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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59912 ***
+
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+
+THE ROCK AHEAD.
+
+A NOVEL.
+
+BY EDMUND YATES,
+AUTHOR OF "LAND AT LAST," ETC.
+
+
+_COPYRIGHT EDITION._
+
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+LEIPZIG
+BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ.
+1868.
+
+_The Right of  Translation is reserved_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+OF VOLUME II.
+
+
+BOOK THE SECOND (_continued_).
+
+CHAPTER IV. Pursuit.
+         V. Rebuffed.
+        VI. Gertrude speaks.
+       VII. Half-revealed.
+      VIII. L'Homme propose.
+        IX. Dieu dispose.
+
+
+BOOK THE THIRD.
+
+         I. Ægrotat Animo.
+        II. Recognition.
+       III. A Mine is laid.
+        IV. Perplexity.
+         V. An Explosion.
+        VI. The last Chance.
+       VII. Ineluctabile Fatum.
+      VIII. A last Message.
+        IX. Twelve Months after.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ROCK AHEAD.
+
+
+
+BOOK THE SECOND.
+(_Continued_.)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+Pursuit.
+
+
+The clearance effected under the superintendence of the Office of
+Works, for the amalgamation under one roof of the various Courts of
+Law, has carried away a large portion of Clement's Inn, and has
+obliterated the pillared entrance to that dusky but genial home of the
+shady and impecunious. In the days of our story, however, Inn and
+entrance were still there; the former tenanted by human sheep of
+various degrees of blackness--roistering government-office clerks,
+with the Insolvent Court--which at the outset of their career had been
+but a light cloud as small as a man's hand, but which year by year had
+assumed larger and more definite proportions--ever lowering over them;
+third-rate attorneys, who combined law with discount, "doing" little
+bills for ten and twenty pounds with the aforenamed government clerks,
+and carefully putting in an appearance at Somerset House on pay-days
+to receive their money, or the refresher which was to induce the
+withholding of the document--it is always "a document"--until another
+quarter had elapsed; agents for companies of all kinds of limited and
+unlimited liability; newspaper writers obliged to have cheap chambers
+in the neighbourhood of their offices; foreigners representing
+continental firms, and wanting a cheap and quasi-respectable address;
+an actor or two, a score of needy men-about-town, and a few Jews.
+Round the pillars seethed and bubbled a scum of humanity of the
+nastiest kind--vendors of the fried fish and the pickled whelk,
+boot-blackers of abnormally horrid appearance: and emaciated children
+from the neighbouring Clare Market and the adjoining courts, thieves
+and impostors from their infancy, hung about the cab-rank, and added
+to the general filth and squalor. A pleasant Slough of Despond, that
+little spot, now standing bare and cleared, surrounded by the balmy
+Holywell, the virtuous Wych, with Drury Lane running from it at
+right-angles, and the dirtiest corner of the great legal cobweb of
+courts and alleys at its back.
+
+It was a hot morning in July when a cab drew up at the pillars, and
+Gilbert Lloyd jumped out, paid the driver, and made his way into the
+Inn. The exhalations from the barrows of the fried-fish vendors were
+potent, and the change to the faint, sickly perfume of the West-Indian
+pine-apple, tastefully arranged in slices on an open barrow which
+blocked the immediate thoroughfare, was scarcely refreshing. Perhaps
+in July the second-hand garments, even the uniforms, which the Jewish
+gentlemen who deal in such trophies hang up at the entrances of their
+warehouses, are a thought stronger in flavour than in the winter; and
+a fifth-hand portmanteau, which has seen a great deal of service under
+various owners, is apt, under the influence of the sun, to suggest its
+presence. But Gilbert Lloyd paid no heed to anything of this kind; he
+had roughed it too long to care for what came between the wind and his
+nobility; not being a literary photographer on the lookout for
+"character," he paid no attention to any of the surroundings, but went
+straight on, making his way through the jostling crowd until he
+arrived at a door, on the posts of which was painted "Gammidge's
+Private-Inquiry Office, ground-floor." A farther reference to the
+right-hand door of the first-floor discovered a still more elaborate
+placard, announcing that "Nichs. Gammidge, many years in the detective
+police, undertook inquiries of a private and confidential nature;
+agents all over the Continent; strictest secrecy observed; divorce
+cases particularly attended to; ring right-hand bell; and no
+connection with foreign impostors trading on N.G.'s new invention."
+
+Gilbert Lloyd with some difficulty--for in the dingy passage there was
+but little light even on that bright summer morning--read this
+description, and in obedience to its suggestion pulled the right-hand
+bell. The sound of the bell, vibrating loudly, apparently had the
+effect of putting a sudden stop to a muttered conversation of a
+groaning character, which had been dimly audible; the door was opened
+by a spring from the inside, and Gilbert entered. He found himself in
+a low-ceilinged dirty room, with no other furniture than a couple of
+chairs and a very rickety deal table. The windows were covered more
+than half-way up with blinds improvised out of old newspapers; a
+clock with one hand was on the wall; an almanac, much ink-scored and
+pin-marked, stood on the mantel-shelf; and a limp map of Great
+Britain, evidently torn out of an ancient _Bradshaw_, was pinned
+behind the door. At first, on entering, Gilbert Lloyd thought himself
+the sole occupant of the room; but when his eyes had become accustomed
+to the partial darkness, he discovered someone rubbing himself against
+the wall at the opposite end of the room, and apparently trying to
+squeeze himself through into the next house. A little hard looking at
+and careful study made him out a very thin, small, white-faced young
+man, with hollow cheeks, a sharp face, and a keen restless eye. As
+Gilbert's glance fell on him, or rather, as he seemed to feel it fall
+on him, he shook himself with an odd restless motion, as though to
+endeavour to get rid of some spell of fascination, but evidently
+desired to keep as much as possible in the background. The groaning,
+smothered conversation meanwhile had recommenced in another quarter,
+and Gilbert, looking round, noticed a door evidently leading into an
+inner room.
+
+"Is this Mr. Gammidge's office?" he asked abruptly of the white-faced
+young man.
+
+The white-faced young man gave a sudden start, as though a pin had
+been run into him, but never spoke.
+
+"Mr. Gammidge's office--is this Mr. Gammidge's office?" repeated
+Gilbert.
+
+"I--I believe so," said the white-faced young man, taken aback by the
+sharpness of the key in which the inquiry was made. "I have no reason
+to think it's not."
+
+"Where is Mr. Gammidge?"
+
+"Not in!" Wonderfully sharp and pert came this reply; constant lying
+in one groove oils the tongue so splendidly.
+
+"Not in?" echoed Gilbert half savagely.
+
+"Not in! Sure to be in later in the day. Got most important business
+on just now for--"
+
+"Stow it!" The words came not from the white-faced young man, nor from
+Gilbert, but yet they were perfectly audible.
+
+On hearing them, the white-faced young man became silent at once, and
+Gilbert looked round in amazement. The muttered groans became fainter,
+a sound as of clinking money was heard, then as of the opening of a
+door, the farewell of a gruff voice, the departure of a thick pair of
+boots; then one door slammed, and the inner door, which Gilbert had
+noticed on his first entrance, opened, and a man stood in the doorway
+with a beckoning forefinger.
+
+A short stout man in a brown wig, with a fat unintelligent face, with
+heavy pendulous cheeks and a great jowl, and a round stupid chin, but
+with an eye like a beryl--small, bright, and luminous; a man with just
+sufficient intelligence to know that he was considerably overrated,
+and that the best chance for him in keeping up the deception lay in
+affectation of deepest mystery, and in saying as little as possible.
+Mr. Gammidge had been made a hero in certain police-cases during his
+professional career, by two or three "gentlemen of the press," who had
+described a few of his peculiarities--a peculiar roll of his head, a
+sonorous manner of taking snuff, a half-crow of triumph in his throat
+when he thought he saw his way out of a complication--in their various
+organs. Henceforth these peculiarities were his stock-in-trade, and he
+relied upon them for all his great personal effects.
+
+When Gilbert Lloyd obeyed the influence of the beckoning forefinger,
+he passed through the door of communication between the inner and
+outer rooms, and found himself in an apartment smaller and not less
+dingy than that he had left. In the middle of it was a large desk, on
+which were a huge leaden inkstand, a few worn quill-pens, and a very
+inky blotting-pad. Sentinel on one flank stood a big swollen
+Post-office Directory, two years old; sentinel on the other, a stumpy
+manuscript volume in a loose binding, labelled "Cases." The walls
+blossomed with bills offering large sums as rewards for information to
+be given respecting persons who had absconded; and on a disused and
+paralytic green-cloth screen, standing in a helpless attitude close by
+the desk, was pinned a bill, setting forth the Sessions of the Central
+Criminal Court for the year, with the dates on which Mr. Gammidge was
+engaged in any of the trials pending distinguished by a broad cross
+with a black-lead pencil.
+
+As soon as Gilbert Lloyd had entered the room, Mr. Gammidge closed
+the door carefully behind him, and placing himself in front of him,
+indulged him with the peculiar roll of the head, while he took a
+sonorous pinch of snuff, and said in a thick confidential voice, "Now,
+captin?"
+
+"I'm no captain," said Lloyd shortly, "and you don't recollect me;
+though you're ready to swear you do, and though I have employed you
+before this."
+
+Lloyd paused here for a moment; but as Mr. Gammidge merely looked at
+him helplessly, and muttered under his breath something about "such a
+many gents," he went on.
+
+"My name is Gilbert Lloyd. I manage Lord Ticehurst's racing matters
+for him; and last year I employed you to look after one of our boys,
+who we thought was going wrong; do you recollect now?"
+
+"Perfectly," said Mr. Gammidge, brightening. "Boy had been laid hold
+of by a tout from a sporting-paper, who was practisin' on him through
+his father, given to drink, and his sister, on 'oom the tout was
+supposed to be sweet."
+
+"Exactly; well, you found that out clearly enough, and got us all the
+information required. Now I want you again."
+
+"More boys goin' wrong, sir?" asked Mr. Gammidge. "They're the
+out-and-outest young scamps; they're that precocious and knowin'--"
+
+"It's not a boy that I want to know about this time," said Lloyd,
+checking the flow of his companion's eloquence; "it's a woman."
+
+"That's more in my way; three-fourths of my business is connected with
+them. Did you 'appen to take any notice of the young man in that room
+as you came through? He's the best 'nose' in London. Find out
+anything. Lor' bless you, that young man have been in more divorce
+cases than the Serjeant himself. He can hide behind a walking-stick,
+and see through the pipe of a Chubb's latch-key. There's nothing like
+him in London."
+
+"Put him on to my business at once, then. Look at this card." Mr.
+Grammidge produced a large pair of tortoiseshell-rimmed double
+eye-glasses, and proceeded to make an elaborate investigation. "You
+know the name? I thought so. Now, your man must keep account of
+everyone who goes in here by day or night, so long as she's at home;
+and when she goes out he must follow her, and, so far as he can, find
+out who speaks to her, and where. There is a five-pound note to begin
+with. You understand?"
+
+"You may look upon it as good as done, sir," said Mr. Gammidge,
+commencing to make a memorandum of the number and date of the
+bank-note in his pocket-book, "and to let you know at the old
+address?"
+
+"No; when he has anything to tell, drop me a line, and I'll meet him
+here. Good-day."
+
+The white-faced young man, entering fully into his new occupation,
+speedily deserved the encomiastic remarks which had been lavished upon
+him by his principal, and in a short time Mr. Lloyd was furnished with
+full information as to the personal appearance of the various visitors
+at the Bayswater villa, and of the friends whom Miss Lambert was in
+the habit of meeting away from her home. In both these categories
+Gilbert Lloyd found, as he had expected to find, a very accurate
+representation of Miles Challoner. The information, all expected as it
+was, irritated and chafed him; and he gave up a whole day to
+considering how he could best put a stop to the ripening intimacy
+between Miles and Gertrude, or, at all events, weaken it. Finally, he
+decided on paying a visit to Mrs. Bloxam, and seeing whether she could
+not be frightened with a suspicion, perfectly undefined, of something
+horrible and mysterious which would take place if the intimacy were
+permitted to go on unchecked. Accordingly, upon a day when the
+white-faced young man had ascertained that Miss Lambert would be for
+some time absent from home, Mr. Lloyd presented himself at the
+Bayswater villa, and, without sending in his name, followed the
+servant into the room, where Mrs. Bloxam was seated. At first sight of
+the man who had dared in former days to invade the sanctity of her
+sheepfold and carry off one of her pet lambs, the old lady was
+exceedingly indignant, and her first impulse was to order the intruder
+to leave the house; but a moment's reflection convinced her that as he
+yet had the power of being exceedingly dangerous to Gertrude, or, at
+all events, of causing her the greatest annoyance, it would be better
+to temporise. She therefore listened to all Gilbert Lloyd's bland
+assurances that, although there was an unfortunate estrangement
+between his wife and himself, he took the greatest interest in her
+career, and it was purely as a matter of friendship that he had come
+to warn her, through her ablest and best friend, of the danger she
+incurred in forming a certain acquaintance. So well did Mrs. Bloxam
+play her listening part, and so earnest was she in her thanks to her
+informant, that even the _rousé_ turfite was taken in, and went away
+convinced that he had made his _coup_.
+
+A few days afterwards he called again, and this time asked for Miss
+Lambert. The servant said that Miss Lambert was out. For Mrs. Bloxam:
+Mrs. Bloxam was out. Gilbert Lloyd then took out a card and handed it
+to the servant, begging her to give it to her mistress; but the
+servant, just glancing at it, handed it back, saying she had strict
+orders, in case the gentleman bearing that name ever called again, to
+refuse him admittance, and to return his card.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+Rebuffed.
+
+
+The cool determination of Gertrude's conduct, the resolution which did
+not shrink from a proceeding calculated to excite at least observation
+by her servants, took Gilbert Lloyd completely by surprise.
+Concealing, by a desperate effort, the passion of anger which flamed
+up in him, he turned away from the door, and got into the hansom
+awaiting him; but when quite out of sight of the gilded-bronze gates,
+and the miniature plantation of the Bayswater villa, he stopped the
+cab, got out, and pulling his hat down over his brow, walked
+on rapidly, in a mood strange indeed to his calculating and
+self-contained nature.
+
+By what fatality had this woman once more turned up in his life--this
+woman of whom he was well rid, his marriage with whom had been a
+mistake--a failure--and his parting with whom had been the
+commencement of a new and decidedly fortunate era in his life? His
+thoughts were in a whirl, and for a time resisted his attempts to
+reduce them to order and sequence. The physical convulsion of rage
+claimed to have its way first, and had it. He had known that feeling
+many times in his life--the maddening anger which turns the face white
+and the lips livid, which makes the heart beat with suffocating
+throbs, and dims the sight. He knew all about that, and he had to bear
+it now, and to bear it in silence, without the relief of speech, with
+only the aid of solitude. He could not swear at Gertrude now, as he
+had done many a time when annoyance had come to him through her; he
+could not insult, threaten, strike her now; and much of the fury he
+felt was due to the powerlessness which drove him nearly mad, and
+which was his own doing. Ay, that was the worst of it, the least
+endurable part of the wrath which raged within him. This woman, who
+had been in his power, and had been made to experience the full
+significance of her position; who had loved him once, and of whom he
+had wearied, as it was in his nature to weary of any desired object
+when attained,--this woman held him in supreme indifference and
+contempt, and set him at naught without fear or hesitation. In the
+force and irrationality of his anger, he forgot that she was acting
+quite within the letter and the spirit of the convention made between
+them; that he it was who had abandoned its spirit at almost the first
+sight of her, and had now received a humiliating check in endeavouring
+to violate its letter. For a long time his anger was blind, fierce,
+and unreasoning--directed almost as much against himself as against
+Gertrude--his wife! his wife! as he called her a hundred times over,
+in the vain assertion of a position which he had voluntarily
+abdicated, and which he knew, in the bottom of his angry heart--even
+while the anger seethed within it--he would not be prepared to resume,
+were the opportunity afforded him. But as he walked on and on, getting
+by degrees into outlying regions of the far west--almost as little
+known to him as California--the habit of calculation, of arranging his
+thoughts, of (metaphorically) laying his head on the exact process or
+combination which he required--a faculty and habit of which he felt
+the value every day--resumed its sway over him, and he no longer raged
+blindly about what had happened, but set himself to think it out.
+This, then, was a _parti pris_ on the part of Gertrude; this, then,
+was a game in which he was her adversary--with a purpose to gain;
+she--his, with nothing in view but his defeat. Her cards were resolute
+ignoring of his existence; the absolute and inexorable adherence to
+the agreement made between them at Brighton. His cards were persistent
+following and watching of her, which the coincidences of his position
+and the facility with which he could make her circle of acquaintance
+his, added to the exigencies of her professional career, which she
+could not control, however unwelcome they might be, rendered easy of
+playing. The next question was, what end did he propose to himself in
+this sudden revulsion of feeling, this sudden irruption into his
+prosperous and pleasant life of an element which he had hoped,
+intended, and believed to be banished from it for ever? This question
+he could not answer clearly. The mists of anger and jealousy arose
+between him and the outline of his purpose. Was it to undo the past?
+Was it to woo and win once more this woman, whom he had driven away
+from him, and who had just made evident to him the weakness of his
+determination and the strength of her own? Was it to put himself
+entirely and unreservedly under the yoke of her power, from whose
+possible imposition he had been glad to escape by the final expedient
+to which he had resorted? Had he any such rash, insane notion as this
+in his thoughts? He did not know, he was not certain; he was not sure
+of anything but this--that Gertrude had refused to see him, and that
+he was resolved she should, come what might; she should not carry that
+point, she should not have the triumph at once of fidelity to their
+strange unnatural compact on her own part, and of having forced him to
+break it on his. He had dismissed her easily enough from his thoughts,
+but he could not dismiss her from them now; she kept possession of
+them now, in the pride of her beauty--how handsome she was! he
+had never supposed she would have grown into such commanding,
+self-possessed beauty as hers was now--and in the triumph of her
+talent--as she had never done since the brief earliest days of their
+disastrous marriage. Gilbert Lloyd was a man on whom success of any
+kind produced a strong impression. It counted for much in the
+rekindling of his former passion for Gertrude that she was now a
+successful artist, her supposed name in everyone's mouth, holding her
+own before the world, a woman with a position, an _entourage_, and an
+independent career. His thoughts wandered away among scenes which he
+had long forgotten, in which she was the central figure, and into
+imaginary pictures of her present life; and he repeated over and over
+again, with rage--waxing dull by this time--"But she is my wife! she
+is my wife! no matter what she chooses to do, no matter how she
+chooses to act towards me, she is my wife! I have only to declare it
+if I choose." And the consequences to which she, judging by her
+present conduct, would probably be entirely indifferent--was he
+prepared to face them? He could not answer this question either; he
+was not yet cool-headed enough to estimate them aright.
+
+A devouring curiosity concerning Gertrude took possession of him--a
+craving eagerness to know what were her movements, who were her
+associates, how she lived; even the disposition of the rooms in her
+house, and her domestic relations. The absolute ignorance of all these
+things in which he remained, though his imperious will demanded to be
+informed of them, exasperated him; and with his fruitless anger there
+was mingled a grim humour, as he thought of the scenes through which
+they had passed together, as he recalled Gertrude in the intimacy of
+their domestic life. And now he was the one person in the world from
+whom she concealed herself, the one person shut out from her by a
+barrier erected by her inflexible will. Was he? Time would tell. He
+had not been ignorant daring the sometimes stormy, sometimes gay and
+careless, but always unsatisfactory, period which preceeded their
+separation, that he was by no means so indifferent to Gertrude as she
+was to him. On the contrary, he had realised that clearly and plainly,
+and it had sharpened his anger towards her and hardened his heart in
+the hour of their parting; and he had hated her then, and chafed under
+the knowledge that she did not hate him, that she was only glad to be
+rid of him, had only ceased utterly to love him, and learned utterly
+to despise him. Justly esteeming himself to be a good hater, Gilbert
+Lloyd found it difficult to understand how it was that he had so soon
+ceased to hate Gertrude, had so easily yielded to the sense of relief
+in having done with all that portion of his life in which she had a
+share, and had never had any serious thought of her, or speculation
+about her future; for to such an extent had his cynicism gone now that
+this period of oblivion and ease had in its turn expired, and she had
+again crossed his path to trouble him. He could only account for this
+curious phase through which he had passed by what seemed to him an
+insufficient reason--the new interests in his life, the success which
+attended his speculation in that "rich brute Ticehurst's" affairs--for
+thus did the more fastidious and not less vicious man of the two
+characterise, in his meditations, the coarse animal he was devoting
+himself so successfully to _exploiter_. Such a chance, after so long a
+run of ill-luck, varied only by a _coup_ on which he preferred not to
+dwell in remembrance--a chance, as he thought, with an ominous
+darkening of his evil face, which, if it had only been afforded him a
+little sooner, might have averted the necessity for such a _coup_, was
+calculated to occupy him entirely, and banish from his mind, anything
+which might divert him from the pursuit of his object.
+
+And now it seemed wonderful to him that he could have thus forgotten
+her--now, when he was under the renewed spell of her beauty and her
+scorn.
+
+There was an extraordinary fascination for him, even in the midst of
+his anger, in the mingled strangeness and familiarity with which she
+presented herself to his mind. He had a good deal of imagination,
+though but little poetry, in his nature, and the extraordinarily
+exceptional position of this woman and himself--the strangeness of the
+knowledge that she had accepted the fact of there being nothing mutual
+or even relative in their position now or ever--appealed, in the midst
+of his passion, to his imagination.
+
+That she should dare to treat him thus,--that she should know him so
+little as to dare to treat him thus. He thought this, he said this
+more than once through his shut teeth; but he was not a fool, even in
+his rage, and he knew he was talking folly to himself in the moment
+that he uttered the words. Why should she not dare? Indeed, there was
+no daring about it. He had made the position for himself, and he was
+for the first time brought face to face with all the details of it.
+What was that position externally in the world's sight, in the only
+point of view in which he had any practical right to consider it? Just
+this: Miss Lambert did not choose to admit him to her acquaintance. He
+was helpless; she was in her right. He might force her to meet him in
+the houses of other people--at the Marchioness of Carabas' house, for
+instance--simply because she could not afford, out of consideration
+for her own social position, to give up her patroness; and also (he
+began to understand Gertrude now sufficiently to know that this second
+argument was by far the stronger), because she Would never suffer the
+consideration of meeting or not meeting him to influence her actions,
+to form a motive of her conduct in the smallest degree. He felt that
+with a smart twinge of pain, the keen pain of mortified self-love. He
+had simply ceased to exist for her--that was all; she had taken the
+full sense of their convention, and was acting on it _tout bonnement_.
+He might, therefore, calculate safely upon meeting her, without her
+consent, at other houses than her own; but forcing or inducing her to
+admit him there, was, he felt, entirely beyond his power. He was
+wholly insensible to the extreme incongruity of such a possibility,
+had it existed; and no wonder, for in their position all was
+incongruous, and propriety or impropriety had lost their meaning.
+
+In the conflict of feeling and passion in which Gilbert Lloyd was thus
+engaged, there was no element of fierce contention wanting. Love, or
+the debased feeling which he called and believed to be love, and which
+fluctuated between passion and hate, baffled design, undefined fear,
+and jealousy, in which not merely Gertrude was concerned, but another
+who had a place in his life of still darker and more fatal meaning,
+and a more bitterly resented influence over his fate. When he had
+fought out the skirmish with the newly reawakened love for the wife
+whom he had almost forgotten, and been beaten, and had been forced to
+surrender so much of the disputed ground to the enemy, fear marshalled
+its forces against him, and pressed him hard. But not to the point of
+victory. Gilbert Lloyd was a man with whom fear had never had much
+chance; and if he had yielded somewhat to its influence in the
+separation from his wife, it was because that influence had been
+largely supported by long-smouldering discontent, _ennui_, a
+coincidence of convenience and opportunity, and a deserved conviction
+that the full potency or Gertrude's will was at work in the matter.
+There was little likelihood that fear should master him now; but it
+was there, and he had to stand, and repel its assaults. If he
+attempted to molest, to control Gertrude in any way; if it even became
+her interest or her pleasure to get rid of him in actual fact, in
+addition to their convenient theory,--fear asked him, Can she not do
+so? Is she not mistress of the situation, of every point of it? And he
+answered, Yes. If she chose to carry out the divorce--which they had
+mutually instituted without impertinent legal interference--would he
+dare to intervene? He remembered how he had speculated upon the
+expediency of encouraging the "rich brute's" penchant for the
+fashionable singer, when he had no suspicion who the fashionable
+singer was; and a rush of fury surged all over him as he thought, if
+she had chosen to encourage him, to marry him, for his rank, would he,
+Gilbert Lloyd, her husband, have dared to interfere? Fear had the best
+of it there; but he would not be beaten by fear. This enemy was strong
+mainly because he could not rightly calculate its strength. How much
+did Gertrude know, or how little? Was it knowledge, or suspicion only,
+which had prompted her to the decision she had adopted, and the prompt
+action she had taken upon it? To these questions it was impossible
+he could get any answer; and he would, or thought he would, just
+then--for he was an unlikely man to stick to such a bargain, if he
+could have made it--have given years of his life to know what had
+passed that memorable day at Brighton, before he had returned to the
+deathbed of his friend, and there encountered Gertrude. The dying
+whisper which had conveyed to the young woman the power she had used
+so promptly was unknown by Lloyd; on this point--the great, the
+essential point of his musings--all was conjecture, dark, terrifying,
+and undefined.
+
+Had love and fear only possessed his dark soul between them, the
+strife might soon have ended, in a division in which the man's own
+safety would have been consulted. Gilbert Lloyd would have made up his
+mind that, as his first fancy for Gertrude had passed away, so this
+eccentric renewal of it would also harmlessly decline. The whole
+difficulty might have resolved itself into his persuading Ticehurst to
+go abroad in his company, until the "rich brute" should have escaped
+all risk of an "entanglement," which Lloyd would have painted in the
+most alarming colours, and Lloyd himself have recovered from a passing
+fit of weak folly, which he might have been trusted to learn to
+despise, on a sober consideration of its bearing on his interests in
+the career in which he had contrived with so much difficulty to
+_lancer_ himself.
+
+But the look which he had seen in Gertrude's proud calm face--the
+smile which was so absolutely new to him, that it would have thrilled
+him through with jealousy to whomsoever addressed, because it revealed
+to him that she had never felt for him that which prompted its soft
+and trusting sweetness--the smile which had fired all the evil
+passions in his exceptionally evil nature--had shown Gilbert a far
+more terrible truth: she had never given him such a smile. _Soit_. He
+had had such as he had cared for, and he was tired of them, and done
+with them, and as bright and beautiful were to be had for love or
+money, particularly for money. Thus he might have thought, half in
+consoling earnest, half in mortification, and acted on the reassuring
+argument. But the smile, the unknown smile, which had not lighted her
+face upon their bridal day, which had never adorned the happiest
+hour--and they had had some happy hours--of their marriage, had
+beamed upon the man whom of all men living Gilbert Lloyd hated most
+bitterly--and that man was his brother. His brother, Miles Challoner,
+their dead father's darling son--(and when Lloyd thought of his father
+his face was horrible to see, and his heart was foul with curses and
+unnatural hate, for he hated his dead father more than his living
+brother),--the heir who had been his rival always, his master in their
+nursery, the object of his bitterest envy and enmity when he was so
+young that it was a mystery of the devil how such passions could have
+a place in his childish heart. In the name of the devil,--in whom
+Gilbert Lloyd was almost tempted to believe as he watched that smile,
+and felt the tempest rise in his heart, like the waves under the
+moonbeams,--how had _this_ complication come about! This he could
+readily ascertain, but what would it avail him to know it? If she
+loved this hated brother of his, what could he do? Enjoy the hideous
+revenge of keeping quiet, and letting their mutual love grow into the
+blessing and hope of their existence perhaps, and then come forward
+and expose all the truth, and crush the two at once? And then? His own
+share in this, what would it be? Utter ruin; and for his brother the
+sympathy of the world! To be sure it would be deep disgrace for the
+women who, secretly a wife, encouraged a man to love, and to hope to
+win her; but she could deny her love and the encouragement, and nobody
+could prove either, and she was entirely ignorant of the relation
+subsisting between Miles Challoner and him. Of this Gilbert Lloyd did
+not feel a moment's doubt. Miles would not divulge a fact in which a
+terrible family secret was involved, to anyone; he had taken his line
+towards Gilbert on their first accidental meeting far too decidedly
+for the existence of any doubt on that point. If, on the other hand,
+Gilbert Lloyd were to yield to the promptings of passion and revenge,
+and betray the relationship, ruin of a double kind would inevitably
+overtake him; vague indeed as to its source or manner, but not
+admitting of any doubt. He knew that such would be the case, thus: One
+communication only had been addressed to the man who is here called
+Gilbert Lloyd, by his father, after his sudden departure from Rowley
+Court. It was brief, and contained in the following words:
+
+"_I have placed in the hands of a friend in whom I have entire
+confidence the narrative of the events which have ended with your
+banishment from my house, and your erasure from our family annals for
+ever. This friend is not acquainted with your personal appearance, and
+cannot therefore recognise you, should your future conduct enable you
+to present yourself in any place where he may be found; but he will be
+in close and constant intercourse with my son; and should you venture,
+either directly or remotely, to injure my son, in person, reputation,
+estate, or by any means whatever, this friend, being warned by me to
+investigate any such injury done to my son, on the presumption that it
+comes from you, will be enabled to identify you; and is, in such ease,
+bound to me by a solemn promise to expose the whole of the facts, and
+the proofs in his possession, in such manner as he may judge best for
+bringing you most certainly and expeditiously to that punishment which
+human weakness has prevented my being the means of inflicting upon
+you. I give you this information and warning, in the interest of my
+son, and also because I desire to turn you, by the only motive
+available for my purpose, from the commission of a crime whose penalty
+no one's weakness will enable you to evade_."
+
+Gilbert Lloyd had never been able during all the vicissitudes of
+his career--in all its levities, its successes, its failures, its
+schemes--to forget the warning, or even the phrasing, of this terrible
+letter. He had burned it in a fury which would have hardly been
+assuaged by the blood of the writer, and had tried to persuade himself
+afterwards that he scoffed at the suspicions and the threat and the
+precaution alike. But the effort failed: he did not scoff--he believed
+and feared, and remembered; and in this strange and ominous
+complication, which had brought his brother across his path under
+circumstances which any man might have feared, he felt the futility of
+his pretended indifference to an extent which resembled terror.
+
+He wondered at himself now, when he remembered that whenever he had
+thought about his wife at all in the early days after their
+separation, in the few and scattered speculations which had arisen in
+his mind about her, the idea of her ever loving another man had found
+no place. So intense was his egotism, that, though he did not indulge
+in the mere vanity of believing that she still loved _him_, and would
+repent the step she had taken, he did not in the least realise her
+matter-of-fact emancipation from the ties which they loosed by mutual
+consent. He had sometimes wondered whether she got on well with her
+liberty and her hundred pounds; whether she had gone back to the
+drudgery of school-life, in the intensified form that drudgery assumes
+to a teacher; whether she had any friends, and how she accounted to
+them for her isolation; with other vague and placid vaticinations. But
+that this young and handsome woman, who had found out the unworthiness
+of her first love, had been rudely awakened from her woman's dream of
+happiness, and had exchanged all the sentiment with which she had
+regarded him for horror and contempt, and a steadily maintained
+purpose of utter separation--that she should have a second love,
+should dream again, never occurred to him. As little had he thought
+about the probability of his meeting her in the widely divergent
+course which his own life had taken from any within the previous
+experience of either. But he had met her; and one of the unexpected
+results of that undesirable event was to awaken him, with a shock, to
+the strongest suspicion that she did love and dream again, and that
+the object of the love and the dream was the man he most hated--was
+his brother. How Gilbert Lloyd would have regarded this circumstance,
+had he carried out his acceptation of the situation with such good
+faith and such complete indifference as Gertrude evinced, had he been
+able to see her again perfectly unmoved and without the slightest wish
+to alter anything in their position, he did not stop seriously to
+consider. This might have been; and for a minute or two his mind
+glanced at certain cynical possibilities in such a case, which might
+have enabled him to gratify his spite towards both his wife and his
+brother, in comparative security. But it was not; and that which was,
+absorbed him wholly.
+
+Alternately raging against the feelings which possessed him, and
+arranging the facts of the case in order, and forcing himself to
+ponder them with his accustomed coolness, Gilbert Lloyd walked on for
+many miles without taking note of distance. When at length he
+bethought him of the time, and consulted his watch, he found he must
+hasten back to town, to be ready to dine with the "rich brute," who
+was to entertain a party of choice spirits devoted to the turf that
+day. The occasion was an important, and Gilbert Lloyd intended that it
+should be a profitable, one. In the midst of the anger and
+perturbation of his spirit, he was quite capable of attending to his
+own and his patron's interests--when they were identical; and there
+was no mental process, involving no matter what amount of passion or
+scheming or danger, which Gilbert Lloyd could not lay aside--ranged in
+its due place in his memory--to await its fitting time; a valuable
+faculty, and not a little dangerous in the possession of a man at war,
+more or less openly, with society.
+
+The next day, as Gilbert Lloyd, as usual admirably mounted, turned
+into the Park, and made for the then almost deserted Lady's Mile, a
+carriage swept rapidly by. Two ladies occupied the back-seat, and on
+the front Lloyd beheld the unusual apparition of Lord Sandilands. The
+ladies were the Marchioness of Carabas and Miss Lambert. They saw him;
+and Lady Carabas gave him a bow at once graciously graceful and
+deliciously familiar; but Miss Lambert looked straight before her with
+such exquisitely perfect unconsciousness, that it never occurred to
+either of her companions that she had recognised Gilbert Lloyd.
+
+Then savage anger took possession of him once more, and scattered all
+the process of thought he had been going through to the winds, and he
+swore that, come what might, he would meet her where it would be
+impossible for her to avoid him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+Gertrude speaks.
+
+
+Lord Ticehurst's attachment to the turf was by no means of a lukewarm
+or of a perfunctory character. He was not one of the young men of the
+present day, who keep a racing-stud as they keep anything else, merely
+for their amusement; who exult indecently when they are successful,
+who are even more indecently depressed when they are unfortunate.
+Having such a man as Gilbert Lloyd for his "confederate," manager, and
+agent, the young nobleman did not require to look into the details of
+his stud and his stable as he otherwise would have done; but nothing
+was ever done without his knowledge and approval, and his heart was as
+much bound up in turf-matters as it had been when, under the
+initiation of Plater Dobbs, he first made his entrance into the Ring.
+Perhaps if this attachment to racing-matters and racing-men had been
+less strong, Lord Ticehurst would have noticed a certain change in
+Lloyd's manner towards him which would have displeased him much. For,
+notwithstanding that he struggled hard against the display of any such
+feeling, there arose in Gilbert's breast a sullen animosity, a dogged
+dislike to his friend and patron, which very often would not be kept
+down, but came surging up into his face, and showed itself in knit
+brows and tightened lips, and hard cold insolence of bearing. This was
+very different from the deep and bitter hatred with which Gilbert
+Lloyd regarded Miles Challoner, though it sprung from the same cause,
+the admiration which each of them felt for Gertrude. In the present
+state of his feelings for her, it enraged Gilbert to think that anyone
+should dare to pay attention to one who had been, who by the law still
+was, his property: but the depth and measure of his hatred was very
+much acted upon by the knowledge that Lord Ticehurst was merely
+regarded by Gertrude as one of a hundred hangers-on, while Miles
+Challoner stood in a very different position. But though this angry
+feeling from time to time got the better of Gilbert Lloyd's usually
+placid and equable temperament, and led to exhibitions of temper which
+he was afterwards frightened at and ashamed of, they were never
+noticed by the kindly-hearted, thick-headed young man whom he had in
+training, or, if they were, were ascribed to some of those
+"tighteners" and "botherations" which were supposed to fall naturally
+to "old Gilbert's" lot in transacting his business of the turf.
+"There's bad news up from the Pastures, I suppose," Lord Ticehurst
+would say to some of his friends, after the occurrence of some little
+episode of the kind; "old Gil's uncommon cranky this mornin', and no
+two ways about it. It's always best to leave him to come round by
+himself when he is in this way, so lets you and me go down to Rummer's
+and get some luncheon." But throughout all his annoyances, and the
+renovated passion for his wife,--passion of the strongest, wildest,
+most enslaving kind, was now always present in his heart,--Gilbert
+Lloyd held carefully to his business career, losing no opportunity of
+showing himself of service to his pupil, and taking every care that
+his pupil was made aware of the fact.
+
+"I say, Etchingham," said Gilbert one morning, glancing up from his
+accounts at his lordship, who was moodily looking out of window,
+smoking, and wondering whether he should propose to Miss Lambert
+before the season finally broke up, or leave it until next spring,--"I
+say, Etchingham I'm pretty near sick of town."
+
+"Same here!" replied his lordship; "fusty and beastly, ain't it? Well,
+we're close upon cutting it; it's Goodwood the week after next, and
+then there's Brighton--"
+
+"O, curse Brighton!" broke in Lloyd.
+
+"All right," said Lord Ticehurst, lazily dropping into a chair. "Curse
+Brighton by all means. But what a rum fellow you are! You wouldn't go
+to the Brighton Meeting last year; and I recollect that there was a
+talk about it at Rummer's; and Jack Manby--the Bustard, you know--said
+you'd never go there again, since in Gaslight's year, I think he said,
+the sea-air spoiled your complexion."
+
+"Manby's a chattering idiot," said Lloyd savagely; "and next time you
+hear men talking of why I don't go to the Brighton Meeting, you may
+say I don't go because it isn't a meeting at all, a third-rate concern
+with a pack of platers to run, and a crowd of cockneys to look at
+them. You may say that."
+
+"Much obliged," said Lord Ticehurst; "you may say it yourself, if you
+want to. I don't hold with mixin' myself up in other fellows' shines;"
+and he sucked solemnly at his cigar, and did his best to look
+dignified.
+
+"My dear old Etchingham, don't be angry. I was vexed at hearing you
+repeat the gabble of those infernal fellows at that filthy tavern--it
+isn't anything better--because it's not only about me they talk.
+However, that's neither here nor there. I suppose you'll have the
+wind-up dinner at Richmond as usual."
+
+"All right, Gil, my boy!" said his good-tempered lordship; "there's no
+bones broke, and it's all squared. Of course we'll have the dinner.
+Let's see," looking at his memorandum-book; "Friday-week, how will
+that suit? Mrs. Stapleton Burge's party. O, ah, that's nothing!" he
+added quickly, growing very red.
+
+"Very well," said Gilbert quietly. "Friday-week, since you've only got
+Mrs. Stapleton Burge's party; and that's nothing, you say. Friday-week
+will do. I'm to ask the usual lot, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, usual lot, and one or two more, don't you think? It was deuced
+slow last time, I remember. Only old Toshington to talk, and
+everybody's tired of his old gab. Ask someone to froth it up a bit,
+one of those writing-fellows one sees at some houses, or an actor who
+can mimic fellows, and that kind of thing, don't you know?"
+
+"I know," said Gilbert, by no means jumping at the suggestion; "but I
+generally find that your clever fellows who write are miserable unless
+they have all the talk to themselves; and the actors are insulted if
+you ask them to do any of their hanky-panky, as though, by Jove,
+they'd be invited for anything else. However, I'll look up some of
+them, and do my best. Anybody else?"
+
+"No, I think not. Unless, by the way, you were to ask that man that my
+aunt's taken up lately--Challoner."
+
+The name brought the blood into Gilbert's face, and he paused a moment
+before he said: "I don't think I'd have that fellow, Etchingham, if I
+were you."
+
+"What's the matter with him? Ain't he on the square? Bad egg, and that
+kind of thing?"
+
+"I know very little about him," said Gilbert, fixing his eyes on Lord
+Ticehurst's face; "nothing, indeed, for the matter of that; and he's
+never crossed me, and never will have the opportunity." I said, "if I
+were you."
+
+"Yes, well--I know. Drop the riddle business and speak out. What do
+you mean?"
+
+"Plainly, then, I've noticed--and I can't imagine how it has failed to
+escape you--that this man Challoner is making strong running for a
+lady for whom I have heard you profess the greatest admiration--Miss
+Lambert."
+
+"O, ah, yes--thanks; all right," said Lord Ticehurst, looking more
+foolish than usual--in itself a stupendous feat; "well, I ain't
+spooney particularly on Challoner, so you needn't ask him."
+
+
+Peers of the realm, and persons known as "public characters," command
+more civility and attention in England than anyone else. With
+tradesmen, hotel-waiters, and railway-porters this feeling is so
+strongly, developed that they will leave any customer to serve a great
+lord or a popular comedian. Lord Ticehurst's name stood very high at
+the Crown and Sceptre at Richmond, not merely because he was an
+earl--they see plenty of them during the season at the Crown and
+Sceptre--but because he was free-spoken, lavish with his money, and
+"had no cussed pride about him." Consequently, whenever he dined there
+the dinner was always good, which is by no means always the case at
+the C. and S.; and the present occasion was no exception. There were
+about twenty guests, all men, and nearly all men of one set, who,
+though they were mostly wellborn and, in the main, tolerably educated,
+apparently never sought for and certainly never attained any other
+society. The outside world was familiar with their names, through
+seeing them printed in the newspapers as attending the various great
+race-meetings; and with their personal appearance, through seeing them
+at Tattersall's and in the Park, especially on Sundays in the
+season. Some had chambers in the Albany, some in smaller and
+cheaper sets; many of them lived humbly enough in one bed-room in the
+lodging-house-swarming streets round St. James's; all of them haunted
+Rummer's in Conduit-street; and most of them belonged to some
+semi-turf, semi-military, whole card-and-billiard-playing club. Some
+of them were believed to be married, but their wives were never seen
+with them by any chance; for they never went into society, to the
+opera or the theatres; and they were always put into the bachelor
+quarters at country-houses, and into the topmost rooms at the hotels,
+where they treated the female domestics in a pleasant and genial way,
+a compound of the manners of the groom and the commercial bagman.
+
+They gathered in full force at the Crown and Sceptre that lovely July
+afternoon; for they knew that they would have a good dinner and wine
+without stint. Captain Dafter was there--a little wiry man with sandy
+scraps of whisker and a mean little white face, but who was the best
+amateur steeplechase rider in England, with limbs of steel and
+dauntless pluck. Next to him sat a fat, heavy-healed, large-jowled
+man, with a face the shape and colour of an ill-baked quartern loaf; a
+silent stupid-looking man, who ate and drank enormously, and said, and
+apparently understood, nothing; but who was no less a personage than
+the "Great Northern," as he was called, from having been born at
+Carlisle; the enormous bookmaker and King of the Ring, who began life
+as a plumber with eighteenpence, and was then worth hundreds of
+thousands. There, too, with his neatly-rolled whiskers and his
+neatly-tied blue bird's-eye scarf, with its plain solid gold horseshoe
+pin, was Dolly Clarke, the turf-lawyer. Years ago Dolly would have
+thought himself lucky if he ever made six hundred a-year. Six
+thousand is now nearer Dolly's annual income, all brought, about
+by his own talent, and "not standing on any repairs," as he put it,
+a quality which is to be found in the dictionary under the word
+"unscrupulousness;" for when old Mr. Snoxell, inventor of the
+Pilgrim's-Progress Leather for tender feet, died, and left all
+his money to his son Sam, who had been bred to the law, Sam took
+Dolly Clarke into partnership, and by combining shrewdness with
+bill-discounting and a military connection with a knowledge of
+turf-matters, they did a splendid business. You would almost mistake
+Dolly Clarke for a gentleman now, and Samuel Snoxell calls all the
+army by their Christian names. Next to Dolly Clarke was Mr. Bagwax,
+Q.C., always retained in cases connected with the turf, and rather
+preferring to be on the shaky and shady side, which affords
+opportunities for making great fun out of would-be-honest witnesses,
+and making jokes which, of all the persons in court, are not least
+understood, by Mr. Justice Martingale, who knows a horse from a
+wigblock, and is understood to have at one time heard the chimes at
+midnight. The redoubtable Jack Manby, called "the Bustard," because
+in his thickness of utterance he was in the habit of declaring that he
+"didn't, care about bustard so long as he got beef," was there; and
+old Sam Roller the trainer, looking something like a bishop, and
+something more like Mr. Soapey Sponge's friend, Jack Spraggon; and a
+tall thin gentlemanly man, who looked like a barrister, and who was
+"Haruspex," the sporting prophet of the _Statesman_. Nor had Gilbert
+Lloyd forgotten his patron's hint about the enlivening of the company
+by the representatives of literature and the drama. Mr. Wisbottle, the
+graphic writer, the charming essayist, the sparkling dramatist;
+Wisbottle, who was always turning up in print when you least expected
+him; Wisbottle, of whom his brilliant friend and toady M'Boswell had
+remarked that he had never tetigited anything which he hadn't
+ornavited;--Wisbottle represented literature, and represented it in a
+very thirsty and talkative, not to say flippant, manner. As the
+drama's representative, behold Mr. Maurice Mendip, a charming young
+fellow of fifty-five, who, in the old days of patent theatres and
+great tragedians, would have alternated Marcellus with Bernardo,
+playing Horatio for his benefit, when his landlady, friends, and
+family from Bermondsey came in with tickets sold for his particular
+behoof, but who, in virtue of loud lungs and some faint reminiscence
+of what he had seen done by his betters, played all the "leading
+business" in London when he could get the chance, and was the idolised
+hero of Californian gold-diggers and Australian aborigines. He was,
+perhaps, a little out of place at such a party, being heavy grave, and
+taciturn; but most people knew his name, and when told who he was,
+said, "O, indeed!" and looked at him with that mixture of curiosity,
+and impertinence with which "public characters" are generally
+regarded. The other guests were men more or less intimately connected
+with the turf, who talked to each other in a low grumbling monotone,
+and whose whole desire was to get the better of each other in every
+possible way.
+
+The dinner, which had called forth loud encomiums, was over; the
+cigars were lighted, and the conversation had been proceeding briskly,
+when in a momentary lull Dolly Clarke, who had the reputation for
+being not quite too fond of Gilbert Lloyd, said in a loud voice:
+"Well, my lord, and after Goodwood comes Brighton, and of course you
+hope to be as lucky there."
+
+"We've got nothing at Brighton," replied Lord Ticehurst, looking
+uneasily towards where Gilbert was occupying the vice-chair.
+
+"Nothing at Brigthton!" echoed Dolly Clarke, very loud indeed; "why,
+how's that?"
+
+"Because we don't choose, Mr. Clarke," said Gilbert, from the other
+end of the table--he had been drinking more than his wont, and there
+was a strained, flushed look round his eyes quite unusual to
+him--"because we don't choose; I suppose that's reason enough."
+
+"O, quite," said Dolly Clarke, with a short laugh. "I spoke to Lord
+Ticehurst, by the way; but in your case I suppose it's not an
+'untradesmanlike falsehood' if you represent yourself as 'the same
+concern.' However, you used to go to Brighton, Lloyd."
+
+ "Yea," replied Gilbert quickly, "and so used you, when you were
+Wiggins and Proctor's outdoor clerk at eighteen shillings a-week--by
+the excursion-train! Times have changed with both of us."
