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diff --git a/8942-8.txt b/8942-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8fa1d79 --- /dev/null +++ b/8942-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11470 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Hope, by Henry Seton Merriman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: The Last Hope + +Author: Henry Seton Merriman + +Posting Date: August 24, 2014 [EBook #8942] +Release Date: September, 2005 +First Posted: August 28, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST HOPE *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Mary Meehan and Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + THE LAST HOPE + + BY + HENRY SETON MERRIMAN + + + + + "What is it thou knowest, sweet voice?" I cried. + "A hidden hope," the voice replied. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. LE ROI EST MORT + + II. VIVE LE ROI + + III. THE RETURN OF "THE LAST HOPE" + + IV. THE MARQUIS'S CREED + + V. ON THE DYKE + + VI. THE STORY OF THE CASTAWAYS + + VII. ON THE SCENT + + VIII. THE LITTLE BOY WHO WAS A KING + + IX. A MISTAKE + + X. IN THE ITALIAN HOUSE + + XI. A BEGINNING + + XII. THE SECRET OF GEMOSAC + + XIII. WITHIN THE GATES + + XIV. THE LIFTED VEIL + + XV. THE TURN OF THE TIDE + + XVI. THE GAMBLERS + + XVII. ON THE PONT ROYAL + + XVIII. THE CITY THAT SOON FORGETS + + XIX. IN THE BREACH + + XX. "NINETEEN" + + XXI. NO. 8 RUELLE ST. JACOB + + XXII. DROPPING THE PILOT + + XXIII. A SIMPLE BANKER + + XXIV. THE LANE OF MANY TURNINGS + + XXV. SANS RANCUNE + + XXVI. RETURNED EMPTY + + XXVII. OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES + + XXVIII. BAREBONE'S PRICE + + XXIX. IN THE DARK + + XXX. IN THE FURROW AGAIN + + XXXI. THE THURSDAY OF MADAME DE CHANTONNAY + + XXXII. PRIMROSES + + XXXIII. DORMER COLVILLE IS BLIND + + XXXIV. A SORDID MATTER + + XXXV. A SQUARE MAN + + XXXVI. MRS. ST. PIERRE LAWRENCE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND + + XXXVII. AN UNDERSTANDING + + XXXVIII. A COUP-D'ÉTAT + + XXXIX. "JOHN DARBY" + + XL. FARLINGFORD ONCE MORE + + + + +THE LAST HOPE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +LE ROI EST MORT + + +"There; that's it. That's where they buried Frenchman," said +Andrew--known as River Andrew. For there was another Andrew who earned +his living on the sea. + +River Andrew had conducted the two gentlemen from "The Black Sailor" to +the churchyard by their own request. A message had been sent to him in +the morning that this service would be required of him, to which he had +returned the answer that they would have to wait until the evening. It +was his day to go round Marshford way with dried fish, he said; but in +the evening they could see the church if they still set their minds on +it. + +River Andrew combined the light duties of grave-digger and clerk to the +parish of Farlingford in Suffolk with a small but steady business in fish +of his own drying, nets of his own netting, and pork slain and dressed by +his own weather-beaten hands. + +For Farlingford lies in that part of England which reaches seaward toward +the Fatherland, and seems to have acquired from that proximity an +insatiable appetite for sausages and pork. On these coasts the killing of +pigs and the manufacture of sausages would appear to employ the leisure +of the few, who for one reason or another have been deemed unfit for the +sea. It is not our business to inquire why River Andrew had never used +the fickle element. All that lay in the past. And in a degree he was +saved from the disgrace of being a landsman by the smell of tar and +bloaters that heralded his coming, by the blue jersey and the brown +homespun trousers which he wore all the week, and by the saving word +which distinguished him from the poor inland lubbers who had no dealings +with water at all. + +He had this evening laid aside his old sou'wester--worn in fair and foul +weather alike--for his Sunday hat. His head-part was therefore official +and lent additional value to the words recorded. He spoke them, moreover, +with a dim note of aggressiveness which might only have been racy of a +soil breeding men who are curt and clear of speech. But there was more +than an East Anglian bluffness in the statement and the manner of its +delivery, as his next observation at once explained. + +"Passen thinks it's over there by the yew-tree--but he's wrong. That +there one was a wash-up found by old Willem the lighthouse keeper one +morning early. No! this is where Frenchman was laid by." + +He indicated with the toe of his sea-boot a crumbling grave which had +never been distinguished by a headstone. The grass grew high all over +Farlingford churchyard, almost hiding the mounds where the forefathers +slept side by side with the nameless "wash-ups," to whom they had +extended a last hospitality. + +River Andrew had addressed his few remarks to the younger of his two +companions, a well-dressed, smartly set-up man of forty or thereabouts, +who in turn translated the gist of them into French for the information +of his senior, a little white-haired gentleman whom he called "Monsieur +le Marquis." + +He spoke glibly enough in either tongue, with a certain indifference of +manner. This was essentially a man of cities, and one better suited to +the pavement than the rural quiet of Farlingford. To have the gift of +tongues is no great recommendation to the British born, and River Andrew +looked askance at this fine gentleman while he spoke French. He had +received letters at the post-office under the name of Dormer Colville: a +name not unknown in London and Paris, but of which the social fame had +failed to travel even to Ipswich, twenty miles away from this mouldering +churchyard. + +"It's getting on for twenty-five years come Michaelmas," put in River +Andrew. "I wasn't digger then; but I remember the burial well enough. And +I remember Frenchman--same as if I see him yesterday." + +He plucked a blade of grass from the grave and placed it between his +teeth. + +"He were a mystery, he were," he added, darkly, and turned to look +musingly across the marshes toward the distant sea. For River Andrew, +like many hawkers of cheap wares, knew the indirect commercial value of +news. + +The little white-haired Frenchman made a gesture of the shoulders and +outspread hands indicative of a pious horror at the condition of this +neglected grave. The meaning of his attitude was so obvious that River +Andrew shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. + +"Passen," he said, "he don't take no account of the graves. He's what you +might call a bookworm. Always a sitting indoors reading books and +pictures. Butcher Franks turns his sheep in from time to time. But along +of these tempests and the hot sun the grass has shot up a bit. +Frenchman's no worse off than others. And there's some as are fallen in +altogether." + +He indicated one or two graves where the mound had sunk, and suggestive +hollows were visible in the grass. "First, it's the coffin that bu'sts in +beneath the weight, then it's the bones," he added, with that grim +realism which is begotten of familiarity. + +Dormer Colville did not trouble to translate these general truths. He +suppressed a yawn as he contemplated the tottering headstones of certain +master-mariners and Trinity-pilots taking their long rest in the +immediate vicinity. The churchyard lay on the slope of rising ground upon +which the village of Farlingford straggled upward in one long street. +Farlingford had once been a town of some commercial prosperity. Its story +was the story of half a dozen ports on this coast--a harbour silted up, a +commerce absorbed by a more prosperous neighbour nearer to the railway. + +Below the churchyard was the wide street which took a turn eastward at +the gates and led straight down to the river-side. Farlingford Quay--a +little colony of warehouses and tarred huts--was separated from +Farlingford proper by a green, where the water glistened at high tide. In +olden days the Freemen of Farlingford had been privileged to graze their +horses on the green. In these later times the lord of the manor pretended +to certain rights over the pasturage, which Farlingford, like one man, +denied him. + +"A mystery," repeated River Andrew, waiting very clearly for Mr. Dormer +Colville to translate the suggestive word to the French gentleman. But +Colville only yawned. "And there's few in Farlingford as knew Frenchman +as well as I did." + +Mr. Colville walked toward the church porch, which seemed to appeal to +his sense of the artistic; for he studied the Norman work with the eye of +a connoisseur. He was evidently a cultured man, more interested in a work +of art than in human story. + +River Andrew, seeing him depart, jingled the keys which he carried in his +hand, and glanced impatiently toward the older man. The Marquis de +Gemosac, however, ignored the sound as completely as he had ignored River +Andrew's remarks. He was looking round him with eyes which had once been +dark and bright, and were now dimly yellow. He looked from tomb to tomb, +vainly seeking one that should be distinguished, if only by the +evidence of a little care at the hands of the living. He looked down the +wide grass-grown street--partly paved after the manner of the +Netherlands--toward the quay, where the brown river gleamed between the +walls of the weather-beaten brick buildings. There was a ship lying at +the wharf, half laden with hay; a coasting craft from some of the greater +tidal rivers, the Orwell or the Blackwater. A man was sitting on a piece +of timber on the quay, smoking as he looked seaward. But there was no one +else in sight. For Farlingford was half depopulated, and it was tea-time. +Across the river lay the marshes, unbroken by tree or hedge, barren of +even so much as a hut. In the distance, hazy and grey in the eye of the +North Sea, a lighthouse stood dimly, like a pillar of smoke. To the +south--so far as the eye could pierce the sea haze--marshes. To the +north--where the river ran between bare dykes--marshes. + +And withal a silence which was only intensified by the steady hum of the +wind through the gnarled branches of the few churchyard trees which turn +a crouching back toward the ocean. + +In all the world--save, perhaps, in the Arctic world--it would be hard to +find a picture emphasising more clearly the fact that a man's life is but +a small matter, and the memory of it like the seed of grass upon the wind +to be blown away and no more recalled. + +The bearer of one of the great names of France stood knee-deep in the +sun-tanned grass and looked slowly round as if seeking to imprint the +scene upon his memory. He turned to glance at the crumbling church behind +him, built long ago by men speaking the language in which his own +thoughts found shape. He looked slowly from end to end of the ill-kept +burial ground, crowded with the bones of the nameless and insignificant +dead, who, after a life passed in the daily struggle to wrest a +sufficiency of food from a barren soil, or the greater struggle to hold +their own against a greedy sea, had faded from the memory of the living, +leaving naught behind them but a little mound where the butcher put his +sheep to graze. + +Monsieur de Gemosac was so absorbed in his reflections that he seemed to +forget his surroundings and stood above the grave, pointed out to him by +River Andrew, oblivious to the cold wind that blew in from the sea, deaf +to the clink of the sexton's inviting keys, forgetful of his companion +who stood patiently waiting within the porch. The Marquis was a little +bent man, spare of limb, heavy of shoulder, with snow-white hair against +which his skin, brown and wrinkled as a walnut shell, looked sallow like +old ivory. His face was small and aquiline; not the face of a clever man, +but clearly the face of an aristocrat. He had the grand manner too, and +that quiet air of self-absorption which usually envelops the bearers of +historic names. + +Dormer Colville watched him with a good-natured patience which pointed, +as clearly as his attitude and yawning indifference, to the fact that he +was not at Farlingford for his own amusement. Presently he lounged back +again toward the Marquis and stood behind him. "The wind is cold, +Marquis," he said, pleasantly. "One of the coldest spots in England. What +would Mademoiselle say if I allowed you to take a chill?" + +De Gemosac turned and looked at him over his shoulder with a smile full +of pathetic meaning. He spread out his arms in a gesture indicative of +horror at the bleakness of the surroundings; at the mournfulness of the +decaying village; the dreary hopelessness of the mouldering church and +tombs. + +"I was thinking, my friend," he said. "That was all. It is not surprising +... that one should think." + +Colville heaved a sigh and said nothing. He was, it seemed, essentially a +sympathetic man; not of a thoughtful habit himself, but tolerant of +thought in others. It was abominably windy and cold, although the corn +was beginning to ripen; but he did not complain. Neither did he desire to +hurry his companion in any way. + +He looked at the crumbling grave with a passing shadow in his clever and +worldly eyes, and composed himself to await his friend's pleasure. + +In his way he must have been a philosopher. His attitude did not suggest +that he was bored, and yet it was obvious that he was eminently out of +place in this remote spot. He had nothing in common, for instance, with +River Andrew, and politely yawned that reminiscent fish-curer into +silence. His very clothes were of a cut and fashion never before seen in +Farlingford. He wore them, too, with an air rarely assumed even in the +streets of Ipswich. + +Men still dressed with care at this time; for d'Orsay was not yet dead, +though his fame was tarnished. Mr. Dormer Colville was not a dandy, +however. He was too clever to go to that extreme and too wise not to be +within reach of it in an age when great tailors were great men, and it +was quite easy to make a reputation by clothes alone. + +Not only was his dress too fine for Farlingford, but his personality was +not in tune with this forgotten end of England. His movements were too +quick for a slow-moving race of men; no fools, and wiser than their +midland brethren; slow because they had yet to make sure that a better +way of life had been discovered than that way in which their Saxon +forefathers had always walked. + +Colville seemed to look at the world with an exploiting eye. He had a +speculative mind. Had he lived at the end of the Victorian era instead of +the beginning he might have been a notable financier. His quick glance +took in all Farlingford in one comprehensive verdict. There was nothing +to be made of it. It was uninteresting because it obviously had no +future, nor encouraged any enterprise. He looked across the marshes +indifferently, following the line of the river as it made its devious way +between high dykes to the sea. And suddenly his eye lighted. There was a +sail to the south. A schooner was standing in to the river mouth, her +sails glowing rosily in the last of the sunset light. + +Colville turned to see whether River Andrew had noticed, and saw that +landsman looking skyward with an eye that seemed to foretell the early +demise of a favouring wind. + +"That's 'The Last Hope,'" he said, in answer to Dormer Colville's +question. "And it will take all Seth Clubbe's seamanship to save the +tide. 'The Last Hope.' There's many a 'Hope,' built at Farlingford, and +that's the last, for the yard is closed and there's no more building +now." + +The Marquis de Gemosac had turned away from the grave, but as Colville +approached him he looked back to it with a shake of the head. + +"After eight centuries of splendour, my friend," he said. "Can that be +the end--that?" + +"It is not the end," answered Colville, cheerfully, "It is only the end +of a chapter. _Le roi est mort--vive le roi!_" + +He pointed with his stick, as he spoke, to the schooner creeping in +between the dykes. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +VIVE LE ROI + + +"The Last Hope" had been expected for some days. It was known in +Farlingford that she was foul, and that Captain Clubbe had decided to put +her on the slip-way at the end of the next voyage. Captain Clubbe was a +Farlingford man. "The Last Hope" was a Farlingford built ship, and Seth +Clubbe was not the captain to go past his own port for the sake of saving +a few pounds. + +"Farlingford's his nation," they said of him down at the quay. "Born and +bred here, man and boy. He's not likely to put her into a Thames dry-dock +while the slip-way's standing empty." + +All the village gossips naturally connected the arrival of the two +gentlemen from London with the expected return of "The Last Hope." +Captain Clubbe was known to have commercial relations with France. It was +currently reported that he could speak the language. No one could tell +the number of his voyages backward and forward from the Bay to Bristol, +to Yarmouth, and even to Bergen, carrying salt-fish to those countries +where their religion bids them eat that which they cannot supply from +their own waters, and bringing back wine from Bordeaux and brandy from +Charente. + +It is not etiquette, however, on these wind-swept coasts to inquire too +closely into a man's business, and, as in other places, the talk was +mostly among those who knew the least--namely, the women. There had been +a question of repairing the church. The generation now slowly finding its +way to its precincts had discussed the matter since their childhood and +nothing had come of it. + +One bold spirit put forth the suggestion that the two gentlemen were +London architects sent down by the Queen to see to the church. But the +idea fell to the ground before the assurance from Mrs. Clopton's own lips +that the old gentleman was nothing but a Frenchman. + +Mrs. Clopton kept "The Black Sailor," and knew a deal more than she was +ready to tell people; which is tantamount to saying that she was a woman +in a thousand. It had leaked out, however, that the spokesman of the +party, Mr. Dormer Colville, had asked Mrs. Clopton whether it was true +that there was claret in the cellars of "The Black Sailor." And any one +having doubts could satisfy himself with a sight of the empty bottles, +all mouldy, standing in the back yard of the inn. + +They were wine-merchants from France, concluded the wiseacres of +Farlingford over their evening beer. They had come to Farlingford to see +Captain Clubbe. What could be more natural! For Farlingford was proud of +Captain Clubbe. It so often happens that a man going out into the world +and making a great name there, forgets his birthplace and the rightful +claim to a gleam of reflected glory which the relations of a great +man--who have themselves stayed at home and done nothing--are always +ready to consider their due reward for having shaken their heads over him +during the earlier struggles. + +Though slow of tongue, the men of Farlingford were of hospitable +inclination. They were sorry for Frenchmen, as for a race destined to +smart for all time under the recollection of many disastrous defeats at +sea. And of course they could not help being ridiculous. Heaven had made +them like that while depriving them of any hope of ever attaining to good +seamanship. Here was a foreigner, however, cast up in their midst, not by +the usual channel indeed, but by a carriage and pair from Ipswich. He +must feel lonesome, they thought, and strange. They, therefore, made an +effort to set him at his ease, and when they met him in "the street" +jerked their heads at him sideways. The upward jerk is less friendly and +usually denotes the desire to keep strictly within the limits of +acquaintanceship. To Mr. Dormer Colville they gave the upward lift of the +chin as to a person too facile in speech to be desirable. + +The dumbness of the Marquis do Gemosac appealed perhaps to a race of +seafaring men very sparingly provided by nature with words in which to +clothe thoughts no less solid and sensible by reason of their terseness. +It was at all events unanimously decided that everything should be done +to make the foreigner welcome until the arrival of "The Last Hope." A +similar unanimity characterised the decision that he must without delay +be shown Frenchman's grave. + +River Andrew's action and the unprecedented display of his Sunday hat on +a week-day were nothing but the outcome of a deep-laid scheme. Mrs. +Clopton had been instructed to recommend the gentlemen to inspect the +church, and the rest had been left to the wit of River Andrew, a man +whose calling took him far and wide, and gave him opportunities of speech +with gentlefolk. + +These opportunities tempted River Andrew to go beyond his instructions so +far as to hint that he could, if encouraged, make disclosures of interest +respecting Frenchman. Which was untrue; for River Andrew knew no more +than the rest of Farlingford of a man who, having been literally cast up +by the sea at their gates, had lived his life within those gates, had +married a Farlingford woman, and had at last gone the way of all +Farlingford without telling any who or what he was. + +From sundry open cottage doors and well-laden tea-tables glances of +inquiry were directed toward the strangers' faces as they walked down the +street after having viewed the church. Some prescient females went so far +as to state that they could see quite distinctly in the elder gentleman's +demeanour a sense of comfort and consolation at the knowledge thus +tactfully conveyed to him that he was not the first of his kind to be +seen in Farlingford. + +Hard upon the heels of the visitors followed River Andrew, wearing his +sou'wester now and carrying the news that "The Last Hope" was coming up +on the top of the tide. + +Farlingford lies four miles from the mouth of the river, and no ship +can well arrive unexpected at the quay; for the whole village may see +her tacking up under shortened sail, heading all ways, sometimes +close-hauled, and now running free as she follows the zigzags of the +river. + +Thus, from the open door, the villagers calculated the chances of being +able to finish the evening meal at leisure and still be down at the quay +in time to see Seth Clubbe bring his ship alongside. One by one the men +of Farlingford, pipe in mouth, went toward the river, not forgetting the +kindly, sideward jerk of the head for the old Frenchman already waiting +there. + +It was nearly the top of the tide and the clear green water swelled and +gurgled round the weedy piles of the quay, bringing on its surface tokens +from the sea--shadowy jelly-fish, weed, and froth. "The Last Hope" was +quite close at hand now, swinging up in mid-stream. The sun had set and +over the marshes the quiet of evening brooded hazily. Captain Clubbe had +taken in all sail except a jib. His anchor was swinging lazily overside, +ready to drop. The watchers on the quay could note the gentle rise and +fall of the crack little vessel as the tide lifted her from behind. She +seemed to be dancing to her home like a maiden back from school. The +swing of her tapering masts spoke of the heaving seas she had left +behind. + +It was characteristic of Farlingford that no one spoke. River Andrew was +already in his boat, ready to lend a hand should Captain Clubbe wish to +send a rope ashore. But it was obvious that the captain meant to anchor +in the stream for the night: so obvious that if any one on shore had +mentioned the conclusion his speech would have called for nothing but a +contemptuous glance from the steady blue eyes all round him. + +It was equally characteristic of a Farlingford ship that there were no +greetings from the deck. Those on shore could clearly perceive the burly +form of Captain Clubbe, standing by the weather rigging. Wives could +distinguish their husbands, and girls their lovers; but, as these were +attending to their business with a taciturn concentration, no hand was +raised in salutation. + +The wind had dropped now. For these are coasts of quiet nights and +boisterous days. The tide was almost slack. "The Last Hope" was scarcely +moving, and in the shadowy light looked like a phantom ship sailing out +of a dreamy sunset sky. + +Suddenly the silence was broken, so unexpectedly, so dramatically, that +the old Frenchman, to whose nature such effects would naturally appeal +with a lightning speed, rose to his feet and stood looking with startled +eyes toward the ship. A clear strong voice had broken joyously into song, +and the words it sang were French: + +"C'est le Hasard, +Qui, tôt ou tard, +Ici bas nous seconde; +Car, +D'un bout du monde +A l'autre bout, +Le Hasard seul fait tout." + +Not only were the words incongruous with their quaint, sadly gay air of a +dead epoch of music and poetry; but the voice was in startling contrast +to the tones of a gruff and slow-speaking people. For it was a clear +tenor voice with a ring of emotion in it, half laughter, half tears, such +as no Briton could compass himself, or hear in another without a dumb +feeling of shame and shyness. + +But those who heard it on the shore--and all Farlingford was there by +this time--only laughed curtly. Some of the women exchanged a glance and +made imperfectly developed gestures, as of a tolerance understood between +mothers for anything that is young and inconsequent. + +"We've gotten Loo Barebone back at any rate," said a man, bearing the +reputation of a wit. And after a long pause one or two appreciators +answered: + +"You're right," and laughed good-humouredly. + +The Marquis de Gemosac sat down again, with a certain effort at +self-control, on the balk of timber which had been used by some +generations of tide-watchers. He turned and exchanged a glance with +Dormer Colville, who stood at his side leaning on his gold-headed cane. +Colville's expression seemed to say: + +"I told you what it would be. But wait: there is more to come." + +His affable eyes made a round of the watching faces, and even exchanged a +sympathetic smile with some, as if to hint that his clothes were only +fine because he belonged to a fine generation, but that his heart was as +human as any beating under a homelier coat. + +"There's Passen," said one woman to another, behind the corner of her +apron, within Colville's hearing. "It takes a deal to bring him out o' +doors nowadays, and little Sep and--Miss Miriam." + +Dormer Colville heard the words. And he heard something unspoken in the +pause before the mention of the last name. He did not look at once in the +direction indicated by a jerk of the speaker's thumb, but waited until a +change of position enabled him to turn his head without undue curiosity. +He threw back his shoulders and stretched his legs after the manner of +one cramped by standing too long in one attitude. + +A hundred yards farther up the river, where the dyke was wider, a +grey-haired man was walking slowly toward the quay. In front of him a boy +of ten years was endeavouring to drag a young girl toward the jetty at a +quicker pace than she desired. She was laughing at his impetuosity and +looking back toward the man who followed them with the abstraction and +indifference of a student. + +Colville took in the whole picture in one quick comprehensive glance. But +he turned again as the singer on board "The Last Hope" began another +verse. The words were clearly audible to such as knew the language, and +Colville noted that the girl turned with a sudden gravity to listen to +them. + +"Un tel qu'on vantait +Par hasard était +D'origine assez minoe; +Par hasard il plut, +Par hasard il fut +Baron, ministre, et prince." + +Captain Clubbe's harsh voice broke into the song with the order to let go +the anchor. As the ship swung to the tide the steersman, who wore neither +coat nor waistcoat, could be seen idly handling the wheel still, though +his duties were necessarily at an end. He was a young man, and a gay +salutation of his unemployed hand toward the assembled people--as if he +were sure that they were all friends--stamped him as the light-hearted +singer, so different from the Farlingford men, so strongly contrasted to +his hearers, who nevertheless jerked their heads sideways in response. He +had, it seemed, rightly gauged the feelings of these cold East Anglians. +They were his friends. + +River Andrew's boat was alongside "The Last Hope" now. Some one had +thrown him a rope, which he had passed under his bow thwart and now held +with one hand, while with the other he kept his distance from the tarry +side of the ship. There was a pause until the schooner felt her moorings, +then Captain Clubbe looked over the side and nodded a curt salutation to +River Andrew, bidding him, by the same gesture, wait a minute until he +had donned his shore-going jacket. The steersman was pulling on his coat +while he sought among the crowd the faces of his more familiar friends. +He was, it seemed, a privileged person, and took it for granted that he +should go ashore with the captain. He was, perhaps, one of those who +seemed to be privileged at their birth by Fate, and pass through life on +the sunny side with a light step and laughing lips. + +Captain Clubbe was the first to step ashore, with one comprehensive nod +of the head for all Farlingford. Close on his heels the younger sailor +was already returning the greetings of his friends. + +"Hullo, Loo!" they said; or, "How do, Barebone?" For their tongues are no +quicker than their limbs, and to this day, "How do?" is the usual +greeting. + +The Marquis de Gemosac, who was sitting in the background, gave a sharp +little exclamation of surprise when Barebone stepped ashore, and turned +to Dormer Colville to say in an undertone: + +"Ah--but you need say nothing." + +"I promised you," answered Colville, carelessly, "that I should tell you +nothing till you had seen him." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE RETURN OF "THE LAST HOPE" + + +Not only France, but all Europe, had at this time to reckon with one who, +if, as his enemies said, was no Bonaparte, was a very plausible imitation +of one. + +In 1849 France, indeed, was kind enough to give the world a breathing +space. She had herself just come through one of those seething years from +which she alone seems to have the power of complete recovery. Paris had +been in a state of siege for four months; not threatened by a foreign +foe, but torn to pieces by internal dissension. Sixteen thousand had been +killed and wounded in the streets. A ministry had fallen. A ministry +always does fall in France. Bad weather may bring about such a descent at +any moment. A monarchy had been thrown down--a king had fled. Another +king; and one who should have known better than to put his trust in a +people. + +Half a dozen generals had attempted to restore order in Paris and +confidence in France. Then, at the very end of 1848, the fickle people +elected this Napoleon, who was no Bonaparte, President of the new +Republic, and Europe was accorded a breathing space. At the beginning of +1849 arrangements were made for it--military arrangements--and the year +was almost quiet. + +It was in the summer of the next year, 1850, that the Marquis de Gemosac +journeyed to England. It was not his first visit to the country. Sixty +years earlier he had been hurried thither by a frenzied mother, a little +pale-faced boy, not bright or clever, but destined to pass through days +of trial and years of sorrow which the bright and clever would scarcely +have survived. For brightness must always mean friction, while cleverness +will continue to butt its head against human limitations so long as men +shall walk this earth. + +He had been induced to make this journey thus, in the evening of his +days, by the Hope, hitherto vain enough, which many Frenchmen had pursued +for half a century. For he was one of those who refused to believe that +Louis XVII had died in the prison of the Temple. + +Not once, but many times, Dormer Colville laughingly denied any +responsibility in the matter. + +"I will not even tell the story as it was told to me," he said to the +Marquis de Gemosac, to the Abbé Touvent and to the Comtesse de +Chantonnay, whom he met frequently enough at the house of his cousin, +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, in that which is now the Province of the +Charente Inférieure. "I will not even tell you the story as it was told +to me, until one of you has seen the man. And then, if you ask me, I will +tell you. It is nothing to me, you understand. I am no dreamer, but a +very material person, who lives in France because he loves the sunshine, +and the cuisine, and the good, kind hearts, which no government or want +of government can deteriorate." + +And Madame de Chantonnay, who liked Dormer Colville--with whom she +admitted she always felt herself in sympathy--smiled graciously in +response to his gallant bow. For she, too, was a materialist who loved +the sunshine and the cuisine; more especially the cuisine. + +Moreover, Colville never persuaded the Marquis de Gemosac to come +to England. He went so far as to represent, in a realistic light, +the discomforts of the journey, and only at the earnest desire of +many persons concerned did he at length enter into the matter and +good-naturedly undertake to accompany the aged traveller. + +So far as his story was concerned, he kept his word, entertaining the +Marquis on the journey and during their two days' sojourn at the humble +inn at Farlingford with that flow of sympathetic and easy conversation +which always made Madame de Chantonnay protest that he was no Englishman +at all, but all that there was of the most French. Has it not been seen +that Colville refused to translate the dark sayings of River Andrew by +the side of the grass-grown grave, which seemed to have been brought to +the notice of the travellers by the merest accident? + +"I promised you that I should tell you nothing until you had seen him," +he repeated, as the Marquis followed with his eyes the movements of the +group of which the man they called Loo Barebone formed the centre. + +No one took much notice of the two strangers. It is not considered good +manners in a seafaring community to appear to notice a new-comer. Captain +Clubbe was naturally the object of universal attention. Was he not +bringing foreign money into Farlingford, where the local purses needed +replenishing now that trade had fallen away and agriculture was so sorely +hampered by the lack of roads across the marsh? + +Clubbe pushed his way through the crowd to shake hands with the Rev. +Septimus Marvin, who seemed to emerge from a visionary world of his own +in order to perform that ceremony and to return thither on its +completion. + +Then the majority of the onlookers straggled homeward, leaving a few +wives and sweethearts waiting by the steps, with patient eyes fixed on +the spidery figures in the rigging of "The Last Hope." Dormer Colville +and the Marquis de Gemosac were left alone, while the rector stood a few +yards away, glaring abstractedly at them through his gold-rimmed +spectacles as if they had been some strange flotsam cast up by the high +tide. + +"I remember," said Colville to his companion, "that I have an +introduction to the pastor of the village, who, if I am not mistaken, is +even now contemplating opening a conversation. It was given to me by my +banker in Paris, who is a Suffolk man. You remember, Marquis, John +Turner, of the Rue Lafayette?" + +"Yes--yes," answered the Marquis, absently. He was still watching the +retreating villagers, with eyes old and veiled by the trouble that they +had seen. + +"I will take this opportunity of presenting myself," said Colville, who +was watching the little group from the rectory without appearing to do +so. He rose as he spoke and went toward the clergyman, who was probably +much younger than he looked. For he was ill-dressed and ill-shorn, with +straggling grey hair hanging to his collar. He had a musty look, such as +a book may have that is laid on a shelf in a deserted room and never +opened or read. Septimus Marvin, the world would say, had been laid upon +a shelf when he was inducted to the spiritual cure of Farlingford. But no +man is ever laid on a shelf by Fate. He climbs up there of his own will, +and lies down beneath the dust of forgetfulness because he lacks the +heart to arise and face the business of life. + +Seeing that Dormer Colville was approaching him, he came forward with a +certain scholarly ease of manner as if he had once mixed with the best on +an intellectual equality. + +Colville's manners were considered perfect, especially by those who were +unable to detect a fine line said to exist between ease and too much +ease. Mr. Marvin recollected John Turner well. Ten years earlier he had, +indeed, corresponded at some length with the Paris banker respecting a +valuable engraving. Was Mr. Colville interested in engravings? Colville +confessed to a deep and abiding pleasure in this branch of art, tempered, +he admitted with a laugh, by a colossal ignorance. He then proceeded to +give the lie to his own modesty by talking easily and well of mezzotints +and etchings. + +"But," he said, interrupting himself with evident reluctance, "I am +forgetting my obligations. Let me present to you my companion, an old +friend, the Marquis de Gemosac." + +The two gentlemen bowed, and Mr. Marvin, knowing no French, proceeded to +address the stranger in good British Latin, after the manner of the +courtly divines of his day. Which Latin, from its mode of pronunciation, +was entirely unintelligible to its hearer. + +In return, the rector introduced the two strangers to his niece, Miriam +Liston. + +"The mainstay of my quiet house," he added, with his vague and dreamy +smile. + +"I have already heard of you," said Dormer Colville at once, with his +modest deference, "from my cousin, Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence." + +He seemed, as sailors say, never to be at a loose end; but to go through +life with a facile readiness, having, as it were, his hands full of +threads among which to select, with a careless affability, one that must +draw him nearer to high and low, men and women, alike. + +They talked together for some minutes, and, soon after the discovery that +Mariam Liston was as good a French scholar as himself, and therefore able +to converse with the Marquis de Gemosac, Colville regretted that it was +time for them to return to their simple evening meal at "The Black +Sailor." + +"Well," said Colville to Monsieur de Gemosac, as they walked slowly +across the green toward the inn, embowered in its simple cottage-garden, +all ablaze now with hollyhocks and poppies--"well, after your glimpse at +this man, Marquis, are you desirous to see more of him?" + +"My friend," answered the Frenchman, with a quick gesture, descriptive of +a sudden emotion not yet stilled, "he took my breath away. I can think of +nothing else. My poor brain is buzzing still, and I know not what answers +I made to that pretty English girl. Ah! You smile at my enthusiasm; you +do not know what it is to have a great hope dangling before the eyes all +one's life. And that face--that face!" + +In which judgment the Marquis was no doubt right. For Dormer Colville was +too universal a man to be capable of concentrated zeal upon any one +object. He laughed at the accusation. + +"After dinner," he answered, "I will tell you the little story as it was +told to me. We can sit on this seat, outside the inn, in the scent of the +flowers and smoke our cigarette." + +To which proposal Monsieur de Gemosac assented readily enough. For he was +an old man, and to such the importance of small things, such as dinner or +a passing personal comfort, are apt to be paramount. Moreover, he was a +remnant of that class to which France owed her downfall among the +nations; a class represented faithfully enough by its King, Louis XVI, +who procrastinated even on the steps of the guillotine. + +The wind went down with the sun, as had been foretold by River Andrew, +and the quiet of twilight lay on the level landscape like sleep when the +two travellers returned to the seat at the inn door. A distant curlew was +whistling cautiously to its benighted mate, but all other sounds were +still. The day was over. + +"You remember," said Colville to his companion, "that six months after +the execution of the King, a report ran through Paris and all France that +the Dillons had succeeded in rescuing the Dauphin from the Temple." + +"That was in July, 1793--just fifty-seven years ago--the news reached me +in Austria," answered the Marquis. + +Colville glanced sideways at his companion, whose face was set with a +stubbornness almost worthy of the tenacious Bourbons themselves. + +"The Queen was alive then," went on the Englishman, half diffidently, as +if prepared for amendment or correction. "She had nearly three months to +live. The separation from her children had only just been carried out. +She was not broken by it yet. She was in full possession of her health +and energy. She was one of the cleverest women of that time. She was +surrounded by men, some of whom were frankly half-witted, others who were +drunk with excess of a sudden power for which they had had no +preparation. Others, again, were timorous or cunning. All were ignorant, +and many had received no education at all. For there are many ignorant +people who have been highly educated, Marquis." + +He gave a short laugh and lighted a cigarette. "Mind," he continued, +after a pause devoted to reflection which appeared to be neither deep nor +painful, for he smiled as he gazed across the hazy marshes, "mind, I am +no enthusiast, as you yourself have observed. I plead no cause. She was +not my Queen, Marquis, and France is not my country. I endeavour to look +at the matter with the eye of common-sense and wisdom. And I cannot +forget that Marie Antoinette was at bay: all her senses, all her wit +alert. She can only have thought of her children. Human nature would +dictate such thoughts. One cannot forget that she had devoted friends, +and that these friends possessed unlimited money. Do you think, Marquis, +that any one man of that rabble was above the reach--of money?" + +And Mr. Dormer Colville's reflective smile, as he gazed at the distant +sea, would seem to indicate that, after a considerable experience of men +and women, he had reluctantly arrived at a certain conclusion respecting +them. + +"No man born of woman, Marquis, is proof against bribery or flattery--or +both." + +"One can believe anything that is bad of such dregs of human-kind, my +friend," said Monsieur de Gemosac, contemptuously. + +"I speak to one," continued Colville, "who has given the attention of a +lifetime to the subject. If I am wrong, correct me. What I have been told +is that a man was found who was ready, in return for a certain sum paid +down, to substitute his own son for the little Dauphin--to allow his son +to take the chance of coming alive out of that predicament. One can +imagine that such a man could be found in France at that period." + +Monsieur de Gemosac turned, and looked at his companion with a sort of +surprise. + +"You speak as if in doubt, Monsieur Colville," he said, with a sudden +assumption of that grand manner with which his father had faced the +people on the Place de la Révolution--had taken a pinch of snuff in the +shadow of the guillotine one sunny July day. "You speak as if in doubt. +Such a man was found. I have spoken with him: I, who speak to you." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE MARQUIS'S CREED + + +Dormer Colville smiled doubtfully. He was too polite, it seemed, to be +sceptical, and by his attitude expressed a readiness to be convinced as +much from indifference as by reasoning. + +"It is intolerable," said the Marquis de Gemosac, "that a man of your +understanding should be misled by a few romantic writers in the pay of +the Orleans." + +"I am not misled, Marquis; I am ignorant," laughed Colville. "It is not +always the same thing." + +Monsieur de Gemosac threw away his cigarette and turned eagerly toward +his companion. + +"Listen," he said. "I can convince you in a few words." + +And Colville leaned back against the weather-worn seat with the air of +one prepared to give a post-prandial attention. + +"Such a man was found as you yourself suggest. A boy was found who could +not refuse to run that great risk, who could not betray himself by +indiscreet speech--because he was dumb. In order to allay certain rumours +which were going the round of Europe, the National Convention sent three +of its members to visit the Dauphin in prison, and they themselves have +left a record that he answered none of their questions and spoke no word +to them. Why? Because he was dumb. He merely sat and looked at them +solemnly, as the dumb look. It was not the Dauphin at all. He was hidden +in the loft above. The visit of the Conventionals was not satisfactory. +The rumours were not stilled by it. There is nothing so elusive or so +vital as a rumour. Ah! you smile, my friend." + +"I always give a careful attention to rumours," admitted Colville. "More +careful than that which one accords to official announcements." + +"Well, the dumb boy was not satisfactory. Those who were paid for this +affair began to be alarmed. Not for their pockets. There was plenty of +money. Half the crowned heads in Europe, and all the women, were ready to +open their purses for the sake of a little boy, whose ill-treatment +appealed to their soft hearts: who in a sense was sacred, for he was +descended from sixty-six kings. No! Barras and all the other scoundrels +began to perceive that there was only one way out of the difficulty into +which they had blundered. The Dauphin must die! So the dumb boy +disappeared. One wonders whither he went and what his fate might be--" + +"With so much to tell," put in Dormer Colville, musingly; "so much +unspoken." + +It was odd how the _rôles_ had been reversed. For the Marquis de Gemosac +was now eagerly seeking to convince his companion. The surest way to +persuade a man is to lead him to persuade himself. + +"The only solution was for the Dauphin to die--in public. So another +substitution was effected," continued Monsieur de Gemosac. "A dying boy +from the hospital was made to play the part of the Dauphin. He was not at +all like him; for he was tall and dark--taller and darker than a son of +Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette could ever have been. The prison was +reconstructed so that the sentry on guard could not see his prisoner, but +was forced to call to him in order to make sure that he was there. It was +a pity that he did not resemble the Dauphin at all, this scrofulous +child. But they were in a hurry, and they were at their wits' ends. And +it is not always easy to find a boy who will die in a given time. This +boy had to die, however, by some means or other. It was for France, you +understand, and the safety of the Great Republic." + +"One hopes that he appreciated his privilege," observed Colville, +philosophically. + +"And he must die in public, duly certified for by persons of undoubted +integrity. They called in, at the last moment, Desault, a great doctor of +that day. But Desault was, unfortunately, honest. He went home and told +his assistant that this was not the Dauphin, and that, whoever he might +be, he was being poisoned. The assistant's name was Choppart, and this +Choppart made up a medicine, on Desault's prescription, which was an +antidote to poison." + +Monsieur de Gemosac paused, and, turning to his companion, held up one +finger to command his full attention. + +"Desault died, my friend, four days later, and Choppart died five days +after him, and the boy in the Temple died three days after Choppart. And +no one knows what they died of. They were pretty bunglers, those +gentlemen of the Republic! Of course, they called in others in a hurry; +men better suited to their purpose. And one of these, the citizen +Pelletan, has placed on record some preposterous lies. These doctors +certified that this was the Dauphin. They had never seen him before, but +what matter? Great care was taken to identify the body. Persons of +position, who had never seen the son of Louis XVI, were invited to visit +the Temple. Several of them had the temerity to protect themselves in the +certificate. 'We saw what we were informed was the body of the Dauphin,' +they said." + +Again the old man turned, and held up his hand in a gesture of warning. + +"If they wanted a witness whose testimony was without question--whose +word would have laid the whole question in that lost and forgotten grave +for ever--they had one in the room above. For the Dauphin's sister was +there, Marie Thérèse Charlotte, she who is now Duchess of Angoulême. Why +did they not bring her down to see the body, to testify that her brother +was dead and the line of Louis XVI ended? Was it chivalry? I ask you if +these had shown chivalry to Madame de Lamballe? to Madame Elizabeth? to +Marie Antoinette? Was it kindness toward a child of unparalleled +misfortune? I ask you if they had been kind to those whom they called the +children of the tyrant? No! They did not conduct her to that bedside, +because he who lay there was not her brother. Are we children, Monsieur, +to be deceived by a tale of a sudden softness of heart? They wished to +spare this child the pain! Had they ever spared any one pain--the +National Assembly?" + +And the Marquis de Gemosac's laugh rang with a hatred which must, it +seems, outlive the possibility of revenge. + +"There was to be a public funeral. Such a ceremony would have been of +incalculable value at that time. But, at the last minute, their courage +failed them. The boy was thrown into a forgotten corner of a Paris +churchyard, at nine o'clock one night, without witnesses. The spot itself +cannot now be identified. Do you tell me that that was the Dauphin? Bah! +my friend, the thing was too childish!" + +"The ignorant and the unlettered," observed Colville, with the air of +making a concession, "are always at a disadvantage--even in crime." + +"That the Dauphin was, in the mean time, concealed in the garret of the +Tower appears to be certain. That he was finally conveyed out of the +prison in a clothes-basket is as certain, Monsieur, as it is certain that +the sun will rise to-morrow. And I believe that the Queen knew, when she +went to the guillotine, that her son was no longer in the Temple. I +believe that Heaven sent her that one scrap of comfort, tempered as it +was by the knowledge that her daughter remained a prisoner in their +hands. But it was to her son that her affections were given. For the +Duchess never had the gift of winning love. As she is now--a cold, hard, +composed woman--so she was in her prison in the Temple at the age of +fifteen. You may take it from one who has known her all his life. And +from that moment to this--" + +The Marquis paused, and made a gesture with his hands, descriptive of +space and the unknown. + +"From that moment to this--nothing. Nothing of the Dauphin." + +He turned in his seat and looked questioningly up toward the crumbling +church, with its square tower, stricken, years ago, by lightning; with +its grass-grown graveyard marked by stones all grey and hoary with +immense age and the passage of cold and stormy winters. + +"Who knows," he added, "what may have become of him? Who can say where he +lies? For a life begun as his began was not likely to be a long one. +Though troubles do not kill. Witness myself, who am five years his +senior." + +Colville looked at him in obedience to an inviting gesture of the hand; +looked as at something he did not understand, something beyond his +understanding, perhaps. For the troubles had not been Monsieur de +Gemosac's own troubles, but those of his country. + +"And the Duchess?" said the Englishman at length, after a pause, "at +Frohsdorf--what does she say--or think?" + +"She says nothing," replied the Marquis de Gemosac, sharply. "She is +silent, because the world is listening for every word she may utter. What +she thinks ... Ah! who knows? She is an old woman, my friend, for she is +seventy-one. Her memories are a millstone about her neck. No wonder she +is silent. Think what her life has been. As a child, three years of +semi-captivity at the Tuileries, with the mob howling round the railings. +Three and a half years a prisoner in the Temple. Both parents sent to the +guillotine--her aunt to the same. All her world--massacred. As a girl, +she was collected, majestic; or else she could not have survived those +years in the Temple, alone--the last of her family. What must her +thoughts have been, at night in her prison? As a woman, she is cold, sad, +unemotional. No one ever lived through such troubles with so little +display of feeling. The Restoration, the Hundred Days, the second +Restoration, Louis XVIII, and his flight to England; Charles X and his +abdication; her own husband, the Duc d'Angoulême--the Dauphin for many +years, the King for half an hour--these are some of her experiences. She +has lived for forty years in exile in Mittau, Memel, Warsaw, Königsberg, +Prague, England; and now she is at Frohsdorf, awaiting the end. You ask +me what she says? She says nothing, but she knows--she has always +known--that her brother did not die in the Temple." + +"Then--" suggested Colville, who certainly had acquired the French art of +putting much meaning into one word. + +"Then why not seek him? you would ask. How do you know that she has not +done so, my friend, with tears? But as years passed on, and brought no +word of him, it became less and less desirable. While Louis XVIII +continued to reign there was no reason to wish to find Louis XVII, you +understand. For there was still a Bourbon, of the direct line, upon the +throne. Louis XVIII would scarcely desire it. One would not expect him to +seek very diligently for one who would deprive him of the crown. Charles +X, knowing he must succeed his brother, was no more enthusiastic in the +search. And the Duchess d'Angoulême herself, you ask? I can see the +question in your face." + +"Yet," conceded Colville. "For, after all, he was her brother." + +"Yes--and if she found him, what would be the result? Her uncle would be +driven from the throne; her father-in-law would not inherit; her own +husband, the Dauphin, would be Dauphin no longer. She herself could never +be Queen of France. It is a hard thing to say of a woman--" + +Monsieur de Gemosac paused for a moment in reflection. + +"Yes," he said at length, "a hard thing. But this is a hard world, +Monsieur Colville, and will not allow either men or women to be angels. I +have known and served the Duchess all my life, and I confess that she has +never lost sight of the fact that, should Louis XVII be found, she +herself would never be Queen of France. One is not a Bourbon for +nothing." + +"One is not a stateswoman and a daughter of kings for nothing," amended +Colville, with his tolerant laugh; for he was always ready to make +allowances. "Better, perhaps, that France should be left quiet, under the +_régime_ she had accepted, than disturbed by the offer of another +_régime_, which might be less acceptable. You always remind me--you, who +deal with France--of a lion-tamer at a circus. You have a very slight +control over your performing beasts. If they refuse to do the trick you +propose, you do not press it, but pass on to another trick; and the bars +of the cage always appear to the onlooker to be very inadequate. Perhaps +it was better, Marquis, to let the Dauphin go; to pass him over, and +proceed to the tricks suitable to the momentary humour of your wild +animals." + +The Marquis de Gemosac gave a curt laugh, which thrilled with a note of +that fearful joy known to those who seek to control the uncontrollable. + +"At that time," he admitted, "it might be so. But not now. At that time +there lived Louis XVIII and Charles X, and his sons, the Duc d'Angoulême +and the Duc de Berri, who might reasonably be expected to have sons in +their turn. There were plenty of Bourbons, it seemed. And now--where are +they? What is left of them?" + +He gave a nod of the head toward the sea that lay between him and +Germany. + +"One old woman, over there, at Frohsdorf, the daughter of Marie +Antoinette, awaiting the end of her bitter pilgrimage--and this Comte de +Chambord. This man who will not when he may. No, my friend, it has never +been so necessary to find Louis XVII as it is now. Necessary for +France--for the whole world. This Prince President, this last offshoot of +a pernicious republican growth, will drag us all in the mud if he gets +his way with France. And those who have watched with seeing eyes have +always known that such a time as the present must eventually come. For +France will always be the victim of a clever adventurer. We have foreseen +it, and for that reason we have treated as serious possibilities these +false Dauphins who have sprung up like mushrooms all over Europe and even +in America. And what have they proved? What have the Bourbons proved in +frustrating their frauds? That the son of Louis XVI did not die in the +Temple. That is all. And Madame herself has gathered further strength to +her conviction that the little King was not buried in that forgotten +corner of the graveyard of Sainte Marguérite. At the same time, she knows +that none of these--neither Naundorff, nor Havergault, nor Bruneau, nor +de Richemont, nor any other pretender--was her brother. No! The King, +either because he did not know he was King, or because he had had enough +of royalty, never came forward and never betrayed his whereabouts. He was +to be sought; he is still to be sought. And it is now that he is wanted." + +"That is why I offer to tell you this story now. That is my reason for +bringing you to Farlingford now," said Colville, quietly. It seemed that +he must have awaited, as the wise do in this world, the propitious +moment, and should it never come they are content to forego their +purpose. He gave a light laugh and stretched out his long legs, +contemplating his strapped trousers and neat boots with the eye of a +connoisseur. "And should I be the humble means of doing a good turn to +France and others, will France--and others--remember it, I wonder. +Perhaps I hold in my hands the Hope of France, Marquis." + +He paused, and lapsed for a moment into thought. It was eight o'clock, +and the long northern twilight was fading into darkness now. The bell of +Captain Clubbe's ship rang out the hour--a new sound in the stillness of +this forgotten town. + +"The Last Hope," added Dormer Colville, with a queer laugh. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ON THE DYKE + + +Neither had spoken again when their thoughts were turned aside from that +story which Colville, instead of telling, had been called upon to hear. + +For the man whose story it presumably was passed across the green ere the +sound of the ship's bell had died away. He had changed his clothes, or +else it would have appeared that he was returning to his ship. He walked +with his head thrown up, with long lithe steps, with a gait and carnage +so unlike the heavy tread of men wearing sea-boots all their working +days, that none would have believed him to be born and bred in +Farlingford. For it is not only in books that history is written, but in +the turn of a head, in the sound of a voice, in the vague and dreamy +thoughts half formulated by the human mind 'twixt sleeping and waking. + +Monsieur de Gemosac paused, with his cigarette held poised halfway to his +lips, and watched the man go past, while Dormer Colville, leaning back +against the wall, scanned him sideways between lowered lids. + +It would seem that Barebone must have an appointment. He walked without +looking about him, like one who is late. He rather avoided than sought +the greeting of a friend from the open cottage-doors as he passed on. On +reaching the quay he turned quickly to the left, following the path that +led toward the dyke at the riverside. + +"He is no sailor at heart," commented Colville. "He never even glanced at +his ship." + +"And yet it was he who steered the ship in that dangerous river." + +"He may be skilful in anything he undertakes," suggested Colville, in +explanation. "It is Captain Clubbe who will tell us that. For Captain +Clubbe has known him since his birth, and was the friend of his father." + +They sat in silence watching the shadowy figure on the dyke, outlined +dimly against the hazy horizon. He was walking, still with haste as if to +a certain destination, toward the rectory buried in its half circle of +crouching trees. And already another shadow was hurrying from the house +to meet him. It was the boy, little Sep Marvin, and in the stillness of +the evening his shrill voice could be heard in excited greeting. + +"What have you brought? What have you brought?" he was crying, as he ran +toward Barebone. They seemed to have so much to say to each other that +they could not wait until they came within speaking distance. The boy +took Barebone's hand, and turning walked back with him to the old house +peeping over the dyke toward the sea. He could scarcely walk quietly, for +joy at the return of his friend, and skipped from side to side, pouring +out questions and answering them himself as children and women do. + +But Barebone gave him only half of his attention and looked before him +with grave eyes, while the boy talked of nests and knives. Barebone +was looking toward the garden, concealed like an entrenchment behind +the dyke. It was a quiet evening, and the rector was walking slowly +backward and forward on the raised path, made on the dyke itself, like a +ship-captain on his quarter-deck, with hands clasped behind his bent back +and eyes that swept the horizon at each turn with a mechanical monotony. +At one end of the path, which was worn smooth by the Reverend Septimus +Marvin's pensive foot, the gleam of a white dress betrayed the presence +of his niece, Miriam Liston. + +"Ah, is that you?" asked the rector, holding out a limp hand. "Yes. I +remember Sep was allowed to sit up till half-past eight in the hope that +you might come round to see us. Well, Loo, and how are you? Yes--yes." + +And he looked vaguely out to sea, repeating below his breath the words +"Yes--yes" almost in a whisper, as if communing secretly with his own +thoughts out of hearing of the world. + +"Of course I should come round to see you," answered Barebone. "Where +else should I go? So soon as we had had tea and I could change my clothes +and get away from that dear Mrs. Clubbe. It seems so strange to come back +here from the racketing world--and France is a racketing world of its +own--and find everything in Farlingford just the same." + +He had shaken hands with the rector and with Miriam Liston as he spoke, +and his speech was not the speech of Farlingford men at all, but rather +of Septimus Marvin himself, of whose voice he had acquired the ring of +education, while adding to it a neatness and quickness of enunciation +which must have been his own; for none in Suffolk could have taught it to +him. + +"Just the same," he repeated, glancing at the book Miriam had laid aside +for a moment to greet him and had now taken up again. "That book must be +very large print," he said, "for you to be able to read by this light." + +"It is large print," answered the girl, with a friendly laugh, as she +returned to it. + +"And you are still resolved to be a sailor?" inquired Marvin, looking at +him with kind eyes for ever asleep, it would appear, in some long slumber +which must have been the death of one of the sources of human energy--of +ambition or of hope. + +"Until I find a better calling," answered Loo Barebone, with his eager +laugh. "When I am away I wonder how any can be content to live in +Farlingford and let the world go by. And when I am here I wonder how any +can be so foolish as to fret and fume in the restless world while he +might be sitting quietly at Farlingford." + +"Ah," murmured the rector, musingly, "you are for the world. You, with +your capacities, your quickness for learning, your--well, your lightness +of heart, my dear Loo. That goes far in the great world. To be light of +heart--to amuse. Yes, you are for the world. You might do something +there." + +"And nothing in Farlingford?" inquired Barebone, gaily; but he turned, as +he spoke, and glanced once more at Miriam Liston as if in some dim way +the question could not be answered by any other. She was absorbed in her +book again. The print must indeed have been large and clear, for the +twilight was fading fast. + +She looked up and met his glance with direct and steady eyes of a clear +grey. A severe critic of that which none can satisfactorily define--a +woman's beauty--would have objected that her face was too wide, and her +chin too square. Her hair, which was of a bright brown, grew with a +singular strength and crispness round a brow which was serene and square. +In her eyes there shone the light of tenacity, and a steady purpose. A +student of human nature must have regretted that the soul looking out of +such eyes should have been vouchsafed to a woman. For strength and +purpose in a man are usually exercised for the good of mankind, while in +a woman such qualities must, it would seem, benefit no more than one man +of her own generation, and a few who may follow her in the next. + +"There is nothing," she said, turning to her book again, "for a man to do +in Farlingford." + +"And for a woman--?" inquired Barebone, without looking at her. + +"There is always something--everywhere." + +And Septimus Marvin's reflective "Yes--yes," as he paused in his walk and +looked seaward, came in appropriately as a grave confirmation of Miriam's +jesting statement. + +"Yes--yes," he repeated, turning toward Barebone, who stood listening to +the boy's chatter. "You find us as you left us, Loo. Was it six months +ago? Ah! How time flies when one remains stationary. For you, I dare say, +it seems more." + +"For me--oh yes, it seems more," replied Barebone, with his gay laugh, +and a glance toward Miriam. + +"A little older," continued the rector. "The church a little mouldier. +Farlingford a little emptier. Old Godbold is gone--the last of the +Godbolds of Farlingford, which means another empty cottage in the +street." + +"I saw it as I came down," answered Barebone. "They look like last year's +nests--those empty cottages. But you have been all well, here at the +rectory, since we sailed? The cottages--well, they are only cottages +after all." + +Miriam's eyes were raised for a moment from her book. + +"Is it like that they talk in France?" she asked. "Are those the +sentiments of the great republic?" + +Barebone laughed aloud. + +"I thought I could make you look up from your book," he answered. +"One has merely to cast a slur upon the poor--your dear poor of +Farlingford--and you are up in arms in an instant. But I am not the +person to cast a slur, since I am one of the poor of Farlingford myself, +and owe it to charity--to the charity of the rectory--that I can read and +write." + +"But it came to you very naturally," observed Marvin, looking vaguely +across the marshes to the roofs of the village, "to suggest that those +who live in cottages are of a different race of beings--" + +He broke off, following his own thoughts in silence, as men soon learn to +do who have had no companion by them capable of following whithersoever +they may lead. + +"Did it?" asked Barebone, sharply. He turned to look at his old friend +and mentor with a sudden quick distress. "I hope not. I hope it did not +sound like that. For you have never taught me such thoughts, have you? +Quite the contrary. And I cannot have learned it from Clubbe." + +He broke off with a laugh of relief, for he had perceived that Septimus +Marvin's thoughts were already elsewhere. + +"Perhaps you are right," he added, turning to Miriam. "It may be that one +should go to a republic in order to learn--once for all--that all men are +not equal." + +"You say it with so much conviction," was the retort, "that you must have +known it before." + +"But I do not know it. I deny such knowledge. Where could I have learned +such a principle?" + +He spread out his arms in emphatic denial. For he was quick in all his +gestures--quick to laugh or be grave--quick, with the rapidity of a woman +to catch a thought held back by silence or concealed in speech. + +Marvin merely looked at him with a dreamy smile and lapsed again into +those speculations which filled his waking moments; for the business of +life never received his full attention. He contemplated the world from +afar off, and was like that blind man at Bethsaida who saw men as trees +walking, and rubbed his eyes and wondered. He turned at the sound of the +church clock and looked at his son, whose attitude towards Barebone was +that of an admiring younger brother. + +"Sep," he said, "your extra half-hour has passed. You will have time +tomorrow and for many days to come to exchange views with Loo." + +The boy was old before his time, as the children of elderly parents +always are. + +"Very well," he said, with a grave nod. "But you must not tell Loo where +those young herons are after I am gone to bed." + +He went slowly toward the house, looking back suspiciously from time to +time. + +"Herons? no. Why should I? Where are they?" muttered Mr. Marvin, vaguely, +and he absent-mindedly followed his son, leaving Miriam Liston sitting in +the turf shelter, built like an embrasure in the dyke, and Barebone +standing a little distance from her, looking at her. + +A silence fell upon them--the silence that follows the departure of a +third person when those who are left behind turn a new page. Miriam laid +her book upon her lap and looked across the river now slowly turning to +its ebb. She did not look at Barebone, but her eyes were conscious of his +proximity. Her attitude, like his, seemed to indicate the knowledge that +this moment had been inevitable from the first, and that there was no +desire on either part to avoid it or to hasten its advent. + +"I had a haunting fear as we came up the river," he said at length, +quietly and with an odd courtesy of manner, "that you might have gone +away. That is the calamity always hanging over this quiet house." + +He spoke with the ease of manner which always indicates a long +friendship, or a close _camaraderie_, resulting from common interests or +a common endeavour. + +"Why should I go away?" she asked. + +"On the other hand, why should you stay?" + +"Because I fancy I am wanted," she replied, in the lighter tone which he +had used. "It is gratifying to one's vanity, you know, whether it be true +or not." + +"Oh, it is true enough. One cannot imagine what they would do without +you." + +He was watching Septimus Marvin as he spoke. Sep had joined him and was +walking gravely by his side toward the house. They were ill-assorted. + +"But there is a limit even to self-sacrifice and--well, there is another +world open to you." + +She gave a curt laugh as if he had touched a topic upon which they would +disagree. + +"Oh--yes," he laughed. "I leave myself open to a _tu quoque_, I know. +There are other worlds open to me also, you would say." + +He looked at her with his gay and easy smile; but she made no answer, and +her resolute lips closed together sharply. The subject had been closed by +some past conversation or incident which had left a memory. + +"Who are those two men staying at 'The Black Sailor?'" she asked, +changing the subject, or only turning into a by-way, perhaps. "You saw +them." + +She seemed to take it for granted that he should have seen them, though +he had not appeared to look in their direction. + +"Oh--yes. I saw them, but I do not know who they are. I came straight +here as soon as I could." + +"One of them is a Frenchman," she said, taking no heed of the excuse +given for his ignorance of Farlingford news. + +"The old man--I thought so. I felt it when I looked at him. It was +perhaps a fellow feeling. I suppose I am a Frenchman after all. Clubbe +always says I am one when I am at the wheel and let the ship go off the +wind." + +Miriam was looking along the dyke, peering into the gathering darkness. + +"One of them is coming toward us now," she said, almost warningly. "Not +the Marquis de Gemosac, but the other--the Englishman." + +"Confound him," muttered Barebone. "What does he want?" + +And to judge from Mr. Dormer Colville's pace it would appear that he +chiefly desired to interrupt their _tête-à-tête_. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE STORY OF THE CASTAWAYS + + +When River Andrew stated that there were few at Farlingford who knew more +of Frenchman than himself, it is to be presumed that he spoke by the +letter, and under the reserve that Captain Clubbe was not at the moment +on shore. + +For Captain Clubbe had known Frenchman since boyhood. + +"I understand," said Dormer Colville to him two or three days after the +arrival of "The Last Hope," "that the Marquis de Gemosac cannot do better +than apply to you for some information he desires to possess. In fact, it +is on that account that we are here." + +The introduction had been a matter requiring patience. For Captain Clubbe +had not laid aside in his travels a certain East Anglian distrust of the +unknown. He had, of course, noted the presence of the strangers when he +landed at Farlingford quay, but his large, immobile face had betrayed no +peculiar interest. There had been plenty to tell him all that was known +of Monsieur de Gemosac and Dormer Colville, and a good deal that was only +surmised. But the imagination of even the darksome River Andrew failed to +soar successfully under the measuring blue eye, and the total lack of +comment of Captain Clubbe. + +There was, indeed, little to tell, although the strangers had been seen +to go to the rectory in quite a friendly way, and had taken a glass of +sherry in the rector's study. Mrs. Clacy was responsible for this piece +of news, and her profession giving her the _entrée_ to almost every back +door in Farlingford enabled her to gather news at the fountain-head. For +Mrs. Clacy went out to oblige. She obliged the rectory on Mondays, and +Mrs. Clubbe, with what was technically described as the heavy wash, on +Tuesdays. Whatever Mrs. Clacy was asked to do she could perform with a +rough efficiency. But she always undertook it with reluctance. It was +not, she took care to mention, what she was accustomed to, but she would +do it to oblige. Her charge was eighteen-pence a day with her dinner, and +(she made the addition with a raised eyebrow, and the resigned sigh of +one who takes her meals as a duty toward those dependent on her) a bit of +tea at the end of the day. + +It was on a Wednesday that Dormer Colville met Captain Clubbe face +to face in the street, and was forced to curb his friendly smile and +half-formed nod of salutation. For Captain Clubbe went past him with a +rigid face and steadily averted eyes, like a walking monument. For there +was something in the captain's deportment dimly suggestive of stone, and +the dignity of stillness. His face meant security, his large limbs a +slow, sure action. + +Colville and Monsieur de Gemosac were on the quay in the afternoon at +high tide when "The Last Hope" was warped on to the slip-way. All +Farlingford was there too, and Captain Clubbe carried out the difficult +task with hardly any words at all from a corner of the jetty, with Loo +Barebone on board as second in command. + +Captain Clubbe could not fail to perceive the strangers, for they stood a +few yards from him, Monsieur de Gemosac peering with his yellow eyes +toward the deck of "The Last Hope," where Barebone stood on the +forecastle giving the orders transmitted to him by a sign from his +taciturn captain. Colville seemed to take a greater interest in the +proceedings, and noted the skill and precision of the crew with the air +of a seaman. + +Presently, Septimus Marvin wandered down the dyke and stood irresolutely +at the far corner of the jetty. He always approached his flock with +diffidence, although they treated him kindly enough, much as they treated +such of their own children as were handicapped in the race of life by +some malformation or mental incapacity. + +Colville approached him and they stood side by side until "The Last Hope" +was safely moored and chocked. Then it was that the rector introduced the +two strangers to Captain Clubbe. It being a Wednesday, Clubbe must have +known all that there was to know, and more, of Monsieur de Gemosac and +Dormer Colville; for Mrs. Clacy, it will be remembered, obliged Mrs. +Clubbe on Tuesdays. Nothing, however, in the mask-like face, large and +square, of the ship-captain indicated that he knew aught of his new +acquaintances, or desired to know more. And when Colville frankly +explained their presence in Farlingford, Captain Clubbe nodded gravely +and that was all. + +"We can wait, however, until a more suitable opportunity presents +itself," Colville hastened to add. "You are busy, as even a landsman can +perceive, and cannot be expected to think of anything but your vessel +until the tide leaves her high and dry." + +He turned and explained the situation to the Marquis, who shrugged his +shoulders impatiently as if at the delay. For he was a southerner, and +was, perhaps, ignorant of the fact that in dealing with any born on the +shores of the German Ocean nothing is gained and, more often than not, +all is lost by haste. + +"You hear," Colville added, turning to the Captain, and speaking in a +curter manner; for so strongly was he moved by that human kindness which +is vaguely called sympathy that his speech varied according to his +listener. "You hear the Marquis only speaks French. It is about a +fellow-countryman of his buried here. Drop in and have a glass of wine +with us some evening; to-night, if you are at liberty." + +"What I can tell you won't take long," said Clubbe, over his shoulder; +for the tide was turning, and in a few minutes would be ebbing fast. + +"Dare say not. But we have a good bin of claret at 'The Black Sailor,' +and shall be glad of your opinion on it." + +Clubbe nodded, with a curt laugh, which might have been intended to +deprecate the possession of any opinion on a vintage, or to express his +disbelief that Dormer Colville desired to have it. + +Nevertheless, his large person loomed in the dusk of the trees soon after +sunset, in the narrow road leading from his house to the church and the +green. + +Monsieur de Gemosac and his companion were sitting on the bench outside +the inn, leaning against the sill of their own parlour-window, which +stood open. The Captain had changed his clothes, and now wore those in +which he went to church and to the custom-house when in London or other +large cities. + +"There walks a just man," commented Dormer Colville, lightly, and no +longer word could have described Captain Clubbe more aptly. He would +rather have stayed in his own garden this evening to smoke his pipe in +contemplative silence. But he had always foreseen that the day might come +when it would be his duty to do his best by Loo Barebone. He had not +sought this opportunity, because, being a wise as well as a just man, he +was not quite sure that he knew what the best would be. + +He shook hands gravely with the strangers, and by his manner seemed to +indicate his comprehension of Monsieur de Gemosac's well-turned phrases +of welcome. Dormer Colville appeared to be in a silent humour, unless +perchance he happened to be one of those rare beings who can either talk +or hold their tongues as occasion may demand. + +"You won't want me to put my oar in, I see," observed he, tentatively, as +he drew forward a small table whereon were set three glasses and a bottle +of the celebrated claret. + +"I can understand French, but I don't talk it," replied the Captain, +stolidly. + +"And if I interpret as we go along, we shall sit here all night, and get +very little said." + +Colville explained the difficulty to the Marquis de Gemosac, and agreed +with him that much time would be saved if Captain Clubbe would be kind +enough to tell in English all that he knew of the nameless Frenchman +buried in Farlingford churchyard, to be translated by Colville to +Monsieur de Gemosac at another time. As Clubbe understood this, and +nodded in acquiescence, there only remained to them to draw the cork and +light their cigars. + +"Not much to tell," said Clubbe, guardedly. "But what there is, is no +secret, so far as I know. It has not been told because it was known long +ago, and has been forgotten since. The man's dead and buried, and there's +an end of him." + +"Of him, yes, but not of his race," answered Colville. + +"You mean the lad?" inquired the Captain, turning his calm and steady +gaze to Colville's face. The whole man seemed to turn, ponderously and +steadily, like a siege-gun. + +"That is what I meant," answered Colville. "You understand," he went on +to explain, as if urged thereto by the fixed glance of the clear blue +eye--"you understand, it is none of my business. I am only here as the +Marquis de Gemosac's friend. Know him in his own country, where I live +most of the time." + +Clubbe nodded. + +"Frenchman was picked up at sea fifty-five years ago this July," he +narrated, bluntly, "by the 'Martha and Mary' brig of this port. I was +apprentice at the time. Frenchman was a boy with fair hair and a womanish +face. Bit of a cry-baby I used to think him, but being a boy myself I was +perhaps hard on him. He was with his--well, his mother." + +Captain Clubbe paused. He took the cigar from his lips and carefully +replaced the outer leaf, which had wrinkled. Perhaps he waited to be +asked a question. Colville glanced at him sideways and did not ask it. + +"Dark night," the Captain continued, after a short silence, "and a heavy +sea, about mid-channel off Dieppe. We sighted a French fishing-boat +yawing about abandoned. Something queer about her, the skipper thought. +Those were queer times in France. We hailed her, and getting no answer +put out a boat and boarded her. There was nobody on board but a woman and +a child. Woman was half mad with fear. I have seen many afraid, but never +one like that. I was only a boy myself, but I remember thinking it wasn't +the sea and drowning she was afraid of. We couldn't find out the smack's +name. It had been painted out with a tar-brush, and she was half full +of water. The skipper took the woman and child off, and left the +fishing-smack as we found her yawing about--all sail set. They reckoned +she would founder in a few minutes. But there was one old man on board, +the boatswain, who had seen many years at sea, who said that she wasn't +making any water at all, because he had been told to look for the leak +and couldn't find it. He said that the water had been pumped into her so +as to waterlog her; and it was his belief that she had not been abandoned +many minutes, that the crew were hanging about somewhere near in a boat +waiting to see if we sighted her and put men on board." + +Mr. Dormer Colville was attending to the claret, and pressed Captain +Clubbe by a gesture of the hand to empty his glass. + +"Something wrong somewhere?" he suggested, in a conversational way. + +"By daylight we were ramping up channel with three French men-of-war +after us," was Captain Clubbe's comprehensive reply. "As chance had it, +the channel squadron hove in sight round the Foreland, and the Frenchmen +turned and left us." + +Clubbe marked a pause in his narrative by a glass of claret, taken at one +draught like beer. + +"Skipper was a Farlingford man, name of Doy," he continued. "Long as he +lived he was pestered by inquiries from the French government respecting +a Dieppe fishing-smack supposed to have been picked up abandoned at sea. +He had picked up no fishing-smack, and he answered no letters about it. +He was an old man when it happened, and he died at sea soon after my +indentures expired. The woman and child were brought here, where +nobody could speak French, and, of course, neither of them could speak +any English. The boy was white-faced and frightened at first, but he +soon picked up spirit. They were taken in and cared for by one and +another--any who could afford it. For Farlingford has always bred +seafaring men ready to give and take." + +"So we were told yesterday by the rector. We had a long talk with him in +the morning. A clever man, if--" + +Dormer Colville did not complete the remark, but broke off with a sigh. +He had no doubt seen trouble himself. For it is not always the ragged and +unkempt who have been sore buffeted by the world, but also such as have a +clean-washed look almost touching sleekness. + +"Yes," said Clubbe, slowly and conclusively. "So you have seen the +parson." + +"Of course," Colville remarked, cheerfully, after a pause; for we cannot +always be commiserating the unfortunate. "Of course, all this happened +before his time, and Monsieur de Gemosac does not want to learn from +hearsay, you understand, but at first hand. I fancy he would, for +instance, like to know when the woman, the--mother died." + +Clubbe was looking straight in front of him. He turned in his +disconcerting, monumental way and looked at his questioner, who had +imitated with a perfect ingenuousness his own brief pause before the word +mother. Colville smiled pleasantly at him. + +"I tell you frankly, Captain," he said, "it would suit me better if she +wasn't the mother." + +"I am not here to suit you," murmured Captain Clubbe, without haste or +hesitation. + +"No. Well, let us say for the present that she was the mother. We can +discuss that another time. When did she die?" + +"Seven years after landing here." + +Colville made a mental calculation and nodded his head with satisfaction +at the end of it. He lighted another cigarette. + +"I am a business man, Captain," he said at length. "Fair dealing and a +clean bond. That is what I have been brought up to. Confidence for +confidence. Before we go any further--" He paused and seemed to think +before committing himself. Perhaps he saw that Captain Clubbe did not +intend to go much further without some _quid pro quo_. "Before we go any +further, I think I may take it upon myself to let you into the Marquis's +confidence. It is about an inheritance, Captain. A great inheritance +and--well, that young fellow may well be the man. He may be born to +greater things than a seafaring life, Captain." + +"I don't want any marquis to tell me that," answered Clubbe, with his +slow judicial smile. "For I've brought him up since the cradle. He's been +at sea with me in fair weather and foul--and he is not the same as us." + + + + +Chapter VII + + +ON THE SCENT + +Dormer Colville attached so much importance to the Captain's grave jest +that he interpreted it at once to Monsieur de Gemosac. + +"Captain Clubbe," he said, "tells us that he does not need to be informed +that this Loo Barebone is the man we seek. He has long known it." + +Which was a near enough rendering, perhaps, to pass muster in the hearing +of two persons imperfectly acquainted with the languages so translated. +Then, turning again to the sailor, he continued: + +"Monsieur de Gemosac would naturally wish to know whether there were +papers or any other means of identification found on the woman or the +child?" + +"There were a few papers. The woman had a Roman Catholic Missal in her +pocket, and the child a small locket with a miniature portrait in it." + +"Of the Queen Marie Antoinette?" suggested Colville, quickly. + +"It may well have been. It is many years since I saw it. It was faded +enough. I remember that it had a fall, and would not open afterward. No +one has seen it for twenty-five years or so." + +"The locket or the portrait?" inquired Colville, with a light laugh, with +which to disclaim any suggestion of a cross-examination. + +"The portrait." + +"And the locket?" + +"My wife has it somewhere, I believe." + +Colville gave an impatient laugh. For the peaceful air of Farlingford had +failed to temper that spirit of energy and enterprise which he had +acquired in cities--in Paris, most likely. He had no tolerance for quiet +ways and a slow, sure progress, such as countrymen seek, who are so +leisurely that the years slide past and death surprises them before they +have done anything in the world but attend to its daily demand for a +passing effort. + +"Ah!" he cried, "but all that must be looked into if we are to do +anything for this young fellow. You will find the Marquis anxious to be +up and doing at once. You go so slowly in Farlingford, Captain. The world +is hurrying on and this chance will be gone past before we are ready. Let +us get these small proofs of identity collected together as soon as +possible. Let us find that locket. But do not force it open. Give it to +me as it is. Let us find the papers." + +"There are no papers," interrupted Captain Clubbe, with a calm +deliberation quite untouched by his companion's hurry. + +"No papers?" + +"No; for Frenchman burnt them before my eyes." + +Dormer Colville meditated for a moment in silence. Although his manner +was quick, he was perhaps as deliberate in his choice of a question as +was Captain Clubbe in answering it. + +"Why did he do that? Did he know who he was? Did he ever say anything to +you about his former life--his childhood--his recollections of France?" + +"He was not a man to say much," answered Clubbe, himself no man to repeat +much. + +Colville had been trying for some time to study the sailor's face, +quietly through his cigar smoke. + +"Look here, Captain," he said, after a pause. "Let us understand each +other. There is a chance, just a chance, that we can prove this Loo +Barebone to be the man we think him, but we must all stand together. We +must be of one mind and one purpose. We four, Monsieur de Gemosac, you, +Barebone, and my humble self. I fancy--well, I fancy it may prove to be +worth our while." + +"I am willing to do the best I can for Loo," was the reply. + +"And I am willing to do the best I can for Monsieur de Gemosac, whose +heart is set on this affair. And," Colville added, with his frank laugh, +"let us hope that we may have our reward; for I am a poor man myself, and +do not like the prospect of a careful old age. I suppose, Captain, that +if a man were overburdened with wealth he would scarcely follow a +seafaring life, eh?" + +"Then there is money in it?" inquired Clubbe, guardedly. + +"Money," laughed the other. "Yes--there is money for all concerned, and +to spare." + +Captain Clubbe had been born and bred among a people possessing little +wealth and leading a hard life, only to come to want in old age. It was +natural that this consideration should carry weight. He was anxious to do +his best for the boy who had been brought up as his own son. He could +think of nothing better than to secure him from want for the rest of his +days. There were many qualities in Loo Barebone which he did not +understand, for they were quite foreign to the qualities held to be +virtues in Farlingford; such as perseverance and method, a careful +economy, and a rigid common sense. Frenchman had brought these strange +ways into Farlingford when he was himself only a boy of ten, and they had +survived his own bringing up in some of the austerest houses in the town, +so vitally as to enable him to bequeath them almost unchastened to his +son. + +As has been noted, Loo had easily lived down the prejudices of his own +generation against an un-English gaiety, and inconsequence almost +amounting to emotion. And nothing is, or was in the solid days before +these trumpet-blowing times, so unwelcome in British circles as emotion. + +Frenchman had no doubt prepared the way for his son; but the +peculiarities of thought and manner which might be allowed to pass in a +foreigner would be less easily forgiven in Loo, who had Farlingford blood +in his veins. For his mother had been a Clubbe, own cousin, and, as +gossips whispered, once the sweetheart of Captain Clubbe himself and +daughter of Seth Clubbe of Maiden's Grave, one of the largest farmers on +the Marsh. + +"It cannot be for no particular purpose that the boy has been created so +different from any about him," Captain Clubbe muttered, reflectively, as +he thought of Dormer Colville's words. For he had that simple faith in an +Almighty Purpose, without which no wise man will be found to do business +on blue water. + +"It is strange how a man may be allowed to inherit from a grandfather he +has never seen a trick of manner, or a face which are not the manner or +face of his father," observed Colville, adapting himself, as was his +habit, to the humour of his companion. "There must, as you suggest, be +some purpose in it. God writes straight on crooked lines, Captain." + +Thus Dormer Colville found two points of sympathy with this skipper of a +slow coaster, who had never made a mistake at sea nor done an injustice +to any one serving under him; a simple faith in the Almighty Purpose and +a very honest respect for money. This was the beginning of a sort of +alliance between four persons of very different character which was to +influence the whole lives of many. + +They sat on the tarred seat set against the weather-beaten wall of "The +Black Sailor" until darkness came stealing in from the sea with the quiet +that broods over flat lands, and an unpeopled shore. Colville had many +questions to ask and many more which he withheld till a fitter occasion. +But he learnt that Frenchman had himself stated his name to be Barebone +when he landed, a forlorn and frightened little boy, on this barren +shore, and had never departed from that asseveration when he came to +learn the English language and marry an English wife. Captain Clubbe told +also how Frenchman, for so he continued to be called long after his real +name had been written twice in the parish register, had soon after his +marriage destroyed the papers carefully preserved by the woman whom he +never called mother, though she herself claimed that title. + +She had supported herself, it appeared, by her needle, and never seemed +to want money, which led the villagers to conclude that she had some +secret store upon which to draw when in need. She had received letters +from France, which were carefully treasured by her until her death, and +for long afterward by Frenchman, who finally burnt all at his marriage, +saying that he was now an Englishman and wanted to retain no ties with +France. At this time, Clubbe remembered, Louis XVIII was firmly +established on the throne of France, the Restoration--known as the +Second--having been brought about by the Allied Powers with a high hand +after the Hundred Days and the final downfall of Napoleon. + +Frenchman may well have known that it might be worth his while to return +to France and seek fortune there; but he never spoke of this knowledge +nor made reference to the recollections of his childhood, which cast a +cold reserve over his soul and steeped it with such a deadly hatred of +France and all things French, that he desired to sever all memories that +might link him with his native country or awake in the hearts of any +children he should beget the desire to return thither. + +A year after his marriage his wife died, and thus her son, left to the +care of a lonely and misanthropic father, was brought up a Frenchman +after all, and lisped his first words in that tongue. + +"He lived long enough to teach him to speak French and think like a +Frenchman, and then he died," said Captain Clubbe--"a young man reckoning +by years, but in mind he was an older man than I am today." + +"And his secret died with him?" suggested Dormer Colville, looking at the +end of his cigar with a queer smile. But Captain Clubbe made no answer. + +"One may suppose that he wanted it to die with him, at all events," added +Colville, tentatively. + +"You are right," was the reply, a local colloquialism in common use, as a +clincher to a closed argument or an unwelcome truth. Captain Clubbe rose +as he spoke and intimated his intention of departing, by jerking his head +sideways at Monsieur de Gemosac, who, however, held out his hand with a +Frenchman's conscientious desire to follow the English custom. + +"I'll be getting home," said Clubbe, simply. As he spoke he peered across +the marsh toward the river, and Colville, following the direction of his +gaze, saw the black silhouette of a large lug-sail against the eastern +sky, which was softly grey with the foreglow of the rising moon. + +"What is that?" asked Colville. + +"That's Loo Barebone going up with the sea-breeze. He has been down to +the rectory. He mostly goes there in the evening. There is a creek, you +know, runs down from Maiden's Grave to the river." + +"Ah!" answered Colville, thoughtfully, almost as if the creek and the +large lug-sail against the sky explained something which he had not +hitherto understood. + +"I thought he might have come with you this evening," he added, after a +pause. "For I suppose everybody in Farlingford knows why we are here. He +does not seem very anxious to seek his fortune in France." + +"No," answered Clubbe, lifting his stony face to the sky and studying the +little clouds that hovered overhead awaiting the moon. "No--you are +right." + +Then he turned with a jerk of the head and left them. The Marquis de +Gemosac watched him depart, and made a gesture toward the darkness of the +night, into which he had vanished, indicative of a great despair. + +"But," he exclaimed, "they are of a placidity--these English. There is +nothing to be done with them, my friend, nothing to be done with such men +as that. Now I understand how it is that they form a great nation. It is +merely because they stand and let you thump them until you are tired, and +then they proceed to do what they intended to do from the first." + +"That is because we know that he who jumps about most actively will be +the first to feel fatigue, Marquis," laughed Colville, pleasantly. "But +you must not judge all England from these eastern people. It is here that +you will find the concentrated essence of British tenacity and +stolidity--the leaven that leavens the whole." + +"Then it is our misfortune to have to deal with these concentrated +English--that is all." + +The Marquis shrugged his shoulders with that light despair which is +incomprehensible to any but men of Latin race. + +"No, Marquis! there you are wrong," corrected Dormer Colville, with a +sudden gravity, "for we have in Captain Clubbe the very man we want--one +of the hardest to find in this chattering world--a man who will not say +too much. If we can only make him say what we want him to say he will not +ruin all by saying more. It is so much easier to say a word too much than +a word too little. And remember he speaks French as well as English, +though, being British, he pretends that he cannot." + +Monsieur de Gemosac turned to peer at his companion in the darkness. + +"You speak hopefully, my friend," he said. "There is something in your +voice--" + +"Is there?" laughed Colville, who seemed elated. "There may well be. For +that man has been saying things in that placid monotone which would have +taken your breath away had you been able to understand them. A hundred +times I rejoiced that you understood no English, for your impatience, +Marquis, might have silenced him as some rare-voiced bird is silenced by +a sudden movement. Yes, Marquis, there is a locket containing a portrait +of Marie Antoinette. There are other things also. But there is one +draw-back. The man himself is not anxious to come forward. There are +reasons, it appears, here in Farlingford, why he should not seek his +fortune elsewhere. To-morrow morning--" + +Dormer Colville rose and yawned audibly. It almost appeared that he +regretted having permitted himself a moment's enthusiasm on a subject +which scarcely affected his interests. + +"To-morrow morning I will see to it." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE LITTLE BOY WHO WAS A KING + + +The Reverend Septimus Marvin had lost his wife five years earlier. It was +commonly said that he had never been the same man since. Which was +untrue. Much that is commonly said will, on investigation, be found to be +far from the truth. Septimus Marvin had, so to speak, been the same man +since infancy. He had always looked vaguely at the world through +spectacles; had always been at a loss among his contemporaries--a +generation already tainted by that shallow spirit of haste which is known +to-day as modernity--at a loss for a word; at a loss for a companion +soul. + +He was a scholar and a learned historian. His companions were books, and +he communed in spirit with writers who were dead and gone. + +Had he ever been a different man his circumstances would assuredly have +been other. His wife, for instance, would in all human probability have +been alive. His avocation might have been more suited to his +capabilities. He was not intended for a country parish, and that +practical, human comprehension of the ultimate value of little daily +details, without which a pastor never yet understood his flock, was not +vouchsafed to him. + +"Passen takes no account o' churchyard," River Andrew had said, and +neither he nor any other in Farlingford could account for the special +neglect to which was abandoned that particular corner of the burial +ground where the late Mrs. Marvin reposed beneath an early Victorian +headstone of singular hideousness. + +Mr. Marvin always went round the other way. + +"Seems as he has forgotten her wonderful quick," commented the women of +Farlingford. But perhaps they were wrong. If he had forgotten, he might +be expected to go round by the south side of the church by accident +occasionally, especially as it was the shorter way from the rectory to +the porch. He was an absent-minded man, but he always remembered, as +River Andrew himself admitted, to go north about. And his wife's grave +was overgrown by salted grass as were the rest. + +Farlingford had accepted him, when his College, having no use for such a +dreamer elsewhere, gave him the living, not only with resignation, but +with equanimity. This remote parish, cut off from the busier mainland by +wide heaths and marshes, sparsely provided with ill-kept roads, had never +looked for a bustling activity in its rectors. Their forefathers had been +content with a gentleman, given to sport and the pursuits of a country +squire, marked on the seventh day by a hearty and robust godliness. They +would have preferred Parson Marvin to have handled a boat and carried a +gun. But he had his good qualities. He left them alone. And they are the +most independent people in the world. + +When his wife died, his sister, the widow of an Indian officer, bustled +eastward, from a fashionable Welsh watering-place, just to satisfy +herself, as she explained to her West-country friends, that he would not +marry his cook before six months elapsed. After that period she proposed +to wash her hands of him. She was accompanied by her only child, Miriam, +who had just left school. + +Six months later Septimus Marvin was called upon to give away his sister +to a youthful brother officer of her late husband, which ceremony he +performed with a sigh of relief audible in the farthest recess of the +organ loft. While the wedding-bells were still ringing, the bride, who +was not dreamy or vague like her brother, gave Septimus to understand +that he had promised to provide Miriam with a home--that he really needed +a woman to keep things going at the rectory and to watch over the tender +years of little Sep--and that Miriam's boxes were packed. + +Septimus had no recollection of the promise. And his sister was quite +hurt that he should say such a thing as that on her wedding day and spoil +everything. He had no business to make the suggestion if he had not +intended to carry it out. So the bride and bridegroom went away in a +shower of good wishes and rice to the life of organized idleness, for +which the gentleman's education and talents eminently befitted him, and +Miriam returned to Farlingford with Septimus. + +In those days the railway passed no nearer to Farlingford than Ipswich, +and before the arrival of their train at that station Miriam had +thoroughly elucidated the situation. She had discovered that she was not +expected at the rectory, and that Septimus had never offered of his own +free will the home which he now kindly pressed upon her--two truths which +the learned historian fondly imagined to be for ever locked up in his own +heart, which was a kind one and the heart of a gentleman. + +Miriam also learned that Septimus was very poor. She did not need to be +informed that he was helpless. Her instinct had told her that long ago. +She was only nineteen, but she looked at men and women with those +discerning grey eyes, in which there seemed to lurk a quiet light +like the light of stars, and saw right through them. She was woman +enough--despite the apparent inconsequence of the schoolroom, which still +lent a vagueness to her thoughts and movements--to fall an easy victim to +the appeal of helplessness. Years, it would appear, are of no account in +certain feminine instincts. Miriam had probably been woman enough at ten +years of age to fly to the rescue of the helpless. + +She did not live permanently at the rectory, but visited her mother from +time to time, either in England, or at one of the foreign resorts of idle +people. But the visits, as years went by, became shorter and rarer. At +twenty-one Miriam came into a small fortune of her own, left by her +father in the hands of executors, one of whom was that John Turner, the +Paris banker, who had given Dormer Colville a letter of introduction to +Septimus Marvin. The money was sorely needed at the rectory, and Miriam +drew freely enough on John Turner. + +"You are an extravagant girl," said that astute financier to her, when +they met at the house of Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, at Royan, in France. +"I wonder what you spend it on! But I don't trouble my head about it. You +need not explain, you understand. But you can come to me when you want +advice or help. You will find me--in the background. I am a fat old man, +in the background. Useful enough in my way, perhaps, even to a pretty +girl with a sound judgment." + +There were many, who, like Loo Barebone, reflected that there were other +worlds open to Miriam Liston. At first she went into those other worlds, +under the flighty wing of her mother, and looked about her there. Captain +and Mrs. Duncan belonged to the Anglo-French society, which had sprung +into existence since the downfall of Napoleon I, and was in some degree +the outcome of the part played by Great Britain in the comedy of the +Bourbon and Orleanist collapse. Captain Duncan had retired from the army, +changing his career from one of a chartered to an unchartered +uselessness, and he herded with tarnished aristocracy and half-pay +failures in the smoking-rooms of Continental clubs. + +Miriam returned, after a short experience of this world, to Farlingford, +as to the better part. At first she accepted invitations to some of the +country houses open to her by her connection with certain great families. +But after a time she seemed to fall under the spell of that quiet life +which is still understood and lived in a few remote places. + +"What can you find to do all day and to think about all night at that +bleak corner of England?" inquired her friends, themselves restless by +day and sleepless by night by reason of the heat of their pursuit of that +which is called pleasure. + +"If he wants to marry his cook let him do it and be done with us," wrote +her mother from the south of France. "Come and join us at Biarritz. The +Prince President will be here this winter. We shall be very gay.... P.S. +We shall not ask you to stay with us as we are hard up this quarter; but +to share expenses. Mind come." + +But Miriam remained at Farlingford, and there is nothing to be gained by +seeking to define her motive. There are two arguments against seeking a +woman's motive. Firstly, she probably has none. Secondly, should she have +one she will certainly have a counterfeit, which she will dangle before +your eyes, and you will seize it. + +Dormer Colville might almost be considered to belong to the world of +which Captain and Mrs. Duncan were such brilliant ornaments. But he did +not so consider himself. For their world was essentially British, +savoured here and there by a French count or so, at whose person and +title the French aristocracy of undoubted genuineness looked askance. +Dormer Colville counted his friends among these latter. In fact, he moved +in those royalist circles who thought that there was little to choose +between the Napoleonic and the Orleanist _régime_. He carefully avoided +intimacy with Englishmen whose residence in foreign parts was continuous +and in constant need of explanation. Indeed, if a man's life needs +explanation, he must sooner or later find himself face to face with some +one who will not listen to him. + +Colville, however, knew all about Captain Duncan, and knew what was +ignored by many, namely, that he was nothing worse than foolish. He knew +all about Miriam, for he was in the confidence of Mrs. St. Pierre +Lawrence. He knew that that lady wondered why Miriam preferred +Farlingford to the high-bred society of her own circle at Royan +and in Paris. + +He thought he knew why Loo Barebone showed so little enterprise. And he +was, as Madame de Chantonnay had frequently told him, more than half a +Frenchman in the quickness of his intuitions. He picked a flower for his +buttonhole from the garden of the "Black Sailor," and set forth the +morning after his interview with Captain Clubbe toward the rectory. It +was a cool July morning, with the sun half obscured by a fog-bank driven +in from the sea. Through the dazzling white of that which is known on +these coasts as the water-smoke the sky shone a cloudless blue. The air +was light and thin. It is the lightest and thinnest air in England. +Dormer Colville hummed a song under his breath as he walked on the top of +the dyke. He was a light-hearted man, full of hope and optimism. + +"Am I disturbing your studies?" he asked, with his easy laugh, as he came +rather suddenly on Miriam and little Sep in the turf-shelter at the +corner of the rectory garden. "You must say so if I am." + +They had, indeed, their books, and the boy's face wore that abstracted +look which comes from a very earnest desire not to see the many +interesting things on earth and sea, which always force themselves upon +the attention of the young at the wrong time. Colville had already +secured Sep's friendship by the display of a frank ignorance of natural +history only equalled by his desire to be taught. + +"We're doing history," replied Sep, frankly, jumping up and shaking +hands. + +"Ah, yes. William the Conqueror, ten hundred and sixty-six, and all the +rest of it. I know. At least I knew once, but I have forgotten." + +"No. We're doing French history. Miriam likes that best, but I hate it." + +"French history," said Colville, thoughtfully. "Yes. That is interesting. +Miss Liston likes that best, does she? Or, perhaps, she thinks that it is +best for you to know it. Do you know all about Louis XVI and Marie +Antoinette?" + +"Pretty well," admitted Sep, doubtfully. + +"When I was a little chap like you, I knew many people who had seen Louis +XVI and Marie Antoinette. That was long, long ago," he added, turning to +Miriam to make the admission. "But those are not the things that one +forgets, are they, Miss Liston?" + +"Then I wish Sep could know somebody who would make him remember," +answered Miriam, half closing the book in her hand; for she was very +quick and had seen Colville's affable glance take it in in passing, as it +took in everything within sight. + +"A King, for instance," he said, slowly. "A King of France. +Others--prophets and righteous men--have desired to see that, Miss +Liston." + +It seemed, however, that he had seen enough to know the period which they +were studying. + +"I suppose," he said, after a pause, "that in this studious house you +talk and think history, and more especially French history. It must be +very quiet and peaceful. Much more restful than acting in it as my friend +de Gemosac has done all his life, as I myself have done in a small way. +For France takes her history so much more violently than you do in +England. France is tossed about by it, while England stands and is +hammered on the anvil of Time, as it were, and remains just the same +shape as before." + +He broke off and turned to Sep. + +"Do you know the story of the little boy who was a King?" he asked, +abruptly. "They put him in prison and he escaped. He was carried out in a +clothes-basket. Funny, is it not? And he escaped from his enemies and +reached another country, where he became a sailor. He grew to be a man +and he married a woman of that country, and she died, leaving him with a +little boy. And then he died himself and left the little boy, who was +taken care of by his English relations, who never knew that he was a +King. But he was; for his father was a King before him, and his +grandfathers--far, far back. Back to the beginning of the book that Miss +Liston holds in her hand. The little boy--he was an orphan, you +see--became a sailor. He never knew that he was a King--the Hope of his +country, of all the old men and the wise men in it--the holder of the +fate of nations. Think of that." + +The story pleased Sep, who sat with open lips and eager eyes, listening +to it. + +"Do you think it is an interesting story? What do you think is the end of +it?" + +"I don't know," answered Sep, gravely. + +"Neither do I. No one knows the end of that story--yet. But if you were a +King--if you were that boy--what would you do? Would you go and be a +King, or would you be afraid?" + +"No. I should go and be a King. And fight battles." + +"But you would have to leave everybody. You would have to leave your +father." + +"I should not mind that," answered Sep, brutally. + +"You would leave Miss Liston?" + +"I should have to," was the reply, with conviction. + +"Ah, yes," said Colville, with a grave nod of the head. "Yes. I suppose +you would have to if you were anything of a man at all. There would be no +alternative--for a real man." + +"Besides," put in Sep, jumping from side to side on his seat with +eagerness, "she would make me--wouldn't you, Miriam?" + +Colville had turned away and was looking northward toward the creek, +known as Maiden's Grave, running through the marshes to the river. A +large lug-sail broke the flat line of the horizon, though the boat to +which it belonged was hidden by the raised dyke. + +"Would she?" inquired Colville, absent-mindedly, without taking his eyes +from the sail which was creeping slowly toward them. "Well--you know Miss +Liston's character better than I do, Sep. And no doubt you are right. And +you are not that little boy, so it doesn't matter; does it?" + +After a pause he turned and glanced sideways at Miriam, who was looking +straight in front of her with steady eyes and white cheeks. + +They could hear Loo Barebone singing gaily in the boat, which was hidden +below the level of the dyke. And they watched, in a sudden silence, the +sail pass down the river toward the quay. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A MISTAKE + + +The tide was ebbing still when Barebone loosed his boat, one night, from +the grimy steps leading from the garden of Maiden's Grave farm down to +the creek. It was at the farm-house that Captain Clubbe now lived when on +shore. He had lived there since the death of his brother, two years +earlier--that grim Clubbe of Maiden's Grave, whose methods of life and +agriculture are still quoted on market days from Colchester to Beccles. + +The evenings were shorter now, for July was drawing to a close, and the +summer is brief on these coasts. The moon was not up yet, but would soon +rise. Barebone hoisted the great lug-sail, that smelt of seaweed and +tannin. There was a sleepy breeze blowing in from the cooler sea, to take +the place of that hot and shimmering air which had been rising all day +from the corn-fields. He was quicker in his movements than those who +usually handled these stiff ropes and held the clumsy tiller. Quick--and +quiet for once. He had been three nights to the rectory, only to find the +rector there, vaguely kind, looking at him with a watery eye, through the +spectacles which were rarely straight upon his nose, with an unasked +question on his hesitating lips. + +For Septimus Marvin knew that Colville, in the name of the Marquis de +Gemosac, had asked Loo Barebone to go to France and institute proceedings +there to recover a great heritage, which it seemed must be his. And +Barebone had laughed and put off his reply from day to day for three +days. + +Few knew of it in Farlingford, though many must have suspected the true +explanation of the prolonged stay of the two strangers at the "Black +Sailor." Captain Clubbe and Septimus Marvin, Dormer Colville and Monsieur +de Gemosac shared this knowledge, and awaited, impatiently enough, an +answer which could assuredly be only in the affirmative. Clubbe was busy +enough throughout the day at the old slip-way, where "The Last Hope" was +under repair--the last ship, it appeared likely, that the rotten timbers +could support or the old, old shipwrights mend. + +Loo Barebone was no less regular in his attendance at the river-side, and +worked all day, on deck or in the rigging, at leisurely sail-making or +neat seizing of a worn rope. He was gay, and therefore incomprehensible +to a slow-thinking, grave-faced race. + +"What do I want with a heritage?" he asked, carelessly. "I am mate of +'The Last Hope'--and that is all. Give me time. I have not made up my +mind yet, but I think it will be No." + +And oddly enough, it was Colville who preached patience to his companions +in suspense. + +"Give him time," he said. "There can only be one answer to such a +proposal. But he is young. It is not when we are young that we see the +world as it really is, but live in a land of dreams. Give him time." + +The Marquis de Gemosac was impatient, however, and was for telling +Barebone more than had been disclosed to him. + +"There is no knowing," he cried, "what that _canaille_ is doing in +France." + +"There is no knowing," admitted Colville, with his air of suppressing a +half-developed yawn, "but I think we know, all the same--you and I, +Marquis. And there is no hurry." + +After three days Loo Barebone had still given no answer. As he hoisted +the sail and felt for the tiller in the dark, he was, perhaps, meditating +on this momentous reply, or perhaps he had made up his mind long before, +and would hold to the decision even to his own undoing, as men do who are +impulsive and not strong. The water lapped and gurgled round the bows, +for the wind was almost ahead, and it was only by nursing the heavy boat +that he saved the necessity of making a tack across the narrow creek. +In the morning he had, as usual, run down into the river and to the +slip-way, little suspecting that Miriam and Sep were just above him +behind the dyke, where they had sat three days before listening to Dormer +Colville's story of the little boy who was a King. To-night he ran the +boat into the coarse and wiry grass where Septimus Marvin's own dinghy +lay, half hidden by the reeds, and he stumbled ashore clutching at the +dewy grass as he climbed the side of the dyke. + +He went toward the turf-shelter half despondently, and then stopped +short a few yards away from it. For Miriam was there. He thought she was +alone, and paused to make sure before he spoke. She was sitting at the +far corner, sheltered from the north wind. For Farlingford is like a +ship--always conscious of the lee- and the weather-side, and all who live +there are half sailors in their habits--subservient to the wind. + +"At last," said Loo, with a little vexed laugh. He could see her face +turned toward him, but her eyes were only dark shadows beneath her hair. +Her face looked white in the darkness. Her answering laugh had a soothing +note in it. + +"Why--at last?" she asked. Her voice was frank and quietly assured in its +friendliness. They were old comrades, it seemed, and had never been +anything else. The best friendship is that which has never known a +quarrel, although poets and others may sing the tenderness of a +reconciliation. The friendship that has a quarrel and a reconciliation in +it is like a man with a weak place left in his constitution by a past +sickness. He may die of something else in the end, but the probability is +that he must reckon at last with that healed sore. The friendship may +perish from some other cause--a marriage, or success in life, one of the +two great severers--but that salved quarrel is more than likely to recur +and kill at last. + +These two had never fallen out. And it was the woman who, contrary to +custom, fended the quarrel now. + +"Oh! because I have been here three nights in succession, I suppose, and +did not find you here. I was disappointed." + +"But you found Uncle Septimus in his study. I could hear you talking +there until quite late." + +"Of course I was very glad to see him and talk with him. For it is to him +that I owe a certain half-developed impatience with the uneducated--with +whom I deal all my life, except for a few hours now and then in the study +and here in the turf-shelter with you. I can see--even in the dark--that +you look grave. Do not do that. It is not worth that." + +He broke off with his easy laugh, as if to banish any suggestion of +gravity coming from himself. + +"It is not worth looking grave about. And I am sorry if I was rude a +minute ago. I had no right, of course, to assume that you would be here. +I suppose it was impertinent--was that it?" + +"I will not quarrel," she answered, soothingly--"if that is what you +want." + +Her voice was oddly placid. It almost seemed to suggest that she had come +to-night for a certain purpose; that one subject of conversation alone +would interest her, and that to all others she must turn a deaf ear. + +He came a little nearer, and, leaning against the turf wall, looked down +at her. He was suddenly grave now. The _róles_ were again reversed; for +it was the woman who was tenacious to one purpose and the man who seemed +inconsequent, flitting from grave to gay, from one thought to another. +His apology had been made graciously enough, but with a queer pride, +quite devoid of the sullenness which marks the pride of the humbly +situated. + +"No; I do not want that," he answered. "I want a little sympathy, that is +all; because I have been educated above my station. And I looked for it +from those who are responsible for that which is nearly always a +catastrophe. And it is your uncle who educated me. He is responsible in +the first instance, and, of course, I am grateful to him." + +"He could never have educated you," put in Miriam, "if you had not been +ready for the education." + +Barebone put aside the point. He must, at all events, have learnt +humility from Septimus Marvin--a quality not natural to his temperament. + +"And you are responsible, as well," he went on, "because you have taught +me a use for the education." + +"Indeed!" she said, gently and interrogatively, as if at last he had +reached the point to which she wished to bring him. + +"Yes; the best use to which I could ever put it. To talk to you on an +equality." + +He looked hard at her through the darkness, which was less intense now; +for the moon was not far below the horizon. Her face looked white, and he +thought that she was breathing quickly. But they had always been friends; +he remembered that just in time. + +"It is only natural that I should look forward, when we are at sea, to +coming back here--" He paused and kicked the turf-wall with his heel, as +if to remind her that she had sat in the same corner before and he had +leant against the same wall, talking to her. "They are good fellows, of +course, with a hundred fine qualities which I lack, but they do not +understand half that one may say, or think--even the Captain. He is well +educated, in his way, but it is only the way of a coasting-captain who +has risen by his merits to the command of a foreign-going ship." + +Miriam gave an impatient little sigh. He had veered again from the point. + +"You think that I forget that he is my relative," said Loo, sharply, +detecting in his quickness of thought a passing resentment. "I do not. I +never forget that. I am the son of his cousin. I know that, and thus +related to many in Farlingford. But I have never called him cousin, and +he has never asked me to." + +"No," said Miriam, with averted eyes, in that other voice, which made him +turn and look at her, catching his breath. + +"Oh!" he said, with a sudden laugh of comprehension. "You have heard +what, I suppose, is common talk in Farlingford. You know what has brought +these people here--this Monsieur de Gemosac, and the other--what is his +name? Dormer Colville. You have heard of my magnificent possibilities. +And I--I had forgotten all about them." + +He threw out his arms in a gesture of gay contempt; for even in the +dark he could not refrain from adding to the meaning of mere words a +hundred-fold by the help of his lean hands and mobile face. + +"I have heard of it, of course," she admitted, "from several people. But +I have heard most from Captain Clubbe. He takes it more seriously than +you do. You do not know, because he is one of those men who are most +silent with those to whom they are most attached. He thinks that it is +providential that my uncle should have had the desire to educate you, and +that you should have displayed such capacity to learn." + +"Capacity?" he protested--"say genius! Do not let us do things by halves. +Genius to learn--yes; go on." + +"Ah! you may laugh," Miriam said, lightly, "but it is serious enough. You +will find circumstances too strong for you. You will have to go to France +to claim your--heritage." + +"Not I, if it means leaving Farlingford for ever and going to live among +strange people, like the Marquis de Gemosac, for instance, who gives me +the impression of a thousand petty ceremonies and a million futile +memories." + +He turned and lifted his face to the breeze which blew from the sea over +flat stretches of sand and seaweed--the crispest, most invigorating air +in the world except that which blows on the Baltic shores. + +"I prefer Farlingford. I am half a Clubbe--and the other half!--Heaven +knows what that is! The offshoot of some forgotten seedling blown away +from France by a great storm. If my father knew, he never said anything. +And if he knew, and said nothing, one may be sure that it was because +he was ashamed of what he knew. You never saw him, or you would have +known his dread of France, or anything that was French. He was a man +living in a dream. His body was here in Farlingford, but his mind was +elsewhere--who knows where? And at times I feel that, too--that +unreality--as if I were here, and somewhere else at the same time. But +all the same, I prefer Farlingford, even if it is a dream." + +The moon had risen at last; a waning half-moon, lying low and yellow in +the sky, just above the horizon, casting a feeble light on earth. Loo +turned and looked at Miriam, who had always met his glance with her +thoughtful, steady eyes. But now she turned away. + +"Farlingford is best, at all events," he said, with an odd conviction. "I +am only the grandson of old Seth Clubbe, of Maiden's Grave. I am a +Farlingford sailor, and that is all. I am mate of 'The Last Hope'--at +your service." + +"You are more than that." + +He made a step nearer to her, looking down at her white face, averted +from him. For her voice had been uncertain--unsteady--as if she were +speaking against her will. + +"Even if I am only that," he said, suddenly grave, "Farlingford may still +be a dream--Farlingford and--you." + +"What do you mean?" she asked, in a quick, mechanical voice, as if she +had reached a desired crisis at last and was prepared to act. + +"Oh, I only mean what I have meant always," he answered. "But I have been +afraid--afraid. One hears, sometimes, of a woman who is generous enough +to love a man who is a nobody--to think only of love. Sometimes--last +voyage, when you used to sit where you are sitting now--I have thought +that it might have been my extraordinary good fortune to meet such a +woman." + +He waited for some word or sign, but she sat motionless. + +"You understand," he went on, "how contemptible must seem their talk of a +heritage in France, when such a thought is in one's mind, even if--" + +"Yes," she interrupted, hastily. "You were quite wrong. You were +mistaken." + +"Mistaking in thinking you--" + +"Yes," she interrupted again. "You are quite mistaken, and I am very +sorry, of course, that it should have happened." + +She was singularly collected, and spoke in a matter-of-fact voice. +Barebone's eyes gleamed suddenly; for she had aroused-perhaps +purposely--a pride which must have accumulated in his blood through +countless generations. She struck with no uncertain hand. + +"Yes," he said, slowly; "it is to be regretted. Is it because I am the +son of a nameless father and only the mate of 'The Last Hope'?" + +"If you were before the mast--" she answered--"if you were a King, it +would make no difference. It is simply because I do not care for you in +that way." + +"You do not care for me--in that way," he echoed, with a laugh, which +made her move as if she were shrinking. "Well, there is nothing more to +be said to that." + +He looked at her slowly, and then took off his cap as if to bid her +good-bye. But he forgot to replace it, and he went away with the cap in +his hand. She heard the clink of a chain as he loosed his boat. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN THE ITALIAN HOUSE + + +The Abbé Touvent was not a courageous man, and the perspiration, induced +by the climb from the high-road up that which had once been the ramp to +the Château of Gemosac, ran cold when he had turned the key in the rusty +lock of the great gate. It was not a dark night, for the moon sailed +serenely behind fleecy clouds, but the shadows cast by her silvery light +might harbour any terror. + +It is easy enough to be philosophic at home in a chair beside the lamp. +Under those circumstances, the Abbé had reflected that no one would rob +him, because he possessed nothing worth stealing. But now, out here in +the dark, he recalled a hundred instances of wanton murder duly recorded +in the newspaper which he shared with three parishioners in Gemosac. + +He paused to wipe his brow with a blue cotton handkerchief before pushing +open the gate, and, being alone, was not too proud to peep through the +keyhole before laying his shoulder against the solid and weather-beaten +oak. He glanced nervously at the loopholes in the flanking towers and +upward at the machicolated battlement overhanging him, as if any +crumbling peep-hole might harbour gleaming eyes. He hurried through the +passage beneath the vaulted roof without daring to glance to either side, +where doorways and steps to the towers were rendered more fearsome by +heavy curtains of ivy. + +The enceinte of the castle of Gemosac is three-sided, with four towers +jutting out at the corners, from which to throw a flanking fire upon any +who should raise a ladder against the great curtains, built of that +smooth, white stone which is quarried at Brantôme and on the banks of the +Dordogne. The fourth side of the enceinte stands on a solid rock, above +the little river that loses itself in the flatlands bordering the +Gironde, so that it can scarce be called a tributary of that wide water. +A moss-grown path round the walls will give a quick walker ten minutes' +exercise to make the round from one tower of the gateway to the other. + +Within the enciente are the remains of the old castle, still solid and +upright; erected, it is recorded, by the English during their long +occupation of this country. A more modern château, built after the final +expulsion of the invader, adjoins the ancient structure, and in the +centre of the vast enclosure, raised above the walls, stands a square +house, in the Italian style, built in the time of Marie de Medici, and +never yet completed. There are, also, gardens and shaded walks and vast +stables, a chapel, two crypts, and many crumbling remains inside the +walls, that offered a passive resistance to the foe in olden time, and as +successfully hold their own to-day against the prying eye of a democratic +curiosity. + +Above the stables, quite close to the gate, half a dozen rooms were in +the occupation of the Marquis de Gemosac; but it was not to these that +the Abbé Touvent directed his tremulous steps. + +Instead, he went toward the square, isolated house, standing in the +middle of that which had once been the great court, and was now half +garden, half hayfield. The hay had been cut, and the scent of the new +stack, standing against the walls of the oldest château and under its +leaking roof, came warm and aromatic to mix with the breath of the +evening primrose and rosemary clustering in disorder on the ill-defined +borders. The grim walls, that had defended the Gemosacs against franker +enemies in other days, served now to hide from the eyes of the villagers +the fact--which must, however, have been known to them--that the Marquis +de Gemosac, in gloves, kept this garden himself, and had made the hay +with no other help than that of his old coachman and Marie, that capable, +brown-faced _bonne-à-tout-faire_, who is assuredly the best man in France +to-day. + +In this clear, southern atmosphere the moon has twice the strength of +that to which we are accustomed in mistier lands, and the Abbè looked +about him with more confidence as he crossed the great court. There were +frogs in a rainwater tank constructed many years ago, when some +enterprising foe had been known to cut off the water-supply of a besieged +château, and their friendly croak brought a sense of company and comfort +to the Abbè's timid soul. + +The door of the Italian house stood open, for the interior had never been +completed, and only one apartment, a lofty banqueting-hall, had ever been +furnished. Within the doorway, the Abbè fumbled in the pocket of his +soutane and rattled a box of matches. He carried a parcel in his hand, +which he now unfolded, and laid out on the lid of a mouldy chest half a +dozen candles. When he struck a match a flight of bats whirred out of the +doorway, and the Abbè's breath whistled through his teeth. + +He lighted two candles, and carrying them, alight, in one hand--not +without dexterity, for candles played an important part in his life--he +went forward. The flickering light showed his face to be a fat one, kind +enough, gleaming now with perspiration and fear, but shiny at other times +with that Christian tolerance which makes men kind to their own failings. +It was very dark within the house, for all the shutters were closed. + +The Abbé lighted a third candle and fixed it, with a drop of its own wax, +on the high mantel of the great banqueting-hall. There were four or five +candlesticks on side-tables, and a candelabra stood in the centre of a +long table, running the length of the room. In a few minutes the Abbé had +illuminated the apartment, which smelt of dust and the days of a dead +monarchy. Above his head, the bats were describing complicated figures +against a ceiling which had once been painted in the Italian style, to +represent a trellis roof, with roses and vines entwined. Half a dozen +portraits of men, in armour and wigs, looked down from the walls. One or +two of them were rotting from their frames, and dangled a despondent +corner out into the room. + +There were chairs round the table, set as if for a phantom banquet amid +these mouldering environments, and their high carved backs threw +fantastic shadows on the wall. + +While the Abbé was still employed with the candles, he heard a heavy step +and loud breathing in the hall without, where he had carefully left a +light. + +"Why did you not wait for me on the hill, _malhonnête_?" asked a thick +voice, like the voice of a man, but the manner was the manner of a woman. +"I am sure you must have heard me. One hears me like a locomotive, now +that I have lost my slimness." + +She came into the room as she spoke, unwinding a number of black, knitted +shawls, in which she was enveloped. There were so many of them, and of +such different shape and texture, that some confusion ensued. The Abbé +ran to her assistance. + +"But, Madame," he cried, "how can you suspect me of such a crime? I came +early to make these preparations. And as for hearing you--would to Heaven +I had! For it needs courage to be a Royalist in these days--especially in +the dark, by one's self." + +He seemed to know the shawls, for he disentangled them with skill and +laid them aside, one by one. + +The Comtesse de Chantonnay breathed a little more freely, but no friendly +hand could disencumber her of the mountains of flesh, which must have +weighed down any heart less buoyant and courageous. + +"Ah, bah!" she cried, gaily. "Who is afraid? What could they do to an old +woman? Ah! you hold up your hands. That is kind of you. But I am no +longer young, and there is my Albert--with those stupid whiskers. It is +unfilial to wear whiskers, and I have told him so. And you--who could +harm you--a priest? Besides, no one could be a priest, and not a +Royalist, Abbé!" + +"I know it, Madame, and that is why I am one. Have we been seen, Madame +la Comtesse? The village was quiet, as you came through?" + +"Quiet as my poor husband in his grave. Tell me? Abbé, now, honestly, am +I thinner? I have deprived myself of coffee these two days." + +The Abbe walked gravely round her. It was quite an excursion. + +"Who would have you different, Madame, to what you are?" he temporized. +"To be thin is so ungenerous. And Albert--where is he? You have not +surely come alone?" + +"Heaven forbid!--and I a widow!" replied Madame de Chantonnay, arranging, +with a stout hand, the priceless lace on her dress. "Albert is coming. We +brought a lantern, although it is a moon. It is better. Besides, it is +always done by those who conspire. And Albert had his great cloak, and he +fell up a step in the courtyard and dropped the lantern, and lost it in +the long grass. I left him looking for it, in the dark. He was not +afraid, my brave Albert!" + +"He has the dauntless heart of his mother," murmured the Abbé, +gracefully, as he ran round the table setting the chairs in order. He had +already offered the largest and strongest to the Comtesse, and it was +creaking under her now, as she moved to set her dress in order. + +"Assuredly," she admitted, complacently. "Has not France produced a +Jeanne d'Arc and a Duchesse de Berri? It was not from his father, at all +events, that he inherited his courage. For he was a poltroon, that man. +Yes, my dear Abbé, let us be honest, and look at life as it is. He was a +poltroon, and I thought I loved him--for two or three days only, however. +And I was a child then. I was beautiful." + +"Was?" echoed the Abbé, reproachfully. + +"Silence, wicked one! And you a priest." + +"Even an ecclesiastic, Madame, may have eyes," he said, darkly, as he +snuffed a candle and, subsequently, gave himself a mechanical thump on +the chest, in the region of the heart. + +"Then they should wear blinkers, like a horse," said Madame, severely, as +if wearied by an admiration so universal that it palled. + +At this moment, Albert de Chantonnay entered the room. He was enveloped +in a long black cloak, which he threw off his shoulders and cast over the +back of a chair, not without an obvious appreciation of its possibilities +of the picturesque. He looked round the room with a mild eye, which +refused to lend itself to mystery or a martial ruthlessness. + +He was a young man with a very thin neck, and the whiskers, of which his +mother made complaint, were scarcely visible by the light of the Abbé's +candles. + +"Good!" he said, in a thin tenor voice. "We are in time." + +He came forward to the table, with long, nervous strides. He was not +exactly impressive, but his manner gave the assurance of a distinct +earnestness of purpose. The majority of us are unfortunately situated +toward the world, as regards personal appearance. Many could pass for +great if their physical proportions were less mean. There are thousands +of worthy and virtuous young men who never receive their due in social +life because they have red hair or stand four-feet-six high, or happen to +be the victim of an inefficient dentist. The world, it would seem, does +not want virtue or solid worth. It prefers appearance to either. Albert +de Chantonnay would, for instance, have carried twice the weight in +Royalist councils if his neck had been thicker. + +He nodded to the Abbé. + +"I received your message," he said, in the curt manner of the man whose +life is in his hand, or is understood, in French theatrical circles, to +be thus uncomfortably situated. "The letter?" + +"It is here, Monsieur Albert," replied the Abbé, who was commonplace, and +could not see himself as he wished others to see him. There was only one +Abbé Touvent, for morning or afternoon, for church or fête, for the +château or the cottage. There were a dozen Albert de Chantonnays, fierce +or tender, gay or sad, a poet or a soldier--a light persifleur, who had +passed through the mill, and had emerged hard and shining, or a young man +of soul, capable of high ideals. To-night, he was the politician--the +conspirator--quick of eye, curt of speech. + +He held out his hand for the letter. + +"You are to read it, as Monsieur le Marquis instructs me, Monsieur +Albert," hazarded the Abbé, touching the breast pocket of his soutane, +where Monsieur de Gemosac's letter lay hidden, "to those assembled." + +"But, surely, I am to read it to myself first," was the retort; "or else +how can I give it proper value?" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A BEGINNING + + +There may be some who refuse to take seriously a person like Albert de +Chantonnay because, forsooth, he happened to possess a sense of the +picturesque. There are, as a matter of fact, thousands of sensible +persons in the British Isles who fail completely to understand the +average Frenchman. To the English comprehension it is, for instance, +surprising that in time of stress--when Paris was besieged by a German +army--a hundred _franc-tireur_ corps should spring into existence, who +gravely decked themselves in sombreros and red waist-cloths, and called +themselves the "Companions of Death," or some claptrap title of a similar +sound. Nevertheless, these "Companions of Death" fought at Orleans as few +have fought since man walked this earth, and died as bravely as any in a +government uniform. Even the stolid German foe forgot, at last, to laugh +at the sombrero worn in midwinter. + +It is useless to dub a Frenchman unreal and theatrical when he gaily +carries his unreality and his perception of the dramatic to the lucarne +of the guillotine and meets imperturbably the most real thing on earth, +Death. + +Albert de Chantonnay was a good Royalist--a better Royalist, as many were +in France at this time, than the King--and, perhaps, he carried his +loyalty to the point that is reached by the best form of flattery. + +Let it be remembered that when, on the 3rd of May, 1814, Louis XVIII was +reinstated, not by his own influence or exertions, but by the allied +sovereigns who had overthrown Napoleon, he began at once to issue +declarations and decrees as of the nineteenth year of his reign, ignoring +the Revolution and Napoleon. Did this Bourbon really take himself +seriously? Did he really expect the world to overlook Napoleon, or did he +know as all the world knows to-day, that long after the Bourbons have +sunk into oblivion the name of Napoleon will continue to be a household +word? + +If a situation is thus envisaged by a King, what may the wise expect from +a Royalist? + +In the absence of the Marquis de Gemosac, Albert de Chantonnay was +considered to be the leader of the party in that quiet corner of +south-western France which lies north of Bordeaux and south of that great +dividing river, the Loire. He was, moreover, looked upon as representing +that younger blood of France, to which must be confided the hopes and +endeavours of the men, now passing away one by one, who had fought and +suffered for their kings. + +It was confidently whispered throughout this pastoral country that August +Persons, living in exile in England and elsewhere, were in familiar and +confidential correspondence with the Marquis de Gemosac, and, in a minor +degree, with Albert de Chantonnay. For kings, and especially deposed +kings, may not be choosers, but must take the instrument that comes to +hand. A constitutional monarch is, by the way, better placed in this +respect, for it is his people who push the instrument into his grasp, and +in the long run the people nearly always read a man aright despite the +efforts of a cheap press to lead them astray. + +"If it were not written in the Marquis's own writing I could not have +believed it," said Albert de Chantonnay, speaking aloud his own thoughts. +He turned the letter this way and that, examining first the back of it +and then the front. + +"It has not been through the post." he said to the Abbé, who stood +respectfully watching his face, which, indeed, inspired little +confidence, for the chin receded in the wrong way--not like the chin of a +shark, which indicates, not foolishness, but greed of gain--and the eyes +were large and pale like those of a sheep. + +"Oh, Heaven forbid!" cried the Abbé. "Such a letter as that! Where should +we all be if it were read by the government? And all know that letters +passing through the post to the address of such as Monsieur Albert are +read in passing--by the Prince President himself, as likely as not." + +Albert gave a short, derisive laugh, and shrugged his shoulders, which +made his admiring mother throw back her head with a gesture, inviting the +Abbé to contemplate, with satisfaction, the mother of so brave a man. + +"_Voilà_," she said, "but tell us, my son, what is in the letter?" + +"Not yet," was the reply. "It is to be read to all when they are +assembled. In the mean time--" + +He did not finish the sentence in words, but by gesture conveyed that the +missive, now folded and placed in his breast-pocket, was only to be +obtained bespattered with his life's blood. And the Abbé wiped his clammy +brow with some satisfaction that it should be thus removed from his own +timorous custody. + +Albert de Chantonnay was looking expectantly at the door, for he had +heard footsteps, and now he bowed gravely to a very old gentleman, a +notary of the town, who entered the room with a deep obeisance to the +Comtesse. Close on the notary's heels came others. Some were in riding +costume, and came from a distance. + +One sprightly lady wore evening dress, only partially concealed by a +cloak. She hurried in with a nod for Albert de Chantonnay, and a kiss for +the Comtesse. Her presence had the immediate effect of imparting an air +of practical common-sense energy to the assembly, which it had hitherto +lacked. There was nothing of the old _régime_ in this lady, who seemed to +over-ride etiquette, and cheerfully ignore the dramatic side of the +proceedings. + +"Is it not wonderful?" she whispered aloud, after the manner of any +modern lady at one of those public meetings in which they take so large a +part with so small a result in these later days. "Is it not wonderful?" +And her French, though pure enough, was full and round--the French of an +English tongue. "I have had a long letter from Dormer telling me all +about it. Oh--" And she broke off, silenced by the dark frown of Albert +de Chantonnay, to which her attention had been forcibly directed by his +mother. "I have been dining with Madame de Rathe," she went on, +irrepressibly, changing the subject in obedience to Albert de +Chantonnay's frown. "The Vicomtesse bids me make her excuses. She feared +an indigestion, so will be absent to-night." + +"Ah!" returned the Comtesse de Chantonnay. "It is not that. I happen to +know that the Vicomtesse de Rathe has the digestion of a schoolboy. It is +because she has no confidence in Albert. But we shall see--we shall see. +It is not for the nobility of Louis Philippe to--to have a poor +digestion." + +And the Comtesse de Chantonnay made a gesture and a meaning grimace which +would have been alarming enough had her hand and face been less dimpled +with good nature. + +There were now assembled about a dozen persons, and the Abbé was kept in +countenance by two others of his cloth. There were several ladies; one of +whom was young and plain and seemed to watch Albert de Chantonnay with a +timid awe. Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, seated next to the Comtesse de +Chantonnay, was the only lady who made any attempt at gay apparel, and +thus stood rather conspicuous among her companions clad in sober and +somewhat rusty black. All over the west of France such meetings of the +penniless Royalists were being held at this time, not, it has been +averred, without the knowledge of the Prince President, who has been +credited with the courage to treat the matter with contempt. About no +monarch, living or dead, however, have so many lies been written, by +friend or foe, with good or ill intent, as about him, who subsequently +carried out the astounding feat of climbing to the throne of France as +Napoleon III. And it seems certain that he has been given credit for +knowing much of which he must have been ignorant to an extent hardly +credible, even now, in face of subsequent events. + +The Comtesse de Chantonnay was still tossing her head, at intervals, +at the recollection of the Vicomtesse de Rathe's indigestion. This was +only typical of the feelings that divided every camp in France at this +time--at any time, indeed, since the days of Charlemagne--for the French +must always quarrel among themselves until they are actually on the brink +of national catastrophe. And even when they are fallen into that pit they +will quarrel at the bottom, and bespatter each other with the mud that is +there. + +"Are we all here?" asked Albert de Chantonnay, standing in an effective +attitude at the end of the table, with his hand on the back of his chair. +He counted the number of his fellow-conspirators, and then sat down, +drawing forward a candelabra. + +"You have been summoned in haste," he said, "by the request of the +Marquis de Gemosac to listen to the perusal of a letter of importance. It +may be of the utmost importance--to us--to France--to all the world." + +He drew the letter from his pocket and opened it amid a breathless +silence. His listeners noted the care with which he attended to gesture +and demeanour, and accounted it to him for righteousness; for they were +French. An English audience would have thought him insincere, and they +would have been wrong. + +"The letter is dated from a place called Farlingford, in England. I have +never heard of it. It is nowhere near to Twickenham or Clarement, nor is +it in Buckinghamshire. The rest of England--no one knows." Albert paused +and held up one hand for silence. + +"At last," he read--"at last, my friends, after a lifetime of fruitless +search, it seems that I have found--through the good offices of Dormer +Colville--not the man we have sought, but his son. We have long suspected +that Louis XVII must be dead. Madame herself, in her exile at Frohsdorff, +has admitted to her intimates that she no longer hoped. But here in the +full vigour of youth--a sailor, strong and healthy, living a simple life +on shore as at sea--I have found a man whose face, whose form, and manner +would clearly show to the most incredulous that he could be no other than +the son of Louis XVII. A hundred tricks of manner and gesture he has +inherited from the father he scarce remembers, from the grandfather who +perished on the guillotine many years before he himself was born. No +small proof of the man's sincerity is the fact that only now, after long +persuasion, has he consented to place himself in our hands. I thought of +hurrying at once to Frohsdorff to present to the aged Duchess a youth +whom she cannot fail to recognize as her nephew. But better counsels have +prevailed. Dormer Colville, to whom we owe so much, has placed us in his +farther debt for a piece of sage advice. 'Wait,' he advises, 'until the +young man has learned what is expected of him, until he has made the +personal acquaintance of his supporters. Reserve until the end the +presentation to the Duchesse d'Angouleme, which must only be made when +all the Royalists in France are ready to act with a unanimity which will +be absolute, and an energy which must prove irresistible.' + +"There are more material proofs than a face so strongly resembling that +of Louis XVI and Monsieur d'Artois, in their early manhood, as to take +the breath away; than a vivacity inherited from his grandmother, together +with an independence of spirit and impatience of restraint; than the +slight graceful form, blue eyes, and fair skin of the little prisoner of +the Temple. There are dates which go to prove that this boy's father +was rescued from a sinking fishing-boat, near Dieppe, a few days after +the little Dauphin was known to have escaped from the Temple, and to +have been hurried to the north coast disguised as a girl. There is +evidence, which Monsieur Colville is now patiently gathering from these +slow-speaking people, that the woman who was rescued with this child was +not his mother. And there are a hundred details known to the villagers +here which go to prove what we have always suspected to be the case, +namely, that Louis XVII was rescued from the Temple by the daring and +ingenuity of a devoted few who so jealously guarded their secret that +they frustrated their own object; for they one and all must have perished +on the guillotine, or at the hands of some other assassin, without +divulging their knowledge, and in the confusion and horror of those days +the little Dauphin was lost to sight. + +"There is a trinket--a locket--containing a miniature, which I am assured +is a portrait of Marie Antoinette. This locket is in the possession of +Dormer Colville, who suggests that we should refrain from using violence +to open it until this can be done in France in the presence of suitable +witnesses. A fall or some mishap has so crushed the locket that it can +only be opened by a jeweller provided with suitable instruments. It has +remained closed for nearly a quarter of a century, but a reliable witness +in whose possession it has been since he, who was undoubtedly Louis XVII, +died in his arms, remembers the portrait, and has no doubt of its +authenticity. I have told you enough to make it clear to you that my +search is at last ended. What we require now is money to enable us to +bring this King of France to his own; to bring him, in the first place, +to my humble château of Gemosac, where he can lie hidden until all +arrangements are made. I leave it to you, my dear Albert, to collect this +preliminary sum." + +De Chantonnay folded the letter and looked at the faces surrounding the +dimly lighted table. + +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, who must have known the contents of the letter, +and, therefore, came provided, leaned across the table with a discreet +clink of jewellery and laid before Albert de Chantonnay a note for a +thousand francs. + +"I am only an Englishwoman," she said, simply, "but I can help." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SECRET OF GEMOSAC + + +There is no sentiment so artificial as international hatred. In olden +days it owed its existence to churchmen, and now an irresponsible press +foments that dormant antagonism. Wherever French and English individuals +are thrown together by a common endeavour, both are surprised at the +mutual esteem which soon develops into friendship. But as nations we are +no nearer than we were in the great days of Napoleon. + +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence was only one-quarter French and three-quarters +English. Her grandmother had been a St. Pierre; but it was not from that +lady that she inherited a certain open-handedness which took her French +friends by surprise. + +"It is not that she has the cause at heart," commented Madame de +Chantonnay, as she walked laboriously on Albert's arm down the ramp of +the Château de Gemosac at the termination of the meeting. "It is not for +that that she throws her note of a thousand francs upon the table and +promises more when things are in train. It is because she can refuse +nothing to Dormer Colville. _Allez_, my son! I have a woman's heart! I +know!" + +Albert contented himself with a sardonic laugh. He was not in the humour +to talk of women's hearts; for Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence's action had +struck a sudden note of British realism into the harmony of his political +fancies. He had talked so much, had listened to so much talk from others, +that the dream of a restored monarchy had at last been raised to those +far realms of the barely possible in which the Gallic fancy wanders in +moments of facile digestion. + +It was sufficient for the emergency that the others present at the +meeting could explain that one does not carry money in one's pocket in a +country lane at night, But in their hearts all were conscious of a slight +feeling of resentment toward Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence; of a vague sense +of disappointment, such as a dreamer may experience on being roughly +awakened. + +The three priests folded their hands with complacency. Poverty, their +most cherished possession, spoke for itself in their case. The notary +blinked and fumbled at his lips with yellow fingers in hasty thought. He +was a Royalist notary because there existed in the country of the Deux +Sevres a Royalist _clientèle_. In France, even a washerwoman must hold +political views and stand or fall by them. It was astounding how poor +every one felt at that moment, and it rested, as usual, with a woman's +intuition to grasp the only rope within reach. "The vintage," this lady +murmured. The vintage promised to be a bad one. Nothing, assuredly, could +be undertaken, and no promise made, until the vintage was over. + +So the meeting broke up without romance, and the conspirators dispersed +to their homes, carrying in their minds that mutual distrust which is +ever awakened in human hearts by the chink of gold, while the dormant +national readiness to detect betrayal by England was suddenly wide awake. + +Nevertheless, Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence had supplied the one ingredient +necessary to leaven the talk of these dreamers into action. Even the +notary found himself compelled to contribute when Albert de Chantonnay +asked him outright for a subscription. And the priests, ably led by the +Abbé Touvent, acted after the manner of the sons of Levi since olden +times. They did not give themselves, but they told others to give, which +is far better. + +In due course the money was sent to England. It was the plain truth that +the Marquis de Gemosac had not sufficient in his pocket to equip Loo +Barebone with the clothes necessary to a seemly appearance in France; or, +indeed, to cover the expense of the journey thither. Dormer Colville +never had money to spare. "Heaven shaped me for a rich man," he would +say, lightly, whenever the momentous subject was broached, "but forgot to +fill my pockets." + +It was almost the time of the vintage, and the country roads were dotted +with the shambling figures of those knights of industry who seem to +spring from the hedgerows at harvest-time in any country in the world, +when the Abbé Touvent sought out Marie in her cottage at the gates of the +château. + +"_A la cave_" answered the lady's voice. "In the cellar--do you not know +that it is Monday and I wash?" + +The Abbé did not repeat his summons on the kitchen table with the handle +of his stick, but drew forward a chair. + +"I know it is very hot, and that I am tired," he shouted toward the +cellar door, which stood open, giving egress to a warm smell of soap. + +"Precisely--and does Monsieur l'Abbé want me to come up as I am?" + +The suggestion was darkly threatening, and the Abbé replied that Marie +must take her time, since it was washing-day. + +The cottage was built on sloping ground at the gate of the château, +probably of the stones used for some earlier fortification. That which +Marie called the cellar was but half underground, and had an exit to the +garden which grew to the edge of the cliff. It was not long before she +appeared at the head of the stone steps, a square-built woman with a face +that had been sunburnt long ago by work in the vineyards, and eyes +looking straight at the world from beneath a square and wrinkled +forehead. + +"Monsieur l'Abbé," she said, shortly--a salutation, and a comment in one; +for it conveyed the fact that she saw it was he and perceived that he was +in his usual health. "It is news from Monsieur, I suppose," she added, +slowly, turning down her sleeves. + +"Yes, the Marquis writes that he is on his way to Gemosac and wishes you +to prepare the château for his return." + +The Abbé waved his hand toward the castle gates with an air suggestive of +retainers and lackeys, of busy stables and a hundred windows lighted +after dark. His round eyes did not meet the direct glance fixed on his +face, but wandered from one object to another in the room, finally +lighting on the great key of the château gate, which hung on a nail +behind the door. + +"Then Monsieur le Marquis is coming into residence," said Marie, gravely. + +And by way of reply the Abbé waved his hand a second time toward the +castle walls. + +"And the worst of it is," he added, timidly, to this silent admission, +"that he brings a guest." + +He moistened his fat lips and sat smiling in a foolish way at the open +door; for he was afraid of all women, and most afraid of Marie. + +"Ah!" she retorted, shortly. "To sleep in the oubliette, one may suppose. +For there is no other bed in the château, as you quite well know, +Monsieur l'Abbé. It is another of your kings no doubt. Oh! you need not +hold up your hands--when Monsieur Albert reads aloud that letter from +Monsieur le Marquis, in England, without so much as closing the door of +the banquet hall! It is as well that it was no other than I who stood on +the stairs outside and heard all." + +"But it is wrong to listen behind doors," protested the Abbé. + +"Ah, bah!" replied this unregenerate sheep of his flock. "But do not +alarm yourself, Monsieur l'Abbé, I can keep a quiet tongue. And a +political secret--what is it? It is an amusement for the rich--your +politics--but a vice for the poor. Come, let us go to the château, while +there is still day, and you can see for yourself whether we are ready for +a guest." + +While she spoke she hastily completed a toilet, which, despite the Abbé's +caution, had the appearance of incompleteness, and taking the great key +from behind the door, led the way out into the glare of the setting sun. +She unlocked the great gate and threw her weight against it with quick, +firm movements like the movements of a man. Indeed, she was a better man +than her companion; of a stronger common sense; with lither limbs and a +stouter heart; the best man that France has latterly produced, and, so +far as the student of racial degeneration may foretell, will ever produce +again--her middle-class woman. + +Built close against the flanking tower on the left hand of the courtyard +was a low, square house of two stories only. The whole ground floor was +stabling, room and to spare for half a hundred horses, and filled +frequently enough, no doubt, in the great days of the Great Henry. On the +first floor, to which three or four staircases gave access, there were +plenty of apartments; indeed, suites of them. But nearly all stood empty, +and the row of windows looked blank and curtainless across the crumbling +garden to the Italian house. + +It was one of the many tragedies of that smiling, sunny land where only +man, it seems, is vile; for nature has enclosed within its frontier-lines +all the varied wealth and beauty of her treasures. + +Marie led the way up the first staircase, which was straight and narrow. +The carpet, carefully rolled and laid aside on the landing, was +threadbare and colourless. The muslin curtains, folded back and pinned +together, were darned and yellow with frequent washing and the rust of +ancient damp. She opened the door of the first room at the head of the +stairs. It had once been the apartment of some servitor; now it contained +furniture of the gorgeous days of Louis XIV, with all the colour gone +from its tapestry, all the woodwork grey and worm-eaten. + +"Not that one," said Marie, as the Abbé struggled with the lever that +fastened the window. "That one has not been opened for many years. See! +the glass rattles in the frame. It is the other that opens." + +Without comment the Abbé opened the other window and threw back the +shutters, from which all the paint had peeled away, and let in the +scented air. Mignonette close at hand--which had bloomed and died and +cast its seed amid the old walls and falling stones since Marie +Antoinette had taught the women of France to take an interest in their +gardens; and from the great plains beyond--flat and fat--carefully laid +there by the Garonne to give the world its finest wines, rose up the +subtle scent of vines in bloom. + +"The drawing-room," said Marie, and making a mock-curtsey toward the +door, which stood open to the dim stairs, she made a grand gesture with +her hand, still red and wrinkled from the wash-tub. "Will the King of +France be pleased to enter and seat himself? There are three chairs, but +one of them is broken, so his Majesty's suite must stand." + +With a strident laugh she passed on to the next room through folding +doors. + +"The principal room," she announced, with that hard irony in her voice, +which had, no doubt, penetrated thither from the soul of a mother who +had played no small part in the Revolution. "The guest-chamber, one may +say, provided that Monsieur le Marquis will sleep on the floor in the +drawing-room, or in the straw down below in the stable." + +The Abbé threw open the shutter of this room also and stood meekly eyeing +Marie with a tolerant smile. The room was almost bare of furniture. A bed +such as peasants sleep on; a few chairs; a dressing-table tottering +against the window-breast, and modestly screened in one corner, the +diminutive washing-stand still used in southern France. For Gemosac had +been sacked and the furniture built up into a bonfire when Marie was a +little child and the Abbé Touvent a fat-faced timorous boy at the +Seminary of Saintes. + +"Beyond is Mademoiselle's room," concluded Marie, curtly. She looked +round her and shrugged her shoulders with a grim laugh which made the +Abbé shrink. They looked at each other in silence, the two participants +in the secret of Gemosac; for Marie's husband, the third who had access +to the chateau, did not count. He was a shambling, silent man, now +working in the vineyard beneath the walls. He always did what his wife +told him, without comment or enthusiasm, knowing well that he would be +blamed for doing it badly. + +The Abbé had visited the rooms once before, during a brief passage of the +Marquis, soon after his wife's death in Paris. But, as a rule, only Marie +and Jean had access to the apartment. He looked round with an eye always +ready with the tear of sympathy; for he was a soft-hearted man. Then he +looked at Marie again, shamefacedly. But she, divining his thoughts, +shrugged her shoulders. + +"Ah, bah!" she said, "one must take the world as it is. And Monsieur +le Marquis is only a man. One sees that, when he announces his return +on washing-day, and brings a guest. You must write to him, that is all, +and tell him that with time I can arrange, but not in a hurry like +this. Where is the furniture to come from? A chair or two from the +banquet-hall; I can lend a bed which Jean can carry in after dark so that +no one knows; you have the jug and basin you bought when the Bishop came, +that you must lend--" She broke off and ran to the window. "Good," she +cried, in a despairing voice, "I hear a carriage coming up the hill. Run, +Monsieur l'Abbé--run to the gate and bolt it. Guest or no guest, they +cannot see the rooms like this. Here, let me past." + +She pushed him unceremoniously aside at the head of the stairs and ran +past him. Long concealment of the deadly poverty within the walls had +taught her to close the gates behind her whenever she entered, but now +for greater security, or to gain time, she swung the great oaken beam +round on its pivot across the doors on the inside. Then turning round on +her heels she watched the bell that hung above her head. The Abbé, who +had followed her as quickly as he could, was naively looking for a +peep-hole between the timbers of the huge doors. + +A minute later the bell swung slowly, and gave a single clang which +echoed beneath the vaulted roof, and in the hollow of the empty towers on +either side. + +"Marie, Marie!" cried a gay girlish voice from without. "Open at once. It +is I." + +"There," said Marie, in a whisper. "It is Mademoiselle, who has returned +from the good Sisters. And the story that you told of the fever at +Saintes is true." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WITHIN THE GATES + + +The great bell hanging inside the gates of Gemosac was silent for two +days after the return of Juliette de Gemosac from her fever-stricken +convent school, at Saintes. + +But on the third day, soon after nightfall, it rang once more, breaking +suddenly in on the silence of the shadowy courts and gardens, bidding the +frogs in the tank be still with a soft, clear voice, only compassed by +the artificers who worked in days when silver was little accounted of in +the forging of a bell. + +It was soon after eight o'clock, and darkness had not long covered the +land and sent the workers home. There was no moon. Indeed, the summons to +the gate, coming so soon after nightfall, seemed to suggest the arrival +of a traveller, who had not deemed it expedient to pass through the +winding streets of Gemosac by daylight. + +The castle lies on a height, sufficiently removed from the little town to +temper the stir of its streets to a pleasant and unobtrusive evidence of +neighbourhood. Had the traveller come in a carriage, the sound of its +wheels would certainly have been heard; and nearer at hand, the tramp of +horses on the hollow of the old drawbridge, not raised these hundred +years, must have heralded the summons of the bell. But none of these +sounds had warned Juliette de Gemosac, who sat alone in the little white +room upstairs, nor Marie and her husband, dumb and worn by the day's +toil, who awaited bedtime on a stone seat by the stable door. + +Juliette, standing at the open window, heard Jean stir himself, and +shuffle, in his slippers, toward the gate. + +"It is some one who comes on foot," she heard Marie say. "Some +beggar--the roads are full of them. See that he gets no farther than the +gate." + +She heard Jean draw back the bolts and answer gruffly, in a few words, +through the interstice of a grudging door, what seemed to be inquiries +made in a voice that was not the voice of a peasant. Marie rose and went +to the gate. In a few minutes they returned, and Juliette drew back from +the window, for they were accompanied by the new-comer, whose boots made +a sharper, clearer sound on the cobble-stones. + +"Yes," Juliette heard him explain, "I am an Englishman, but I come from +Monsieur de Gemosac, for all that. And since Mademoiselle is here, I must +see her. It was by chance that I heard, on the road, that there is fever +at Saintes, and that she had returned home. I was on my way to Saintes to +see her and give her my news of her father." + +"But what news?" asked Marie, and the answer was lost as the speakers +passed into the doorway, the new-comer evidently leading the way, the +peasant and his wife following without protest, and with that instinctive +obedience to unconscious command which will survive all the iconoclasm of +a hundred revolutions. + +There followed a tramping on the stairs and a half-suppressed laugh as +the new-comer stumbled upward. Marie opened the door slowly. + +"It is a gentleman," she announced, "who does not give his name." + +Juliette de Gemosac was standing at the far side of the table, with the +lamp throwing its full light upon her. She was dressed in white, with a +blue ribbon at her waist and wrists. Another ribbon of the same colour +tied back her hair, which was of a bright brown, with curls that caught +the light in a score of tendrils above her ears. No finished coquette +could have planned a prettier surprise than that which awaited Loo +Barebone, as he made Marie stand aside, and came, hat in hand, into the +room. + +He paused for an instant, breathless, before Juliette, who stood, with a +little smile of composed surprise parting her lips. This child, fresh +from the quiet of a convent-school, was in no wise taken aback nor at a +loss how to act. She did not speak, but stood with head erect, not +ungracious, looking at him with clear brown eyes, awaiting his +explanation. And Loo Barebone, all untaught, who had never spoken to a +French lady in his life, came forward with an assurance and a readiness +which must have lain dormant in his blood, awaiting the magic of this +moment. + +"Since my name would convey nothing to Mademoiselle," he said, with a bow +which he had assuredly not learnt in Farlingford, "it was useless to +mention it. But it is at the disposal of Mademoiselle, nevertheless. It +is an English name--Barebone. I am the Englishman who has been fortunate +enough to engage the interest of your father, who journeyed to England to +find me--and found me." + +He broke off with a laugh, spreading out his arms to show himself, as it +were, and ask indulgence. + +"I have a heritage, it appears, in France," he went on, "but know nothing +of it, yet. For the weather has been bad and our voyage a stormy one. I +was to have been told during the journey, but we had no time for that. +And I know no more than you, mademoiselle." + +Juliette had changed colour, and her cheeks, which were usually of a most +delicate pink, were suddenly quite white. She did not touch upon the +knowledge to which he referred, but went past it to its object. + +"You do not speak like an Englishman," she said. "For I know one or two. +One came to the school at Saintes. He was a famous English prelate, and +he had the manner--well, of a tree. And when he spoke, it was what one +would expect of a tree, if it suddenly had speech. But you--you are not +like that." + +Loo Barebone laughed with an easy gaiety, which seemed infectious, though +Marie did not join in it, but stood scowling in the doorway. + +"Yes," he said, "you have described them exactly. I know a hundred who +are like great trees. Many are so, but they are kind and still like +trees--the English, when you know them, mademoiselle." + +"They?" she said, with her prettily arched eyebrows raised high. + +"We, I mean," he answered, quickly, taking her meaning in a flash. "I +almost forgot that I was an Englishman. It is my heritage, perhaps, that +makes me forget--or yourself. It is so easy and natural to consider one's +self a Frenchman--and so pleasant." + +Marie shuffled with her feet and made a movement of impatience, as if to +remind them that they were still far from the business in hand and were +merely talking of themselves, which is the beginning of all things--or +may be the beginning of the inevitable end. + +"But I forgot," said Barebone, at once. "And it is getting late. Your +father has had a slight misfortune. He has sprained his ankle. He is on +board my ship, the ship of which I am--I have been--an officer, lying at +anchor in the river near here, off the village of Mortagne. I came from +Mortagne at your father's request, with certain messages, for yourself, +mademoiselle, and for Marie--if Madame is Marie." + +"Yes," replied the grim voice in the doorway. "Madame is Marie." + +Loo had turned toward her. It seemed his happy fate to be able to disarm +antagonism at the first pass. He looked at Marie and smiled; and slowly, +unwillingly, her grim face relaxed. + +"Well," he said, "you are not to expect Monsieur le Marquis to-night, nor +yet, for some time to come. For he will go on to Bordeaux, where he can +obtain skilled treatment for his injured ankle, and remain there until he +can put his foot to the ground. He is comfortable enough on board the +ship, which will proceed up the river to-morrow morning to Bordeaux. +Monsieur le Marquis also told me to set your mind at rest on another +point. He was to have brought with him a guest--" + +Loo paused and bowed to Marie, with a gay grace. + +"A humble one. But I am not to come to Gemosac just now. I am going, +instead, with Monsieur Dormer Colville, to stay at Royan with Mrs. St. +Pierre Lawrence. It is, I hope, a pleasure deferred. I cannot, it +appears, show myself in Bordeaux at present, and I quit the ship +to-night. It is some question of myself and my heritage in France, which +I do not understand." + +"Is that so?" said Marie. "One can hardly believe it." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Oh, nothing," replied Marie, looking at his face with a close scrutiny, +as if it were familiar to her. + +"And that is all that I had to tell you, Madame Marie," concluded +Barebone. + +And, strangely enough, Marie smiled at him as he turned away, not +unkindly. + +"To you, mademoiselle," he went on, turning again to Juliette, whose hand +was at her hair, for she had been taken by surprise, "my message is +simpler. Monsieur, your father, will be glad to have your society at +Bordeaux, while he stays there, if that is true which the Gironde pilot +told him--of fever at Saintes, and the hurried dispersal of the schools." + +"It is true enough, monsieur," answered Juliette, in her low-pitched +voice of the south, and with a light of anticipation in her eye; for it +was dull enough at Gemosac, all alone in this empty château. "But how am +I to reach Bordeaux?" + +"Your father did not specify the route or method. He seemed to leave that +to you, mademoiselle. He seemed to have an entire faith in your judgment, +and that is why I was so surprised when I saw you. I thought--well, I +figured to myself that you were older, you understand." + +He broke off with a laugh and a deprecatory gesture of the hand, as +if he had more in his mind but did not want to put it into words. His +meaning was clear enough in his eyes, but Juliette was fresh from a +convent-school, where they seek earnestly to teach a woman not to be a +woman. + +"One may be young, and still have understanding, monsieur," she said, +with the composed little smile on her demure lips, which must only have +been the composure of complete innocence: almost a monopoly of children, +though some women move through life without losing it. + +"Yes," answered Loo, looking into her eyes. "So it appears. So, how will +you go to Bordeaux? How does one go from Gemosac to Bordeaux?" + +"By carriage to Mortagne, where a boat is always to be obtained. It is a +short journey, if the tide is favourable," broke in Marie, who was +practical before she was polite. + +"Then," said Loo, as quick as thought, "drive back with me now to +Mortagne. I have left my horse in the town, my boat at the pier at +Mortagne. It is an hour's drive. In an hour and a half you will be on +board 'The Last Hope,' at anchor in the river. There is accommodation on +board for both you and Madame; for I, alas! Leave the ship to-night with +Monsieur Colville, and thus vacate two cabins." + +Juliette reflected for a moment, but she did not consult, even by a +glance, Marie; who, in truth, appeared to expect no such confidences, but +awaited the decision with a grim and grudging servitude which was as +deeply pressed in upon her soul as was the habit of command in the soul +of a de Gemosac. + +"Yes," said Juliette, at length, "that will be best. It is, of course, +important that my father should reach Bordeaux as soon as possible." + +"He will be there at midday to-morrow, if you will come with me now," +answered Loo, and his gay eyes said "Come!" as clearly as his lips, +though Juliette could not, of course, be expected to read such signals. + +The affair was soon settled, and Jean ordered to put the horse into the +high, old-fashioned carriage still in use at the château. For Juliette +de Gemosac seemed to be an illustration of the fact, known to many +much-tried parents, that one is never too young to know one's mind. + +"There is a thunder-storm coming from the sea," was Jean's only comment. + +There was some delay in starting; for Marie had to change her own clothes +as well as pack her young mistress's simple trunks. But the time did not +hang heavily on the hands of the two waiting in the little drawing-room, +and Marie turned an uneasy glance toward the open door more than once at +the sound of their laughter. + +Barebone was riding a horse hired in the village of Mortagne, and quitted +the château first, on foot, saying that the carriage must necessarily +travel quicker than he, as his horse was tired. The night was dark, and +darkest to the west, where lightning danced in and out among heavy clouds +over the sea. + +As in all lands that have been torn hither and thither by long wars, the +peasants of Guienne learnt, long ago, the wisdom of dwelling together in +closely built villages, making a long journey to their fields or +vineyards every day. In times past, Gemosac had been a walled town, +dominated, as usual, by the almost impregnable castle. + +Barebone rode on, alone, through the deserted vineyards, of which the +scent, like that of a vinery in colder lands, was heavy and damp. The +road runs straight, from point to point, and there was no chance of +missing the way or losing his companions. He was more concerned with +watching the clouds, which were rising in dark towers against the western +sky. He had noted that others were watching them, also, standing at their +doors in every street. It was the period of thunder and hailstorms--the +deadly foe of the vine. + +At length Barebone pulled up and waited; for he could hear the sound of +wheels behind him, and noted that it was not increasing in loudness. + +"Can you not go faster?" he shouted to Jean, when, at length, the +carriage approached. + +Jean made no answer, but lashed his horse and pointed upward to the sky +with his whip. Barebone rode in front to encourage the slower horse. At +the village of Mortagne he signed to Jean to wait before the inn until he +had taken his horse to the stable and paid for its hire. Then he +clambered to the box beside him and they rattled down the long street and +out into the open road that led across the marshes to the port--a few +wooden houses and a jetty, running out from the shallows to the channel. + +When they reached the jetty, going slowly at the last through the heavy +dust, the air was still and breathless. The rounded clouds still towered +above them, making the river black with their deep shadows. A few lights +twinkled across the waters. They were the lightships marking the middle +bank of the Gironde, which is many miles wide at this spot and rendered +dangerous by innumerable sand-banks. + +"In five minutes it will be upon us," said Jean. "You had better turn +back." + +"Oh, no," was the reply, with a reassuring laugh. "In the country where I +come from, they do not turn back." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LIFTED VEIL + + +"Where is the boatman?" asked Marie, as she followed Juliette and +Barebone along the deserted jetty. A light burnt dimly at the end of it +and one or two boats must have been moored near at hand; for the water +could be heard lapping under their bows, a secretive, whispering sound +full of mystery. + +"I am the boatman," replied Loo, over his shoulder. "Are you afraid?" + +"What is the good of being afraid?" asked this woman of the world, +stopping at the head of the steps and peering down into the darkness into +which he had descended. "What is the good of being afraid when one is old +and married? I was afraid enough when I was a girl, and pretty and +coquette like Mademoiselle, here. I was afraid enough then, and it was +worth my while--_allez_!" + +Barebone made no answer to this dark suggestion of a sprightly past. The +present darkness and the coming storm commanded his full attention. In +the breathless silence, Juliette and Marie--and behind them, Jean, +panting beneath the luggage balanced on his shoulder--could hear the wet +rope slipping through his fingers and, presently, the bump of the heavy +boat against the timber of the steps. + +This was followed by the gurgle of a rope through a well-greased sheave +and the square lug, which had been the joy of little Sep Marvin at +Farlingford, crept up to the truck of the stubby mast. + +"There is no wind for that," remarked Marie, pessimistically. + +"There will be to spare in a few minutes," answered Barebone, and the +monosyllabic Jean gave an acquiescent grunt. + +"Luggage first," said Barebone, lapsing into the curtness of the sea. +"Come along. Let us make haste." + +They stumbled on board as best they could, and were guided to a safe +place amidships by Loo, who had thrown a spare sail on the bottom of the +boat. + +"As low as you can," he said. "Crouch down. Cover yourselves with this. +Right over your heads." + +"But why?" grumbled Marie. + +"Listen," was all the answer he gave her. And as he spoke, the storm +rushed upon them like a train, with the roar and whirl of a locomotive. + +Loo jumped aft to the tiller. In the rush of the hail, they heard him +give a sharp order to Jean, who must have had some knowledge of the sea, +for he obeyed at once, and the boat, set free, lurched forward with a +flap of her sail, which was like the report of a cannon. For a moment, +all seemed confusion and flapping chaos, then came a sense of tenseness, +and the boat heeled over with a swish, which added a hundred-weight of +solid water to the beating of the hail on the spare sail, beneath which +the women crouched. + +"What? Did you speak?" shouted Loo, putting his face close to the canvas. + +"It is only Marie calling on the saints," was the answer, in Juliette's +laughing voice. + +In a few minutes it was over; and, even at the back of the winds, could +be heard the retreat of the hail as it crashed onward toward the valleys +of which every slope is a named vineyard, to beat down in a few wild +moments the result of careful toil and far-sighted expenditure; to wipe +out that which is unique, which no man can replace--the vintage of a +year. + +When the hail ceased beating on it, Juliette pushed back the soaked +canvas, which had covered them like a roof, and lifted her face to the +cooler air. The boat was rushing through the water, and close to +Juliette's cheek, just above the gunwale, rose a curved wave, green and +white, and all shimmering with phosphorescence, which seemed to hover +like a hawk above its prey. + +The aftermath of the storm was flying overhead in riven ribbons of cloud, +through which the stars were already peeping. To the westward the sky was +clear, and against the last faint glow of the departed sun the lightning +ran hither and thither, skipping and leaping, without sound or +cessation, like fairies dancing. + +Immediately overhead, the sail creaked and tugged at its earings, while +the wind sang its high clear song round mast and halliards. + +Juliette turned to look at Barebone. He was standing, ankle deep, in +water, leaning backward to windward, in order to give the boat every +pound of weight he could. The lambent summer-lightning on the western +horizon illuminated his face fitfully. In that moment Juliette saw what +is given to few to see and realise--though sailors, perforce, lie down to +sleep knowing it every night--that under Heaven her life was wholly and +solely in the two hands of a fellow-being. She knew it, and saw that +Barebone knew it, though he never glanced at her. She saw the whites of +his eyes gleaming as he looked up, from moment to moment, to the head of +the sail and stooped again to peer under the foot of it into the darkness +ahead. He braced himself, with one foot against the thwart, to haul in a +few inches of sheet, to which the clumsy boat answered immediately. Marie +was praying aloud now, and when she opened her eyes the sight of the +tossing figure in the stern of the boat suddenly turned her terror into +anger. + +"Ah!" she cried, "that Jean is a fool. And he, who pretends to have been +a fisherman when he was young--to let us come to our deaths like this!" + +She lifted her head, and ducked it again, as a sea jumped up under the +bow and rattled into the boat. + +"I see no ship," she cried. "Let us go back, if we can. Name of God!--we +shall be drowned! I see no ship, I tell you!" + +"But I do," answered Barebone, shaking the water from his face, for he +had no hand to spare. "But I do, which is more important. And you are not +even wet!" + +And he laughed as he brought the boat up into the wind for a few seconds, +to meet a wild gust. Juliette turned in surprise at the sound of his +voice. In the safe and gentle seclusion of the convent-school no one had +thought to teach her that death may be faced with equanimity by others +than the ordained of the Church, and that in the storm and stress of life +men laugh in strange places and at odd times. + +Loo was only thinking of his boat and watching the sky for the last of +the storm--that smack, as it were, in the face--with which the Atlantic +ends those black squalls that she sends us, not without thunder and the +curtailed lightning of northern seas. He was planning and shaping his +course; for the watchers on board "The Last Hope" had already seen him, +as he could ascertain by a second light, which suddenly appeared, swung +low, casting a gleam across the surf-strewn water, to show him where the +ladder hung overside. + +"Tell Monsieur de Gemosac that I have Mademoiselle and her maid here in +the boat," Barebone called out to Captain Clubbe, whose large face loomed +above the lantern he was holding overside, as he made fast the rope that +had been thrown across his boat and lowered the dripping sail. The water +was smooth enough under the lee of "The Last Hope," which, being deeply +laden, lay motionless at her anchor, with the stream rustling past her +cables. + +"Stand up, mademoiselle," said Barebone, himself balanced on the +after-thwart. "Hold on to me, thus, and when I let you go, let yourself +go." + +There was no time to protest or to ask questions. And Juliette felt +herself passed on from one pair of strong arms to another, until she was +standing on the deck under the humming rigging, surrounded by men who +seemed huge in their gleaming oil-skins. + +"This way, mademoiselle," said one, who was even larger than the others, +in English, of which she understood enough to catch his meaning. "I will +take you to your father. Show a light this way, one of you." + +His fingers closed round her arm, and he led her, unconscious of a +strength that almost lifted her from her feet, toward an open door, where +a lamp burnt dimly within. It smelt abominably of an untrimmed wick, +Juliette thought, and the next minute she was kissing her father, who lay +full length on a locker in the little cabin. + +She asked him a hundred questions, and waited for few of the answers. +Indeed, she supplied most of them herself; for she was very quick and +gay. + +"I see," she cried, "that your foot has been tied up by a sailor. He has +tried to mend it as if it were a broken spar. I suppose that was the +Captain who brought me to you, and then ran away again, as soon as he +could. Yes; I have Marie with me. She is telling them to be careful with +the luggage. I can hear her. I am so glad we had a case of fever at the +school. It was a lay sister, a stupid woman. But how lucky that I should +be at home just when you wanted me!" + +She stood upright again, after deftly loosening the bandage round her +father's ankle, and looked at him and laughed. + +"Poor, dear old papa," she said. "One sees that you want some one to take +care of you. And this cabin--oh! _mon Dieu_! how bare and uncomfortable! +I suppose men have to go to sea alone because they can persuade no woman +to go with them." + +She pounced upon her father again, and arranged afresh the cushions +behind his back, with a little air of patronage and protection. Her back +was turned toward the door, when some one came in, but she heard the +approaching steps and looked quickly round the cabin walls. + +"Heavens!" she exclaimed, in a gay whisper. "No looking-glass! One sees +that it is only men who live here." + +And she turned, with smiling eyes and a hand upraised to her disordered +hair, to note the new-comer. It was Dormer Colville, who laid aside his +waterproof as he came and greeted her as an old friend. He had, indeed, +known her since her early childhood, and had always succeeded in keeping +pace with her, even in the rapid changes of her last year at school. + +"Here is an adventure," he said, shaking hands. "But I can see that you +have taken no harm, and have not even been afraid. For us, it is a +pleasant surprise." + +He glanced at her with a smiling approbation, not without a delicate +suggestion of admiration, such as he might well permit himself, and she +might now even consider her due. He was only keeping pace. + +"I stayed behind to initiate your maid, who is, of course, unused to a +ship, and the steward speaks but little French. But now they are +arranging your cabin together." + +"How delightful!" cried Juliette. "I have never been on a ship before, +you know. And it is all so strange and so nice. All those big men, like +wet ghosts, who said nothing! I think they are more interesting than +women; perhaps it is because they talk less." + +"Perhaps it is," admitted Colville, with a sudden gravity, similar to +that with which she had made the suggestion. + +"You should hear the Sisters talk--when they are allowed," she said, +confidentially. + +"And whisper when they are not. I can imagine it," laughed Colville. "But +now you have left all that behind, and have come out into the world--of +men, one may say. And you have begun at once with an adventure." + +"Yes! And we are going to Bordeaux, papa and I, until his foot is well +again. Of course, I was in despair when I was first told of it, but now +that I see him I am no longer anxious. And your messenger assured me that +it was not serious." + +She paused to look round the cabin, to make sure that they were alone. + +"How strange he is!" she said to both her hearers, in confidence, looking +from one to the other with a quick, bird-like turn of the head and bright +eyes. "I have never seen any one like him." + +"No?" said Dormer Colville, encouragingly. + +"He said he was an Englishman; but, of course, he is not. He is, French, +and has not the manner of a _bourgeoie_ or a sailor. He has the manner of +an aristocrat--one would say a Royalist--like Albert de Chantonnay, only +a thousand times better." + +"Yes," said Colville, glancing at Monsieur de Gemosac. + +"More interesting, and so quick and amusing. He spoke of a heritage in +France, and yet he said he was an Englishman. I hope he will secure his +heritage." + +"Yes," murmured Colville, still looking at Monsieur de Gemosac. + +"And then, when we were in the boat," continued Juliette, still in +confidence to them both, "he changed quite suddenly. He was short and +sharp. He ordered us to do this and that; and one did it, somehow, +without question. Even Marie obeyed him without hesitating, although +she was half mad with fear. We were in danger. I knew that. Any one must +have known it. And yet I was not afraid; I wonder why? And he--he +laughed--that was all. _Mon Dieu!_ he was brave. I never knew that any +one could be so brave!" + +She broke off suddenly, with her finger to her lips; for some one had +opened the cabin door. Captain Clubbe came in, filling the whole cabin +with his bulk, and on his heels followed Loo Barebone, his face and hair +still wet and dripping. + +"Mademoiselle was wondering," said Dormer Colville, who, it seemed, was +quick to step into that silence which the object of a conversation is apt +to cause--"Mademoiselle was wondering how it was that you escaped +shipwreck in the storm." + +"Ah! because one has a star. Even a poor sailor may have a star, +mademoiselle. As well as the Prince Napoleon, who boasts that he has one +of the first magnitude, I understand." + +"You are not a poor sailor, monsieur," said Juliette. + +"Then who am I?" he asked, with a gay laugh, spreading out his hands and +standing before them, beneath the swinging lamp. + +The Marquis de Gemosac raised himself on one elbow. + +"I will tell you who you are," he said, in a low, quick voice, pointing +one hand at Loo. "I will tell you." And his voice rose. + +"You are the grandson of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. You are the Last +Hope of the French. That is your heritage. Juliette! this is the King of +France!" + +Juliette turned and looked at him, with all the colour gone from her +face. Then, instinctively, she dropped on one knee, and before he had +understood, or could stop her, had raised his hand to her lips. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE TURN OF THE TIDE + + +"Tide's a-turning, sir," said a voice at the open doorway of the cabin, +and Captain Clubbe turned his impassive face toward Dormer Colville, who +looked oddly white beneath the light of the lamp. + +Barebone had unceremoniously dragged his hand away from the hold of +Juliette's fingers. He made a step back and then turned toward the door +at the sound of his shipmate's well-known voice. He stood staring out +into the darkness like one who is walking in his sleep. No one spoke, and +through the open doorways no sound came to them but the song of the wind +through the rigging. + +At last Barebone turned, and there was no sign of fear or misgiving in +his face. He looked at Clubbe, and at no one else, as if the Captain and +he were alone in the cabin where they had passed so many years together +in fair weather, to bring out that which is evil in a man, and foul, to +evolve the good. + +"What do _you_ say?" he asked, in English, and he must have known that +Captain Clubbe understood French better than he was ready to admit. + +Clubbe passed his hand slowly across his cheek and chin, not in order to +gain time, or because he had not an answer ready, but because he came of +a slow-speaking race. His answer had been made ready weeks before while +he sat on the weather-beaten seat set against the wall of "The Black +Sailor" at Farlingford. + +"Tide's turned," he answered, simply. "You'd better get your oilskins on +again and go." + +"Yes," said Loo, with a queer laugh. "I fancy I shall want my oilskins." + +The boat which had been sent from Royan, at the order of the pilot, who +went ashore there, had followed "The Last Hope" up the river, and was now +lying under the English ship's stern awaiting her two passengers and the +turn of the tide. + +Dormer Colville glanced at the cabin clock. + +"Then," he said, briskly, "let us be going. It will be late enough as it +is before we reach my cousin's house." + +He turned and translated his remark for the benefit of the Marquis and +Juliette, remembering that they must needs fail to understand a colloquy +in the muttered and clipped English of the east coast. He was nervously +anxious, it would appear, to tide over a difficult moment; to give Loo +Barebone breathing space, and yet to avoid unnecessary question and +answer. He had not lived forty adventurous years in the world without +learning that it is the word too much which wrecks the majority of human +schemes. + +Their preparations had been made beforehand in readiness for the return +of the tide, without the help of which the voyage back to Royan against a +contrary wind must necessarily be long and wearisome. + +There was nothing to wait for. Captain Clubbe was not the man to prolong +a farewell or waste his words in wishes for the future, knowing how vain +such must always be. Loo was dazed still by the crash of the storm and +the tension of the effort to bring his boat safely through it. + +The rest had not fully penetrated to his inmost mind yet. There had been +only time to act, and none to think, and when the necessity to act was +past, when he found himself crouching down under the weather gunwale of +the French fishing-boat without even the necessity of laying hand on +sheet or tiller, when, at last, he had time to think, he found that the +ability to do so was no longer his. For Fortune, when she lifts up or +casts down, usually numbs the understanding at the first turn of her +wheel, sending her victim staggering on his way a mere machine, +astonishingly alive to the necessity of the immediate moment, careful of +the next step, but capable of looking neither forward nor backward with +an understanding eye. + +The waning moon came up at last, behind a distant line of trees on the +Charente side, lighting up with a silver lining the towering clouds of +the storm, which was still travelling eastward, leaving in its wake +battered vines and ruined crops, searing the face of the land as with a +hot iron. Loo lifted his head and looked round him. The owner of the boat +was at the tiller, while his assistant sat amidships, his elbows on his +knees, looking ahead with dreamy eyes. Close to Barebone, crouching from +the wind which blew cold from the Atlantic, was Dormer Colville, affably +silent. If Loo turned to glance at him he looked away, but when his back +was turned Loo was conscious of watching eyes, full of sympathy, almost +uncomfortably quick to perceive the inward working of another's mind, and +suit his own thereto. + +Thus the boat plunged out toward the sea and the flickering lights that +mark the channel, tacking right across to that spit of land lying between +the Gironde and the broad Atlantic, where grows a wine without match in +all the world. Thus Loo Barebone turned his back on the ship which had +been his home so long and set out into a new world; a new and unknown +life, with the Marquis de Gemosac's ringing words buzzing in his brain +yet; with the warm touch of Juliette's lips burning still upon his hand. + +"You are the grandson of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette! You are the Last +Hope of France!" + +And he remembered the lights and shadows on Juliette's hair as he looked +down upon her bent head. + +Colville was talking to the "patron" now. He knew the coast, it seemed, +and, somewhere or other, had learnt enough of such matters of local +seafaring interest as to set the fisherman at his ease and make him talk. + +They were arranging where to land, and Colville was describing the exact +whereabouts of a little jetty used for bathing purposes, which ran out +from the sandy shore, quite near to Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence's house, in +the pine-trees, two miles south of Royan. It was no easy matter to find +this spot by the dim light of a waning moon, and, half-mechanically, Loo +joined in the search, and presently, when the jetty was reached, helped +to make fast in a choppy sea. + +They left the luggage on the jetty and walked across the silent sand side +by side. + +"There," said Colville, pointing forward. "It is through that opening in +the pine-trees. A matter of five minutes and we shall be at my cousin's +house." + +"It is very kind of Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence," answered Barebone, +"to--well, to take me up. I suppose that is the best way to look at it." + +Colville laughed quietly. + +"Yes--put it thus, if you like," he said. They walked on in silence for a +few yards, and then Dormer Colville slipped his hand within his +companion's arm, as was the fashion among men even in England in those +more expansive days. + +"I think I know how you feel," he said, suiting his step to Barebone's. +"You must feel like a man who is set down to a table to play a game of +which he knows nothing, and on taking up his cards finds that he holds a +hand all courtcards and trumps--and he doesn't know how to play them." + +Barebone made no answer. He had yet to unlearn Captain Clubbe's +unconscious teaching that a man's feelings are his own concern and no +other has any interest or right to share in them, except one woman, and +even she must guess the larger half. + +"But as the game progresses," went on Colville, reassuringly, "you will +find out how it is played. You will even find that you are a skilled +player, and then the gambler's spirit will fire your blood and arouse +your energies. You will discover what a damned good game it is. The great +game--Barebone--the great game! And France is the country to play it in." + +He stamped his foot on the soil of France as he spoke. + +"The moment I saw you I knew that you would do. No man better fitted to +play the game than yourself; for you have wit and quickness," went on +this friend and mentor, with a little pressure on his companion's arm. +"But--you will have to put your back into it, you know." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Well--I noticed at Farlingford a certain reluctance to begin. It is in +the blood, I suppose. There is, you know, in the Bourbon blood a certain +strain of--well, let us say of reluctance to begin. Others call it by a +different name. One is not a Bourbon for nothing, I suppose. And +everything--even if it be a vice--that serves to emphasise identity is to +be cultivated. But, as I say, you will have to put your back into it +later on. At present there will be less to do. You will have to play +close and hold your hand, and follow any lead that is given you by de +Gemosac, or by my humble self. You will find that easy enough, I know. +For you have all a Frenchman's quickness to understand. And I suppose--to +put it plainly as between men of the world--now that you have had time to +think it over--you are not afraid, Barebone?" + +"Oh no!" laughed Barebone. "I am not afraid." + +"One is not a Barebone--or a Bourbon--for nothing," observed Colville, in +an aside to himself. "Gad! I wish I could say that I should not be afraid +myself under similar circumstances. My heart was in my mouth, I can tell +you, in that cabin when de Gemosac blurted it all out. It came suddenly +at the end, and--well!--it rather hit one in the wind. And, as I say, one +is not a Bourbon for nothing. You come into a heritage, eight hundred +years old, of likes and dislikes, of genius and incapacity, of an +astounding cleverness, and a preposterous foolishness without compare in +the history of dynasties. But that doesn't matter nowadays. This is a +progressive age, you know; even the Bourbons cannot hold back the advance +of the times." + +"I come into a heritage of friends and of enemies," said Barebone, +gaily--"all ready made. That seems to me more important." + +"Gad! you are right," exclaimed Colville. "I said you would do the moment +I saw you step ashore at Farlingford. You have gone right to the heart of +the question at the first bound. It is your friends and your enemies that +will give you trouble." + +"More especially my friends," suggested Loo, with a light laugh. + +"Right again," answered Colville, glancing at him sideways beneath the +brim of his hat. And there was a little pause before he spoke again. + +"You have probably learnt how to deal with your enemies at sea," he said +thoughtfully at length. "Have you ever noticed how an English ship comes +into a foreign harbour and takes her berth at her moorings? There is +nothing more characteristic of the nation. And one captain is like +another. No doubt you have seen Clubbe do it a hundred times. He comes +in, all sail set, and steers straight for the berth he has chosen. And +there are always half a dozen men in half a dozen small boats who go out +to meet him. They stand up and wave their arms, and point this way and +that. They ask a hundred questions, and with their hands round their +faces, shout their advice. And in answer to one and the other the Captain +looks over the side and says, 'You be damned.' That will be the way to +deal with some of your friends and all your enemies alike, Barebone, if +you mean to get on in France. You will have to look over the side at the +people in small boats who are shouting and say, 'You be damned.'" + +They were at the gate of a house now, set down in a clearing amid the +pine-trees. + +"This is my cousin's house," said Dormer Colville. "It is to be your home +for the present. And you need not scruple, as she will tell you, to +consider it so. It is not a time to think of obligations, you understand, +or to consider that you are running into any one's debt. You may remember +that afterward, perhaps, but that is as may be. For the present there is +no question of obligations. We are all in the same boat--all playing the +same game." + +And he laughed below his breath as he closed the gate with caution; for +it was late and the house seemed to hold none but sleepers. + +"As for my cousin herself," he continued, as they went toward the door, +"you will find her easy to get on with--a clever woman, and a +good-looking one. _Du reste_--it is not in that direction that your +difficulties will lie. You will find it easy enough to get on with the +women of the party, I fancy--from what I have observed." + +And again he seemed to be amused. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE GAMBLERS + + +In a sense, politics must always represent the game that is most +attractive to the careful gambler. For one may play at it without having +anything to lose. It is one of the few games within the reach of the +adventurous, where no stake need be cast upon the table. The gambler who +takes up a political career plays to win or not to win. He may jump up +from the gutter and shout that he is the man of the moment, without +offering any proof of his assertion beyond the loudness of a strident +voice. And if no one listens to him he loses nothing but his breath. + +And in France the man who shouts loudest is almost certain to have the +largest following. In England the same does not yet hold good, but the +day seems to be approaching when it will. + +In France, ever since the great Revolution, men have leapt up from the +gutter to grasp the reins of power. Some, indeed, have sprung from the +gutter of a palace, which is no more wholesome, it would appear, than the +drain of any street, or a ditch that carries off the refuse of a cheap +Press. + +There are certain rooms in the north wing of the Louvre, in Paris, rooms +having windows facing across the Rue de Rivoli toward the Palais Royal, +where men must have sat in the comfortable leather-covered chair of the +High Official and laughed at the astounding simplicity of the French +people. But he laughs best who laughs last, and the People will +assuredly be amused in a few months, or a few years, at the very sudden +and very humiliating discomfiture of a gentleman falling face-foremost +into the street or hanging forlornly from a lamp-post at the corner of +it. For some have quitted these comfortable chairs, in these quiet +double-windowed rooms overlooking the Rue de Rivoli, for no better fate. + +It was in the August of 1850 that a stout gentleman, seated in one of +these comfortable chairs, succumbed so far to the warmth of the palace +corridors as to fall asleep. He was not in the room of a high official, +but in the waiting-room attached to it. + +He knew, moreover, that the High Official himself was scarcely likely to +dismiss a previous visitor or a present occupation any the earlier for +being importuned; for he was aware of the official's antecedents, and +knew that a Jack-in-office, who has shouted himself into office, is +nearly always careful to be deaf to other voices than his own. + +Moreover, Mr. John Turner was never pressed for time. + +"Yes," he had been known to say, "I was in Paris in '48. Never missed a +meal." + +Whereas others, with much less at stake than this great banker, had +omitted not only meals, but their night's rest--night after night--in +those stirring times. + +John Turner was still asleep when the door leading to the Minister's room +was cautiously opened, showing an inner darkness such as prevails in an +alcove between double doors. The door opened a little wider. No doubt the +peeping eye had made sure that the occupant of the waiting-room was +asleep. On the threshold stood a man of middle height, who carried +himself with a certain grace and quiet dignity. He was pale almost to +sallowness, a broad face with a kind mouth and melancholy eyes, without +any light in them. The melancholy must have been expressed rather by the +lines of the brows than by the eye itself, for this was without life or +expression--the eye of a man who is either very short-sighted or is +engaged in looking through that which he actually sees, to something he +fancies he perceives beyond it. + +His lips smiled, but the smile died beneath a neatly waxed moustache and +reached no higher on the mask-like face. Then he disappeared in the outer +darkness between the two doors, and the handle made no noise in turning. + +In a few minutes an attendant, in a gay uniform, came in by the same +door, without seeking to suppress the clatter of his boots on the oak +floor. + +"Holà! monsieur," he said, in a loud voice. And Mr. John Turner crossed +his legs and leant farther back in the chair, preparatory to opening his +eyes, which he did directly on the new-comer's face, without any of that +vague flitting hither and thither of glance which usually denotes the +sleeper surprised. + +The eyes were of a clear blue, and Mr. Turner looked five years younger +with them open than with them shut. But he was immensely stout. + +"Well, my friend," he said, soothingly; for the Minister's attendant had +a truculent ministerial manner. "Why so much noise?" + +"The Minister will see you." + +John Turner yawned and reached for his hat. + +"The Minister is pressed for time." + +"So was I," replied the Englishman, who spoke perfect French, "when I +first sat down here, half an hour ago. But even haste will pass in time." + +He rose, and followed the servant into the inner room, where he returned +the bow of a little white-bearded gentleman seated at a huge desk. + +"Well, sir," said this gentleman, with the abrupt manner which has come +to be considered Napoleonic on the stage or in the political world +to-day. "Your business?" + +The servant had withdrawn, closing the door behind him with an emphasis +of the self-accusatory sort. + +"I am a banker," replied John Turner, looking with an obese deliberation +toward one of the deep windows, where, half-concealed by the heavy +curtain, a third person stood gazing down into the street. + +The Minister smiled involuntarily, forgetting his dignity of a two-years' +growth. + +"Oh, you may speak before Monsieur," he said. + +"But I am behind him," was the immediate reply. + +The gentleman leaning against the window-breast did not accept this +somewhat obvious invitation to show his face. He must have heard it, +however, despite an absorption which was probably chronic; for he made a +movement to follow with his glance the passage of some object of interest +in the street below. And the movement seemed to supply John Turner with +the information he desired. + +"Yes, I am a banker," he said, more genially. + +The Minister gave a short laugh. + +"Monsieur," he said, "every one in Europe knows that. Proceed." + +"And I only meddle in politics when I see the possibility of making an +honest penny." + +"Already made--that honest penny--if one may believe the gossip--of +Europe," said the Minister. "So many pence that it is whispered that you +do not know what to do with them." + +"It is unfortunate," admitted Turner, "that one can only dine once a +day." + +The little gentleman in office had more than once invited his visitor to +be seated, indicating by a gesture the chair placed ready for him. After +a slow inspection of its legs, Mr. John Turner now seated himself. It +would seem that he, at the same time, tacitly accepted the invitation to +ignore the presence of a third person. + +"Since you seem to know all about me," he said, "I will not waste any +more of your time, or mine, by trying to make you believe that I am +eminently respectable. The business that brought me here, however, is of +a political nature. A plain man, like myself, only touches politics when +he sees his gain clearly. There are others who enter that field from +purer motives, I am told. I have not met them." + +The Minister smiled on one side of his face, and all of it went white. He +glanced uncomfortably at that third person, whom he had suggested +ignoring. + +"And yet," went on John Turner, very dense or greatly daring, "I have +lived many years in France, Monsieur le Ministre." + +The Minister frowned at him, and made a quick gesture of one hand toward +the window. + +"So long," pursued the Englishman, placidly, "as the trains start +punctually, and there is not actually grape-shot in the streets, and one +may count upon one's dinner at the hour, one form of government in this +country seems to me to be as good as another, Monsieur le Ministre. A +Bourbon Monarchy or an Orleans Monarchy, or a Republic, or--well, an +Empire, Monsieur le Ministre." + +"_Mon Dieu!_ have you come here to tell me this?" cried the Minister, +impatiently, glancing over his shoulder toward the window, and with one +hand already stretched out toward the little bell standing on his desk. + +"Yes," answered Turner, leaning forward to draw the bell out of reach. He +nodded his head with a friendly smile, and his fat cheeks shook. "Yes, +and other things as well. Some of those other matters are perhaps even +more worthy of your earnest attention. It is worth your while to listen. +More especially, as you are paid for it--by the hour." + +He laughed inside himself, with a hollow sound, and placidly crossed his +legs. + +"Yes; I came to tell you, firstly, that the present form of government, +and, er--any other form which may evolve from it--" + +"Oh!