Brimley. They had +not ventured to move him to Laurel Cottage. For the first day or two +some hopes had been entertained of his recovery, but before long +certain symptoms developed themselves which left no room for doubt as +to what the final issue must be. + +The dowager countess was in Scotland when she heard the news. Slingsby +Boscombe read it out aloud to her at the breakfast-table. They were +visiting among some family connections in the Lothians. + +"It was the deed of a hero!" said Slingsby, enthusiastically, as he +laid down the paper. + +"It was the deed of a _ganache_ who would risk his life for the sake +of a nine days' notoriety," snarled the countess. "Read the two last +lines again." + +"The latest reports add that little or no hope seems to be entertained +of the earl's recovery,'" repeated Slingsby, from the newspaper. + +"Then it is quite possible that the earldom may be yours before you +are many days older." + +"Oh, Lady Loughton!" + +"Why profess a regret which I cannot feel? I tell you candidly that I +hope the man won't recover. You and I must start for Brimley by the +next train. Meanwhile, you had better telegraph to Mr. Flicker to meet +us there." + +The countess and Mr. Boscombe reached Brimley Station next forenoon, +where her ladyship's carriage was awaiting their arrival. Slingsby, +never having met the earl but once, had a dread of being looked upon +as an intruder at such a time, and would much rather have stayed away, +but the countess altogether scouted his objections, and insisted upon +taking him with her; and she was certainly too old to venture on such +a journey alone. + +Slingsby wished most heartily that the fire had never happened. So far +as he was concerned, if the earl were to die matters would be brought +to a climax far sooner than was convenient for him, and his secret +marriage be a secret no longer. + +The first thing the countess did, after reaching the hotel, was to +seek a private interview with Doctor Ward. + +"A lamentable affair this, doctor," she said, extending a couple of +frigid fingers, and motioning him to a chair. + +"Very lamentable, indeed, madam." + +"May I ask what the condition of your patient is by this time?" + +The doctor did not answer in words, but gave his eyebrows and +shoulders a simultaneous shrug. + +"Dear me! as bad as that, eh?" The countess intended both her words +and the tone in which they were spoken to be sympathetic, but the look +of satisfaction on her crafty old face altogether belied her +intentions. + +"I presume there will be no objection to my seeing your patient in the +course of the day?" + +"If the earl himself has no objection, madam, I can have none. Indeed, +I may add that any relatives or friends who may be desirous of seeing +his lordship had better be summoned with as little delay as possible." + +"Except myself, his lordship has no near relatives," said the +countess. "I will, of course, stay with him till all is over." + +Her ladyship having disposed of a cutlet and a glass and a half of old +port, and having had a forty minutes' snooze in an easy-chair, sent +word in to the earl that she should like to see him if he were at +liberty to receive her. The earl gave orders that she should be +admitted at once. + +But before this took place Lord Loughton had requested that a telegram +might be despatched to Clement Fildew. It was sent in the name of the +landlord of the hotel, and ran as follows: "You are wanted immediately +at the George Hotel, Brimley, on a matter of life and death. Do not +delay." + +Clement wondered greatly at receiving such a summons, but at once +prepared to obey it. The most likely solution that presented itself to +him was that he was wanted to paint the portrait of some one who was +_in extremis_, so he went prepared accordingly. + +The countess and Mr. Boscombe had reached Brimley about one o'clock. +The train Clement travelled by was timed to reach there about 4.30. As +it happened, Mr. Flicker went down by the same train. + +The countess entered the dying man's room with hushed footsteps, and, +going up to the side of the bed, she gazed down with steel-cold eyes +at the white face upturned to meet her own. Suffering had already done +much to refine and ennoble a face which at one time had lacked little +on the score of manly beauty. The hard, worldly lines had been +smoothed out, and with them had vanished a certain sensuous fulness of +outline which of late years had developed itself more and more. But +when the earl's eyes met those of the countess they lighted up with +somewhat of their old gay, malicious twinkle. + +"I am grieved to find you in this condition," said her ladyship. + +"And I am grieved to be so found. _Mais c'est la fortune de la +guerre_, and it were useless to repine. I regret that I am not in a +condition to entertain your ladyship more becomingly." + +"You do not suffer much pain, I hope?" + +"None whatever now, and that's the deuce of it. While there was pain +there was hope now there is neither, and here I am, left in the +lurch." + +"While there's life one should never give up hoping." + +The earl made a slight grimace. + +"I know, and your ladyship, after your interview with Dr. Ward, +doubtless knows, that there is but one thing now to look forward to. +But I shall not be so ill-mannered as to be long a-dying." + +There was silence for a little while. The countess seated herself on a +chair by the bedside. Presently the dying man said, in a musing sort +of