+
+"Lloyd had him there, Jack," whispered Bagwax, Q.C., to his neighbour
+the Bustard. "Impudent customer, Master Clarke! I recollect well when
+he used to carry a bag and serve writs, and all that; and now--"
+
+"Hold on a binnit," said the Bustard; "he's an awkward customer is
+Clarke, and he'll show Gilbert no bercy." And, indeed, there was a
+look in Mr. Dolly Clarke's ordinarily smiling, self-satisfied face,
+and a decision in the manner in which his hand had, apparently
+involuntarily, closed upon the neck of the claret-jug standing in
+front of him, that augured ill for the peace of the party in general,
+or the personal comfort of Gilbert Lloyd in particular. But old Sam
+Roller's great spectacles had happened to be turned towards the
+turf-lawyer at the moment; and the old fellow, seeing how matters
+stood, had telegraphed to Lord Ticehurst, while Mr. Wisbottle touched
+Clarke's knee with one hand under the table, and removed the
+claret-jug from his grasp with the other, whispering, "Drop it, dear
+old boy! What's the good? You kill him, and have to keep out of the
+way, and lose all the business in Davies-street. He kills you, and
+what becomes of the policies for the little woman at Roehampton?
+Listen to the words of Wisbottle the preacher, my chick, and drop it."
+And it having by this time dawned upon Lord Ticehurst that there was
+something wrong, that young nobleman cut into the conversation in a
+very energetic and happy manner, principally dilating upon the
+necessity of his guests drinking as much and as fast as they possibly
+could. The first part of the proposition seemed highly popular, but
+certain of the company objected to being hurried with their liquor,
+and demanded to know the reason of their being thus pressed. Then Lord
+Ticehurst explained that he was under the necessity of putting in an
+appearance that night at the house of a very particular friend,
+where an evening party was being held; that it was an engagement of
+long-standing, and one which it was impossible for him to get off.
+This, he added, need be no reason for breaking up their meeting; he
+should only be too delighted if they would stop as long as they
+pleased; and he was quite sure that his worthy vice would come up to
+that end of the table, and fill his place much more worthily than it
+had hitherto been filled.
+
+But to this proposition there was a great deal of demur. Several of
+the guests, keen men of business, with the remembrance of the morrow's
+engagements and work before them, and having had quite sufficient
+wine, were eager to be off. Others, who would have remained drinking
+so long as any drink was brought, scarcely relished their cups under
+the presidency of Gilbert Lloyd, who was regarded by them as anything
+but a convivialist; while others, again, had engagements in town which
+they were anxious to fulfil. Moreover, the plan proposed by his patron
+was anything but acceptable to Gilbert Lloyd himself. Ordinarily
+almost abstemious, he had on this occasion taken a great deal of wine,
+and, though he was by no means intoxicated, his pulses throbbed and
+his blood was heated in a manner very unusual with him. From the first
+moment of Ticehurst's mentioning that he was going on this evening to
+a party at Mrs. Stapleton Burge's house, Gilbert felt convinced, by
+his friend's manner, that he must have some special attraction there,
+and that that attraction must be the presence of Gertrude. This
+thought--the feeling that she would be there, surrounded by courtiers
+and flatterers--worried and irritated him, and every glass of wine
+which he swallowed increased his desire to see her that night. What
+matter if he had been rebuffed! That was simply because he had not had
+the chance of speaking to her. Give him that opportunity, and she
+would tell a very different tale. He should have that opportunity if
+he met her face to face in society; it would be impossible for her,
+without committing a palpable rudeness--and Gilbert Lloyd knew well
+that she would never do that--to avoid speaking to him. _Château qui
+parle est pret de se render_. A true proverb that; and he made up his
+mind to tell Lord Ticehurst to take him to Mrs. Stapleton Burge's
+gathering, and to run his chance with Gertrude.
+
+So that when he heard his patron propound that he should remain
+behind, to fan into a flame the expiring embers of an orgie which,
+even at its brightest, had afforded him no amusement, his disgust was
+extreme, and uncomplimentary as they were to himself, he fostered and
+repeated the excuses which he heard on all sides. Nor did he content
+himself with passive resistance, but went straight to Lord Ticehurst,
+and taking him aside, told him that this was, after all, only a "duty
+dinner;" that all that was necessary had been done, and it was better
+they should break up then and there. "Moreover," said he, "I've a
+fancy to go with you to-night. You're always telling me I don't mix
+enough in what you call society; and as this is the end of the season,
+and we're not likely to be--well, I was going to say bothered with
+women's parties for a long time, I don't mind going with you; in fact,
+I should rather like it. These fellows have done very well, and we can
+now leave them to shift for themselves." Lord Ticehurst's astonishment
+at this suggestion from his Mentor was extreme. "What a queer chap you
+are, Gil!" he said; "when I've asked you to go to all sorts of houses,
+first-class, where everything is done in great form and quite correct,
+you've stood out and fought shy, and all that kind of thing. And now
+you want to go to old Mother Burge's,--old cat who stuffs her rooms
+with a lot of people raked up from here and there! 'Pon my soul
+there's no knowing where to have you, and that's about the size of
+it!" But in this matter, as in almost every other, the young man gave
+way to his friend, and the party broke up at once; and Lord Ticehurst
+and Gilbert Lloyd drove home to Hill-street, dressed themselves, and
+proceeded to Mrs. Stapleton Barge's reception.
+
+Mrs. Stapleton Burge lived in a very big house in Great
+Swaffham-street, close out of Park-lane, and though a very little
+black-faced woman herself, did everything on a very large scale. Her
+footmen were enormous creatures, prize-fed, big-whiskered, ambrosial;
+her chariot was like a family ark; the old English characters in which
+her name and address were inscribed surged all over her big cards. She
+had a big husband, a fat fair man with a protuberant chest, and
+receding forehead, and little eyes, who was a major in some Essex
+yeomanry, and who was generally mistaken by his guests for the butler.
+Everybody went to Mrs. Stapleton Burge's; and she, sometimes
+accompanied by the major, but more frequently without him, went
+everywhere. Nobody could give a reason for either proceeding. When the
+Stapleton Barges went out of town at the end of the season, nobody
+knew where they went to. Some people said to the family place in
+Essex, but Tommy Toshington said that was all humbug; he'd looked up
+the county history, and, there wasn't any such place as Fenners; and
+he, Tommy, thought they either retired to the back of the house in
+Great Swaffham-street, or took lodgings at Ramsgate. But the next
+season they appeared again, as blooming and as big as ever. Lord
+Ticehurst, in his description of Mrs. Barge's parties, scarcely did
+that worthy woman justice. People said, and truly, that those
+gatherings were "a little mixed;" but Lady Tintagel took care that
+some of the very best people in London were seen at them. If Mrs.
+Burge would have her own friends, that, Lady Tintagel said, was no
+affair of hers. Mrs. Burge swore by Lady Tintagel, and the major swore
+at her. "If it wasn't for that confounded woman," he used to say, "we
+shouldn't be going through all this tomfoolery, but should be living
+quietly at--" He was never known to complete the sentence. Lady
+Tintagel was Mrs. Barge's sponsor in the world of fashion, and the
+major lent money to Lord Tintagel, who was an impecunious and elderly
+nobleman. When Lady Tintagel presided over a stall at an aristocratic
+fancy-fair for the benefit of a charity, Mrs. Burge furnished the said
+stall, and took Lady Tintagel's place thereat during the dull portion
+of the day. Lady Tintagel's celebrated _tableaux vivants_ were held in
+Mrs. Burge's big rooms in Great Swaffham-street, the Tintagel
+establishment being carried on in a two-roomed house in Mayfair. Mrs.
+Burge "takes" Lady Tintagel to various places of an evening, when the
+Tintagel jobbed horses are knocked up, and never has "her ladyship"
+out of her mouth.
+
+When Lord Ticehurst and Gilbert Lloyd arrived at the hospitable
+mansion, they found the rooms crowded. It was a great but trying
+occasion for Mrs. Burge--trying, because it was plainly the farewell
+_fête_ of the season; and all the guests were talking to one another
+of where they were going to, while she, poor woman, had a dreary waste
+of seven months before her, to be passed away from the delights of
+fashionable life. To how many people did she promise a speedy meeting
+at Spa, at Baden, in the Highlands, in Midland country-houses? and all
+her interlocutors placed their tongues in their cheeks, and knew that
+until the next summons of Parliament drew the town together, and
+simultaneously produced a card of invitation from Mrs. Burge, they
+should not meet their hostess of the night. Meantime, the success of
+the present gathering was unimpeachable. Everybody who was left in
+London had rallied round Great Swaffham-street; and there was no doubt
+but that the _Morning Post_ of the coming day would convey to the ends
+of the civilised world a list of fashionables which would redound in
+the most complete manner to the _éclat_ of Mrs. Stapleton Burge.
+
+The necessary form of introduction had been gone through--scarcely
+necessary, by the way, in Great Swaffham-street; for the men always
+averred that Mrs. Burge never knew half the people at her own
+parties--and Lord Ticehurst, having done his duty in landing Gilbert,
+had strolled away among the other _convives_, with what object Gilbert
+well enough knew. He, Gilbert Lloyd, had rather a habit of trusting
+to chance in matters of this kind; and, on the present occasion, he
+found that chance befriended him. For while his patron, eager and
+anxious-eyed, went roaming round the room in hot search for the object
+of his thoughts, Gilbert, no less anxious, no less determined,
+remained quietly near the entrance-door, and narrowly watched each
+passing face. He knew most of them. A London man of-half-a-dozen
+seasons can scarcely find a fresh face in any evening party on which
+he may chance to stumble. We go on in our different sets, speaking to
+every other person we meet, and familiar with the appearance of all
+the rest--what freshness and variety! Some of the passers-by raised
+their eyebrows in surprise at seeing Lloyd in such a place; others
+nodded and smiled, and would have stopped to speak but for the plain
+_noli-me-tangere_ expression which he wore. He returned the nods and
+grins in a half-preoccupied, half-sullen manner, and it was not until
+he heard Miles Challoner's voice close by him that he seemed
+thoroughly roused. Then he drew back from the door-post, against which
+he had been leaning, and ensconcing himself behind the broad back of a
+stout old gentleman, his neighbour, saw Gertrude enter the room, on
+Miles Challoner's arm. They had been dancing; she was flushed and
+animated, and looked splendidly handsome, as evidently thought her
+companion. Her face was upturned to his, and in her eyes was a frank,
+honest look of love and trust, such a look as Gilbert Lloyd
+recollected to have seen there when he first knew her years ago, but
+which had soon died out, and had never reappeared until that moment.
+And it was for Miles Challoner that her spirits had returned, her love
+and beauty had been renewed; for Miles Challoner, whom he hated with a
+deadly hate, who had been his rock ahead throughout his life, and who
+was now robbing him of what indeed he had once thrown aside as
+valueless, but what he would now give worlds to repossess. Gilbert
+Lloyd's face, all the features of which were so well trained and kept
+in such constant subjection, for once betrayed him, and the evil
+passion gnawing at his heart showed itself in his fiery eyes,
+surrounded by a strained hot flush, and in his rigidly set mouth.
+Tommy Toshington, tacking about the room to avoid the pressure of the
+crowd, and coming suddenly round Lloyd's stout neighbour, was
+horrified by the expression in Gilbert's face.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Lloyd, my boy?" asked the old gentleman; "you
+look quite ghastly, by Jove! Ellis's claret not disagreed with you,
+has it?"
+
+"Not a bit of it, Tommy; I'm all right," said Gilbert with an effort;
+"room's a little hot--perhaps that's made me look a little white."
+
+"Look a little white! Dammy, you looked a little black when I first
+caught sight of you. You were scowling away at somebody; I couldn't
+make out who."
+
+"Not I," said Gilbert, with an attempt at a laugh; "I was only
+thinking of something."
+
+"O, shouldn't do that," said Mr. Toshington; "devilish stupid thing
+thinking; never comes to any good, and makes a fellow look deuced old
+Lots of people here to-night;" then looking round and sinking his
+voice, "and rather a mixture, eh? I can't think where some of the
+people come from; one never sees them anywhere else." And the old
+gentleman, whose father had been a dissenting hatter at Islington,
+propped his double gold-eyeglass on his nose, and surveyed the company
+with a look of excessive _hauteur_.
+
+"See!" he said presently, nudging Gilbert with his elbow; "you
+reck'lect what I told you, down at the Crystal Palace that day,
+about Etchingham and Miss What-do-you-call-'em, the singer?--that
+it wasn't any go for my lord, because there was another fellow
+cutting in in that quarter--you reck'lect? Well, look here, here they
+are,--What's-his-name, Chaldecott or something, and the girl."
+
+"I see them," said Lloyd, drawing back.
+
+"All right," said Toshington; "you needn't hide yourself; don't you be
+afraid, they're much too much taken up with each other to be looking
+at us. Gad, she's a devilish pretty girl, that, ain't she, Lloyd?
+There's a sort of a something about her which--such a deuced good
+style too, and way of carryin' herself! Gad, as to most of the women
+now--set of dumpy little brutes!--might be kitchen-maids, begad!"
+
+"Just look, Toshington, will you? I can't see, for this old fool's
+shoulder's in the way. Has Challoner left Miss Lambert?"
+
+"Yes, he's stepped aside to speak to Lady Carabas; Miss Lambert is
+standing by the mantelpiece, and--"
+
+"All right, back in half a-second!" and made straight for the place
+where Gertrude was standing.
+
+"Now, that's a funny thing!" said old Toshington to himself, as he
+looked after him. "What does that mean? Is Lloyd making the running
+for his master, or is that a little commission on his own account? No
+go either way, I should say; the man in the beard means winning there,
+and no one else has a chance."
+
+As Gilbert Lloyd crossed the room, Gertrude looked up, and their eyes
+met. The next instant she looked round for Miles Challoner, but he was
+still busily engaged in talking to Lady Carabas. Then she saw some
+other ladies of her acquaintance, seated within a little distance, and
+she determined on crossing the room to them. But she had scarcely
+moved a few steps when Gilbert Lloyd was by her side. Gertrude's heart
+beat rapidly; she scarcely heard the first words of salutation which
+Gilbert uttered; she looked quickly round and saw that though Miles
+was still standing by Lady Carabas's chair, his eyes were fixed on her
+and Lloyd. What could she do? What is that her husband says?
+
+"Too much of this fooling! You _must_ hear me now!"
+
+With an attempt at a smile, Gertrude turned to her persecutor and
+said, "Once for all, leave me!"
+
+"I will not," said he, in a low voice, but also with a smile on his
+face. "You cannot get away from me without exciting the suspicion, or
+the wonder at least, of the room. How long do you imagine I am going
+to let this pretty little play proceed? How long am I to look on and
+see the puppets dallying?"
+
+Gertrude flushed scarlet as he said these words, but she did not
+speak.
+
+"You're carrying this business with too high a hand," said he,
+emboldened by her silence. "You seem to forget that I have a word or
+two to say in the matter."
+
+"See, Gilbert Lloyd," said Gertrude, still smiling and playing with
+her fan, "you sought me; not I you. Go now, and--"
+
+"Go!" said Gilbert, who saw Miles Challoner looking hard at
+them,--"go, that he may come! Go! You give your orders freely! What
+hold have you on me that I am to obey them?"
+
+"Would you wish me to tell you?"
+
+"Tell away!" said Lloyd defiantly. "I don't mind."
+
+"Here, then," said Gertrude, beckoning him a little closer with her
+fan, then whispering behind it. But one short sentence, a very few
+words, but, hearing them, Gilbert Lloyd turned death-white, and felt
+the room reel round before him. In an instant he recovered
+sufficiently to make a bow, and to leave the room and the house. When
+he got out into the street, the fresh air revived him; he leaned for a
+moment against some railings to collect his thoughts; and as he moved
+off, he said aloud, "He did suspect it, then; and he told her!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+Half-revealed.
+
+
+Of all the places on which the autumnal moon, approaching her full
+like a comely matron, looks down, there are many far less picturesque
+and less enjoyable than that bit of Robertson-terrace, St. Leonards,
+which adjoins the narrow strip of beach communicating with the old
+town of Hastings proper. On this beach the moonbeams play
+
+
+      "Among the waste and lumber of the shore,
+       Hard coils of cordage, swarthy fishing-nets,
+       Anchors of rusty fluke, and boats updrawn,"
+
+
+casting grim and fantastic shadows, and bringing oddest objects into
+unwonted and undue prominence. Robertson-terrace--as hideous,
+architecturally considered, as are the majority of such marine asylums
+for the temporary reception of Londoners--stands back from the road,
+and has its stuccoed proportions somewhat softened by the trees and
+shrubs in the "Enclosure," as the denizens love to call it, a small
+oblong strip of something which ought to be green turf, but what,
+under the influence of promenading and croquet-playing, has become
+brown mud. In the moonlight on this lovely night in early autumn, some
+of the denizens yet linger in the Enclosure. Young people mostly, of
+both sexes, who walk in pairs, and speak in very low tones, and look
+at each other with very long immovable glances; young people who
+cannot imagine why people ever grow old, who cannot conceive that
+there can be any pleasure except in that one pastime in which they
+themselves are then employed--who cannot conceive, for instance, what
+enjoyment that old gentleman, who has been so long seated in the
+drawing-room balcony of No. 17, can find in life.
+
+That old gentleman is Lord Sandilands, who, the London season over,
+has come down to St. Leonards for a little sea-air, and quiet and
+change. One reason for his selection of St. Leonards is that Miss
+Grace Lambert and Mrs. Bloxam are staying within a few miles'
+distance, at Hardriggs, Sir Giles Belwether's pretty place. Lord
+Sandilands had been invited to Hardriggs, also, but he disliked
+staying anywhere except with very intimate friends; and, moreover, he
+had come to that time of life when rest was absolutely essential to
+him, and he knew that under Sir Giles Belwether's ponderous
+hospitality he would simply be moving the _venue_ of his London life
+without altering any of its details. Moreover, the old gentleman, by
+coming to St. Leopards, was carrying out a kindly scheme long since
+laid, of giving Miles Challoner occasional opportunities of seeing
+Miss Lambert. Miles was not invited to stay at Hardriggs; he did not
+even know Sir Giles Belwether; but he became Lord Sandilands' guest in
+the lodgings in Robertson-terrace, and, as such, he was taken over by
+his friend to Hardriggs, introduced to the host, and received with the
+greatest hospitality. Lord Sandilands has this advantage over the
+youthful promenaders in the "Enclosure," that while they cannot
+imagine what he is thinking of, he perfectly well divines the subject
+of their thoughts, and is allowing his own ideas to run in another
+vein of that special subject. He has just made Miles confess his love
+for Grace Lambert, and all the drawbacks and disadvantages of the
+position are opening rapidly before him.
+
+"I might have expected it," said the old gentleman half-aloud; "I knew
+it was coming. I saw it growing day by day, and yet I never had the
+pluck to look the affair straight in the face--to make up my mind
+whether I'd tell him anything about Gertrude's parentage; and I don't
+know what to do now. Ah, here he is!--Well, Miles, had your smoke?
+Lovely night, eh?"
+
+"A lovely night, indeed! No end of people out by the sea."
+
+"You wouldn't mind a turn in that lime-walk at Hardriggs just now,
+Miles, eh? with--Kate Belwether, or someone else?"
+
+"Rather the someone else, dear old friend. And so you weren't a bit
+astonished at what I told you to-day?"
+
+"Astonished, my boy! I astonished? Why, where do you think my eyes
+have been? I declare you young fellows think that to you alone has
+been confided the appreciation of beauty and the art of love!"
+
+"Anyone who imagines that must have ears, and hear not, so far as your
+lordship is concerned," said Miles, laughing. "Now, of John Borlase,
+commonly known as Baron Sandilands, the ladies whom he courted and the
+conquests which he made, are they not written in the _Chronique
+Scandaleuse_ of the period?"
+
+"Well, I don't know that. I'm of an old-fashioned school, which holds
+that no gentleman should so carry on his _amourettes_ that the world
+should talk about them. But the idea of your thinking that I should
+be astonished when you told me that you were head over ears in love
+with--with Miss Lambert! _Nourri dans le sérail j'en connais les
+detours_, Master Miles."
+
+"And if not astonished, you were also not annoyed?"
+
+"Annoyed! Not the least bit in the world. I don't mean to say that the
+matter looks to me entirely one of plain-sailing, my dear boy; there
+are certain difficulties which will naturally arise."
+
+"Do you think that Grace's friends will make any obstacle? By the way,
+my dear lord, do you know anything of Miss Lambert's relations? I have
+never heard of or seen any connection but Mrs. Bloxam; but you who are
+so intimate with the young lady will probably know all about them."
+
+A half-comic look of embarrassment overshadowed Lord Sandilands' face
+as he heard this inquiry, and he waited for a moment before he
+replied, "Not I, indeed, my dear Miles; Miss Lambert has never spoken
+to me of her relations--indeed, I understood from her that she was an
+orphan, left to Mrs. Bloxam's charge. I shouldn't think you need look
+for any objection to your marriage being made by the lady's friends."
+
+"That is one point happily settled; then the world?"
+
+"The what?"
+
+"The opinion of the world."
+
+"Ah, that's a very different matter! You're afraid of what people will
+say about your marrying a singer?"
+
+"To you, dear old friend, I will confess candidly that I am. Not that
+I have any position, God knows, on the strength of which to give
+myself airs."
+
+"My dear boy, that's where you mistake. If you _had_ a position, you
+might marry not merely a charming and amiable and lovely girl like
+this, against whom no word ought to be uttered, but even a person
+without the smallest rag of reputation; and the world would say very
+little about it, and would speedily be silenced. Look at--no need,
+however, to quote examples. What I have said is the fact, and you know
+it."
+
+"I am forced to acknowledge the truth of your remark, but while
+acknowledging it, I shall not permit the fact to turn me from my
+purpose. If Miss Lambert will accept me for a husband, I will gladly
+risk all the tattle of all the old cats in Belgravia."
+
+"Your sentiments do you credit, my dear boy," said the old nobleman
+with a smile, "though the juxtaposition of 'tattle' and 'cats' is
+scarcely happy. I've noticed that when people are in love, the
+arrangement of their sentences is seldom harmonious. I suppose you
+feel tolerably certain of Miss Lambert's answer to your intended
+proposal. You are too much a man of the present day to anticipate any
+doubt in the matter."
+
+"I should not be worth Miss Lambert's acceptance if I had any such
+vanity; and I know you're only joking in ascribing it to me."
+
+"I was only joking; but now seriously, do you fear no rivals? You see
+how very much the young lady is sought after. Are you certain that her
+preference is given to you?"
+
+"As certain as a man can be who has not 'put it to the touch to win or
+lose it all,' by ascertaining positively."
+
+"And there is no one you are absolutely jealous of?"
+
+"No one. Well,--no, not jealous of,--there is one man whom I regard
+with excessive distrust."
+
+"You don't mean Lord Ticehurst?"
+
+"O, no! Lord Ticehurst's manners are rough and odd; but he is a
+gentleman, and, I'm sure, would 'behave as such,' in every possible
+way, to Miss Lambert. Indeed, no duchess of his acquaintance can be
+treated with greater respect than she is by him. I would not say as
+much of the other man."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+Miles hesitated a moment before he said, "Lord Ticehurst's great
+friend, Mr. Gilbert Lloyd."
+
+"Mr. Gilbert Lloyd!" repeated Lord Sandilands, with a low
+whistle--"that's a very different matter. I don't mind telling you, my
+dear Miles, that I have had an uncomfortable impression about that
+young man ever since the first night we met him at Carabas House. It's
+singular too; for I know no real harm of the man. His tastes and
+pursuits are not such as interest or occupy me; though, of course,
+that is the case with scores of persons with whom I am acquainted, and
+towards whom I feel no such dislike. Very odd, isn't it?"
+
+Miles looked hard at his friend to see whether there were any latent
+meaning in the question; but seeing that Lord Sandilands was
+apparently speaking without any strong motive, he said:
+
+"It is odd. Perhaps," he added, "it is to be accounted for by the
+feeling that this--Mr. Gilbert Lloyd is not a gentleman?"
+
+"N-no, not that. Though the man, amongst his own set, has an air of
+turfy, horsey life which is hideously repellent, yet with other people
+he shows that he knows at least the _convenances_ of society, and is
+not without traces of breeding and education. I fancy that in this
+case I am suffering myself to be influenced by my belief in
+physiognomy. The man has a decidedly bad face; deceit, treachery, and
+cruelty are written in the shifty expression of his sunken eyes, in
+his thin tightened lips."
+
+"And you really believe this?" said Miles earnestly.
+
+"I do; most earnestly. Depend upon it, Nature never makes a mistake.
+We may fail to read her properly sometimes, but she never errs. And in
+this case her handwriting is too plain to admit of any doubt."
+
+Miles shuddered. The old gentleman noticed it, and laid his hand
+kindly on his friend's knee; then he said:
+
+"But, after all, there's no reason for us to fear him. You say that he
+has been somewhat marked in his attention to Grace?"
+
+"More than marked. Did you not notice the other night at the house of
+that odd woman, Mrs. Burge--O, no, I forgot, you were not there; but
+it was just before we left town, and Miss Lambert had been dancing
+with me, and I had only left her for a minute when Lloyd went up and
+spoke to her."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Of course I don't know what he said, but they both seemed to speak
+very earnestly, and after a very few moments he left her abruptly and
+hurried away."
+
+"Well, I don't think that proceeding ought to cause you much
+disquietude, Master Miles. In all probability, from what you say, Miss
+Lambert was giving Mr. Lloyd his _congé_, or, at all events, saying
+something not very pleasant to him. Have you ever spoken to her about
+Lloyd?"
+
+"Once or twice only."
+
+"And what has she said about him?"
+
+"She seems to have taken your view of the question, my dear old
+friend, for she spoke of him with cold contempt and irrepressible
+dislike, and begged me never to mention his name to her again."
+
+"Really, then it seems to me that you have nothing to fear in that
+quarter. That this Mr. Lloyd is a dangerous man I am convinced; that
+he would be desperate in any matter in which he was deeply interested,
+I don't doubt; but he may be as desperate as he pleases if Grace
+dislikes him, and loves you. By the way, as that question is still a
+moot point, Master Miles," added the old gentleman with a sly look,
+"the sooner you get it settled, the better. We shall be driving over
+to Hardriggs to-morrow, and I should think you _might_ find an
+opportunity of speaking to the lady in private. I know I would at your
+time of life, and under the circumstances. And if you want an elderly
+gooseberry-picker, you may command me."
+
+
+But seeing that Miles Challoner's face wore a stern and gloomy
+expression, Lord Sandilands dropped the tone of _badinage_ in which he
+had been speaking, and said with great earnestness and softness:
+
+"There is something strangely wrong with you to-night, Miles;
+something which keeps crossing your mind and influencing your
+thoughts; something which I am convinced is apart from, and yet
+somehow connected with, the subject we have been discussing. I have no
+wish to pry into your secrets, my dear boy; no right and no desire to
+ask for any confidence which you may not feel disposed to give. But
+as, since the death of my dear old friend, I have always regarded
+myself as your second father, and as I have loved you as I would have
+loved a son, I cannot bear to see you in obvious grief and trouble
+without longing to share it and to advise and help you."
+
+There was a pathos in the old man's tone, no less than in his words,
+which touched Miles deeply. He took his friend's hand and pressed it,
+and his eyes were filled with tears, and his voice trembled as he
+said:
+
+"God knows, my dearest friend, how willingly I acknowledge the truth
+of all that you have just said, and how recognisant I am of all your
+affection and kindness. I _am_ troubled and disturbed, but there is
+nothing in my trouble that need be hid from you; nothing, indeed,
+which your sympathy and counsel will not lighten and tend to
+disperse."
+
+"That's right," said the old nobleman, brightening up again. "Come,
+what is this trouble? You're not worried for money, Miles?"
+
+"No. I had an odd letter from my lawyers yesterday about some mortgage
+that Sir Thomas Walbrook is interested in, but I haven't gone into the
+matter yet. No, not money,--I wish it were only that!"
+
+"What then? You've not gone and mixed yourself up with any--any
+connection--you know what I mean--that you feel it necessary to break
+off before you propose to Miss Lambert?"
+
+"Not I, dear old friend; nothing of the sort. Though my trouble is
+caused by what I think the necessity of giving a full explanation on a
+very difficult and delicate matter, before I ask Grace to become my
+wife."
+
+"In the name of fortune, what is it, then?" asked Lord Sandilands.
+
+"Simply this," said Miles, his face resuming its grave expression;
+"you know that my father's life was overshadowed and his whole mental
+peace destroyed, at a period when he might reasonably have looked
+forward to much future enjoyment, by the conduct of my younger
+brother, Geoffrey?"
+
+"Ah! now I begin to comprehend--"
+
+"Wait, and hear me out. That conduct, the nature of which I never
+could learn, and do not know at this moment, blighted my father's
+life, and changed him from an open-hearted, frank, genial man, into a
+silent and reserved valetudinarian. For years and years Geoffrey's
+name was never mentioned in our house. I was brought up under strict
+orders never to inquire about him, directly or indirectly; and those
+orders I obeyed to the letter. Only when my father was on his
+deathbed--you recollect my being telegraphed for from your house,
+where I was staying? I spoke of Geoffrey. I asked why he had been sent
+away, what he had done--"
+
+"Your father did not tell you?" interrupted Lord Sandilands eagerly.
+
+"He did not, he would not. It was just before he expired; his physical
+prostration was great; all he could say was that Geoffrey was, and for
+ever must be, dead to me. He implored me, he commanded me with his
+dying breath, if ever I met my brother to shun him, to fly from him,
+to let nothing earthly induce me to know him or acknowledge him."
+
+"Your poor father was right," said Lord Sandilands; "he could have
+said nothing else."
+
+"Do you justify my father's severity?" cried Miles in astonishment.
+"Do you hold that he was right in dying in anger with one of his own
+children, and in bequeathing his anger to me, the brother of the man
+whom in his wrath he thus harmed?"
+
+"I do; I do indeed."
+
+"Do you tell me that any crime not punishable by law could justify
+such a sentence?--a sentence of excommunication from his home, from
+family love, from--"
+
+"Stay, stay, Miles. Tell me, how has this subject cropped up just now?
+What has brought it into your thoughts?"
+
+"Because, as a man of honour, I feel that I ought to tell Miss Lambert
+something at least--as much as I know--of the story before I ask her
+to be my wife. Because I would fain have told her that my father was
+harsh and severe to a degree in his conduct to Geoffrey."
+
+"That is impossible; that you can never say. Listen, Miles; I know
+more of this matter than you suspect. I know every detail of it. Your
+father made me his confidant, and I know the crime which your brother
+attempted."
+
+"You do?--the crime!"
+
+"The crime. The base, dastardly, hideous crime, which rendered it
+impossible for your father to do otherwise than renounce his son, and
+bid you renounce your brother for ever."
+
+"Ah, my God!" groaned Miles, burying his head in his hands.
+
+"There is no reason to be so excited, my poor boy," said Lord
+Sandilands, laying his hand gently on him. "You need tell Grace
+nothing of this; and be sure that this wretched Geoffrey will never
+trouble you again. He is most probably dead."
+
+"Dead!" shrieked Miles, raising his livid face and staring wildly at
+his friend. "He lives--here amongst us! I have seen him constantly;
+he has recognised me, I know. This man of whom we were just
+speaking,--this man whom you call Gilbert Lloyd,--is my younger
+brother, Geoffrey Challoner!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+L'Homme propose.
+
+
+When a man of Lord Ticehurst's character and disposition makes up his
+mind to achieve a certain result--in the turf slang of the day, "goes
+in for a big thing"--he is not easily thwarted, or, at all events, he
+does not give up his idea without having tried to carry it through.
+The indiscreet, illiterate, but by no means bad-hearted, young
+nobleman aforenamed had given himself up, heart and soul, to a passion
+for the opera-singer known to him as Miss Grace Lambert, and had gone
+through a psychological examination of his feelings, so far as his
+brain-power permitted, with the view of seeing how the matter lay, and
+what would be his best means for securing his ends. The notion of
+succeeding dishonourably had never entered his head, or at least had
+not remained there for a moment. In that knowledge of the world which
+comes, no one knows how, to persons who are ignorant of everything
+else--that _savoir faire_ which is learned unconsciously, and which
+can never be systematically acquired--Lord Ticehurst was a proficient.
+He was not, as times go, an immoral man, certainly not a wicked one;
+but he lived in a loose set, and it did not arise from conscientious
+scruples that he had not "tried it on" that Grace Lambert should
+become his mistress. Such a result would have given him considerable
+_éclat_ amongst his friends, and his religious notions were not
+sufficiently developed to make him shrink from taking such a step. He
+did _not_ take it because he knew it would be useless; because he knew
+that any such offer would be ignominiously rejected; that he would be
+spurned from the door, and never permitted again to be in the society
+of the girl whom he really loved. There was only one way out of it--to
+offer her marriage. And then the question came, Did he really love her
+sufficiently for that, and was he prepared to stand the consequences?
+
+Did he really love her? He thought he could put in an answer to that,
+by Jove! Did he really love her? You should ask old Gil about that!
+Old Gil knew more of him than anyone else; and he could tell you--not
+that he knew what it was, what was the reason of it, don't you
+know?--that for the whole of last season he had been an altered man.
+He knew that himself--he confessed it; he felt that he had not taken
+any proper interest in the stable, and that kind of thing; indeed, if
+he had not had old Gil to look after it, the whole thing would have
+gone to the deuce. He knew that well enough, but he could not help it.
+He had been regular spoons on this girl, and he was, and he should be
+to the end of the chapter, amen. That was all he had got to say about
+it. His life had been quite a different thing since he had known her.
+He had left off swearing, and all that cussed low language that he
+used to delight in once upon a time; and he'd got up early, because he
+thought there was a chance of meeting her walking in the Park (he had
+met her once, and solemnly walked between her and Mrs. Bloxam for an
+hour without saying a word); and he had cut the _ballet_ and its
+professors, with whom formerly he had very liberal relations. The
+_coryphées_ and the little _rats_, whom he had been in the habit of
+calling by their Christian names, who knew him by the endearing
+abbreviation of "Ticey," and to whom formerly he was delighted to
+stand and talk by the hour, received the coldest of bows from their
+quondam friend, as he stood amongst the wings of the opera-scenery on
+the chance of a word of salutation from the _prima donna_ as she
+hurried from her dressing-room on to the stage. But that word and the
+glance at her were enough. "It's no good," he used to say; "it won't
+do after that. If I go away to supper at old Chalkstone's, and find
+Bella Marshall and Kate Herbert and half-a-dozen of the T.R.D.L.
+_ballet_ there, 'pon my soul it don't amuse me when they put the
+lobster-claws at the end of their noses; and I think Bagwax and
+Clownington and old Spiff--well, damme, they're old enough to know
+better, and they might think about--well, I don't want to preach about
+what we're all coming to, and what must be precious near for them."
+
+A man of this kind thus hit suffers very severely. The novelty of the
+passion adds considerably to his pangs. The fact that he cannot speak
+out his hopes and wishes irritates and worries him. To throw the
+handkerchief is easy enough at the first start--becomes easier through
+frequent practice; but to win the prize is a very different matter.
+With a lady of his own rank it would have been much easier wooing; but
+with Grace, Lord Ticehurst felt himself placed at a double
+disadvantage. He had to assuage the rage of his friends at the honour
+he was doing her, and he had to prove to her that he was doing her no
+honour at all. The former, though a difficult, was the easier task.
+Lord Ticehurst knew his aunt, Lady Carabas, quite well enough to be
+aware that, though she was the first _grande dame_ who had introduced
+Miss Lambert into society, and that though up to that minute she had
+been the young lady's most steadfast friend, she would be the very
+first to rail against the _mésalliance_, and do all she could to cry
+down that reputation which she had so earnestly vaunted. Others would
+follow suit at once, and he and his wife would have to run the
+gauntlet. His wife! Ah, that was just the point; he would not care a
+rap if she were his wife, if he had her brains and her beauty to help
+in winning the game for him. But Lord Ticehurst's knowledge of the
+world was too great to permit him to flatter himself thus far; he knew
+that he had never received any substantial acknowledgment from Miss
+Lambert; and he recollected, with a very unpleasant twinge, what
+Gilbert Lloyd had said about Miles Challoner's attentions in that
+quarter--attentions received almost as favourably as they were
+earnestly proffered, as Lord Ticehurst had had an opportunity of
+witnessing at Mrs. Stapleton Burge's reception.
+
+Young noblemen of large fortunes are not in the habit of fighting with
+their inclinations and wishes. Lord Ticehurst felt that he must do his
+best to make this girl marry him--whether she would or not, he felt
+was doubtful, and acknowledged the feeling to himself with an honest
+frankness which was one of his best characteristics. He bore away with
+him his dull, wearying heartache, his "restless, unsatisfied longing,"
+to Goodwood, where it cankered the ducal hospitality, and made him
+think but little of the racing-prizes which he carried off. He bore it
+away with him to the hotel at Eastbourne, where, pending the Doncaster
+week, he and his friends had set up their Lares and Penates, and were
+doing their best to gain health and strength from the sea-breezes and
+quiet, and make up for the ravages of the London season.
+
+Except in the desultory manner already narrated, Lord Ticehurst had
+not revealed to his confederate the state of his feelings towards Miss
+Lambert. He had said nothing positive to him regarding what was now
+his fixed intention, of proposing for that young lady's hand, and it
+is probable he would have been consistently reticent had not chance
+brought the confession about in this way.
+
+It was a splendid August morning, and the two gentlemen were seated in
+the largest sitting-room of the pretty hotel, with its bay window
+overlooking the pleasant promenading crowd of seaside loungers,
+bathable children, bathed young ladies with their limp hair hanging
+down their backs, old gentlemen walking up and down with mouths and
+nostrils wide open to inhale as much ozone as possible during their
+stay, and the other usual common objects of the sea-shore. Breakfast
+was just over, and cigars had already been lighted. The blue vapour
+came curling round the sides of the sporting-print in which Gilbert
+Lloyd's head and shoulders were enveloped, and mixed with another blue
+vapour which stole over the more massive folds of the _Times_, with
+which Lord Ticehurst was engaged.
+
+A shout of "Hallo!" betraying intense astonishment, roused Gilbert
+from his perusal of the vaticinations of "Calchas." "What makes you
+hallo out like that? What is it?" he asked.
+
+"What is it! O, nothing particular," replied Lord Ticehurst; adding
+immediately, "By Jove, though!"
+
+"No, but I say, Etchingham, something must have roused you to make you
+give tongue. What was it, old boy? No more scratchings for the Leger?"
+
+"No, something quite different to that. Well, look here, if you must
+know;" and his lordship lazily handed the paper to his friend, and
+pointed to a particular paragraph.
+
+"Advertisement!" said Lloyd as he took it. "Now what the deuce can you
+find to interest you among the advertisements?" But the expression of
+his face changed as he saw, in large letters, the name of Miss Grace
+Lambert; and on further perusal he found that Mr. Boulderson Munns,
+whose noble style he immediately recognised, informed the British
+public that he had made arrangements with this distinguished _prima
+donna_ for a tour during the winter months, in the course of which she
+would visit the principal cities in England, Ireland, and Scotland,
+accompanied by a _troupe_ of distinguished talent, superintended
+by Mr. Munns himself, who would lend all the resources of the
+justly-celebrated band and _répertoire_ of the Grand Scandinavian
+Opera-house to the success of the design.
+
+Gilbert Lloyd, who had felt his colour ebb when he first saw his
+wife's name, read through the advertisement carefully, but said,
+nothing as he laid the paper down.
+
+"Have you read it?" asked Lord Ticehurst.
+
+"I have."
+
+"And what do you think of it?"
+
+"Think of it! What should I think of it, except that it will probably
+be a profitable speculation for--for Miss Lambert, and certainly a
+profitable one for Munns?"
+
+"Well but, I say, look here! It mustn't come off."
+
+"What mustn't?"
+
+"Why, this what's-its-name--tour!"
+
+"Then it will be a bad thing for Munns. But, seriously, Etchingham,
+what on earth do you mean? What are you talking about?"
+
+"Well, I mean that--that young lady, Miss Lambert, mustn't go
+flitting about the country."
+
+"Why not? What have you to do with it?"
+
+"Why, haven't I told you--don't you recollect, before Ascot and all
+that?--only you're so deuced dull, and think of nothing but--well,
+never mind. Don't you recollect my saying I intended to ask Miss
+Lambert to be my wife?" And Lord Ticehurst, whom the avowal and the
+unusual flux of words rendered a bright peony colour, glared at his
+Mentor in nervous trepidation.
+
+Gilbert looked at him very calmly. The corners of his mouth twitched
+for an instant as he began to speak, but he was otherwise perfectly
+composed as he said, "I had forgotten; you must forgive me; the stable
+takes up so much of my time that I have scarcely leisure to look after
+your other amusements. O, you intend to propose for this young lady!
+Do you think she will accept you?"
+
+"That's a devilish nice question to ask a fellow, that is. 'Pon my
+soul, I don't think there's another fellow in the world that would
+have had the--well, the kindness--to ask that. I suppose it will be
+all right; if I didn't, I shouldn't--"
+
+"Shouldn't ask, eh? Well, I suppose not, and it was indiscreet in me
+to suggest anything different. What do you propose to do now?"
+
+"Well, what do you think? Perhaps I'd better go up to town--deuced
+odd town will look at this time of year, won't it?--and see Miss
+Lambert, and make it all straight with her; and then go off and see
+old Munns, and tell him he'll have to give up his notion of the
+what's-its-name--the tour. He'll want to be squared, of course, and we
+must do it for him; but I shall leave you to arrange that with him."
+
+"Of course; that will not be a difficult matter." Gilbert Lloyd waited
+a minute before he added, "But there is no necessity for you to go to
+London on this portentous matter. Miss Lambert is much nearer to you
+than you imagine."
+
+"Much nearer! What the deuce do you, mean?" asked Lord Ticehurst,
+looking round as if he expected to see Gertrude entering the room.
+
+"Exactly what I say. I had a letter this morning from Hanbury; he's
+staying at Hardriggs, old Sir Giles Belwether's place, not a dozen
+miles from here; and he mentioned that Miss Lambert was a guest there
+too. Wait a minute; I'll read you what he says. No, never mind, it's
+only some nonsense about Lady Belwether's insisting on old Bel having
+a Dean to stay in the house at the same time to counteract the effect
+of the stage, and--"
+
+"D--d impertinence!" muttered Lord Ticehurst. "I always did hate that
+Hanbury--sneering beast! O, about twelve miles from here, eh? Might
+drive over to luncheon? What do you say, Gil? Do us good, eh?"
+
+"Do _you_ good, very likely, Etchingham! At all events, if you have
+made up your mind to this course, it's the best and the most
+honourable way to bring it to an issue at once. And I'm not sure that
+this is not an excellent opportunity. You will find the lady
+unfettered by business, free from the lot of fribbles who are always
+butterflying about her in town, and have only to make your running. I
+can't go; I've got letters to write, and things to do, and must stop
+here."
+
+Within half an hour Lord Ticehurst's phaeton came spinning round to
+the door of the hotel, and Gilbert, stepping out on to the balcony,
+saw him--got up to the highest pitch of sporting _négligé_--drive off
+amid the unsuppressed admiration of the bystanders. Then Lloyd walked
+back into the room and flung himself on a sofa, and lit a fresh cigar,
+and as he puffed at it, soliloquised, "What was that I saw on a seal
+the other day? _Quo Fata ducunt_. What a wonderful thing that they
+should have led to this; that they should have led me to being the
+most intimate friend of a man who is now gone off to propose to my
+wife! My wife! I, wonder when I shall make up my mind as to what my
+real feelings are towards her. After years of indifference, of
+absolute forgetfulness, I see her, and fall madly in love with her
+again--so madly that I pursue her, plainly seeing it is against her
+will, and, like an idiot, give her the chance of saying that to me
+which makes me hate her worse than ever--worse even than when we
+parted, and I did hate her then. But I've a feeling now which I had
+not during all that long interval of our separation. Then I did not
+care where she was, or what she did. Now, by the Lord, if I were to
+think that she cared for any man--or not that, I know she does, curse
+him! I know she does care for that man--I mean, if she were to give
+any man the position that was mine--that was? that _is_, when I choose
+to claim it--he and I would have to settle accounts. That poor fool
+has no chance. Gertrude has no ambition--that's a fault I always found
+in her; if she had had, we might have risen together; but she was
+nothing when she was not sentimentally spoony; and she would throw
+over my lord, who really loves her in a way that I never thought him
+capable of, the title, money, and position, for the _beaux yeux_ and
+the soft speeches of my sweet brother. What will be the end of that, I
+wonder? By heavens, if I saw _that_ culminating--if I thought that she
+was going to claim the freedom we agreed upon for the sake of
+bestowing herself on _him_, I'd stand the whole racket, run the whole
+risk, declare myself and my position openly, and let her do her
+worst!" He rose from the sofa and walked to the window, where he stood
+looking out for a few moments, then returned to his old position. "The
+worst, eh? How I hate that cursed sea, and the glare of the sun on the
+cliffs! It always reminds me of that infernal time. Do her worst!
+She's the most determined woman I ever saw. I shall never forget the
+look of her face that night, nor the tone of her voice as she
+whispered behind her fan. Well, sufficient for the day, &c. That's to
+be met when it comes. It hasn't come yet. I may be perfectly certain
+what reply will be given to my dear young friend Etchingham, who has
+just started on his precious fool's-errand; and as for the other
+man--well, he's not staying at Hardriggs, or Hanbury would have
+mentioned him. There will be this country tour to fill up the winter;
+and by the time next season arrives, he may be off it, or she may be
+off it, or a thousand things may have happened, which are now not
+worth speculating about, but which will serve my turn as they come."
+And Gilbert Lloyd turned to his writing-desk, and plunged into
+calculations and accounts with perfectly clear brains, in the working
+of which the thoughts of the previous half-hour had not the smallest
+share.
+
+Meanwhile, Lord Ticehurst sat upright in his mail-phaeton, driving the
+pair of roans which were the cynosure of the Park during the season,
+and the envy of all horsey men always, through some of the loveliest
+scenery in Sussex. Not that scenery, except Grieve's or Beverley's,
+made much impression on his lordship. Constant variety of hill and
+dale merely brought out the special qualities and paces of the roans;
+wooded uplands suggested good cover-shooting; broad expanse of heath
+looked very like rabbits. To such a thorough sportsman thoughts like
+these occurred involuntarily; but he had plenty beside to fix what he
+called his mind. Though he had made as light as possible to his
+henchman of the expedition on which he was engaged, and given himself
+the airs of a conquering hero, he was by no means so well satisfied of
+his chances of success, or of his chances of happiness, were success
+finally achieved. His chances of success occupied him first. Well, he
+did not know--you could never tell about women, at least he couldn't,
+whether they meant it, or whether they didn't. He didn't know; she was
+always very friendly, and that kind of thing; but with women that went
+for nothing. They'd draw you on, until you thought nothing could be
+more straight; and then throw you over, and leave you nowhere. N-no;
+he couldn't recollect anything particular that Miss Lambert had ever
+said to induce him to hope: she'd admired the roans as the groom moved
+them up and down in front of her windows; and she'd said more than
+once that she was glad some song of hers had pleased him, and that was
+all. Not much indeed; but then he was an earl; and the grand, undying
+spirit of British flunkydom had led him to believe, as indeed it leads
+every person of his degree to believe, that "all thoughts, all
+passions, all delights, whatever stirs this mortal frame," are at the
+command of anyone named in _Debrett_, or eulogised by Sir Bernard
+Burke: "Ticehurst, Earl of, Viscount Etchingham, b. 1831, succeeded
+his father the 3d Earl in," &c. &c. What was the use of that, if
+people were not to bow down in the dust before him, and he were not to
+have everything he wished? Heaps of fellows had been floating round
+her all the season, but no such large fish as he had risen at the
+bait; and though she had not particularly distinguished him, still he
+had only to go in and win the prize. What was it that Gilbert Lloyd
+had let drop about some rival in the field? O, that man Challoner!