--proceed, monsieur!" exclaimed the Minister, hastily, while the man +in the recess of the window turned and looked over his shoulder at John +Turner's profile with a smile, not unkind, on his sphinx-like face. + +"--has the inestimable advantage of my passive approval. That is why I am +here, in fact. I should be sorry to see it upset." + +He broke off, and turned laboriously in his chair to look toward the +window, as if the gaze of the expressionless eyes there had tickled the +back of his neck like a fly. But by the time the heavy banker had got +round, the curtain had fallen again in its original folds. + +"--by a serious Royalist plot," concluded Turner, in his thick, +deliberate way. + +"So, assuredly, would any patriot or any true friend of France," said the +Minister, in his best declamatory manner. + +"Um--m. That is out of my depth," returned the Englishman, bluntly. "I +paddle about in the shallow water at the edge and pick up what I can, you +understand. I am too fat for a _voyant_ bathing-costume, and the deep +waters beyond, Monsieur le Ministre." + +The Minister drummed impatiently on his desk with his five fingers, and +looked at Turner sideways beneath his brows. + +"Royalist plots are common enough," he said, tentatively, after a pause. + +"Not a Royalist plot with money in it," was the retort. "I dare say an +honest politician, like yourself, is aware that in France it is always +safe to ignore the conspirator who has no money, and always dangerous to +treat with contempt him who jingles a purse. There is only a certain +amount of money in the world, Monsieur le Ministre, and we bankers +usually know where it is. I do not mean the money that the world pours +into its own stomach. That is always afloat--changing hands daily. I mean +the Great Reserves. We watch those, you understand. And if one of the +Great Reserves, or even one of the smaller reserves, moves, we wonder why +it is being moved and we nearly always find out." + +"One supposes," said the Minister, hazarding an opinion for the first +time, and he gave it with a sidelong glance toward the window, "that it +is passing from the hands of a financier possessing money into those of +one who has none." + +"Precisely. And if a financier possessing money is persuaded to part with +it in such a quarter as you suggest, one may conclude that he has good +reason to anticipate a substantial return for the loan. You, who are a +brilliant collaborateur in the present government, should know that, if +any one does, Monsieur le Ministre." + +The Minister glanced toward the window, and then gave a good-natured and +encouraging laugh, quite unexpectedly, just as if he had been told to do +so by the silent man looking down into the street, who may, indeed, have +had time to make a gesture. + +"And," pursued the banker, "if a financier possessing money parts with +it--or, to state the case more particularly, if a financier possessing no +money, to my certain knowledge, suddenly raises it from nowhere definite, +for the purposes of a Royalist conspiracy, the natural conclusion is that +the Royalists have got hold of something good." + +John Turner leant back in his chair and suppressed a yawn. + +"This room is very warm," he said, producing a pocket-handkerchief. Which +was tantamount to a refusal to say more. + +The Minister twisted the end of his moustache in reflection. It was at +this time the fashion in France to wear the moustache waxed. Indeed, men +displayed thus their political bias to all whom it might concern. + +"There remains nothing," said the official at length, with a gracious +smile, "but to ask your terms." + +For he who was afterward Napoleon the Third had introduced into French +political and social life a plain-spoken cynicism which characterises +both to this day. + +"Easy," replied Turner. "You will find them easy. Firstly, I would ask +that your stupid secret police keeps its fingers out; secondly, that +leniency be assured to one person, a client of mine--the woman who +supplies the money--who is under the influence--well, that influence +which makes women do nobler and more foolish things, monsieur, than men +are capable of." + +He rose as he spoke, collected his hat and stick, and walked slowly to +the door. With his hand on the handle, he paused. + +"You can think about it," he said, "and let me know at your leisure. By +the way, there is one more point, Monsieur le Ministre. I would ask you +to let this matter remain a secret, known only to our two selves and--the +Prince President." + +And John Turner went out, without so much as a glance toward the window. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +ON THE PONT ROYAL + + +It would appear that John Turner had business south of the Seine, though +his clients were few in the Faubourg St. Germain. For this placid British +banker was known to be a good hater. His father before him, it was said, +had had dealings with the Bourbons, while many a great family of the +Emigration would have lost more than the esteem of their fellows in their +panic-stricken flight, had it not been that one cool-headed and calm man +of business stayed at his post through the topsy-turvy days of the +Terror, and did his duty by the clients whom he despised. + +On quitting the Louvre, by the door facing the Palais Royal, Turner moved +to the left. To say that he walked would be to overstate the action of +his little stout legs, which took so short a stride that his progress +suggested wheels and some one pushing behind. He turned to the left +again, and ambled under the great arch, to take the path passing behind +the Tuileries. + +His stoutness was, in a sense, a safeguard in streets where the +travelling Englishman, easily recognised, has not always found a welcome. +His clothes and his walk were studiously French. Indeed, no one, passing +by with a casual glance, would have turned to look a second time at a +figure so typical of the Paris streets. + +Mr. Turner quitted the enclosure of the Tuileries gardens and crossed the +quay toward the Pont Royal. But he stopped short under the trees by the +river wall, with a low whistle of surprise. Crossing the bridge, toward +him, and carrying a carpet-bag of early Victorian design, was Mr. +Septimus Marvin, rector of Farlingford, in Suffolk. + +After a moment's thought, John Turner went toward the bridge, and +stationed himself on the pavement at the corner. The pavement is narrow, +and Turner was wide. In order to pass him, Septimus Marvin would need to +step into the road. This he did, without resentment; with, indeed, a +courtly and vague inclination of the head toward the human obstruction. + +"Look here, Sep," said Turner, "you are not going to pass an old +schoolfellow like that." + +Septimus Marvin lurched onward one or two steps, with long loose strides. +Then he clutched his carpet-bag with both hands and looked back at his +interlocutor, with the scared eyes of a detected criminal. This gave +place to the habitual gentle smile when, at last, the recognition was +complete. + +"What have you got there?" asked Turner, pointing with his stick at the +carpet-bag. "A kitten?" + +"No--no," replied Marvin, looking this way and that, to make sure that +none could overhear. + +"A Nanteuil--engraved from his own drawing, Jack--a real Nanteuil. I have +just been to a man I know--the print-shop opposite the statue on the Quai +Voltaire--to have my own opinion verified. I was sure of it. He says that +I am undoubtedly right. It is a genuine Nanteuil--a proof before +letters." + +"Ah! And you have just picked it up cheap? Picked it up, eh?" + +"No, no, quite the contrary," Marvin replied, in a confidential whisper. + +"Stolen--dear, dear! I am sorry to hear that, Septimus." + +And Septimus Marvin broke into the jerky, spasmodic laugh of one who has +not laughed for long--perhaps for years. + +"Ah, Jack," he said; "you are still up to a joke." + +"Well, I should hope so. We are quite close to my club. Come, and have +luncheon, and tell me all about it." + +So the Social and Sporting Club, renowned at that day for its matchless +cuisine and for nothing else of good repute at all, entertained an angel +unawares, and was much amused at Septimus Marvin's appearance, although +the amusement was not apparent. The members, it would appear, were +gentlemen of that good school of old France which, like many good things +both French and English, is fast disappearing. And with all those faults, +which we are so ready to perceive in any Frenchman, there is none on +earth who will conceal from you so effectually the fact that in his heart +he is vastly amused. + +It was with some difficulty that Septimus was persuaded to consign his +carpet-bag to the custody of the hall-porter. + +"If it wasn't a Nanteuil," he explained in a whisper to his friend, "I +should have no hesitation; for I am sure the man is honest and in every +way to be relied upon. But a Nanteuil--_ad vivum_--Jack. There are none +like him. It is priceless." + +"You used not to be a miser," said Turner, panting on the stairs, when at +last the bag was concealed in a safe place. "What matter what the value +may be, so long as you like it?" + +"Oh! but the value is of great importance," answered Septimus, rather +sheepishly. + +"Then you have changed a good deal since you and I were at Ipswich school +together. There, sit down at this table. I suppose you are hungry. I hope +you are. Try and think--there's a good fellow--and remember that they +have the best cook in Paris here. Their morals ain't of the first water, +but their cook is without match. Yes, you have changed a good deal, if +you think of money." + +Septimus Marvin had changed colour, at all events, in the last few +minutes. + +"I have to, Jack, I have to. That is the truth of it. I have come to +Paris to sell that Nanteuil. To realise, I suppose you would call it in +the financial world. _Pro aris et focis_, old friend. I want money for +the altar and the hearth. It has come to that. I cannot ask them in +Farlingford for more money, for I know they have none. And the church is +falling about our ears. The house wants painting. It is going the way of +the church, indeed." + +"Ah!" said Turner, glancing at him over the bill of fare. "So you have to +sell an engraving. It goes to the heart, I suppose?" + +Marvin laughed and rubbed his spare hands together, with an assumption of +cheerfulness in which some one less stout and well-to-do than his +companion might have perceived that dim minor note of pathos, which +always rings somewhere in a forced laugh. + +"One has to face it," he replied. "_Ne cedas malis_, you know. I suddenly +found it was necessary. It was forced upon me, in fact. I found that my +niece was secretly helping to make both ends meet. A generous action, +made doubly generous by the manner in which it was performed." + +"Miriam?" put in John Turner, who appeared to be absorbed in the +all-important document before him. + +"Yes, Miriam. Do you know her? Ah! I forgot. You are her guardian and +trustee. I sometimes think my memory is failing. I found her out quite by +accident. It must have been going on for quite a long time. Heaven will +reward her, Turner! One cannot doubt it." + +He absent-mindedly seized two pieces of bread from the basket offered to +him by a waiter, and began to eat as if famished. + +"Steady, man, steady," exclaimed Turner, leaning forward with a +horror-stricken face to restrain him. "Don't spoil a grand appetite on +bread. Gad! I wish I could fall on my food like that. You seem to be +starving." + +"I think I forgot to have any breakfast," said Marvin, apologetically. + +"I dare say you did!" was the angry retort. "You always were a bit of an +ass, you know, Sep. But I have ordered a tiptop luncheon, and I'll +trouble you not to wolf like that." + +"Well--well, I'm sorry," said the other, who, even in the far-off days at +Ipswich school, had always been in the clouds, while John Turner moved +essentially on the earth. + +"And do not sell that Nanteuil to the first bidder," went on Turner, with +a glance, of which the keenness was entirely disarmed by the good-natured +roundness of his huge cheeks. "I know a man who will buy it--at a good +price, too. Where did you get it?" + +"Ah! that is a long story," replied Marvin, looking dreamily out of the +window. "I bought it, years ago, at Farlingford. But it is a long story." + +"Then tell it, slowly. While I eat this _sole à la Normande_. I see +you've nearly finished yours, and I have scarcely begun." + +It was a vague and disjointed enough story, as related by Septimus +Marvin. And it was the story of Loo Barebone's father. As it progressed +John Turner grew redder and redder in the face, while he drank glass +after glass of Burgundy. + +"A queer story," he ejaculated, breathlessly. "Go on. And you bought this +engraving from the man himself, before he died? Did he tell you where he +got it? It is the portrait of a woman, you say." + +"Portrait of a woman--yes, yes. But he did not know who she was. And I do +not know whether I gave him enough for it. Do you think I did, Jack?" + +"I do not know how much you gave him, but I have no doubt that it was too +much. Where did he get it?" + +"He thinks it was brought from France by his mother, or the woman who was +supposed in Farlingford to be his mother--together with other papers, +which he burnt, I believe." + +"And then he died?" + +"Yes--yes. He died--but he left a son." + +"The devil he did! Why did you not mention that before? Where is the son? +Tell me all about him, while I see how they've served this _langue +fourrée_, which should be eaten slowly; though it is too late to remind +you of that now. Go on. Tell me all about the son." + +And before the story of Loo Barebone was half told, John Turner laid +aside his knife and fork and turned his attention to the dissection of +this ill-told tale. As the story neared its end, he glanced round the +room, to make sure that none was listening to their conversation. + +"Dormer Colville," he repeated. "Does he come into it?" + +"He came to Farlingford with the Marquis de Gemosac, out of pure +good-nature--because the Marquis could speak but little English. He is a +charming man. So unselfish and disinterested." + +"Who? The Marquis?" + +"No; Dormer Colville." + +"Oh yes!" said John Turner, returning to the cold tongue. "Yes; a +charming fellow." + +And he glanced again at his friend, with a queer smile. When luncheon was +finished, Turner led the way to a small smoking-room, where they would be +alone, and sent a messenger to fetch Septimus Marvin's bag from +downstairs. + +"We will have a look at your precious engraving," he said, "while we +smoke a cigar. It is, I suppose, a relic of the Great Monarchy, and I may +tell you that there is rather a small demand just now for relics of that +period. It would be wiser not to take it into the open market. I think my +client would give you as good a price as any; and I suppose you want to +get as much as you can for it now that you have made up your mind to the +sacrifice?" + +Marvin suppressed a sigh, and rubbed his hands together with that forced +jocularity which had made his companion turn grave once before. + +"Oh, I mean to drive a hard bargain, I can tell you!" was the reply, with +an assumption of worldly wisdom on a countenance little calculated to +wear that expression naturally. + +"What did your friend in the print-shop on the Quai Voltaire mention as a +probable price?" asked Turner, carelessly. + +"Well, he said he might be able to sell it for me at four thousand +francs. I would not hear of his running any risk in the matter, however. +Such a good fellow, he is. So honest." + +"Yes, he is likely to be that," said Turner, with his broad smile. He was +a little sleepy after a heavy luncheon, and sipped his coffee with a +feeling of charity toward his fellow-men. "You would find lots of honest +men in the Quai Voltaire, Sep. I will tell you what I will do. Give me +the print, and I will do my best for you. Would ten thousand francs help +you out of your difficulties?" + +"I do not remember saying that I was in difficulties," objected the +Reverend Septimus, with heightened colour. + +"Don't you? Memory _is_ bad, is it not? Would ten thousand francs paint +the rectory, then?" + +"It would ease my mind and sweeten my sleep at night to have half that +sum, my friend. With two hundred pounds I could face the world _aequo +animo_." + +"I will see what I can do. This is the print, is it? I don't know much +about such things myself, but I should put the price down at ten thousand +francs." + +"But the man in the Quai Voltaire?" + +"Precisely. I know little about prints, but a lot about the Quai +Voltaire. Who is the lady? I presume it is a portrait?" + +"It is a portrait, but I cannot identify the original. To an expert of +that period it should not be impossible, however." Septimus Marvin was +all awake now, with flushed cheeks and eyes brightened by enthusiasm. "Do +you know why? Because her hair is dressed in a peculiar way--_poufs de +sentiment_, these curls are called. They were only worn for a brief +period. In those days the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau had a certain +vogue among the idle classes. The women showed their sentiments in the +dressing of their hair. Very curious--very curious. And here, in the +hair, half-concealed, is an imitation dove's nest." + +"The deuce there is!" ejaculated Turner, pulling at his cigar. + +"A fashion which ruled for a still briefer period." + +"I should hope so. Well, roll the thing up, and I will do my best for +you. I'm less likely to be taken in than you are, perhaps. If I sell it, +I will send you a cheque this evening. It is a beautiful face." + +"Yes," agreed Septimus Marvin, with, a sharp sigh. "It is a beautiful +face." + +And he slowly rolled up his most treasured possession, which John Turner +tucked under his arm. On the Pont Royal they parted company. + +"By the way," said John Turner, after they had shaken hands, "You never +told me what sort of a man this young fellow is--this Loo Barebone?" + +"The dearest fellow in the world," answered Marvin, with eyes aglow +behind his spectacles. "To me he has been as a son--an elder brother, as +it were, to little Sep. I was already an elderly man, you know, when Sep +was born. Too old, perhaps. Who knows? Heaven's way is not always marked +very clearly." + +He nodded vaguely and went away a few paces. Then he remembered something +and came back. + +"I don't know if I ought to speak of such a thing. But I quite hoped, at +one time, that Miriam might one day recognise his goodness of heart." + +"What?" interrupted Turner. "The mate of a coasting schooner!" + +"He is more than that, my friend," answered Septimus Marvin, nodding his +head slowly, so that the sun flashed on his spectacles in such a manner +as to make Turner blink. Then he turned away again and crossed the +bridge, leaving the English banker at the corner of it, still blinking. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE CITY THAT SOON FORGETS + + +There are in humble life some families which settle their domestic +differences on the doorstep, while the neighbours, gathered hastily by +the commotion, tiptoe behind each other to watch the fun. In the European +congerie France represents this loud-voiced household, and Paris--Paris, +the city that soon forgets--is the doorstep whereon they wrangle. + +The bones of contention may be pitched far and wide by the chances and +changes of exile, but the contending dogs bark and yap in Paris. At this +time there lived, sometimes in Italy, sometimes at Frohsdorf, a jovial +young gentleman, fond of sport and society, cultivating the tastes and +enjoying the easy existence of a country-gentleman of princely rank--the +Comte de Chambord. Son of that Duchesse de Berri who tried to play a +great part and failed, he was married to an Italian princess and had no +children. He was, therefore, the last of the Bourbons, and passed in +Europe as such. But he did not care. Perhaps his was the philosophy of +the indolent which saith that some one must be last and why not I? + +Nevertheless, there ran in his veins some energetic blood. On his +father's side he was descended from sixty-six kings of France. From his +mother he inherited a relationship to many makers of history. For the +Duchesse de Berri's grandmother was the sister of Marie Antoinette. Her +mother was aunt to that Empress of the French, Marie Louise, who was a +notable exception to the rule that "Bon sang ne peut mentir." Her father +was a king of Sicily and Naples. She was a Bourbon married to a Bourbon. +When she was nineteen she gave birth to a daughter, who died next day. In +a year she had a son who died in twenty hours. Two years later her +husband died in her arms, assassinated, in a back room of the Opera House +in Paris. + +Seven months after her husband's death she gave birth to the Comte de +Chambord, the last of the old Bourbons. She was active, energetic and of +boundless courage. She made a famous journey through La Vendée on +horseback to rally the Royalists. She urged her father-in-law, Charles X, +to resist the revolution. She was the best Royalist of them all. And her +son was the Comte de Chambord, who could have been a king if he had not +been a philosopher, or a coward. + +He was waiting till France called him with one voice. As if France had +ever called for anything with one voice! + +Amid the babel there rang out not a few voices for the younger branch of +the Royal line--the Orleans. Louis Philippe--king for eighteen years--was +still alive, living in exile at Claremont. Two years earlier, in the rush +of the revolution of 1848, he had effected his escape to Newhaven. The +Orleans always seek a refuge in England, and always turn and abuse that +country when they can go elsewhere in safety. And England is not one +penny the worse for their abuse, and no man or country was ever yet one +penny the better for their friendship. + +Louis Philippe had been called to the throne by the people of France. His +reign of eighteen years was marked by one great deed. He threw open the +Palace of Versailles--which was not his--to the public. And then the +people who called him in, hooted him out. His life had been attempted +many times. All the other kings hated him and refused to let their +daughters marry his sons. He and his sons were waiting at Claremont while +the talkers in Paris talked their loudest. + +There was a third bone of contention--the Imperial line. At this time the +champions of this morsel were at the summit; for a Bonaparte was riding +on the top of the revolutionary scrimmage. + +By the death of the great Napoleon's only child, the second son of his +third brother became the recognised claimant to the Imperial crown. + +For France has long ceased to look to the eldest son as the rightful +heir. There is, in fact, a curse on the first-born of France. Napoleon's +son, the King of Rome, died in exile, an Austrian. The Duc de Bordeaux, +born eight years after him, never wore the crown, and died in exile, +childless. The Comte de Paris, born also at the Tuileries, was exiled +when he was ten years old, and died in England. All these, of one +generation. And of the next, the Prince Imperial, hurried out of France +in 1870, perished on the Veldt. The King of Rome lies in his tomb at +Vienna, the Duc de Bordeaux at Göritz, the Comte de Paris at Weybridge, +the Prince Imperial at Farnborough. These are the heirs of France, born +in the palace of the Tuileries. How are they cast upon the waters of the +world! And where the palace of the Tuileries once stood the pigeons now +call to each other beneath the trees, while, near at hand, lolls on the +public seat he whom France has always with her, the _vaurien_--the +worth-nothing. + +So passes the glory of the world. It is not a good thing to be born in a +palace, nor to live in one. + +It was in the Rue Lafayette that John Turner had his office, and when he +emerged from it into that long street on the evening of the 25th of +August, 1850, he ran against, or he was rather run against by, the +newsboy who shrieked as he pattered along in lamentable boots and waved a +sheet in the face of the passer: "The King is dead! The King is dead!" + +And Paris--the city that soon forgets--smiled and asked what King? + +Louis Philippe was dead in England, at the age of seventy-seven, the +bad son of a bad father, another of those adventurers whose happy +hunting-ground always has been, always will be, France. + +John Turner, like many who are slow in movement, was quick in thought. He +perceived at once that the death of Louis Philippe left the field open to +the next adventurer; for he left behind him no son of his own mettle. + +Turner went back to his office, where the pen with which he had signed a +cheque for four hundred pounds, payable to the Reverend Septimus Marvin, +was still wet; where, at the bottom of the largest safe, the portrait of +an unknown lady of the period of Louis XVI lay concealed. He wrote out a +telegram to Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, addressed to her at her villa near +Royan, and then proceeded to his dinner with the grave face of the +careful critic. + +The next morning he received the answer, at his breakfast-table, in the +apartment he had long occupied in the Avenue d'Antin. But he did not open +the envelope. He had telegraphed to Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, asking if +it would be convenient for her to put him up for a few days. And he +suspected that it would not. + +"When I am gone," he said to his well-trained servant, "put that into an +envelope and send it after me to the Villa Cordouan, Royan. Pack my +portmanteau for a week." + +Thus John Turner set out southward to join a party of those Royalists +whom his father before him had learnt to despise. And in a manner he was +pre-armed; for he knew that he would not be welcome. It was in those days +a long journey, for the railway was laid no farther than Tours, from +whence the traveller must needs post to La Rochelle, and there take a +boat to Royan--that shallow harbour at the mouth of the Gironde. + +"Must have a change--of cooking," he explained to Mrs. St. Pierre +Lawrence. "Doctor says I am getting too stout." + +He shook her deliberately by the hand without appearing to notice her +blank looks. + +"So I came south and shall finish up at Biarritz, which they say is going +to be fashionable. I hope it is not inconvenient for you to give me a +bed--a solid one--for a night or two." + +"Oh no!" answered Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, who had charming manners, and +was one of those fortunate persons who are never at a loss. "Did you not +receive my telegram?" + +"Telling me you were counting the hours till my arrival?" + +"Well," admitted Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, wisely reflecting that he +would ultimately see the telegram, "hardly so fervent as that--" + +"Good Lord!" interrupted Turner, looking behind her toward the veranda, +which was cool and shady, where two men were seated near a table bearing +coffee-cups. "Who is that?" + +"Which?" asked Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, without turning to follow the +direction of his glance. "Oh! one is Dormer Colville, I see that. But the +other--gad!" + +"Why do you say gad?" asked the lady, with surprise. + +"Where did he get that face from?" was the reply. + +Turner took off his hat and mopped his brow; for it was very hot and the +August sun was setting over a copper sea. + +"Where we all get our faces from, I suppose!" answered Mrs. St. Pierre +Lawrence, with her easy laugh. She was always mistress of the situation. +"The heavenly warehouse, one supposes. His name is Barebone. He is a +friend of Dormer's." + +"Any friend of Dormer Colville's commands my interest." + +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence glanced quickly at her companion beneath the +shade of her lace-trimmed parasol. + +"What do you mean by that?" she asked, in a voice suddenly hard and +resentful. + +"That he chooses his friends well," returned the banker, with his +guileless smile. His face was bovine, and in the heat of summer apt to be +shiny. No one would attribute an inner meaning to a stout person thus +outwardly brilliant. Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence appeared to be mollified, +and turned toward the house with a gesture inviting him to walk with her. + +"I will be frank with you," she said. "I telegraphed to tell you that the +Villa Cordouan is for the moment unfortunately filled with guests." + +"What matter? I will go to the hotel. In fact, I told the driver of my +carriage to wait for further orders. I half feared that at this time of +year, you know, house would be full. I'll just shake hands with Colville +and then be off. You will let me come in after dinner, perhaps. You and I +must have a talk about money, you will remember." + +There was no time to answer; for Dormer Colville, perceiving their +approach, was already hurrying down the steps of the veranda to meet +them. He laughed as he came, for John Turner's bulk made him a laughing +matter in the eyes of most men, and his good humour seemed to invite them +to frank amusement. + +The greeting was, therefore, jovial enough on both sides, and after being +introduced to Loo Barebone, Mr. Turner took his leave without farther +defining his intentions for the evening. + +"I do not think it matters much," Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence said to her +two guests, when he had left. "And he may not come, after all." + +Her self-confidence sufficiently convinced Loo, who was always ready to +leave something to chance. But Colville shook his head. + +It thus came about that sundry persons of title and importance who had +been invited to come to the Villa Cordouan after dinner for a little +music found the English banker complacently installed in the largest +chair, with a shirt-front evading the constraint of an abnormal +waistcoat, and a sleepy chin drooping surreptitiously toward it. + +"He is my banker from Paris," whispered Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence to one +and another. "He knows nothing, and so far as I am aware, is no +politician--merely a banker, you understand. Leave him alone and he will +go to sleep." + +During the three weeks which Loo Barebone had spent very pleasantly at +the Villa Cordouan, Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence had provided music and light +refreshment for her friends on several occasions. And each evening the +drawing-room, which was not a small one, had been filled to overflowing. +Friends brought their friends and introduced them to the hostess, who in +turn presented them to Barebone. Some came from a distance, driving +from Saintes or La Rochelle or Pons. Others had taken houses for the +bathing-season at Royan itself. + +"He never makes a mistake," said the hostess to Dormer Colville, behind +her fan, a hundred times, following with her shrewd eyes the gay and easy +movements of Loo, who seemed to be taught by some instinct to suit his +manner to his interlocutor. + +To-night there was more music and less conversation. + +"Play him to sleep," Dormer Colville had said to his cousin. And at +length Turner succumbed to the soft effect of a sonata. He even snored in +the shade of a palm, and the gaiety of the proceedings in no way +suffered. + +It was only Colville who seemed uneasy and always urged any who were +talking earnestly to keep out of earshot of the sleeping Englishman. Once +or twice he took Barebone by the arm and led him to the other end of the +room, for he was always the centre of the liveliest group and led the +laughter there. + +"Oh! but he is charming, my dear," more than one guest whispered to Mrs. +St. Pierre Lawrence, as they took their departure. + +"He will do--he will do," the men said with a new light of hope in their +grave faces. + +Nearly all had gone when John Turner at length woke up. Indeed, Colville +threw a book upon the floor to disturb his placid sleep. + +"I will come round to-morrow," he said, bidding his hostess good night. +"I have some papers for you to sign since you are determined to sell your +_rentes_ and leave the money idle at your bank." + +"Yes. I am quite determined," she answered, gaily, for she was before her +time inasmuch as she was what is known in these days of degenerate speech +as cock-sure. + +And when John Turner, carrying a bundle of papers, presented himself at +the Villa Cordouan next morning he found Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence sitting +alone in the veranda. + +"Dormer and his friend have left me to my own devices. They have gone +away," she mentioned, casually, in the course of conversation. + +"Suddenly?" + +"Oh no," she answered, carelessly, and wrote her name in a clear firm +hand on the document before her. And John Turner looked dense. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +IN THE BREACH + + +The Marquis de Gemosac was sitting at the open window of the little +drawing-room in the only habitable part of the château. From his +position he looked across the courtyard toward the garden where stiff +cypress-trees stood sentry among the mignonette and the roses, now in the +full glory of their autumn bloom. + +Beyond the garden, the rough outline of the walls cut a straight line +across the distant plains, which melted away into the haze of the +marsh-lands by the banks of the Gironde far to the westward. + +The Marquis had dined. They dined early in those days in France, and +coffee was still served after the evening meal. + +The sun was declining toward the sea in a clear copper-coloured sky, but +a fresh breeze was blowing in from the estuary to temper the heat of the +later rays. + +The Marquis was beating time with one finger, and within the room, to an +impromptu accompaniment invented by Juliette, Barebone was singing: + +C'est le Hasard, +Qui, tôt ou tard, +Ici-bas nous seconde; +Car, +D'un bout du monde +A l'autre bout, +Le Hasard seul fait tout. + +He broke off with a laugh in which Juliette's low voice joined. + +"That is splendid, mademoiselle," he cried, and the Marquis clapped his +thin hands together. + +Un tel qu'on vantait +Par hasard était +D'origine assez mince; +Par hasard il plut, +Par hasard il fut +Baron, ministre et prince: +C'est le Hasard, +Qui, tôt ou tard, +Ici bas nous seconde; +Car, +D'un bout du monde +A l'autre bout, +Le Hasard seul fait tout. + + +"There--that is all I know. It is the only song I sing." + +"But there are other verses," said Juliette, resting her hands on the +keys of the wheezy spinet which must have been a hundred years old. "What +are they about?" + +"I do not know, mademoiselle," he answered, looking down at her. "I think +it is a love-song." + +She had pinned some mignonette, strong scented as autumn mignonette is, +in the front of her muslin dress, and the heavy heads had dragged the +stems to one side. She put the flowers in order, slowly, and then bent +her head to enjoy the scent of them. + +"It scarcely sounds like one," she said, in a low and inquiring voice. +The Marquis was a little deaf. "Is it all chance then?" + +"Oh yes," he answered, and as he spoke without lowering his voice she +played softly on the old piano the simple melody of his song. "It is all +chance, mademoiselle. Did they not teach you that at the school at +Saintes?" + +But she was not in a humour to join in his ready laughter. The room was +rosy with the glow of the setting sun, she breathed the scent of the +mignonette at every breath, the air which she had picked out on the +spinet in unison with his clear and sympathetic voice had those minor +tones and slow slurring from note to note which are characteristic of the +gay and tearful songs of southern France and all Spain. None of which +things are conducive to gaiety when one is young. + +She glanced at him with one quick turn of the head and made no answer. +But she played the air over again--the girls sing it to this day over +their household work at Farlingford to other words--with her foot on the +soft pedal. The Marquis hummed it between his teeth at the other end of +the room. + +"This room is hot," she exclaimed, suddenly, and rose from her seat +without troubling to finish the melody. "And that window will not open, +mademoiselle; for I have tried it," added Barebone, watching her +impatient movements. + +"Then I am going into the garden," she said, with a sharp sigh and a +wilful toss of the head. It was not his fault that the setting sun, +against which, as many have discovered, men shut their doors, should +happen to be burning hot or that the window would not open. But Juliette +seemed to blame him for it or for something else, perhaps. One never +knows. Barebone did not follow her at once, but stood by the window +talking to the Marquis, who was in a reminiscent humour. The old man +interrupted his own narrative, however. + +"There," he cried, "is Juliette on that wall overhanging the river. It is +where the English effected a breach long ago, my friend--you need not +smile, for you are no Englishman--and the château has only been taken +twice through all the centuries of fighting. There! She ventures still +farther. I have told her a hundred times that the wall is unsafe." + +"Shall I go and warn her the hundred-and-first time?" asked Loo, willing +enough. + +"Yes, my friend, do. And speak to her severely. She is only a child, +remember." + +"Yes--I will remember that." + +Juliette did not seem to hear his approach across the turf where the +goats fed now, but stood with her back toward him, a few feet below him, +actually in that breach effected long ago by those pestilential English. +They must have prized out the great stones with crowbars and torn them +down with their bare hands. + +Juliette was looking over the vineyards toward the river, which gleamed +across the horizon. She was humming to herself the last lines of the +song: + +D'un bout du monde +A l'autre bout, +Le Hasard seul fait tout. + +She turned with a pretty swing of her skirts to gather them in her hand. + +"You must go no farther, mademoiselle," said Loo. + +She stopped, half bending to take her skirt, but did not look back. Then +she took two steps downward from stone to stone. The blocks were half +embedded in the turf and looked ready to fall under the smallest +additional weight. + +"It is not I who say so, but your father who sent me," explained the +admonisher from above. + +"Since it is all chance--" she said, looking downward. + +She turned suddenly and looked up at him with that impatience which gives +way in later life to a philosophy infinitely to be dreaded when it comes; +for its real name is Indifference. + +Her movements were spasmodic and quick as if something angered her, she +knew not what; as if she wanted something, she knew not what. + +"I suppose," she said, "that it was chance that saved our lives that +night two months ago, out there." + +And she stood with one hand stretched out behind her pointing toward the +estuary, which was quiet enough now, looking up at him with that strange +anger or new disquietude--it was hard to tell which--glowing in her eyes. +The wind fluttered her hair, which was tied low down with a ribbon in the +mode named "à la diable" by some French wit with a sore heart in an old +man's breast. For none other could have so aptly described it. + +"All chance, mademoiselle," he answered, looking over her head toward the +river. + +"And it would have been the same had it been only Marie or Marie and Jean +in the boat with you?" + +"The boat would have been as solid and the ropes as strong." + +"And you?" asked the girl, with a glance from her persistent eyes. + +"Oh no!" he answered, with a laugh. "I should not have been the same. But +you must not continue to stand there, mademoiselle; the wall is unsafe." + +She shrugged her shoulders and stood with half-averted face, looking down +at the vineyards which stretched away to the dunes by the river. Her +cheeks were oddly flushed. + +"Your father sent me to say so," continued Loo, "and if he sees that you +take no heed he will come himself to learn why." + +Juliette gave a curt laugh and climbed the declivity toward him. The +argument was, it seemed, a sound one. When she reached his level he made +a step or two along the path that ran round the enceinte--not toward the +house, however--but away from it. She accepted the tacit suggestion, not +tacitly, however. + +"Shall we not go and tell papa we have returned without mishap?" she +amended, with a light laugh. + +"No, mademoiselle," he answered. It was his turn to be grave now and she +glanced at him with a gleam of satisfaction beneath her lids. She was not +content with that, however, but wished to make him angry. So she laughed +again and they would have quarrelled if he had not kept his lips firmly +closed and looked straight in front of him. + +They passed between the unfinished ruin known as the Italian house and +the rampart. The Italian house screened them from the windows of that +portion of the ancient stabling which the Marquis had made habitable when +he bought back the château of Gemosac from the descendant of an +adventurous republican to whom the estate had been awarded in the days of +the Terror. A walk of lime-trees bordered that part of the garden which +lies to the west of the Italian house, and no other part was visible from +where Juliette paused to watch the sun sink below the distant horizon. +Loo was walking a few paces behind her, and when she stopped he stopped +also. She sat down on the low wall, but he remained standing. + +Her profile, clear-cut and delicate with its short chin and beautifully +curved lips, its slightly aquiline nose and crisp hair rising in a bold +curve from her forehead, was outlined against the sky. He could see the +gleam of the western light in her eyes, which were half averted. While +she watched the sunset, he watched her with a puzzled expression about +his lips. + +He remembered perhaps the Marquis's last words, that Juliette was only a +child. He knew that she could in all human calculation know nothing of +the world; that at least she could have learned nothing of it in the +convent where she had been educated. So, if she knew anything, she must +have known it before she went there, which was impossible. She knew +nothing, therefore, and yet she was not a child. As a matter of fact, +she was the most beautiful woman Loo Barebone had ever seen. He was +thinking that as she sat on the low wall, swinging one slipper half +falling from her foot, watching the sunset, while he watched her and +noted the anger slowly dying from her eyes as the light faded from the +sky. That strange anger went down, it would appear, with the sun. After +the long silence--when the low bars of red cloud lying across the western +sky were fading from pink to grey--she spoke at last in a voice which he +had never heard before, gentle and confidential. + +"When are you going away?" she asked. + +"To-night." + +And he knew that the very hour of his departure was known to her already. + +"And when will you come back?" + +"As soon as I can," he answered, half-involuntarily. There was a turn of +the head half toward him, something expectant in the tilt at the corner +of her parted lips, which made it practically impossible to make any +other answer. + +"Why?" she asked, in little more than a whisper--then she broke into a +gay laugh and leapt off the wall. She walked quickly past him. + +"Why?" she repeated over her shoulder as she passed him. And he was too +quick for her, for he caught her hand and touched it with his lips before +she jerked it away from him. + +"Because you are here," he answered, with a laugh. But she was grave +again and looked at him with a queer searching glance before she turned +away and left him standing in the half-light--thinking of Miriam Liston. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +"NINETEEN" + + +As Juliette returned to the Gate House she encountered her father, +walking arm-in-arm with Dormer Colville. The presence of the Englishman +within the enceinte of the chateau was probably no surprise to her, for +she must have heard the clang of the bell just within the gate, which +could not be opened from outside; by which alone access was gained to any +part of the château. + +Colville was in riding costume. It was, indeed, his habitual dress when +living in France, for he made no concealment of his partnership in a +well-known business house in Bordeaux. + +"I am a sleeping partner," he would say, with that easy flow of egotistic +confidence which is the surest way of learning somewhat of your +neighbour's private affairs. "I am a sleeping partner at all times except +the vintage, when I awake and ride round among the growers, to test their +growth." + +It was too early yet for these journeys, for the grapes were hardly ripe. +But any one who wished to move from place to place must needs do so in +the saddle in a country where land is so valuable that the width of a +road is grudged, and bridle-ways are deemed good enough for the passage +of the long and narrow carts that carry wine. + +Ever since their somewhat precipitate departure from the Villa Cordouan +at Royan, Dormer Colville and Barebone had been in company. They had +stayed together, in one friend's house or another. Sometimes they enjoyed +the hospitality of a château, and at others put up with the scanty +accommodation of a priest's house or the apartment of a retired military +officer, in one of those little towns of provincial France at which the +cheap journalists of Paris are pleased to sneer without ceasing. + +They avoided the large towns with extraordinary care. + +"Why should we go to towns," asked Colville, jovially, "when we have +business in the country and the sun is still high in the sky?" + +"Yes," he would reply to the questions of an indiscreet fellow-traveller, +at table or on the road. "Yes; I am a buyer of wine. We are buyers of +wine. We are travelling from place to place to watch the growth. For the +wine is hidden in the grape, and the grape is ripening." + +And, as often as not, the chance acquaintance of an inn dejeuner would +catch the phrase and repeat it thoughtfully. + +"Ah! is that so?" he would ask, with a sudden glance at Dormer Colville's +companion, who had hitherto passed unobserved as the silent subordinate +of a large buyer; learning his trade, no doubt. "The grape is ripening. +Good!" + +And as sure as he seemed to be struck with this statement of a +self-evident fact, he would, in the next few minutes, bring the numeral +"nineteen"--_tant bien que mal_--into his conversation. + +"With nineteen days of sun, the vintage will be upon us," he would say; +or, "I have but nineteen kilometres more of road before me to-day." + +Indeed, it frequently happened that the word came in very +inappropriately, as if tugged heroically to the front by a clumsy +conversationalist. + +There is no hazard of life so certain to discover sympathy or antagonism +as travel--a fact which points to the wisdom of beginning married life +with a journey. The majority of people like to know the worst at once. To +travel, however, with Dormer Colville was a liberal education in the +virtues. No man could be less selfish or less easily fatigued; which are +the two bases upon which rest all the stumbling-blocks of travel. + +Up to a certain point, Barebone and Dormer Colville became fast friends +during the month that elapsed between their departure from Mrs. St. +Pierre Lawrence's house and their arrival at the inn at Gemosac. The +"White Horse," at Gemosac, was no better and no worse than any other +"White Horse" in any other small town of France. It was, however, better +than the principal inn of a town of the same size in any other habitable +part of the globe. + +There were many reasons why the Marquis de Gemosac had yielded to +Colville's contention--that the time had not yet come for Loo Barebone to +be his guest at the chateau. + +"He is inclined to be indolent," Colville had whispered. "One recognises, +in many traits of character, the source from whence his blood is drawn. +He will not exert himself so long as there is some one else at hand who +is prepared to take trouble. He must learn that it is necessary to act +for himself. He needs rousing. Let him travel through France, and see for +himself that of which he has as yet only learnt at second-hand. That will +rouse him." + +And the journey through the valleys of the Garonne and the Dordogne had +been undertaken. + +Another, greater journey, was now afoot, to end at no less a centre of +political life than Paris. A start was to be made this evening, and +Dormer Colville now came to report that all was ready and the horses at +the gate. + +"If there were scenes such as this for all of us to linger in, +mademoiselle," he said, lifting his face to the western sky and inhaling +the scent of the flowers growing knee-deep all around him, "men would +accomplish little in their brief lifetime." + +His eyes, dreamy and reflective, wandered over the scene and paused, just +for a moment in passing, on Juliette's face. She continued her way, with +no other answer than a smile. + +"She grows, my dear Marquis--she grows every minute of the day and +wakes up a new woman every morning," said Colville, in a confidential +aside, and he went forward to meet Loo with his accustomed laugh of +good-fellowship. He whom the world calls a good fellow is never a wise +man. + +Barebone walked toward the gate without joining in the talk of his +companions. He was thoughtful and uneasy. He had come to say good-bye and +nothing else. He was wondering if he had really meant what he had said. + +"Come," interrupted Colville's smooth voice. "We must get into the saddle +and begone. I was just telling Monsieur and Mademoiselle Juliette, that +any man might be tempted to linger at Gemosac until the active years of a +lifetime rolled by." + +The Marquis made the needful reply; hoping that he might yet live to see +Gemosac--and not only Gemosac, but a hundred châteaux like it--reawakened +to their ancient glory, and thrown open to welcome the restorer of their +fallen fortunes. + +Colville looked from one to the other, and then, with his foot in the +stirrup, turned to look at Juliette, who had followed them to the gate. + +"And mademoiselle," he said; "will she wish us good luck, also? Alas! +those times are gone when we could have asked for her ribbon to wear, and +to fight for between ourselves when we are tired and cross at the end of +a journey. Come, Barchone--into the saddle." + +They waited, both looking at Juliette; for she had not spoken. + +"I wish you good luck," she said, at length, patting the neck of +Colville's horse, her face wearing a little mystic smile. + +Thus they departed, at sunset, on a journey of which old men will still +talk in certain parts of France. Here and there, in the Angoumois, in +Guienne, in the Vendée, and in the western parts of Brittany, the student +of forgotten history may find an old priest who will still persist in +dividing France into the ancient provinces, and will tell how Hope rode +through the Royalist country when he himself was busy at his first cure. + +The journey lasted nearly two months, and before they passed north of the +Loire at Nantes and quitted the wine country, the vintage was over. + +"We must say that we are cider merchants, that is all," observed Dormer +Colville, when they crossed the river, which has always been the great +divider of France. + +"He is sobering down. I believe he will become serious," wrote he to the +Marquis de Gemosac. But he took care to leave Loo Barebone as free as +possible. + +"I am, in a way, a compulsory pilot," he explained, airily, to his +companion. "The ship is yours, and you probably know more about the +shoals than I do. You must have felt that a hundred times when you were +at sea with that solemn old sailor, Captain Clubbe. And yet, before you +could get into port, you found yourself forced to take the compulsory +pilot on board and make him welcome with such grace as you could command, +feeling all the while that he did not want to come and you could have +done as well without him. So you must put up with my company as +gracefully as you can, remembering that you can drop me as soon as you +are in port." + +And surely, none other could have occupied an uncomfortable position so +gracefully. + +Barebone found that he had not much to do. He soon accommodated himself +to a position which required nothing more active than a ready ear and a +gracious patience. For, day by day--almost hour by hour--it was his lot +to listen to protestations of loyalty to a cause which smouldered none +the less hotly because it was hidden from the sight of the Prince +President's spies. + +And, as Colville had predicted, Barebone sobered down. He would ride now, +hour after hour, in silence, whereas at the beginning of the journey he +had talked gaily enough, seeing a hundred humorous incidents in the +passing events of the day; laughing at the recollection of an interview +with some provincial notable who had fallen behind the times, or jesting +readily enough with such as showed a turn for joking on the road. + +But now the unreality of his singular change of fortune was vanishing. +Every village priest who came after dark to take a glass of wine with +them at their inn sent it farther into the past, every provincial noble +greeting him on the step of his remote and quiet house added a note to +the drumming reality which dominated his waking moments and disturbed his +sleep at night. + +Day by day they rode on, passing through two or three villages between +such halts as were needed by the horses. At every hamlet, in the large +villages, where they rested and had their food, at the remote little town +where they passed a night, there was always some one expecting them, who +came and talked of the weather and more or less skilfully brought in the +numeral nineteen. "Nineteen! Nineteen!" It was a watchword all over +France. + +Long before, on the banks of the Dordogne, Loo had asked his companion +why that word had been selected--what it meant. + +"It means Louis XIX," replied Dormer Colville, gravely. + +And now, as they rode through a country so rural, so thinly populated and +remote that nothing like it may be found in these crowded islands, the +number seemed to follow them; or, rather, to pass on before them and +await their coming. + +Often Colville would point silently with his whip to the numerals, +scrawled on a gate-post or written across a wall. At this time France was +mysteriously flooded with cheap portraits of the great Napoleon. It was +before the days of pictorial advertisement, and young ladies who wished +to make an advantageous marriage had no means of advertising the fact and +themselves in supplements to illustrated papers. The walls of inns and +shops and _diligence_ offices were therefore barer than they are to-day. +And from these bare walls stared out at this time the well-known face of +the great Napoleon. It was an innovation, and as such readily enough +accepted. + +At every fair, at the great fête of St. Jean, at St. Jean d'Angély and a +hundred other fêtes of purely local notoriety, at least one hawker of +cheap lithographs was to be found. And if the buyer haggled, he could get +the portrait of the great Emperor for almost nothing. + +"One cannot print it at such a cost," the seller assured his purchasers, +which was no less than the truth. + +The fairs were, and are to this day, the link between the remoter +villages and the world; and the peasants carried home with them a +picture, for the first time, to hang on their walls. Thus the Prince +President fostered the Napoleonic legend. + +Dormer Colville would walk up to these pictures, and, as often as not, +would turn and look over his shoulder at Barebone, with a short laugh. +For as often as not, the numerals were scrawled across the face in +pencil. + +But Barebone had ceased to laugh at the constant repetition now. Soon +Colville ceased to point out the silent witness, for he perceived that +Loo was looking for it himself, detecting its absence with a gleam of +determination in his eyes or noting its recurrence with a sharp sigh, as +of the consciousness of a great responsibility. + +Thus the reality was gradually forced upon him that that into which he +had entered half in jest was no jest at all; that he was moving forward +on a road which seemed easy enough, but of which the end was not +perceptible; neither was there any turning to one side or the other. + +All men who have made a mark--whether it be a guiding or warning sign to +those that follow--must at one moment of their career have perceived +their road before them, thus. Each