tone, "Perhaps I may fall across Cousin Charley when I get out +yonder. Who knows? If we should meet, I wonder whether he will +recognize me, and whether he will be sorry that he did not lend me +that three thousand pounds which would have made my life such a +different one. In any case I won't forget to give your ladyship's love +to him." + +The countess moved uneasily on her chair. + +"It is possible that your ladyship and I may meet in the Elysian +Fields before long," resumed the earl, speaking in a slow, calm way, +very unusual with him. "Time flies, and none of us grow younger. I +suppose they keep a list of the latest arrivals of persons of +distinction. If they do, I shall not fail to consult it frequently, +and look out for your ladyship's arrival." + +"This is terrible," muttered the countess to herself. "The man is a +perfect heathen." + +After a little while the countess said, "If there is anything I can do +for you--if there are any little wishes or commissions you would like +to have attended to, I need hardly say that you may command me in any +way." + +"You are very kind," said the earl, and then, after a moment's pause, +he added, dryly--"as you have always been. But any little wants or +wishes of mine will naturally receive attention at the hands of my +son, Lord Shoreham." + +"Your son! Lord Shoreham!" gasped the countess, as she rose slowly to +her feet, and drew herself up to her fullest height. + +"Precisely so. I am expecting him every minute. I shall be happy to +introduce him to your ladyship." + +Words would be powerless to express a tithe of what the dowager felt. +For a little while her wrath was speechless because it was too deep +for utterance. Her face looked like that of some fabled witch, with +its expression of concentrated venom and suppressed rage. Her head +began to wag portentously, and in a little while her tongue recovered +from its temporary paralysis. + +"A son, eh?" she cried, and her voice rose to a half-shriek. "So, +then, you die as you have lived--a swindler to the last!" + +"No missiles from your tongue, madam, can reach me now," said the +earl, with an easy smile. "I have got beyond their range. Your +ladyship's cunning has overreached itself and fallen on the other +side." + +At this moment there came a tap at the door, and the head of the nurse +was intruded into the room. "Mr. Clement Fildew to see your lordship," +she said, in appropriately subdued tones. + +"Show him in at once," said the earl, and next moment Clement entered +the room. + +He gazed around for a moment, and then his eyes fell on the pallid, +sunken face on the pillow. "Father! you here!" he cried, striding to +the bedside. "They told me that I was wanted by the Earl of Loughton." + +"I am the Earl of Lough ton, and this"--turning to the countess--"is +my son, Clement Fildew Lorrimore, otherwise Lord Shoreham." + +The countess stared for a moment or two into the young man's bright, +handsome face, and then her hands grasped the bed as if to support +herself. Turning to the earl with a grin of fiendish spite that showed +the whole range of her artificial teeth, she shook a yellow claw in +his face, and then, with many strange noises and gurglings under her +breath, she tottered slowly from the room. + +Ten minutes later her horses' shoes struck fire from the pavement of +the inn yard as they started on their journey to Ringwood, carrying +with them the dowager, Mr. Boscombe, and Mr. Flicker, the latter of +whom, for once, came in for a terrible wigging from her ladyship, for +having omitted to find out that "that wretched creature" had a son in +hiding. + +Father and son remained closeted together for upwards of an hour. Then +Clement came out and summoned the nurse. The earl was tired and wanted +to sleep. Clement took his hat and went for a long walk. Time and +solitude were needed to enable him to familiarize his mind in some +degree with the astounding news that had just been told him. Later in +the day the earl sent for him again. + +"In a tin box," he said, "labelled with my name, and deposited at +Mellish's bank, you will find all the documents necessary to enable +you to prove your identity, which the other side will no doubt compel +you to do before admitting your right to the title. Wellclose has +instructions with respect to my will, and he will bring it in the +morning to be signed and witnessed. It's not much that I have to leave +you, my boy--more's the pity. Merely a few paltry hundreds, the result +of one or two lucky speculations. Yours will be a barren title indeed. +But if you are a wise man you will speedily alter that state of +things. You will give up painting, of course. Who ever heard of an +earl that painted pictures, except it were for amusement? Equally, of +course, you will marry money. The exigencies of your position render +that imperative. There are the two Miss Larkins--good, modest, +ladylike girls, though their father was a pill doctor. Each of them +will have fifteen thousand pounds when she comes of age, and, no +doubt, Orlando would give another five to secure an earl for his +brother-in-law. You might do worse. I'll speak to Wingfield about you +to-morrow, and see whether you can't have the railway chairmanship as +my successor. Marry Fanny Larkins, and stick to Wingfield there's your +programme, and in a dozen years, if you play your cards well, you +ought to be worth a hundred thousand pounds." + +To all this Clement yielded a tacit acquiescence. If his father's