+Yes, he had himself noticed that there had been a good deal of
+attention paid in that quarter, and by no means unwillingly received.
+Queer customer that old Gil! sees everything, by Jove! fancy his
+spotting that! Good-looking chap, Challoner, and quite enough to say
+for himself; but, Lord, when it came to the choice between him and the
+Earl of Ticehurst!
+
+Lord Ticehurst smiled quite pleasantly to himself as this alternative
+rose in his mind, and flicked his whip in the air over the heads of
+the roans, causing that spirited pair to plunge in a manner which made
+the groom (a middle-aged, sober man, with a regard for his neck, and a
+horror of his master's wild driving) look over the head of the phaeton
+in fear and trembling. As the horses quieted down and settled into
+their paces, Lord Ticehurst's spirits sunk simultaneously. Suppose it
+were all right with the lady, what about the rest of the people? Not
+his following--not Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol, and the rest of the
+crew. Lord Ticehurst might not be a clever man, but he had
+sufficiently "reckoned up" his _clientèle_, and he knew, whatever they
+might think, none of their tongues would wag. But the outsiders--the
+"society" people--what would they say to his bringing a lady from the
+boards of the opera to sit at the head of his table at home, and
+demand all the respect due to her rank abroad? They wouldn't like it;
+he knew that fast enough. O yes, of course they'd say that he was not
+the first who'd done it, and it had always been a great success
+hitherto, and so on; but still he had to look to his own position and
+hers, and--by Jove, Lady Carabas! she'd make it pleasant for them, and
+no mistake! Her ladyship liked her _protégée_, liked to flaunt her in
+the eyes of rival lion-hunters, gloried in the success she achieved,
+and the excitement she created; but her nephew knew well enough what
+her feelings would be if she had to acknowledge the brilliant _prima
+donna_ of the opera-house as a relation; if she had to endure the
+congratulations of her female friends on the distinguished addition to
+the family circle which her kindness and tact had brought about.
+
+What the deuce did it matter to him! The roans were then pulling well
+and steadily together, and the phaeton bowled merrily along the level
+turnpike-road. What the deuce did it matter to him! Was not he the
+Earl of Ticehurst, and was he not to be his own master? and was not he
+old enough, and rich enough, and big swell enough to do what he
+pleased, and to take a sight at the world's odd looks, and pooh-pooh
+the world's odd remarks? He was, and he intended to prove it; and
+after all, he would like to see one of them to compare with his pretty
+Grace. Why, who had they made a fuss about last season? Alice
+Farquhar, an insipid-looking, boiled-veal kind of girl, with her pale
+freckled face and her red hair; and Constance Brand, with her big
+black eyebrows, and her flashing eyes, and her hook-nose--talk about
+tragedy queens, well, there was Constance Brand cut out for that to a
+T! Everybody said what a charming thing it was when Alice Farquhar
+married old Haremarch, and how, ever since, he had been clothed and in
+his right mind; and as for Constance Brand--well, everyone knew she
+had saved the family credit by marrying young Klootz, who now called
+himself Cloote, and who only suffered himself to be reminded by his
+income that he was lineally descended from old Jacob Klootz, the
+banker and money-lender of Frankfurt-am-Main. Neither of these girls
+was to be compared to Miss Lambert, and he was determined that--Lord
+Ticehurst's spirits sunk again just at this juncture, as the gates of
+the Hardriggs avenue came within sight.
+
+The Belwethers were very pleasant old-fashioned people, who lived the
+same life year after year without ever getting tired of it. They were
+at Hardriggs, their very pleasant ancestral seat, from August until
+the end of March, and at their very pleasant town-house in
+Brook-street from April till the end of July. When in the country, old
+Sir Giles shot, fished, and attended the Quarter-sessions, the
+Conservative demonstrations, and the Volunteer reviews of his county.
+When in town, he slept a good deal at the Carlton, and rode a clever
+cob about the Park between twelve and two, distinguished for the
+bottle-green cutaway coat with velvet-collar, and the high muslin
+checked cravat of sixty years ago. Lady Belwether's character was well
+summed up in the phrase "kind old goose," which a particular friend
+applied to her. A madness for music was the only marked feature of her
+disposition; at home she visited all the old women, and helped the
+curate, and gave largely to the Flannel Club, and looked after the
+schools, and worried the doctor, and played the harmonium in the
+village-church on Sunday; and in town, what with the opera three
+nights a-week, and the Monday Popular Concerts, and the _matinées_ and
+_soirées musicales_ of distinguished creatures, with a dash of Exeter
+Hall oratorio, and a _soupçon_ of Philharmonic, the old lady's life
+was one whirl of delight. Lady Belwether had fallen in love with
+Gertrude at first sight. She was by no means a gushing old lady, nor,
+though so devoted to music, had she ever made the acquaintance of any
+professional. Hitherto she had always stood on her dignity when such a
+proposition had been made to her. She had no doubt, she used to say,
+that the artists in question were pleasant people in their way, but
+that was not her way. However, the first glance at Miss Lambert made
+the old lady wild to know her: there never was such a sweet face--so
+interesting, so classical---yes, the old lady might say, so holy; "and
+her voice, my dear, it gives me the notion of an angel singing." So,
+worthy old Lady Belwether having ascertained that Miss Lambert was
+perfectly "correct" and ladylike, procured an introduction to her, and
+commenced heaping upon her a series of kindnesses which culminated in
+the invitation to Hardriggs. This invitation was accepted principally
+by the advice of Lord Sandilands, who had known the Belwethers all his
+life, and who felt that Gertrude could not enjoy the quiet and fresh
+air requisite after her London season with more thoroughly respectable
+people.
+
+It was after the invitation had been given and accepted that Lady
+Belwether began to feel a little nervous and uncomfortable about what
+she had done. For in the pride of her heart and the warmth of her
+admiration for Gertrude, she told everybody that dear Miss Lambert was
+coming to them at Hardriggs in the autumn. Among others, she mentioned
+the fact to Miss Belwether, Sir Giles's sister, a dreadful old woman
+who lived in a boarding-house at Brighton, in order to be in the
+closest proximity to her "pastor," the Reverend Mr. Tophet, and who
+uttered a yelp of horror at the announcement. "I have said nothing,
+Maria," said this horrible old person, "to your gaddings-about and the
+frivolous style of your existence, but I must lift up my voice when
+you tell me you are about to receive a stage-player as your guest."
+"Stage-player" is an awkward word to be thrown at the head of a leader
+of county society, and it hit home, and rather staggered dear old Lady
+Belwether; not that the gallant old lady for an instant entertained
+the notion of giving up her intended guest, or suffered herself to
+appear the least abashed in the eyes of her antagonist. "It's a mere
+matter of taste, my dear Martha," she replied; "for my own part, I
+would sooner associate with a lady who, though a singer, is
+undoubtedly a lady, than with man who calls himself a minister, who
+was a shoemaker, and who always must be a vulgar boor." Having fired
+which raking shot at the Reverend Tophet, the old lady sailed away and
+closed the conversation.
+
+But she felt that it would be a great advantage if she could have
+someone staying in the house at the same time with Miss Lambert, whose
+presence would prove an effectual check on the ridiculous gossip
+likely to be prevalent in the county. The lay element would be
+excellently represented in the respectably dull and decorous people
+who were coming; but there was wanting an infusion of the clerical
+element, which could best be met by inviting Sir Giles's old friend
+the Dean of Burwash. Henry Asprey, Dean of Burwash, had been known as
+"Felix" Asprey at school and college, from his uninterrupted run of
+luck. The son of a poor solicitor, a good-looking idle lad, of capital
+manners and address, but with very little real talent, he had won an
+exhibition from his school, a scholarship, a fellowship, and a
+double-second at the University, no one knew how. He had taken orders,
+and travelled as tutor to the then Premier's son through Egypt and the
+Holy Land; on his return had published a little book of very weak
+poems, under the title _Palm-leaves and Dates_, which, with his usual
+luck, happened to hit the very bad taste of the day, and went through
+several editions. His friend the Premier gave him a good living, and
+he had scarcely been inducted into it when he won the heart of a very
+rich widow, whom he married, and whom, with his usual luck, within the
+course of four years he buried, inheriting her fortune of three
+thousand a-year. It was to console him in his deep affliction that his
+friend the Premier, just then quitting office for the third and last
+time, bestowed upon him the Deanery of Burwash. He was now some fifty
+years old, tall, thin, and eminently aristocratic-looking; had a long
+transparent hand, which was generally clasping his chin, and a soft
+persuasive voice. He liked music and poetry, and good dinners; was
+found at private views of picture-exhibitions; belonged to the
+Athenaeum Club; and liked to be seen there conversing with
+professional literary men. People said he would be a Bishop some day,
+and he thought so himself--he did not see why not; he would have
+looked well in his robes, spoken well in the House of Lords, and never
+committed himself by the utterance of any extreme opinion. That was a
+thing he had avoided all his life, and to it much of the secret of his
+success might be ascribed. His sermons were eloquent--his friends said
+"sound," his enemies "empty;" he deplored the division in the Church
+with sympathetic face and elegant gesture; but he never gave adhesion
+to either side, and showed more skill in parrying home-questions than
+in any other action of his life.
+
+Such was Dean Asprey, to whom Lady Belwether wrote an invitation to
+Hardriggs, telling him frankly that Miss Grace Lambert would be one of
+the guests, and asking if he had any objection to meet her. The Dean's
+reply, written in the neatest hand on the thickest cream-laid
+notepaper, arrived by return of post. He accepted the invitation as
+heartily as it was given ("Genial creature!" said dear old Lady
+Belwether); he fully appreciated dear Lady Belwether's frankness about
+her guest, for he was aware how could he fail to be?--of the
+censoriousness of the world towards persons of his calling. He had,
+however, made it his rule through life, and he intended to pursue the
+same course until the end, to shape his conduct according to the
+dictates of that still small voice of his conscience rather than at
+the bidding of the world. ("The dear!" said Lady Belwether.) He should
+therefore have the greatest pleasure in making the acquaintance of
+Miss Grace Lambert, of whom he had already heard the most favourable
+accounts, not merely as regarded her great genius, but her exemplary
+conduct. And he was, with kindest regards to Giles, his dear Lady
+Belwether's most sincere friend, Henry Asprey. "A Christian
+gentleman," said the old lady, with tears of delight standing in her
+eyes as she finished the letter; "and Martha to talk of her
+stage-players and Tophets indeed, when a man like that does not mind!"
+
+The Belwethers were rather astonished when, just after the party had
+sat down to luncheon, they heard Lord Ticehurst announced. For though
+there was a certain similarity of sporting tastes between him and Sir
+Giles, the disparity of age caused them to move in widely different
+sets; while Lady Belwether knew his lordship as the nephew and one of
+the principal attendants on, and abettors of, Lady Carabas, whom the
+old lady held in great aversion. "One of the new style of ladies, my
+dear," she used to say with a sniff of disdain; "finds women's society
+too dull for her, must live amongst men, talks slang, and I daresay
+smokes, if one only knew." However, they both received the young
+nobleman with considerable _empressement_; and Lord Ticehurst, on
+taking his seat at the luncheon-table, found that he knew most of the
+assembled party. The Dean was almost the only one with whom he had not
+a previous acquaintance; and Lord Ticehurst had scarcely whispered to
+Lady Belwether a request to know who was the clerical party on his
+left, when the Dean turned round and introduced himself as an old
+friend of the late Lord Ticehurst's. "I used to meet your father at
+Lady Walsingham's receptions when Lord Walsingham was Premier, and he
+allowed me to call him my very good friend. We had certain tastes in
+common which bound us together--geology and mineralogy, for instance.
+You are not a geologist, I believe, my lord?"
+
+"Well, no," said Lord Ticehurst frankly; "that ain't my line."
+
+"N-no," said the Dean. "Well, we all have our different tastes--_tot
+homines, quot sententiæ_. Your father was a man who was passionately
+fond of science; indeed, I often used to wonder how a man absorbed as
+he was in what generally proves to ethers the all-engrossing study of
+politics could find time for the discussion of scientific
+propositions, and for the attendance at the lectures of the Royal
+Institution. But your father was a man of no ordinary calibre; he
+was--"
+
+"O yes, he was a great gun at science and electricity, and all that
+kind of thing, at least so I've been told. Excuse me for half a
+minute; I want to get some of that ham I see on the sideboard." And
+Lord Ticehurst rose from the seat, to which he did not return after he
+had helped himself, preferring a vacant place at the other end of the
+table, by the aide of Sir Giles Belwether, whose conversation about
+hunting and racing proved far more entertaining to his lordship.
+Moreover, from his new position he could keep a better view of Miss
+Lambert, who did not, he was pleased to observe, seem particularly
+gratified or amused at the rapid fire of conversation kept up by the
+young men on either side of her.
+
+When luncheon was over, and the party rose and dispersed, Lord
+Ticehurst was seized upon by Sir Giles, who took him to the stables,
+expatiating lengthily and wearily on the merits of his cattle; and it
+was not until late in the afternoon that the visitor could make his
+escape from his host. He thought that he would have had his journey
+for nothing, seeing no chance of getting a private interview with Miss
+Lambert, when on his return to the house to see if he could find Lady
+Belwether, to whom he intended making his adieux, he heard the sound
+of a piano, and recognised the prelude of a favourite ballad of
+Gertrude's. Before the song could begin, Lord Ticehurst had entered
+the room, and found Miss Lambert, as he expected, alone at the piano.
+Gertrude looked round at the opening of the door, and when she saw who
+it was, half rose from her seat.
+
+"Pray don't move, Miss Lambert," said Lord Ticehurst, approaching her;
+"pray don't let me disturb you."
+
+"You don't disturb me in the least, Lord Ticehurst," said Gertrude,
+sitting down again. "I was merely amusing myself. I had not even the
+business excuse of being 'at practice.'"
+
+"Don't let me interfere, then. Amuse yourself and me at the same time.
+Do now, it will be a charity; 'pon my word it will."
+
+"No, no, no; I'm not so cruel as that. I know the terrible infliction
+music is to you in London. I've watched too often the martyr-like
+manner in which you've suffered under long classical pieces, and the
+self-denying way in which you have applauded at the end of them,
+without deliberately exposing you to more torture in the country."
+
+"Assure you you're wrong, Miss Lambert; but I'm too happy to think
+you've done me the honour to watch me at all, to go into the question.
+No, please don't go. If you won't sing to me, may I speak to you?"
+
+Gertrude, who had again half-risen, turned round to him with a look of
+wonder in her eyes. "May you speak to me, Lord Ticehurst? Why, of
+course!"
+
+The answer was so manifestly simple and genuine, that it quite took
+Lord Ticehurst aback, and there was a moment's pause before he said,
+"Thanks, yes--you're very good. I wanted to speak to you--wanted to
+say something rather particular to you, in point of fact."
+
+The hesitation in his manner, an odd conscious look in his face, had
+revealed the object of his visit. Gertrude knew what he was about to
+say, but she remained perfectly calm and unembarrassed, merely saying,
+
+"Fray speak, Lord Ticehurst; I am quite at your service."
+
+"Thanks very much--kind of you to say so, I'm sure. Fact of the matter
+is, Miss Lambert, ever since I've had the pleasure of knowing you I've
+been completely stumped, don't you know?--bowled over, and that kind
+of thing. I suppose you've noticed it; fellows at the club chaff most
+awfully, you know, and I can't stand it any longer; and, in short,
+I've come to ask you if--if you'll marry me, and that kind of thing."
+
+"You do me great honour, Lord Ticehurst," commenced Gertrude; "very
+great honour--"
+
+"O," interrupted his lordship, "don't you think about that; that's
+what they said at White's, but I said that was all d--d stuff--I beg
+your pardon, Miss Lambert; all nonsense I mean--about honour, and all
+that. Why," he went on to say, having worked himself up into a state
+of excitement, "of course I know I'm an earl, and that kind of thing.
+I can't help knowing about my--my station in life, and you'd think me
+a great ass if I pretended I didn't; but when you're my wife, you'll
+be--I mean to say you'll grace it and adorn it--and--and there's not
+one in the whole list fit to be named along with you, or to hold a
+candle to you."
+
+"I cannot thank you sufficiently for this expression of kind feeling
+towards me, Lord Ticehurst," said Gertrude. "No, hear me for one
+minute;" as he endeavoured again to interrupt her. "Ever since you
+have known me you have treated me with the utmost courtesy and
+kindness, and you have now done me the greatest possible honour. You
+may judge, then, how painful it is to me--" Lord Ticehurst's jaw and
+hat here dropped simultaneously--"how painful it is to me to be
+compelled to decline that honour."
+
+"To--to decline it?"
+
+"To decline it."
+
+"To say no!"
+
+"To say no."
+
+"Then you refuse me! Case of chalks, by Jove! Miss Lambert, I--I'm
+sorry I've troubled you," said Lord Ticehurst, picking up his hat
+and making for the door. "I hope you won't think anything of it,
+I--good-morning!--Damme if I know whether I'm on my head or my heels,"
+he added when he got outside, and was alone.
+
+Lord Ticehurst was so completely _bouleversé_ that he scarcely knew
+how he got to his phaeton, or how he tooled the roans, who were
+additionally frisky after the Belwether oats, down the avenue. He knew
+nothing until he got to the gate, on the other side of which was an
+open fly. He looked vacantly at its occupants, but started as he
+recognised Lord Sandilands and Miles Challoner.
+
+"O, that's it, is it?" said his lordship to himself. "Damme, old Gil
+was right again!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+Dieu dispose.
+
+
+The effect of Miles Challoner's startling communication upon Lord
+Sandilands was very great; but the long-cultivated habit of
+self-command enabled him to conceal its extent and somewhat of its
+nature from his younger friend. It was fortunate that Miles was just
+then so much engrossed with his love, so full of the hope of the
+success of his suit, so relieved and encouraged by discovering that
+Lord Sandilands did not attempt to dissuade him from a project in
+which he had felt very doubtful whether he should have the support of
+a man of the world--and though nothing would have induced him to
+abandon that project, Lord Sandilands' acquiescence made a wonderful
+difference to him in the present, and would, he felt, be of weighty
+importance in the future,--that he was not keenly observant of the old
+nobleman. As soon as it was possible, Lord Sandilands got rid of
+Miles, but not until he had received from the young man a grateful
+acknowledgment of his kindness, and until they had finally agreed on
+the expedition to Hardriggs for the following day.
+
+When he was quite alone, the familiar friend of Miles Challoner's
+father gave way to the feelings with which this revelation had filled
+him. This, then, was the explanation of the instinctive aversion he
+had felt towards Gilbert Lloyd--fate had brought him in contact with
+the man whose story he alone of living men knew, and under
+circumstances which might have terrible import. The one hope of his
+dead friend--that the brothers might never meet had been defeated; the
+fear which had troubled him in his later days had been fulfilled. If
+Miles Challoner's impression concerning this man should be correct--if
+indeed he was or intended to become a suitor to Gertrude, a fresh
+complication of an extremely dangerous nature--knowing what he knew,
+he could well appreciate that danger might arise. The skeleton was
+wearing flesh again, and stalking very close by the old man now.
+Hitherto only the strong sympathy which had united him with Miles
+Challoner and his father--his friendship for the latter had been one
+of the strongest and deepest feelings of a life which had, on the
+whole, been superficial--made the fate of the outcast son and brother
+a subject of any interest to Lord Sandilands. He might have turned up
+at any time, and this unfortunate meeting and recognition between the
+brothers have taken place, and beyond the unpleasantness of the
+occurrence, and the necessity he should have recognised for impressing
+upon Miles as stringently as possible the importance of observing his
+father's prohibition, he would not have felt himself personally
+concerned. But Gertrude! the girl whom he had come to love with such
+true fatherly feeling and solicitude--the girl who had brought into
+his superficial life such mingled feelings of pain and pleasure--what
+if she were about to be involved in this family mystery and misery?
+Very seldom in the course of his existence had Lord Sandilands
+experienced such acute pain, such a sensation of helpless terror, as
+this supposition inspired. Supposing that Miles Challoner was right in
+the dread which Gilbert Lloyd's manner with regard to Gertrude had
+awakened in him,--and the eyes of a lover not sure of his own
+position, and anxiously on the lookout for possible rivals,
+were likely to be more acute and more accurate than those of
+an old gentleman much out of practice in the subtleties of the
+tender passion, and without the spur to his perceptions of
+suspicion,--supposing he was really in love with Gertrude, and that by
+any horrible chance Gertrude should prefer him to Miles! Very
+unpleasant physical symptoms of disturbance manifested themselves
+after Lord Sandilands had fully taken this terrible hypothesis into
+consideration, and for a time the old gentleman felt that whether it
+was gout or apoplexy which was about to claim him for its own was a
+mere question of detail. He had lived so long without requiring to
+test the strength of his nerves, without having any very strong or
+urgent demand made upon him for the exercise of his feelings, that
+anything of the kind now decidedly disagreed with him, and he went to
+bed in a rueful state of mind, and a shaky condition of body. The
+night brought him calmness and counsel, and the symptoms of illness
+passed off sufficiently for him to resolve on keeping the engagement
+he had made with Miles for the following day. "The sooner his mind is
+at ease, the sooner will mine be, on his account and my own." Thus ran
+Lord Sandilands' thoughts as he lay awake, listening against his will
+to the splash of the sea, and inclined to blame its monotonous murmur
+for the nervousness which had him in its grip. "I suppose it's not the
+right thing for me to help Miles to marry Gertrude--my old friend
+would not have liked the notion of his son and heir's marrying my
+natural daughter; but what can I do? The young fellow is not like
+other men of his age and position; in fact, he isn't, strictly
+speaking, I suppose, a 'young' fellow at all. If he were, and
+resembled the young men of the day a little more, I fancy he never
+would have thought of marrying her. And then there's an awful blot
+upon the Challoners, too--and she is such a charming girl, no tongue
+has ever dared to wag against her. Suppose I did not encourage it,
+that I set myself against it, what could I do? I have literally no
+right in Miles's case, and none that I can acknowledge in Gertrude's,
+and I should only make them both dislike me, without preventing the
+marriage in the least. I wish--because of what poor old Mark would
+have thought--that they had never met; but I can't go beyond that--no,
+I can't. But if she cares for that wretch, good heavens! what shall I
+do?" The old man put his shrunken hands up to his bald temples, and
+twisted his head about on his pillow, and groaned in his solitude and
+perplexity. "Must I threaten him with exposure, and so drive him out
+of the country? or must I tell her the truth about herself, and ask
+her to believe, on the faith of my unexplained assertion, that the man
+is one whom she must never think of marrying?"
+
+The position was one of indisputable difficulty; the "pleasant
+vice"--that long-ago story of a dead woman, deceived indeed, but with
+no extraordinary cruelty, a story which had not troubled Lord
+Sandilands' conscience very much--had manufactured itself finally into
+a whip of stout dimensions and stinging quality, and he was getting a
+very sufficient taste of it just now.
+
+Miles must try his luck. That was the only conclusion which could be
+immediately reached. If he could sleep a little, he might feel all
+right in the morning, and be able to accompany him to Hardriggs. If he
+were not well enough, Miles mast go all the same. If the young man
+should feel surprise and curiosity at finding his old friend so
+impatient, it could not be helped; it must pass as a vagary of an old
+man's. But Miles would not remark anything; the vagary was
+sufficiently cognate to his own humour and his own purposes to pass
+unnoticed.
+
+When Lord Sandilands and Miles Challoner arrived at Hardriggs on the
+following day, a close observer would have discerned that they were
+both under a strong impression of some kind. Lord Sandilands was not
+feeling well by any means, but he had assured Miles the drive would do
+him good, and he had found his indisposition so far useful, that it
+explained and excused his being very silent on the way. Neither was
+Miles much inclined to talk. He was of an earnest nature, never at any
+time voluble, and when under the influence of strong feeling silence
+was congenial to him. He well understood that the revelation he had
+made to Lord Sandilands on the preceding day had produced a startling
+and disagreeable effect; and having perceived plainly, beyond the
+possibility of doubt, that the secret which he so earnestly desired to
+know was in Lord Sandilands' possession, and was of a darker and direr
+nature than he had ever guessed at, but was, at the same time, quite
+as securely beyond his reach as ever, he made up his mind to let the
+subject drop. Unless this man had cut him out, or was likely to cut
+him out with Grace Lambert, he had no power to harm him. The truth
+was, Miles Challoner was very sincerely and heartily in love, and he
+had as little power, as inclination to occupy his thoughts for long at
+a time with anyone but Grace, with any speculation but his chance of
+success with her. Luckily, Sir Giles and Lady Belwether were the least
+observant of human beings. Sir Giles was stupid to an extent which is
+not to be realised except by those who understand the bucolic gentry
+of our favoured land, and Lady Belwether was--though superior, as we
+have seen, to her baronet in intelligence, and distinguished by a
+taste for music--very shortsighted. Close observers were therefore not
+"on hand," when Lord Sandilands and Miles arrived at Hardriggs. Sir
+Giles was contemplating the turnips at a distant point of his "pretty
+little place;" Miss Lambert had gone out into the garden, or the
+lime-walk, the servants said, some time before; and Lady Belwether and
+Mrs. Bloxam were in the morning-room.
+
+Lord Sandilands did not lose much time in arranging the situation as
+he wished it to be arranged, so far as Miles was concerned--his
+consummate ease of manner, which Miles admired to the point of envy,
+rendered any little disposition of affairs of that kind a very simple
+proceeding to him. Miles was despatched in search of Sir Giles, Mrs.
+Bloxam was begged on no account to interfere with Miss Lambert's
+saunter in the garden--they might join her presently, perhaps--and
+Lady Belwether was engaged in a discussion upon the comparative merits
+of "our" native composers, within a space of time whose brevity would
+have been surprising to anyone unacquainted with the rapid action of a
+fixed purpose combined with good manners. Mrs. Bloxam had directed one
+searching glance at Lord Sandilands on his entrance, and, as she
+withdrew her eyes, she said to herself, "Something has happened. He
+wants to speak to me; but I had rather he did not, so he sha'n't." And
+strange to say, though he made a protracted visit to Hardriggs that
+day, Lord Sandilands did not succeed in getting an opportunity of
+speaking a word to Mrs. Bloxam. This annoyed him a good deal.
+"Confound the woman!" he said to himself; "either Mrs. Bloxam is too
+stupid to see that I want to speak to her, or Lady Belwether is too
+clever to leave off talking!" In his capacity of gooseberry-picker,
+Lord Sandilands was led on this occasion into anything but pleasant
+pastures.
+
+The shortest way to the turnips, just then occupying the mind and
+demanding the presence of Sir Giles Belwether, fortunately lay through
+the garden, otherwise Miles Challoner might not have profited so
+readily and unsuspected by the strategy of his clever old friend.
+Through a side-gate of the garden the lime-walk was to be gained, and
+as Miles closed that gate behind him he caught sight of Grace Lambert.
+She was walking slowly along in the shadow of the trees, her head bent
+down in a thoughtful attitude. Miles went quickly towards her, and she
+looked up and recognised him with a slight start and a vivid blush; in
+fact, with the kind of recognition which takes place when the person
+who intrudes upon a reverie happens to be its subject. Gertrude had
+been thinking of Miles--she thought of him very often now; and the
+interview which had taken place between herself and Lord Ticehurst had
+made her think of him more seriously than ever. She loved him. She did
+not deny the truth, or palter with it, or fail to recognise its
+consequences. She had mistaken pleased and excited fancy and flattered
+vanity for love once, but this was nothing of the kind. She knew this
+was true love, because she thought of _him_, not of herself; because
+she did not hope, but feared he loved her. How would she have listened
+to such an avowal from Miles's lips as that which, made by Lord
+Ticehurst, had produced mere contempt, and a desire to get rid of it
+and him as quickly as possible? Gertrude had accepted her position in
+such perfect good faith, that its difficulties never presented
+themselves in a practical form at all; and she pondered this matter
+now in her heart, as if she were really the free unmarried girl
+she seemed to the world. If he should come to her and tell her a
+love-tale, what should she say to him? She had asked herself the
+question many times and had not found the answer, when, raising her
+eyes at the sound of steps, she met those of Miles Challoner, and saw
+in them what he had come to say.
+
+There was manifest embarrassment on both sides, and each was
+distinctly conscious of its cause. Why could they not meet to-day as
+they had met so often before? Why were the ordinary commonplaces so
+hard to think of and so incoherently said? Gertrude was the first to
+recover her composure. She asked Miles if Lord Sandilands had come
+with him, and on his saying he had, and was then in the house, she
+turned in that direction, and said something about going in to see
+him. But Miles checked her steps by standing still.
+
+"Don't go into the house," he said; "he does not expect you. Let us
+walk this way; let me speak to you." She glanced at him, and silently
+complied. She knew it all now, and she began to feel what it was that
+she must say, and what it would cost her to say it. She felt his eyes
+upon her, and the delicate colour faded away from her face.
+
+Neither she nor Miles Challoner could have told afterwards, or even
+exactly recalled in their thoughts, the words then spoken between
+them. He told her how he had loved her from the first--he who had
+never loved before--and how fear and hope had alternated in his heart
+until now, when hope was the stronger, and he had determined to tell
+her how all his happiness, all his life, was in her hands. He spoke
+with the frank manliness of his nature, and Gertrude's heart thrilled
+as she listened to him with intense pain, with keen delight. At least
+he loved her well and worthily; nothing could deprive her of that
+exquisite knowledge. She would, she must, put away the wine of life
+offered to her parched lips, but she knew its sweetness, had seen the
+splendour and the sparkle of it.
+
+A thousand thoughts, innumerable emotions, crowded upon her, as she
+listened to the words of Miles; but when he prayed her to speak and
+let him know his fate, prayed her with eagerness and passion, but with
+hope that was almost confidence, then she put them all down with her
+strong will, and addressed herself to her task. She drew the hand
+which he had taken away from his hold, and told him in one short
+sentence that she could not give him the answer he desired.
+
+"You cannot, Grace? You refuse me!" he said hoarsely. "You tell me,
+then, that I have deceived myself?"
+
+"No," she said, "I do not. Let us sit here awhile"--she seated herself
+on a bench under a lime-tree as she spoke--"and let me speak frankly
+and freely to you, as you deserve."
+
+Miles obeyed her with bewilderment. What was she going to say? She
+would not marry him, and yet he had not deceived himself! She was
+deadly pale, and he might have heard the beating of her heart; but she
+was quite firm, and she turned her steady eyes upon him unfalteringly.
+
+"There is only one thing you can say to me," he said, "if you
+persevere in forbidding me to hope--that is, to send me out of your
+sight for ever."
+
+"Perhaps," was her reply; "but listen. I have said you don't deceive
+yourself, and I mean it. I know you love me; I know what perfect
+sincerity there is in you--hush! let me speak--and I--I do love
+you--you have not mistaken me, I have not misled you."
+
+"Then what does anything else matter?" said Miles, and he caught her
+hands and kissed them unresisted, unrebuked. "With that assurance,
+Grace, surely you will not refuse me?"
+
+"I must," she answered. "Have patience with me. I will tell you why.
+It is for your own sake."
+
+"My own sake!" he exclaimed passionately; "you deprive me of all hope
+and happiness for my own sake! I shall need patience indeed to
+understand that."
+
+"It is true, nevertheless. I could not many you, Miles Challoner,
+without doing you a great injury; and I love you too well, much more
+and better than myself, to do that. Take that assurance, and believe
+that nothing can shake my determination. My fate is decided, my way of
+life is quite fixed. I shall never be your wife, never, never,
+never!"--his face was hidden in his hands, he did not see the
+suffering which broke all control and showed itself plainly in her
+every feature--"but I shall never love you less, or anyone but you."
+The low distinct tones of her voice thrilled him with a horrid sense
+of hopelessness. She spoke as one who had taken an irrevocable
+resolution.
+
+"What do you mean?" he said. "You must tell me more than this. What do
+you mean by doing me an injury? I protest I have not the faintest
+notion of your meaning. It cannot be--" He hesitated, and she took up
+his words.
+
+"Because you are a gentleman of old name and a responsible position in
+society, and I am a singer, an actress a woman with no name and no
+station, you would say. Yes, it is precisely for this cause, which you
+think impossible. I know you don't regard any of these things, but the
+world does; and the man I love shall never be censured by the world
+for me."
+
+How well it was, she thought, how fortunate, that such a real genuine
+difficulty did exist; that she could give some explanation which he
+might be induced to receive.
+
+"Then you would make me wretched for the sake of the world, even if
+what you say of my position and your own were true? And it is not. Is
+your genius nothing? Is your fame nothing? I speak now as reasonably
+as yourself; not as a man who holds you peerless, far removed above
+all the world, but as one discussing a question open to argument. What
+am I in comparison to the men who would be proud to offer you rank and
+wealth? What have I to give you that others could not give a
+thousandfold?"
+
+"You give me all I value, all I care for," she said; "but I must not
+take it. You must not, you shall not, deceive yourself. My genius, as
+you call it, my fame, are real things in their way and in their
+sphere, but they are not of any account in yours. Ask your friend Lord
+Sandilands; he is a kind friend to me also, and a man who knows the
+world thoroughly; and he will tell you I am right."
+
+"No, he won't!" said Miles triumphantly, "No, he won't! He will tell
+_you_, on the contrary, that you are quite wrong; he will tell you
+that he knows I love you, and have dared to hope, to believe that you
+love me. He will tell you that I have told him what is my dearest
+hope, and that he shares it; and more, Grace, more than that, he will
+tell you that he came here with me to-day on purpose that I might
+learn my fate, and be no longer in suspense; and that he is on duty at
+this moment, keeping the old ladies in talk, just to give me this
+precious opportunity. Now, where are all your arguments? where are my
+wise friends? where is this terrible world to whom we are to be
+sacrificed? You have nothing more to say, Grace; your 'never, never,
+never!' cannot hurt me any more."
+
+For one brief moment he triumphed. For one moment his arm was around
+her, and his lips, were pressed to hers. But the next she had started
+from his embrace, and stood pale and breathless before him.
+
+"Is this really true?" she said; "does Lord Sandilands approve?" She
+asked him only to gain a moment's time for thought; she was terribly
+disconcerted by this complication, it increased her difficulties
+immensely. But Miles saw in the question only a symptom of yielding,
+only a proof of his victory.
+
+"Yes; yes," he said eagerly, "it is true; it is indeed! He is the only
+real friend I have in the world; the only man whose opinion I care
+for, and he is on my side. Now, Grace, you must yield; you cannot
+refuse me."
+
+ She stood for a moment motionless and silent. Then her nerves;
+generally so strong, so completely under control, gave way. The
+violence of the struggle, the intensity of the pain she was suffering,
+that overwhelming remembrance of the past, the agonising sense of what
+might have been, but was now quite impossible, the feebleness of the
+only weapon which she could venture to use in this battle in which her
+own heart was her adversary,--all these overcame her, and she sunk
+upon the bench in a helpless agony of tears.
+
+Terrified by her distress; Miles Challoner knelt before her, and
+implored her to explain the cause of this sudden grief. But all his
+prayers were vain. She wept convulsively for many minutes and was
+literally unable to speak. When at last she conquered the passion of
+tears, she felt and looked so very ill that he became alarmed on a
+fresh score.
+
+"You are ill," he said; "shall I go for Mrs. Bloxam? Shall I take you
+to the house?"
+
+She made a sign with her hand that he should not speak, then leaned
+her head against the bench, and closed her eyes. He stood by, awkward
+and silent, watching her. After a little while she sat up, and said
+faintly:
+
+"Will you leave me? Go away from me for the present--I am ill; but it
+is only from agitation. Let me be alone for a while; you shall see me
+again when I am able."
+
+"Of course I will leave you, if you wish it," said Miles, with all the
+timidity and embarrassment of a man in the presence of feminine
+weakness and suffering; "but I am afraid you are not fit to be left
+alone."
+
+"I am indeed," she urged, and her face grew whiter as she spoke; "I
+shall recover myself, if I am left alone. Don't fear for me. Go to the
+house, and do not say you have seen me. Go by the lime-walk into the
+avenue; I will go by the garden. No one will see me; and if I can get
+to my room and lie down for a little, I shall be quite well. Pray,
+pray go."
+
+She put her hands before her face, and Miles saw a quick shudder pass
+over her from head to foot. He was afraid to go, afraid to stay; at
+length he obeyed her, and took the way towards the house which she had
+indicated, feeling bewildered and alarmed.
+
+When Miles Challoner reëntered the drawing-room at Hardriggs he found
+Lord Sandilands still there, held in durance by Lady Belwether and
+Mrs. Bloxam. Lord Sandilands had found his hostess immovable, and no
+other afternoon callers had had the kindness to come and partially
+release him. Mrs. Bloxam kept her eyes and her fingers steadily and
+unremittingly engaged with her fancy-work, and Lady Belwether
+persisted in discoursing on music and religion. With his accustomed
+philosophy Lord Sandilands accepted the situation, consoling himself
+by the reflection that a day or two could not make any difference in
+what he had to say to Mrs. Bloxam, and that the chief object of his
+present exertions had at least been secured, for he entertained a
+satisfactory conviction that Miles and Gertrude had met "somewhere
+about." Miles returned too soon, in one sense, for the old gentleman's
+wishes; he would rather have found him utterly oblivious of time; in
+that case, and if no consideration of anybody's convenience had
+occurred to Miles, Lord Sandilands would have felt confidence in the
+prospering of the suit. But Miles came in looking as little like a
+successful and happy lover as he could look, and Lord Sandilands
+perceived in an instant that things had gone wrong. He did not give
+Miles time to speak before he rose, and saying, "You have clear ideas
+of time, Miles; we ought to be back before now.--Business, Lady
+Belwether, business--you don't understand its claims, happily for
+you.--Goodbye, Mrs. Bloxam; tell Miss Lambert I am sorry not to
+have seen her;" he got himself and his melancholy, and indeed
+frightened-looking, companion out of the room and out of the house.
+
+"Now tell me all about it," said Lord Sandilands to Miles when they
+were in the carriage; "what has happened? You have seen her, of
+course?"
+
+"Yes," said Miles ruefully, and then with much embarrassment he told
+Lord Sandilands what had occurred.
+
+The narrative perplexed and distressed the listener. He understood
+Gertrude's feelings up to a certain point, but no farther; he could
+not understand why Miles's representations of his advocacy of his suit
+had had no effect in moderating her apprehensions of the world's view
+of such a marriage. He could say little or nothing to console Miles,
+but he told him he did not regard Miss Lambert's decision as final, or
+the nervous attack which had so alarmed him as of any import.
+
+"I will see her, and have it out with her," said Lord Sandilands to
+himself; "and if it is necessary for her happiness's sake and that of
+Miles, I will tell her the truth."
+
+
+
+
+
+END OF THE SECOND BOOK.
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THE THIRD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+Ægrotat Animo.
+
+
+Miss Grace Lambert had made herself so popular at Hardriggs, had so
+ingratiated herself with all staying in that hospitable mansion that
+the news, duly conveyed to the breakfast-table by Mrs. Bloxam on the
+morning after Miles Challoner's visit, that she was too unwell to
+leave her room, threw a considerable damp over the Company assembled.
+Old Sir Giles, who had been very much impressed by Gertrude's quiet
+manner and cheerful spirits since she had been staying in the
+house--who had been perfectly astonished at the discovery that, though
+an opera-singer and a great public favourite, she had, as he phrased
+it, "no d--d nonsense about her"--was the first to break out into
+loudly-expressed lamentation, mingled with suggestions of sending off
+at once to Hastings for medical advice, or telegraphing to London with
+the same object. Lady Belwether was distressed beyond measure; the
+idea of anyone so charming, anyone capable of yielding such exquisite
+delight, suffering from pain or sickness seemed to be something quite
+beyond the old lady's ken. She was at Gertrude's bedside within five
+minutes after she had heard of her young friend's indisposition, and
+was shocked at the swollen eyelids and pallid drawn face of her idol.
+The Dean, too, received the news with great regret: he had experienced
+much pleasure in Miss Lambert's society. The very fact of her position
+had had its secret charm; there was something specially pleasant in
+being brought into daily communion with one whose status in life was
+considered equivocal, but whose conduct was unexceptionable, and, if
+occasion required, would bear any amount of scrutiny. All great men
+have their enemies; the Dean was not without his. The _odium
+theologicum_, than which there is nothing stronger, had made him its
+butt on various occasions, and many of his clerical brethren had
+poured out the vials of their wrath, through the medium of the Church
+journals to which they contributed, on his devoted head. The Dean had
+hitherto never replied to any of these attacks; but he had thought
+more than once, as he sat nursing his knee and looking out through the
+bay-window of the library at Hardriggs, that he should be by no means
+sorry if the contemporaneous visit of Miss Lambert and himself were
+made the subject of attack; and he had planned out a very brilliant
+and taking letter in reply--a letter abounding in charity and in
+quotations from the Fathers, Pollok's _Course of Time_, and the
+_Christian Year_. The Dean expressed to Lady Belwether that, charming
+as her guests were in the aggregate, Miss Lambert's secession would
+leave among them a blank, a _hiatus_, which was not merely _valde
+deflendus_, but which, in point of fact, it would be impossible to
+fill up; and the old lady, though she did not understand Latin,
+comprehended the general nature of the remark, and found in it new
+cause for self-gratulation, and fresh weapons of defence against the
+insidious attacks of Martha and the Reverend Tophet. There were, it is
+true, certain people staying at Hardriggs who seemed to take it as a
+grievance that any "person in Miss Lambert's position," as they were
+good enough to call it, should be taken ill at all; but they were in a
+decided minority, and most of them were very much ashamed of the
+opinion they had held when they found the Dean of Burwash taking the
+young lady's indisposition so much to heart.
+
+Had any one of them the slightest suspicion of the real cause of
+Gertrude's ailment? Not one. Would any one of them have given credence
+for a moment, if they had been told, that on the previous day the girl
+had refused the proffered hands of two men, one of them an earl, the
+other a wealthy commoner? Not one. "Such things are all very well in
+books, my dear," Lady Belwether would have told you, adding from
+memory a list of ennobled actresses who had all done honour to the
+position in life to which they had been raised; but the chances came
+but seldom, and were always taken advantage of by those to whom they
+were offered. What would have been the effect on the host and hostess,
+and on the rest of their company, if it had become known that Lord
+Ticehurst had made Miss Lambert an offer, it would be impossible to
+say. They would have wondered at him, they would have wondered much
+more at her, and they would have professed to pity, and probably have
+cordially hated them both. However, that was a secret which of all in
+that house was known but to Gertrude alone, and she was not one who
+would wittingly let it pass her lips.
+
+She was ill; she had a perfect right to say so, and was not uttering
+the slightest falsehood in the assertion. That dreadful sinking of the
+heart, that utter prostration, that deep, dead blankness of spirits,
+that hopelessness, that refusal to be comforted--if this did not
+constitute illness, what did? He _did_ love her, then? She had known
+it long, but what bliss it was to hear him avow it! Should she ever
+lose the remembrance of him as he stood before her--the light in his
+eye, the _pose_ of his head, the tone of his voice? True? She would
+stake her life on that man's truth. What a difference between his
+diffident earnestness and the theatrical swagger with which Gilbert
+Lloyd asked her the same question--ah, how many years ago! Lord
+Ticehurst, too,--she had almost forgotten his visit and its purport,
+so overshadowed was it by the importance of the affair which
+immediately succeeded it,--Lord Ticehurst--he was, in his way,
+considerate and kindly--meant to be all courteous and all honest; she
+hoped her manner to him had not been brusque or abrupt. Countess of
+Ticehurst, eh?--rank, wealth, station. For an instant a hard, cold,
+proud look, which had been a stranger to her face of late, flitted
+across her features, and then faded away. No! Those might have had
+their allurements when she first learned Gilbert Lloyd's
+worthlessness, and recommenced her life, scorning to yield, and merely
+looking on all human weaknesses as stepping-stones for her
+advancement. She had learned better things than that now. Miles! Could
+it be possible that but a comparatively short time ago he had been
+supremely indifferent to her? that she had looked on and seen the love
+for her growing in his heart, without a dream of ever reciprocating
+it? And now--Refused him! she could have done nothing else. And for
+his own sake--as she had told him, but as he seemed unable to
+comprehend,--for his own sake. For the love of such a man as Miles
+Challoner she would have risked everything, in the first appreciation
+of such a sentiment so fresh and novel to her in all her experience of
+life--and that experience had been singular and not small; to be the
+recipient of such a passion as that man proffered and laid at her
+feet, she would have let her dead past bury its dead; forgotten,
+buried, stamped down out of all chance of resurrection the events of
+her early life--her marriage, her separation from her husband The
+compact made  between her and Gilbert Lloyd should have been more than
+ever religiously fulfilled. That she held that husband at her mercy
+she knew perfectly well: only once had he ventured to question her
+power that evening at Mrs. Burge's reception, and his conduct then had
+given her ample proof of the impossibility of his resistance to her
+will. She had nothing to fear from him; and she knew him well enough
+to be certain that he had kept that secret at least locked in his own
+breast. But Miles? No! she had done rightly; even if her appreciation
+of Miles Challoner's warm admiration and generous regard had not grown
+and deepened into a feeling, the strength of which forbade her
+striving against it, and which she knew and confessed to herself to be
+love, she would have rebelled against any attempt to hoodwink or
+deceive that loyal-hearted gentleman. But now the attempt had been
+treachery of the basest kind. She loved him--loved him wildly,
+passionately, and yet with an intermingled reverence and respect such
+as her girlish fancy had never dreamed of; and she had refused him,
+had told him--not indeed calmly or quietly, for once her self-control
+had failed her, but with earnestness and decision--that her fate was
+decided, her way of life quite fixed, and that she could never be his
+wife! Ah, if they could have known all, those good people downstairs,
+they would scarcely have wondered at Miss Lambert's indisposition.
+They ascribed her illness to over-exertion, over-excitement, the
+reaction after the feverish professional life of the past few months.
+A little rest, they said to each other, would "bring her round." A
+little rest! Something more than a little rest is required, as they
+would have allowed, could they have seen what no one, not even Mrs.
+Bloxam, saw,--the favourite of the public with dishevelled hair and
+streaming eyes stretched prone upon her pillow, and sobbing as though
+her heart would break!
+
+Miss Grace Lambert's illness or indisposition, thus evoking the
+compassion of the company staying at Hardriggs, was, whatever the
+company might have thought about it, known to herself to spring purely
+from mental distress. The same _teterrima causa_ acted on Lord
+Sandilands, but brought about a different physical result. On the
+morning after Miles had communicated the result of his interview with
+Gertrude the old nobleman awoke with a return of the symptoms which
+had previously alarmed him so much increased that he felt it necessary
+to send for a local practitioner, by whose report he would be guided
+as to the expediency of summoning his own ordinary physician from
+London.
+
+Hastings is so essentially a resort of invalids, that the faculty is
+to be found there in every variety. Allopathy, seated far back in its
+brougham, looks sedately and smugly at the saunterers on the
+promenade; while Homoeopathy, thinking to assume a virtue even if it
+have it not, and to wear the livery of medicine though scorned by
+regular practitioners, whirls by, black-clothed and white-chokered, in
+its open four-wheeler. Nor are there wanting the followers of even
+less generally received science. On that charming slope, midway
+between Hastings and St. Leonards, where a scrap of green struggles to
+put in an arid appearance amidst the vast masses of rock and sand,
+Herr Douss, the favourite pupil of Priessnitz (what a large-hearted
+fellow he must have been, to judge by the number of his favourite
+pupils!), opened a water-cure establishment, to which, for financial
+reasons, he has recently added the attractions of a Turkish bath, and
+invariably has a houseful of damp hypochondriacs. And in the immediate
+neighbourhood is there not the sanatorium of the celebrated Mr. Crux?