must have realised that once set out +upon that easy path there is no turning aside and no turning back. And +many have chosen to turn back while there was yet time, leaving the mark +unmade. For most men are cowards and shun responsibility. Most men +unconsciously steer their way by proverb or catchword; and all the wise +saws of all the nations preach cowardice. + +Barebone saw his road now, and Dormer Colville knew that he saw it. + +When they crossed the Loire they passed the crisis, and Colville breathed +again like one who had held his breath for long. Those colder, sterner +men of Brittany, who, in later times, compared notes with the nobles of +Guienne and the Vendée, seemed to talk of a different man; for they spoke +of one who rarely laughed, and never turned aside from a chosen path +which was in no wise bordered by flowers. + + + + +Chapter XXI + + +NO. 8 RUELLE ST. JACOB + +Between the Rue de Lille and the Boulevard St. Germain, in the narrow +streets which to this day have survived the sweeping influence of Baron +Haussmann, once Prefect of the Seine, there are many houses which +scarcely seem to have opened door or window since the great Revolution. + +One of these, to be precise, is situated in the Ruelle St. Jacob, +hardly wider than a lane--a short street with a blind end against high +walls--into which any vehicle that enters must needs do so with the +knowledge of having to back out again. For there is no room to turn. +Which is an allegory. All the windows, in fact, that look forlornly at +the blank walls or peep over the high gateways into the Ruelle St. Jacob +are Royalist windows looking into a street which is blinded by a high +wall and is too narrow to allow of turning. + +Many of the windows would appear to have gathered dust since those days +more than a hundred years ago when white faces peeped from them and +trembling hands unbarred the sash to listen to the roar of voices in the +Rue du Bac, in the open space by the church of St. Germain des Près, in +the Cité, all over Paris, where the people were making history. + +To this house in the Ruelle St. Jacob, Dormer Colville and Loo Barebone +made their way on foot, on their arrival in Paris at the termination of +their long journey. + +It was nearly dark, for Colville had arranged to approach the city and +leave their horses at a stable at Meudon after dusk. + +"It is foolish," he said, gaily, to his companion, "to flaunt a face like +yours in Paris by daylight." + +They had driven from Meudon in a hired carriage to the corner of the +Champ de Mars, in those days still innocent of glass houses and +exhibition buildings, for Paris was not yet the toy-shop of the world; +and from the Champ de Mars they came on foot through the ill-paved, +feebly lighted streets. In the Ruelle St. Jacob itself there was only one +lamp, burning oil, swinging at the corner. The remainder of the lane +depended for its illumination on the windows of two small shops retailing +firewood and pickled gherkins and balls of string grey with age, as do +all the shops in the narrow streets on the wrong side of the Seine. + +Dormer Colville led the way, picking his steps from side to side of the +gutter which meandered odoriferously down the middle of the street toward +the river. He stopped in front of the great gateway and looked up at the +arch of it, where the stone carving had been carefully obliterated by +some enthusiastic citizen armed with a hatchet. + +"Ichabod," he said, with a short laugh; and cautiously laid bold of the +dangling bell-handle which had summoned the porter to open to a Queen in +those gay days when Marie Antoinette light-heartedly pushed a falling +monarchy down the incline. + +The great gate was not opened in response, but a small side door, +deep-sunken in the thickness of the wall. On either jamb of the door was +affixed in the metal letters ordained by the municipality the number +eight. Number Eight Ruelle St. Jacob had once been known to kings as the +Hotel Gemosac. + +The man who opened earned a lantern and held the door ajar with a +grudging hand while he peered out. One could almost imagine that he had +survived the downfall and the Restoration, and a couple of republics, +behind the high walls. + +The court-yard was paved with round cobble-stones no bigger than an +apple, and, even by the flickering light of the lantern, it was +perceptible that no weed had been allowed to grow between the stones or +in the seams of the wide, low steps that led to an open door. + +The house appeared to be dark and deserted. + +"Yes, Monsieur le Marquis--Monsieur le Marquis is at home," muttered the +man with a bronchial chuckle, and led the way across the yard. He wore a +sort of livery, which must have been put away for years. A young man had +been measured for the coat which now displayed three deep creases across +a bent back. + +"Attention--attention!" he said, in a warning voice, while he scraped a +sulphur match in the hall. "There are holes in the carpets. It is easy to +trip and fall." + +He lighted the candle, and after having carefully shut and bolted the +door, he led the way upstairs. At their approach, easily audible in the +empty house by reason of the hollow creaking of the oak floor, a door was +opened at the head of the stairs and a flood of light met the new-comers. + +In the doorway, which was ten feet high, the little bent form of the +Marquis de Gemosac stood waiting. + +"Ah! ah!" he said, with that pleasant manner of his generation, which was +refined and spirituelle and sometimes dramatic, and yet ever failed to +touch aught but the surface of life. "Ah! ah! Safely accomplished--the +great journey. Safely accomplished. You permit--" + +And he embraced Barebone after the custom of his day. "From all sides," +he said, when the door was closed, "I hear that you have done great +things. From every quarter one hears your praise." + +He held him at arm's length. + +"Yes," he said. "Your face is graver and--more striking in resemblance +than ever. So now you know--now you have seen." + +"Yes," answered Barebone, gravely. "I have seen and I know." + +The Marquis rubbed his white hands together and gave a little crackling +laugh of delight as he drew forward a chair to the fire, which was of +logs as long as a barrel. The room was a huge one, and it was lighted +from end to end with lamps, as if for a reception or a ball. The air was +damp and mouldly. There were patches of grey on the walls, which had once +been painted with garlands of roses and Cupids and pastoral scenes by a +noted artist of the Great Age. + +The ceiling had fallen in places, and the woodwork of the carved +furniture gave forth a subtle scent of dry rot. + +But everything was in an exquisite taste which vulgarer generations have +never yet succeeded in imitating. Nothing was concealed, but rather +displayed with a half-cynical pride. All was moth-ridden, worm-eaten, +fallen to decay--but it was of the Monarchy. Not half a dozen houses in +Paris, where already the wealth, which has to-day culminated in a +ridiculous luxury of outward show, was beginning to build new palaces, +could show room after room furnished in the days of the Great Louis. The +very air, faintly scented it would seem by some forgotten perfume, +breathed of a bygone splendour. And the last of the de Gemosacs scorned +to screen his poverty from the eyes of his equals, nor sought to hide +from them a desolation which was only symbolic of that which crushed +their hearts and bade them steal back from time to time like criminals to +the capital. + +"You see," he said to Colville and Barebone, "I have kept my promise, I +have thrown open this old house once more for to-night's meeting. You +will find that many friends have made the journey to Paris for the +occasion--Madame de Chantonnay and Albert, Madame de Rathe and many from +the Vendée and the West whom you have met on your journey. And to-night +one may speak without fear, for none will be present who are not vouched +for by the Almanac de Gotha. There are no Royalists _pour rire_ or _pour +vivre_ to-night. You have but time to change your clothes and dine. Your +luggage arrived yesterday. You will forgive the stupidity of old servants +who have forgotten their business. Come, I will lead the way and show you +your rooms." + +He took a candle and did the honours of the deserted dust-ridden house in +the manner of the high calling which had been his twenty years ago when +Charles X was king. For some there lingers a certain pathos in the sight +of a belated survival, while the majority of men and women are ready to +smile at it instead. And yet the Monarchy lasted eight centuries and the +Revolution eight years. Perhaps Fate may yet exact payment for the +excesses of those eight years from a nation for which the watching world +already prepares a secondary place in the councils of empire. + +The larger room had been assigned to Loo. There was a subtle difference +in the Marquis's manner toward him. He made an odd bow as he quitted the +room. + +"There," said Colville, whose room communicated with this great apartment +by a dressing-room and two doors. He spoke in English, as they always did +when they were alone together. "There--you are launched. You are _lancé_, +my friend. I may say you are through the shoals now and out on the high +seas--" + +He paused, candle in hand, and looked round the room with a reflective +smile. It was obviously the best room in the house, with a fireplace as +wide as a gate, where logs of pine burnt briskly on high iron dogs. The +bed loomed mysteriously in one corner with its baldachin of Gobelin +tapestry. Here, too, the dim scent of fallen monarchy lingered in the +atmosphere. A portrait of Louis XVI in a faded frame hung over the +mantelpiece. + +"And the time will come," pursued Colville, with his melancholy, +sympathetic smile, "when you will find it necessary to drop the pilot--to +turn your face seaward and your back upon old recollections and old +associations. You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs, my +friend." + +"Oh yes," replied Barebone, with a brisk movement of the head, "I shall +have to forget Farlingford." + +Colville had moved toward the door that led to his own room. He paused, +examining the wick of the candle he carried in his hand. Then, though +glib of speech, he decided in favour of silence, and went away without +making reply. + +Loo sat down in a grey old arm-chair in front of the fire. The house was +astoundingly noiseless, though situated in what had once been the heart +of Paris. It was one of the few houses left in this quarter with a large +garden. And the traffic passing in and out of the Ruelle St. Jacob went +slipshod on its own feet. The busy crackle of the wood was the only sound +to break a silence which seemed part of this vast palace of memories. + +Loo had ridden far and was tired. He smiled grimly at the fire. It is to +be supposed that he was sitting down to the task he had set himself--to +forget Farlingford. + +There was a great reception at the Hotel Gemosac that night, and after +twenty years of brooding silence the rooms, hastily set in order, were +lighted up. + +There was, as the Marquis had promised, no man or woman present who was +not vouched for by a noble name or by history. As the old man presented +them, their names were oddly familiar to the ear, while each face looking +at Loo seemed to be the face of a ghost looking out of a past which the +world will never forget so long as history lives. + +And here, again, was the subtle difference. They no longer talked to Loo, +but stood apart and spoke among themselves in a hushed voice. Men made +their bow to him and met his smile with grave and measuring eyes. Some +made a little set speech, which might mean much or nothing. Others +embarked on such a speech and paused--faltered, and passed on gulping +something down in their throats. + +Women made a deep reverence to him and glanced at him with parted lips +and white faces--no coquetry in their eyes. They saw that he was young +and good-looking; but they forgot that he might think the same of them. +Then they passed on and grouped themselves together, as women do in +moments of danger or emotion, their souls instinctively seeking the +company of other souls tuned to catch a hundred passing vibrations of the +heart-strings of which men remain in ignorance. They spoke together in +lowered voices without daring, or desiring perhaps, to turn and look at +him again. + +"It only remains," some one said, "for the Duchesse d'Angouléme to +recognise his claim. A messenger has departed for Frohsdorf." + +And Barebone, looking at them, knew that there was a barrier between him +and them which none could cast aside: a barrier erected in the past and +based on the sure foundations of history. + +"She is an old woman," said Monsieur do Gemosac to any who spoke to him +on this subject. "She is seventy-two, and fifty-eight of those years have +been marked by greater misfortunes than ever fell to the lot of a woman. +When she came out of prison she had no tears left, my friends. We cannot +expect her to turn back willingly to the past now. But we know that in +her heart she has never been sure that her brother died in the Temple. +You know how many disappointments she has had. We must not awake her +sleeping sorrow until all is ready. I shall make the journey to +Frohsdorf--that I promise you. But to-night we have another task before +us." + +"Yes--yes," answered his listeners. "You are to open the locket. Where is +it?--show it to us." + +And the locket which Captain Clubbe's wife had given to Dormer Colville +was handed from one to another. It was not of great value, but it was of +gold with stones, long since discoloured, set in silver around it. It was +crushed and misshapen. + +"It has never been opened for twenty years," they told each other. "It +has been mislaid in an obscure village in England for nearly half a +century." + +"The Vicomte de Castel Aunet--who is so clever a mechanician--has +promised to bring his tools," said Monsieur de Gemosac. "He will open it +for us--even if he find it necessary to break the locket." + +So the thing went round the room until it came to Loo Barebone. + +"I have seen it before," he said. "I think I remember seeing it long +ago--when I was a little child." + +And he handed it to the old Vicomte de Castel Aunet, whose shaking +fingers closed round it in a breathless silence. He carried it to the +table, and some one brought candles. The Viconite was very old. He had +learnt clock-making, they said, in prison during the Terror. + +"_Il n'y a moyen,_" he whispered to himself. "I must break it." + +With one effort he prised up the cover, but the hinge snapped, and the +lid rolled across the table into Barebone's hand. + +"Ah!" he cried, in that breathless silence, "now I remember it. I +remember the red silk lining of the cover, and in the other side there is +the portrait of a lady with--" + +The Vicomte paused, with his palm covering the other half of the locket +and looked across at Loo. And the eyes of all Royalist France were fixed +on the same face. + +"Silence!" whispered Dormer Colville in English, crushing Barebone's foot +under the table. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DROPPING THE PILOT + + +"The portrait of a lady," repeated Loo, slowly. "Young and beautiful. +That much I remember." + +The old nobleman had never removed his covering hand from the locket. +He had never glanced at it himself. He looked slowly round the peering +faces, two and three deep round the table. He was the oldest man +present--one of the oldest in Paris--one of the few now living who had +known Marie Antoinette. + +Without uncovering the locket, he handed it to Barebone across the table +with a bow worthy of the old régime and his own historic name. + +"It is right that you should be the first to see it," he said. "Since +there is no longer any doubt that the lady was your father's mother." + +Loo took the locket, looked at it with strangely glittering eyes and +steady lips. He gave a sort of gasp, which all in the room heard. He was +handing it back to the Vicomte de Castel Aunet without a word of comment, +when a crashing fall on the bare floor startled every one. A lady had +fainted. + +"Thank God!" muttered Dormer Colville almost in Barebone's ear and swayed +against him. Barebone turned and looked into a face grey and haggard, and +shining with perspiration. Instinctively he grasped him by the arm and +supported him. In the confusion of the moment no one noticed Colville; +for all were pressing round the prostrate lady. And in a moment Colville +was himself again, though the ready smile sat oddly on such white lips. + +"For God's sake be careful," he said, and turned away, handkerchief in +hand. + +For the moment the portrait was forgotten until the lady was on her feet +again, smiling reassurances and rubbing her elbow. + +"It is nothing," she said, "nothing. My heart--that is all." + +And she staggered to a chair with the reassuring smile frozen on her +face. + +Then the portrait was passed from hand to hand in silence. It was a +miniature of Marie Antoinette, painted on ivory, which had turned yellow. +The colours were almost lost, but the face stood clearly enough. It was +the face of a young girl, long and narrow, with the hair drawn straight +up and dressed high and simply on the head without ornament. + +"It is she," said one and another. "_C'est bien elle_." + +"It was painted when she was newly a queen," commented the Vicomte de +Castel Aunet. "I have seen others like it, but not that one before." + +Barebone stood apart and no one offered to approach him. Dormer Colville +had gone toward the great fireplace, and was standing by himself there +with his back toward the room. He was surreptitiously wiping from his +face the perspiration which had suddenly run down it, as one may see the +rain running down the face of a statue. + +Things had taken an unexpected turn. The Marquis de Gemosac, himself +always on the surface, had stirred others more deeply than he had +anticipated or could now understand. France has always been the victim of +her own emotions; aroused in the first instance half in idleness, allowed +to swell with a semi-restraining laugh, and then suddenly sweeping and +overwhelming. History tells of a hundred such crises in the pilgrimage of +the French people. A few more--and historians shall write "Ichabod" +across the most favoured land in Europe. + +It is customary to relate that, after a crisis, those most concerned in +it know not how they faced it or what events succeeded it. "He never +knew," we are informed, "how he got through the rest of the evening." + +Loo Barebone knew and remembered every incident, every glance. He was in +full possession of every faculty, and never had each been so keenly alive +to the necessity of the moment. Never had his quick brain been so alert +as it was during the rest of the evening. And those who had come to the +Hotel Gemosac to confirm their adoption of a figure-head went away with +the startling knowledge in their hearts that they had never in the course +of an artificial life met a man less suited to play that undignified +part. + +And all the while, in the back of his mind, there lingered with a deadly +patience the desire for the moment which must inevitably come when he +should at last find himself alone, face to face, with Dormer Colville. + +It was nearly midnight before this moment came. At last the latest guest +had taken his leave, quitting the house by the garden door and making his +way across that forlorn and weedy desert by the dim light reflected from +the clouds above. At last the Marquis de Gemosac had bidden them good +night, and they were left alone in the vast bedroom which a dozen +candles, in candelabras of silver blackened by damp and neglect, only +served to render more gloomy and mysterious. + +In the confusion consequent on the departure of so many guests the locket +had been lost sight of, and Monsieur de Gemosac forgot to make inquiry +for it. It was in Barebone's pocket. + +Colville put together with the toe of his boot the logs which were +smouldering in a glow of incandescent heat. He turned and glanced over +his shoulder toward his companion. + +Barebone was taking the locket from his waistcoat pocket and approaching +the table where the candles burnt low in their sockets. + +"You never really supposed you were the man, did you?" asked Colville, +with a ready smile. He was brave, at all events, for he took the only +course left to him with a sublime assurance. + +Barebone looked across the candles at the face which smiled, and smiled. + +"That is what I thought," he answered, with a queer laugh. + +"Do not jump to any hasty decisions," urged Colville instantly, as if +warned by the laugh. + +"No! I want to sift the matter carefully to the bottom. It will be +interesting to learn who are the deceived and who the deceivers." + +Barebone had had time to think out a course of action. His face seemed to +puzzle Colville, who was rarely at fault in such judgments of character +as came within his understanding. But he seemed for an instant to be on +the threshold of something beyond his understanding; and yet he had +lived, almost day and night, for some months with Barebone. Since the +beginning--that far-off beginning at Farlingford--their respective +positions had been quite clearly defined. Colville, the elder by nearly +twenty years, had always been the guide and mentor and friend--the +compulsory pilot he had gaily called himself. He had a vast experience of +the world. He had always moved in the best French society. All that he +knew, all the influence he could command, and the experience upon which +he could draw were unreservedly at Barebone's service. The difference in +years had only affected their friendship in so far as it defined their +respective positions and prohibited any thought of rivalry. Colville had +been the unquestioned leader, Barebone the ready disciple. + +And now in the twinkling of an eye the positions were reversed. Colville +stood watching Barebone's face with eyes rendered almost servile by a +great suspense. He waited breathless for the next words. + +"This portrait," said Barebone, "of the Queen was placed in the locket by +you?" + +Colville nodded with a laugh of conscious cleverness rewarded by complete +success. There was nothing in his companion's voice to suggest suppressed +anger. It was all right after all. "I had great difficulty in finding +just what I wanted," he added, modestly. + +"What I remember--though the memory is necessarily vague--was a portrait +of a woman older than this. Her style of dress was more elaborate. Her +hair was dressed differently, with sort of curls at the side, and on the +top, half buried in the hair, was the imitation of a nest--a dove's nest. +Such a thing would naturally stick in a child's memory. It stuck in +mine." + +"Yes--and nearly gave the game away to-night," said Colville, gulping +down the memory of those tense moments. + +"That portrait--the original--you have not destroyed it?" + +"Oh no. It is of some value," replied Colville, almost naively. He felt +in his pocket and produced a silver cigar-case. The miniature was wrapped +in a piece of thin paper, which he unfolded. Barebone took the painting +and examined it with a little nod of recognition. His memory had not +failed after twenty years. + +"Who is this lady?" he asked. + +Dormer Colville hesitated. + +"Do you know the history of that period?" he inquired, after a moment's +reflection. For the last hour he had been trying to decide on a course of +conduct. During the last few minutes he had been forced to change it half +a dozen times. + +"Septimus Marvin, of Farlingford, is one of the greatest living +authorities on those reigns. I learnt a good deal from him," was the +answer. + +"That lady is, I think, the Duchesse de Guiche." + +"You think--" + +"Even Marvin could not tell you for certain," replied Colville, mildly. +He did not seem to perceive a difference in Barebone's manner toward +himself. The quickest intelligence cannot follow another's mind beyond +its own depth. + +"Then the inference is that my father was the illegitimate son of the +Comte d'Artois." + +"Afterward Charles X, of France," supplemented Colville, significantly. + +"Is that the inference?" persisted Barebone. "I should like to know your +opinion. You must have studied the question very carefully. Your opinion +should be of some interest, though--" + +"Though--" echoed Colville, interrogatively, and regretted it +immediately. + +"Though it is impossible to say when you speak the truth and when you +lie." + +And any who doubted that there was royal blood in Leo Barebone's veins +would assuredly have been satisfied by a glance at his face at that +moment; by the sound of his quiet, judicial voice; by the sudden and +almost terrifying sense of power in his measuring eyes. + +Colville turned away with an awkward laugh and gave his attention to the +logs on the hearth. Then suddenly he regained his readiness of speech. + +"Look here, Barebone," he cried. "We must not quarrel; we cannot afford +to do that. And after all, what does it matter? You are only giving +yourself the benefit of the doubt--that is all. For there is a doubt. You +may be what you--what we say you are, after all. It is certain enough +that Marie Antoinette and Fersen were in daily correspondence. They were +both clever--two of the cleverest people in France--and they were both +desperate. Remember that. Do you think that they would have failed in a +matter of such intense interest to her, and therefore to him? All these +pretenders, Naundorff and the others, have proved that quite clearly, but +none has succeeded in proving that he was the man." + +"And do you think that I shall be able to prove that I am the man--when I +am not?" + +By way of reply Dormer Colville turned again to the fireplace and took +down the print of Louis XVI engraved from a portrait painted when he was +still Dauphin. A mirror stood near, and Colville came to the table +carrying the portrait in one hand, the looking-glass in the other. + +"Here," he said, eagerly, "Look at one and then at the other. Look in the +mirror and then at the portrait. Prove it! Why, God has proved it for +you." + +"I do not think we had better bring Him into the question," was the +retort: an odd reflex of Captain Clubbe's solid East Anglian piety. "No. +If we go on with the thing at all, let us be honest enough to admit to +ourselves that we are dishonest. The portrait in that locket points +clearly enough to the Truth." + +"The portrait in that locket is of Marie Antoinette," replied Colville, +half sullenly. "And no one can ever prove anything contrary to that. No +one except myself knows of--of this doubt which you have stumbled upon. +De Gemosac, Parson Marvin, Clubbe--all of them are convinced that your +father was the Dauphin." + +"And Miss Liston?" + +"Miriam Liston--she also, of course. And I believe she knew it long +before I told her." + +Barebone turned and looked at him squarely in the eyes. Colville wondered +a second time why Loo Barebone reminded him of Captain Clubbe to-night. + +"What makes you believe that?" he asked. + +"Oh, I don't know. But that isn't the question. The question is about the +future. You see how things are in France. It is a question of Louis +Napoleon or a monarchy--you see that. Unless you stop him he will be +Emperor before a year is out, and he will drag France in the gutter. He +is less a Bonaparte than you are a Bourbon. You remember that Louis +Bonaparte himself was the first to say so. He wrote a letter to the Pope, +saying so quite clearly. You will go on with it, of course, Barebone. Say +you will go on with it! To turn back now would be death. We could not do +it if we wanted to. _I_ have been trying to think about it, and I cannot. +That is the truth. It takes one's breath away. At the mere thought of it +I feel as if I were getting out of my depth." + +"We have been out of our depths the last month," admitted Barebone, +curtly. + +And he stood reflecting, while Colville watched him. + +"If I go on," he said, at length, "I go on alone." + +"Better not," urged Colville, with a laugh of great relief. "For you +would always have me and my knowledge hanging over you. If you succeeded, +you would have me dunning you for hush-money." + +Which seemed true enough. Few men knew more of one side of human nature +than Dormer Colville, it would appear. + +"I am not afraid of that." + +"You can never tell," laughed Colville, but his laugh rather paled under +Barebone's glance. "You can never tell." + +"Wise men do not attempt to blackmail--kings." + +And Colville caught his breath. + +"Perhaps you are right," he admitted, after a pause. "You seem to be +taking to the position very kindly, Barebone. But I do not mind, you +know. It does not matter what we say to each other, eh? We have been good +friends so long. You must do as you like. And if you succeed, I must be +content to leave my share of the matter to your consideration. You +certainly seem to know the business already, and some day perhaps you +will remember who taught you to be a King." + +"It was an old North Sea skipper who taught me that," replied Barebone. +"That is one of the things I learnt at sea." + +"Yes--yes," agreed Colville, almost nervously. "And you will go on with +the thing, will you not? Like a good fellow, eh? Think about it till +to-morrow morning. I will go now. Which is my candle? Yes. You will think +about it. Do not jump to any hasty decision." + +He hurried to the door as he spoke. He could not understand Barebone at +all. + +"If I do go on with it," was the reply, "it will not be in response to +any of your arguments. It will be only and solely for the sake of +France." + +"Yes--of course," agreed Colville, and closed the door behind him. + +In his own room he turned and looked toward the door leading through to +that from which he had hurriedly escaped. He passed his hand across his +face, which was white and moist. + +"For the sake of France!" he echoed in bewilderment. "For the sake of +France! Gad! I believe he _is_ the man after all." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A SIMPLE BANKER + + +Mr. John Turner had none of the outward signs of the discreet adviser in +his person or surroundings. He had, it was currently whispered, inherited +from his father an enormous clientèle of noble names. And to such as have +studied the history of Paris during the whole of the nineteenth century, +it will appear readily comprehensible that the careful or the penniless +should give preference to an English banker. + +Mr. Turner's appearance suggested solidity, and the carpet of his private +room was a good one. The room smelt of cigar smoke, while the office, +through which the client must pass to reach it, was odoriferous of +ancient ledgers. + +Half a dozen clerks were seated in the office, which was simply furnished +and innocent of iron safes. If a client entered, one of the six, whose +business it was, looked up, while the other five continued to give their +attention to the books before them. + +One cold morning, toward the end of the year, Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence +was admitted by the concierge. She noted that only one clerk gave heed to +her entry, and, it is to be presumed, the quiet perfection of her furs. + +"Of the six young men in your office," she observed, when she was seated +in the bare wooden chair placed invitingly by the side of John Turner's +writing-table, "only one appears to be in full possession of his senses." + +Turner, sitting--if the expression be allowed--in a heap in an armchair +before a table provided with pens, ink, and a blotting-pad, but otherwise +bare, looked at his client with a bovine smile. + +"I don't pay them to admire my clients," he replied. + +"If Mademoiselle de Montijo came in, I suppose the other five would not +look up." + +John Turner settled himself a little lower into his chair, so that he +appeared to be in some danger of slipping under the table. + +"If the Archangel Gabriel came in, they would still attend to their +business," he replied, in his thick, slow voice. "But he won't. He is not +one of my clients. Quite the contrary." + +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence smoothed the fur that bordered her neat jacket +and glanced sideways at her banker. Then she looked round the room. It +was bare enough. A single picture hung on the wall--a portrait of an old +lady. Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence raised her eyebrows, and continued her +scrutiny. Here, again, was no iron safe. There were no ledgers, no +diaries, no note-books, no paraphernalia of business. Nothing but a bare +table and John Turner seated at it, in a much more comfortable chair than +that provided for the client, staring apathetically at a date-case which +stood on a bare mantelpiece. + +The lady's eyes returned to the portrait on the wall. + +"You used to have a portrait of Louis Philippe there," she said. + +"When Louis Philippe was on the throne," admitted the banker. + +"And now?" inquired this daughter of Eve, looking at the portrait. + +"My maternal aunt," replied Turner, making a gesture with two fingers, as +if introducing his client to the portrait. + +"You keep her, one may suppose, as a stop-gap--between the dynasties. It +is so safe--a maternal aunt!" + +"One cannot hang a republic on the wall, however much one may want to." + +"Then you are a Royalist?" inquired Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence. + +"No; I am only a banker," replied Turner, with his chin sinking lower on +his bulging waistcoat and his eyes scarcely visible beneath the heavy +lids. + +The remark, coupled with a thought that Turner was going to sleep, seemed +to remind the client of her business. + +"Will you kindly ask one of your clerks to let me know how much money I +have?" she said, casting a glance not wholly innocent of scornful +reproach at the table, so glaringly devoid of the bare necessities of a +banking business. + +"Only eleven thousand francs and fourteen sous," replied Turner, with a +promptness which seemed to suggest that he kept no diary or note-book on +the table before him because he had need of neither. + +"I feel sure I must have more than that," said Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, +with some spirit. "I quite thought I had." + +But John Turner only moistened his lips and sat patiently gazing at the +date. His attitude dimly suggested--quite in a nice way--that the chair +upon which Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence sat was polished bright by the +garments of persons who had found themselves labouring under the same +error. + +"Well, I must have a hundred thousand francs to-morrow; that is all. +Simply must. And in notes, too. I told you I should want it when you came +to see me at Royan. You must remember. I told you at luncheon." + +"When we were eating a sweetbread _aux champignons._ I remember +perfectly. We do not get sweetbreads like that in Paris." + +And John Turner shook his head sadly. "Well, will you let me have the +money to-morrow morning--in notes?" + +"I remember I advised you not to sell just now; after we had finished the +sweetbread and had gone on to a _crême renversée_--very good one, too. +Yes, it is a bad time to sell. Things are uncertain in France just now. +One cannot even get one's meals properly served. Cook's head is full of +politics, I suppose." + +"To-morrow morning--in notes," repeated Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence. + +"Now, your man at Royan was excellent--kept his head all through--and a +light hand, too. Got him with you in Paris?" + +"No, I have not. To-morrow morning, about ten o'clock--in notes." + +And Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence tapped a neat gloved finger on the corner of +the table with some determination. + +"I remember--at dessert--you told me you wanted to realise a considerable +sum of money at the beginning of the year, to put into some business +venture. Is this part of that sum?" + +"Yes," returned the lady, arranging her veil. + +"A venture of Dormer Colville's, I think you told me--while we were +having coffee. One never gets coffee hot enough in a private house, but +yours was all right." + +"Yes," mumbled Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, behind her quick finger, busy +with the veil. + +Beneath the sleepy lids John Turner's eyes, which were small and +deep-sunken in the flesh, like the eyes of a pig, noted in passing that +his client's cheeks were momentarily pink. + +"I hope you don't mean to suggest that there is anything unsafe in Mr. +Colville as a business man?" + +"Heaven forbid!" ejaculated Turner. "On the contrary, he is most +enterprising. And I know no one who smokes a better cigar than +Colville--when he can get it. And the young fellow seemed nice enough." + +"Which young fellow?" inquired the lady, sharply. + +"His young friend--the man who was with him. I think you told me, after +luncheon, that Colville required the money to start his young friend in +business." + +"Never!" laughed Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, who, if she felt momentarily +uneasy, was quickly reassured. For this was one of those fortunate ladies +who go through life with the comforting sense of being always cleverer +than their neighbour. If the neighbour happen to be a man, and a stout +one, the conviction is the stronger for those facts. "Never! I never told +you that. You must have dreamt it." + +"Perhaps I did," admitted the banker, placidly. "I am afraid I often feel +sleepy after luncheon. Perhaps I dreamt it. But I could not hand such a +sum in notes to an unprotected lady, even if I can effect a sale of your +securities so quickly as to have the money ready by to-morrow morning. +Perhaps Colville will call for it himself." + +"If he is in Paris." + +"Every one is in Paris now," was Mr. Turner's opinion. "And if he likes +to bring his young friend with him, all the better. In these uncertain +times it is not fair on a man to hand to him a large sum of money in +notes." He paused and jerked his thumb toward the window, which was a +double one, looking down into the Rue Lafayette. "There are always people +in the streets watching those who pass in and out of a bank. If a man +comes out smiling, with his hand on his pocket, he is followed, and if an +opportunity occurs, he is robbed. Better not have it in notes." + +"I know," replied Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, not troubling further to +deceive one so lethargic and simple. "I know that Dormer wants it in +notes." + +"Then let him come and fetch it." + +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence rose from her chair and shook her dress into +straighter folds, with the air of having accomplished a task which she +had known to be difficult, but not impossible to one equipped with wit +and self-confidence. + +"You will sell the securities, and have it all ready by ten o'clock +to-morrow morning," she repeated, with a feminine insistence. + +"You shall have the money to-morrow morning, whether I succeed in selling +for cash or not," was the reply, and John Turner concealed a yawn with +imperfect success. + +"A loan?" + +"No banker lends--except to kings," replied Turner, stolidly. "Call it an +accommodation." + +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence glanced at him sharply over the fur collar which +she was clasping round her neck. Here was a banker, reputed wealthy, who +sat in a bare room, without so much as a fireproof safe to suggest +riches; a business man of world-wide affairs, who drummed indolent +fingers on a bare table; a philosopher with a maxim ever ready to teach, +as all maxims do, cowardice in the guise of prudence, selfishness +masquerading as worldly wisdom, hard-heartedness passing for foresight. +Here was one who seemed to see, and was yet too sleepy to perceive. Mrs. +St. Pierre Lawrence was not always sure of her banker, but now, as ever +before, one glance at his round, heavy face reassured her. She laughed +and went away, well satisfied with the knowledge, only given to women, of +having once more carried out her object with the completeness which is +known as twisting round the little finger. + +She nodded to Turner, who had ponderously risen from the chair which was +more comfortable than the client's seat, and held the door open for her +to pass. He glanced at the clock as he did so. And she knew that he was +thinking that it was nearly the luncheon hour, so transparent to the +feminine perception are the thoughts of men. + +When he had closed the door he returned to his writing-table. Like many +stout people, he moved noiselessly, and quickly enough when the occasion +demanded haste. + +He wrote three letters in a very few minutes, and, when they were +addressed, he tapped on the table with the end of his pen-holder, which +brought, in the twinkling of an eye, that clerk whose business it was to +abandon his books when called. + +"I shall not go out to luncheon until I have the written receipt for each +one of those letters," said the banker, knowing that until he went out to +luncheon his six clerks must needs go hungry. "Not an answer," he +explained, "but a receipt in the addressee's writing." + +And while the clerk hurried from the room and down the stone stairs at a +break-neck speed, Turner sank back into his chair, with lustreless eyes +fixed on space. + +"No one can wait," he was in the habit of saying, "better than I can." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE LANE OF MANY TURNINGS + + +If John Turner expected Colville to bring Loo Barebone with him to the +Rue Lafayette he was, in part, disappointed. Colville arrived in a hired +carriage, of which the blinds were partially lowered. + +The driver had been instructed to drive into the roomy court-yard of the +house of which Turner's office occupied the first floor. Carriages +frequently waited there, by the side of a little fountain which splashed +all day and all night into a circular basin. + +Colville descended from the carriage and turned to speak to Loo, who was +left sitting within it. Since the unfortunate night at the Hotel Gemosac, +when they had been on the verge of a quarrel, a certain restraint had +characterised their intercourse. Colville was shy of approaching the +subject upon which they had differed. His easy laugh had not laughed away +the grim fact that he had deceived Loo in such a manner that complicity +was practically forced upon an innocent man. + +Loo had not given his decision yet. He had waited a week, during which +time Colville had not dared to ask him whether his mind was made up. +There was a sort of recklessness in Loo's manner which at once puzzled +and alarmed his mentor. At times he was gay, as he always had been, and +in the midst of his gaiety he would turn away with a gloomy face and go +to his own room. + +To press the question would be to precipitate a catastrophe. Dormer +Colville decided to go on as if nothing had happened. It is a compromise +with the inconveniences of untruth to which we must all resort at some +crisis or another in life. + +"I will not be long," he assured Barebone, with a gay laugh. The prospect +of handling one hundred thousand francs in notes was perhaps +exhilarating; though the actual possession of great wealth would seem to +be of the contrary tendency. There is a profound melancholy peculiar to +the face of the millionaire. "I shall not be long; for he is a man of his +word, and the money will be ready." + +John Turner was awaiting his visitor, and gave a large soft hand inertly +into Colville's warm grasp. + +"I always wish I saw more of you," said the new-comer. + +"Is there not enough of me already?" inquired the banker, pointing to the +vacant chair, upon which fell the full light of the double window. A +smaller window opposite to it afforded a view of the court-yard. And it +was at this smaller window that Colville glanced as he sat down, with a +pause indicative of reluctance. + +Turner saw the glance and noted the reluctance. He concluded, perhaps, in +the slow, sure mind that worked behind his little peeping eyes, that Loo +Barebone was in the carriage in the court-yard, and that Colville was +anxious to return to him as soon as possible. + +"It is very kind of you to say that, I am sure," pursued Turner, rousing +himself to be pleasant and conversational. "But, although the loss is +mine, my dear Colville, the fault is mostly yours. You always know where +to find me when you want my society. I am anchored in this chair, whereas +one never knows where one has a butterfly like yourself." + +"A butterfly that is getting a bit heavy on the wing," answered Colville, +with his wan and sympathetic smile. He sat forward in the chair in an +attitude antipathetic to digression from the subject in hand. + +"I do not see any evidence of that. One hears of you here and there +in France. I suppose, for instance, you know more than any man in +Paris at the present moment of the--" he paused and suppressed a yawn, +"the--er--vintage. Anything in it--eh?" + +"So far as I could judge, the rains came too late; but I shall be glad to +tell you all about it another time. This morning--" + +"Yes; I know. You want your money. I have it all ready for you. But I +must make out some sort of receipt, you know." + +Turner felt vaguely in his pocket, and at last found a letter, from which +he tore the blank sheet, while his companion, glancing from time to time +at the window, watched him impatiently. + +"Seems to me," said Turner, opening his inkstand, "that the vintage of +1850 will not be drunk by a Republic." + +"Ah! indeed." + +"What do you think?" + +"Well, to tell you the truth, my mind was more occupied in the quality of +the vintage than in its ultimate fate. If you make out a receipt on +behalf of Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, I will sign it," answered Colville, +fingering the blotting-paper. + +"Received on behalf of, and for, Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, the sum of one +hundred thousand francs," muttered the banker, as he wrote. + +"She is only a client, you understand, my dear Colville," he went on, +holding out his hand for the blotting-paper, "or I would not part with +the money so easily. It is against my advice that Mrs. St. Pierre +Lawrence realises this sum." + +"If a woman sets her heart on a thing, my dear fellow--" began Colville, +carelessly. + +"Yes, I know--reason goes to the wall. Sign there, will you?" + +Turner handed him pen and receipt, but Colville was looking toward the +window sunk deep in the wall on the inner side of the room. This was not +a double window, and the sound of carriage wheels rose above the gentle, +continuous plash of the little fountain in the court-yard. + +Colville rose from his seat, but to reach the window he had to pass +behind Turner's chair. Turner rose at the same moment, and pushed his +chair back against the wall in doing so. This passage toward the window +being completely closed by the bulk of John Turner, Colville hurried +round the writing-table. But Turner was again in front of him, and, +without appearing to notice that his companion was literally at his +heels, he opened a large cupboard sunk in the panelling of the wall. The +door of it folded back over the little window, completely hiding it. + +Turning on his heel, with an agility which was quite startling in one so +stout, he found Colville's colourless face two feet from his own. In +fact, Colville almost stumbled against him. For a moment they looked each +other in the eyes in silence. With his right hand, John Turner held the +cupboard-door over the window. + +"I have the money here," he said, "in this cupboard." And as he spoke, a +hollow rumble, echoing in the court-yard, marked the exit of a carriage +under the archway into the Rue Lafayette. There had been only one +carriage in attendance in the court-yard--that in which Colville had left +Barebone. + +"Here, in this cupboard," repeated Turner to unheeding ears. For Dormer +Colville was already hurrying across the room toward the other window +that looked out into the Rue Lafayette. The house was a lofty one, with a +high entresol, and from the windows of the first floor it was not +possible to see the street immediately below without opening the sashes. + +Turner closed the cupboard and locked it, without ceasing to watch +Colville, who was struggling with the stiff fastening of the outer sash. + +"Anything the matter?" inquired the banker, placidly. "Lost a dog?" + +But Colville had at length wrenched open the window and was leaning out. +The roar of the traffic drowned any answer he may have made. It was +manifest that the loss of three precious minutes had made him too late. +After a glance down into the street, he came back into the centre of the +room and snatched up his hat from Turner's bare writing-table. + +He hurried to the door, but turned again, with his back against it, to +face his companion, with the eyes usually so affable and sympathetic, +ablaze for once with rage. + +"Damn you!" he cried. "Damn you!" + +And the door banged on his heels as he hurried through the outer office. + +Turner was left standing, a massive incarnation of bewilderment, in the +middle of the room. He heard the outer door close with considerable +emphasis. Then he sat down again, his eyebrows raised high on his round +forehead, and gazed sadly at the date-card. + +* * * * * + +Colville had left Leo Barebone seated in the hired carriage in a frame of +mind far from satisfactory. A seafaring life, more than any other, +teaches a man quickness in action. A hundred times a day the sailor needs +to execute, with a rapidity impossible to the landsman, that which +knowledge tells him to be the imminent necessity of the moment. At sea, +life is so far simpler than in towns that there are only two ways: the +right and the wrong. In the devious paths of a pavement-ridden man there +are a hundred byways: there is the long, long lane of many turnings +called Compromise. + +Loo Barebone had turned into this lane one night at the Hotel Gemosac, in +the Ruelle St. Jacob, and had wandered there ever since. Captain Clubbe +had taught him the two ways of seamanship effectively enough. But the +education fell short of the necessities of this crisis. Moreover, +Barebone had in his veins blood of a race which had fallen to low estate +through Compromise and Delay. + +Let those throw the first stone at him who have seen the right way gaping +before their feet with a hundred pitfalls and barriers, apparently +insurmountable, and have resolutely taken that road. For the devious path +of Compromise has this merit--that the obstacles are round the corner. + +Barebone, absorbed in thought, hardly noticed that the driver of his +carriage descended from the box and lounged toward the archway, where the +hum of traffic and the passage of many people would serve to beguile a +long wait. After a minute's delay, a driver returned and climbed to the +seat--but it was not the same driver. He wore the same coat and hat, but +a different face looked out from the sheep-skin collar turned up to the +ears. There was no one in the court-yard to notice this trifling change. +Barebone was not even looking out of the window. He had never glanced at +the cabman's face, whose vehicle had happened to be lingering at the +corner of the Ruelle St. Jacob when Colville and his companion had +emerged from the high doorway of the Hotel Gemosac. + +Barebone was so far obeying instructions that he was leaning back in the +carriage, his face half hidden by the collar of his coat. For it was a +cold morning in mid-winter. He hardly looked up when the handle of the +door was turned. Colville had shut this door five minutes earlier, +promising to return immediately. It was undoubtedly his hand that opened +the door. But suddenly Barebone sat up. Both doors were open. + +Before he could make another movement, two men stepped quietly into the +carriage, each closing the door by which he had entered quickly and +noiselessly. One seated himself beside Barebone, the other opposite to +him, and each drew down a blind. They seemed to have rehearsed the +actions over and over again, so that there was no hitch or noise or +bungling. The whole was executed as if by clock-work, and the carriage +moved away the instant the doors were closed. + +In the twilight, within the carriage, the two men grasped Loo Barebone, +each by one arm, and held him firmly against the back of the carriage. + +"Quietly, _mon bon monsieur_; quietly, and you will come to no harm." + +Barebone made no resistance, and only laughed. + +"You have come too soon," he said, without attempting to free his arms, +which were held, as if by a vice, at the elbow and shoulder. "You have +come too soon, gentlemen! There is no money in the carriage. Not so much +as a sou." + +"It is not for money that we have come," replied the man who had first +spoken--and the absolute silence of his companion was obviously the +silence of a subordinate. + +"Though, for a larger sum than monsieur is likely to offer, one might +make a mistake, and allow of escape--who knows?" + +The remark was made with the cynical honesty of dishonesty which had so +lately been introduced into France by him who was now Dictator of that +facile people. + +"Oh! I offer nothing," replied Barebone. "For a good reason. I have +nothing to offer. If you are not thieves, what are you?" + +The carriage was rattling along the Rue Lafayette, over the +cobble-stones, and the inmates, though their faces were close together, +had to shout in order to be heard. + +"Of the police," was the reply. "Of the high police. I fancy that +monsieur's affair is political?" + +"Why should you fancy that?" + +"Because my comrade and I are not engaged on other cases. The criminal +receives very different treatment. Permit me to assure you of that. +And no consideration whatever. The common police is so unmannerly. +There!