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diff --git a/59912-0.txt b/59912-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7f8b42 --- /dev/null +++ b/59912-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7722 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59912 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + +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 *** |