+a gentleman who has discovered the secret that no mortal ailment can
+withstand being rubbed in a peculiar manner, and who shampoos you, and
+rubs you, and pulls your joints, and pommels you all over until you
+become a miracle of youth and freshness, to which the renovated Æson
+could not be compared.
+
+It is not for an instant to be supposed that any of this unlicensed
+band were allowed to work their will on the person of Lord Sandilands.
+The old gentleman was far too careful of his health to quit the
+immediate precincts of his private physician without being relegated
+to someone to whom that physician had knowledge, and in whom he had
+trust. Sir Charles Dumfunk, of Harley-street, habitually attended Lord
+Sandilands, and was liked by his lordship as a friend as well as
+esteemed as a physician. A very courtly old gentleman was Sir Charles,
+one who for years had been honorary physician to the Grand
+Scandinavian Opera, and had written more medical certificates for
+sulky singers and dancers than any other member of his craft. In his
+capacity of fashionable physician--the lungs and throat were supposed
+to be his speciality--Sir Charles Dumfunk had the power of bidding
+many of his patients to quit their usual pursuits, and devote
+themselves to the restoration of their health in a softer climate. The
+ultra-fashionables were generally sent to Nice, Cannes, or Mentone;
+"it little matters," the old gentleman used to remark; "they will
+carry Belgrave-square and its manners and customs with them wherever
+they go." _Nouveaux riches_ were despatched to Madeira, energetic
+patients to Algiers, while mild cases were permitted to pass their
+winter at Hastings. At each one of these places the leading physician
+was Sir Charles Dumfunk's friend. Little Dr. Bede, of St. Leonards,
+swore by the great London Galen, who invariably sent him a score of
+patients during the winter, and was as good to him as a couple of
+hundred a-year. Lord Sandilands had come down armed with a letter of
+introduction to Dr. Bede, and had sent it on by his servant,
+accompanied by a brace of partridges from the Belwether estate,
+very soon after his arrival. Dr. Bede had acknowledged the receipt
+of letter and birds in a very neat little note, had looked-up
+Lord Sandilands in the _Peerage_--the only lay book in his medical
+library--and had left his card at his lordship's lodgings.
+Consequently, when, the morning after Miles's _fiasco_ at Hardriggs,
+Dr. Bede was summoned to come to Lord Sandilands at once, physician
+and patient knew as much about each other as, failing a personal
+interview, was possible.
+
+Symptoms detailed, examination made, Dr. Bede--a very precise and
+methodical little gentleman, with a singularly neatly-tied black
+neckerchief, towards which the eye of every patient was infallibly
+attracted, and a curiously stony and expressionless blue eye of his
+own, out of which nothing could ever be gleaned,--Dr. Bede, tightly
+buttoned to the throat in his little black surtout, gives it as his
+decided opinion that it is gout, "and not a doubt about it." Lord
+Sandilands, really half-gratified that he is literally laid by the
+heels by an aristocratic and gentlemanly complaint, combats the
+notion--no hereditary predisposition, no previous symptoms. Dr. Bede
+is firm and Lord Sandilands is convinced. An affair of time, of
+course; an affair very much at the patient's own will; entire
+abstinence from this and that and the other, and very little of
+anything else; perfect quiet and rest of mind and body--of mind quite
+as much as body--repeats the little doctor, with a would-be sharp
+glance at the patient, whose mental worry shows itself in a thousand
+little ways, all of which are patent to the sharp-eyed practitioner.
+Lord Sandilands promises obedience with a half laugh; he is very much
+obliged to Dr. Bede, he has thorough confidence in his comprehension
+and treatment of the case; there is no need to send to town for
+Dumfunk? Dr. Bede, with confidence dashed with humility, thinks
+not--of course it is for his lordship to decide; but he, Dr. Bede, has
+not the smallest fear, provided his instructions are strictly obeyed;
+and he is quite aware of the value of the charge Sir Charles Dumfunk
+has confided to him. So far all is arranged. The doctor will look in
+every day, and his lordship promises strict compliance with his
+instructions.
+
+So far all is arranged; but when the doctor is fairly gone, and the
+door is shut, and Lord Sandilands has heard the sound of the wheels of
+the professional brougham, low on the sand and loud on the stones,
+echo away, the old gentleman is fain to admit--first to himself,
+secondly to Miles, whom he summons immediately--that it is impossible
+for him to keep his word so far as being mentally quiet is concerned.
+
+"If I'm to be clapped down on this particularly slippery chintz sofa,
+my dear boy," said he, "I must accept the fiat. It might be better,
+but it might be much worse. I can hear the pleasant plashing of the
+sea, which, though a little melancholy, is deuced musical; and I can
+see the boats floating away in the distance; and I have every
+opportunity of making myself acquainted with the hideousness of the
+prevailing fashion in female dress; and, if I'm feeling too happy,
+there's safe to arrive a German band, and murder some of my favourite
+_morceaux_ in a manner which reminds me that, like that king of
+Thingummy, I am mortal, begad! But it's no use for that little
+medico--polite, pleasant little person in his way, too--no use for
+that little medico to tell me to keep my mind perfectly quiet, and not
+to excite myself about anything. What a ridiculous thing for a man to
+prescribe! as though we hadn't all of us always something to worry
+ourselves about!"
+
+Miles Challoner was, as times go, a wonderful specimen of a selfless
+man. He had temporarily laid aside his own trouble on finding that his
+old friend was really ill, and it was in genuine good faith that he
+said:
+
+"Why, what in the world have you to worry you now, old friend? What
+should prevent your keeping rigidly to that mental repose which Dr.
+Bede says is so essential to your well-doing?"
+
+"What have I got to worry me? What is likely to prove antipathic to my
+being quiet?" asked Lord Sandilands in petulant querulous tones.
+"'Gad, when it man's old it's imagined that he has no care, no
+interest but in himself! You ought to know me better, Miles; 'pon my
+soul you ought!"
+
+"I do know all your goodness, and--"
+
+"No, no! Goodness and stuff! Do you or do you not know the interest I
+take in you? You do? Good! Then is it likely I could allow affairs to
+remain as they are between you and Miss Lambert without worrying
+myself about them? without trying my poor _possible_ to bring them
+right?"
+
+"My dear old friend--"
+
+"Yes, yes! your dear old friend; that's all very well; you treat me
+like a child, Miles. I know you mean it kindly; but I've been
+accustomed to act and think for myself for so long that I can't throw
+off the habit even now, when that dapper little fellow tells me I
+ought; and I must at once go into this business of Grace Lambert's. I
+have my own ideas on that matter, and I won't at all regard her
+decision as final, notwithstanding your solemn face and manner. Now,
+look here, my dear boy, it's of no use lifting up that warning finger;
+if you cross my wishes I shall become infinitely worse, and less
+bearable. I've always heard that gout is a disease in which, above all
+others, the patient must be humoured. I must see--There! you're
+jumping up at once--and quite enough to give me a sharp attack--simply
+because you thought I was going to name your divinity. Wasn't it so? I
+thought as much. Nothing of the sort; I was about to say that I must
+see Mrs. Bloxam at once. I have some very special business to talk
+over with her, and I should be much obliged if you, Miles, would take
+a fly and go over at once to Hardriggs and bring Mrs. Bloxam back with
+you."
+
+"I?--go over to Hardriggs after--"
+
+"Go over to Hardriggs! And why not? I'm sure you could not complain of
+your reception by Sir Giles and Lady Belwether; they have been most
+cordially polite to you on every occasion of your visiting them, and
+they are the host and hostess at Hardriggs, I believe. Besides, I ask
+you to do me a special favour, in doing which you need expose yourself
+to no disagreeables, even to seeing anyone whom you would rather not
+see."
+
+"You are quite right, and I will be off at once."
+
+"That's spoken like my dear good fellow! Goodbye, Miles, goodbye!--If
+he does come across her in the house or the grounds?" said the old
+gentleman, as the door closed behind his _protégé_. "Well, you never
+can tell; it might have been whim, a mere passing caprice, in which
+case she might be perfectly ready to revoke to-day; and no harm could
+be done by his meeting her again. Or it might be something more
+serious--is something more serious probably, for Gertrude is a girl
+with plenty of resolution and firm will. At any rate, I'm right in
+having Mrs. Bloxam here to talk it over, and I think I shall hold to
+the programme which I have already arranged in my mind."
+
+
+The Hastings fly, drawn by the flea-bitten gray horse, which conveyed
+Miles Challoner to Hardriggs, went anything but gaily over the dusty,
+hilly road. The driver, a sullen young man, with dreary views of life,
+saw at a glance that his fare was in an abstracted frame of mind, and
+looked anything but likely to pay for extra speed. So he sat on his
+box, driving the usual half-crown-an-hour rate, giving the flea-bitten
+gray an occasional chuck with the reins, producing a corresponding
+"job" from the bit, and occupying himself now by fitting a new end to
+his whip-lash, now by humming dolorous ditties in the hardest Sussex
+twang, with a particularly painful and constantly recurring
+development of the letter "r." Miles sat leaning back in the carriage,
+his hat thrust over his eyes, his hands plunged deep in his pockets.
+He was buried in thought of no pleasant kind, and neither heard nor
+heeded the chaff of the passers-by, which was loud and frequent. The
+first portion of the way to Hardriggs lies along the Fairlight-road,
+and numerous parties of cheerful Cockneys, in vehicles and on foot, on
+their way to the romantic Lover's Seat, and the waterfall where there
+is no water, and the pretty glen, passed the carriage containing the
+moody young man, and commented openly on its occupant. "He don't look
+like a pleasurer, he don't!" was a remark that gained immediate
+sympathy; while a more comic suggestion that "he looked as if he'd
+lost a fourpenny-piece," was received with tumultuous applause.
+Neither style of comment had the least effect on Miles Challoner, who
+remained chewing the cud of his own reflections until the stopping of
+the fly at the outer gate of Hardriggs Park reminded him of having
+seen Lord Ticehurst driving through that gate on the occasion of his
+visit on the previous day. Suddenly it flashed across him that the
+young nobleman's manner had been specially odd and remarkable. Could
+it have been that--and yet the expression of Lord Ticehurst's face was
+chapfallen and disconsolate, anything but that of a successful suitor.
+All the world had said, during the past season, that his lordship had
+been very strongly _épris_ of Miss Lambert, he had paid her constant
+attention, and-- That could have had no influence on her decision of
+yesterday; she could never have listened to Lord Ticehurst's
+protestations, even if he had made any such, or he would not have gone
+away in so melancholy and depressed a state. Besides, had not Grace
+told him that she loved him, Miles--that he was not mistaken in
+her--that she had not misled him? And yet she would not marry him? Ah,
+there must be some mistake, something which could be explained away?
+Lord Sandilands had evidently felt that when he had asked him to come
+over with this message to Mrs. Bloxam. He would see Miss Lambert--not
+asking for her directly, that would be too marked, but taking an
+opportunity of chancing on her, and--well, after all, the dearest
+object of his life might be obtained.
+
+They were pleased to see the good-looking young man at Hardriggs, as
+he descended from the fly and joined the pre-luncheon croquet-party
+on the lawn. He had been there very recently, it is true; but
+good-looking young men are always welcome in country-houses, where
+indeed a fresh face, a fresh voice, a few fresh ideas, are priceless.
+Miles threw a hurried glance over the croquet-players. Miss Lambert
+was not amongst them. They were all young people, who, after the first
+greeting, returned to their game and its necessary accompaniment of
+flirtation. But Dean Asprey was seated under a "wide-spreading
+beech-tree," reading the _Times_, and he rose as he saw Miles
+approach, dropped the paper, and went to meet him. As the Dean
+approached, Miles could not help noticing his aristocratic appearance;
+could scarcely help smiling at the wonderful way in which the tailor
+had combined the fashionable and clerical element in his dress.
+
+"How do you do, my dear Mr. Challoner?" said Dean Asprey, in those
+bland mellifluous tones which had won so many hearts. "So delighted to
+see you here again! With only one fear tempering my pleasure, and that
+is that--believing you to be alone? yes, that is so?--the fear that my
+dear old friend Lord Sandilands is indisposed? Say I'm wrong, and set
+my fears at rest!"
+
+"I would gladly, Mr. Dean; but I cannot. Lord Sandilands has a sharp
+attack of the gout."
+
+"Of the gout? Well, well, I can recollect John Borlase these--ah, no
+matter how many years; too many to trouble to recollect--and the gout
+was the last complaint one would have ascribed to him."
+
+"Well, he has it tow, without a doubt. Dr. Bede of St. Leonards has
+seen him, and pronounced definitely in the matter. I have come over to
+ask Mrs. Bloxam, who is a very old friend of his, to go and see him."
+
+"Ay, ay, indeed! Mrs. Bloxam--a very charming and estimable person, by
+the way, and apparently well versed in many questions which, for
+females at least, would be considered abstruse--Mrs. Bloxam is in
+great request just now. Her young charge Miss Lambert is also ill,
+and--"
+
+"Miss Lambert ill!" cried Miles; "what is the matter?"
+
+"O, nothing of any consequence, I believe," replied the Dean.
+("Charmingly ingenuous the youth of the present day," he said to
+himself: "he has at once revealed the reason of his coming over here
+again so soon, without having the smallest idea that he has done so.")
+"Nothing of any consequence; a trifling indisposition, a _migraine_, a
+_nichts_, which in anyone else would be thought nothing of, but which
+in Miss Lambert is naturally regarded with special interest. You know
+her, of course. I mean know to appreciate her, rather than know in the
+mere ordinary sense of acquaintance?"
+
+"I--I--yes, O yes! I've had, the pleasure of seeing Miss Lambert
+frequently in town, and think her--of course, most charming--You're
+sure there's nothing serious the matter with her, because Lord
+Sandilands, don't you know, is such an old friend of hers, and takes
+such interest, that--"
+
+"I know that perfectly, and would not dream of deceiving you for an
+instant. Some of us, I know, are suspected of doing evil that good may
+come," said the Dean, with a specially sweet smile; "but it is a very
+dangerous doctrine, which I have always held in abhorrence. I see a
+servant passing the end of the lawn, and I suppose I may be considered
+sufficiently at home here to venture to give an order.--- James, would
+you be good enough to let Mrs. Bloxam know that Mr. Challoner is here,
+and would gladly speak with her? Thank you, very much.--And now, my
+dear Mr. Challoner, to return to our very interesting conversation.
+What were we talking about?"
+
+"You were mentioning that Miss Lambert was ill, and--"
+
+"Ay, to be sure, Miss Lambert! What a charming girl! what grace and
+beauty! what amiability! what unaffected-- And you have known her for
+some time? I can well understand her creating a great sensation in
+London. Such a mixture of beauty and talent is very rare, and
+naturally very impressive. What says Dryden?--
+
+     'Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit,
+       The power of beauty I remember yet.'
+
+What a charming couplet, is it not? And so, as you were saying, Miss
+Lambert is a great success in London society?"
+
+"Rather as you were saying, Mr. Dean," said Miles, with a feeble
+attempt at a smile,--he knew he should not see Gertrude, and the
+conversation was beginning to bore him,--"though I can cordially
+indorse the remark. Miss Lambert made a complete conquest of everyone
+she met, including Lady Belwether, who is hastening towards us.--How
+do you do, Lady Belwether? I'm sorry to learn I have left one sick
+friend to come to another."
+
+"Our dear Grace is certainly better, my dear Mr. Challoner.--Dean, you
+will be glad to hear that.--Fancy my position, Mr. Challoner; the
+responsibility of having anyone like that in one's care, on whom so
+much might be said to hang, you know. Sir Giles was for telegraphing
+off at once to London for advice, but Grace would not have it. And she
+has proved to be right, as she always is, dear creature! She is much
+better, and she heard the message you brought, Mr. Challoner, about
+Mrs. Bloxam, and has not raised the least objection to her going.
+Indeed, so like her, sweet thing! she seems to have forgotten herself
+in anxiety about Lord Sandilands."
+
+"I suppose, Lady Belwether, that there is not much chance of my seeing
+Miss Lambert?"
+
+"Seeing her? To-day? My dear sir, not the remotest chance in the
+world. I strictly forbade her thinking of leaving her room to-day; and
+when Mrs. Bloxam has gone away with you, I shall take her place at
+Grace's side.--You think I'm right, Dean? The importance of such a
+case as this is--Exactly, I knew you'd agree with me. What do you
+think Lady Hawksley said when she heard the darling was ill?"
+
+"Knowing Lady Hawksley," said the Dean, again with his pleasant smile,
+"the field of speculation is too vast for me to attempt to enter on
+it. What did her ladyship remark?"
+
+"She said it must be a horrid bore for me; and what would Miss Lambert
+have done if she had been taken ill in the season, when she was
+singing. Did you ever hear such horrible things? But I told her that
+if Miss Lambert had been taken ill in town she would have had
+everybody's sympathy, from the Queen downwards; which is more than can
+be said of some people, I could not help adding."
+
+As the old lady finished speaking, Mrs. Bloxam appeared, and very
+shortly afterwards she and Miles took their leave, and started off for
+Hastings in the fly. Miles had rather looked forward to this drive in
+Mrs. Bloxam's company. The thought of it had afforded him some little
+consolation when he found that there was no chance of his seeing
+Grace. In default of the presence of the adored one it is the lover's
+greatest delight to find someone who will either talk about her, or
+will listen to his outspoken raptures. Miles thought that in Mrs.
+Bloxam he might possibly find both these virtues combined; and
+accordingly they had scarcely cleared the gates of the Hardriggs
+avenue before he began to ply his companion with a series of questions
+concerning Miss Lambert. These questions were artfully framed, and a
+less worldly-wise woman than Mrs. Bloxam might have been deceived as
+to their purport. But that worthy lady was not merely always perfectly
+cute and observant, but on this particular occasion she was, if
+possible, more than ever on her guard. Although during the previous
+day her fingers had been unremittingly engaged on her "fancy-work"
+during the entire period of Lord Sandilands' visit, her eyes had
+strayed now and then to the large looking-glass close by her, which
+reflected a window and a part of the garden beyond, leading to the
+lime-walk. In that looking-glass Mrs. Bloxam had seen her charge and
+Miles Challoner walking together, talking earnestly, and through the
+same medium Mrs. Bloxam had seen each of them return separately, and
+ill at ease. The ex-school-mistress had all her life been in the habit
+of putting two and two together, and arriving at the result with
+commendable quickness and accuracy, and her perspicacity did not fail
+her now. She felt certain that Miles had proposed, and that Gertrude
+had refused him, though she loved him; equally certain that Lord
+Sandilands was aware of a portion--she couldn't tell how much--of the
+real state of affairs, and that he had sent for her with the intention
+of discussing them with her; and Mrs. Bloxam very much deprecated the
+idea of any such discussion. She did not know where it might end, or
+what it might lead to; and there were passages in the life of her
+quondam pupil which Mrs. Bloxam had not thought it necessary to dilate
+upon, or indeed to introduce to Lord Sandilands' notice; and
+circumstances might render the further suppression of those passages
+impossible.
+
+So Mrs. Bloxam sat back in the fly and answered all Miles Challoner's
+questions in monosyllables, and was glad when, finding it impossible
+to extract anything from his companion, the young man lapsed into
+silence and left her to her own reflections, occupying himself with
+his. Neither were roseate-hued. The hope which had sprung up in
+Miles's breast as he journeyed to Hardriggs seemed suddenly to have
+paled and faded out--why he knew not. Grace was ill, to be sure, but
+the fact of her illness did not account for the sudden change in the
+aspect of his fortunes--did not account for that sinking of the heart,
+that depression, that _avertissement_ of coming trouble which we have
+all of us experienced many times in our lives, and which just then was
+settling down in thick black clouds over Miles Challoner. And Mrs.
+Bloxam's reflections were sombre and unpleasant. What Mr. Browning
+calls "the conscience-prick and the memory-smart" were beginning to
+tell upon her; she had lost the power of self-possession, and the
+faculty of lying--at least of lying in that superior manner which she
+had once possessed--had deserted her.
+
+So they drove along in silence, and the holiday excursionists to
+Fairlight had more fun out of them and much openly-expressed chaff,
+opining how that "his mother had found him out courtin' the gal, and
+had fetched him away;" how that "he'd married the old woman for her
+money, and found out his mistake." But when they arrived at
+Robertson's-terrace, they found that Lord Sandilands had experienced a
+renewal of his attack, and that Dr. Bede had expressed a strong desire
+that his patient should be left perfectly quiet and undisturbed. To
+this, however, Lord Sandilands would not agree, and, pursuant to his
+orders, Mrs. Bloxam was shown to his room immediately after her
+arrival.
+
+She found the old nobleman faint and weak, just recovering from a
+sharp bout of pain. The sight of her seemed to rouse and please him.
+He asked her a few unimportant questions about the people at
+Hardriggs, seemed difficult to convince that Gertrude's indisposition
+was only of a temporary character, spoke in a manner that was anything
+but cheerful or reassuring about his own health, and remained so long
+flying round the real matter at his heart, that Mrs. Bloxam began to
+think he would never settle on it. At length, when the landlady of the
+lodgings had left the room and they were alone, Lord Sandilands said:
+
+"Our acquaintance dates so far back, Mrs. Bloxam, and has been of such
+a character, that there need be no reticence on either side."
+
+Mrs. Bloxam winced at his words, and moved uneasily on the chair which
+she had taken by the sick man's bedside. But she was sufficient
+mistress of herself to bow and utter a few polite commonplaces.
+
+"I could not get an opportunity of speaking to you yesterday,"
+continued his lordship; "but I know how generally observant you are,
+and I am sure you cannot have failed to remark that my visit to
+Hardriggs with my young _protégé_--for so I must regard Mr.
+Challoner--was not a mere ceremonious call. There is no need in
+disguising from you--if indeed you do not know it already--that he is
+desperately in love with Gertrude. It will further tend to place us in
+our proper position if I tell you plainly, and without reserve, that
+Mr. Challoner yesterday proposed to Gertrude, and--was rejected."
+
+If Mrs. Bloxam had seen all plain-sailing before her it is probable
+that she would have professed the liveliest astonishment, the greatest
+stupefaction, at this statement. But as she knew that she should have
+to wind her course through very doubtful channels, and would require
+all her skill to avoid shoals and contest storms, she thought it
+better to rely upon Lord Burleigh's plan, and content herself with a
+nod.
+
+This nod Lord Sandilands took to mean acquiescence. "You did
+comprehend all that?" he asked. "I was only doing justice to the
+acuteness which I have always ascribed to you when I imagined such was
+the case. Now we come to the more serious part of the question. Why
+did Gertrude refuse that young man's offer? Not that she did not, does
+not, love him? I'm an old fellow now, but I'm not old enough to have
+forgotten entirely that pleasant mute language; and if woman's looks
+and woman's ways are the same as they were thirty years since,
+Gertrude is decidedly in love with Miles Challoner. You have not had
+many opportunities of seeing them together, and therefore cannot judge
+so well. But I _know_ it. Why did she reject him, then? Why, ma'am,
+because, thank God, she inherits a certain proper pride; and she felt
+that she, an unknown woman--unknown so far as family and friends are
+concerned, and with a precarious income dependent on her health and
+strength--was not going to permit a member of an old county family to
+enter into what might be thought a _mésalliance_ for her."
+
+"Very proper," murmured Mrs. Bloxam, having nothing else to say.
+
+"Exactly; very proper, under circumstances. But those circumstances
+must be changed; they must be no longer permitted to exist. It must be
+my care, Mrs. Bloxam," continued Lord Sandilands, with additional
+gravity, "as it is my duty yes, my bounden duty--to endow that young
+lady with such means that she can freely and frankly give herself to
+the man she loves; without any obligation on either side."
+
+"But to do that, my lord, you must acknowledge your relationship to
+Gertrude?"
+
+"I have made up my mind to that already, Mrs. Bloxam," said the old
+gentleman; "I have a sort of idea that I sha'n't get over this attack,
+and that is a reparation which must be made before I die. O, not that
+I'm going to die just now," he added, as he saw her face change; "but
+still--"
+
+"Don't you think you should have a nurse, my lord,--someone more
+accustomed to illness, and more able to devote herself entirely to
+your service, than the landlady here? If I could be of any use--"
+
+"A thousand thanks, Mrs. Bloxam. But I have telegraphed to town for my
+housekeeper--ah, I forgot you have not seen her; she has only recently
+come to me, but seems a clear-headed, sensible woman--and she will
+come down and nurse me. I am a little faint just now, Mrs. Bloxam, and
+must ask you to leave me for the present. I will speak again to you on
+that subject before you and Gertrude leave Hardriggs."
+
+Mrs. Bloxam left the room with sentiments of a very unpleasant kind.
+Lord Sandilands thought it was the want of fortune that induced
+Gertrude to refuse Miles Challoner. But what about her relations with
+Mr. Gilbert Lloyd, of which his lordship was totally unaware?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+Recognition.
+
+
+The meditations of Mrs. Bloxam as she returned to Hardriggs were not
+agreeable. She was exceedingly puzzled as to what her best line of
+action would be, in consideration of her own interests, and, indeed,
+to do her justice, those of Gertrude. Justice is the more easily done
+in this respect, as the two were identical, and not to be separated by
+any of the ingenuity which Mrs. Bloxam would no doubt have found for
+the occasion, had there been any profit in its employment. The position
+was a difficult one, and she was glad of the solitary drive, which
+enabled her to lay it all out, like a map, before her mind, and study
+it at comparative leisure. The temporary illness of Gertrude was, she
+felt, in the present conjuncture of affairs, a point in her favour.
+She could not go to Lord Sandilands, and, daring the continuance of
+his attack of gout, Lord Sandilands could not go to her. That
+they should not meet until a decisive line of action had been
+arranged--first by Mrs. Bloxam in her own mind, and then imparted to
+and acceded to by Gertrude--was of the last importance; and that was
+safe. The revelation of her parentage to Gertrude by Lord Sandilands
+would so immediately and radically alter the relations between her and
+her noble friend, that it could hardly be practicable to keep the fact
+of her marriage concealed from Lord Sandilands. That revealed, the
+sequel to the marriage must also be made known; and what view would
+the old nobleman be likely to take of the remarkably original
+arrangement into which Gilbert Lloyd and Gertrude had entered? Would
+he be excessively shocked, and insist at once on its reversal? or
+would he regard it as on the whole the best and most sensible
+proceeding for two persons, who had discovered their marriage to be an
+immeasurable mistake and an incalculable evil, to have given
+themselves such redress and relief as the law would have afforded them
+only at the cost of much expense and publicity? Mrs. Bloxam
+entertained a conviction that the latter view was much the more
+probable one to be taken by Lord Sandilands; but, in any case, how
+should she stand with him? Not only should she be convicted of having
+deceived him, and of gross negligence and breach of trust as regarded
+the young girl placed under her care, but she should be proved guilty
+of having received money for Gertrude's maintenance and education for
+two years after they had ceased to be any concern of hers--after the
+girl's husband had undertaken the one, and the world had become the
+vehicle of the other. There was a double awkwardness and difficulty in
+this part of Mrs. Bloxam's puzzle. It was almost as unpleasant to
+admit the fact to Gertrude as to have it stated to herself by Lord
+Sandilands. Under no circumstances would it do for her to quarrel with
+Gertrude, that was clear. If she ran the risk of contracting another
+marriage, the secret of the first would remain in Mrs. Bloxam's
+possession, and she would always be in Mrs. Bloxam's power. It must
+not be supposed that the woman was altogether heartless and
+cold-blooded in making these calculations: she had real affection for
+Gertrude at the bottom of them all; but she was of a cool temperament
+and businesslike habits, and she thoroughly understood the useful art
+of classifying her sentiments, and not permitting one order of them to
+interfere with another out of time and place. The position was a
+difficult one; and it was the business aspect of it she had to
+consider just now. A comfortable home for the remainder of her life, a
+reasonable amount of the kind of pleasure and society which she liked,
+and a necessity for only the most trifling inroads upon her savings:
+such were the blessings to the attainment of which Mrs. Bloxam looked
+forward as the legitimate value of her lien upon Gertrude. In the
+event of her declining to run the risk of marriage, and remaining on
+the stage, Mrs. Bloxam's material interests would be almost as secure;
+so that she could afford to consider the matter with tolerable
+impartiality. She did not like to face the discussion which must take
+place between her and Gertrude, because of the money-transaction
+involved in it. Could she avoid acknowledging it, she thought, and
+trust to Lord Sandilands, though he must find it out, being too
+careless and indifferent to think about it? _That_ would be very nice,
+only she had no reason to suppose that Lord Sandilands was by any
+means careless or indifferent in money-matters. It was very
+unpleasant; but it must be left to right itself somehow; and as for
+the other, and greater breach of trust? After all, the girl eloped
+from the Vale House; she did not assist or connive at the affair; and
+she might excuse herself to Lord Sandilands on the plea of the
+readiness and kindness with which she acceded to Gertrude's request
+when she proposed to return to her house. What would Gertrude think,
+how would she act, when the revelation and the offer should be made to
+her? Mrs. Bloxam had not answered any of these questions to her
+satisfaction, or dispelled any of these anxieties, when she reached
+Hardriggs.
+
+Miss Lambert was better, Lady Belwether was happy to say; she had had
+some refreshing sleep, and would no doubt get on nicely now. Mrs.
+Bloxam went to the invalid's room, and found Grace awake and looking
+very much better. Her face bore traces of mental strife and suffering,
+but they had passed over, and she was now quite composed. Mrs. Bloxam
+was a judicious woman in everything, and she took care not to agitate
+Gertrude.
+
+"Lord Sandilands is very ill," she said, "but not dangerously so; and
+he is comfortable enough there, and not badly looked after. But he has
+sent for his own housekeeper, which is a good move. It is nothing but
+gout; but he is not strong, and he will probably be laid up for some
+time."
+
+Gertrude asked some general questions, and Mrs. Bloxam answered them;
+and then, settling herself in a comfortable attitude, and keeping
+Gertrude's face well in view, she told her that in requesting her to
+visit him Lord Sandilands had a particular object in view. The colour
+deepened a little on Gertrude's cheek as she inquired its nature.
+
+"I mean to tell you all about it, my dear," said.
+
+Mrs. Bloxam; "but if I am to do so, I must break through the reserve
+which I have always maintained--as I think it was best for both of us
+I should--and refer not only to your marriage"--Gertrude started--"but
+to later circumstances, which render your position difficult. I
+suppose I have your permission to speak plainly?"
+
+"Certainly," replied Gertrude. "I am sure you would not, unnecessarily
+or without due consideration, say anything to wound my feelings; and I
+am prepared to listen to anything you think it right to say."
+
+This was not a cordial speech, but Mrs. Bloxam did not mind that. She
+wanted permission to speak, and she had gotten it; the manner of it
+was of no consequence. Things had changed since Gertrude had written
+the letter which procured her readmittance to the Vale House, but the
+natures of the two women had not undergone much alteration, and they
+felt only as much more warmly towards each other as prosperity and
+success predispose towards general kindliness and complacency.
+
+"You are right," said Mrs. Bloxam; "I would not. You have not told me
+any particulars concerning your quarrel with your husband, and I don't
+wish to know--I really do not. I am not more free from curiosity, no
+doubt, than other people; but I would rather not gratify it in this
+instance. There is only one thing that I must know, if you will tell
+it to me." She paused, and Gertrude said, looking steadily at her,
+
+"What is it? I may use my discretion about answering your question at
+all when I hear it; but if I decide on answering it, be quite sure
+that I will tell you the exact truth."
+
+"No, you won't, my dear," said Mrs. Bloxam; "I don't require it. I
+want only the vague truth; tell me that. Is the secret of your quarrel
+with your husband one which puts him in your power--which secures your
+liberty, your right of action, to you under all circumstances--which
+makes the carrying out of this daring scheme of yours, this
+self-divorce, a matter distinctly of your choice, in which he cannot
+thwart or foil you?"
+
+Gertrude's gaze at the speaker did not relax, her eyelids did not
+droop, but she took a little time before she answered.
+
+"I will tell you what you ask. The secret of my quarrel with Gilbert
+Lloyd is one which puts him in my power. He _must_ do as I choose in
+every matter in which I am concerned. I am perfectly free; he is
+hopelessly bound. But the agreement between us is mutual I have no
+right over him, as he has none over me. I shall never recognise his
+existence in any way."
+
+"That you have the power of carrying out that resolution is the only
+thing I need to know," said Mrs. Bloxam. "It makes me clear about the
+advice I am going to give you. Having this perfect guarantee for his
+not venturing to interfere with you, you consider yourself of course
+entitled to act as if no such person as your husband were in
+existence. Have you any objection to tell me whether you are disposed
+to push this right of action to the extent of marrying again--of
+marrying Miles Challoner, for instance?"
+
+Mrs. Bloxam shifted her position as she asked this question, laid her
+head well back against the cushion of her chair, and did not look a
+Gertrude, who took longer to reply than before. When she spoke, the
+words came with difficulty.
+
+"You must have some very strong reason for asking me such a question."
+
+"I have, my dear. Mere curiosity, or even anything short of the
+necessity which exists for our understanding each other to a certain
+extent, would never have induced me to ask it. Will you answer me?"
+
+"Yes," said Gertrude, "I will. I acknowledge no limits to the extent
+to which I am disposed to push my right of action. I should marry
+without hesitation from motives of ambition; I should marry without
+hesitation if the man were any but what he is--_if he were anyone but
+Miles Challoner_."
+
+Mrs. Bloxam sat bolt upright, and gazed at Gertrude in irrepressible,
+unmixed amazement. "What do you say?" she asked. "Can it be possible
+that we are all mistaken? Lord Sandilands and I, and Miles Challoner
+himself, for he thinks you love him. I am as certain as I ever was of
+any human being's sentiments. Have you been blind to his love, his
+devotion to you? What _do_ you mean?"
+
+"I mean this," said Gertrude: "I know that Miles Challoner loves me;
+he has told me so; but I knew it before; I have not been blind to his
+devotion; and I love him." She paused. The listener's attitude and
+expression of uncomprehending astonishment remained unchanged. "I love
+him; I know the difference now, and I know that what I once took for
+love did not deserve the name. I would not deceive him; I would not
+dishonour _him_; I would not involve _him_ in the degradation of my
+life,--for the degradation of the past is still upon me--for any joy
+the world could give me, not even for that of being his wife."
+
+The passion and earnestness of her speech almost transformed Gertrude.
+She surprised Mrs. Bloxam so much, that all her previously-arranged
+line of argument escaped her memory, and she could say nothing but
+"Gertrude, Gertrude, you _do_ astonish me!"
+
+"Not more than I astonish myself, I assure you; not so much. Before I
+knew him I don't think I could even have imagined what it was like to
+care more for the peace and happiness of another than for my own. I
+have learned what it is like now, and the lesson, in one word, means
+love. Go on with what you have to say to me, Mrs. Bloxam, remembering
+in it all that I love Miles Challoner, and will never involve him in
+any way in my life."
+
+"But this completely upsets what I was going to say to you," said Mrs.
+Bloxam; "it changes the whole state of things, but it renders it no
+less necessary that you should make up your mind how you will explain
+matters to Lord Sandilands."
+
+"To Lord Sandilands?" said Gertrude inquiringly. "What have I to
+explain to him, and why?"
+
+"Because he is Miles Challoner's friend and yours; and because he
+knows that Miles wants to marry you, and most earnestly desires that
+the marriage should take place."
+
+"_He_ desires it! How can that be? How can a man of Lord Sandilands'
+rank wish his friend to make so unequal a marriage--a marriage which
+the world he lives in would so utterly condemn?"
+
+"Probably because he has lived long enough in that world to know that
+its opinion is of no great value, and to think that Miles Challoner
+had better consult his own happiness than its prejudices. He is a
+great friend and admirer of yours also; and, in short, I may as well
+tell you plainly and abruptly, he sent for me to consult me on the
+best means of overcoming what he considers misplaced pride and
+overstrained delicacy on your part, and inducing you to consent to his
+arranging the preliminaries to the marriage; I mean"--here Mrs. Bloxam
+hesitated a little--"settling everything as your mutual friend."
+
+"It is well for him it cannot be," said Gertrude bitterly, "or the
+world would hardly praise his conduct in helping Miles Challoner to a
+marriage with me. The interest Lord Sandilands takes in me deserves
+all my gratitude and as much of my confidence as I can give, and he
+shall have them. He may be displeased that his kind projects are not
+to be carried out, but he will understand that it is impossible."
+
+"I don't see that he will understand it," said Mrs. Bloxam, "unless
+you tell him about your marriage; and how are you to do that?" She
+forgot for the moment that she spoke with the knowledge of Gertrude's
+parentage in her mind, but that Gertrude was quite ignorant of it.
+
+"Tell Lord Sandilands of my marriage!" said Gertrude; "what can you be
+thinking of? That must never be known to _anyone_; he is a kind friend
+indeed, but nothing would induce me to tell him _that_."
+
+"I beg your pardon; of course not," said Mrs. Bloxam, recovering
+herself, and remembering that the communication Lord Sandilands
+intended to make must not be forestalled. "Your resolution surprised
+me so much, I grew confused. But how will you account for refusing Mr.
+Challoner?"
+
+"I shall account for it," said Gertrude, "on the best grounds--grounds
+which would be adequate in my own judgment had I never made the fatal
+mistake of my miserable marriage. If I were nothing more than the
+world knows or believes me to be, I should still hold myself an
+unsuitable wife for _him_, and should still refuse him for his own
+sake."
+
+"And this is what you will tell Lord Sandilands?" said Mrs. Bloxam.
+"Gertrude, are you sure you can stand firm to your decision against
+the pleading of your lover and the support and arguments of your
+friend?"
+
+"I am quite sure," said Gertrude, "for I shall stand firm for their
+own sakes. To yield would be to injure, to hesitate would be to
+torment them: I will neither yield nor hesitate."
+
+"Lord Sandilands wishes to see you as soon as you can come with me to
+see him," said Mrs. Mourn. "I know he intends to urge Mr. Challoner's
+cause with all the argument and all the authority in his power."
+
+"No argument and no authority can avail," said Gertrude.
+
+"And you are determined to go on in this stage-life?"
+
+"Yes; it is delightful to me in some respects, and it is independent
+and free. I don't say I have not had a struggle in reaching the
+determination I have arrived at; but I have reached it, and there is
+nothing more to be said or done. Whenever you choose, after a day or
+two, I will see Lord Sandilands; he will help me to impress on Miles
+Challoner the uselessness, indeed the cruelty, of pressing a suit
+which can only pain me and avail him nothing. I shall convince _him_
+easily; he knows the world too well to be difficult of persuasion of
+the justice of all that I shall say to him."
+
+"It appears to me," thought Mrs. Bloxam, "that I shall get out of this
+business safely whatever happens, if she only perseveres in hiding her
+marriage;  and I don't think there's much danger of her not
+doing so."
+
+"I am rather tired, dear," said Gertrude after a pause, during which
+they had both kept silence, and turning towards Mrs. Bloxam with
+perhaps the sweetest smile and the friendliest gesture she had ever
+bestowed upon that lady; "and I think we will not talk any more just
+now. Tell Lady Belwether I shall try to come down for a little this
+evening. I am far from suspecting the kind old lady of wishing me to
+tumble for the company; but I should like to oblige her and the Dean,
+if possible."
+
+Mrs. Bloxam took the hint. Gertrude was left alone, to endure all the
+agony caused her by the resolution she had taken; but yet to feel that
+she derived strength from having taken it, and that to get her
+decision finally and authoritatively communicated to Miles Challoner
+by Lord Sandilands, with the addition of an earnest request that he
+would not remain in England at present, and subject her and himself to
+the pain of meeting, was a very sensible relief. The bitterness of the
+suffering through which she passed at this time never quite died out
+of Gertrude's memory. There was something in it which wrung her soul
+with a far keener and deadlier anguish than all the coarser, more
+actual miseries which had beset her miserable married life. By the
+measure of the increased strength and refinement of her feelings, of
+the growth of her intellect, and the development of her tastes, the
+power and the obligation to suffer in this instance were increased. Of
+the man whom she had once fancied she loved, Gertrude never thought
+with any distinctness either of abhorrence, fear, or regret. The few
+words she had spoken to him in the midst of the fashionable crowd
+where they had last met had, she felt, effectually freed her from his
+pursuit henceforth; and in her present frame of mind, with her whole
+nature softened by her love for Miles, she was accustomed to look back
+rather on her own errors of judgment and perception as the fatal folly
+of her own girlhood, as the origin of her misfortunes, and to allow
+the sinister figure of her husband to slink in the backgrounds of her
+memory, something to be shunned and left in obscurity. In the wildest
+and deepest of her misery, and when her resolution was highest and
+sternest, there was one steadfast feeling in Gertrude's heart, by
+which she clung in all the tempest of emotion, while the clamour was
+loudest in her storm-tossed heart. It was the indestructible happiness
+of knowing herself beloved. Nothing could take that from her, whatever
+befell; life might have many more trials, many more deprivations in
+store for her, but it could not deprive her of that--not even change
+on his own part: and she did not think he would change. Very early in
+their acquaintance she had recognised, with the pleasure of a kindred
+disposition, the tranquil stability of Miles Challoner's character;
+but not even change could alter that truth, could efface that
+blessedness, could deprive her of that priceless treasure. She even
+asked herself, in the mood of mournful exultation in which she was,
+whether she could have felt this secret, subtle joy so keenly if she
+had not learned to distinguish the false from the true by such a
+terrible experience? If this had been a first love, could it have been
+so awfully dear and precious, a consolation so priceless, as to be
+hugged and hidden in her utmost heart; a talisman against misery, a
+talisman sufficiently powerful to subdue the anguish of its own
+ineffectualness, its own hopelessness? Could any girl unversed in the
+world's way, unskilled in the world's delusions, innocent and
+ignorant, knowing no ill of herself or others, have loved Miles
+Challoner as she loved him--this woman who had been brought in such
+close contact with crime, meanness, degradation, who had passed from
+girlhood to womanhood, on the border of respectability, with a
+tolerably uninterrupted look-out, very little space intervening over
+the debatable land of scheming, shifts, and general Bohemianism--this
+woman, whose dearest hope was to keep the knowledge of the truth about
+her--her life--her very name--from the man she loved?
+
+The task of speaking with Lord Sandilands, of destroying the hopes the
+kind old man cherished for his friend and for her, of defending the
+position she had to take up, for the destruction of all the prospect
+of happiness which life had to offer her, was not one to be
+contemplated with anything but intense reluctance. But Gertrude forced
+herself to the contemplation of it, and made up her mind to get the
+interview over as soon as possible. She had not forgotten that she had
+promised Miles to see him again, to speak with him again, on the
+subject of the suit he had urged. She knew well how impatient he would
+be; but while her illness and seclusion continued, he would know the
+fulfilment of her promise was not possible. What if she made an effort
+to go down to the drawing-room to-night, and found him there--was
+forced to meet him in the presence of strangers? She could not endure
+that; she felt that her nerves, in such a trial, would refuse to obey
+her will. She would write a line to him, asking him to remain away
+from Hardriggs until he should hear from her again. There could be no
+harm in that; but suppose he should be intending to come there that
+evening, the intimation of her wish would reach him too late. She rang
+the bell, and sent her maid for Mrs. Bloxam, to whom she propounded
+the difficulty.
+
+"I know he will be here," Mrs. Bloxam said; "Lady Belwether has just
+said so."
+
+"Then I must write," said Gertrude; "and you must give him the note."
+
+Mrs. Bloxam conveyed the few lines, in which Gertrude begged Miles to
+abstain from appearing in the drawing-room after dinner, to the hands
+of that anxious and almost-despairing lover, and he instantly obeyed
+the behest which it contained. Lord Sandilands' illness and need of
+his society furnished an excuse which was not only valid, but did him
+credit with his hostess and Mr. Dean, who was pleased to remark that
+his attention to his noble friend was a very gratifying spectacle,
+very gratifying indeed. When Miles rejoined his noble friend he told
+him most ruefully of the fresh rebuff he had received, and presented a
+doleful aspect anything but exhilarating to an invalid in want of
+cheerful companionship. Lord Sandilands did not seem to notice the
+depressed state of his spirits, but listened to him with an air rather
+of satisfaction than otherwise.
+
+"Never mind, Miles," he said; "it's a good sign that she did not
+choose to meet you in the presence of a lot of strangers. Have
+patience, my dear boy and I promise you, on the faith of your old
+friend, which never failed you yet, all will be well."
+
+Miss Lambert made her appearance that evening in the drawing-room at
+Hardriggs for a short time. She was warmly congratulated on her
+recovery, and had many pretty things said to her about her temporary
+eclipse. She even ventured to sing just one song; a simple but
+beautiful one, which went to the hearts of the company in general, and
+apparently to the nose of Mr. Dean in particular, as that dignitary
+used his handkerchief with prolonged solemnity while the concluding
+cadence was yet lingering in the air. It was agreed on all hands that
+never had Miss Lambert been more completely charming.
+
+On the day but one after,--a bright, balmy day, when the earth looked
+its best, and the sky its bluest,--one of the Hardriggs equipages
+conveyed Mrs. Bloxam and Miss Lambert to Lord Sandilands' seaside
+abode. The visit had been duly notified by a message from Mrs. Bloxam,
+and the ladies had the satisfaction of learning that his lordship was
+much better, and quite able to receive them. They were ushered
+upstairs, and into a sitting-room on the first-floor. The room was
+empty, and the folding-doors which communicated with another room
+were closed. In a few moments they opened, and gave admittance to a
+middle-aged woman, plainly dressed, very respectable; the exact model
+of all a housekeeper ought to be. On her steady arm Lord Sandilands
+leaned; and as he limped slowly towards his visitors with extended
+hand, expressing his pleasure at seeing them, Gertrude recognised in
+the housekeeper Mrs. Bush, and Mrs. Bush recognised in the lady whom
+she had heard announced as Miss Lambert the wife of her _ci-devant_
+lodger, Gilbert Lloyd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+A Mine is laid.
+
+
+Refused! rejected! Lord Ticehurst could scarcely believe it. "Declined
+the honour," she said; that was the way she put it. Declined the
+honour! "Whish!" went the whip over the heads of the roans, who became
+marvellously unsteady at the sound, and reared, and plunged, and
+pulled, and caused the middle-aged groom once again to peer over the
+head of the phaeton more nervously and uncomfortably than ever.
+
+Lord Ticehurst could not understand the experience of the morning. The
+more he thought over it the more preposterous it appeared to him.