last +hours would be rendered more easy by the thought that everything would +be done in accordance with his wishes, why disturb him by urging +anything to the contrary? Soon he would be where the sum of this +world's troubles and anxieties is of less account than the lightest +snowflake that drops through the midnight on the summit of Mont Blanc. + +The earl passed a restless night and was a little light-headed at +times. He seemed better in the morning, and was able to see Mr. +Wellclose for half an hour. During the rest of the day Clement never +left him for more than a minute or two at a time. It was evident that +he was growing weaker with every hour. He ceased to talk much as the +afternoon advanced, but seemed content to lie with closed eyes, but +not asleep, and with one of Clement's hands in his--thinking, who +shall say of what? + +As the autumn daylight was deepening into dusk he fell asleep, and Dr. +Ward, coming in about that time, pronounced it doubtful whether he +would wake again. Nor, indeed, did he, to the extent of being +conscious of where he was, or of recognizing those about him. By and +by his mind began to wander again. At five minutes before twelve he +died. His last faintly murmured words were, "Where's your hand, Kitty? +I can't see you in the dark." + +When the earl's will came to be read it was found that he had left +Clement all he had to leave, with the exception of fifty guineas to +the child whose life he had saved at the expense of his own. + +As soon as the funeral was over--the earl being buried in the same +grave with his wife--Clement went quietly back to his painting. Mr. +Wingfield and Mr. Plume had proffered their services in various ways, +but Clement loved his art too well to be tempted from it into the more +glittering paths of financial speculation. He went back to his studio +as he had left it, plain Clement Fildew. Not even to Tony Macer did he +breathe a word concerning the strange things that had befallen him. He +simply said that his father was dead, and that was all. Not from his +lips should the world ever hear a word respecting that title which he +was told he could now claim, but which he was determined utterly to +abjure. Not even to Cecilia would he speak of it till they should be +husband and wife. Of course, his marriage would now have to be delayed +a little while. Cecilia had gained her point in this matter, but after +a fashion she had never dreamed of. In those hours of trouble the +white wings of her love seemed to fold Clement more closely round than +they had ever done before. + +Mr. Slingsby Boscombe took an early opportunity of putting a number of +questions to Mr. Flicker respecting the earl and his son. Of the +latter individual the lawyer knew absolutely nothing. He had been as +much astounded to hear of the existence of such a person as the +countess had been, and he blamed himself severely for having allowed +himself to be so thoroughly duped by the earl's plausible, off-handed +assumption that he had never been anything but a bachelor. With regard +to the earl he told Slingsby pretty nearly all that he knew. + +One morning, about three weeks after the funeral, Clement was +surprised at his studio by a visit from Mr. Boscombe. The latter, +acting on the information given him by Flicker, had gone in the first +instance to the Brown Bear, and had there ascertained Mr. Fildew's +late address. From Hayfield Street he had been directed to Clement's +lodgings, and from there to the studio. + +"I was awfully sorry not to have met you at Brimley, but the dowager +carried me off by main force," said Slingsby, after shaking hands +heartily with Clem, and condoling with him on his loss. "I hope you +won't for one moment think that I bear you the slightest ill-will on +account of losing the title. I assure you that I care nothing for it. +I take no interest in politics. I am not cut out for shining in +society. All I ask for is a little den in the country, with a big +garden, a horse or two, plenty of fishing, and a few friends whose +tastes are something like my own." + +"I wish with all my heart that the title were yours," said Clem. "It +is a useless acquisition, as far as I am concerned." + +"But you are not going to let it remain in abeyance, I hope?" + +"I certainly am. What has a poor painter to do with titles? My only +ambition is to be known by my works." + +Then, little by little, and with considerable hesitation and +stammering, the real object of Slingsby's visit was made apparent. He +wanted Clement to share with him the income which, as soon as he +should be twenty-five years old, would begin to accrue to him from the +Loughton property, in accordance with the will of the last earl but +one. "Such a will ought never to have been made," said Slingsby, +"unless it had first been ascertained beyond doubt that there was no +direct heir in existence. So, with your permission, we will divide the +money between us, and even then I shall have more than I shall know +what to do with." + +Clement, of course, would agree to no such proposition. The world +should know him only as Clement Fildew, a painter of pictures for his +daily bread. Slingsby was evidently much disappointed. Finding all his +arguments of no avail, he rose to go but, before leaving, he took a +glance round the room at the various canvases, finished and +unfinished, some of them Clem's and some Tony Macer's, that were +either stretched on the easels or hanging on the walls. Over the +fireplace hung a little sketch in crayons of two female heads. "I +ought to know those faces," said Slingsby, as soon as his eyes lighted +on the sketch. "One of them is the likeness of my cousin Cecilia, and +the other that of her friend, Miss Browne." + +"Yes. I had the honor of painting Miss Collumpton's portrait--and also +that of Miss Browne." + +The tell-tale color rushed to Clement's face as he finished speaking. +Slingsby, slow of apprehension in some things, did not fail to notice +this. + +"Here's a romance!" he muttered to himself. "I verily believe our +friend the earl has fallen in love with the stately Mora. Just the +kind of girl to take a painter's eye." + +"If it would not be looked upon as an intrusion," said Slingsby, as he +stood for a moment with Clement's hand in his, "I should like to bring +a couple of friends of mine to-morrow morning to see one or two of the +things you have here." + +"I shall be very pleased to see both you and your friends," said +Clement, heartily. + +A little before noon next day Slingsby, Cecilia, and Mora alighted at +the door of Clement's studio. Slingsby had got the girls to promise +overnight that they would go with him next morning, to see some +pictures, painted by a friend of his, which he was very anxious they +should not miss. Absorbed in conversation, neither Cecilia nor Mora +noticed in which direction they were being driven, and it was not till +the brougham drew up that they discovered where they were. They +interchanged looks of consternation which were not lost on Slingsby. + +"This is Mr. Fildew's studio," said Cecilia. "We have been here +before." + +"I am quite aware of that," answered Slingsby. "But since you were +here last Mr. Fildew has painted a really remarkable picture, which I +am very anxious that you should see." + +After this there was nothing for it but to make their way to the +studio, and leave the result to the chapter of accidents. + +As they entered the room Clement put down his brush and palette and +came forward to greet them. But, before any one else had time to say a +word, Slingsby burst in. "Permit me to have the honor of introducing +you to the Earl of Loughton," he said. "Your lordship has met these +ladies before. My cousin, Miss Collumpton: Miss Browne." + +"The Earl of Loughton!" exclaimed both ladies, in a breath. + +"Miss Collumpton! Miss Browne!" gasped Clement, as he gripped +Slingsby by the arm. "You are mistaken. This is Miss Collumpton, and +this"--taking Cecilia by the hand--"is Miss Browne, whom, now that you +have told her something which I did not intend her to know for a long +time to come, I beg to introduce to you as my promised wife." + +In speechless bewilderment Slingsby stared from one to the other. +Twice he strove to speak, but words failed him. Cecilia and Mora, too, +were like people lost in a maze, while on Clement's face there was a +look of fatuity such as no one had ever seen there before. + +And so the curtain falls, and our little tragi-comedy comes to an end. + + +Clement and Cecilia were married the following spring, when the +woodland ways were all aglow with bursting buds and delicate blooms. +After the wedding they set out for Italy, which Clement had long been +desirous of visiting for artistic purposes. His brush and palette are +still as dear to him as ever they were, and Cecilia does not wish it +otherwise. He still paints under his old name of Clement Fildew, and +in the Republic of Art he is known by no other. + +The Dowager Countess of Loughton shut her doors inexorably against the +new earl and his wife. She vowed that she would never see Cecilia +again, and she kept her word. She died in the winter following her +niece's marriage, and bequeathed all she was possessed of to Mr. +Boscombe. She died in ignorance of Slingsby's marriage, otherwise she +would probably have altered her will at the last moment. + +Slingsby lives the life of a quiet country gentleman, and in it he +finds his happiness. He is lord-lieutenant of his county, but beyond +that he has no ambition, political or otherwise. He has a large family +and a large estate. He is a pattern husband, an excellent father, and +the best angler within twenty miles of his house. He has also some +capital shooting, which his friends do not fail to appreciate. + +Miss Browne succeeded in the ambition of her life: slow, steady +patience such as hers generally does succeed in the long run. A rich +iron-master saw her, approved of her, proposed, and was accepted. Mora +lives at a splendid place in Wales, and is happy in her cold, stately, +unsympathetic way. It is to be hoped that her husband, who is said by +some people to have married her for love, is equally satisfied. + +Tony Macer now writes A.R.A. after his name, and the dignity will lose +nothing at his hands. He is still a bachelor, and likely to remain +one. His house in St. John's Wood is presided over by a lame sister, +and has a crowd of poor relations perpetually hovering round it but +Tony is never so happy as when doing a kindness to some one. He and +"Clement Fildew" are as great chums as ever they were, and smoke many +a "short gun" together over their talk of days gone by, and the +pictures they hope to paint in days to come. Mr. Macer's portrait of +Lady Loughton in last year's Academy was one of the hits of the +season. + + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Barren Title, by T. W. Speight + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57613 *** |