+Throughout the whole course of his life he had never had one wish
+thwarted. At Eton his fag did his exercises, and at Oxford the dons
+toadied him as dons only can toady; and in later life he had had
+henchmen innumerable, who bad received his every word as law. As for
+this affair with Miss Lambert, he--well, he didn't know; he had not
+been so cocksure about it at first, when he first began to be
+spooney on her. She was a deuced nice girl, there was no denying
+that,--clever, and all that kind of thing; sort of person that any
+fellow might be proud of to see sitting at the head of his table, and
+look deuced well at the Opera, and all that. Was not half so cocksure
+when he first began to be spooney; that was perhaps because he was
+spooney; fellows always thought they were not good enough for the
+woman they were spooney on; and--not good enough? that's a great
+notion! the idea of the Earl of Ticehurst not being good enough
+for--no, he couldn't say anything against her; she was an
+opera-singer, everyone knew, but she was a perfect lady. O d--, what a
+nuisance it was! Since he had made up his mind to it he had begun to
+look upon it as quite certain, as a result about which there could not
+be the smallest doubt; and now he saw that all his conjectures had
+been false and his plans foundationless. What could be her motive? No
+question of hoping to hook a larger fish? That was absurd. Lord
+Ticehurst reflected with a certain amount of consolation that there
+were very few larger fish than he in the waters preserved for
+matrimonial angling, and of those few none were likely to make Miss
+Lambert an offer. Not any question of personal objection? Even if such
+a thing were probable to a person in his position, Miss Lambert's
+manner to him had always been courteous, and occasionally cordial. No
+one could have been making mischief about him? No, he thought not; he
+did not go in to be strait-laced, and all that kind of thing, any more
+than any other fellow of his age; but there was nothing that anyone
+could lay hold of and make a fuss about; his name was not mentioned in
+conjunction with any woman's, or anything of that kind that a woman
+might find objectionable in the man who wanted to marry her. What,
+then, could it be? Could it be shyness, modesty, and all that? Jove!
+he'd never thought of that, never looked at it in that light. Could it
+be possible that Miss Lambert had refused him because she did not feel
+herself up to the mark--didn't think herself equal to the position
+which he had proposed to her to occupy? The notion was a very pleasant
+one to Lord Ticehurst; it gratified his vanity, and it gave him
+hope. It might come off after all! He had not had much experience of
+women--not of that sort, at least--and it was impossible to make them
+out; there was never any knowing what to do with them. After all,
+perhaps, she only wanted a little more pressing; he certainly had
+nipped off rather sharp, without asking her to explain, or anything of
+that kind. He supposed that was what fellows usually did,--asked the
+women "Why," and all that sort of thing. "Declined the honour," she
+said; perhaps if he had given her the chance she would not have
+declined it a second time. He would give her the chance; he would go
+over again to what's-a-name, old Belwether's place, and tell Miss
+Lambert that he really meant it, and that--
+
+As the thought of "what's-a-name, old Belwether's place," passed
+through Lord Ticehurst's mind, simultaneously arose therein the very
+uncomfortable recollection of having seen Miles Challoner at the gate.
+The young nobleman's spirits, which had risen rapidly under the
+roseate influence of his hopes, sunk at once to zero when he
+remembered that Gilbert Lloyd had told him of the manner in which this
+man Challoner was making "strong running" for Miss Lambert, and bade
+him beware of him as a dangerous rival. Jove! that might account for
+her declining the honour, and all that. Of course it was a ridiculous
+thing to imagine any woman taking a fellow like Chaldecott--Challoner,
+or whatever they called him--before a man in his position; but one
+never knew, it was impossible to say; and--he did not know what the
+deuce to do one way or the other.
+
+"Princes and women must not be contradicted," says the proverb. Young
+noblemen, or old noblemen for the matter of that, with health and
+wealth, are pretty much in the same category. For the first time in
+his life Lord Ticehurst found himself debarred from the fulfilment of
+a special wish, and he raged inwardly and chafed against his destiny.
+He could have cried from sheer spite and vexation; he stamped his foot
+in his rage, and once more startled the roans out of all propriety. He
+felt that he was morally "cornered;" he did not like to give up all
+idea of this girl, for whom he had a certain liking and a certain
+passion, and in the possession of whom he would have had the
+justification of that pride which was perhaps the most thoroughly
+developed of all the various component parts of his character. On the
+other hand, he dared not run the chance of a second rejection, as the
+news of it might get wind, and he might be made to appear ridiculous;
+and, like most of his order, Lord Ticehurst was more afraid of
+ridicule than of anything else. To be laughed at had always been
+looked on by him as the greatest possible infliction, for he knew that
+neither his position nor his wealth rendered him invulnerable to
+"chaff;" and he was sufficiently man of the world to feel that these
+advantages in themselves would tempt the aim and barb the arrows of
+the sharpshooters. He could not face it out, by Jove he couldn't! The
+mere thought of being bantered on the subject of his rejection by Miss
+Lambert gave an apoplectic hue to his lordship's cheeks, and brought
+large beads of perspiration on to his forehead.
+
+"I couldn't stand it," he said half aloud, and forgetting the
+proximity of the serious groom. "Gad! I think I should go mad, and
+that kind of thing. Don't think I'll give old Gil the chance of having
+a crow over me just yet. He's sure to ask me how I got on, and all
+that, and I'd better hold it over for an hour or two. He's rather
+spiky in his chaff, I've noticed lately, Master Gil is; I don't know
+what's come to him!"
+
+So, on further reflection, Lord Ticehurst struck off the road leading
+to Eastbourne, and turned back, tooling the roans along the St.
+Leonards parade, to the immense delight of the promenaders there
+assembled, and finally pulling up at the door of the principal hotel
+in Hastings. Here he alighted, and bidding his groom to bring the
+phaeton round at eight in the evening, entered the hotel, ordered an
+early dinner, and strolled out on to the parade.
+
+A person in Lord Ticehurst's position and of Lord Ticehurst's habits
+is almost certain to find a number of acquaintances in every place of
+anything like pretension to fashion which he may visit; and
+his lordship had not lounged up the promenade for more than a dozen
+paces ere his arrival was known to as many persons. Old Lady Spills,
+who was always seated at the bow-window of her lodgings with a
+powerful opera-glass, marked the young nobleman's arrival at the
+hotel, and immediately called to her granddaughter, then resident with
+her, to get her hat and accompany her on the parade as quickly as
+possible. "Not that it's of any use," the old lady remarked to
+herself; "for Julia is as stupid as an owl, and not likely to be
+attractive even to the most innocent of youths, much less to a young
+man like this, who is, no doubt, perfectly able to take care of
+himself." The Duke of Doncaster, a melancholy old man, in a crumpled
+wig and dyed whiskers, wearing the bell-hat, large-checked
+neckerchief, and cutaway green coat of the past generation, was
+driving his team up and down the parade, solemnly and methodically as
+was his usual afternoon practice, and he recognised Lord Ticehurst's
+presence by jerking his whip-elbow into the air in true coachman-like
+fashion. The sisters Lavrock, of the Scandinavian Opera and the
+nobility's concerts--brave little women, who in the off-season went
+round to the different watering-places, and made a good deal of money
+by giving a little musical entertainment--blushed and giggled in great
+delight as his good-natured lordship stopped them on the promenade,
+and inquired with unaffected interest after their well-doing. That
+eminent landscape-painter Scumble, R.A., who had often met Lord
+Ticehurst at Carabas House, over which mansion he seemed to have the
+right of free warren, happened to be staying at Hastings, partly for
+the sake of studying marine effects, partly for the purpose of
+pacifying Mrs. Scumble, who had but a dull time of it in London; and
+he tore off his wideawake as he met Lord Ticehurst's eye, and
+pretended to have nothing to do with Mrs. Scumble, who at that moment
+was a little way off, placidly bargaining for a shell pincushion.
+Lastly, Bobby Maitland--who had come ashore for two days from Mr.
+Stackborough's yacht, with the view of meeting his solicitor, and
+settling pecuniary matters during his absence--Bobby Maitland, looking
+over the blind of the coffee-room of the Marine Hotel, along which
+blind he had been thoughtfully rubbing his nose, spied his lordship,
+and announced his discovery to his friend Stackborough in these
+flattering terms: "By Jove, Haystacks, old man, here's that ass
+Ticehurst!"
+
+"Haystacks" and "old man" were both terms of endearment and
+familiarity. Mr. Stackborough was about three-and-twenty, very rich,
+very foolish, and with an irrepressible yearning for what he called
+"high society." He had chambers in the Albany, splendid horses, a
+capital yacht, and more clothes than any other man in London. He was
+always extensively got-up, and never looked like a gentleman. Bobby
+Maitland, who lived with him and on him, could influence him on
+everything except his wardrobe--in that matter he always would have
+his own way. On the present occasion he was elaborately appareled in
+maritime fashion, dark-blue jacket with gilt buttons, very open white
+waistcoat, flap shirt-collar, trousers tight to the knee, then loose
+and flapping, black oilskin-hat with blue ribbon. Mr. Stackborough
+generally suited his language as far as possible to his style of
+costume. When that was horsey he talked turf, now he talked sea;
+consequently he said--
+
+"Ticehurst, eh? Where does he hail from?"
+
+"How the deuce should I know!" replied Bobby. "He's only just come in
+sight."
+
+"T'other craft in company, of course?" suggested Mr. Stackborough.
+"He's always under convoy, his is! T'other craft's close by, I
+suppose, or at all events in the offing." And Mr. Stackborough peered
+from under his hand at his friend as though scanning the horizon.
+
+"Look here, Haystacks, old man!" said Bobby Maitland thoughtfully;
+"you must moderate your transports, you must indeed. There's too much
+of this bold-smuggler business about you--a deal too much. I daresay
+it's a kind of gaff that takes with some people, but it don't with me,
+and so you may as well drop it. It isn't good style either; so drop
+it, old flick, and tell me in the Queen's English what you mean."
+
+Mr. Stackborough wriggled uneasily in the maritime suit and blushed.
+"All right," he said after a minute's pause, "I'll take care. Thank
+you for telling me, Bobby. What I meant to say was, wasn't Lloyd
+there? He's always with his, you know."
+
+"O, I understand now! No; Ticehurst seems to be by himself for a
+wonder. No doubt Lloyd's close at hand, though; he never lets my lord
+go far without him."
+
+"Shall we 'bout ship and--I mean, shall we go out and speak to him?"
+asked Mr. Stackborough. It _was_ so difficult to resist the influence
+of the maritime garments.
+
+"Well, yes; there's no harm," said Bobby, knowing his young friend was
+dying to speak to and be seen speaking to a recognised "swell."
+
+So Mr. Stackborough put on the glazed hat with the blue ribbon, and
+they strolled into the street. Now, though Lord Ticehurst did not much
+affect Bobby Maitland, and had a great contempt for Mr. Stackborough,
+he had such a horror of being alone and being thrown on his own
+resources for amusement, that, as soon as he saw these gentlemen
+approaching, he brightened up, and received them with a warmth which
+completely captivated Mr. Stackborough. Bobby Maitland was older and
+less enthusiastic. He disliked Ticehurst; and as he knew there was
+nothing to be got out of his lordship, he always spoke to him with
+charming frankness.
+
+"We could scarcely believe it was you, Etchingham," said he, after the
+ordinary salutations had been exchanged.
+
+"O, ah!" replied his lordship, "didn't expect to find me in this
+place, eh?"
+
+"Well, no, perhaps one wouldn't have thought of finding you here.
+Nothing going on that you can understand--horses, I mean, and that
+kind of thing. But that was not what I meant."
+
+"What did you mean, then?" asked his lordship somewhat crossly, for he
+understood and appreciated the sneer.
+
+"Well, we didn't think you were ever let out without your
+dry-nurse--Lloyd, don't you know? Don't be angry, old fellow, it's
+only my chaff!"
+
+"It's a deuced bad style of chaff," said Lord Ticehurst, who had grown
+very white, and whose lips trembled as he spoke,--"a deuced bad style
+of chaff; and I'll trouble you not to try it on me, Mr. Maitland!"
+
+"Mr. Maitland! Come, that be hanged!" said Bobby, who saw that he had
+gone a little too far. "I'm very sorry if I've offended you,
+Etchingham, and I apologise. I can't say more."
+
+The good-natured young man accepted the apology at once, and the three
+walked on together. Lord Ticehurst, then explaining that he was only
+in the town for a few hours, and that he had ordered a solitary dinner
+at the Queen's Hotel, was easily persuaded to let Mr. Stackborough
+(who was too delighted to fetch and carry for a lord) go and
+countermand it, while his lordship agreed to dine with his new-found
+acquaintances at the Marine. So, to the intense delight of Mr.
+Stackborough, they strolled up and down the parade, listening to the
+band, looking after the pretty women, and criticising the horses.
+"Haystacks" conversation became almost unintelligible during this
+walk; for Lord Ticehurst being eminently horsey, and the talk running
+on the breeding and look of horses, Mr. Stackborough would, under
+ordinary circumstances, have turned on the turf tap, and drawn his
+idioms from the stable; but the maritime clothes still from time to
+time asserted their influence, and the result was that the unfortunate
+youth got into a series of linguistic knots which he could not untie,
+and with which no one could assist him.
+
+The dinner at the Marine was a success. Boffham, who keeps the hotel,
+had been _chef_ to Count Krammetsvogel, of the Hanoverian embassy, in
+former days, and had turned out many excellent official dinners, of
+which Lord Ticehurst's father had partaken. When he heard that the
+young lord was to be a guest of one of his guests, Boffham went
+himself to the kitchen, and showed that neither Time nor the gout had
+robbed his hand of its cunning. The wines too--notably some Chateau
+Yquem and some Steinberger Cabinet, which had been bought by Boffham
+out of the Krammetsvogel cellar when the count was recalled--were
+delicious; so delicious, that many bottles were drunk, and the hearts
+of the drinkers were warmed, and their tongues loosened. Something
+which Bobby Maitland had said to him when they first met that day had
+stuck in Lord Ticehurst's throat. He had tried to swallow it, but the
+attempt had been unsuccessful. Under the influence of the wine he felt
+he must mention it--he could see no reason why he should not.
+
+"Bobby!" he said, as they were sipping their claret, "my horses will
+be round in a minute; but I want to say two words to you before I
+go.--Don't you move, Mr. Stacks," Stackborough made a kind of
+blundering attempt to rise,--"don't you move, there's nothing secret
+or private,"--here Lord Ticehurst looked long and earnestly at the
+wick of the candle close by him, then proceeded--"or at least; if
+there is, you're far too good a fellow, Stacks, to--to--you know what
+I mean.--So do you, Bobby."
+
+"All right, Etchingham, old boy, I know," said Mr. Maitland "What do
+you want to say?" Mr. Maitland had to repeat his question, Lord
+Ticehurst having again become absorbed in the contemplation of the
+candle. "What do you want to say?"
+
+"What do I want to say?" said his lordship, after a pause--"ah, that's
+just it! I wonder--O, I know! Don't you know when you folks first met
+me to-day, you said something, Bobby--something about Lloyd?"
+
+"Yes, I recollect--what then?"
+
+"You asked me where my nurse was, or something of that sort, didn't
+you?"
+
+"I think I did."
+
+"Ah! just tell me, like a good fellow--is that the way men talk about
+me and Lloyd?"
+
+"What way?"
+
+"Do they say that he--that I--that he's like what you said, my nurse?"
+
+"They say you daren't call your soul your own without his leave. That
+you never move hand or foot without him; some say he washes you and
+parts your hair; but that's their way of putting it. What they mean
+is, that he's your master, and you're his most obedient."
+
+"And do you think Lloyd knows they say this?"
+
+"Knows they say it!" repeated Bobby Maitland, with a loud vinous
+laugh; "knows they say it! why, he says it himself; boasts of it!"
+
+"The deuce he does!" said Lord Ticehurst, rising with an unsteady
+gait. "That must be stopped! There are some things that a man can
+stand; and there are some things he----My carriage. Thank
+you!--Good-night, Mr. Stacks; very glad to have looked you
+up.--Good-night, Bobby; see you at Doncaster, I suppose? No! well,
+then--never mind.--Right, Martin!" and his lordship dashed off at a
+tremendous pace, while the serious groom, who had seen his master reel
+on the phaeton-step, looked more serious than ever as he jumped up
+behind.
+
+When the other two gentlemen returned to their room, Mr. Stackborough
+said, "He didn't half like what you said about Lloyd just now.
+Shouldn't wonder if there was a row when he gets home."
+
+"Serve Master Gil deuced well right," said Maitland; "I've owed him
+one for a long time, and now I think I've paid him. Teach him to give
+himself airs over me next time we meet in the ring."
+
+"Devilish pleasant, gentlemanly fellow is Etchinghurst," said Mr.
+Stackborough, steadying himself by holding on to the table.
+
+Bobby Maitland regarded him with a smile. "His name is Etchingham, not
+Etchinghurst; but you're not sufficiently intimate with him to call
+him anything but Lord Ticehurst. Haystacks, dear old boy, you've had
+too much wine; have a tumbler of soda, plain, and go to bed."
+
+There was no reason for the serious groom's apprehensions, so far as
+the safety of his person was concerned. It is a received axiom that
+the effects of intoxication are increased when gentlemen labouring
+under them are exposed to the influence of the air; and the groom's
+perturbation was probably based upon this theory. He had not, however,
+probably made allowance for the fact--which possibly had never come
+within his ken--that when the mind is actively at work it becomes an
+admirable counterirritant to the influence of wine. That feeble
+nonsense of the hiccupping toper of the past generation relative to
+the drowning of dull Care in bowls was as void of reason as of rhythm.
+That men in good spirits will have those spirits made livelier by good
+drink in good company is intelligible enough; but dull Care--whatever
+he may have suffered in the three-bottle days--declines to be drowned
+or in any way got rid of by such a quantity of liquor as is at the
+present time drank in society. The confirmation of his suspicions
+about Gilbert Lloyd, which Bobby Maitland had communicated with so
+much charming frankness to Lord Ticehurst, had had a singularly
+sobering influence on the young nobleman. The anger arising in his
+heart seemed to have chased away the fumes which had been obscuring
+his brain; and after he had been five minutes on the road he was in as
+good condition as he ever was--which, perhaps, is not saying much--to
+think the matter calmly through. It was a lovely night; the roans,
+knowing they were on their homeward journey, stepped out splendidly
+and refrained from indulging in any of the capers and antics which had
+characterised their morning's performance; and Lord Ticehurst, getting
+them well in hand, settled himself down to think over all he had
+heard, and to endeavour to arrive at some definite conclusion before
+the end of his drive.
+
+Was it what we have no adequate expression for, but what the French
+call the _vin triste_, that was exercising its malign influence over
+the young man? Had his "potations pottle deep" but resulted in
+stirring up dull Care instead of drowning him? Had Boffham's Chateau
+Yquem and Steinberger Cabinet an effect exactly opposite to that of
+the waters of Lethe? Certain it is that as Lord Ticehurst rolled
+rapidly homewards his memory, which very seldom troubled him, was
+actively at work, and his reflections were of anything but a pleasant
+character.
+
+So they said that he was a mere child in Gilbert Lloyd's hands, did
+they?--that he dare not call his soul his own; that he had no will, no
+opinion,--chaffed, and said Lloyd was his dry-nurse, did they?
+Pleasant that, by Jove!--to have things like that said about you by
+fellows to whom you had always been civil and polite, and all that
+kind of thing--more than that, hospitable, and letting them stand in
+with good things, and putting them on to everything you knew. And they
+went about and said this--not before your face, of course; they would
+not do that; but thought it before your face, and went about and said
+it as soon as your back was turned. Made you their laughing-stock and
+their butt; poked their fun at you all the time they were eating your
+dinners, and made game of you while they borrowed your money. It was
+d--d unfriendly and blackguard conduct; that's what it was. And Bobby
+Maitland was as bad as any of them--worse, for he would never have
+heard of it but for him. They all thought he was a fool, and Bobby
+must have thought so too, sneering about him and Gilbert Lloyd, and
+pretending to think he would not notice it. He would let them see
+pretty sharp he was not such a fool as they took him for; let them see
+he knew how they laughed at and chaffed him. Next time any of them
+wanted a fifty for a fortnight, that would be the time. They should
+laugh the wrong side of their mouths then, he would take care. Called
+himself a gentleman too, did Bobby Maitland, and gave himself airs
+because he was a peer's son. Why, damme, that other chap, that poor
+fellow Haystacks, or whatever his name was, with all his ridiculous
+nonsense about his get-up and all that, he was more of a gentleman
+than Bobby Maitland. He looked quite queer and uncomfortable,
+Haystacks did, when Maitland was going on all that chaff about the
+nurse.
+
+About the nurse? That riled him more than anything else. "How was it
+he was let out without his nurse?" That's what Maitland had said. As
+he thought of that speech Lord Ticehurst kicked out against the
+splashboard in front of him, startled the roans into a gallop, and
+woke the groom from an elysian dream of eating boiled beans and bacon
+in the back-parlour of a public-house which was his own. And when he
+had asked if Gilbert knew about the chaff that was going on, Maitland
+said he did, and, more than that, had started it and laughed at it
+himself. Could that be true? He could scarcely think that; he had been
+doosid kind to old Gil, and doosid fond of him, and done all sorts of
+things for him one way or the other, and he did not believe old Gil
+would go against him in that way. Fellows are always talking about
+ingratitude and that kind of thing, but he did not think anyone would
+be such a thorough-paced duffer as to go in against a fellow who had
+shown him nothing but kindness ever since he had known him. Ever since
+he had known him? Well, that was not so long ago, when he came to
+think about it, but it seemed like his whole life. He thought with an
+odd kind of incredulous wonder on that portion of his life anterior to
+his acquaintance with Gilbert Lloyd. The Plater-Dobbs _régime_ seemed
+like a dream. He was a vulgar old cad, the Plater, but he would not
+have played double, he would not have allowed any of the fellows to
+chaff. No fellows had ever been allowed to chaff him, even at
+Eton--Eton, hey presto! At that reminiscence the clouds rolled away,
+and scenes of bygone time and the actors in them, unthought of for
+years, rose before the young man's mind. Some of those fellows who had
+been with him at Eton, and were now doing so well and making such stir
+in the world--Brackenbury, who had made such a hit in the House, and
+who, everybody said, would be A1 some of these days; and Graves, who
+had written a devilish clever book about something; and Hammond, who
+was under-secretary in one of those office-places down at Whitehall,
+and who the newspapers said was a rising man, and all that. Lord! he
+recollected when he first went to Eton, his old governor took him, and
+a crowd there was when they buried his governor in the family-vault at
+Etchingham! He recollected Lord Tantallon the Premier standing at the
+foot of the grave after the service, and looking in, with the tears
+running down his face. No end of official swells came down to see
+the last of their old colleague. He recollected seeing the great
+black-marble top of the tomb, which had been taken off, lying on its
+side among the weeds; and he remembered the smell of the newly-turned
+earth, and the trodden turf, and he could see just as plainly as on
+the day itself the men from the London newspapers bending over to read
+the inscription on the coffin. Poor old governor! he was a clever
+fellow, and was awfully respectable and respected. He would not think
+much of the life his son was leading, mixed up with horses and
+betting-people and jockeys, and all that kind of thing. Whew! it could
+not be helped, he supposed. It was too late to change it. Steady
+there! Arrived!
+
+When Lord Ticehurst entered the rooms in the hotel which he occupied
+conjointly with Gilbert Lloyd, he found that gentleman asleep on the
+sofa, with a decanter of brandy on a small table by his side. The
+decanter was half-empty; and when Gilbert, awaking at the noise made
+by his friend's arrival, turned round, his face, especially round the
+eyes, had a strained, flushed look, and his voice, when he began to
+speak, was rather thick and husky.
+
+"Hallo!" he said, raising himself on his elbow, and shading his eyes
+with his other hand, "you've got back!"
+
+"Yes," replied his lordship; "here I am!"
+
+"Perhaps the next time you are going to stop out to dinner you will
+have the goodness to say so."
+
+"Don't be cross, old man; you knew I was going, fast enough."
+
+"I knew you were going out to luncheon, but there was nothing said
+about dinner, I believe; and as to being cross, it's enough to make a
+fellow savage, having had to cool his heels about here for an hour and
+a half, waiting dinner for a man who never came; and then to sit down
+to a lot of stuff cooked to rags, half cold, and quite uneatable."
+
+"Sorry for that, Gil," said Lord Ticehurst with unimpaired
+good-humour; "very sorry, but you should not have waited."
+
+"O, I like that!" said Lloyd; "and suppose your lordship had not had
+your dinner, and had come in when I had half-finished mine, you would
+have been pleased, wouldn't you?"
+
+"I don't suppose 'my lordship,' as you call me, would have cared one
+straw about it. What a rum fellow you are, Gil! What's the matter with
+you to-night, that you are going on in this way?"
+
+"Going on in what way? I merely suggested that it would have been
+pleasanter if you had said you would not be back to dinner, and--"
+
+"But I didn't know that I should not. I had no intention of stopping
+when I went away. Can't you understand?"
+
+"O yes, I understand! _Chapeau bas, chapeau bas!_ However, that's no
+matter now. I ought to have known that the young lady would suggest
+your stopping there--that the old Belwethers would be delighted to
+receive a person of your lordship's quality, and that--"
+
+"There, you may drop that silliness as soon as you like. It's very
+funny, I daresay; but it's all thrown away, because I didn't stop at
+Hardriggs after all."
+
+"The deuce you didn't! Why, where did you dine, then?"
+
+"At the hotel at Hastings, with Bobby Maitland and that young fellow
+he's always about with now--'Haystacks.'"
+
+"I know," growled Gilbert. He hated Maitland, and half-despised him,
+as men do their unsuccessful rivals. "What on earth made you dine with
+them?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," said the earl, blushing a little, in spite of
+vigorous attempts to prevent it and look unconcerned. "I--I had
+stopped later there than I intended at Hardriggs, and I thought you
+would have dined, and so I put up at Hastings, and those fellows saw
+me and asked me to dinner."
+
+"And you went, deuced Samaritan-like and benevolent, and all that, I
+declare! That fellow Stackborough will be set up for life; there will
+be no holding him, now that he has once dined in company with a real
+live earl."
+
+"Well, I don't know; Mr. Stackborough seemed to me to behave like a
+gentleman."
+
+"O yes; but you like a fellow who bows down before you, Etchingham, we
+all know that; and it's natural enough. However, that's neither here
+nor there. What about the object of your visit to Hardriggs? You saw
+the young lady?"
+
+"Yes, I saw her."
+
+"And you carried out your intention?"
+
+"What intention?" asked Lord Ticehurst, summoning up courage, and
+looking his friend full in the face. And then Gilbert knew for
+certain, what he had decidedly anticipated, that Lord Ticehurst had
+been rejected by Gertrude.
+
+"What intention?" he replied, with a sneer already dawning on his
+face; "why, the intention of proposing to Miss--what does she call
+herself?--Miss Lambert."
+
+"Yes," said Lord Ticehurst quietly, "I carried out that intention."
+
+"Well, and we are to ring the joy-bells, and to roast the whole ox,
+and set the barrels of ale flowing, and order the bishop to be in
+readiness at St. George's, and select the new carriages, and have
+Etchingham new furnished. And when are we to do all this?"
+
+"Not just now, at all events," said Lord Ticehurst. "First catch your
+hare, don't you know?" and his lordship tried to look knowing--a
+process in which he failed sublimely.
+
+"Why, you don't mean to say that--"
+
+"I mean to say that I proposed to Miss Lambert--you know her name fast
+enough--and she refused me."
+
+"Refused you!" screamed Gilbert with admirably-assumed astonishment;
+"refused you,--the opera-singer, the tragedy-queen, the Princess Do Re
+has refused my lord with his thousands and his tens of thousands! The
+world is coming to an end! People will next question the value of an
+hereditary legislature. You astound me!"
+
+"I'll tell you what, Lloyd," said Lord Ticehurst sulkily, "I wish you
+to drop that style of chaff; I don't see the fun of it."
+
+"You never saw the fun of anything, Etchingham; it is not your
+_métier_; Providence has ordained otherwise. It's for us poor devils
+to see the fun that you big swells make for us."
+
+Rage swelled within Lord Ticehurst's heart as he listened to these
+words, which were so eminently corroborative of what Bobby Maitland
+had said to him, and of what he had thought to himself on his homeward
+drive. But he controlled himself, and said:
+
+"Well, what I see or what I don't see don't matter much just now.
+Perhaps I see more than some people think I do; more than I give
+tongue about, that's certain. However, I don't care about being
+chaffed on that subject, and so please drop it."
+
+"Poor old boy!" said Lloyd, with an elaborate affectation of
+compassion; "of course he's very sore, that's natural enough; and of
+course it comes much harder to a fellow in his position, who thinks
+that he has only to lie under the wall and the ripe cherries will
+tumble into his mouth, to find that they sometimes hang on the stalk
+and won't tumble. It puts me in mind of the little stories in one
+syllable that we used to learn at school. 'There was once a small boy,
+and he cried for the moon, and when--'"
+
+"D--n it, sir, will you stop?" cried Lord Ticehurst, angered beyond
+all patience. "Look here, Lloyd, you and I have been friends for a
+long time; but if you go on in this way I shall--"
+
+"What?" interrupted Gilbert, turning quickly on him.
+
+"Cut the whole concern, stock, lock, and barrel," said his lordship,
+"and part from you for ever."
+
+The two men stood confronting each other; Lord Ticehurst flushed and
+heated, Lloyd wonderfully pale and calm, and only betraying agitation
+in the twitchings of the muscles of his mouth. He was the first to
+speak.
+
+"Part from me for ever, eh?" he said in slow deliberate tones, each
+word clipping out from between his thin tight lips. "O no, you
+wouldn't do that! You are not very wise, Lord Ticehurst, but you would
+not be such a fool as to quarrel with or part from the man who has
+made you what you are. Ah, you may stare and pretend to be astonished,
+but I repeat, who has made you what you are. And you need not come
+down upon me, as you are going to--I see it!--with the whole long
+story of your birth and position and status, and all the rest of it. I
+know all that from _Debrett_; and still I stick to my text,--that I
+made you what you are! The time has come--you have brought it about,
+not I; I could have gone on for ever as we were--but the time has come
+for plain speaking; and I say that whatever you are, and whatever you
+may be thought of in the world, you owe to me, to me; without whom you
+would have remained the unformed cub you were when I found you in the
+hands of that old duffer, Plater Dobbs!"
+
+The prospect of a row with his pupil--not a separation, of course, but
+a brisk breeze to freshen up the tamely-flowing current of their
+ordinary life--had often occurred to Gilbert Lloyd. He had thought
+over calmly what should be his conduct under such circumstances, and
+he had determined upon using the strongest possible "bounce," and
+acting in the most offensive and most truculent manner. His
+remembrance of Lord Ticehurst's behaviour in the quarrel with the
+Frenchman, M. de Prailles, at Baden, prompted him to this line of
+action, and he found it was the correct one. Lord Ticehurst did not
+knock him down, or fling a chair at him, or take any other prompt and
+decisive step. His cheek flushed angrily, certainly, but he only said:
+
+"Major Dobbs might have been a duffer, as you say he was, but at all
+events he aid not pitch into people who were kind to him, didn't
+blackguard them before their faces, as some people do, or what's
+worse, make game of them behind their backs."
+
+He laid such stress on this last sentence that Gilbert Lloyd looked
+hard at him, and said, "Make game of you behind your back! What do you
+mean by that?"
+
+"What I say," said Lord Ticehurst; "chaffin' about my not being able
+to do anything without asking you, and you being my dry-nurse, and all
+that kind of thing!"
+
+"Ah, ha!" said Gilbert Lloyd; "you haven't dined with our friend Bobby
+Maitland for nothing! That's his stab, I'll swear. Now look here,
+Ticehurst, you've talked about our parting, and I never let a man
+threaten me twice. So part we will. We must wait over Doncaster,
+because there are some things coming off there in which we are
+mutually interested; but after that I'll square up all the accounts
+and hand over everything to you."
+
+He looked bard at his pupil as he said these words, expecting that the
+announcement would evoke a burst of protestations and disavowals. But
+Lord Ticehurst merely said "Very well; all right;" and took up his
+candle and left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+Perplexity.
+
+
+Lord Sandilands was looking and feeling ill and feeble, and was mainly
+occupied, as he hobbled across the not-magnificently-proportioned
+drawing-room of that most desirable lodging-house, with an unrivalled
+view of the Esplanade, in so putting down and moving his feet as to
+cause himself the least possible pain, when he came, leaning on the
+arm of his housekeeper, to meet Mrs. Bloxam and Miss Lambert. But he
+was a man of too quick perception at all times, and his mind had been
+dwelling of late with so much anxiety upon Gertrude and her interests,
+that he was additionally keen in remarking every incident in which she
+was concerned. As he put out his disengaged hand and took Gertrude's,
+he glanced from her face to that of the housekeeper, and back to hers
+again, and saw that each recognised the other.
+
+"You know Mrs. Bush?" he asked, still holding Gertrude's hand in one
+of his, still leaning with the other on Mrs. Bush's arm.
+
+"Mrs. Bush and I have met before," Gertrude answered calmly; "but she
+does not know my stage name. I am a singer, Mrs. Bush," she added;
+"and my stage name is Lambert."
+
+"O, indeed, ma'am!" said Mrs. Bush, in a singularly unsympathetic
+voice, and with an expression which said pretty plainly that she did
+not think it signified much what the speaker called herself.--"Shall I
+put your lordship in the chair near the window?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said Lord Sandilands testily; and then he added, with the
+perversity of age and illness, "and where did you know Miss Keith,
+Mrs. Bush?" He seated himself as he spoke, drew the skirts of his gray
+dressing-gown over his knees, and again looked from one to the other.
+Mrs. Bloxam, to whom the scene had absolutely no meaning, stood by in
+silence. Gertrude was very calm, very pale, and her eyes shone with a
+disdainful, defiant light, as they had shone on the fatal day of which
+this meeting so vividly reminded her. Mrs. Bush smiled, a dubious kind
+of smile, and rubbed her hands together very slowly and deliberately,
+as she answered:
+
+"If you please, my lord, I didn't never know a Miss Keith. It were
+when the young lady was Mrs. Lloyd as she come to my house at
+Brighton."
+
+"When the young lady was Mrs. Lloyd!" repeated Lord Sandilands in
+astonishment, and now including Mrs. Bloxam, who looked extremely
+embarrassed and uncomfortable in the searching gaze he directed
+towards the housekeeper and Gertrude. "What does this mean?"
+
+"I will explain it to you," said Gertrude firmly but very gently, and
+bending over him as she spoke; "but there is no occasion to detain
+Mrs. Bush." The tone and manner of her words were tantamount to a
+dismissal, and so Mrs. Bush received them. She immediately retreated
+to the door, with an assumption of not feeling the smallest curiosity
+concerning the lady with whom she was thus unexpectedly brought into
+contact, and left the room, murmuring an assurance that she should be
+within call when his lordship might want her. A few moments' pause
+followed her departure. The astonishment and vague uneasiness with
+which Lord Sandilands had heard what Mrs. Bush had said kept him
+silent, while Gertrude was agitated and puzzled--the first by the
+imminent danger of discovery of her carefully-kept secret, and the
+second by hearing Lord Sandilands allude to her as "Miss Keith." When
+she thought over this strange and critical incident in her life
+afterwards, it seemed to her that something like a perception of the
+truth about to be imparted to her came into her mind as Lord
+Sandilands spoke. Mrs. Bloxam experienced a sensation unpleasantly
+akin to threatened fainting. What was coming? Must all indeed be told?
+Must her conduct be put in its true light before both Gertrude and
+Lord Sandilands? Could she not escape either of the extremes which, in
+her mental map of the straits in which she found herself, she
+had laid down? But she was a strong woman by nature, and a quiet,
+self-repressed woman by habit, and in the few moments' interval of
+silence she did not faint, but sat down a little behind Lord
+Sandilands, and with her face turned away from the light. As for the
+old nobleman himself, the mere shock of the dim suspicion, the vague
+possibility which suggested itself, shook his composure severely,
+through all the restraint which his natural manliness and the acquired
+impassiveness of good breeding imposed. Gertrude was the first to
+speak. She stood in her former attitude, slightly leaning over him,
+and he sat, his head back against the chair, and his keen, gray,
+anxious eyes raised to her handsome, haughty face.
+
+"You sent for me, my dear lord, my good friend," she said,--and there
+was a tone in the rich, sweet voice which the old man had never heard
+in it before, and in which his ear caught and carried to his heart the
+echo of one long silent and almost forgotten,--"and I have come; in
+the first place to see you, to know how you are, and to satisfy myself
+that this illness has had nothing alarming in it. In the second place,
+that I may hear all you mean to say to me; I know about what,"--her
+eyes drooped and her colour rose--"Mrs. Bloxam has told me; she has
+fully explained all your kindness, all your goodness and generosity to
+me. Will you tell me all you intended to say to me, and let me say
+what I meant to say to you, just as if Mrs. Bush had never called me
+by that strange name in your hearing, and then I will explain all."
+The lustrous earnestness of her face rendered it far more beautiful
+than Lord Sandilands had ever before seen it. Her mother had never
+looked at him with that purposeful expression, with that look which
+told of sorrow and knowledge, and the will and resolution to live them
+down.
+
+"I will do anything you wish, my dear," said the old nobleman; and it
+was remarkable that he discarded in that moment all the measured
+courtesy a manner which he had hitherto sedulously preserved, and
+adopted in its stead the deep and warm interest, the partial judgment,
+the protecting tone of his true relationship to her. "Sit here beside
+me, and listen. I have some painful things to say, but they will soon
+be said; and I hope--I hope happy days are in store for you;" but his
+face was clouded, and doubt, even dread, expressed itself in his
+voice. Gertrude did not exactly obey him. Instead of taking a seat,
+she placed herself on her knees beside his chair; and in this attitude
+she listened to his words.
+
+"I know how it is with you and Miles Challoner, my dear, and Miles is
+dearer to me than any person in the world except one,--and that one
+is you."
+
+"I!" said Gertrude, amazed. "I dearer to you than Miles Challoner,
+your old friend's child!"
+
+"Yes," he said, with a faint smile, "for you are my own child,
+Gertrude; that is what I sent for you to tell you, and I want to make
+you happy if I can." So saying, the old man took her bent head between
+his hands, and kissed her. Gertrude did not evince any violent
+emotion--she turned extremely pale, and her eyes filled with tears;
+but she did not say anything for a little while, and she afterwards
+wondered at the quietness with which the revelation was made and
+received. She was not even certain that she had been very much
+surprised. Mrs. Bloxam rose, opened the window, stepped out upon the
+balcony, and carefully closed the window behind her. During a
+considerable time she might have been observed by the numerous
+promenaders on the Esplanade, leaning over the railing, which was more
+ornamental than solid, in an attitude of profound abstraction. By
+those within the room her very existence was forgotten until, in the
+course of their mutual interrogation, her name came to be mentioned.
+Still kneeling beside him, but now with her head resting against his
+breast, and one long thin white hand laid tenderly upon the bright
+masses of her chestnut hair, Gertrude heard from her father the story
+of her mother's brief happy life and early death;--and the sternest
+might have forgiven the old man the unintentional, deception which was
+self-delusion, which made him tell his daughter how only that early
+death had prevented his making Gertrude Gautier his wife. For the
+first time he realised now in the keenness of his longing, in the
+misery of his dreaded powerlessness to secure the happiness of his
+child, the full extent of the injury inflicted upon her by her
+illegitimate birth.
+
+"I know," he said, "that Miles loves you, and I think you love him,
+and I know you would be happy. I have lived long enough in the world,
+and seen enough of it, to know how rarely one can say that with common
+sense and justice of any two human beings. Tell me, Gertrude, why it
+is that you have refused Miles,--why it is that you seem determined
+not to let me smooth away all obstacles to your marrying him?"
+
+The conversation had lasted long, and had embraced many subjects,
+before it reached this point. Gertrude had undergone much and varying
+emotion, but she had not lost her calmness, partly because of her
+exceptional strength of mind and body, and partly because she never
+suffered herself to forget the danger of over-excitement to Lord
+Sandilands. She had listened quietly to the story of her mother (the
+idea of actually learning about her own parentage, and being able to
+realise it, was quite new to her--and abstract sentiment was not in
+Gertrude's way), and had rendered to it the tribute of silent tears.
+She had heard her father tell how he had first recognised her at Lady
+Carabas' concert, and how he had felt the strong instinctive interest
+in which he had never believed, and which he had never practically
+experimented in, arise at the sight of her; how he had found, first
+with misgiving, and afterwards with increasing pleasure, ratified and
+approved by his conscience because of his knowledge of Miles
+Challoner's tastes and character, that his young friend and companion
+was attached to her. She had heard him tell how he had watched the
+ill-success of Lord Ticehurst's suit with pleasure, and how he had won
+Miles to confide to him his hopes and plans, and encouraged him to
+hope for success, and then had been induced by her refusal of Miles
+and his belief that that refusal was dictated by disinterested
+regard for Challoner's worldly interests, and in no degree by her own
+feelings, to take the resolution of telling her all the truth--upon
+which resolution he was now acting.
+
+So far Gertrude had been wonderfully composed. Her father had said to
+her all he had urged with himself, when he had been first assailed by
+misgivings that his old friend would have resented his endeavouring to
+bring about a marriage between Miles and a woman to whom the
+disadvantage of illegitimate birth attached; and she had assented,
+adding that while she only knew herself utterly obscure, she had felt
+and acted upon the sense of her own inferiority. The conversation had
+strayed away from Gertrude's early life--the father met his
+acknowledged daughter for the first time as a woman, and they made
+haste to speak of present great interests. Mrs. Bloxam might have been
+quite easy in her mind about the amount of notice her share in any of
+the transactions of the past would be likely to excite. But now, when
+Lord Sandilands pleaded earnestly the cause of Miles Challoner, and in
+arguing it argued in favour of the weakness of Gertrude's own heart,
+her fortitude gave way, and a full and overwhelming knowledge of the
+bitterness of her fate rushed in upon her soul. The veil fell from her
+eyes; she knew herself for the living lie she was; she realised that
+the unjustifiable compact she had made with her husband was a
+criminal, an accursed convention, bearing more and more fruit of
+bitterness and shame and punishment, as her father unfolded the scheme
+of a bright and happy future which he had formed for her.
+
+"If he had been any other than Miles Challoner," she had said to Mrs.
+Bloxam, she would have married him, would have incurred the risk for
+rank and money--or she had thought so, had really believed it of
+herself. What had possessed her with such an idea? What had made her
+contemplate in herself a creature so lost, so utterly, coldly wicked?
+It was so long since she had permitted herself to think of her real
+position; she had deliberately blinded, voluntarily stultified her
+mind for so long, that she had ceased to feel that she was playing a
+part as fictitious off, as any she performed on the stage. But now, as
+her father's voice went on, speaking lovingly, hopefully, telling her
+how conventionalities should be disregarded and wealth supplied in her
+interests; telling her she need have no fear in the case of such a man
+as Miles--had he not known him all his life?--of any late regret or
+after reproach; now the tide of anguish rushed over her, and with
+choking sobs she implored him to desist.
+
+"Don't, don't!" she said. "You don't know--O my God!--you don't
+know--and how shall I ever tell you? There is another reason, ten
+thousand times stronger; all the others I gave were only pretences,
+anything to keep him from suspecting, from finding out the truth;
+there is a reason which makes it altogether impossible."
+
+"Another reason! What is it? Tell me at once--tell me," said Lord
+Sandilands; and he raised himself in his chair, and held her by the
+shoulders at arms' length from him. Dread, suspicion, pain were in his
+face; and under the influence of strong emotion, which reflected
+itself in her features, the father and daughter, with all the
+difference of colouring and of form, were wonderfully like each other.
+
+"I will tell you," she said; but she shut her eyes, and then hid them
+with her hand while she spoke, shrinking from his gaze. "I will tell
+you. I am not free to be Miles Challoner's wife. I am married to
+another man."
+
+"Married! You married?"
+
+"Yes," she said, "I am married. Your housekeeper knows me as a married
+woman. The name she called me by is my real name. You know the man who
+is my husband, unhappy wretch that I am!"
+
+"Who is he?" said Lord Sandilands hoarsely, his nerveless hands
+falling from her shoulders as he spoke. She looked at him, was alarmed
+at the paleness of his face, and rose hurriedly from her knees.
+
+"You are ill," she said. "I will go--" But he caught her dress, and
+held it.
+
+"Tell me who he is."
+
+"Gilbert Lloyd!"
+
+
+Gertrude was horrified at the effect which the communication she had
+made to her father had upon him. He had set his heart strongly indeed
+upon her marriage with Miles Challoner, she thought, when the
+frustration of the project had the power to plunge him into a state of
+prostration and misery. As for herself, the alarm she experienced, and
+the great excitement she had undergone in the revelation made to her
+by her father, the agony of mind she had suffered in the desperate
+necessity for avowing the truth, were quickly succeeded by such
+physical exhaustion as she had never before felt. This effect of
+mental excitement was largely assisted by the weakness still remaining
+after her illness, and was so complete and irresistible, that when she
+had seen the doctor hurriedly summoned to Lord Sandilands by Mrs.
+Bloxam's orders--that lady's meditations on the balcony had been
+terminated by Gertrude's cry for help--and learned that the patient
+was not in danger, but must be kept absolutely quiet, she yielded to
+it at once.
+
+Not a word was said by Mrs. Bloxam to Gertrude concerning the
+disclosure made by Lord Sandilands. In the confusion and distress
+which ensued on the sudden attack of violent pain with which her
+father was seized, Gertrude lost sight of time and place, and thought
+of nothing but him so long as she was able to think of anything.
+Little more than an hour had elapsed since Lord Sandilands had told
+her the secret of his life, and she was speaking of him freely to Mrs.
+Bloxam as her father, and the word hardly sounded strange. She could
+not return to Hardriggs; she was not able, even if she would have left
+Lord Sandilands. There was no danger of her seeing Miles if she
+remained at St. Leonards. Lord Sandilands had told her early in their
+interview that he had sent Miles up to town, and procured his absence
+until he should summon him back by promising to plead his cause in his
+absence. She and Mrs. Bloxam must remain--not in the house, indeed,
+but at the nearest hotel. She would send a message to that effect to
+Lady Belwether, and inform Mrs. Bush of her intention.
+
+Mrs. Bush had not relaxed her suspicious reserve during all the bustle
+and confusion which had ensued on the sudden illness of Lord
+Sandilands. She had been brought into contact with Gertrude frequently
+as they went from room to room in search of remedies, and ultimately
+met by the old nobleman's bedside after the doctor's visit. Mrs. Bush
+did not indeed call Gertrude "Mrs. Lloyd" again, but she scrupulously
+addressed her as "Madam;" and there was an unpleasant, though not
+distinctly offensive, significance about her manner which convinced
+Gertrude that not an incident of the terrible time at Brighton had
+been forgotten by the _ci-devant_ lodging-house keeper, whose changed
+position had set her free from the necessity of obsequiousness.
+
+Gertrude had taken a resolution on the subject of Mrs. Bush, on which
+she acted with characteristic decision, when at length her father was
+sleeping under the influence of opiates, and she and Mrs. Bloxam had
+agreed that their remaining at St. Leonards was inevitable. She asked
+Mrs. Bush to accompany her to the drawing-room, and then said to her
+at once:
+
+"You are surprised to see me here, Mrs. Bush, no doubt; and as I
+understand from Lord Sandilands that he has great confidence in you,
+and values your services highly, I think it right to explain to you
+what may seem strange in the matter."
+
+Mrs. Bush looked at the young lady a little more kindly than before,
+and muttered something about being much obliged, and hoping she should
+merit his lordship's good opinion. Gertrude continued:
+
+"It will displease Lord Sandilands, to whom I am closely related, if
+the fact of my being married is talked about. I am separated from Mr.
+Lloyd, and it is customary for singers to retain their own names. Mine
+is Grace Lambert. If you desire to please his lordship, you may do so
+by keeping silence on this subject, by not telling anyone that you
+ever saw me at Brighton under another name."
+
+With the shrewdness which most women of her class and calling possess
+by nature, and which the necessities of her struggling career as a
+lodging-housekeeper had developed, Mrs. Bush instantly perceived her
+own interest in this affair, and replied very civilly that she was
+sure she should never mention anything his lordship would wish
+concealed; and that she was not given to gossip, thank goodness! never
+had been when she had a house herself, and which her opinion had
+always been as lodgers' business was their own and not hers.
+Consequent, she had never said a word about the poor dear gentleman
+what had died so sudden,--at this point of her discourse Gertrude's
+jaded nerves thrilled again with pain,--although it had injured her
+house serious. With a last effort of self-command, Gertrude listened
+to her apparently unmoved, and dismissed her, with an intimation that
+she should return in the morning to take her place by Lord Sandilands.
+Mrs. Bush had both a talent and a taste for nursing invalids, and she
+established herself in the darkened room, there to watch the troubled
+sleeper, with cheerful alacrity. Her thoughts were busy with Gertrude,
+however, and with what she had said to her. "So she's his near
+relation, is she?" thus ran Mrs. Bush's cogitations. "_What_ relation
+now, I wonder? Lambert is not a family name on any side, and he called
+her Miss Keith too--and I'll be hanged if he knew she was married! I'm
+sure he didn't. There's something queer in all this; but it's not my
+affair. However, if his lordship asks me any questions, I'm not going
+to hold my tongue to him. Separated from Mr. Lloyd! I wonder was she
+ever really married to him? She looked like it, and spoke like it,
+though; a more respectable young woman in her ways never came to my
+place, for the little time she was in it. I wonder what she has left
+him for?--though in my belief it's a good job for her, and he's a bad
+lot."
+
+The hours of the night passed over the heads of the father and the
+daughter unconsciously. With the morning came the renewed sense of
+something important and painful having taken place. On the preceding
+evening, Gertrude had entreated Mrs. Bloxam to refrain from
+questioning her. "I am too tired," she had said. "I cannot talk about
+it; let me rest now, and I will tell you everything in the morning."
+To this Mrs. Bloxam had gladly assented; she was naturally very
+anxious, and not a little curious; but anxiety and curiosity were both
+held in abeyance by the satisfaction she experienced in perceiving
+that the revelations which had been made had not seriously injured her
+position with Lord Sandilands or with Gertrude. The mutual recognition
+between Gertrude and Mrs. Bush had been unintelligible to her. That it
+had produced important results she could not doubt; but on the whole,
+she did not regret them. The acknowledgment of Gertrude's marriage
+might prevent future mischief, in which she (Mrs. Bloxam) might
+possibly be unpleasantly involved, and at present it was evident that,
+in the overwhelming agitation and surprise of the discovery, her
+conduct had been entirely forgotten or overlooked. That she might
+continue to occupy a position of such safe obscurity was, for herself,
+Mrs. Bloxam's dearest wish; and Mrs. Bloxam's wishes seldom extended,
+at all events with any animation, beyond herself.
+
+Lord Sandilands awoke free from pain, but so weak and confused that it
+was some time before he could bring up the occurrences of yesterday,
+in their due order and weight of import, before his mind. He had
+received a shock from which his physical system could hardly be
+expected to recover; but the extent of the mental effect--the fear,
+the horror, the awakening of remorse, not yet to be softened into
+abiding and availing repentance--none but he could ever estimate. The
+past, the present, and the future alike menaced, alike tortured him:
+the dead friend, the sole sharer of whose confidence he was; the dead
+man's son, whom he loved almost as well as if he were of his own flesh
+and blood; the dead woman, whom he had deceived and betrayed (in the
+wholesome bitterness of his awakened feelings Lord Sandilands was hard
+upon himself, and ready to ignore the ignorance which had made her a
+facile victim); the dreadful combination of fate which had made the
+daughter whom he had neglected and disowned the wife of a man whose
+tremendous guilt her father alone of living creatures knew, and had
+thrown her in the path of that same guilty man's brother, to love him
+and be beloved by him. In so dire a distress was he; and this girl
+whom he loved with an anxious intensity which surprised himself,
+imprisoned in the hopeless meshes of the net in which his feet were
+involved. No wonder he found it hard, with all his natural courage,
+and all the acquired calmness of his caste, to marshal these facts in
+their proper order, and make head against the dismay they caused him.
+But this was no time for dismay. He had to act in a terrible emergency
+of his daughter's life, and to act, if indeed it were possible for any
+ingenuity or prudence to enable him to do so, so that the real truth
+of the emergency, the full extent of its terrible nature, should be
+known to himself alone, never suspected by her. The housekeeper came
+softly to the old nobleman's bedside while his mind was working busily
+at this problem, the most difficult which life had ever set him for
+solution; and seeing his eyes closed and his face quiet, believed him
+to be still sleeping, and withdrew gently.
+
+By degrees, the facts and the necessities of the case arranged
+themselves somewhat in this order. Gertrude had told her father of her
+marriage, of the misery which had speedily resulted from it, and of
+the strange bargain made between her husband and herself. She knew
+Lloyd's worthlessness then, though she had spoken but vaguely of him
+as a gambler and a reckless, unprincipled man, not giving Lord
+Sandilands any reason to think she could regard him as capable of
+actual crime. The shock of the disclosure Gertrude had imputed simply
+to his horror of the clandestine nature of her marriage, and the moral
+blindness and deadness which had made the bargain between her and
+Lloyd present itself as possible to their minds (the light of a true
+and pure love had shone on Gertrude now, and shown her the full
+turpitude of the transaction); his sudden seizure had prevented his
+hearing more than a brief, bare outline of the dreadful episode of his
+daughter's marriage. She knew nothing of the real, appalling truth;
+she was ignorant that the man she had married was a criminal of the
+deepest dye, the secret of his crime in her father's hands, his own
+brother the object of her affections, and the only possible issue out
+of all this complication and misery one involving utter and eternal
+separation between her and Miles Challoner. If he and Gertrude ever
+met again, she must learn the truth; she must learn that Gilbert Lloyd
+was Geoffrey Challoner, and an additional weight of horror and anguish
+be added to the load of sorrow her unfortunate marriage--in which Lord
+Sandilands humbly and remorsefully recognised the consequence, the
+direct result, of his own sin--had laid upon her. If she could be
+prevented from ever knowing the worst? If he, invested with the
+authority and with the affection of a parent, could induce her to
+consent to an immediate separation from Miles Challoner, to a prompt
+removal from the possibility of seeing him, by strengthening her own
+views of the insuperable nature of the barrier between them? She would
+not, however, yield to Miles's prayer for their marriage; but that
+would not be sufficient for her safety: she must never see him more;
+she must be kept from the misery of learning the truth. How was this
+to be done? For some time Lord Sandilands found no answer to that
+question; but at last it suggested itself. Miles--yes, he would make
+an appeal to him; he would tell him all the truth--to him who knew
+that Lord Sandilands also possessed that other secret, which, to judge
+by its consequences, must be indeed a terrible one; and Miles would be
+merciful to this woman, who, though she had sinned by the false
+pretence under which she lived, was so much more sinned against; and,
+appearing to accept her decision, Miles would not ask to see her
+again. Yes, that would do; he was sure that would succeed. And then he
+would acknowledge Gertrude as his daughter to all who had any claim to
+an explanation of any proceedings of his--the number was
+satisfactorily small--and he would leave England for ever, with
+Gertrude. It was wonderful with how strong and irresistible a voice
+Nature was now speaking to the old man's heart; how all the habits and
+conventionalities of his life seemed to be dropping suddenly away from
+him, and something new, but far more powerful, establishing itself in
+their stead as a law of his being. The tremendous truth and extent of
+his responsibility as regarded Gertrude presented themselves to him
+now in vivid reality, and the strongest desire of his heart was for
+strength, skill, and patience, to carry out the plan which presented
+itself for her benefit. He felt no anger towards her for what she had
+done. Poor motherless, fatherless, unprotected girl, how was she to
+understand the moral aspect of such a deed? He pitied the folly, but
+he did not seriously regard the guilt, while he deplored the
+consequences. Gertrude's professional career, he saw at once, must
+come to an immediate and abrupt close. There was no safety for her in
+the terrible unexplained attitude of the brothers Challoner, and her
+total unconsciousness of it and its bearing upon her own fate, but
+absence from the scene of the secret drama. With the grief of her
+hopeless, impossible love at her heart, and with the help and safety
+of her new-discovered relationship to him, security for her future and
+escape from the present, Gertrude would not hesitate about abandoning
+her career as a singer. It had never had for her the intoxicating
+delight and excitement with which such a success is invested for the
+fortunate few who attain it; and as for the world, the lapse of the
+brilliant star from the operatic firmament would be a nine-days'
+wonder, and no more, like such other of the episodes of her story and
+his as the world might come to learn. That part of the business hardly
+deserved, and certainly did not receive, more than the most passing
+consideration from Lord Sandilands. It was all dreadfully painful, and
+full of complications which involved infinite distress; but Lord
+Sandilands began to see light in his difficult way. It was not until
+he had thought long and anxiously of Gertrude and of Miles that his
+mind turned in the direction of Gilbert Lloyd; and then it was with
+inexpressible pain that he contemplated the fact that this man, whom
+of all men he most abhorred, was the husband of his daughter; had had
+the power to make her girlhood miserable, to blight her life in its
+bloom, and to continue to blight it to the end. How great a villain
+Gilbert Lloyd was, he alone knew; but no doubt Gertrude had had
+considerable experience of his character. On this point he would find
+out all the truth by degrees. His thoughts glanced for a moment at the
+probable effect it would have on Lloyd when he should discover that
+the one man in the world in whose power he was, was the father of his
+wife, and had constituted himself her protector. At least there was
+one bright spot in all this mass of misery: knowing this, Lloyd would
+never dare to molest Gertrude, would never venture to seek her or
+trouble her, in any straits, however severe, to which his unprincipled
+life might drive him. In this perfectly reasonable calculation there
+was but one item astray: Lord Sandilands had no suspicion of the state
+of feeling in which Gilbert Lloyd now was with respect to his wife. If
+he had known the fierce revival of passion for her, and the rage which
+filled his baffled and desperate heart, Lord Sandilands would not have
+looked with so much confidence upon the prospect of suffering no
+molestation from Lloyd. Whether his tigerish nature could ever be
+wholly controlled by fear, was a question to which no answer could yet
+be given. But Lord Sandilands did not ask it, and his thoughts had
+again reverted to Miles, and were dwelling sadly on the caprice of
+fate which had brought his brother once more so fatally across his
+track, and had erected so strange a link between the calamity which
+had overshadowed his dead friend's life and that which must now be the
+abiding sorrow of his own, when the arrival of the doctor interrupted
+his musings, and obliged him to confess to being awake.
+
+When the visit was concluded, with a favourable report but many
+cautions on the part of the medical attendant, Lord Sandilands
+inquired of Mrs. Bush when the arrival of the two ladies might be
+looked for. They had already sent to ask how his lordship was, and
+would be there at eleven. Lord Sandilands then bethought him that the
+recognition of the preceding day, which had no doubt led to his
+receiving his daughter's confidence, and being preserved from blindly
+pursuing a course of persuasion and advocacy of Miles Challoner's
+suit, which might have led to most disastrous consequences, could now
+be made still more useful, as affording him an opportunity of learning
+more about his daughter's married life than she had had time or
+probably inclination to tell him.
+
+The old man looked very weak and curiously older all of a sudden, and
+Mrs. Bush, a kind-hearted woman in her narrow little way, was sorry to
+see the change. The sympathy in her manner and voice inspired Lord
+Sandilands with a resolution somewhat similar to that one which
+Gertrude had noted on the previous day. He asked Mrs. Bush to take a
+seat, requested her best attention to what he was going to say, and
+then told her without any circumlocution that the lady called Grace
+Lambert, whom she had known as Mrs. Lloyd, was his daughter, whom he
+intended to acknowledge and to take abroad with him. The housekeeper
+showed very plainly the astonishment which this communication
+occasioned her, and her embarrassment was extreme when Lord Sandilands
+continued: "And now, Mrs. Bush, I wish you to tell me all you know
+about my daughter, and all that occurred while Mr. Lloyd, from whom
+she separated immediately afterwards, lodged at your house at
+Brighton."
+
+"Of course, my lord," replied Mrs. Bush, in a nervous and hesitating
+manner, "I cannot refuse to do as your lordship wishes, nor do I wish
+so to do; but Mrs. Lloyd did not lodge at my house at all in a manner;
+she only came there unexpected, and went away at night, after the poor
+gentleman died, as were took so sudden--dear, dear, how sudden he were
+took, to be sure!"
+
+"What gentleman? I don't understand you. Pray tell me the whole story,
+Mrs. Bush; don't omit any particulars you can remember; it is of great
+importance to me."
+
+Mrs. Bush possessed no ordinary share of that very common gift of
+persons of her class--circumlocution, and she told her story with a
+delightful sense of revelling in the fullest details. Her hearer, not
+under ordinary circumstances distinguished for patience, neither
+hurried nor interrupted her, but, on the contrary, when he asked her
+any questions at all, put to her such as induced her to lengthen and
+amplify the narrative. When the housekeeper took her seat beside his
+bed, Lord Sandilands had been lying with his face towards her. As she
+progressed in her account of the sojourn of Gilbert Lloyd and Harvey
+Gore at her house, he turned away, and lay towards the wall against
+which his bed was placed, so that at the conclusion of the story she
+did not see his face. Ashy pale that face was, and it bore a fixed
+look of horror; for, bringing his own secret knowledge of Gilbert
+Lloyd to bear upon the story told by the housekeeper, Lord Sandilands
+readily divined what was that swift, unaccountable illness of which
+Lloyd's friend had died, what the irresistible power his wife had
+wielded in insisting upon the separation which had taken place. "The
+wretched girl! What must she not have suffered!" the father thought.
+"Alone, in the power of such a man, in possession of such a secret,
+whether by positive knowledge or only strong suspicion, no matter.
+Good God, what must she not have suffered! What has she not yet before
+her to suffer!"
+
+Here, as he afterwards thought, in reflecting upon the unconscious
+disclosure which Mrs. Bush had made to him--here was another barrier
+against any possible molestation of Gertrude by her husband, a
+horrible truth to grasp at with something like ghastly satisfaction.
+But horrible truths were all around them in this miserable
+complication, on every side.
+
+"Thank you," said Lord Sandilands, when Mrs. Bush had concluded her
+narrative. "I am much indebted to you for telling me all these
+particulars. You will oblige me very materially by not mentioning the
+subject in any way to anyone."
+
+Mrs. Bush was aware that Lord Sandilands not only possessed the means
+but the inclination to make it very well worth anyone's while to
+oblige him, so she immediately resolved upon maintaining undeviating
+fidelity to the obligation he imposed upon her; and she afterwards
+kept her resolution, which she found profitable.
+
+When Gertrude arrived, Mrs. Bush met her with a request that she would
+go to his lordship at once, which implied that Mrs. Bloxam was to
+remain in the drawing-room. This she did, composedly occupying herself
+with needlework, and feeling her hopes that she should be entirely
+overlooked in the crisis of affairs growing stronger and stronger. It
+may as well be said here, once for all, that these hopes were
+justified. Mrs. Bloxam was never called to account by Lord Sandilands
+for his money, or her own conduct.
+
+
+"I take it upon myself, my dear," said Lord Sandilands to his
+daughter, when many hours passed in close and mournful consultation
+between them had gone by; "as soon as I am able to move--and, you see,
+I am greatly better already--the arrangements shall all be made."
+
+From the bed where he lay, the old man's eyes were turned anxiously,
+sadly, towards the figure of his daughter. Gertrude was seated in a
+deep chintz-covered chair, in the bay of the window, which overlooked
+a small garden of the sterile and sandy order, familiar to the memory
+of occasional dwellers in seaside lodging-houses. She was leaning
+forward, her head resting on her hands, her arms supported by a little
+three-legged table, her attitude full of grace and dejection. The
+afternoon sun tinged her pale cheek and her clustering hair, but for
+the moment the brilliance that was so characteristic of her appearance
+was gone. But she touched the old man's heart all the more keenly for
+the lack of brilliancy, for she was more like her mother without
+it,--the dead mother whom she had never seen, and whose name had as
+yet been barely mentioned between them.
+
+"Yes," she said absently, drearily, "I must leave it all to you. How
+strange it is to me to know that I have you to help me, to leave it
+all to!"
+
+"You will not pine for the excitement and applause to which you are so
+accustomed, Gertrude?"
+
+"No; they have been very wearisome to me of late, since I have known
+how much might have been mine that never can be now."
+
+"No indeed, my dear," said her father earnestly, "it never, never can
+be now; and your true courage, your true good sense is in
+acknowledging this at once, and consenting to turn your back upon it
+all promptly. You shall have none of the misery of severing these
+ties; I will write to Munns, and tell him I am ready to indemnify his
+real or imaginary losses."
+
+"It will cost you a great deal of money," she said, still absently,
+still drearily.
+
+"It is almost time that I began to spend it on you," said her father,
+with a very unsuccessful attempt at a smile.
+
+The past, the present, and the future had been discussed during the
+hours they had passed together, and emotion had worn itself out.
+Steadily keeping in mind the concealment he desired to practise, and
+the effect he designed to produce, the old nobleman had received the
+confidences which his daughter--who more and more strongly felt
+the tie between them hour by hour, and softened under its
+influence--imparted to him with the utmost tenderness and indulgence,
+but with as little effusion as possible. He had induced her to tell
+him the whole truth concerning her separation from her husband; and
+had received the terrible revelation with calmness which would have
+perhaps shocked Gertrude had she not been too much absorbed in the
+newer, sacred sorrow of her hopeless love to perceive as keenly as was
+her wont, had she not also been much exhausted physically, and thus
+mercifully less sensible to impressions. She had also told him of
+Gilbert Lloyd's late pursuit of her; and at that portion of her
+narrative Lord Sandilands ground his still strong white teeth with
+furious anger, and a thrill of exultation mingled with the rage and
+misery of the circumstances, as he thought how utterly this villain
+was in his power, how soon he would set his foot upon his neck and see
+him writhe in impotent anguish and humiliation. But this was one of
+the feelings which he had to conceal from Gertrude, and he did
+effectually conceal it.
+
+The plan decided upon was that Gertrude and Mrs. Bloxam should return
+on that evening to Hardriggs, and terminate their stay there as soon
+as possible; and then go to London and occupy the interval which must
+elapse before Lord Sandilands could travel, in making preparations for
+departure. The pretty villa was to be given up; the household gods
+which Gertrude had gathered around her were to be dispersed, and her
+life was "to begin over again." Is there any drearier phrase than
+that? can words represent any harder fact, any more painful idea? Then
+Lord Sandilands and his daughter would go abroad, and leave the
+English world behind them, to think and say just what it might please.
+The place of their abode was not even discussed. All foreign countries
+were alike new to Gertrude, and old to Lord Sandilands. One little
+point of detail had been mentioned between them. If Gertrude wished
+it, her father would take Mrs. Bloxam with them. He inclined to the
+belief that it would be butter not; better to be away from everyone
+connected with the past, from which it was their wish, their object to
+escape. And his daughter agreed with him, as did Mrs. Bloxam, when the
+matter was mentioned to her. She hated foreign countries--her trip to
+Italy was a standing grievance--and she was very glad to retire from
+her post of chaperone to Miss Lambert, with such a handsome present in
+money from Lord Sandilands--an ill-deserved acknowledgment of her
+services--as, added to the savings she had accumulated at the Vale
+House, rendered her free from the presence or the apprehension of
+poverty. When the time of parting came, this lady, on the whole a not
+unfortunate member of society as human affairs are constituted, took
+leave of Lord Sandilands and his daughter with the utmost propriety;
+and it is more than probable that by this time she has ceased to
+remember their existence.
+
+Gertrude took leave of her father, when the appointed time came for
+her return to Hardriggs, with little visible emotion. She was dazed
+and exhausted; and it was not until the events of the last few days
+were weeks old, and she passed them in review under a foreign sky, in
+a distant land, far away from the man she loved and the man she bated,
+that she began to realise them in detail, and to feel that she had,
+indeed, "begun life over again."
+
+When Lord Sandilands contemplated the prospect of the interview he was
+about to have with Miles Challoner, he shrunk from it with dread. But
+he had to go through with it; and perhaps the most painful moment of
+the many painful hours he and his friend passed together was that in
+which the young man advanced to him with beaming looks, with
+outstretched hand, with agitated voice, and said, "You have sent for
+me? you have good news for me?"
+
+The task was done the task in which the old man felt the hand of
+retribution striking him heavily through the suffering of those he
+loved--the pain was borne, and the day after that which witnessed the
+arrival of Gertrude and Mrs. Bloxam in London saw Miles Challoner
+leaving the great city for Rowley Court, where he shut himself up in
+such gloomy seclusion that the people about began to talk oddly of it.
+Somehow the Court seemed an unlucky place, they said. First, the
+mysterious disgrace and banishment of the younger son; then the
+lonely, moping, moody life of the Squire; and now here was the young
+Squire going the same gait. There was surely something in it which was
+not lucky, that there was, and time would tell.
+
+The world did talk, as they had anticipated, of the departure of Lord
+Sandilands and Miss Lambert for foreign parts; and as it was some
+little time before it got hold, of anything like a correct version of
+the story, it started some very pretty and ingenious theories to
+account for that "unaccountable" proceeding. Managers were savage,
+_débutantes_ delighted, and Lady Carabas, who knew nothing whatever of
+the matter, was charmingly mysterious, and assured everyone that her
+dear Grace had been guided in everything by her advice, and that that
+dear Lord Sandilands was the most perfect of creatures, and had
+behaved like an angel. And then, in even a shorter time than Lord
+Sandilands and Gertrude had calculated upon, the world, including Lady
+Carabas, forgot them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+An Explosion.
+
+
+When Gilbert Lloyd awoke the next morning after an excellent night's
+rest, his first impression was that something disagreeable had
+happened on the previous evening, but it was some time before he could
+exactly recollect all the circumstances and pass them calmly in review
+before him. Even when he had done so he felt by no means certain how
+far matters had gone. He had taken too much of that infernal brandy,
+he remembered with disgust--taken it because he had been brooding over
+that business at Brighton which happened years ago, it is true, but
+which some confounded fate seemed to have set people talking about
+lately. He had not thought about it, it had never troubled him, and
+now he found his mind continually running on that one subject. It must
+have been the constant reference made by those about him to--to his
+wife that must have turned his thoughts in that direction. Curses on
+that Sunday regulation of shutting the telegraph-offices! If he had
+only been able to send that telegram as he had originally intended
+early in the morning, it would have stopped her coming down, and
+prevented her having that fatal hold over him, of which she is well
+aware, and which she is determined to exercise if necessary. It was
+thinking last night of all these things combined that had sent him to
+the brandy-bottle, a dangerous habit, which seemed to be growing upon
+him, he thought, and which he must at once break himself of, as
+ruinous and destructive of all chances of keeping that clearness of
+brain which was to him a vital necessity. He was muddled the previous
+night; he felt it then; he only saw through a glass darkly what had
+happened, and the retrospect was by no means agreeable. Etchingham had
+annoyed him, he recollected that; and he had replied without measuring
+his language, and the result had been that they had agreed to part. O
+yes, now he remembered what Bobby Maitland had told Etchingham about
+him. What an idiot he had been to make a row about such a thing as
+that! He knew well enough that Bobby Maitland had been trying all he
+knew for years to supplant him in Etchingham's confidence, that he was
+awfully jealous of him, and would say or do anything to get a rise out
+of him. He must have taken an amount of brandy to have made such an
+ass of himself. It was a comfort to know that Etchingham was sure to
+be all right in the morning, and to be in a great fright at what had
+occurred. He knew his pupil well enough to be certain of that. No
+doubt his lordship had also dined, and had taken quite enough of Mr.
+Stackborough's wine. They were both of them excited, no doubt, but he
+must take care and stand on his dignity, and then Etchingham would
+come round at once.
+
+So, thinking over these things, Gilbert Lloyd took his cold sea-water
+bath, which got rid of most of the ill effects of the previous night,
+and having leisurely dressed himself, descended to the room where
+breakfast was laid. He was the first; Lord Ticehurst had not yet
+appeared. So Gilbert took up the newspaper, and after glancing at the
+state of the odds and the sporting-intelligence generally, remained
+expectant. He had not to wait very long. In a few minutes Lord
+Ticehurst, looking very white and seedy, and with his small eyes more
+tightly screwed up and sunk more deeply into his head than usual,
+entered the room. Gilbert bade him "good-morning," which his lordship,
+walking round the table and flinging himself into an easy-chair, only
+answered by a short nod. He then rang the bell, and, on the waiter's
+appearing, ordered brandy and soda-water. This, Lloyd argued to
+himself, was merely the effect of the "morning after," the result of
+too much indulgence in Stackborough's wines. His lordship's digestion
+was impaired and consequently his temper suffered: both would improve
+simultaneously. But after his brandy and soda-water, Lord Ticehurst
+pulled his chair to the table, and commenced and proceeded with a very
+excellent breakfast, during the discussion of which he said never a
+word to his anxiously-expectant confederate, while, at its finish, he
+lit a big cigar, and, still mute, armed himself with a telescope,
+flung open the window, and stepped into the balcony to inspect the
+exhibition of the naiads bathing in the foreground.
+
+For once in his life Gilbert Lloyd was nonplused. He had made
+perfectly certain that Etchingham would have cried peccavi, would have
+come to him begging to have their relations replaced on the old
+footing; and here was the recalcitrant apparently quite at ease, not
+taking the least notice of him, and obviously rather enjoying himself
+than otherwise. Had he been blind, or had Etchingham's character
+suddenly changed? One thing was quite certain, that all was going
+wrong, and that he must take prompt measures to set himself right.
+Gilbert Lloyd was not an adept at leek-swallowing. He had played his
+cards so well during the latter portion at least of his life that he
+had seldom been required to perform that humiliating feat, but he saw
+that he must do it now. Lord Ticehurst was, like most good-natured
+men, intensely obstinate and sulky when affronted, and though Lloyd
+had had no experience of this state of his pupil's mood so far as he
+was regarded, he had seen it evidenced against others. It was
+perfectly plain that one of these fits, and a very strong one, was on
+Lord Ticehurst at present, and Lloyd was compelled to acknowledge to
+himself that if he wanted to retain his position in the future he must
+knuckle under unreservedly and at once.
+
+He laid down the newspaper which he had made a pretence of reading,
+and looked towards the window. There, in the balcony, sat his
+lordship, the light-blue smoke from his cigar curling round his head,
+and his eye fixed at the telescope which he held in his hand Gilbert
+rose and went behind him, but Lord Ticehurst, although he must have
+heard the footstep, never moved. Then Gilbert laid his hand on his
+pupil's shoulder, and said, "Etchingham!"
+
+His lordship moved his eye from the telescope, and looked quietly at
+Lloyd. "Well?" said he, in a sufficiently sulky manner.
+
+"I have come to ask your pardon. I--"
+
+"O, there, that's all right," said his lordship, preparing to
+recommence his performance with the telescope.
+
+"No, it is not all right. You and I have been intimate allies for a
+very long time. Until last night there has never been a word of
+difference between us. Nor would there have been then but for the
+infernal meddling of people who--"
+
+"O, just look here! I didn't name any names, remember. It was you who
+said you knew Bobby Maitland had been making mischief."
+
+"It was I; I acknowledge it. You are quite right. You are far too good
+a fellow to say a word against even such a bad lot as that. I lost my
+temper, and I spoke out. But why? Because I was in a tremendous rage
+at the impudence of that fellow Maitland daring to put his own words
+and his own sentiments into my mouth, and to pretend that I had said
+them. His own words and sentiments, I say, and no one else's."
+
+"What! Do you mean to say that you never said--all that confounded
+stuff about the 'nurse,' and all that?"
+
+"I pledge you my word of honour I never said anything of the kind."
+
+Lord Ticehurst looked straight at him as he said these words, but
+Gilbert Lloyd met the look firmly, without the smallest increase of
+colour, without the movement of a muscle in his face.
+
+"Well," said his lordship, after a momentary pause, "of course after
+that I cannot say any more. I was most infernally riled when I heard
+you'd been chaffing about me, I'll allow; because, after all, don't
+you know, when you and a fellow have lived together, and been regular
+pals, and that kind of thing--"
+
+"And you thought I could have been such a scoundrel as to do that? No,
+Etchingham, I don't pretend to be strait-laced, and I don't go in to
+be demonstrative and gushing in my affection for you, like those
+duffers who are always hanging about you in town, and whose game you
+see through perfectly, I know. My regard for you I endeavour to show
+in another way, in devoting myself heart and soul to the management of
+your affairs; and if you look into them I think you'll find that I am
+faithful and true to you."
+
+Into his voice, as he uttered these last words, Gilbert Lloyd threw a
+little tremulous touch of sentiment, which gave evidence of a hitherto
+undeveloped histrionic ability, and which was really excellent of its
+kind. It was so close an imitation of the genuine article that most
+people would have been taken in by it, and Lloyd looked to see a
+responsive twinkle in his pupil's eyes; but clever and telling as it
+was it failed to touch Lord Ticehurst. He said, "All right, Gilbert,
+old fellow; of course I know that. Here, there's an end of it!" and he
+stretched out his hand; but there was no heartiness, no enthusiasm in
+his tone, no warmth in the grasp he gave, and Gilbert Lloyd recognised
+all this, and began to feel a dim prescience that his hold on his
+lordship was beginning to wax faint, and that his position as chief
+manager of Lord Ticehurst's affairs was manifestly insecure.
+
+
+Was Gilbert Lloyd's luck really beginning to fail him? Had the devil,
+who had stood his friend so long, and aided him in his advancement so
+wonderfully, grown tired of and forsaken him? It seemed like it, he
+was forced to confess to himself. By nature cool, crafty, and
+clear-headed, and from long practice in matters in which the exercise
+of those qualities is constantly required, Lloyd was by no means a man
+to suffer himself to remain blind to any danger which might threaten
+him. There are men amongst us passing for sane, nay, even reputed to
+be clever, who obstinately shut their eyes against the sight of the
+chasm towards which they are pressing forward, who are obstinately
+deaf to the roar of the avalanche which in a few seconds must
+overwhelm them, when by merely striking out into a new path--not so
+pleasant indeed, and that is mostly what they look at--they might
+avoid their fate. These are the men who, Micawber-like, are always
+expecting something to turn up, who refuse to see the plainest
+portents, to listen to the most obvious warnings, who think that bills
+disregarded are payments indefinitely deferred, and who put away
+unpleasant-looking letters unopened with the idea that the bad news
+they bring will thereby be staved off, who go on _quo Fata ducunt_,
+and who are astonished when they find themselves involved in misery
+and ruin. Gilbert Lloyd was very different from this. Let a cloud,
+even though it were "no bigger than a man's hand," appear above the
+horizon, and he took note of it instantly. He was specially observant
+of the slightest change in the character or demeanour of those with
+whom he was brought in contact, even of persons of inferior grade. In
+fact, although for a long time past his life had been one of
+comparative ease and undoubted luxury, he had never forgotten the
+habits acquired in the early days of poverty and shifting and
+scheming, when his hand was against every man and every man's hand
+against him, and he was prepared to go to the end of the world, or out
+of it altogether for the matter of that, if he saw plainly the
+necessity of absconding, or felt that his Fate had arrived.
+
+Was his luck going? Was his game nearly played out? There had been a
+great change lately, without a doubt; he must not shut his eyes to
+that. Etchingham was certainly changed. Very civil and acquiescent in
+all that was suggested to him, never referring to their dispute on
+that unlucky night, but still without a particle of the heartiness
+which formerly characterised him, and which was the salt of his
+otherwise unpleasant disposition. There had been a turn of luck, too,
+in turf-matters. Some of his own private speculations (for Gilbert had
+a book of his own in addition to the "operations" in which he had a
+joint interest with Lord Ticehurst, and was said also to do a great
+deal by anonymous commission) had been very unfortunate during the
+past season, and so far as he could see he was not likely to recoup
+himself by any success at Doncaster, where one of Lord Ticehurst's
+cracks had been disgracefully beaten for the Cup, while another, which
+had been one of the leading favourites for the Leger, had run down the
+scale in the most alarming manner, and was now, on the eve of the
+race, scarcely mentioned in the betting.
+
+Was his luck going? was his game nearly played out? _Venit summa dies
+et ineluctabile fatum!_ Where had he heard that, Gilbert Lloyd
+wondered as he sat on the edge of his bed at the Angel Inn at
+Doncaster, turning all these things in his mind. _Ineluctabile fatum_.
+He gave a half-shudder as he repeated the words, and he gulped down
+half the tumbler of brandy standing on the table by his side. He felt
+a _frisson_ run through him--that kind of creeping feeling which silly
+old women ascribe to the fact of someone "walking over your grave"--on
+which the brandy had no effect, and he stamped his foot in rage at his
+weakness. He was all wrong somehow; out of health, perhaps? But his
+clear sense refused to be deluded by that excuse. _Ineluctabile
+fatum!_ that was it, the _summa dies_ for him was at hand; he felt it,
+he knew it, and found it in vain to struggle, impossible to make head
+against it. The roar of the crowd in the street came through the open
+window of the room in which he sat, that hideous roar which fills the
+streets of every country town at race-time, and which he knew so well,
+with its component parts of ribaldry, blasphemy, bestiality, and
+idiotcy. The day was bright and hot and clear--what did the noise
+outside and the bright day remind him of? Something unpleasant, he
+felt, but he could not exactly fix it in his memory. He rose, and his
+eyes fell on the big, heavy, old-fashioned four-post bedstead on which
+he had been seated, and on the table with the glass and bottles
+standing by it. And then in an instant what had been dimly haunting
+his memory flashed all bright across his brain: Brighton, the crowd of
+racing-men on the cliff in the hot, bright weather, and the lodging,
+with Harvey Gore dying on the bed! Gilbert Lloyd swallowed the
+remainder of the brandy, and hurried downstairs into the street.
+Immediately opposite the inn-door, and surrounded by a little crowd, a
+preacher--as is often to be seen on such occasions--was holding forth.
+The crowd mocked and jeered, but the preacher, secure in the
+stentorian powers of his lungs, never stopped in his attacks on the
+wickedness going on around him; and the first words which Lloyd heard
+as he issued from the inn were, "Prepare to meet thy God!"
+
+The gentlemen who had "operated" against Lord Ticehurst's horse in the
+betting-ring were, on the succeeding day, proved to be perfectly
+correct in their prognostications; that eminent animal being as far
+behind the winner of the Leger as his stable-companion had been in the
+race for the Cup. This result did not affect Lord Ticehurst much, so
+far as his betting losses were concerned; he had so much money that it
+mattered little to him whether he won or lost; but he did not like
+losing the _prestige_ which had attached to his stable ever since
+Lloyd had succeeded poor old Dobbs and taken the stud in hand And he
+particularly disliked the half-pitying, half-chaffing way in which
+several men condoled with him about it.
+
+"What's come to you, dear old Etchingham?" said Bobby Maitland, who
+had been unable to withstand the fascinations of the Doncaster
+Meeting, and had accordingly persuaded Mr. Stackborough to leave the
+yacht at anchor off Dover while they came north; "what's come to you,
+old man? The white jacket and cherry spots seem now always to be where
+the little boat was--all behind!"
+
+"We have not been very lucky lately, have we?" replied his lordship,
+with an attempt at a grin--he writhed under Bobby's compassionate
+familiarity; "but we did very well early in the year; and you can't
+have it always, don't you know."
+
+"Ah yes, to be sure, you had some little things, I recollect," said
+Bobby Maitland more furtively than ever.
+
+"Don't know what you call 'little things,' Maitland," said Lord
+Ticehurst, twitted out of his usual reticence; "the One Thousand, and
+the Ascot Cup, with two of the best things at Stockbridge. That seems
+pretty good to me; but I suppose it's nothing to you. You never even
+won a donkey-race that I heard of."
+
+"O yes, he did," said Gilbert Lloyd, who had come up to them unseen,
+and overheard the last remark; "O yes; Bobby won a donkey-race once,
+and he was so proud of it, he always takes the animal about with him.
+He's somewhere in the neighbourhood now, I'll swear!"
+
+There was a shout of laughter at this remark from all the men standing
+round, which was increased to a roar as Mr. Stackborough, dressed most
+elaborately, was seen approaching the group. It was always said that
+Bobby Maitland had never been seen to lose his temper. At that instant
+he was within an ace of it; but he controlled himself with an effort,
+and said, "That's not bad, Lloyd; not at all bad, for you. When you
+order Lloyd's man's new livery, Etchingham, you must have a cap and
+bells added to it. 'Gad, you're like one of those great swells in the
+olden time, who used to keep a fool to amuse their friends!"
+
+"Haw, haw! Maitland had him there!" shouted "Barrel" Moss, a fat,
+handsome Israelite, ex-gambling-house-keeper, now racehorse-proprietor
+and betting-man, admitted into the society of the highest patrons of
+the turf.
+
+"What are you grinning at, Barrel?" retorted Gilbert. "You may thank
+your stars you did not live in the days of those 'great swells of the
+olden time.' Why, when Jews wouldn't pay, they used to pull their
+teeth out; and what would have become of you when you were posted in
+Teddington's year? Why you wouldn't have had a single grinder left!"
+
+Once more the laugh was on Lloyd's side, and taking advantage of his
+triumph he pushed through the knot gathered round him, and, taking
+Lord Ticehurst by the arm, moved off towards the hotel. The colloquy
+between the two, as they walked along, was brief. His lordship was
+more than a little "out of sorts." His rejection by Miss Lambert yet
+rankled in his mind; his recent want of success on the turf upset and
+annoyed him. He was fidgety and fretful, and when Gilbert asked him
+what they should do, and where they should go to next, he confessed as
+much, and said that he did not care so long as he was "out of the
+whole d--d thing!" Such a state of mind rather coinciding with Gilbert
+Lloyd's own feelings at the time, that astute counsellor, instead of
+opposing his patron's unmistakable though oddly expressed views, fell
+in with them at once; declared that everything from British Dan to
+British Beersheba was barren, and suggested that they should go abroad
+for a month or two, lie fallow, and pick up health. Lord Ticehurst
+fully agreed with the idea of going abroad, but "would not have any of
+your touring;" he had had enough of Switzerland, thank you; and as for
+any of those dead-alive old cribs where fellows poked about among
+pictures and those kind of things, well, he would as soon cut his
+throat offhand! He did not mind going to Hombourg or Baden, or one of
+those places where there was something to be done, and plenty of
+people to be seen.
+
+It was Gilbert's policy just at that time to keep his pupil in
+good-humour if possible, so that even if the notion of a visit to
+Baden had not happened to be agreeable to him, he would doubtless have
+suppressed his own feelings and assented with a good grace. But
+situated as he was, wanting a thorough change, and yet so ill at ease
+as to fear being left alone to his own resources in a dull place, the
+gaiety of a foreign watering-place was exactly what he would have
+chosen. So, two days after, the _Morning Post_ recorded that "the Earl
+of Ticehurst and Mr. Gilbert Lloyd passed through town yesterday _en
+route_ for Baden."
+
+Men of middle age, who recollect Baden before the fatal facility of
+travel, or the invention of Mr. Cook and his excursionists, must look
+back with deep regret upon the pleasant days when comparatively few
+English people found their way along the newly-opened railway that
+crept along the bank of the Oos. The place was known, of course; but
+the difference between the visitors then and nowadays was as great as
+between the visitors to the gardens of Hampton Court on any ordinary
+fine day in early spring or on Easter Monday. The style of the
+company, despite the importing of many of the great British
+aristocracy who in former years never visited the place, but now
+find it much cheaper and more amusing than "entertaining" for
+partridge-shooting at home, has gradually been decaying; but since the
+establishment of the races it has received a large proportion of that
+very worst ingredient, the sporting-cad. When Lord Ticehurst and Lloyd
+arrived, the races were just about to take place, and there was a
+strong muster of the "professionals" of high and middle grade, the
+worst being kept away by the difficulty of obtaining means of
+transport from England, which is a mercy of which the Germans are not
+sufficiently aware to be properly thankful for. The lowest order of
+sporting-man is the lowest order of anything. If anyone wishes to be
+impressed with the depth of degradation to which the human species can
+be successfully reduced, he has only to go into the Strand on a day
+when some great "event" is coming off, and observe the persons
+gathered round the office of the great sporting-newspaper about four
+in the afternoon. He will see a crowd of men of all ages--wizened old
+creatures, big burly roughs, shambling knock-kneed hobbledehoys,
+in battered hats, in greasy, close-fitting caps, most of them
+shirt-collarless, but with belcher handkerchiefs twisted round their
+thick throats; many of them have the long, flat thieves' curl on the
+side of the face; nearly all have the hair cut close round the nape of
+the neck: costermongers, butchers, the scum and refuse of the
+population; dirty, half-starved, in clothes whose looped and windowed
+raggedness would be dear at half-a-crown for the whole lot. These be
+the gallant sporting-men, without the slightest knowledge of or care
+for sport, who, in order to enable them to bet their half-crowns on a
+race, empty tradesmen's tills, burst into our houses, and "put the
+hug" on us in the open street.
+
+Of course this class was unrepresented in the great gathering at
+Baden; but there was a large influx of people who had never been seen
+there before. They filled the hotels and lodging-houses; they
+swaggered over the promenades; they lounged about the Kursaal,
+outraging the dignity of the officials by talking and laughing loudly;
+and they played at the tables, slapping their coins down with a ring,
+or motioning and calling to the grave croupiers "just to hook 'em that
+louy they'd left behind." They were a cause of great offence to Tommy
+Toshington, on whom Gilbert lighted on the morning after his arrival
+at the springs, where the old gentleman was holding a tumbler of very
+nasty water with a very shaky hand, and, in default of having anyone
+to talk to, was vainly endeavouring for the five-hundredth time to
+find out the meaning of some very tremendous frescoes in front of him.
+
+"I've been in the habit of comin' to this place for an immense number
+of years, and thought I could go on till I died. Devilish comfortable
+quarters I've got at the Roossy, and nice amusin' place I've always
+found it; but I must give it up, by George! I can't stand the set
+of racin'-fellows that come here now, 'pon my soul I can't! God
+knows who they are, my good fellow. You, who go about to all these
+what-do-you-call-'em meetings, you may know some of 'em; but I, who
+only toddle down to the Derby and Ascot on Sumphington's drag, and get
+over to Goodwood when the Dook's good enough to ask me--I've never set
+eyes on any of 'em before."
+
+"Well, but how do they annoy you, Toshington?" asked Gilbert, who was
+rather amused at this outbreak on the old gentleman's part.
+
+"They don't actually annoy me, except by bein' such a dam low-bred
+lot, yahooin' all over the place. And to think of 'em comin' just now,
+when we were so pleasant. It's rather late in the season, to be sure;
+but there's a very nice set of people here. My Lady Carabas is here,
+but that _you_ knew, of course; and the Dook and Duchess of
+Winchester, and the Dashwoods, and the Grevilles, and the Alsagers,
+and Tom Gregory and half the First. It's monstrous pleasant, you can't
+think!"
+
+"It must be," said Gilbert quietly. "So new and fresh and charming.
+Such a change, too, for you all, not to see anybody you are accustomed
+to meet in London,--it must be delightful. Goodbye, Toshington; I'm
+going in for rusticity, and intend to have a turn before breakfast."
+
+Although Mr. Toshington's sense of humour was very slight, and
+although he took most things _au pied de la letter_, he detected some
+sarcasm in Gilbert's remarks, and looked after him from under scowling
+brows. "That's another of 'em," he muttered; "another of your
+horse-racin' customers, though he is in society, and all that. Damme
+if I know how they let 'em in; I don't, by George! They'd as soon have
+thought of lettin' a fiddler, or a painter, or a fellow of that sort
+into society when I was a young man. But it's best to keep in with
+this one; he has the orderin' of everything at Etchingham's, and might
+leave me out of many a good thing if he chose to be disagreeable." So
+saying, the old worldling finished his second glass of Brunnenwasser,
+paid his kreutzers, audibly cursed the coinage of the country in a
+select mixture of the English and German languages prepared expressly
+by him for his own use, and departed.
+
+Mr. Toshington was perfectly right in stating that the Marchioness of
+Carabas was enthroned in great state at Baden, but wrong in imagining
+that Gilbert Lloyd was aware of that fact. Truth to tell, there had
+been a slight misunderstanding, what is vulgarly but intelligibly
+called a "tiff," between her ladyship and Lloyd, and for a few weeks
+past he had not been enlightened as to her movements. The fact was,
+that when Lloyd had sufficiently used the _grand dame_ as a means to
+various business ends, as a stepping-stone to certain objects which
+without her aid he would have been unable to reach, he began to find
+his position rather a wearying one. It was pleasant to be the
+custodian and hierophant of the Soul while it served his purpose, but
+it was dreary work when that purpose was achieved, and his interest in
+the Soul's owner was consequently gone. He attended at the shrine as
+regularly as ever for reasons of policy, but his policy was not
+sufficiently strong to keep him from occasionally gaping and betraying
+other signs of weariness. Lady Carabas was too observant a woman not
+to mark this immediately on its first occurrence, but she thought it
+might be accidental, and determined to wait a repetition of it before
+speaking. The repetition very shortly afterwards took place, and even
+then her ladyship did not speak. After a little reflection she
+determined on adopting another plan. She resolved upon taking to
+herself someone else who should be admitted into the mysteries of the
+Soul. This, she thought, would capitally answer a double purpose; it
+would tend to her amusement--and she was beginning to feel the want of
+a little novelty, she confessed to herself--and would probably have
+the effect of rendering Gilbert Lloyd jealous. A little time showed
+the result. In the turf-idiom which she had learned of Lloyd, and
+which she sometimes used in self-communion, she acknowledged that
+"while the first event had come off all right, the second had gone to
+grief;" which, being interpreted, meant that while she (Lady Carabas)
+was thoroughly amused, and indeed at the height of one of her Platonic
+flirtations with the new possessor of the Soul (a young man in the
+Foreign Office, with lovely hair parted in the middle, charming
+whiskers, and brilliant teeth), he (Gilbert Lloyd) had not shown the
+smallest symptom of jealousy. On the contrary, Gilbert Lloyd was
+unfeignedly glad to find that his place had been satisfactorily filled
+up, and that he would no longer be constantly required to be on
+escort-duty. And when Lady Carabas found that this was the case--and
+she discovered it very quickly, being a woman of great worldly
+penetration and tact--she made up her mind that the best thing for her
+to do was to accept the position at once, and give Lloyd his liberty.
+This accordingly she did; and when they met at Baden,
+
+
+     "They seemed to those who saw them meet,
+      Mere casual friends of every day;"
+
+
+as Lord Houghton says in a very charming little poem, though there was
+an echo of bygone tenderness, of the voice of the Soul, in fact,
+pervading her ladyship's tones for many a day after. Meantime she was
+the queen of a very pleasant little coterie. Half the frequenters of
+Carabas House did a little passing homage at her ladyship's temporary
+court at Baden on their way to and from the other watering-places. The
+promenade contained types of all the people usually seen seated on the
+Hyde-Park chairs, with a large sprinkling of others never seen in that
+aristocratic locality. For though H.R.H. the Duke of Brentford, the
+captains and commanders and mighty men of valour, the senators, the
+clerks in the government offices, and the nothing-doers have plenty of
+time to lounge about in London, the working-bees--the judges and
+barristers, the doctors, the civil-engineers, the cunning workers
+in ink and pigment, all of whom grind their brains to make their
+bread--have no such opportunity when in town, and are only seen idling
+in daylight during their brief autumn holiday. "Society"--except that
+Carabas-House set, which knew them very well--stared very much at most
+of these people, and called Jack Hawkes of the F. O. to its aid to
+explain who they were; and Jack Hawkes, who was only too delighted to
+act as cicerone to society when it had a handle to its name,
+explained, "Tall man with the round high shoulders and the long gray
+hair is great lady's doctor, don't you know? uses up three pair of
+horses a-day whippin' about town; that's his wife and daughter with
+him--think her pretty, the daughter? nice-lookin' they call her. The
+man with the red face, not him in the white hat--that's Kollum the
+portrait-painter; that one in the wideawake is Sir Blewson Bagge, one
+of the judges--say he knows more law than any other three men in
+England The fat man with the cigar is Protheroe, and the man
+talkin' to him dressed all in black is Tuberville; they're great
+engineers--one laid out the John o' Groat's and Land's End Extension
+Line, and the other designed the Channel-Islands Submarine Railway.
+Wonderful how they stick together, those railway fellows; if one knows
+a good thing he tells the other of it, and they hunt in couples to
+keep other fellows off the game. Tuberville's son has married
+Protheroe's daughter; and the money that's there passes all count.
+There are two writin' chaps comin' this way; they belong to the
+_Kresse_, that blackguard paper that attacks everybody, don't you
+know? Don't look bad fellows, do they? and they're always laughin' and
+keepin' it up at the Badischer. Who's the little round fat fellow
+they've stopped and are talkin' to?--that's Bellows of the Old-Bailey
+Bar; first-rate in his business, and such good company; and the man
+with him of course you know? No! Why that's Finchington, the light
+comedian of the Minerva. Yes, he does look different in the daylight,
+as you say. These? No, these are people who have come over for the
+races, and I don't know anything about them. We must get Lloyd to give
+us that information.--Here, Lloyd, come and tell her grace who are
+these odd people who are coming this way; they're turf-people, I
+suppose, so you'll know all about them."
+
+But Gilbert Lloyd, objecting very much to be patronised either by Mr.
+Hawkes or the great people to whom that social barnacle had
+temporarily attached himself, declared his inability to perform the
+duties assigned to him, and took himself off with a bow. It was the
+night before the first race-day, and all the Baden world was enjoying
+itself on the promenade in front of the Kursaal. There had been a
+grand excursion-party that day to the Favourite, a party of which Lady
+Carabas had been the reigning star, and after a delightful outing they
+had returned, and were now formed into a large group, laughing and
+talking loudly. Gilbert Lloyd carefully avoided these people, and
+steered equally clear of another group in the midst of which the
+Duchess of Winchester was enthroned. These two great ladies had never
+much liked each other, and when they met at Baden their antagonism was
+patent, and their rivalry openly declared. Each had her circle of
+admirers, and whatever one did the other tried to outdo. The
+Winchester faction having heard that the Carabas people were going
+that day to the Favourite, had themselves had a picnic at Eberstein
+Schloss, and both were now planning their next day's diversion at the
+races.
+
+Gilbert Lloyd was in no humour to join either of these parties at that
+moment, though each would have been glad to have secured him as an
+adherent. He was in a bad temper, having just had some sharp words
+with Lord Ticehurst on a question on which that young nobleman a few
+weeks since would not have dared to offer an opinion. Just before they
+left town for Doncaster, Lloyd had dismissed a groom; the man appealed
+to Lord Ticehurst in a letter. This letter Lloyd opened, read, and
+contemptuously threw into the fire. The man heard of this, and made a
+fresh appeal to his lordship, setting forth the treatment his former
+letter had received, and defying Lloyd to deny it. This letter was
+forwarded to Lord Ticehurst at Baden, and made him exceedingly angry.
+He went at once to Lloyd, and spoke very plainly, said that he would
+not be treated like a child, that all letters addressed to him--no
+matter on what subject--should be brought to him, and even hinted that
+on their return to England Lloyd's position and responsibility must be
+more exactly defined.
+
+"It was that infernal Maitland's hint that he can't swallow," said
+Lloyd, as he seated himself at an empty table on the verge of the
+crowd and ordered some brandy. "He referred to it just now when he
+said he wouldn't be treated like a child. O he's never spoken to me
+like that since we've been together.--Here!" to the waiter who brought
+the brandy, "_encore_; another of these _carafons_. What's the good of
+a drop like that to a man!--He's never been the same since that night
+he dined with those fellows, after he had been over to that place to--
+Lord! I forgot--to propose to _her!_ Of course _she_ must be mixed up
+in everything that's unlucky for me! How I wish I'd never set eyes on
+her! how I wish--What the devil does this fellow want!"
+
+"This fellow" was a short, square-built man of about fifty years of
+age, with sunken eyes, a sharp-pointed nose, and a close-cut beard,
+the original red colour of which was fast fading into gray. His seedy
+clothes were of a foreign and fantastic cut, and round his neck he
+wore a long, dirty-white cravat, folded quite flat, and wonderfully
+neatly tied, and fastened in front with a flashy mock pin. "This
+fellow" had been hanging round the table for some time, dodging in and
+out so as to get a better view of its occupant in the dim light. At
+length, when Gilbert Lloyd raised his head and looked up at the
+strange figure, "this fellow" seemed to be satisfied, and shambling up
+to the table, placed his hands upon it, leaned over, and said in a
+thick, husky voice,
+
+"Gilbert Lloyd!"
+
+Lloyd looked at him steadily, and then said, "That's my name; who are
+you?"
+
+"I thought you would not know me," said the stranger with a laugh,
+"none of my old pals do; at least, most don't, and some won't, so it
+don't make much--"
+
+"Stay," interrupted Lloyd; "I know you now; knew you directly you
+threw your head back and I saw your cravat. There's only one man in
+the world can tie a neckerchief like that, or get its folds to lie as
+flat. You're Foxey Walker."
+
+"I am that same," said the stranger; "at least, I was when I
+was alive, for I'm nothing but a blessed old ghost now, I verily
+believe.--Here, you fellow, bring some brandy; Cognac, you know!--I
+ain't of much 'count now, Lloyd, and that's a fact." He was shabby and
+bloated and shaky, altogether very different from the tight, trim
+little Foxey, who was found leaning over the rails on Brighton
+Esplanade at the commencement of this story.
+
+"Ah, I remember," said Lloyd; "you came to grief the Derby before
+last, in the Prior's year?"
+
+"I did so. Went a regular mucker. That was a bad business, sir; a
+regular bad business. I could show you my book now. There were men
+that I dropped my money to over that Epsom Meetin' that had owed me
+hundreds--ay, hundreds on other events. I'd always given them time,
+much as they wanted, I had; but when I asked 'em for it then--for I
+had a rattlin' good book for Ascot, and some good things later on in
+the season--O no, not a bit of it! 'Pay up,' they says, 'pay up!' All
+devilish fine; I couldn't pay up--so I bolted."
+
+"Ah, recollect perfectly your being proclaimed a defaulter," said
+Lloyd pleasantly. "It made rather a talk at the time, you were so well
+known. What have you been doing since?"
+
+"Well, I've been cadgin' about on the Continent, doin' what I could to
+keep body and soul together.--You're goin' to pay for this brandy, you
+know? I suppose you don't mind standin' another go? all right.--But
+there's little enough to be done. I ain't much good at cards; and,
+besides, there's nothing to be done with them unless you get among the
+swells in the clubs and that, and that's not likely; and there's not
+much to be picked up off the foreigners at billiards, let alone their
+not playing our game. I've won a little on the red and black here and
+there, and I've come across an old friend now and again who's helped
+me with a fiver or so."
+
+"You don't speak in riddles, Foxey," said Lloyd with a half-laugh.
+"You make your meaning tolerably clear. I must not be worse than the
+others, I suppose; so here, catch hold;" and he took a couple of
+bank-notes from his pocket-book and handed them to his companion.
+
+"Thank'ee, Lloyd," said Foxey, pocketing the money. "I ain't proud,
+and hadn't need to be. Besides, you've become a tremendous swell since
+you got hold of young Ticehurst, eh? I see your name regular in _Bell_
+amongst the nobs. Rather different from what we reck'lect in the old
+days: 'Ten to one, bar one!'--don't you remember?" and Foxey put his
+hand to the side of his mouth and shouted loudly in imitation of the
+worthies of the outer ring.
+
+"Ye-es," said Lloyd, who did not at all relish being told that he had
+"got hold of" anybody, and who was much disgusted by Foxey's
+recollections and performance. "Yes," said he, rising from his chair
+as he spoke; "I think I must go now."
+
+"Must you?" said Foxey, who had become very much flushed and
+invigorated by the brandy; "must you? That's a bore, that is, for I
+had somethin' very particular to say to you; somethin' that concerns
+you much more than it does me; somethin'," added Foxey, looking hazily
+at his companion, "that would be d--d awkward for you if it got blown.
+Don't you fear for me! I'm as close as wax, I am; only--however, I'll
+see you about it to-morrow or next day. Good-night, old fellow;
+compliments to my lord."
+
+"Something that concerns me more than it does him? That would be
+awkward for me if it got blown? What the devil does he mean?" said
+Lloyd to himself, as he walked down the _allée_. "Awkward for me?--the
+old brute was drunk, and did not know what he said. Probably a plant
+to get more money out of me. He _could_ know nothing that would have
+the slightest bearing on me or my affairs. I daresay he'll try it on
+again when I see him next; but he'll find it difficult to draw me of
+any more money, more especially if he attempts to bounce me out of
+it."
+
+The next day was bright and cheerful, and the little racecourse,
+though much sneered at by the "talent," served its purpose very well,
+and was thronged with a merry, animated crowd. The natives, to be
+sure, did not understand very much what it was all about. The women
+cried, "Ach, Herr Je!" at the sight of the tight little English jocks
+stripping off their outer coats and appearing in all the glory of
+flashing silk; and the men took their pipes from their mouths and
+swore "Donnerwetter!" as the horses went thundering by. The Winchester
+and Carabas faction had each one side of the little stand, the leaders
+exchanged sweet hand-kissings, the followers bowed and grinned and
+nodded with all the warmth and sincerity which form the basis of our
+social relations. Lady Carabas, as usual, wore pink; the Duchess of
+Winchester, who was very fair and petite, wore blue; and the retainers
+followed suit. Mr. Toshington was as much divided in his allegiance
+and as much perplexed to know which colour to sport as a London cabman
+on the morning of the University boat-race. He had enjoyed the
+hospitality of both houses, and indeed had earned many a good dinner
+by carrying tattle from one to the other; but up to this time he had
+never been called upon to make his election, to say "under which
+queen;" and those who were in the secret, in which category was
+included everyone present, were greatly amused to see the difficulty
+which the old gentleman had in trimming his sails and steering his
+course in safety. There were some who, unlike Tommy Toshington, were
+independent, who sided with neither party, but were friendly and
+familiar with both. Among those were Lord Ticehurst--who, though bound
+by family ties to Lady Carabas, never allowed his clanship to "mix him
+up in any of her ladyship's rum starts," as he phrased it--and Gilbert
+Lloyd, whose worn and haggard appearance was the cause of much
+solicitude and anxious inquiry from Lady Carabas. Lloyd appeared
+rather annoyed at the _prononcé_ manner which her ladyship adopted
+towards him, and at which some of the most daring followers smiled,
+more especially when the reigning favourite, the gentleman in the
+Foreign Office, looked very much displeased. He seemed very much
+happier when at a later period in the day he found himself seated by
+the Duchess of Winchester, who rallied him with much piquancy on his
+defection.
+
+"I am astonished at you, Mr. Lloyd, quite astonished," she said
+laughingly. "Do you know we used to call you the Undying One!"
+
+"Well, you could not call Toshington that, could you, Duchess?" said
+Gilbert; "look how very purple his whiskers are in the sunlight."
+
+"No, no, of course I don't mean that; how can you be so absurd? You
+know our dear friend opposite is like somebody in old time I read of
+once, who used to kill her admirers regularly at the end of a certain
+time. It's a notorious fact that--over there--no flirtation lasts
+longer than twelve months, and we call you the Undying One because you
+have held undisputed sway over that Soul for--O, it must be years! And
+now, after all this, you have the baseness to shut your ears to the
+voice of the charmer--we saw the spell tried on an hour ago--and to
+come over here!"
+
+"I don't think there's much harm done, Duchess, even if all were as
+you say, which I am very far from admitting. Calypso is the only
+instance on record of a woman who '_ne pouvait se consoler après le
+depart_' of anyone she liked. I am certain that no lady of modern days
+would be so weak."
+
+"Ah, I know what you mean; you mean Mr. Pennington. Well, he's very
+good-looking, certainly, in his own red-and-white way, but he's
+insufferably stupid; and a stupid man, however handsome he may be,
+always bores me to death. I-- Who is this dreadful man down here? Is
+it to you or to me he's making those horrible grimaces?"
+
+Lloyd looked over in the direction in which the Duchess pointed, and
+to his horror saw Mr. Foxey Walker, who apparently had had a great
+deal too much to drink, whose fantastic clothes looked infinitely
+shabbier and seedier in the daylight than they had on the previous
+evening, and who was throwing up his arms, endeavouring to attract the
+attention of someone in the stand. Foxey no sooner saw that Gilbert
+Lloyd had recognised him than he approached the stand, and called out,
+"Hi, Lloyd! hollo there, Lloyd! Just come and pass me up there, will
+you? I want to speak to you."
+
+"It's to you he's calling, Mr. Lloyd!" said the Duchess, arching her
+pretty eyebrows and making a little _moue_ of astonishment.
+
+"What a strange-looking creature! who in the world is he?"
+
+"He's a poor half-witted fellow, an old friend of mine, Duchess," said
+Lloyd with the utmost calmness. "He is a man of family, and once had a
+large fortune; but he lost every sixpence on the turf, and that quite
+turned his brain. He's eccentric, as you see, but perfectly harmless;
+a few of us make him a little allowance, on which he lives, and he
+thinks this gives him a claim upon us, poor fellow! I--Yes, yes; I'm
+coming!" he called to Mr. Foxey, for that gentleman had recommenced
+bellowing, "Hi, Lloyd!" with redoubled vehemence; "I'm coming!--I
+think I had better go down and calm him, Duchess, if you will excuse
+me." And with a bow Gilbert Lloyd leisurely retreated from the stand.
+
+He smiled so pleasantly--he knew he was still under observation--at
+Mr. Foxey, who was waiting for him in front, that that worthy, who had
+been somewhat doubtful of the wisdom of the course he had pursued,
+felt perfectly reassured and said, "Hallo, Gil., my boy! sorry to call
+you away from such stunnin' company; but I want a word with you." It
+was not until they had walked a few paces and were well out of sight
+of the people in the stand that Lloyd caught his companion tightly by
+the arm, and said, "You infernal drunken old idiot, how dare you come
+and annoy me when you saw me with my friends?"
+
+"Come, I say, drop that," said Foxey, "you're pullin' my arm off;
+don't you hear?"
+
+"You scoundrel, I'll have your head off if you don't take care! What
+fool's game is up now? What do you want with me? Have you anything
+really to say, or is it only to repeat the rubbish of last night?"
+
+"What rubbish? what did I say last night? I didn't--no, of course I
+didn't; I recollect now. I know what I'm doin' fast enough, and what I
+can do."
+
+"And I know what I can do, and what I will do too, if you interrupt me
+again when I'm talking with friends, and that is, have you moved off
+the course by the gend'armes as a drunken nuisance."
+
+"O, that's it, is it?" said Foxey, glowering at him, and speaking in a
+dull thick voice. "Moved off the course! a drunken nuisance, eh?
+You'll sing a very different toon to this, Master Lloyd, before I've
+done with you. O, you can't come the high jeff over me," he continued,
+raising his tone; "for all your standin' in with big swells now; we
+know what you were once; we know--"
+
+"Will you be quiet, you old fool, and say what you want?" said
+Gilbert, turning fiercely upon him.
+
+"What I want? Ah, that's more like it! What I want? Well, that's
+easily told, and that's more than most people can say. What I want is
+money."
+
+"I gave you money last night--more than you can have spent, or ought
+to have spent."
+
+"Ah, that's more like it: what I _can_ spend--Well, no matter.
+However, that's not the way I mean in which I want money. Look here,
+Gilbert Lloyd; I'm tired of this cadging life; I'm sick of hikin' up
+and down from one gamblin'-place to another; I'm disgusted with the
+Continent, and the foreigners, all the lot of 'em."
+
+"O, you are, eh?" said Lloyd with a sneer; "I should scarcely have
+thought it."
+
+"Yes," replied Foxey, in perfect good faith, "I am thoroughly. What I
+long for is to get back to England, to see my old pals, to lead my old
+life."
+
+"Indeed," sneered Gilbert again; "but from what I understand from you
+there would be some difficulty in carrying out that pleasant little
+arrangement."
+
+"None that you couldn't help me to settle at once. They all think
+their money's clean gone; but if I'm to come on the turf again, it
+would never do for me to come out as a welsher, so I must pay 'em
+something; but ever so little would square it. Then, if I just had a
+little trifle in hand to start with, and you gave me the office when
+you knew of a good thing--and you must hear lots, havin' the
+management of that young swell's stable--well, I should do as right as
+ninepence."
+
+There was a minute's pause, and then Lloyd said:
+
+"You are a great creature, Mr. Walker, a very great creature, and your
+power of sketching out a happy future is something wonderful. But to
+my great astonishment I find that I play a part in this notable scheme
+of your life, and that its being carried out successfully wholly
+depends upon me. Now, we may as well understand each other clearly,
+and at once. From me you'll never get another sixpence."
+
+Foxey started, looked hard at his companion, and said, "You mean
+that?"
+
+"No," said Lloyd, "I don't mean it literally; I'll give you another
+ten pounds on the day I leave this place."
+
+It was Foxey's turn to sneer now. "That's generous of you," he said,
+"regular generous; but you always were a free-handed fellow with your
+money, Lloyd. I reck'lect we used to say in the old days how pleased
+you always were to have to part. Now look here," he cried, changing
+his tone; "I will have all I've asked from you: the money to square it
+with those fellows, the sum to start fresh with the straight tips from
+young Ticehurst's stable; I'll have this, or else--"
+
+"Or what else?" asked Gilbert Lloyd, without any alteration in his
+usual calm manner.
+
+"Or else I'll ruin you, root and branch; horse and foot; stock, lock,
+and barrel! You laugh and sneer; you think I can't do it? I tell you I
+can."
+
+"You tell me a pack of lies and blather. You begun last night, and
+you've done nothing else for the last half-hour. How can you do it?"
+
+"By blowing the gaff on you; by telling something I know which would
+make all these swells cut you and hunt you out of society; which
+would--"
+
+"There, there's enough of this!" cried Lloyd, interrupting him; "my
+time's too valuable to waste over such trash. It's the old game of
+hush-money for a secret, after all. I should have thought you would
+have known some better dodge than that, Master Foxey, after all the
+life you've seen. If you were going in for the extortion-of-money
+business in your old age, you might have learned something fresher
+than that very stale device. Now, be off, and give me a wider berth
+for the future, if you're wise. Your drunken stupidity--for I suppose
+you would not have acted thus if you had not taken to drink--has lost
+you ten pounds. Take care it does not get you a horsewhipping." As he
+said these words he turned shortly on his heel and strode away.
+
+Foxey looked after him, his face lit up with rage and disappointment.
+"All right, my fine-fellow," he muttered, shaking his fist at the
+fast-receding figure; "all right; you will have it, and you shall. It
+will be quite enough to cook your goose as it is; but if I'd only had
+time to learn a little more, I think I could have hanged you."
+
+
+There was a little extra excitement in the rooms that night. Count
+Nicolaeff, a Russian nobleman who had on two previous occasions broken
+the bank, had returned to Baden, and was playing with a boldness and
+success which augured the repetition of the feat. A crowd was gathered
+round him as he sat, calm and composed, quietly gathering the
+_rouleaux_ which the croupiers pushed across to him. In this crowd was
+Lloyd; the qualities which the Russian was displaying were just those
+to excite his admiration, and he was watching every movement and
+trying to account for each calculation of the gambler, when he felt a
+tap on his shoulder. He looked round and saw Dolly Clarke, the
+sporting-lawyer, who beckoned him away.
+
+Gilbert was annoyed at the interruption. "Not just now," he said
+impatiently; "I'll come to you later."
+
+"Come this instant," said Dolly Clarke; and there was something in
+his tone that made Gilbert Lloyd leave the table and follow him into
+the open space outside. By the lamp-light Lloyd saw that Clarke was
+very pale; noticed also that he stood back as if avoiding contact with
+him.
+
+"What is it?" asked Lloyd. "It should be something special by your
+tone and manner, Clarke?"
+
+"It is something special," replied Clarke; "it is a matter of life or
+death for you. Do you know a man called Foxey Walker?"
+
+"Pshaw! is that all?" said Lloyd, whose heart had failed him at the
+solemnity of his companion's manner, and whose courage now as suddenly
+revived. "Is that all? Yes, I know him; a defaulting ring-man, a mere
+common 'welsher.' I saw him on the course to-day, and he threatened me
+that if I did not give him money he would expose something in my past
+life--some trick or dodge I practised, I suppose, when I was in the
+ring, and had to be a sharp practitioner to hold my own with my
+fellows. That's all, eh?"
+
+"No," said Clarke earnestly, "nothing of the sort; the man has made a
+revelation, but not of the kind you imagine--a thousand times more
+serious. There's never been much love lost between you and me, Lloyd,
+and you may wonder why I'm here to counsel and help you; so understand
+at once, it's for Ticehurst's sake; you're so mixed up with him that
+any public _exposé_ would be the deuce and all for him."
+
+"What do you mean by public _exposé_, Mr. Clarke? what do you--"
+
+"Stop; don't bounce--it won't do. Do you remember when we dined at
+Richmond six weeks ago, you answered me very sharply because I asked
+why you never went to Brighton now? I've always had my own opinion on
+that matter; but I don't chatter, and I kept it to myself. This man
+Walker stopped Ticehurst and me as we were coming from the course, and
+begged so earnestly for an interview that Ticehurst listened to him. I
+need not go into all he said; it appears he had his suspicions too,
+and determined to trade on them; went the next year to your old
+lodgings, pumped the landlady; saw the doctor who attended Harvey
+Gore; has been working it since he left England through friends; and
+has made up a case which, if not positive, is at all events infernally
+suspicious."
+
+"What--what did Etchingham say about it?" asked Lloyd.
+
+"I never saw a fellow so completely knocked over in all my life. You
+know he is not strong-minded, and he--well, he funks death, and that
+kind of thing, and--"
+
+"Does he believe it? what does he say about me?"
+
+"He does believe it fully, and he says he will never set eyes on you
+again. I see--your eyes are blazing--you see there's nothing proved,
+and your place is too good a one to give up on mere suspicion?
+You'll say you'll have the matter sifted, and all that. Don't;
+take my advice--given as a lawyer who sees queer things in his
+practice--drop it, clear out of this at once, get over to England,
+make up Ticehurst's accounts, and then get away to Australia,
+America--anywhere!"
+
+"Thank you; and leave my 'place,' as you call it, to you, eh?" It was
+the last remaining touch of bravado in his voice, bravado belied by
+the ashy paleness of his face, and the set rigidity of his mouth.
+
+"To me! I'm a lawyer, not a turfite. Pshaw! don't try to humbug any
+longer--you're too clever a man. You can post over to Carlsruhe
+to-night, and get straight through to-morrow. I'll come with you to
+the hotel; I promised Ticehurst I'd see you off. Come."
+
+Gilbert Lloyd saw that there was no use in fighting the question any
+longer. He felt as though his career was at its close, as though he
+should drop as rapidly as he had risen. He turned on his heel and
+walked towards the hotel, Dolly Clarke walking by his side. It was all
+over, then? The position he had gained for himself amid the envy and
+hatred of all his compeers was shattered at its base, and--
+
+No! Before he reached the hotel-door, he had carefully searched his
+hand, and found in it one last trump-card, which he determined on
+playing directly he arrived in England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+The last Chance.
+
+
+Mr. Lloyd gone! They could scarcely believe it at Baden. Lady Carabas
+was in despair, and the Duchess of Winchester was vexed, for she was
+fond of flirtation, and she had found Mr. Lloyd "very nice." The led
+captains and the other male retainers of both factions looked on
+Gilbert as a dangerous rival, and were rather glad than otherwise that
+he was out of the way. Gone to England, eh? Yes. Summoned by a
+telegram on most important business, so Dolly Clarke said; he happened
+to be with him at the time the telegram arrived, and so of course knew
+all about it. On Lord Ticehurst's business, of course? Well, Dolly
+Clarke supposed so; in fact, he might go so far as to say "yes," and
+rather unpleasant business too. Lord Ticehurst was rather annoyed
+about it, and so perhaps you would be so good as not to mention it to
+him? Needless to say there were some people who did not believe this
+statement, even when vouched for on such excellent authority as Mr.
+Dolly Clarke's. There are some people who will not believe anything.
+Mr. Toshington is one of them. He thinks it a "deuced odd story," and
+sets about to investigate it. He sees the landlord, porter, waiters,
+_Hausknecht_ of the hotel, every individual separately, and puts them
+through the strictest investigation in the most extraordinary
+_mélange_ of languages; finally, he goes to the telegraph-office and
+ascertains triumphantly that for the Herr Lloyd, Englander, no
+telegraphic despatch received was. Tommy opines that Gilbert's absence
+has reference to some infernal chicanery connected with the turf, and
+sets that down as the reason why Ticehurst is so shy about speaking
+about it. Queer business for peers of the rel-lum to be mixin' up in
+such matters, Tommy thinks, and anythin' but a good sign in these
+infernal levellin' times. Lady Carabas is really very sorry. She had a
+sort of idea that Gilbert was "coming round;" but his having gone away
+in this sudden manner, and gone away without a hint of his going, or
+word of adieu to her, was a deathblow to that hope. And Mr.
+Pennington, the gentlemanly creature creature in the F.O., though
+charming to look at and pleasant so far as his conversation lasted,
+was soon exhausted, and was not to be compared with Gilbert Lloyd as a
+bright and amusing companion. "He might have thought of me before he
+went away," Lady Carabas thought to herself. She had no idea that
+Gilbert Lloyd had thought about her, and with considerable earnestness
+too, as he was walking away from the Kursaal in company with Mr. Dolly
+Clarke, immediately previous to his quitting Baden. He had carefully
+weighed in his mind whether there was any use in getting her to appeal
+to Lord Ticehurst in his behalf, founding his appeal on a tremendous
+story of his innocence and of his being the victim of circumstances,
+which story he could arrange during the night. But he finally rejected
+the notion; there was something decisive and pitiless about Mr.
+Clarke's manner, which told Lloyd it would be useless for him to
+indulge himself with any hopeful view of the case. As he travelled
+through the night, and turned all the events of the past days, of the
+past years, over and over in his mind, during his weary journey, he
+felt convinced that he had acted wisely in this matter. Only one thing
+annoyed him; if the worst came to the worst, and he was obliged, as
+Clarke had hinted, to go away to Australia or America, he should want
+all the money he could lay his hands on, and he might have "bled" her
+ladyship for a good round sum. He had letters of hers in his
+possession, written in all innocence it is true, but quite
+sufficiently compromising if read from the legal point of view, which
+ought to have effected that.
+
+When Lloyd arrived in London, he did not go to Lord Ticehurst's house
+in Hill-street, where were all his goods and chattels; he would go
+there later, he thought, and see what could be done after a careful
+examination of the books and papers. He drove to a house in
+Duke-street, St. James's, where he had lodged years before; and the
+landlady of which, looking scarcely a day older, came out to the door,
+told him his old rooms were vacant, and welcomed him heartily. Gilbert
+Lloyd always was popular with his inferiors; it was part of his policy
+in life to be so, and he took every opportunity of saying polite
+things to them, and doing them cheap civilities. Even now, as he
+jumped out of the cab, he told Mrs. Jobson how well she was looking,
+and how he felt quite pleased at the notion of coming back to the old
+rooms; and then he bade her take his luggage in, and ran upstairs.
+
+The old rooms! He looked round them, and found them scarcely changed.
+The furniture was a little shabbier, perhaps, and looking through the
+window the opposite side of the street seemed, if possible, a little
+closer than before. The same slippery chintz on the sofa, the same
+regulation number of chairs, the same portrait of the Princess
+Charlotte, at which Gertrude had screamed with laughter, and called it
+a "hideous old thing," the first day he brought her there. Gertrude?
+Yes; that was their first lodging after their marriage. He brought her
+there, and at that instant he seemed to see her as she was when she
+first entered the little room; how she looked round in surprise, and
+then ran to the window and knelt and looked up for the sky. The chain
+of his reflection was broken by the entrance of Mrs. Jobson, who
+expressed her delight at seeing him again.
+
+"But, do you know, I did not reckernise you at first, Mr. Lloyd--I did
+not, indeed. Seeing you alone, I suppose it was. I hope you're not
+alone in the world, Mr. Lloyd?--that you've not lost that dear sweet
+lamb?"
+
+"O no, Mrs. Jobson, thank you; Mrs. Lloyd is alive and very well."
+
+"That's good hearing, I'm sure; and grown into a fine woman, I've no
+doubt. Those slight slips of girls with plenty of bone, when they fill
+out, improve wonderful;" and then Mrs. Jobson changed the subject, and
+launched into questions of domestic economy into which it is not
+necessary to follow her.
+
+And the next day Gilbert Lloyd prepared to play the last trump-card
+which he found in his hand when he so carefully examined it on the
+night he left Baden. He had given deep consideration to his plan
+since, had gone through every detail, had turned and twisted the
+intended mode of working his scheme, and had definitely, resolved upon
+the manner in which he would carry it out.
+
+And this was his resolution--to claim his wife. He had calculated
+exactly all the risk that was contained in that one sentence, and he
+had determined to brave it, or at all events to pretend to be prepared
+to brave it. From those few words which Gertrude had whispered to him,
+when in his rashness he had braved her at Mrs. Stapleton Burge's
+party, he knew that she was mistress of the secret of Harvey Gore's
+death. But the question then arose, would she dare to avail herself of
+the knowledge she possessed? Yes, he thought she would, sooner than be
+forced to return to him. Except during the first few months of girlish
+idolatry, she had never cared for him, and now she had many reasons
+for positively hating him. The manner in which he had treated her
+would have been quite enough to a girl of her spirit, without the
+suspicion of his crime, the position which she had subsequently gained
+for herself in the world, and--her love for another man. Even in the
+strait in which he found himself, that last thought was sufficient to
+tempt him to run almost any risk to prevent her being anything to any
+other man, but to that man above all others in the world.
+
+Another question then arose: how much did she know about what had
+transpired in those accursed Brighton lodgings? Foxey Walker, with all
+his knowingness, with all the means which he had employed, with all
+the tremendous inducement he had to endeavour to find out everything,
+to drag its deepest depths, and expose all he could rake therefrom in
+the light of day, had only been able to patch up a case of suspicion.
+So Dolly Clarke had said. To be sure he, Gilbert Lloyd, had taken
+fright at the bogey thus raised, and had run away; but he was taken
+aback, the charge was brought forward so suddenly, and it was
+impossible to face the _charivari_ which would have risen round him,
+or to silence the accusation offhand on the spur of the moment.
+Impossible, and not particularly worth his while. He had always
+thought that the connection between him and Lord Ticehurst must be
+brought to an end some day, and had often imagined, more especially
+during the last few weeks, that it would terminate in a row. Well,
+that could not be helped. He had had wonderfully good pickings for a
+very long time; and though he had lost all that he had put by in his
+recent unfortunate speculations, the mine was not yet exhausted, the
+milch-cow was not yet dry. In the message which Clarke had conveyed to
+him from Lord Ticehurst, he was directed to go to Hill-street, and
+make up the books and balance the accounts between them; and it was
+odd if he could not show a considerable balance due in his favour; ay,
+and claim it too, so long as a portion of his lordship's
+banking-account was responsive to cheques bearing Gilbert Lloyd's
+signature. The question remained then, how much did Gertrude know? He
+could not guess from the few words she had whispered to him that
+night, for on that occasion also he had taken fright, and rushed off
+without probing the matter. But if Foxey Walker could bring forward
+nothing positive, nothing actually damnatory, the odds were very
+strongly against Gertrude's being able to do so. And it was a great
+stake he was going in for now. She could always earn a huge income by
+her voice; but this was not all. This old Lord Sandilands, who had
+almost adopted Gertrude as his daughter--so, at least, Lady Carabas
+had told him, and she ought to know--had the reputation of being
+immensely rich. He lived so quietly and unostentatiously, that the
+world insisted he had been putting by two-thirds of his income for
+years; and he had no relatives to whom to bequeath it. It would
+therefore probably all be Gertrude's, or of course, his identity once
+established, Gertrude's husband's. Now, what course would they adopt?
+Would they accept him; let him live with her during the old man's
+lifetime, and inherit with her at the old man's death? Even if all the
+capital were tied down, the interest would afford a splendid income.
+Or would they offer to buy him off with a sum down and a yearly
+income? Either would do, though the first would be best, for--yes, by
+Jove! much best, for the second would leave Gertrude open to the
+attentions of his brother Miles, However, he was in a strait, and
+could not afford to be particular, unless they fought him, and
+then--well, he would risk that, and play his last trump-card.
+
+So Gilbert Lloyd, on the morning after his arrival in London from
+Baden, sat down and wrote a long and elaborate letter to his wife. He
+told her that from the first he had never ceased to grieve over that
+unfortunate step which they had taken under the influence of temper
+and youthful folly. He did not repine; indeed, he had no doubt that
+the separation had had a properly chastening effect--had given them
+time and opportunity to see the mistake of indulging in headstrong
+passion, and had probably rendered them both--he certainly could speak
+for himself--worthier members of society; but the time, he thought,
+had arrived when it would be not merely advisable, but proper, to
+place themselves right with each other and before the world. There
+existed between them a tie which was far more solemnly obligatory on
+them than any human-made law,--although he need scarcely point out to
+his wife that their marriage had never been legally dissolved,--and
+while both the spiritual and moral contracts were in force it was
+impossible to shirk their influence. He owned that he had been
+profoundly touched, on the several occasions on which he had met her
+recently in society, by the fact that he, her legitimate protector,
+who should have been at her side, whose proper position was at her
+right hand, should have had to stand aloof and look on, while others
+pressed round her, owing to the foolish step they had taken. She would
+agree with him, he felt sure, that this was a fain position, and one
+which should be at once set right; and the only way in which that
+could be done would be by their at once coming together and assuming
+their proper relations before the world. He, on his part, would not
+object, if it was thought necessary or advisable, for an entirely
+fresh marriage between them; that detail could be arranged afterwards.
+He was writing this in his old lodgings in Duke-street, which she
+would recollect, to which he had first taken her after their marriage.
+She was a _grand dame_ now, but he did not think he wronged her, or
+flattered himself, in stating his belief that she had never known more
+real happiness than when inhabiting those little rooms. Might the omen
+prove propitious!--Ever hers, G.L.
+
+"And for a sort of thing that's not the least in my line I don't think
+that's bad," said Gilbert Lloyd, as he read it over. "It seems to me
+to combine the practical with the romantic, a very difficult thing to
+hit off, and one likely to please both phases of Gertrude's
+character." Then he sealed it, and addressed it to Miss Lambert, to
+Sir Giles Belwether's care, despatched it, and waited the result.
+
+There must be a clear day at least before he could receive a reply,
+and that day he found it very difficult to get through. He could not
+go to Hill-street, though there was plenty of work awaiting him there,
+because on the tone of Gertrude's reply to his letter would greatly
+depend the tone of his conduct towards Lord Ticehurst. If his wife, no
+matter from whatever motives of policy, thought it better to yield to
+his views, he would then be in a position to resent his sudden
+dismissal, and to speak his plain and unadorned sentiments to his
+lordship in equally plain and unadorned language. If, on the contrary,
+Gertrude temporised or refused point-blank, and he saw there was no
+chance of carrying out his wishes, then all he had left him was to go
+to Hill-street to see the very best arrangement he could make for
+himself, by which he meant to ascertain the largest amount he could
+draw on the fund for which his signature was good at Lord Ticehurst's
+banker's--other available funds he had none--and making the best of
+his way to Australia or America under a feigned name, begin life again
+_de novo_. So he mooned about during the dreary day--it was dreary
+enough; none of his friends were in London, and the aspect of the town
+was deserted and wretched in the extreme--and was not sorry when it
+was time to go home and to bed. The next morning before he was yet up
+Mrs. Jobson knocked at his door, and pushed in a letter which had just
+arrived by the post. Lloyd sprang up, and seized it at once. It was a
+large folded letter, addressed not in Gertrude's hand, but in writing
+which had once been bold and was still large, but a little shaky and
+tremulous, and was sealed with a coronet and a cipher. Gilbert broke
+it open hurriedly, and read as follows:
+
+
+"_Hastings, Sept. 26, 186--_.
+
+"Geoffrey Challoner,--_for it would be absurd in me to address you by any
+other name,--the lady who has the inexpressible misfortune of being
+dressed to her, and has begged me to reply to it. The reply to such a
+letter could not be confided to fitter hands than those of the lady's
+father, in which position I stand. The young lady whose professional
+name is Miss Grace Lambert is my natural daughter; the fact has been
+duly acknowledged by me, and the first act after the avowal is to
+champion my daughter's cause against a villain. For you are a villain,
+Geoffrey Challoner; though God knows it is with the deepest pain that
+I write such words of any man bearing your paternal name; for in
+applying this term to you I am not actuated by a remembrance of the
+wrongs you have done to Gertrude, I am not even thinking of the
+fearful crime which you committed, and which was revealed to her by
+your victim with his dying breath on the occasion of your final
+separation. I am looking back across a gulf of years to the time when
+the dearest friend I had in the world was your father. Now, Geoffrey
+Challoner, do you begin to understand? To me your father confided the
+narrative of the events which ended with your banishment from home,
+and your erasure from the family annals for ever. That narrative I
+have by me now. Your career has been hitherto so successful, you have
+gone so long unpunished, that you will be sceptical on this point, but
+I will prove it to you. That narrative, written in your father's own
+hand, sets forth your boyish disobedience, your tendency to
+dissipation, the impossibility to make you think or act rightly; and
+finally, your awful crime. When you have read thus far you will still
+cling to the hope that the knowledge of the nature of that crime may
+have passed into the grave with him whose heart it broke, who never
+held up his head after its discovery. If any such hope arises in you,
+it is my duty to stamp it out. Geoffrey Challoner, in my possession,
+complete in every detail from its commencement to its frustration, is
+the story of your attempted fratricide. There can be read, couched in
+your father's homely, serious, truth-begetting phrases, the record of
+how you, finding it impossible to undermine your father's confidence
+in your elder brother by lies and slanders of the most malignant
+nature, at length determined to step into that brother's position by
+taking away his life by poison. Do you admit the force of my position
+now, or would you wish the details brought out one by one into the
+light of day, before the public eye?_
+
+"_This letter is written in self-defence, or, what is the same thing,
+in defence of my child. The letter she has received from you, however
+pleasantly and skilfully worded, was a threat, an order to her to
+receive you as her husband, a threat as to what she might expect if
+she refused. Now beware. Had you been content to leave Gertrude
+unmolested, had you shown the slightest remorse for the horrible
+crimes, one of which you contemplated, the other which, as I verily
+believe, you committed, I would have tempered justice with mercy, and
+left you to the never-failing retribution which your conscience would
+sooner or later have claimed of you. That is now impossible. By your
+own act you have prevented my using any such discretion in the matter.
+You have thrown down the gauntlet, however covertly, and must take the
+consequences. I have telegraphed to your brother and to my solicitor
+to come to me at once. I shall place before them your father's
+narrative, and shall tell them what Gertrude has told me. Do not
+flatter yourself with the notion that a wife cannot be a witness
+against her husband. There is plenty of other evidence, some of which
+I find has been already worked up; and we shall take such steps as may
+seem to us advisable_.
+
+"SANDILANDS."
+
+
+"I've knocked twice with Mr. Lloyd's breakfast, and I can't make him
+hear," said Mrs. Jobson to her servant that morning; "and he such a
+light sleeper too, in general. I'll try once more, and if he don't
+answer, I'll peep in."
+
+The landlady knocked again, but with no effect; and when she "peeped
+in" she found Gilbert Lloyd fallen prone on his face on the floor,
+with a letter grasped in his stiffened hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+Ineluctabile Fatum.
+
+
+It was fortunate that Mrs. Jobson was a practical woman of resources
+and presence of mind, for the first thing she did was to fling the
+contents of the water-jug over Lloyd's head (he was a favourite with
+her, or she would scarcely have risked damaging the carpet by such a
+proceeding); the second was to open the window; and the third was to
+loosen his collar, and raise him into a half-sitting position. She
+then called out to the servant to run for the doctor; but Lloyd, who
+had by this time opened his eyes and come to his senses, vehemently
+opposed this suggestion, declaring himself to be quite recovered, and
+leading Mrs. Jobson to believe that these were attacks to which he was
+by no means unaccustomed--which, though unpleasant to the lookers-on,
+were not dangerous to the sufferer, and that he knew how to treat
+himself, to prevent the recurrence of the seizure for some time to
+come. Mrs. Jobson was much pleased to hear this, for, with all her
+practicality, she had that vague fear of sudden death, and its
+necessitated coroner's inquest, which is so often found among people
+of her class. After her fashion, too, she really liked her lodger, for
+Gilbert Lloyd had always been civil and agreeable--had given little
+trouble, and paid his way with consistent punctuality; so she was glad
+to find him looking something like himself, and lightly treating what
+she had at first imagined would be a very serious matter.
+
+But when he was left to himself, and the reaction after the cold
+water, and the mental spurt which he had put on to talk to the
+landlady, set in, Gilbert Lloyd felt that the blow which for the last
+few days he had been certain was impending, had fallen at last. The
+depression under which he had been recently labouring was then
+accounted for; that attempted crime, which had brought upon him the
+sentence of banishment from his father's house, the loss of his
+ancestral name and family position, which had sent him forth into the
+wilderness of the world, there to stand or fall entirely by his own
+arts or luck,--this crime was to be visited on him again, just at the
+very time when everything else was going wrong with him!
+
+Lord Sandilands, then, was the friend to whom his father had confided
+that horrible secret. He had often wondered to whom his father's
+letter had alluded, but had never thought of identifying the bland,
+pleasant old nobleman with the man who held the history of his
+dishonour in his keeping. His father's letter had said, "This friend
+is not acquainted with your personal appearance, and cannot therefore
+recognise you, should your future conduct enable you to present
+yourself in any place where he may be found." Even in the desperate
+circumstances in which he was placed, Gilbert Lloyd almost laughed as
+he recalled these words, and thought how frequently his conduct had
+"enabled him to present himself" in places where old Sandilands was to
+be found; how, indeed, he had been a leader and prime favourite in the
+very society which the old nobleman most affected. "Not acquainted
+with his personal appearance:" of course not, or Lord Sandilands would
+never have consented to meet him on the terms on which they had met,
+and which, though not intimate, were sufficiently familiar; would
+never have suffered him to be the second-self of Lord Ticehurst--his
+lordship could endure Gilbert Lloyd the turfite, but Geoffrey
+Challoner--How had he learned about Geoffrey Challoner, then?--whence
+had come this secret information? Not from Gertrude: that little fact
+was yet to be broken to her, he thought with bitter delight. Who had
+been Lord Sandilands' informant? Miles, of course!--he had forgotten
+him, his dear, charming brother Miles! O, that boyish hatred had not
+been misplaced; there was something in it beyond the mere desire to
+get rid of one who stood between him and the estate. If Miles had been
+nothing to him, he should have hated him. Miles, of course! His
+father's letter had told him that this friend would be "always in
+close and constant intercourse with my son." Close and constant
+intercourse!--that was true enough; and now this precious pair had put
+their heads together for the purpose of his humiliation. Why just at
+that time? It could only have been recently that Miles had told the
+old gentleman, though he had known it so long ago. Why had he only
+just told Lord Sandilands, when he had known it ever since Gertrude's
+first appearance at Carabas House? Gertrude--and Miles! was that the
+clue? Miles was desperately in love with Gertrude--he had seen that
+with his own eyes; and, besides, Toshington--everybody--had told him
+so. In their confidence on this point, can Miles have revealed this
+fact to his old friend? Gilbert did not see what end could have been
+gained by that, more especially as the greatest secret of all--the
+existence of the marriage between him and Gertrude--was evidently not
+yet known to Miles.
+
+And Gertrude was Lord Sandilands' daughter? That was a surprise to
+Gilbert. That the old nobleman would have adopted her, and made her
+his heiress, Lloyd had expected; but the thought that she was his
+natural daughter had never suggested itself to him. Ah, what an
+infernal fool he had been! All these years he had been congratulating
+himself on his good fortune, and now he found he had been merely
+running after the shadow and neglecting the substance. What a dolt he
+had been to allow Gertrude to leave him at all! He might have lived on
+her in a princely manner--first on the money which she made by her
+profession, and secondly by properly working this secret of her
+relationship to Lord Sandilands. And now he had lost all!
+
+His time was come, he thought. _Venit summa dies et ineluctabile
+fatum!_ That line remained haunting his brain. He felt that matters
+were closing round him very rapidly. What was that he had read in Lord
+Sandilands' letter about that cursed Brighton business with Harvey
+Gore? He could not distinctly recollect; he would read the letter
+again. He turned round to look for it; it was nowhere to be found.
+
+He hunted for it high and low; searched every portion of the room
+again and again; examined, as people will do in the desperation of
+such circumstances, the most impossible places. He did not like to ask
+Mrs. Jobson about it. If she had seen it her curiosity might have been
+aroused; she might have read it, and then--At length he rang his bell,
+and Mrs. Jobson appeared; and Gilbert saw in an instant by her face
+that whatever might have happened she had not read the letter.
+
+"When you were good enough to come to my assistance just now, Mrs.
+Jobson, when I had that little attack, did you happen to see an open
+letter lying about?" said Gilbert.
+
+"A letter, sir?" said Mrs. Jobson dubiously; "there were no letter
+that I saw, 'cept the one in your hand."
+
+"In my hand?"
+
+"Clinched tight up, as was both your fists, so that I could hardly
+uncrook your fingers; and in one of 'em there _was_ a letter all
+squeezed up."
+
+"That must have been it. What did you do with it?"
+
+"Put it on to the table by the window, just as it might be there,"
+said Mrs. Jobson, taking an exact aim, and marking a particular spot
+on the table with her finger.
+
+"It's no good looking there," said Gilbert testily--for Mrs. Jobson
+still kept peering on the table, as though she expected to see the
+letter swim up to the surface through the wood--"it's not there. What
+can have become of it?"
+
+"Well, now I recollect," said Mrs. Jobson slowly, "that I thought you
+would be all the better for a puff of fresh air, so I opened the
+window, and the paper might have blowed out."
+
+"Good God, woman, what have you done!" cried Gilbert, starting up and
+rushing towards the street, pushing past Mrs. Jobson, who this time
+began to be seriously alarmed, thinking her lodger was going out of
+his mind.
+
+The street was tolerably empty when Gilbert Lloyd reached it. There
+is not much doing in Duke-street, St. James's, in the month of
+September--a slack season, when even the livery-stable-keepers'
+helpers are probably out of town, and there were but few people about
+to express surprise at seeing a gentleman fly out of a house, and
+begin searching the pavement and the kennel with intense anxiety and
+perseverance. In the season, a dozen young gutter-bloods, street-boys,
+would have been round him in a moment, all aiding in the search for an
+unknown something, the probable finding of which, if seen, would bring
+them a few coppers, the possible stealing of which, unseen, might fill
+their pockets. But on this calm September morning a Jew clothesman
+going his rounds, the servant of a lodging-house opposite, and an
+elderly-gentleman lodger, who never went out of town, and who in the
+winter never got out of bed, and who at the then moment was calmly
+looking on at Lloyd's proceedings as at a show, were all the
+spectators of the hunt for the missing paper, in which none of them
+evinced anything but the most cursory interest.
+
+Not so the seeker. He hunted up and down, poked in wind-swept corners,
+peered down rusty gratings, seemed to have at one time a vague idea of
+following the chase up the livery-stableman's yard, and glared at the
+barrel swinging in mid-air from the crane outside the oilman's
+warehouse-door, as though it might have sucked up the precious
+document. He must have it, Gilbert Lloyd kept repeating to himself; he
+must have it. But he could not find it, and at the end of an hour's
+search he returned to the house, worn out with fatigue, and in a state
+of feverish anxiety.
+
+If it had blown out of the window, as the woman had suggested, into
+the street--and the probabilities were that it had done so--somebody
+must have picked it up. There was no wet or mud to discolour the paper
+or efface the writing; it was a peculiar and striking-looking letter,
+and anyone finding it would doubtless read it through. If such had
+been the case it was lost--irretrievably, for ever. Great beads of
+perspiration stood upon his pallid forehead as this notion flashed
+across him. His name headed the letter, the name of his accuser was
+signed at its foot, and its contents plainly set forth one attempted
+crime and hinted at the knowledge of another, which had been more than
+attempted, which had been carried into effect. Anyone reading this
+would see the whole state of affairs at a glance, would feel it
+incumbent on them to give information to the police, and--he was a
+dead man! What was that Lord Sandilands had said about further
+inquiries relative to Harvey Gore? Foxey had been doing his best to
+find out something definite in that quarter, and had failed; but then
+Lord Sandilands was a man of influence, with plenty of money, which he
+would not scruple to spend freely in any matter such as this. That
+made all the difference; they might succeed in tampering with that
+wretched doctor fellow, who plainly had had his suspicions--Gilbert
+had often recalled his expression about the _rigor mortis_--and there
+would be an end of it. Pshaw! what a fool he was! He passed his hand
+across his damp brow, sprang from the chair on which he had been
+sitting, and commenced pacing the room. An end of it? No, not yet. He
+had always had his own notion of how that end should be brought about,
+if the pressure upon him became unbearable. Most men leading such
+precarious shifty lives have thus thought occasionally, and made odd
+resolves in regard to them. But there was hope yet. He was seedy,
+weak, and unhinged; a glass of brandy would set him all right, and
+then he would go off to Hill-street, look through the accounts, draw
+on the bankers to the uttermost farthing, and start for America. It
+was hard lines to leave town, where he had played the game so long and
+so successfully. However, that was all over, he should never play it
+any more, and so he might as well--better, much better--begin his new
+life in a fresh place.
+
+He dressed himself, got into a cab, and drove to Hill-street. The
+house had been left in charge of some of those wonderful people who
+occupy houses during the temporary absence of their legitimate owners;
+but when Gilbert rang the bell the door was opened, to his intense
+surprise, by Martin, Lord Ticehurst's valet, whom he had left behind
+with his lordship at Baden.
+
+"You here, Martin!" said Lloyd with an astonishment mingled with an
+uncomfortable sensation which he could not conceal. "Why, when did you
+arrive, and what has brought you?"
+
+"Arrived last night, sir," said Martin with a jaunty air, very
+different from his usual respectful bearing. "Came by his lordship's
+orders."
+
+"By his lordship's orders?" echoed Lloyd. "That was rather sudden,
+wasn't it?"
+
+"Yes, sir; very sudden, sir; done all in a hurry, sir; after a long
+talk with Mr. Clarke the lawyer, sir."
+
+"With Mr. Clarke, eh?" again echoed Lloyd, feeling more and more
+uncomfortable. "Well, no matter; it's all right, I suppose. Just come
+up to my room and tell me all about it;" and he was passing on into
+the house.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said Martin, placing himself before him and barring
+the way; "beg pardon, sir, but you're not to come in; his lordship's
+orders, sir."
+
+"Not to come in!" cried Lloyd, white with passion; "what the devil do
+you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say, sir," replied Martin, with perfect coolness; "his
+lordship's orders, sir; last words he said to me. Got a note here for
+you, sir. Lordship said if you was here I was to give it you at once;
+if you wasn't, I wasn't to trouble about finding you until you came
+here."
+
+"Give it here!" said Lloyd savagely; and Martin dived in his pocket,
+fetched out the note, and handed it to him with a polite bow. It was
+in Ticehurst's unformed round schoolboy hand, which Gilbert knew so
+well; was very short, but very much to the purpose. It said that Lord
+Ticehurst had given orders that Mr. Lloyd should be denied access to
+the house in Hill-street; the question of accounts between them could
+be gone into on Lord Ticehurst's return from the Continent, which
+would be in the course of the ensuing week. Lord Ticehurst would
+remain a couple of days in London on his way to his place in Sussex,
+and would devote those days to settling all matters with Mr. Lloyd. It
+would be advisable, in the mean time, that Mr. Lloyd should draw no
+cheques on the account hitherto open to his signature at Lord
+Ticehurst's bankers, as Lord Ticehurst had given instructions to his
+bankers to close that account so far as Mr. Lloyd was concerned.
+
+"That's that infernal Clarke's doing," said Gilbert to himself;
+"Etchingham's writing, certainly, but Clark's suggestion and
+dictation; Etchingham would not have thought of the idea, and could
+not have expressed it half so succinctly. There's a chance yet. That
+order to the bankers could not have been sent by telegram. They would
+not have risked that. Perhaps I'm in time.--Martin, did you bring any
+other letters to England?"
+
+"Yes, sir; one from his lordship to Messrs. Tilley and Shoveller.
+Delivered it at the bank at nine this morning, sir."
+
+"Thanks; I'll write to his lordship. Good-day, Martin." He saw the man
+bow ironically and stick his tongue in his cheek, but he took no
+notice. He turned round, but had to make an effort to gather all his
+strength together and walk away without staggering. The pavement
+surged up in front of him; the houses on either side threatened to
+topple over him. When he got out of sight of the valet still lingering
+at the door, he stopped, and leaned against some railings to recover
+himself.
+
+It was all over, then! The last chance had been tried, and failed. A
+day sooner, and he could have carried out his notion of drawing on the
+bankers and escaping to America. That accursed couple--his wife and
+his brother--had been against him in that, as well as in all his other
+misfortunes lately. If he had not waited for that answer from
+Gertrude,--that answer which, when it came, filled him with so much
+anxiety,--he would have gone to Hill-street on the previous day,
+before Martin had arrived, have drawn his cheques, and made all
+square. Curses on them both! That letter from Gertrude--from Lord
+Sandilands rather--this last business in Hill-street had driven from
+his mind; but the thought of it now returned in tenfold agony. It was
+lost, with all its terrible accusations! Had been found and read, and
+was probably now in the hands of the police. And he had no means for
+providing for flight. The few pounds in his purse were all he
+possessed in the world. He should be taken, and have to die on the
+scaffold! No, not that; he knew a better trick than that yet.
+
+Once again he had to stop. His legs failed him; his head was burning;
+he felt his heart beating with loud thick throbs. A dizziness came
+over him, and it needed all his strength to prevent himself from
+falling. After a minute or two he felt a little relieved. He called a
+cab, and was driven to his club. The porter was away from his post,
+and his deputy, one of the page-boys, failed to recognise the dashing
+Mr. Lloyd in the pallid man who passed him with unsteady gait, and
+asked him for his name. He went into the deserted coffee-room,
+swallowed a glass of brandy, which revived him, then made his way to
+the writing-room, and wrote a note. It was to a sporting acquaintance
+of his, who happened at the time to be house-surgeon to one of our
+largest hospitals, and ran as follows:
+
+"_Private_.
+
+"Dear Pattle--A nag that has carried my lord (and master) for ten
+years has become past work, and is dangerous to ride. But his l'ship
+won't give him up, and some day he'll get his neck broken for his
+pains. To prevent this I want to put the poor beast quietly out of the
+way, and I can't trust our vet., who is a blab. Nor do I want to buy
+any 'stuff' at a chemist's, as, if anything came of it, and it got
+wind, chemist might peach. Can you manage to send me a small bottle of
+strychnine by bearer? Do so; and the next good thing that comes off,
+you shall stand in with the profit. _Keep it dark_.
+
+"Yours,
+
+"GILBERT LLOYD."
+
+
+"That's vague enough," said Lloyd, as he read the letter before
+placing it in an envelope. "But Pattle's a great ass; he'll be
+flattered to think he is helping my Lord Ticehurst's 'confederate,'
+and he'll have a dim idea that there's a chance of making some
+money--quite enough to make him do it." And Gilbert was right. He
+stopped the cab outside the hospital, and sent in the note. Within
+five minutes the porter appeared at the door with a parcel, which he
+handed in "With Mr. Pattle's compliments," and with which Lloyd drove
+off to his lodgings.
+
+His haggard looks on alighting alarmed Mrs. Jobson, who expressed a
+hope that he had been to see a doctor. This gave him the opportunity
+for making an explanation which he had been seeking to bring about, as
+he came along in the cab. He told the worthy landlady that he had
+consulted his physician, who told him that the attacks, one of which
+she had been a witness to, were highly dangerous, and that every means
+should be taken to check them. With this view the doctor had
+recommended him, if he felt one coming on, as was not unlikely,
+judging from the present deranged state of his health, to take a
+slight quantity of the medicine which he prescribed for him, and which
+would give him instant relief. Upon which Mrs. Jobson remarked that of
+course the doctors knew best. She did not herself "hold with"
+sedatives, confessing at the same time that her experience as regarded
+their application was confined to certain interesting cases, in which
+she looked upon the taking of them as flying in the face of
+Providence, which would not have sent pain if it was not meant to be
+endured.
+
+Gilbert Lloyd retired to his room, and did not see his landlady again
+until about nine o'clock that evening, when he sent for her to tell
+her that he felt a renewal of the symptoms of his attack, that he
+should at once get to bed, and that he begged he might not be
+disturbed. This Mrs. Jobson promised, and took her leave. When she was
+gone Gilbert opened his despatch-box, and commenced the following
+letter:
+
+
+"My Dear Lord--You tell me you hear that my relations with Lord
+Ticehurst are at an end, and you ask me if I will undertake the
+management of your stud, and personally supervise your affairs. I need
+scarcely say that I am highly flattered by the proposal, thus
+repeated, I believe, for the third time. At present, however, I must,
+in all respect, decline to entertain it. I have been so far lucky that
+my circumstances are such as to prevent any necessity for my doing any
+more work for the remainder of my life, while my state of health,
+especially during the last few weeks, peremptorily forbids my doing
+anything but nurse myself for some time to--"
+
+
+Here he finished abruptly, leaving the sheet on the blotting-pad, by
+the side of the open, despatch-box.
+
+"They'll not be able to get over that," he said with a shudder; "and
+the woman's testimony will be concurrent. It's an odd thing that a man
+who can do it should care about what people say of him after it's
+done."
+
+He shuddered again as from his dressing-case he took a small phial of
+medicine which he had purchased at a chemist's for the purpose, and
+from the drawer in which he had locked it the strychnine-bottle, and
+placed them side by side on the table. He then leisurely undressed
+himself, turned the bedclothes back, and rumpled the bed to give it
+the appearance of having been slept in; then he extinguished the
+light, took the phial of strychnine in his hand, lifted it to his
+mouth, drained it, and with one convulsive spring managed to throw
+himself on the bed.
+
+
+"And he's quite gone, sir?" inquired weeping Mrs. Jobson the next
+morning of the doctor who had been hastily summoned.
+
+
+"Gone, madam!" said the doctor, who was a snuffy Scotchman of the old
+school--"he's as dad as Jullius Cæsar. And this is another case o' the
+meschief of unauthorised parsons doctorin' themsalves and takkin'
+medicines in the dark."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+A last Message.
+
+
+Wordsworth has written of one of those beautiful scenes which he loved
+so intensely, and with whose loveliness he was so familiar--
+
+     "The spot was made by Nature for herself;
+      The travellers know it not.   *   *    *
+          *   *   *       But it is beautiful,
+      And if a man should plant his cottage near,
+      Should sleep beneath the shelter of its trees,
+      And blend its waters with his daily meals,
+      He would so love it, that in his death-hour
+      Its image would survive amongst his thoughts."
+
+
+It was amid a scene to which these lines might be applied, that Lord
+Sandilands and his daughter were living, a year after the death of
+Gilbert Lloyd--a scene so grand, and yet so full of soft and tender
+beauty, that an English writer, who knew it better than anyone except
+the native Swiss dwellers in it, declared it to be, "even amongst the
+wonders of the Alps, a very miracle of beauty." It was a nook in the
+Savoy Alps, near the Valley of the Sixt. It had needed both money and
+interest to enable the old English nobleman to make even a temporary
+"settlement" in the remote region; but he had used both to good
+purpose, when he found that the wounded spirit, the mind diseased, of
+his daughter were not to be healed by the distractions of travelling
+in the busy and populous centres of European life. They had tried many
+places, but she had sickened of all, though she tried hard to hide
+from her father--whose solicitude for her increased daily, as did her
+affection for him--that all his efforts to procure peace and pleasure
+for her were to a great extent ineffectual. The young English _prima
+donna_--whose brief and brilliant career, whose sudden, unexplained
+disappearance from the scene of her triumphs, had been the subject of
+much talk and many conjectures in London--was not identified on the
+Continent with the Miss Keith who kept so much to herself, but who was
+so very charming when she could be induced to enter into the pastime
+of the hour. This was the more natural, as Gertrude never exerted her
+greatest, her most characteristic, talent--she never sang after she
+left England The last occasion on which she had "tumbled," as she had
+said, to a limited but critical audience at Hardriggs, was the last
+appearance of Miss Lambert on any stage. Miss Keith looked well, when
+he was to be seen, and talked well, when she could be heard; but she
+never sang, and thus a kindly mist diffused itself over her identity.
+
+It seemed incredible to Gertrude that the incidents which had
+occurred, the great emotions she had experienced, the various kinds of
+suffering she had undergone, could all have passed over her within so
+brief a period: that in so short a space of time the exterior and
+interior conditions of her life should be so completely changed. She
+had passed through many widely-varying phases of mind since she had
+left England with her father: the uncertainty of her life over, the
+necessity for personal exertion at an end, and the death of her
+husband--horrible and unlamented as it was--had produced a great
+effect upon her. It was like relief from torturing, bodily pain,
+exhausting and constant; it made her feel the need of deep and
+prolonged rest, quite undisturbed and irresponsible. She turned
+impatiently, in the great relief of her freedom, from men and cities;
+and longed for the solitudes of nature, and the release from
+conventionalities, which she felt was needed to complete the sense of
+her emancipation. Lord Sandilands, who, though he had been very well
+since they left England, was sensibly older, and who had gradually
+come to centre all his interests in this woman--who, though a
+reproach, was yet a constant delight to him--instantly obeyed her
+wishes, and they went to Switzerland. The beaten track of the tourists
+did not content Gertrude, whose taste for the wild and solitary
+beauties of nature was thoroughly gratified in the Alp region; and at
+no late period of their wanderings, they found themselves in the
+neighbourhood of the beautiful and little-known valley of the Sixt.
+The place had an interest for Gertrude, from association with a
+favourite volume which she had read many a time, wondering whether the
+time would ever come when the scenery of the great glacier-world
+should be other than a romantic, unattainable vision to her. Lord
+Sandilands found the air invigorating, and though he could not join
+Gertrude in her explorations, he made every possible arrangement for
+their being effected with comfort and safety; and by means of
+supplying himself with a number of truly English "comforts"--most of
+which were entirely unintelligible to the simple people of the
+district, and caused him to be regarded with more than common awe--he
+established himself very satisfactorily at the hospitable hostelry of
+the Fer à Cheval, formerly the Convent of Sixt. There had always been
+a good deal of philosophical contentment in the disposition of Lord
+Sandilands, and under his present circumstances this useful mental
+characteristic grew stronger and more ready at call. Reflecting, as he
+often did now, upon the past, it had an almost amusing effect upon his
+mind to remember how his time had formerly been passed--the people
+whom he had really thought of consequence to him, the things he had
+cared for and taken an interest in. How far away, how along ago, it
+all seemed now--now that he cared for nothing but Gertrude: the memory
+of Gertrude's mother--ah, what a blunder his conduct to her had been,
+as well as what a sin!--and his dead friend's son, mysteriously
+involved in that sin's consequence. Who remembered him, he thought;
+and whom did he remember of the many who had been his associates, and
+had called themselves his friends? If tidings of his death were to be
+sent to England, how many would say or think more than--"Old
+Sandilands has popped off, I hear; deuced good thing for the parson's
+son in Dorsetshire, nephew or cousin, isn't it?" None he knew--and the
+knowledge did not pain him--except Miles Challoner. And of these
+phantom friendships, these several associations, he had made the
+pabulum of his life. What utter nonsense it seemed now, to be sure,
+when his daughter, sedulously kept out of sight and out of mind during
+so many years, was now the great central truth and occupation of his
+life, and his books and the eternal hills the quiet company in which
+he most delighted! To the old man, too, the time seemed strangely
+short though eventful, since the whole aspect of his existence had
+been changed by the revelation made to him by his daughter. Since
+Gilbert Lloyd's death he had watched her even more closely than
+before, for the purpose of making up his mind whether she should be
+left in entire ignorance of who the wicked man who had blighted her
+young life, and was now removed from it for ever, really was, or
+whether she should be told the truth. He decided that the latter
+course should be pursued if Gertrude pined for Miles Challoner's
+presence, if she made any persistent attempts to break through the
+barrier of separation which circumstances and her own consent had
+placed between them. If change of scene, the excitement and interest
+of travel, and the natural influence of her youth and her recovered
+liberty should produce the effect he hoped for, should lead her to
+remember Miles with only a soft, kindly, painless regret, he would not
+tell her the truth at all; the whole mystery of Geoffrey Challoner's
+life should rest in his grave with him, instead of only that dark
+secret which now Lord Sandilands could never by any possibility be
+forced to divulge. The purpose which his dead friend had had in view
+in imparting it to him had been faithfully served so long as the
+unhappy man lived,--it had died with him. Neither Miles nor Gertrude
+should ever learn that tremendous truth. Lord Sandilands took great
+delight in his daughter's society, and sometimes under its influence
+lost sight of the troubles of the past. But the future fate of
+Gertrude occupied his mind painfully. He had never felt very strong
+since the illness he had gone through at St. Leonards, and he had
+become sensible since then that his life was not likely to be much
+prolonged. He had said nothing to Gertrude of his conviction on this
+point, nor had he alluded to it in his communications with Miles
+Challoner. But in the quiet majestic region where they had now taken
+up their abode, Lord Sandilands found an influence which attuned his
+mind to very serious thought, and disposed him to the setting of his
+house in order. What was to become of Gertrude when he should be gone?
+The painful and peculiar circumstances of her former life disinclined
+her to seek the busy haunts of the world, and her disposition required
+companionship, sympathy, and affection. He could leave her in easy
+circumstances, to be sure,--and he was of much too practical a turn of
+mind to underrate the importance of such a power,--but he could not
+give her security or happiness for the future. His heart turned
+yearningly to Miles Challoner as this solicitude troubled him, and he
+wondered whether his daughter's heart turned in the same direction. It
+had not been mentioned between them for long. The death of Gilbert
+Lloyd had set Gertrude free, so far as she knew; but she felt that the
+barrier between her and Miles existed still. He had loved and wooed
+her under a false impression, and since he had known the truth had
+made no attempt to see or write to her. Lord Sandilands had not
+failed to discern that she suffered keenly from this cause, but he
+still believed that she would suffer more keenly had she known the
+truth--the imperative and insurmountable reason which prevented Miles
+from again seeking her presence. Thus on this subject--the most
+interesting, the most vital to the father and the daughter--there had
+been silence, and now Lord Sandilands wished to break it, but hardly
+knew how to do so.
+
+The time since the travellers had set up their rest at the Fer à
+Cheval had passed tranquilly away, and Gertrude had frequently assured
+her father that she had never enjoyed her foreign tour so much as now,
+when she found herself among the solemn and majestic beauties of the
+Alpine lands, and surrounded only by associations with nature, and
+people of the simplest and most primitive habits. This assurance, so
+far as it went, was strictly true, and yet Gertrude was not quite
+happy. It was not altogether the shadow of the past which oppressed
+her--it was dark, and fell chill upon her, doubtless--but there was an
+actual haunting grief which was more painful even than that. She had
+loved worthily a man worthy of her love, she had loved him more than
+she had known or realised to herself, and he was lost to her now,--a
+great gulf seemed to have fixed itself between them, and she was
+perforce condemned to stand upon the opposite shore and gaze vainly
+across it with longing eyes. What was he doing there, far away in the
+distance beyond her ken? She did not know, and now not to know was
+becoming unbearable. Had he forgotten her? How had he borne the
+revelation which Lord Sandilands had made to him, and which had
+disclosed to him the terrible deception of her life? Her father had
+conveyed to her an assurance of his perfect forgiveness, and told her
+that he had said, hopeless as his suit was now, and void of
+expectation or happiness as his life must be, he could not regret that
+he had known and loved her. This was all she knew, and the need, the
+strong, desperate desire to know more became very potent as the time
+lengthened, and the first shock of her husband's death, with the
+revulsion of feeling it had caused, passed away. Thus it happened that
+by a somewhat analogous process a similar result was wrought in the
+minds of the father and the daughter, and it became imminent that
+Miles Challoner should be spoken of between them.
+
+The occasion arose on a splendid evening, late in the summer, when the
+beauty of the scene amid which they lived was at its height, when the
+peace and the majesty of the mountains filled their spirits, and the
+turmoil of the past in their lives seemed an impossible delusion. A
+time to think of the beloved dead with joyful hope as well as with
+poignant sorrow; a time to make eternity seem true and near, and
+hardly surprising; a time and a scene to soften and refine every
+feeling, and to put far away the passions and pursuits of the common
+world. Lord Sandilands was keenly impressed by this vague and
+beautiful influence of nature; and under the impression reverted, as
+the old do, to the long-past scenes of youth, its pleasures, its
+dreams, its occupations, and its companions. He talked a great deal to
+his daughter that evening of her mother, and of his own. The great
+wrong he had done Gertrude Gautier once frankly acknowledged, and the
+sincere repentance he had come to feel earnestly professed, Lord
+Sandilands had alluded to that no more. Gertrude's mother might have
+been his honoured wife for any tone of restraint or difference there
+was in his infrequent mention of her. Then he strayed into talk of the
+associates of his boyhood and his school and college days, and
+mentioned Mark Challoner, the "young Squire" of Rowley in those
+distant days. Here was Gertrude's opportunity, and she availed herself
+of it promptly.
+
+"Tell me about the Squire," she said, looking up into her father's
+face from her low seat by his side, and laying her clasped hands upon
+his knee. "I should like to hear all about him. Miles Challoner used
+to speak of him with the greatest affection and respect."
+
+"Yes," said Lord Sandilands, "Miles loved his father. He was a very
+good son."
+
+Seeing that a thoughtful expression spread itself over his face,
+Gertrude was afraid he might lapse again into silence, and once more
+asked him eagerly to tell her about the Squire. He did so. He told her
+of the old times at Rowley, of the geniality, heartiness, popularity,
+happiness of the Squire; of his pretty young wife, her death, the
+change it wrought in the friend he so loved; of the long-unbroken
+confidence which had existed between them, only disturbed by death;
+and as he told the story, and dwelt upon the affectionate remembrances
+which it revived, he felt how little death had really disturbed the
+tie between them, how faithfully he had kept his friend's secret, and
+how wonderful it was to think that his own daughter was so deeply
+concerned in it--quite unconsciously. As her mobile, expressive face
+lighted up with interest and emotion, he looked at her with deep
+tenderness and compassion, thinking of the common suffering which
+linked her with his dead friend, and made that secret more important
+to her than even it had been to him. For him it was over and done with
+for ever; for her its baleful and guilty influence lingered still.
+
+"Is Miles like the Squire?" Gertrude asked.
+
+"Yes," replied Lord Sandilands, "like him in face and in character,
+but of a milder temper. Mark Challoner was very hot-tempered in his
+youth, quick, and impatient. Miles is more like his mother in his
+ways. She was a very sweet woman, and a terrible loss to her husband."
+
+It was a relief to them to have thus slipped into an easy and familiar
+mention of him whose name had been for so long unspoken between them.
+
+"Have you heard of Miles lately, father?" said Gertrude quietly, and
+without removing her eyes from Lord Sandilands' face.
+
+"I am very glad you have asked me, my dear," replied her father. "I
+did not like to talk of Miles to you until you should mention him
+first. I have heard from him lately, and I don't like the tone in
+which he writes about himself."
+
+"Is he ill?" said Gertrude, with quick alarm in her face and in her
+voice.
+
+"No, not at all; but he is thoroughly discontented and unhappy. He has
+tried his very best and hardest to live the life of a moral English
+squire at Rowley, but he cannot do it; he has no heart for it; and I
+should not be surprised any day to hear that he had given up the
+useless attempt. He has not forgotten you, Gertrude; and he cannot
+forget you."
+
+"I am glad of that," she said in the same calm tone. "I suppose I
+ought to say otherwise; but it would not be true, and I cannot say it.
+I deceived him, and was forced to disappoint him, and bring a great
+cross on his life; but I _cannot_ say that I should be glad to know he
+had forgotten me, and had found elsewhere the happiness he thought he
+might have had with me."
+
+"I am glad you speak so frankly to me," said Lord Sandilands, laying
+his hand tenderly on the shining bands of Gertrude's dark-brown hair.
+"I have been thinking a great deal about you and Miles Challoner; and
+I should like to know exactly how you feel about him."
+
+The answer was very plainly to be read in her face, but Gertrude did
+not hesitate to give it in words.
+
+"There is no change in my feelings for him, father," she said. "I
+shall never cease to love him."
+
+"Would you marry him, Gertrude, if he came to ask you, though your
+marriage should involve your relinquishing all connexion with England,
+breaking entirely, even more completely than we have done, with old
+associations, and making quite a new life in a new country for
+yourselves? Don't start, my dear, and look so agitated; he has not
+told me to ask you this. You are not required to give a decision. I
+have asked you for my own satisfaction, because I want to know."
+
+"I would marry him," Gertrude answered, "to go to the other end of the
+world with him, if it did not mean parting with you--but that can
+never be--without a scruple, without a regret, without a fear. But he
+could not marry me--have I not deceived him?--even supposing he cared
+for me now as he once did. No, no, that is over and I must not repine,
+blest as my life is far above my deserts."
+
+She put her father's hand to her lips as she spoke, then laid her soft
+cheek tenderly upon it.
+
+"And you think the obstacle which your hard fate raised between you
+and Miles is insurmountable?" said Lord Sandilands, thinking the while
+of that obstacle of which she was unconscious.
+
+"I think so," Gertrude answered sadly. "Do not you? Have you any
+reason for thinking it is not so?"
+
+"None that I can make you understand, my child," said Lord Sandilands.
+"But I have a strong conviction--a feeling which may not be
+reasonable, but is irresistible--that all this strange riddle of your
+life will yet work itself out to a clear and happy solution in your
+becoming Miles Challoner's wife. I understand the extent and force of
+the objections much better than you do, and give them their full
+weight in the estimation of the world. But (since I have been here
+particularly) I have for some time ceased to set very great store by
+the opinions of the world, and to believe that there is much happiness
+or even satisfaction to be got out of conformity to them. I fancy
+Miles is very strongly of my opinion, and in time--not a very long
+time either--I have a perfect conviction that all will be well, and
+that when I leave you I shall do so in better hands than mine."
+
+Gertrude's tears were falling before her father concluded these
+sentences, which he spoke with much earnestness, and for some time she
+did not speak. At length she said:
+
+"When he writes to you, does he ever mention me?"
+
+"Always, and always in the same invariable tone. No other woman will
+ever be offered the place in his home which he once hoped would have
+been yours. This he has told me often, and desired I should tell you,
+if ever, or whenever, you should again speak of him to me."
+
+"He knows we have not spoken of him lately?"
+
+"He knows that, and has been satisfied that it should be so; the time
+that has elapsed since the event that set you free has not been too
+long for a silence dictated by propriety; but it has expired now,
+Gertrude, and I think you and he might be brought to understand each
+other, and make up your minds, like rational people, what extent of
+sacrifice you are prepared to make to secure the privilege of passing
+the remainder of your lives together."
+
+"I have it not in my power to make any sacrifice," said Gertrude;
+"that must come from him, if it is to come at all. I wish I had; but
+it is he who would have all to forgive, all to forego, all to endure."
+
+Lord Sandilands, with his secret knowledge of the truth, felt that she
+had reason in her words. But he had strong faith in Miles Challoner,
+and confident hope in the result of a plan which he had formed, and on
+which this conversation with his daughter finally determined him to
+act. He did not prolong their conference, but bade Gertrude be of good
+cheer, and trust in him and in the future. She gave him her ready
+promise, and a fervent assurance of the happiness and contentment of
+her life with him, and said a few earnest words of affection to him,
+which her father received with a fervour which would have astonished
+himself almost as much as it would have surprised his London
+acquaintances. As the shades of evening deepened, silence fell upon
+Lord Sandilands and Gertrude once more, unbroken until he asked her to
+sing to him. She complied immediately (her father and the peasants
+were the only persons who now heard the glorious voice which had
+enchanted the most splendid, refined, and critical audience in the
+world), and the rich, thrilling strains soon floated out upon the pure
+mountain-air. Her father--lying on a couch beneath the window at the
+end of the long room, which commanded a glorious view of the valley
+leading up to the Col d'Auterne, and from whence Gertrude had watched
+many a sunrise, and gazed at many a moonlight scene, such as no words
+could convey a description of--listened to her singing, and was
+transported in fancy back to the long-vanished past. The last song
+which Gertrude sung that night was the first she had sung at the
+concert at Carabas House, when Miles Challoner had looked upon her to
+love her, and Lord Sandilands had looked at her and found Gertrude
+Gautier's features in her face.
+
+A few days later, when he had considered the matter maturely, and made
+up his mind that in the way which had suggested itself to him the
+happiness of his daughter and Miles Challoner might be secured, Lord
+Sandilands wrote to his dead friend's son. The letter was a long one,
+replying fully to the last which he had received from Miles, and
+giving him excellent advice, which the writer was thoroughly well
+qualified to offer, concerning the disposition and management of his
+property. It contained intelligence of Lord Sandilands' health, and a
+description of the locale and its resources. Then it continued:
+
+"_I have purposely avoided mentioning Gertrude to you until the
+present stage of my letter should have been reached, because I have
+much to say concerning her of a more serious nature than the details
+of her daily occupations, and a report of her health and looks. The
+latter are good, the former are as usual. She still retains unaltered
+her pleasure in the mountain scenery, the primitive people, and the
+flowers. She is still the same to me--an affectionate daughter and a
+charming companion. But some time has now passed since the death of
+her unhappy husband, and its influence is telling upon her. I have not
+been blind to the change in her; and a few days ago, for the first
+time, I mentioned you, and elicited from her an avowal which I am
+about to disclose to you, addressing you in my double character (and
+of course without her knowledge) of Gertrude's father and your oldest,
+and I think I may add truest, friend. She is still attached to
+you--and in spite of all the sorrow and all the equivocal experiences
+which have been hers--with a fresh, vivid, and trusting affection,
+which would suffice, or I am very much mistaken in my estimate of both
+of you, to make your lives, if united, happy. I do not entertain any
+doubt that your feelings towards her remain unchanged, and it is on
+this supposition that I now address you. You have known me long, my
+dear Miles, and as well as a man of your age can know a man of mine;
+and when I tell you that I regret more deeply, bitterly, and
+unavailingly than anything else--it is my lot, the common one of old
+age, to look back upon the past with vain bitterness and regret--the
+having hesitated before the opinion of the world in doing my duty by
+the woman I loved, and following to a practical issue my own
+conviction of the means by which my true happiness might have been
+secured, you will not suspect me of unduly underrating, or carelessly
+despising, the opinion and the judgment of the world. The
+circumstances must be very exceptional indeed under which I would
+counsel any man, holding a fair position in society and endowed with
+the duties and privileges of a landed proprietor as you we, to defy
+the opinion of society, and to turn his back on those duties and
+privileges. But yours is a very exceptional position, and I do counsel
+you to do both these things. Your heart is not in Rowley Court, nor
+are you capable of fulfilling your duties as you are at present. Make
+new ones for yourself, my dear Miles. Yield to the inclination which
+you have partly confessed, and which I have very distinctly perceived,
+and turn your back upon the scene which has been overclouded for you
+since your boyhood by a sorrow which has ever been, and must remain, a
+mystery to you. Geoffrey Challoner's crime is buried in the grave of
+Gilbert Lloyd; but you will never lay its ghost while you remain at
+Rowley Court. I am neither a credulous nor a superstitious man; but I
+have seen more instances than one of the passing away of the 'luck' of
+an old place, and I feel that Rowley Court is one of those from which
+the old 'luck' has passed away. So far as leaving the place is
+concerned, I believe my advice will only anticipate, if even it does
+anticipate, the resolution I fully expect to hear you have by this
+time taken. And now to my other point. Society in England and English
+law do not recognise such a marriage as that of yourself and Gertrude
+would be; and under anything like ordinary circumstances I should be
+one of the first and strongest protestants against such a union; but
+as I have already said, yours are the most exceptional circumstances
+conceivable out of the region of the wildest romance. Your marriage
+with Gertrude could not injure any rights, or offend any principles or
+prejudices, as no one ever likely to see your faces again, or, if you
+did marry, ever to be aware of the fact, has the least notion of the
+existence of those circumstances. Sell the property, leave England,
+and if you still love Gertrude, as she loves you, marry her, and seek
+happiness and home in a foreign land. I write now, you must bear in
+mind, remembering that she is entirely ignorant of the complication in
+your story and hers which sets it apart from perhaps any other human
+experience. She regards herself as a faulty woman, who deceived the
+man she loved by an assumption which she deems unpardonable,
+undeniable, even after that wretched man's death had set her free. You
+regard her as still (as I believe) the object of your truest love, but
+parted from you by the fact that the man who made her miserable, and
+might have made her guilty had not true love intervened to save her,
+was your own brother, the author of the misery which made the latter
+years of your father dark and cheerless. These are both substantial
+truths and phantoms,--the first in their simple existence, the second
+in the effect they ought to produce on such a mind as yours. The
+misfortunes of your life are irremediable; but they are also past and
+gone, and the future may still be yours--yours too, without a braving
+of opinion, a defiance of the world to which you would probably not
+feel equal, if the selection of your future course of proceeding were
+put before you hampered with any such imperative condition. You might
+take wealth with you to a foreign land, and the antecedents of your
+wife could never be known there to anyone; here, only to me; and I am
+ready to give your determination to carry out such a scheme as this my
+warmest approbation and support, though, if you do it, I must lose the
+society of my child, which is inexpressibly dear to me. But I owe it
+to Gertrude, and still more to Gertrude's mother, that I should not
+rest content with a half-compensation to my daughter, that she should
+not be only half-happy. I know in what her true happiness would
+consist, and it shall not be wanting through any failure of self-denial
+on my part. My time here is not to be long; perhaps it may be
+peaceful, and less haunted by remorse, if my daughter becomes your
+wife. I have sinned much towards the living and the dead; and though
+there does not at first sight appear to be any reparation in the
+scheme which I propose, there is a reparation which you will
+understand in part, and I entirely. If I am not in error in respect to
+your feelings, write to me, and say that you will join us here, when
+the necessary arrangement of your affairs will admit of your coming_."
+
+When Lord Sandilands had written this letter, he did not immediately
+despatch it, but laid it by-for a few days, during which he
+deliberated with himself much and secretly. But the end of all his
+meditations, the upshot of all his close observation of Gertrude, was
+a conviction that the letter was an exposition of the truth, and ought
+to be sent. Accordingly, on the fourth day after he had written he
+despatched it, and it was fortunate that he had taken and acted upon
+the resolution at the time he did; for Lord Sandilands was not to act
+upon any more resolutions, or play any active part in the affairs of
+this world any more.
+
+On the evening of the day on which his letter to Miles Challoner had
+been sent away, and while his daughter was singing to him, Lord
+Sandilands was taken ill with acute gout. The attack had many features
+in common with that which had tried him so severely at St. Leonards,
+but was more severe and exhausting. The English doctor from Chamouni
+shook his head and looked very grave from the first,--he was naturally
+a gloomy practitioner, but in this instance his gravity was amply
+justified. There was not enough rallying-power in the constitution of
+the patient it seemed, and the illness rapidly assumed a fatal aspect.
+The intelligence was conveyed, not without humane gentleness, to
+Gertrude, on whom its effect was overwhelming indeed. A kind of
+stupefaction came over her; she could render but little assistance,
+but she never left her father, and even when his exhaustion was
+greatest he was conscious of her presence.
+
+One day, when the end was only a few hours off, she was sitting by
+Lord Sandilands' bed, holding one of his thin hands in hers, and
+gazing with looks expressive of such anguish as only such a vigil
+knows, on his sleeping face. A slight noise at the door disturbed her,
+but she merely raised her hand with a warning gesture, and did not
+turn her head. In another moment a man's form approached her with
+swift, noiseless strides, and she was silently clasped in the arms of
+Miles Challoner.
+
+Thus sheltered, thus comforted, her father found her when he awoke,
+and a little while after Lord Sandilands died.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+Twelve Months after.
+
+
+More than twelve months had rolled away since the man called Gilbert
+Lloyd had been found dead in his lodgings in Duke-street, when the
+medical journals improved the occasion and had a word of advice for
+the general public, and a good many words of abuse for each other, and
+when the affair created a little sensation; for amongst a certain set
+Lloyd was very well known, and on the whole very much hated for his
+success in life. The fact of his quarrel with Lord Ticehurst had got
+wind, though the cause of it was kept secret, and had been duly
+rejoiced over; but the man must have had extraordinary luck, everyone
+said; for the newspapers, in their account of the inquest, published a
+half-written letter which was found in his room, and on which he had
+evidently been engaged when seized with the spasm which he sought to
+allay with that confounded poison, which he had evidently taken in
+mistake for the medicine standing by it, in which he alluded to the
+offer made to him by some nobleman, of an appointment exactly like
+that which he held with Lord Ticehurst, and which, the latter said,
+the state of his health made him decline. At the inquest Mrs. Jobson
+gave her evidence as to the fit with which her lodger had been seized
+on the morning previous to his death, and as to the remedy which he
+told her had been prescribed for him; a practical chemist gave
+professional evidence; Mr. Pattle produced the letter he had received;
+the coroner summed up, and the jury returned a verdict that the
+deceased had died from a dose of poison taken accidentally. But this
+was more than twelve months since, and the manner of Gilbert Lloyd's
+death was never spoken of; and the fact of his ever having lived was
+almost forgotten by the members of that busy, reckless, stirring world
+in which he had moved and had his being; that world which calls but
+for the "living present," and carefully closes its eyes against both
+the past and the future.
+
+That world which never makes the smallest difference in its career
+whether old members drop out of it, or new members are caught up and
+whirled along with it, was pursuing its course in very much its
+ordinary way. The Marchioness of Carabas still had a Soul which
+required male supervision, and still found somebody to supervise it;
+though Mr. Pennington's year of office had expired, another charming
+creature reigned in his stead. Mr. Boulderson Munns still drove his
+mail-phaeton, still told his foreign artists that he didn't understand
+"their d--d palaver," and still managed the Grand Scandinavian Opera,
+though not with so much success as formerly. There had been a reaction
+after Miss Lambert's secession from the boards; people began to think
+there was something good at the Regent, and went to see; and the heart
+of Mr. Munns was heavy under his gorgeous waistcoat, and he had half
+made up his mind to retiring from management, or, as he phrased it,
+"cuttin' the whole concern."
+
+A change had come over one person who has played an important part in
+this little drama--Lord Ticehurst. Gilbert Lloyd's place in that young
+nobleman's establishment never was filled up, much to the disgust of
+Bobby Maitland, who wrote off directly he heard of the quarrel,
+volunteering his services, and being perfectly ready to throw over his
+then patron, Mr. Stackborough, at a moment's notice. But the news of
+his old companion's death acted as a great shock upon the young earl,
+and those reflections which had come upon him during that homeward
+drive from Hastings, after his refusal by Miss Lambert, came upon him
+with redoubled force. His life was purposeless, and worse than
+purposeless; was passed in a not very elevated pursuit among very
+degrading surroundings. He had a name and position to keep up; and
+though his brains were not much, he knew that he might do something
+towards filling his station in life, and, please God, he would. From
+Mr. Toshington you may gather that Lord Ticehurst has carried out his
+intention. "God knows what has come to Etchingham, sir!" the old
+gentleman, who has grown very shaky and senile, will say; "you never
+saw a fellow so changed. He's cut the turf and all that low lot of
+fellows--deuced good thing, that; lives almost entirely at his place
+down in Sussex, and has gone in for farmin', and cattle-breedin', and
+that kind of thing. What does it mean, eh? Well, I don't know, more
+than that there's never a sudden change in a man that I've ever seen,
+that there wasn't one thing at the bottom of it. A woman?--of course!
+They do say that Grace Belwether, niece of my old friend, Sir Giles,
+is a devilish pretty, sensible young woman, and that Etchingham is
+very sweet on her."
+
+And Miles Challoner, was he changed? He was sobered and saddened,
+perhaps; for a great deal of the gilding, which is but gum and
+gold-paper after all, but which makes life seem bright and alluring,
+had been ruthlessly rubbed off during the past two years, and he bore
+about with him what was at once the greatest sorrow and the greatest
+joy--his love for Gertrude. This absorbing feeling influenced his
+whole life, and so engrossed him that he gave up everything in which
+he had formerly taken interest, and passed his time in recalling
+fleeting recollections of the happy days he had spent in the society
+of his beloved, and in endeavouring to arrange the wildest and most
+improbable combination of chances under which those happy days might
+be renewed. Long since he had fled from the "gross mud-honey of
+town"--where almost every place was fraught with bitter memories not
+merely of the loved and lost, but of the wretched man his brother,
+whose career of crime had been so suddenly brought to a close--and had
+established himself at Rowley Court in the hope that he quiet life and
+the occupation which his position required, and in which he would
+involve himself, would bring about a surcease of that gnawing pain
+which was ever at his heart.
+
+All in vain. The ghost of the dead Past was not to be laid by change
+of scene; nor in the clear air of the country did the uncompromising
+Future loom brighter and more rosily than it had in murky London. Nor
+horse, nor dog, nor gun afforded the smallest pleasure to Miles
+Challoner, who said "Yes" or "No," whichever first entered his head
+when his steward made suggestions or asked for instructions, and who
+walked about his estate with his head hanging on his breast and his
+hands clasped behind him, chewing the cud of his bitter fancy, and
+wondering whether this purposeless, useless existence would ever
+terminate, and whether before his death he should ever have the chance
+of playing a part in the great drama of life.
+
+One day he took a sudden determination. It was useless, he felt,
+remaining inert, inactive as he was, ever pursuing a vain phantom and
+letting his energies rust and his opportunities of doing real good
+pass by. He was a young man, and there was a life before him yet. Not
+there, not in his old ancestral home, hampered by "proud laws of
+precedent" and conventionality, dragged down by old memories and
+associations with things bygone, but in the New World. Why should he
+not yet make his life a source of happiness and comfort to himself and
+others? He had no sentimental notions about parting with his family
+acres. He should never marry, of that he was firmly convinced, and at
+his death they would go to some one for whom he cared not one jot.
+Better to part with them at once, and take the proceeds with him to
+Australia, where at least he should be free from haunting memories of
+the past, and have the chance of making a career for himself.
+
+This determination he at once proceeded to carry into effect, writing
+to his lawyer, and giving him instructions for the sale of the
+Rowley-Court property so soon as he could find a purchaser. Find a
+purchaser! It was difficult to make a selection. The Walbrooks and the
+Walbrooks' friends, who had bought land in the neighbourhood on Sir
+Thomas Walbrook's recommendation, and the friends who had been staying
+with the Walbrooks, and thought they would like to have property in
+the neighbourhood--all self-made men who came up to London with
+half-a-crown and were then worth millions--all wanted to buy Rowley
+Court. Eventually, however, Miles gave the preference to Sir Thomas
+himself, and the arrangement had just been concluded between them when
+Miles received the letter with which the reader has been made
+acquainted in the previous chapter.
+
+
+In one of the wildest and yet most peaceful scenes of the Alpine land,
+the grave of the English nobleman was made, by his own desire. He had
+no wish that his remains should be brought to England, but desired
+that they should be suffered to remain where his last quiet days of
+life had been passed in the society of his daughter. Under the shadow
+of the rustic church he rested; and when all had been done, Gertrude
+and Miles found themselves alone. It was a solemn time and a solemn
+occasion; and their utter isolation from all whom they had ever
+previously known, the strangeness of the scene, and the urgency and
+uncertainty of the future, oppressed them; while the loss of the best
+friend either had ever possessed so darkened the horizon for them,
+that not even their mutual and avowed love could brighten it.
+
+By Lord Sandilands' desire Miles Challoner had sent for his solicitor,
+who arrived at the Fer à Cheval in time to be present at the funeral,
+and to whom Gertrude confided all the papers which her father had with
+him. Their contents were explicit. The greater portion of Lord
+Sandilands' property he had had the power to dispose of, and he had
+left it unreservedly to his daughter. There was no mention made of any
+other person; and Mr. Leggatt, the solicitor, was charged by his late
+client with the administration of the bequest.
+
+The evening had fallen on the day whose morning had seen Lord
+Sandilands' quiet and simple funeral. Mr. Leggatt had explained to
+Gertrude her very satisfactory position in worldly affairs, and had
+received the few instructions she had to give him. He then stated that
+he should be obliged to start on his homeward journey on the following
+day, and inquired Gertrude's immediate intentions with regard to her
+own movements. Gertrude replied that she could not tell him until the
+morning. Then Mr. Leggatt discreetly retired, and the lovers and
+mourners were left alone.
+
+"I sent you from me because I had deceived you," said Gertrude, when
+the conversation, after long lingering upon the details of the past
+and upon the friends they had lost, was flagging. "And I thought you
+stayed away and made no sign because you could not forgive me."
+
+"I stayed away because you had been deceived," said Miles, "and the
+time had not come when I could tell you the truth and ask you to aid
+me in making the best of it for us both. You know it all now." He took
+the letter Lord Sandilands had written to him from her hand "You know
+that the miserable man who was to both of us a rock ahead through life
+was my brother--the shame and misfortune of our family."
+
+Gertrude bowed her head and covered her face with her hands.
+
+He continued: "All that can be said, except how truly and devotedly I
+love you, is said in this letter--the last message of your father, of
+my best friend. There is nothing in England for which we care: we have
+no ties there; we are bound to each other only by ties of love and
+sorrow in all the world. No one knows, no one can ever know, what that
+unhappy man was to you and to me. Will you let me try to make you
+forgive and forget it all in a happier marriage? Ours is an
+exceptional case. The world would condemn us, if the world knew all it
+could, which would be only half the truth; we know all the truth, and
+are free from self-condemnation. Say yes, Gertrude; not to me only,
+remember, but to him whom we have lost; and we shall never see England
+any more, or part again in this world."
+
+Gertrude made him no answer in words. Her head was still bowed, and
+her eyes hidden by one hand; but she placed the other in his, and he
+knew that she was won.
+
+Their marriage took place at Berne, and they are lost in the crowd.
+
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+---------------------------------
+PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Rock Ahead. (Vol. 2 of 2), by Edmund Yates
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59912 ***