--one may well release the arms--since we understand each other." + +"I shall not try to escape--if that is what you mean," replied Barebone, +with a laugh. + +"Nothing else--nothing else," his affable captor assured him. + +And for the remainder of a long drive through the noisy streets the three +men sat upright in the dim and musty cab in silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +SANS RANCUNE + + +A large French fishing-lugger was drifting northward on the ebb tide with +its sails flapping idly against the spars. It had been a fine morning, +and the Captain, a man from Fécamp, where every boy that is born is born +a sailor, had been fortunate in working his way in clear weather across +the banks that lie northward of the Thames. + +He had predicted all along in a voice rendered husky by much shouting in +dirty weather that the fog-banks would be drifting in from the sea before +nightfall. And now he had that mournful satisfaction which is the special +privilege of the pessimistic. These fog-banks, the pest of the east +coast, are the materials that form the light fleecy clouds which drift +westward in sunny weather like a gauze veil across the face of the sky. +They roll across the North Sea from their home in the marshes of Holland +on the face of the waters, and the mariner, groping his way with dripping +eyelashes and a rosy face through them, can look up and see the blue sky +through the rifts overhead. When the fog-bank touches land it rises, +slowly lifted by the warm breath of the field. On the coast-line it lies +low; a mile inland it begins to break into rifts, so that any one working +his way down one of the tidal rivers, sails in the counting of twenty +seconds from sunshine into a pearly shadow. Five miles inland there is a +transparent veil across the blue sky slowly sweeping toward the west, and +rising all the while, until those who dwell on the higher lands of Essex +and Suffolk perceive nothing but a few fleecy clouds high in the heavens. + +The lugger was hardly moving, for the tide had only turned half an hour +ago. + +"Provided," the Captain had muttered within the folds of his woollen +scarf rolled round and round his neck until it looked like a dusky +life-belt--"provided that they are ringing their bell on the Shipwash, we +shall find our way into the open. Always sea-sick, this traveller, always +sea-sick!" + +And he turned with a kindly laugh to Loo Barebone, who was lying on a +heap of old sails by the stern rail, concealing as well as he could the +pangs of a consuming hunger. + +"One sees that you will never be a sailor," added the man from Fécamp, +with that rough humour which sailors use. + +"Perhaps I do not want to be one," replied Barebone, with a ready gaiety +which had already made him several friends on this tarry vessel, although +the voyage had lasted but four days. + +"Listen," interrupted the Captain, holding up a mittened hand. "Listen! I +hear a bell, or else it is my conscience." + +Barebone had heard it for some time. It was the bell-buoy at the mouth of +Harwich River. But he did not deem it necessary for one who was a +prisoner on board, and no sailor, to interfere in the navigation of a +vessel now making its way to the Faröe fisheries for the twentieth time. + +"My conscience," he observed, "rings louder than that." + +The Captain took a turn round the tiller with a rope made fast to the +rail for the purpose, and went to the side of the ship, lifting his nose +toward the west. + +"It is the land," he said. "I can smell it. But it is only the Blessed +Virgin who knows where we are." + +He turned and gave a gruff order to a man half hidden in the mist in the +waist of the boat to try a heave of the lead. + +The sound of the bell could be heard clearly enough now--the uncertain, +hesitating clang of a bell-buoy rocked in the tideway--with its +melancholy note of warning. Indeed, there are few sounds on sea or land +more fraught with lonesomeness and fear. Behind it and beyond it a faint +"tap-tap" was now audible. Barebone knew it to be the sound of a +caulker's hammer in the Government repairing yard on the south side. They +were drifting past the mouth of the Harwich River. + +The leadsman called out a depth which Loo could have told without the +help of line or lead. For he had served a long apprenticeship on these +coasts under a captain second to none in the North Sea. + +He turned a little on his bed of sails under repair, at which the Captain +had been plying his needle while the weather remained clear, and glanced +over his shoulder toward the ship's dinghy towing astern. The rope that +held it was made fast round the rail a few feet away from him. The boat +itself was clumsy, shaped like a walnut, of a preposterous strength and +weight. It was fitted with a short, stiff mast and a balance lug-sail. It +floated more lightly on the water than the bigger vessel, which was laden +with coal and provender and salt for the North Atlantic fishery, and the +painter hung loose, while the dinghy, tide-borne, sidled up to stern of +its big companion like a kitten following its mother with the uncertain +steps of infancy. + +The face of the water was glassy and of a yellow green. Although the scud +swept in toward the land at a fair speed, there was not enough wind to +fill the sails. Moreover, the bounty of Holland seemed inexhaustible. +There was more to come. This fog-bank lay on the water halfway across the +North Sea, and the brief winter sun having failed to disperse it, was now +sinking to the west, cold and pale. + +"The water seems shallow," said Barebone to the Captain. "What would you +do if the ship went aground?" + +"We should stay there, _mon bon monsieur_, until some one came to help us +at the flood tide. We should shout until they heard us." + +"You might fire a gun," suggested Barebone. + +"We have no gun on board, mon bon monsieur," replied the Captain, who had +long ago explained to his prisoner that there was no ill-feeling. + +"It is the fortune of war," he had explained before the white cliffs of +St. Valérie had faded from sight. "I am a poor man who cannot afford to +refuse a good offer. It is a Government job, as you no doubt know without +my telling you. You would seem to have incurred the displeasure or the +distrust of some one high placed in the Government. 'Treat him well,' +they said to me. 'Give him your best, and see that he comes to no harm +unless he tries to escape. And be careful that he does not return to +France before the mackerel fishing begins.' And when we do return to +Fécamp, I have to lie to off Notre Dame de la Garde and signal to the +Douane that I have you safe. They want you out of the way. You are a +dangerous man, it seems. _Salut_!" + +And the Captain raised his glass to one so distinguished by Government. +He laughed as he set his glass down on the little cabin table. + +"No ill-feeling on either side," he added. "_C'est entendu_." + +He made a half-movement as if to shake hands across the table and thought +better of it, remembering, perhaps, that his own palm was not innocent of +blood-money. For the rest they had been friendly enough on the voyage. +And had the "Petite Jeanne" been in danger, it is probable that Barebone +would have warned his jailer, if only in obedience to a seaman's instinct +against throwing away a good ship. + +He had noted every detail, however, of the dinghy while he lay on the +deck of the "Petite Jeanne"; how the runner fitted to the mast; whether +the halliards were likely to run sweetly through the sheaves or were +knotted and would jamb. He knew the weight of the gaff and the great +tan-soddened sail to a nicety. Some dark night, he had thought, on the +Dogger, he would slip overboard and take his chance. He had never looked +for thick weather at this time of year off the Banks, so near home, +within a few hours' sail of the mouth of Farlingford River. + +If a breeze would only come up from the south-east, as it almost always +does in these waters toward the evening of a still, fine day! Without +lifting his head he scanned the weather, noting that the scud was blowing +more northward now. It might only be what is known as a slant. On the +other hand, it might prove to be a true breeze, coming from the usual +quarter. The "tap-tap" of the caulker's hammer on the slip-way in Harwich +River was silent now. There must be a breeze in-shore that carried the +sound away. + +The topsail of the "Petite Jeanne" filled with a jerk, and the Captain, +standing at the tiller, looked up at it. The lower sails soon took their +cue, and suddenly the slack sheets hummed taut in the breeze. The "Petite +Jeanne" answered to it at once, and the waves gurgled and laughed beneath +her counter as she moved through the water. She could sail quicker than +her dinghy: Barebone knew that. But he also knew that he could handle an +open boat as few even on the Côtes-du-Nord knew how. + +If the breeze came strong, it would blow the fog-bank away, and Barebone +had need of its covert. Though there must be many English boats within +sight should the fog lift--indeed, the guardship in Harwich harbour would +be almost visible across the spit of land where Landguard Fort lies +hidden--Barebone had no intention of asking help so compromising. He had +but a queer story to tell to any in authority, and on the face of it he +must perforce appear to have run away with the dinghy of the "Petite +Jeanne." + +He desired to get ashore as unobtrusively as possible. For he was not +going to stay in England. The die was cast now. Where Dormer Colville's +persuasions had failed, where the memory of that journey through Royalist +France had yet left him doubting, the incidents of the last few days had +clinched the matter once for all. Barebone was going back to France. + +He moved as if to stretch his limbs and lay down once more, with his +shoulders against the rail and his elbow covering the stanchion round +which the dinghy's painter was made fast. + +The proper place for the dinghy was on deck should the breeze freshen. +Barebone knew that as well as the French Captain of the "Petite Jeanne." +For seamanship is like music--it is independent of language or race. +There is only one right way and one wrong way at sea, all the world over. +The dinghy was only towing behind while the fog continued to be +impenetrable. At any moment the Captain might give the order to bring it +inboard. + +At any moment Barebone might have to make a dash for the boat. + +He watched the Captain, who continued to steer in silence. To drift on +the tide in a fog is a very different thing to sailing through it at ten +miles an hour on a strong breeze, and the steersman had no thought to +spare for anything but his sails. Two men were keeping the look-out in +the bows. Another--the leadsman--was standing amidships peering over the +side into the mist. + +Still Barebone waited. Captain Clubbe had taught him that most difficult +art--to select with patience and a perfect judgment the right moment. The +"Petite Jeanne" was rustling through the glassy water northward toward +Farlingford. + +At a word from the Captain the man who had been heaving the lead came aft +to the ship's bell and struck ten quick strokes. He waited and repeated +the warning, but no one answered. They were alone in these shallow +channels. Fortunately the man faced forward, as sailors always do by +instinct, turning his back upon the Captain and Barebone. + +The painter was cast off now and, under his elbow, Barebone was slowly +hauling in. The dinghy was heavy and the "Petite Jeanne" was moving +quickly through the water. Suddenly Barebone rose to his feet, hauled in +hand over hand, and when the dinghy was near enough, leaped across two +yards of water to her gunwale. + +The Captain heard the thud of his feet on the thwart, and looking back +over his shoulder saw and understood in a flash of thought. But even +then he did not understand that Loo was aught else but a landsman +half-recovered from sea-sickness. He understood it a minute later, +however, when the brown sail ran up the mast and, holding the tiller +between his knees, Barebone hauled in the sheet hand over hand and +steered a course out to sea. + +He looked back over the foot of the sail and waved his hand. "_Sans +rancune!_" he shouted. "_C'est entendu!_" The Captain's own words. + +The "Petite Jeanne" was already round to the wind, and the Captain was +bellowing to his crew to trim the sails. It could scarcely be a chase, +for the huge deep-sea fishing-boat could sail half as fast again as her +own dinghy. The Captain gave his instructions with all the quickness of +his race, and the men were not slow to carry them out. The safe-keeping +of the prisoner had been made of personal advantage to each member of the +crew. + +The Captain hailed Barebone with winged words which need not be set down +here, and explained to him the impossibility of escape. + +"How can you--a landsman," he shouted, "hope to get away from us? Come +back and it shall be as you say '_sans rancune._' Name of God! I bear +you no ill-will for making the attempt." + +They were so close together that all on board the "Petite Jeanne" could +see Barebone laugh and shake his head. He knew that there was no gun on +board the fishing-boat. The lugger rushed on, sailing quicker, lying up +closer to the wind. She was within twenty yards of the little boat +now--would overhaul her in a minute. + +But in an instant Barebone was round on the other tack, and the Captain +swore aloud, for he knew now that he was not dealing with a landsman. The +"Petite Jeanne" spun round almost as quickly, but not quite. Every time +that Barebone put about, the "Petite Jeanne" must perforce do the same, +and every time she lost a little in the manoeuvre. On a long tack or +running before the wind the bigger boat was immeasurably superior. +Barebone had but one chance--to make short tacks--and he knew it. The +Captain knew it also, and no landsman would have possessed the knowledge. +He was trying to run the boat down now. + +Barebone might succeed in getting far enough away to be lost in the fog. +But in tacking so frequently he was liable to make a mistake. The bigger +boat was not so likely to miss stays. He passed so close to her that he +could read the figures cut on her stern-post indicating her draught of +water. + +There was another chance. The "Petite Jeanne" was drawing six feet; the +dinghy could sail across a shoal covered by eighteen inches of water. But +such a shoal would be clearly visible on the surface of the water. +Besides, there was no shallow like that nearer than the Goodwins. +Barebone pressed out seaward. He knew every channel and every bank +between the Thames and Thorpeness. He kept on pressing out to sea by +short tacks. All the while he was peeping over the gunwale out of the +corner of his eye. He was near, he must be near, a bank covered by five +feet of water at low tide. A shoal of five feet is rarely visible on the +surface. + +Suddenly he rose from his seat on the gunwale, and stood with the tiller +in one hand and the sheet in the other, half turning back to look at +"Petite Jeanne" towering almost over him. And as he looked, her bluff +black bows rose upward with an odd climbing movement like a horse +stepping up a bank. With a rattle of ropes and blocks she stood still. + +Barebone went about again and sailed past her. + +"_Sans rancune_!" he shouted. But no one heeded him, for they had other +matters to attend to. And the dinghy sailed into the veil of the mist +toward the land. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +RETURNED EMPTY + + +The breeze freshened, and, as was to be expected, blew the fog-bank away +before sunset. + +Sep Marvin had been an unwilling student all day. Like many of his cloth +and generation, Parson Marvin pinned all his faith on education. "Give a +boy a good education," he said, a hundred times. "Make a gentleman of +him, and you have done your duty by him." + +"Make a gentleman of him--and the world will be glad to feed and clothe +him," was the real thought in his mind, as it was in the mind of nearly +all his contemporaries. The wildest dreamer of those days never +anticipated that, in the passage of one brief generation, social +advancement should be for the shrewdly ignorant rather than for the +scholar; that it would be better for a man that his mind be stored with +knowledge of the world than the wisdom of the classics; that the +successful grocer might find a kinder welcome in a palace than the +scholar; that the manufacturer of kitchen utensils might feed with kings +and speak to them, without aspirates, between the courses. + +Parson Marvin knew none of these things, however; nor suspected that the +advance of civilisation is not always progressive, but that she may take +hands with vulgarity and dance down-hill, as she does to-day. His one +scheme of life for Sep was that he should be sent to the ancient school +where field-sports are cultivated to-day and English gentlemen turned +upon the world more ignorant than any other gentlemen in the universe. +Then, of course, Sep must go to that College with which his father's life +had been so closely allied. And if it please God to call him to the +Church, and the College should remember that it had given his father a +living, and do the same by him--for that reason and no other--then, of +course, Sep would be a made man. + +And the making of Sep had been in progress during the winter day that a +fog-bank came in from the North Sea and clung tenaciously to the low, +surfless coast. In the afternoon the sun broke through at last, wintry +and pale. Sep, who, by some instinct--the instinct, it is to be supposed, +of young animals--knew that he was destined to be of a generation that +should cultivate ignorance out of doors, rather than learning by the +fireside, threw aside his books and cried out that he could no longer +breathe in his father's study. + +So Parson Marvin went off, alone, to visit a distant parishioner--one who +was dying by himself out on the marsh, in a cottage cut off from all the +world in a spring tide. + +"Don't forget that it is high tide at five o'clock, and that there is no +moon, and that the dykes will be full. You will never find your way +across the marsh after dark," said Sep--the learned in tides and those +practical affairs of nature, which were as a closed book to the scholar. + +Parson Marvin vaguely acknowledged the warning and went away, leaving Sep +to accompany Miriam on her daily errand to the simple shops in +Farlingford, which would awake to life and business now that the sea-fog +was gone. For the men of Farlingford, like nearly all seafarers, are +timorous of bad weather on shore and sit indoors during its passage, +while they treat storm and rain with a calm contempt at sea. + +"Sail a-coming up the river, master," River Andrew said to Sep, who was +awaiting Miriam in the village street, and he walked on, without further +comment, spade on shoulder, toward the church-yard, where he spent a +portion of his day, without apparent effect. + +So, when Miriam had done her shopping, it was only natural that they +should turn their footsteps toward the quay and the river-wall. Or was it +fate? So often is the natural nothing but the inevitable in holiday garb. + +"That is no Farlingford boat," said Sep, versed in riverside knowledge, +so soon as he saw the balance-lug moving along the line of the +river-wall, half a mile below the village. + +They stood watching. Few coasters were at sea in these months of wild +weather, and there was nothing moving on the quay. The moss-grown +slip-way, where "The Last Hope" had been drawn up for repair, stood gaunt +and empty, half submerged by the flowing tide. Many Farlingford men were +engaged in the winter fisheries on the Dogger, and farther north, in +Lowestoft boats. In winter, Farlingford--thrust out into the North Sea, +surrounded by marsh--is forgotten by the world. + +The solitary boat came round the corner into the wider sheet of water, +locally known as Quay Reach. + +"A foreigner!" cried Sep, jumping, as was his wont, from one foot to the +other with excitement. "It is like the boat that was brought up by the +tide, with a dead man in it, long ago. And that was a Belgian boat." + +Miriam was looking at the boat with a sudden brightness in her eyes, a +rush of colour to her cheeks, which were round and healthy and of that +soft clear pink which marks a face swept constantly by mist and a salty +air. In flat countries, where men may see each other, unimpeded by hedge +or tree or hillock, across a space measured only by miles, the eye is +soon trained--like the sailor's eye--to see and recognise at a great +distance. + +There was no mistaking the attitude of the solitary steersman of this +foreign boat stealing quietly up to Farlingford on the flood tide. It was +Loo Barebone sitting on the gunwale as he always sat, with one knee +raised on the thwart, to support his elbow, and his chin in the palm of +his hand, so that he could glance up the head of the sail or ahead, +without needing to change his position. + +Sep turned and looked up at her. + +"I thought you said he was never coming back," he said, reproachfully. + +"So I did. I thought he was never coming back." + +Sep looked at her again, and then at the boat. One never knows how much +children, and dogs--who live daily with human beings--understand. + +"Your face is very red," he observed. "That comes from telling untruths." + +"It comes from the cold wind," replied Miriam, with an odd, breathless +laugh. + +"If we do not go home, he will be there before us," said Sep, gravely. +"He will make one tack across to the other side, and then make the mouth +of the creek." + +They turned and walked, side by side, on the top of the sea-wall toward +the rectory. Their figures must have been outlined against the sky, for +any watching from the river. The girl, tall and strong, walking with the +ease that comes from health and a steadfast mind; the eager, restless boy +running and jumping by her side. Barebone must have seen them as soon as +they saw him. They were part of Farlingford, these two. He had a sudden +feeling of having been away for years, with this difference--that he came +back and found nothing changed. Whereas, in reality, he who returns after +a long absence usually finds no one awaiting him. + +He did as Sep had foretold--crossing to the far side of the river, and +then gaining the mouth of the creek in one tack. Miriam and Sep had +reached the rectory garden first, and now stood waiting for him. He came +on in silence. Last time--on "The Last Hope"--he had come up the river +singing. + +Sep waved his hand, and, in response, Barebone nodded his head, with one +eye peering ahead, for the breeze was fresh. + +The old chain was still there, imperfectly fastened round a tottering +post at the foot of the tide-washed steps. It clinked as he made fast the +boat. Miriam had not heard the sound of it since that night, long ago, +when Loo had gone down the steps in the dark and cast off. + +"I was given a passage home in a French fishing-boat, and borrowed their +dinghy to come ashore in," said Loo, as he came up the steps. He knew +that Farlingford would want some explanation, and that Sep would be proud +to give it. An explanation is never the worse for a spice of truth. + +"Miriam told me you were never coming home again," answered Sep, still +nourishing that grievance. + +"Well, she was wrong, and here I am!" was Loo's reply, with his old, +ready laugh. "And here is Farlingford--unchanged, and no harm done." + +"Why should there be any harm done?" was Sep's prompt question. + +Barebone was shaking hands with Miriam. + +"Oh, I don't know," he answered. "Because there always is harm done, I +suppose." + +Miriam was thinking that he had changed; that the man who had unmoored +his boat at these steps six months ago had departed for ever, and that +another had come back in his place. A minute later, as he turned to close +the gate that shut off the rectory garden from the river-wall, chance +ruled it that their eyes should meet for an instant, and she knew that he +had not changed; that he might, perhaps, never change so long as he +lived. She turned abruptly and led the way to the house. + +Sep had a hundred questions to ask, but only a few of them were personal. +Children live in a world of their own, and are not slow to invite those +whom they like to come into it, while to the others, they shut the door +with a greater frankness than is permissible later in life. + +"Father," he explained, "has gone to see old Doy, who is dying." + +"Is he still dying? He will never die, I am sure; for he has been trying +to do it ever since I remember," laughed Barebone; who was interested, it +seemed, in Sep's affairs, and never noticed that Miriam was walking more +quickly than they were. + +"And I am rather anxious about him," continued Sep, with the gravity that +comes of a realised responsibility. "He moons along, you know, with his +mind far away, and he doesn't know the path across the marsh a bit. He is +bound to lose his way, and it is getting dark. Suppose I shall have to go +and look for him." + +"With a lantern," suggested Loo, darkly, without looking toward Miriam. + +"Oh, yes!" replied Sep, with delight. "With a lantern, of course. Nobody +but a fool would go out on to the marshes after dark without a lantern. +The weed on the water makes it the same as the grass, and that old woman +who was nearly drowned last winter, you know, she walked straight in, and +thought it was dry land." + +And Loo heard no more, for they were at the door; and Miriam, in the +lighted hall, was waiting for them, with all the colour gone from her +face. + +"He is sure to be in in a few minutes," she said; for she had heard the +end of their talk. She could scarcely have helped hearing Loo's weighty +suggestion of a lantern, which had had the effect he must have +anticipated. Sep was already hurriedly searching for matches. It would be +difficult to dissuade him from his purpose. What boy would willingly give +up the prospect of an adventure on the marsh alone, with a bull's-eye? +Miriam tried, and tried in vain. She gained time, however, and was +listening for Marvin's footstep on the gravel all the while. + +Sep found the matches--and it chanced that there was a sufficiency of oil +in his lantern. He lighted up and went away, leaving an abominable smell +of untrimmed wick behind him. + +It was tea-time, and, half a century ago, that meal was a matter of +greater importance than it is to-day. A fire burned in the dining-room, +glowing warmly on the mellow walls and gleaming furniture; but there was +no lamp, nor need of one, in a room with large windows facing the sunset +sky. + +Miriam led the way into this room, and lifted the shining, old-fashioned +kettle to the hob. She took a chair that stood near, and sat, with her +shoulder turned toward him, looking into the fire. + +"We will have tea as soon as they come in," she said, in that voice of +camaraderie which speaks of a life-long friendship between a man and a +woman--if such a friendship be possible. Is it?--who knows? "They will +not be long, I am sure. You will like tea, after having been so long +abroad. It is one of the charms of coming home, or one of the +alleviations. I don't know which. And now, tell me all that has happened +since you went away--if you care to." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES + + +Miriam's manner toward him was the same as it had always been so long as +he could remember. He had once thought--indeed, he had made to her the +accusation--that she was always conscious of the social gulf existing +between them; that she always remembered that she was by birth and +breeding a lady, whereas he was the son of an obscure Frenchman who was +nothing but a clockmaker whose name could be read (and can to this day be +deciphered) on a hundred timepieces in remote East Anglian farms. + +Since his change of fortune he had, as all men who rise to a great height +or sink to the depths will tell, noted a corresponding change in his +friends. Even Captain Clubbe had altered, and the affection which peeped +out at times almost against his puritanical will seemed to have suffered +a chill. The men of Farlingford, and even those who had sailed in "The +Last Hope" with him, seemed to hold him at a distance. They nodded to him +with a brief, friendly smile, but were shy of shaking hands. The hand +which they would have held out readily enough, had he needed assistance +in misfortune, slunk hastily into a pocket. For he who climbs will lose +more friends than the ne'er-do-well. Some may account this to human +nature for righteousness and others quite the contrary: for jealousy, +like love, lies hidden in unsuspected corners. + +Juliette do Gemosac had been quite different to Loo since learning his +story. Miriam alone remained unchanged. He had accused her of failing to +rise superior to arbitrary social distinctions, and now, standing behind +her in the fire-lit dining-room of the rectory, he retracted that +accusation once and for all time in his own heart, though her +justification came from a contrary direction to that from which it might +have been expected. + +Miriam alone remained a friend--and nothing else, he added, bitterly, in +his own heart. And she seemed to assume that their friendship, begun in +face of social distinctions, should never have to suffer from that +burthen. + +"I should like to hear," she repeated, seeing that he was silent, "all +that has happened since you went away; all that you may care to tell me." + +"My heritage, you mean?" + +She moved in her seat but did not look round. She had laid aside her hat +on coming into the house, and as she sat, leaning forward with her hands +clasped together in her lap, gazing thoughtfully at the fire which glowed +blue and white for the salt water that was in the drift-wood, her hair, +loosened by the wind, half concealed her face. + +"Yes," she answered, slowly. + +"Do you know what it is--my heritage?" lapsing, as he often did when +hurried by some pressing thought, into a colloquialism half French. + +She shook her head, but made no audible reply. + +"Do you suspect what it is?" he insisted. + +"I may have suspected, perhaps," she admitted, after a pause. + +"When? How long?" + +She paused again. Quick and clever as he was, she was no less so. She +weighed the question. Perhaps she found no answer to it, for she turned +toward the door that stood open and looked out into the hall. The light +of the lamp there fell for a moment across her face. + +"I think I hear them returning," she said. + +"No," he retorted, "for I should hear them before you did. I was brought +up at sea. Do not answer the question, however, if you would rather not. +You ask what has happened since I went away. A great many things have +happened which are of no importance. Such things always happen, do they +not? But one night, when we were quarrelling, Dormer Colville mentioned +your name. He was very much alarmed and very angry, so he perhaps spoke +the truth--by accident. He said that you had always known that I might be +the King of France. Many things happened, as I tell you, which are of no +importance, and which I have already forgotten, but that I remember and +always shall." + +"I have always known," replied Miriam, "that Mr. Dormer Colville is a +liar. It is written on his face, for those who care to read." + +A woman at bay is rarely merciful. + +"And I thought for an instant," pursued Loo, "that such a knowledge might +have been in your mind that night, the last I was here, last summer, on +the river-wall. I had a vague idea that it might have influenced in some +way the reply you gave me then." + +He had come a step nearer and was standing over her. She could hear his +hurried breathing. + +"Oh, no," she replied, in a calm voice full of friendliness. "You are +quite wrong. The reason I gave you still holds good, and--and always +will." + +In the brief silence that followed this clear statement of affairs, they +both heard the rattle of the iron gate by the seawall. Sep and his father +were coming. Loo turned to look toward the hall and the front door, dimly +visible in the shadow of the porch. While he did so Miriam passed her +hand quickly across her face. When Loo turned again and glanced down at +her, her attitude was unchanged. + +"Will you look at me and say that again?" he asked, slowly. + +"Certainly," she replied. And she rose from her chair. She turned and +faced him with the light of the hall-lamp full upon her. She was smiling +and self-confident. + +"I thought," he said, looking at her closely, "as I stood behind you, +that there were tears in your eyes." + +She went past him into the hall to meet Sep and his father, who were +already on the threshold. + +"It must have been the firelight," she said to Barebone as she passed +him. + +A minute later Septimus Marvin was shaking him by the hand with a vague +and uncertain but kindly grasp. + +"Sep came running to tell me that you were home again," he said, +struggling out of his overcoat. "Yes--yes. Home again to the old place. +And little changed, I can see. Little changed, my boy. _Tempora +mutantur_, eh? and we _mutamur in illis_. But you are the same." + +"Of course. Why should I change? It is too late to change for the better +now." + +"Never! Never say that. But we do not want you to change. We looked for +you to come in a coach-and-four--did we not, Miriam? For I suppose you +have secured your heritage, since you are here again. It is a great thing +to possess riches--and a great responsibility. Come, let us have tea and +not think of such things. Yes--yes. Let us forget that such a thing as a +heritage ever came between us--eh, Miriam?" + +And with a gesture of old-world politeness he stood aside for his niece +to pass first into the dining-room, whither a servant had preceded them +with a lamp. + +"It will not be hard to do that," replied Miriam, steadily, "because he +tells me that he has not yet secured it." + +"All in good time--all in good time," said Marvin, with that faith in +some occult power, seemingly the Government and Providence working in +conjunction, to which parsons and many women confide their worldly +affairs and sit with folded hands. + +He asked many questions which were easy enough to answer; for he had no +worldly wisdom himself, and did not look for it in other people. And then +he related his own adventure--the great incident of his life--his visit +to Paris. + +"A matter of business," he explained. "Some duplicates--one or two of my +prints which I had decided to part with. Miriam also wished me to see +into some small money matters of her own. Her guardian, John Turner, +you may remember, resides in Paris. A schoolfellow of my own, by the +way. But our ways diverged later in life. I found him unchanged--a kind +heart--always a kind heart. He attempts to conceal it, as many do, under +a flippant, almost a profane, manner of speech. _Brutum fulmen._ But I +saw through it--I saw through it." + +And the rector beamed on Loo through his spectacles with an innocent +delight in a Christian charity which he mistook for cunning. + +"You see," he went on, "we have spent a little money on the rectory. +To-morrow you will see that we have made good the roof of the church. One +could not ask the villagers to contribute, knowing that the children want +boots and scarcely know the taste of jam. Yes, John Turner was very kind +to me. He found me a buyer for one of my prints." + +The rector broke off with a sharp sigh and drank his tea. + +"We shall never miss it," he added, with the hopefulness of those who can +blind themselves to facts. "Come, tell me your impressions of France." + +"I have been there before," replied Loo, with a curtness so unusual as to +make Miriam glance at him. "I have been there before, you know. It would +be more interesting to hear your own impressions, which must be fresher." + +Miriam knew that he did not want to speak of France, and wondered why. +But Marvin, eager to talk of his favourite study, seized the suggestion +in all innocence. He had gone to Paris as he had wandered through life, +with the mind of a child, eager, receptive, open to impression. Such +minds pass by much that is of value, but to one or two conclusions they +bring a perceptive comprehension which is photographic in its accuracy. + +"I have followed her history with unflagging interest since boyhood," he +said, "but never until now have I understood France. I walked through the +streets of Paris and I looked into the faces of the people, and I +realised that the astonishing history of France is true. One can see it +in those faces. The city is brilliant, beautiful, unreal. The reality is +in the faces of the people. Do you remember what Wellington said of them +half a century ago? 'They are ripe,' he said, 'for another Napoleon.' But +he could not see that Napoleon on the political horizon. And that is what +I saw in their faces. They are ripe for something--they know not what." + +"Did John Turner tell you that?" asked Loo, in an eager voice. "He who +has lived in Paris all his life?" + +And Miriam caught the thrill of excitement in the voice that put this +question. She glanced at Loo. His eyes were bright and his cheeks +colourless. She knew that she was in the presence of some feeling that +she did not understand. It was odd that an old scholar, knowing nothing +but history, could thus stir a listener whose touch had hitherto only +skimmed the surface of life. + +"No," answered Marvin, with assurance. "I saw it myself in their faces. +Ah! if another such as Napoleon could only arise--such as he, but +different. Not an adventurer, but a King and the descendant of Kings--not +allied, as Napoleon was, with a hundred other adventurers." + +"Yes," said Loo, in a muffled voice, looking away toward the fire. + +"A King whose wife should be a Queen," pursued the dreamer. + +"Yes," said Loo again, encouragingly. + +"They could save France," concluded Marvin, taking off his spectacles and +polishing them with a silk handkerchief. Loo turned and looked at him, +for the action so characteristic of a mere onlooker indicated that the +momentary concentration of a mind so stored with knowledge that confusion +reigned there was passing away. + +"From what?" asked Loo. "Save France from what?" + +"From inevitable disaster, my boy," replied Marvin, gravely. "That is +what I saw in those gay streets." + +Loo glanced at him sharply. He had himself seen the same all through +those provinces which must take their cue from Paris whether they will or +no. + +"What a career!" murmured Marvin. "What a mission for a man to have in +life--to save France! One does not like to think of the world without a +France to lead it in nearly everything, or with a France, a mere ghost of +her former self, exploited, depleted by another Bonaparte. And we must +look in vain for that man as did the good Duke years ago." + +"I should like to have a shot at it," put in Sep, who had just despatched +a large piece of cake. + +"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed his father, only half in jest. + +"Better sit all day under the lee of a boat and make nets, like Sea +Andrew," advised Loo, with a laugh. + +"Do you think so?" said Miriam, without looking up. + +"All the same, I'd like to have a shot at it," persisted Sep. "Pass the +cake, please." + +Loo had risen and was looking at the clock. His face was drawn and tired +and his eyes grave. + +"You will come in and see us as often as you can while you are +here?" said the kindly rector, as if vaguely conscious of a change in +this visitor. "You will always find a welcome whether you come in a +coach-and-four or on foot--you know that." + +"Thank you--yes. I know that." + +The rector peered at him through his spectacles. "I hope," he said, "that +you will soon be successful in getting your own. You are worried about +it, I fear. The responsibilities of wealth, perhaps. And yet many rich +people are able to do good in the world, and must therefore be happy." + +"I do not suppose I shall ever be rich," said Loo, with a careless laugh. + +"No, perhaps not. But let us hope that all will be for the best. You must +not attach too much importance to what I said about France, you know. I +may be wrong. Let us hope I am. For I understand that your heritage is +there." + +"Yes," answered Loo, who was shaking hands with Sep and Miriam, "my +heritage is there." + +"And you will go back to France?" inquired Marvin, holding out his hand. + +"Yes," was the reply, with a side glance in the direction of Miriam. "I +shall go back to France." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +BAREBONE'S PRICE + + +At Farlingford, forgotten of the world, events move slowly and men's +minds assimilate change without shock. Old people look for death long +before it arrives, so that when at last the great change comes it is +effected quite calmly. There is no indecent haste, no scrambling to put a +semblance of finish to the incomplete, as there is in the hurried death +of cities. Young faces grow softly mellow without those lines and anxious +crow's-feet that mar the features of the middle-aged, who, to earn their +daily bread or to kill the tedium of their lives, find it necessary to +dwell in streets. + +"Loo's home again," men told each other at "The Black Sailor"; and the +women, who discussed the matter in the village street, had little to add +to this bare piece of news. There was nothing unusual about it. Indeed, +it was customary for Farlingford men to come home again. They always +returned, at last, from wide wanderings, which a limited conversational +capacity seemed to deprive of all interest. Those that stayed at home +learnt a few names, and that was all. + +"Where are ye now from, Willum?" the newly returned sailor would be +kindly asked, with the sideward jerk of the head. + +"A'm now from Va'paraiso." + +And that was all that there was to be said about Valparaiso and the +experiences of this circumnavigator. Perhaps it was not considered good +form to inquire further into that which was, after all, his own business. +If you ask an East Anglian questions he will tell you nothing; if you do +not inquire he will tell you less. + +No one, therefore, asked Barebone any questions. More especially is it +considered, in seafaring communities, impolite to make inquiry into your +neighbour's misfortune. If a man have the ill luck to lose his ship, he +may well go through the rest of his life without hearing the mention of +her name. It was understood in Farlingford that Loo Barebone had resigned +his post on "The Last Hope" in order to claim a heritage in France. He +had returned home, and was living quietly at Maidens Grave Farm with Mrs. +Clubbe. It was, therefore, to be presumed that he had failed in his +quest. This was hardly a matter for surprise to such as had inherited +from their forefathers a profound distrust in Frenchmen. + +The brief February days followed each other with that monotony, marked by +small events, that quickly lays the years aside. Loo lingered on, with a +vague indecision in his mind which increased as the weeks passed by and +the spell of the wide marsh-lands closed round his soul. He took up again +those studies which the necessity of earning a living had interrupted +years before, and Septimus Marvin, who had never left off seeking, opened +new historical gardens to him and bade him come in and dig. + +Nearly every morning Loo went to the rectory to look up an obscure +reference or elucidate an uncertain period. Nearly every evening, after +the rectory dinner, he returned the books he had borrowed, and lingered +until past Sep's bedtime to discuss the day's reading. Septimus Marvin, +with an enthusiasm which is the reward of the simple-hearted, led the way +down the paths of history while Loo and Miriam followed--the man with the +quick perception of his race, the woman with that instinctive and +untiring search for the human motive which can put heart into a printed +page of history. + +Many a whole lifetime has slipped away in such occupations; for history, +already inexhaustible, grows in bulk day by day. Marvin was happier than +he had ever been, for a great absorption is one of Heaven's kindest +gifts. + +For Barebone, France and his quest there, the Marquis de Gemosac, Dormer +Colville, Juliette, lapsed into a sort of dream, while Farlingford +remained a quiet reality. Loo had not written to Dormer Colville. Captain +Clubbe was trading between Alexandria and Bristol. "The Last Hope" was +not to be expected in England before April. To communicate with Colville +would be to turn that past dream, not wholly pleasant, into a grim +reality. Loo therefore put off from day to day the evil moment. By nature +and by training he was a man of action. He tried to persuade himself that +he was made for a scholar and would be happy to pass the rest of his days +in the study of that history which had occupied Septimus Marvin's +thoughts during a whole lifetime. + +Perhaps he was right. He might have been happy enough to pass his days +thus if life were unchanging; if Septimus Marvin should never age and +never die; if Miriam should be always there, with her light touch on the +deeper thoughts, her half-French way of understanding the unspoken, with +her steady friendship which might change, some day, into something else. +This was, of course, inconsistent. Love itself is the most inconsistent +of all human dreams; for it would have some things change and others +remain ever as they are. Whereas nothing stays unchanged for a single +day: love, least of all. For it must go forward or back. + +"See!" cried Septimus Marvin, one evening, laying his hand on the open +book before him. "See how strong are racial things. Here are the Bourbons +for ever shutting their eyes to the obvious, for ever putting off the +evil moment, for ever temporising--from father to son, father to son; +generation after generation. Finally we come to Louis XVI. Read his +letters to the Comte d'Artois. They are the letters of a man who knows +the truth in his own heart and will not admit it even to himself." + +"Yes," admitted Loo. "Yes--you are right. It is racial, one must +suppose." + +And he glanced at Miriam, who did not meet his eyes but looked at the +open page, with a smile on her lips half sad, wholly tolerant. + +Next morning, Loo thought, he would write to Dormer Colville. But the +following evening came, and he had not done so. He went, as usual, to the +rectory, where the same kind welcome awaited him. Miriam knew that he had +not written. Like him, she knew that an end of some sort must soon come. +And the end came an hour later. + +Some day, Barebone knew, Dormer Colville would arrive. Every morning he +half looked for him on the sea-wall, between "The Black Sailor" and the +rectory garden. Any evening, he was well aware, the smiling face might +greet him in the lamp-lit drawing-room. + +Sep had gone to bed earlier that night. The rector was reading aloud an +endless collection of letters, from which the careful student could +scarcely fail to gather side-lights on history. Both Miriam and Loo heard +the clang of the iron gate on the sea-wall. + +A minute or two later the old dog, who lived mysteriously in the back +premises, barked, and presently the servant announced that a gentleman +was desirous of speaking to the rector. There were not many gentlemen +within a day's walk of the rectory. Some one must have put up at "The +Black Sailor." Theoretically, the rector was at the call of any of his +parishioners at all moments; but in practice the people of Farlingford +never sought his help. + +"A gentleman," said Marvin, vaguely; "well, let him come in, Sarah." + +Miriam and Barebone sat silently looking at the door. But the man who +appeared there was not Dormer Colville. It was John Turner. + +He evinced no surprise on seeing Barebone, but shook hands with him with +a little nod of the head, which somehow indicated that they had business +together. + +He accepted the chair brought forward by Marvin and warmed his hands at +the fire, in no hurry, it would appear, to state the reason for this +unceremonious call. After all, Marvin was his oldest friend and Miriam +his ward. Between old friends, explanations are often better omitted. + +"It is many years," he said, at length, "since I heard their talk. They +speak with their tongues and their teeth, but not their lips." + +"And their throats," put in Marvin, eagerly. "That is because they are of +Teuton descent. So different from the French, eh, Turner?" + +Turner nodded a placid acquiescence. Then he turned, as far, it would +appear, as the thickness of his neck allowed, toward Barebone. + +"Saw in a French paper," he said, "that the 'Petite Jeanne' had put in to +Lowestoft, to replace a dinghy lost at sea. So I put two and two +together. It is my business putting two and two together, and making five +of them when I can, but they generally make four. I thought I should find +you here." + +Loo made no answer. He had only seen John Turner once in his life--for a +short hour, in a room full of people, at Royan. The banker stared +straight in front of him for a few moments. Then he raised his sleepy +little eyes directly to Miriam's face. He heaved a sigh, and fell to +studying the burning logs again. And the colour slowly rose to Miriam's +cheeks. The banker, it seemed, was about his business again, in one of +those simple addition sums, which he sometimes solved correctly. + +"To you," he said, after a moment's pause, with a glance in Loo's +direction, "to you, it must appear that I am interfering in what is not +my own business. You are wrong there." + +He had clasped his hands across his abnormal waistcoat, and he half +closed his eyes as he blinked at the fire. + +"I am a sort of intermediary angel," he went on, "between private persons +in France and their friends in England. Nothing to do with state affairs, +you understand, at least, very little. Many persons in England have +relations or property in France. French persons fall in love with people +on this side of the Channel, and vice versa. And, sooner or later, all +these persons, who are in trouble with their property or their +affections, come to me, because money is invariably at the bottom of the +trouble. Money is invariably at the bottom of all trouble. And I +represent money." + +He pursed up his lips and gazed somnolently at the fire. + +"Ask anybody," he went on, dreamily, after a pause, "if that is not the +bare truth. Ask Colville, ask Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, ask Miriam +Liston, sitting here beside us, if I exaggerate the importance of--of +myself." + +"Every one," admitted Barebone, cheerfully, "knows that you occupy a +great position in Paris." + +Turner glanced at him and gave a thick chuckle in his throat. + +"Thank you," he said. "Very decent of you. And that point being +established, I will explain further, that I am not here of my own free +will. I am only an agent. No man in his senses would come to Farlingford +in mid-winter unless--" he broke off, with a sharp sigh, and glanced down +at Miriam's slipper resting on the fender, "unless he was much younger +than I am. I came because I was paid to do it. Came to make you a +proposition." + +"To make me a proposition?" inquired Loo, as the identity of Turner's +hearers had become involved. + +"Yes. And I should recommend you to give it your gravest consideration. +It is one of the most foolish propositions, from the proposer's point of +view, that I have ever had to make. I should blush to make it, if it were +any use blushing, but no one sees blushes on my cheeks now. Do not decide +in a hurry--sleep on it. I always sleep on a question." + +He closed his eyes, and seemed about to compose himself to slumber then +and there. + +"I am no longer young," he admitted, after a pause, "and therefore +propose to take one of the few alleviations allowed to advancing years +and an increasing avoirdupois. I am going to give you some advice. There +is only one thing worth having in this life, and that is happiness. Even +the possibility of it is worth all other possibilities put together. If a +man have a chance of grasping happiness--I mean a home and the wife he +wants.... and all that--he is wise to throw all other chances to the +wind. Such, for instance, as the chance of greatness, of fame or wealth, +of gratified vanity or satisfied ambition." + +He had spoken slowly, and at last he ceased speaking, as if overcome by a +growing drowsiness. A queer silence followed this singular man's words. +Barebone had not resumed his seat. He was standing by the mantelpiece, as +he often did, being quick and eager when interested, and not content to +sit still and express himself calmly in words, but must needs emphasise +his meaning by gestures and a hundred quick movements of the head. + +"Go on," he said. "Let us have the proposition." + +"And no more advice?" + +Loo glanced at Miriam. He could see all three faces where he stood, but +only by the light of the fire. Miriam was nearest to the hearth. He could +see that her eyes were aglow--possibly with anger. + +Barebone shrugged his shoulders. + +"You are not an agent--you are an advocate," he said. + +Turner raised his eyes with the patience of a slumbering animal that has +been prodded. + +"Yes," he said--"your advocate. There is one more chance I should advise +any man to shun--to cast to the four winds, and hold on only to that +tangible possibility of happiness in the present--it is the chance of +enjoying, in some dim and distant future, the satisfaction of having, in +a half-forgotten past, done one's duty. One's first duty is to secure, by +all legitimate means, one's own happiness." + +"What is the proposition?" interrupted Barebone, quickly; and Turner, +beneath his heavy lids, had caught in the passing the glance from +Miriam's eyes, for which possibly both he and Loo Barebone had been +waiting. + +"Fifty thousand pounds," replied the banker, bluntly, "in first-class +English securities, in return for a written undertaking on your part to +relinquish all claim to any heritage to which you may think yourself +entitled in France. You will need to give your word of honour never to +set foot on French soil--and that is all." + +"I never, until this moment," replied Barebone, "knew the value of my own +pretensions." + +"Yes," said Turner, quietly; "that is the obvious retort. And having +made it, you can now give a few minutes' calm reflection to my +proposition--say five minutes, until that clock strikes half-past +nine--and then I am ready to answer any questions you may wish to ask." + +Barebone laughed good-humouredly, and so far fell in with the suggestion +that he leant his elbow on the corner of the mantelpiece, and looked at +the clock. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +IN THE DARK + + +Had John Turner been able to see round the curve of his own vast cheeks +he might have perceived the answer to his proposition lurking in a little +contemptuous smile at the corner of Miriam's closed lips. Loo saw it +there, and turned again to the contemplation of the clock on the +mantelpiece which had already given a preliminary click. + +Thus they waited until the minutes should elapse, and Turner, with a +smile of simple pleasure at their ready acquiescence in his suggestion, +probably reflected behind his vacuous face that silence rarely implies +indecision. + +When at last the clock struck, Loo turned to him with a laugh and a shake +of the head as if the refusal were so self-evident that to put it into +words were a work of supererogation. + +"Who makes the offer?" he asked. + +Turner smiled on him with visible approbation as upon a quick and worthy +foe who fought a capable fight with weapons above the board. + +"No matter--since you are disposed to refuse. The money is in my hands, +as is the offer. Both are good. Both will hold good till to-morrow +morning." + +Septimus Marvin gave a little exclamation of approval. He had been +sitting by the table looking from one to the other over his spectacles +with the eager smile of the listener who understands very little, and +while wishing that he understood more, is eager to put in a word of +approval or disapprobation on safe and general lines. It was quite +obvious to John Turner, who had entered the room in ignorance on this +point, that Marvin knew nothing of Barebone's heritage in France while +Miriam knew all. + +"There is one point," he said, "which is perhaps scarcely worth +mentioning. The man who makes the offer is not _only the most +unscrupulous_, but is likely to become one of the most powerful men in +Eur--men I know. There is a reverse side to the medal. There always is a +reverse side to the good things of this world. Should you refuse his +ridiculously generous offer you will make an enemy for life--one who is +nearing that point where men stop at nothing." + +Turner glanced at Miriam again. Her clean-cut features had a stony +stillness and her eyes looked obstinately at the clock. The banker moved +in his chair as if suddenly conscious that it was time to go. + +"Do not," he said to Barebone, "be misled or mislead yourself into a +false estimate of the strength of your own case. The offer I make you +does not in any way indicate that you are in a strong position. It merely +shows the indolence of a man naturally open-handed, who would always +rather pay than fight." + +"Especially if the money is not his own." + +"Yes," admitted Turner, stolidly, "that is so. Especially if the money is +not his own. I dare say you know the weakness of your own case: others +know it too. A portrait is not much to go on. Portraits are so easily +copied; so easily changed." + +He rose as he spoke and shook hands with Marvin. + +Then he turned to Miriam, but he did not meet her glance. Last of all he +shook hands with Barebone. + +"Sleep on it," he said. "Nothing like sleeping on a question. I am +staying at 'The Black Sailor.' See you tomorrow." + +He had come, had transacted his business and gone, all in less than an +hour, with an extraordinary leisureliness almost amounting to indolence. +He had lounged into the house, and now he departed without haste or +explanation. Never hurry, never explain, was the text upon which John +Turner seemed to base the sleepy discourse of his life. For each of us is +a living sermon to his fellows, and, it is to be feared, the majority are +warnings. + +Turner had dragged on his thick overcoat, not without Loo's assistance, +and, with the collar turned up about his ears, he went out into the +night, leaving the three persons whom he had found in the drawing-room +standing in the hall looking at the door which he closed decisively +behind him. "Seize your happiness while you can," he had urged. "If +not--" and the decisive closing of a door on his departing heel said the +rest. + +The clocks struck ten. It was not worth while going back to the +drawing-room. All Farlingford was abed in those days by nine o'clock. +Barebone took his coat and prepared to follow Turner. Miriam was already +lighting her bedroom candle. She bade the two men good night and went +slowly upstairs. As she reached her own room she heard the front door +closed behind Loo and the rattle of the chain under the uncertain fingers +of Septimus Marvin. The sound of it was like the clink of that other +chain by which Barebone had made fast his boat to the tottering post on +the river-wall. + +Miriam's room was at the front of the house, and its square Georgian +windows faced eastward across the river to the narrow spit of marsh-land +and the open sea beyond it. A crescent of moon far gone on the wane, +yellow and forlorn, was rising from the sea. An uncertain path of light +lay across the face of the far-off tide-way--broken by a narrow strip of +darkness and renewed again close at hand across the wide river almost to +the sea-wall beneath the window. From this window no house could be seen +by day--nothing but a vast expanse of water and land hardly less level +and unbroken. No light was visible on sea or land now, nothing but the +waning moon in a cold clear sky. + +Miriam threw herself, all dressed, on her bed with the abandonment of one +who is worn out by some great effort, and buried her face in the pillow. + +Barebone's way lay to the left along the river-wall by the side of the +creek. Turner had gone to the right, taking the path that led down the +river to the old quay and the village. Whereas Barebone must turn his +back on Farlingford to reach the farm which still crouches behind a +shelter of twisted oaks and still bears the name of Maiden's Grave; +though the name is now nothing but a word. For no one knows who the +maiden was, or where her grave, or what brought her to it. + +The crescent moon gave little light, but Loo knew his way beneath the +stunted cedars and through the barricade of ilex drawn round the rectory +on the northern side. His eyes, trained to darkness, saw the shadowy form +of a man awaiting him beneath the cedars almost as soon as the door was +closed. + +He went toward him, perceiving with a sudden misgiving that it was not +John Turner. A momentary silhouette against the northern sky showed that +it was Colville, come at last. + +"Quick--this way!" he whispered, and taking Barebone's arm he led him +through the bushes. He halted in a little open space between the ilex and +the river-wall, which is fifteen feet high at the meeting of the creek +and the larger stream. "There are three men, who are not Farlingford men, +on the outer side of the sea-wall below the rectory landing. Turner must +have placed them there. I'll be even with him yet. There is a large +fishing-smack lying at anchor inside the Ness--just across the marsh. It +is the 'Petite Jeanne.' I found this out while you were in there. I could +hear your voices." + +"Could you hear what he said?" + +"No," answered Colville, with a sudden return to his old manner, easy and +sympathetic. "No--this is no time for joking, I can tell you that. You +have had a narrow escape, I assure you, Barebone. That man, the Captain +of the 'Petite Jeanne,' is well known. There are plenty of people in +France who want to get quietly rid of some family encumbrance--a man in +the way, you understand, a son too many, a husband too much, a stepson +who will inherit--the world is full of superfluities. Well, the Captain +of the 'Petite Jeanne' will take them a voyage for their health to the +Iceland fisheries. They are so far and so remote--the Iceland fisheries. +The climate is bad and accidents happen. And if the 'Petite Jeanne' +returns short-handed, as she often does, the other boats do the same. It +is only a question of a few entries in the custom-house books at Fécamp. +Do you see?" + +"Yes," admitted Barebone, thoughtfully. "I see." + +"I suppose it suggested itself to you when you were on board, and that is +why you took the first chance of escape." + +"Well, hardly; but I escaped, so it does not matter." + +"No." acquiesced Colville. "It doesn't matter. But how are we to get out +of this? They are waiting for us under the sea-wall. Is there a way +across the marsh?" + +"Yes--I know a way. But where do you want to go to-night?" + +"Out of this," whispered Colville, eagerly. "Out of Farlingford and +Suffolk before the morning if we can. I tell you there is a French +gunboat at Harwich, and another in the North Sea. It may be chance and it +may not. But I suspect there is a warrant out against you. And, failing +that, there is the 'Petite Jeanne' hanging about waiting to kidnap you a +second time. And Turner's at the bottom of it, damn him!" + +Again Dormer Colville allowed a glimpse to appear of another man quite +different from the easy, indolent man-of-the-world, the well-dressed +adventurer of a day when adventure was mostly sought in drawing-rooms, +when scented and curled dandies were made or marred by women. For a +moment Colville was roused to anger and seemed capable of manly action. +But in an instant the humour passed and he shrugged his shoulders and +gave a short, indifferent laugh beneath his breath. + +"Come," he said, "lead the way and I will follow. I have been out here +since eight o'clock and it is deucedly cold. I followed Turner from +Paris, for I knew he was on your scent. Once across the marsh we can talk +without fear as we go along." + +Barebone obeyed mechanically, leading the way through the bushes to the +kitchen-garden and over an iron fencing on to the open marsh. This +stretched inland for two miles without a hedge or other fence but the +sunken dykes which intersected it across and across. Any knowing his way +could save two miles on the longer way by the only road connecting +Farlingford with the mainland and tapping the great road that runs north +and south a few miles inland. + +There was no path, for few ever passed this way. By day, a solitary +shepherd watched his flocks here. By night the marsh was deserted. Across +some of the dykes a plank is thrown, the whereabouts of which is +indicated by a post, waist-high, driven into the ground, easily enough +seen by day, but hard to find after dark. Not all the dykes have a plank, +and for the most part the marsh is divided into squares, each only +connected at one point with its neighbour. + +Barebone knew the way as well as any in Farlingford, and he struck out +across the thick grass which crunched briskly under the foot, for it was +coated with rime, and the icy wind blew in from the sea a freezing mist. +Once or twice Barebone, having made a bee-line across from dyke to dyke, +failed to strike the exact spot where the low post indicated a plank, and +had to pause and stoop down so as to find its silhouette against the sky. +When they reached a plank he tried its strength with one foot and then +led the way across it, turning and waiting at the far end for Colville to +follow. It was unnecessary to warn him against a slip, for the plank was +no more than nine inches wide and shone white with rime. Each foot must +be secure before its fellow was lifted. + +Colville, always ready to fall in with a companion's humour, ever quick +to understand the thoughts of others, respected his silence. Perhaps he +was not far from guessing the cause of it. + +Loo was surprised to find that Dormer Colville was less antipathetic than +he had anticipated. For the last month, night and day, he had dreaded +Colville's arrival, and now that he was here he was almost glad to see +him; almost glad to quit Farlingford. And his heart was hot with anger +against Miriam. + +Turner's offer had at all events been worth considering. Had he been +alone when it was made he would certainly have considered it; he would +have turned it this way and that. He would have liked to play with it as +a cat plays with a mouse, knowing all the while that he must refuse in +the end. Perhaps Turner had made the offer in Miriam's presence, +expecting to find in her a powerful ally. It was only natural for him to +think this. Ever since the beginning, men have assigned to women the rôle +of the dissuader, the drag, the hinderer. It is always the woman, +tradition tells us, who persuades the man to be a coward, to stay at +home, to shirk a difficult or a dangerous duty. + +As a matter of fact, Turner had made this mistake. He had always wondered +why Miriam Liston elected to live at Farlingford when with her wealth and +connections, both in England and France, she might live a gayer life +elsewhere. There must, he reflected, be some reason for it. + +When whosoever does anything slightly unconventional or leaves undone +what custom and gossip make almost obligatory, a relation or a mere +interfering neighbour is always at hand to wag her head and say there +must be some reason for it. Which means, of course, one specific reason. +And the worst of it is that she is nearly always right. + +John Turner, laboriously putting two small numerals together, after his +manner, had concluded that Loo Barebone was the reason. Even banking may, +it seems, be carried on without the loss of all human weakness, +especially if the banker be of middle age, unmarried, and deprived by an +unromantic superfluity of adipose tissue of the possibility of living +through a romance of his own. Turner had consented to countenance, if not +actually to take part in, a nefarious scheme, to rid France and the +present government of one who might easily bring about its downfall, on +certain conditions. Knowing quite well that Loo Barebone could take care +of himself at sea, and was quite capable of effecting an escape if he +desired it, he had put no obstacle in the way of the usual voyage to the +Iceland fisheries. Since those days many governments in France have +invented many new methods of disposing of a political foe. Dormer +Colville was only anticipating events when he took away the character of +the Captain of the "Petite Jeanne." + +Turner had himself proposed this alternative method of securing +Barebone's silence. He had even named the sum. He had seized the +excellent opportunity of laying it before Barebone in the quiet intimacy +of the rectory drawing-room with Miriam in the soft lamp-light beside +him, with the scent of the violets at her breast mingling with the warm +smell of the wood fire. + +And Barebone had laughed at the offer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +IN THE FURROW AGAIN + + +Turner, stumbling along the road to "The Black Sailor," probably wondered +why he had failed. It is to be presumed that he knew that the ally he had +looked to for powerful aid had played him false at the crucial moment. + +His misfortune is common to all men who presume to take anything for +granted from a woman. + +Barebone, stumbling along in the dark in another direction, was as angry +with Miriam as she in her turn was angry with Turner. She was, Barebone +reflected, so uncompromising. She saw her course so clearly, so +unmistakably--as birds that fly in the night--and from that course +nothing, it seemed, would move her. It was a question of temperament and +not of principle. For, even half a century ago, high principles were +beginning to go out of fashion in the upper strata of a society which in +these days tolerates anything except cheating at games. + +Barebone himself was of a different temperament. He liked to blind +himself to the inevitable end, to temporise with the truth, whereas +Miriam, with a sort of dogged courage essentially English, perceived the +hard truth at once and clung to it, though it hurt. And all the while +Barebone knew at the back of his heart that his life was not his own to +shape. At the end, says an Italian motto, stands Destiny. Barebone wanted +to make believe; he wanted to pretend that his path lay down a flowery +way, knowing all the while that he had a hill to climb and Destiny stood +at the top. + +Colville had come at the right time. It is the fate of some men to come +at the right moment, just as it is the lot of others never to be there +when they are wanted and their place is filled by a bystander and an +opportunity is gone for ever. Which is always a serious matter, for God +only gives one or two opportunities to each of us. + +Colville had come with his ready sympathy, not expressed as the +world expresses its sympathy, in words, but by a hundred little +self-abnegations. He was always ready to act up to the principles of his +companion for the moment or to act up to no principles at all should that +companion be deficient. Moreover, he never took it upon himself to judge +others, but extended to his neighbour a large tolerance, in return for +which he seemed to ask nothing. + +"I have a carriage," he said, when on a broader cart-track they could +walk side by side, "waiting for me at the roadside inn at the junction of +the two roads. The man brought me from Ipswich to the outskirts of +Farlingford, and I sent him back to the high road to wait for me there, +to put up and stay all night, if necessary." + +Barebone was beginning to feel tired. The wind was abominably cold. He +heard with satisfaction that Colville had as usual foreseen his wishes. + +"I dogged Turner all the way from Paris, hardly letting him out of my +sight," Colville explained, cheerily, when they at length reached the +road. "It is easy enough to keep in touch with one so remarkably stout, +for every one remembers him. What did he come to Farlingford for?" + +"Apparently to try and buy me off." + +"For Louis Bonaparte?" + +"He did not say so," + +"No," said Colville. "He would not say so. But it is pretty generally +suspected that he is in that galley, and pulls an important oar in it, +too. What did he offer you?" + +"Fifty thousand pounds." + +"Whew!" whistled Colville. He stopped short in the middle of the road. +"Whew!" he repeated, thoughtfully, "fifty thousand pounds! Gad! They must +be afraid of you. They must think that we are in a strong position. And +what did you say, Barebone?" + +"I refused." + +"Why?" + +Barebone paused, and after a moment's thought made no answer at all. He +could not explain to Dormer Colville his reason for refusing. + +"Outright?" inquired Colville, deep in thought. + +"Yes." + +Colville turned and glanced at him sideways, though it was too dark to +see his face. + +"I should have thought," he said, tentatively, after a while, "that it +would have been wise to accept. A bird in the hand, you know--a damned +big bird! And then afterwards you could see what turned up." + +"You mean I could break my word later on," inquired Barebone, with that +odd downrightness which at times surprised Colville and made him think of +Captain Clubbe. + +"Well, you know," he explained, with a tolerant laugh, "in politics it +often turns out that a man's duty is to break his word--duty toward his +party, and his country, and that sort of thing." + +Which was plausible enough, as many eminent politicians seem to have +found in these later times. + +"I dare say it may be so," answered Barebone, "but I refused outright, +and there is an end to it." + +For now that he was brought face to face with the situation, shorn of +side issues and set squarely before him, he envisaged it clearly enough. +He did not want fifty thousand pounds. He had only wanted the money for a +moment because the thought leapt into his mind that fifty thousand pounds +meant Miriam. Then he saw that little contemptuous smile tilting the +corner of her lips, and he had no use for a million. + +If he could not have Miriam, he would be King of France. It is thus that +history is made, for those who make it are only men. And Clio, that +greatest of the daughters of Zeus, about whose feet cluster all the +famous names of the makers of this world's story, has, after all, only +had the reversion of the earth's great men. She has taken them after some +forgotten woman of their own choosing has had the first refusal. + +Thus it came about that the friendship so nearly severed one evening at +the Hotel Gemosac, in Paris, was renewed after a few months; and Barebone +felt assured once more that no one was so well disposed toward him as +Dormer Colville. + +There was no formal reconciliation, and neither deemed it necessary to +refer to the past. Colville, it will be remembered, was an adept at that +graceful tactfulness which is somewhat clumsily described by this +tolerant generation as going on as if nothing had happened. + +By the time that the waning moon was high enough in the eastern sky to +shed an appreciable light upon their path, they reached the junction of +the two roads and set off at a brisk pace southward toward Ipswich. So +far as the eye could reach, the wide heath was deserted, and they talked +at their ease. + +"There is nothing for it but to wake up my driver and make him take us +back to Ipswich to-night. To-morrow morning we can take train to London +and be there almost as soon as John Turner realises that you have given +him the slip," said Colville, cheerily. + +"And then?" + +"And then back to France--where the sun shines, my friend, and the spring +is already in the air. Think of that! It is so, at least, at Gemosac, for +I heard from the Marquis before I quitted Paris. Your disappearance has +nearly broken a heart or two down there, I can tell you. The old Marquis +was in a great state of anxiety. I have never seen him so upset about +anything, and Juliette did not seem to be able to offer him any +consolation." + +"Back to France?" echoed Barebone, not without a tone of relief, almost +of exultation, in his voice. "Will it be possible to go back there, since +we have to run away from Farlingford?" + +"Safer there than here," replied Colville. "It may sound odd, but it is +true. De Gemosac is one of the most powerful men in France--not +intellectually, perhaps, but by reason of his great name--and they would +not dare to touch a protégé or a guest of his. If you go back there now +you must stay at Gemosac; they have put the château into a more habitable +condition, and are ready to receive you." + +He turned and glanced at Loo's face in the moonlight. + +"There will be a difference, you understand. You will be a different +person from what you were when last there," he went on, in a muffled +voice. + +"Yes, I understand," replied Barebone, gravely. Already the dream was +taking shape--Colville's persuasive voice had awakened him to find that +it was no dream, but a reality--and Farlingford was fading back into the +land of shadows. It was only France, after all, that was real. + +"That journey of ours," explained Colville, vaguely, "has made an +extraordinary difference. The whole party is aroused and in deadly +earnest now." + +Barebone made no answer, and they walked on in meditative silence toward +the roadside inn, which stood up against the southern sky a few hundred +yards ahead. + +"In fact," Colville added, after a silence, "the ball is at your feet, +Barebone. There can be no looking back now." + +And again Barebone made no answer. It was a tacit understanding, then. + +For greater secrecy, Barebone walked on toward Ipswich alone, while +Colville went into the inn to arouse his driver, whom he found slumbering +in the wide chimney corner before a log fire. From Ipswich to London, and +thus on to Newhaven, they journeyed pleasantly enough in company, for +they were old companions of the road, and Colville's unruffled good +humour made him an easy comrade for travel even in days when the idea of +comfort reconciled with speed had not suggested itself to the mind of +man. + +Such, indeed, was his foresight that he had brought with him to London, +and there left awaiting further need of it, that personal baggage which +Loo had perforce left behind him at the Hotel Gemosac in Paris. + +They made but a brief halt in London, where Colville admitted gaily that +he had no desire to be seen. + +"I might meet my tailor in Piccadilly," he said. "And there are others +who may perhaps consider themselves aggrieved." + +At Colville's club, where they dined, he met more than one friend. + +"Hallo!" said one who had the ruddy countenance and bluff manners of a +retired major. "Hallo! Who'd have expected to see you here? I didn't +know--I--thought--eh! dammy!" + +And a hundred facetious questions gleamed from the major's eye. + +"All right, my boy," answered Colville, cheerfully. "I am off to France +to-morrow morning." + +The Major shook his head wisely as if in approval of a course of conduct +savouring of that prudence which is the better part of valour, glanced at +Loo Barebone, and waited in vain for an invitation to take a vacant chair +near at hand. + +"Still in the south of France, I suppose?" + +"Still in the south of France," replied Colville, turning to Barebone in +a final way, which had the effect of dismissing this inquisitive idler. + +While they were at dinner another came. He was a raw-boned Scotchman, who +spoke in broken English when the waiter was absent and in perfect French +when that servitor hovered near. + +"I wish I could show my face in Paris," he said, frankly, "but I can't. +Too much mixed up with Louis Philippe to find favour in the eyes of the +Prince President." + +"Why?" asked Colville. "What could you gain by showing in Paris a face +which I am sure has the stamp of innocence all over it?" + +The Scotchman laughed curtly. + +"Gain?" he answered. "Gain? I don't say I would, but I think I might be +able to turn an honest penny out of the approaching events." + +"What events?" + +"The Lord alone knows," replied the Scotchman, who had never set foot in +his country, but had acquired elsewhere the prudent habit of never +answering a question. "France doesn't, I am sure of that. I am thinking +there will be events, though, before long, Colville. Will there not, +now?" + +Colville looked at him with an open smile. + +"You mean," he said, slowly, "the Prince President." + +"That is what he calls himself at present. I'm wondering how long. Eh! +man. He is just pouring money into the country from here, from America, +from Austria--from wherever he can get it." + +"Why is he doing that?" + +"You must ask somebody who knows him better than I do. They say you knew +him yourself once well enough, eh?" + +"He is not a man I have much faith in," said Colville, vaguely. "And +France has no faith in him at all." + +"So I'm told. But France--well, does France know what she wants? She +mostly wants something without knowing what it is. She is like a woman. +It's excitement she wants, perhaps. And she will buy it at any cost, and +then find afterward she has paid too dear for it. That is like a woman, +too. But it isn't another Bonaparte she wants, I am sure of that." + +"So am I," answered Colville, with a side glance toward Barebone, a mere +flicker of the eyelids. + +"Not unless it is a Napoleon of that ilk." + +"And he is not," completed Colville. + +"But--" the Scotchman paused, for a waiter came at this moment to tell +him that his dinner was ready at a table nearer to the fire. "But," he +went on, in French, for the waiter lingered, "but he might be able to +persuade France that it is himself she wants--might he not, now? With +money at the back of it, eh?" + +"He might," admitted Colville, doubtfully. The Scotchman moved away, but +came back again. + +"I am thinking," he said, with a grim smile, "that like all intelligent +people who know France, you are aware that it is a King she wants." + +"But not an Orleans King," replied Colville, with his friendly and +indifferent laugh. + +The Scotchman smiled more grimly still and went away. + +He was seated too near for Colville and Loo to talk of him. But Colville +took an opportunity to mention his name in an undertone. It was a name +known all over Europe then, and forgotten now. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE THURSDAY OF MADAME DE CHANTONNAY + + +"It is," Madame de Chantonnay had maintained throughout the months of +January and February--"it is an affair of the heart." + +She continued to hold this opinion with, however, a shade less +conviction, well into a cold March. + +"It is an affair of the heart, Abbé," she said. "_Allez_! I know what I +talk of. It is an affair of the heart and nothing more. There is some one +in England: some blonde English girl. They are always washing, I am told. +And certainly they have that air--like a garment that has been too often +to the _blanchisseuse_ and has lost its substance. A beautiful skin, I +allow you. But so thin--so thin." + +"The skin, madame?" inquired the Abbé Touvent, with that gentle and +cackling humour in which the ordained of any Church may indulge after a +good dinner. + +The Abbé Touvent had, as a matter of fact, been Madame de Chantonnay's +most patient listener through the months of suspense that followed Loo +Barebone's sudden disappearance. Needless to say he agreed ardently with +whatever explanation she put forward. Old ladies who give good dinners to +a Low Church British curate, or an abbé of the Roman confession, or, +indeed, to the needy celibate exponents of any creed whatsoever, may +always count upon the active conversational support of their spiritual +adviser. And it is not only within the fold of Papacy that careful +Christians find the road to heaven made smooth by the arts of an +efficient cook. + +"You know well enough what I mean, malicious one," retorted the lady, +arranging her shawl upon her fat shoulders. + +"I always think," murmured the Abbé, sipping his digestive glass of +eau-de-vie d'Armagnac, which is better than any cognac of Charente--"I +always think that to be thin shows a mean mind, lacking generosity." + +"Take my word for it," pursued Madame de Chantonnay, warming to her +subject, "that is the explanation of the young man's disappearance. They +say the government has taken some underhand way of putting him aside. One +does not give credence to such rumours in these orderly times. No: it is +simply that he prefers the pale eyes of some Mees to glory and France. +Has it not happened before, Abbé?" + +"Ah! Madame--" another sip of Armagnac. + +"And will it not happen again? It is the heart that has the first word +and the last. I know--I who address you, I know!" + +And she touched her breast where, very deeply seated it is to be +presumed, she kept her own heart. + +"Ah! Madame. Who better?" murmured the Abbé. + +"Na, na!" exclaimed Madame de Chantonnay, holding up one hand, heavy with +rings, while with the other she gathered her shawl closer about her as if +for protection. + +"Now you tread on dangerous ground, wicked one--_wicked_! And you so +demure in your soutane!" + +But the Abbé only laughed and held up his small glass after the manner of +any abandoned layman drinking a toast. + +"Madame," he said, "I drink to the hearts you have broken. And now I go +to arrange the card tables, for your guests will soon be coming." + +It was, in fact, Madame de Chantonnay's Thursday evening to which were +bidden such friends as enjoyed for the moment her fickle good graces. The +Abbé Touvent was, so to speak, a permanent subscriber to these favours. +The task was easy enough, and any endowed with a patience to listen, a +readiness to admire that excellent young nobleman, Albert de Chantonnay, +and the credulity necessary to listen to the record (more hinted at than +clearly spoken) of Madame's own charms in her youth, could make sure of a +game of dominoes on the evening of the third Thursday in the month. + +The Abbé bustled about, drawing cards and tables nearer to the lamps, +away from the draught of the door, not too near the open wood fire. His +movements were dainty, like those of an old maid of the last generation. +He hissed through his teeth as if he were working very hard. It served to +stimulate a healthy excitement in the Thursday evening of Madame de +Chantonnay. + +"Oh, I am not uneasy," said that lady, as she watched him. She had dined +well and her digestion had outlived those charms to which she made such +frequent reference. "I am not uneasy. He will return, more or less +sheepish. He will make some excuse more or less inadequate. He will tell +us a story more or less creditable. _Allez_! Oh, you men. If you intend +that chair for Monsieur de Gemosac, it is the wrong one. Monsieur de +Gemosac sits high, but his legs are short; give him the little chair that +creaks. If he sits too high he is apt to see over the top of one's cards. +And he is so eager to win--the good Marquis." + +"Then he will come to-night despite the cold? You think he will come, +Madame?" + +"I am sure of it. He has come more frequently since Juliette came to live +at the château. It is Juliette who makes him come, perhaps. Who knows?" + +The Abbé stopped midway across the floor and set down the chair he +carried with great caution. + +"Madame is incorrigible," he said, spreading out his hands. "Madame would +perceive a romance in a cradle." + +"Well, one must begin somewhere, Materialist. Once it was for me that the +guests crowded to my poor Thursdays. But now it is because Albert is +near. Ah! I know it. I say it without jealousy. Have you noticed, my dear +Abbé, that he has cut his whiskers a little shorter--a shade nearer to +the ear? It is effective, eh?" + +"It gives an air of hardihood," assented the Abbé. "It lends to that +intellectual face something martial. I would almost say that to the +timorous it might appear terrible and overbearing." + +Thus they talked until the guests began to arrive, and for Madame de +Chantonnay the time no doubt seemed short enough. For no one appreciated +Albert with such a delicacy of touch as the Abbé Touvent. + +The Marquis de Gemosac and Juliette were the last to arrive. The Marquis +looked worn and considerably aged. He excused himself with a hundred +gestures of despair for being late. + +"I have so much to do," he whispered. "So much to think of. We are +leaving no stone unturned, and at last we have a clue." + +The other guests gathered round. + +"But speak, my dear friend, speak," cried Madame de Chantonnay. "You keep +us in suspense. Look around you. We are among friends, as you see. It is +only ourselves." + +"Well," replied the Marquis, standing upright and fingering the snuff-box +which had been given to his grandfather by the Great Louis. "Well, my +friends, our invaluable ally, Dormer Colville, has gone to England. There +is a ray of hope. That is all I can tell you." + +He looked round, smiled on his audience, and then proceeded to tell them +more, after the manner of any Frenchman. + +"What," he whispered, "if an unscrupulous republican government had got +scent of our glorious discovery! What if, panic-stricken, they threw all +vestige of honour to the wind and decided to kidnap an innocent man and +send him to the Iceland fisheries, where so many lives are lost every +winter; with what hopes in their republican hearts, I leave to your +imagination. What if--let us say it for once--Monsieur de Bourbon should +prove a match for them? Alert, hardy, full of resource, a skilled sailor, +he takes his life in his hand with the daring audacity of royal blood and +effects his escape to England. I tell you nothing--" + +He held up his hands as if to stay their clamouring voices, and nodded +his head triumphantly toward Albert de Chantonnay, who stood near a lamp +fingering his martial whisker of the left side with the air of one who +would pause at naught. + +"I tell you nothing. But such a theory has been pieced together upon +excellent material. It may be true. It may be a dream. And, as I tell +you, our dear friend Dormer Colville, who has nothing at stake, who loses +or gains little by the restoration of France, has journeyed to England +for us. None could execute the commission so capably, or without danger +of arousing suspicion. There! I have told you all I know. We must wait, +my compatriots. We must wait." + +"And in the mean time," purred the voice of the Abbé Touvent, "for the +digestion, Monsieur le Marquis--for the digestion." + +For it was one of the features of Madame de Chantonnay's Thursdays that +no servants were allowed in the room; but the guests waited on each +other. If the servants, as is to be presumed, listened outside the door, +they were particular not to introduce each succeeding guest without first +knocking, which caused a momentary silence and added considerably to the +sense of political importance of those assembled. The Abbé Touvent made +it his special care to preside over the table where small glasses of +eau-de-vie d'Armagnac and other aids to digestion were set out in a +careful profusion. + +"It is a theory, my dear Marquis," admitted Madame de Chantonnay. "But it +is nothing more. It has no heart in it, your theory. Now I have a theory +of my own." + +"Full of heart, one may assure oneself, Madame; full of heart," murmured +the Marquis. "For you yourself are full of heart--is it not so?" + +"I hope not," Juliette whispered to her fan, with a little smile of +malicious amusement. For she had a youthful contempt for persons old +and stout, who talk ignorantly of matters only understood by such as +are young and slim and pretty. She looked at her fan with a gleam of +ill-concealed irony and glanced over it toward Albert de Chantonnay, who, +with a consideration which must have been hereditary, was uneasy about +the alteration he had made in his whiskers. It was perhaps unfair, he +felt, to harrow young and tender hearts. + +It was at this moment that a loud knock commanded a breathless silence, +for no more guests were expected. Indeed the whole neighbourhood was +present. + +The servant, in his faded gold lace, came in and announced with a +dramatic assurance: "Monsieur de Barebone--Monsieur Colville." + +And that difference which Dormer Colville had predicted was manifested +with an astounding promptness; for all who were seated rose to their +feet. It was Colville who had given the names to the servant in the order +in which they had been announced, and at the last minute, on the +threshold, he had stepped on one side and with his hand on Barebone's +shoulder had forced him to take precedence. + +The first person Barebone saw on entering the room was Juliette, +standing under the spreading arms of a chandelier, half turned to look at +him--Juliette, in all the freshness of her girlhood and her first evening +dress, flushing pink and white like a wild rose, her eyes, bright with a +sudden excitement, seeking his. + +Behind her, the Marquis de Gemosac, Albert de Chantonnay, his mother, and +all the Royalists of the province, gathered in a semicircle, by accident +or some tacit instinct, leaving only the girl standing out in front, +beneath the chandelier. They bowed with that grave self-possession which +falls like a cloak over the shoulders of such as are of ancient and +historic lineage. + +"We reached the château of Gemosac only a few minutes after Monsieur le +Marquis and Mademoiselle had quitted it to come here," Barebone explained +to Madame de Chantonnay; "and trusting to the good-nature--so widely +famed--of Madame la Comtesse, we hurriedly removed the dust of travel, +and took the liberty of following them hither." + +"You have not taken me by surprise," replied Madame de Chantonnay. "I +expected you. Ask the Abbé Touvent. He will tell you, gentlemen, that I +expected you." + +As Barebone turned away to speak to the Marquis and others, who were +pressing forward to greet him, it became apparent that that mantle of +imperturbability, which millions made in trade can never buy, had fallen +upon his shoulders, too. For most men are, in the end, forced to play the +part the world assigns to them. We are not allowed to remain what we know +ourselves to be, but must, at last, be that which the world thinks us. + +Madame de Chantonnay, murmuring to a neighbour a mystic reference to her +heart and its voluminous premonitions, watched him depart with a vague +surprise. + +"_Mon Dieu! mon Dieu_!" she whispered, breathlessly. "It is not a +resemblance. It is the dead come to life again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +PRIMROSES + + +"If I go on, I go alone," Barebone had once said to Dormer Colville. +The words, spoken in the heat of a quarrel, stuck in the memory of +both, as such are wont to do. Perhaps, in moments of anger or +disillusionment--when we find that neither self nor friend is what we +thought--the heart tears itself away from the grip of the cooler, calmer +brain and speaks untrammelled. And such speeches are apt to linger in the +mind long after the most brilliant jeu d'esprit has been forgotten. + +What occupies the thoughts of the old man, sitting out the grey +remainder of the day, over the embers of a hearth which he will only quit +when he quits the world? Does he remember the brilliant sallies of wit, +the greatest triumphs of the noblest minds with which he has consorted; +or does his memory cling to some scene--simple, pastoral, without +incident--which passed before his eyes at a moment when his heart was +sore or glad? When his mind is resting from its labours and the sound of +the grinding is low, he will scarce remember the neat saying or the lofty +thought clothed in perfect language; but he will never forget a hasty +word spoken in an unguarded moment by one who was not clever at all, nor +even possessed the worldly wisdom to shield the heart behind the buckler +of the brain. + +"You will find things changed," Colville had said, as they walked across +the marsh from Farlingford, toward the Ipswich road. And the words came +back to the minds of both, on that Thursday of Madame de Chantonnay, +which many remember to this day. Not only did they find things changed, +but themselves they found no longer the same. Both remembered the +quarrel, and the outcome of it. + +Colville, ever tolerant, always leaning toward the compromise that eases +a doubting conscience, had, it would almost seem unconsciously, prepared +the way for a reconciliation before there was any question of a +difference. On their way back to France, without directly referring to +that fatal portrait and the revelation caused by Barebone's unaccountable +feat of memory, he had smoothed away any possible scruple. + +"France must always be deceived," he had said, a hundred times. "Better +that she should be deceived for an honest than a dishonest purpose--if it +is deception, after all, which is very doubtful. The best patriot is he +who is ready to save his country at the cost of his own ease, whether of +body or of mind. It does not matter who or what you are; it is what or +who the world thinks you to be, that is of importance." + +Which of us has not listened to a score of such arguments, not always +from the lips of a friend, but most often in that still, small voice +which rarely has the courage to stand out against the tendency of the +age? There is nothing so contagious as laxity of conscience. + +Barebone listened to the good-natured, sympathetic voice with a +make-believe conviction which was part of his readiness to put off an +evil moment. Colville was a difficult man to quarrel with. It seemed +bearish and ill-natured to take amiss any word or action which could only +be the outcome of a singularly tender consideration for the feelings of +others. + +But when they entered Madame de Chantonnay's drawing-room--when Dormer, +impelled by some instinct of the fitness of things, stepped aside and +motioned to his companion to pass in first--the secret they had in common +yawned suddenly like a gulf between them. For the possession of a secret +either estranges or draws together. More commonly, it estranges. For +which of us is careful of a secret that redounds to our credit? Nearly +every secret is a hidden disgrace; and such a possession, held in common +with another, is not likely to insure affection. + +Colville lingered on the threshold, watching Loo make the first steps of +that progress which must henceforth be pursued alone. He looked round for +a friendly face, but no one had eyes for him. They were all looking at +Loo Barebone. Colville sought Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, usually in full +evidence, even in a room full of beautiful women and distinguished men. +But she was not there. For a minute or two no one noticed him; and then +Albert de Chantonnay, remembering his rôle, came forward to greet the +Englishman. + +"It was," explained Colville, in a lowered voice, "as we thought. An +attempt was made to get him out of the way, but he effected his escape. +He knew, however, the danger of attempting to communicate with any of us +by post, and was awaiting some opportunity of transmitting a letter by a +safe hand, when I discovered his hiding-place." + +And this was the story that went half round France, from lip to lip, +among those who were faithful to the traditions of a glorious past. + +"Madame St. Pierre Lawrence," Albert de Chantonnay told Colville, in +reply, "is not here to-night. She is, however, at her villa, at Royan. +She has not, perhaps, displayed such interest in our meetings as she did +before you departed on your long journey through France. But her +generosity is unchanged. The money, which, in the hurry of the moment, +you did not withdraw from her bank--" + +"I doubt whether it was ever there," interrupted Colville. + +"She informs me," concluded Albert, "is still at our service. We have +many other promises, which must now be recalled to the minds of those who +made them. But from no one have we received such generous support as from +your kinswoman." + +They were standing apart, and in a few minutes the Marquis de Gemosac +joined them. + +"How daring! how audacious!" he whispered, "and yet how opportune--this +return. It is all to be recommenced, my friends, with a firmer grasp, a +new courage." + +"But my task is accomplished," returned Colville. "You have no further +use for a mere Englishman, like myself. I was fortunate in being able to +lend some slight assistance in the original discovery of our friend; I +have again been lucky enough to restore him to you. And now, with your +permission, I will return to Royan, where I have my little apartment, as +you know." + +He looked from one to the other, with his melancholy and self-deprecating +smile. + +"_Voila_" he added; "it remains for me to pay my respects to Madame de +Chantonnay. We have travelled far, and I am tired. I shall ask her to +excuse me." + +"And Monsieur de Bourbon comes to Gemosac. That is understood. He will be +safe there. His apartments have been in readiness for him these last two +months. Hidden there, or in other dwellings--grander and better served, +perhaps, than my poor ruin, but no safer--he can continue the great work +he began so well last winter. As for you, my dear Colville," continued +the Marquis, taking the Englishman's two hands in his, "I envy you from +the bottom of my heart. It is not given to many to serve France as you +have served her--to serve a King as you have served one. It will be my +business to see that both remember you. For France, I allow, sometimes +forgets. Go to Royan, since you wish--but it is only for a time. You will +be called to Paris some day, that I promise you." + +The Marquis would have embraced him then and there, had the cool-blooded +Englishman shown the smallest desire for that honour. But Dormer +Colville's sad and doubting smile held at arms' length one who was always +at the mercy of his own eloquence. + +The card tables had lost their attraction; and, although many parties +were formed, and the cards were dealt, the players fell to talking across +the ungathered tricks, and even the Abbé Touvent was caught tripping in +the matter of a point. + +"Never," exclaimed Madame de Chantonnay, as her guests took leave at +their wonted hour, and some of them even later--"never have I had a +Thursday so dull and yet so full of incident." + +"And never, madame," replied the Marquis, still on tiptoe, as it were, +with delight and excitement, "shall we see another like it." + +Loo went back to Gemosac with the fluttering old man and Juliette. +Juliette, indeed, was in no flutter, but had carried herself through +the excitement of her first evening party with a demure little air of +self-possession. + +She had scarce spoken to Loo during the evening. Indeed, it had been his +duty to attend on Madame de Chantonnay and on the older members of these +quiet Royalist families biding their time in the remote country villages +of Guienne and the Vendée. + +On the journey home, the Marquis had so much to tell his companion, and +told it so hurriedly, that his was the only voice heard above the rattle +of the heavy, old-fashioned carriage. But Barebone was aware of +Juliette's presence in a dark corner of the roomy vehicle, and his eyes, +seeking to penetrate the gloom, could just distinguish hers, which seemed +to be turned in his direction. + +Many changes had been effected at the chateâu, and a suite of rooms had +been prepared for Barebone in the detached building known as the Italian +house, which stands in the midst of the garden within the enceinte of the +château walls. + +"I have been able," explained the Marquis, frankly, "to obtain a small +advance on the results of last autumn's vintage. My notary in the village +found, indeed, that facilities were greater than he had anticipated. With +this sum, I have been enabled to effect some necessary repairs to the +buildings and the internal decorations. I had fallen behind the times, +perhaps. But now that Juliette is installed as châtelaine, many changes +have been effected. You will see, my dear friend; you will see for +yourself. Yes, for the moment, I am no longer a pauper. As you yourself +will have noticed, in your journey through the west, rural France is +enjoying a sudden return of prosperity. It is unaccountable. No one can +make me believe that it is to be ascribed to this scandalous Government, +under which we agonise. But there it is--and we must thank Heaven for +it." + +Which was only the truth. For France was at this time entering upon a +period of plenty. The air was full of rumours of new railways, new roads, +and new commercial enterprise. Banks were being opened in the provincial +towns, and loans made on easy terms to agriculturists for the improvement +of their land. + +Barebone found that there were indeed changes in the old château. The +apartments above that which had once been the stabling, hitherto occupied +by the Marquis, had been added to and a slight attempt at redecoration +had been made. There was no lack of rooms, and Juliette now had her own +suite, while the Marquis lived, as hitherto, in three small apartments +over the rooms occupied by Marie and her husband. + +An elderly relation--one of those old ladies habited in black, who are +ready to efface themselves all day and occupy a garret all night in +return for bed and board, had been added to the family. She contributed a +silent and mysterious presence, some worldly wisdom, and a profound +respect for her noble kinsman. + +"She is quite harmless," Juliette explained, gaily, to Barebone, on the +first occasion when they were alone together. This did not present itself +until Loo had been quartered in the Italian house for some days, with his +own servant. Although he took luncheon and dinner with the family in the +old building near to the gate-house, and spent his evenings in Juliette's +drawing-room, the Marquis or Madame Maugiron was always present, and as +often as not, they played a game of chess together. + +"She is quite harmless," said Juliette, tying, with a thread, the +primroses she had been picking in that shady corner of the garden which +lay at the other side of the Italian house. The windows of Barebone's +apartment, by the way, looked down upon this garden, and he, having +perceived her, had not wasted time in joining her in the morning +sunshine. + +"I wonder if I shall be as harmless when I am her age." + +And, indeed, danger lurked beneath her lashes as she glanced at him, +asking this question with her lips and a hundred others with her eyes, +with her gay air of youth and happiness--with her very attitude of +coquetry, as she stood in the spring sunshine, with the scent of the +primroses about her. + +"I think that any one who approaches you will always do so at his peril, +Mademoiselle." + +"Then why do it?" she asked, drawing back and busying herself with the +flowers, which she laid against her breast, as if to judge the effect of +their colour against the delicate white of her dress. "Why run into +danger? Why come downstairs at all?" + +"Why breathe?" he retorted, with a laugh. "Why eat, or drink, or sleep? +Why live? _Mon Dieu!_ because there is no choice. And when I see you in +the garden, there is no choice for me, Mademoiselle. I must come down and +run into danger, because I cannot help it any more than I can help--" + +"But you need not stay," she interrupted, cleverly. "A brave man may +always retire from danger into safety." + +"But he may not always want to, Mademoiselle." + +"Ah!" + +And, with a shrug of the shoulders, she inserted the primroses within a +very small waistband and turned away. + +"Will you give me those primroses, Mademoiselle?" asked Loo, without +moving; for, although she had turned to go, she had not gone. + +She turned on her heel and looked at him, with demure surprise, and then +bent her head to look at the flowers at her own waist. + +"They are mine," she answered, standing in that pretty attitude, her hair +half concealing her face. "I picked them myself." + +"Two reasons why I want them." + +"Ah! but," she said, with a suggestion of thoughtfulness, "one does not +always get what one wants. You ask a great deal, Monsieur." + +"There is no limit to what I would ask, Mademoiselle." + +She laughed gaily. + +"If--" she inquired, with raised eyebrows. + +"If I dared." + +Again she looked at him with that little air of surprise. + +"But I thought you were so brave?" she said. "So reckless of danger? A +brave man assuredly does not ask. He takes that which he would have." + +It happened that she had clasped her hands behind her back, leaving the +primroses at her waist uncovered and half falling from the ribbon. + +In a moment he had reached out his hand and taken them. She leapt back, +as if she feared that he might take more, and ran back toward the house, +placing a rough, tangle of brier between herself and this robber. Her +laughing face looked at him through the brier. + +"You have your primroses," she said, "but I did not give them to you. You +want too much, I think." + +"I want what that ribbon binds," he answered. But she turned away and ran +toward the house, without waiting to hear. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +DORMER COLVILLE IS BLIND + + +It was late when Dormer Colville reached the quiet sea-coast village of +Royan on the evening of his return to the west. He did not seek Mrs. St. +Pierre Lawrence until the luncheon hour next morning, when he was +informed that she was away from home. + +"Madame has gone to Paris," the man said, who, with his wife, was left in +charge of the empty house. "It was a sudden resolution, one must +conclude," he added, darkly, "but Madame took no one into her confidence. +She received news by post, which must have brought about this sudden +decision." + +Colville was intimately acquainted with his cousin's affairs; many +hazarded an opinion that, without the help of Madame St. Pierre Lawrence, +this rolling stone would have been bare enough. She had gone to Paris for +one of two reasons, he concluded. Either she had expected him to return +thither from London, and had gone to meet him with the intention of +coming to some arrangement as to the disposal of the vast sum of money +now in Turner's hands awaiting further developments, or some hitch had +occurred with respect to John Turner himself. + +Dormer Colville returned, thoughtfully, to his lodging, and in the +evening set out for Paris. + +He himself had not seen Turner since that morning in the banker's office +in the Rue Lafayette, when they had parted so unceremoniously, in a +somewhat heated spirit. But, on reflection, Colville, who had sought to +reassure himself with regard to one whose name stood for the incarnation +of gastronomy and mental density in the Anglo-French clubs of Paris, had +come to the conclusion that nothing was to be gained by forcing a quarrel +upon Turner. It was impossible to bring home to him an accusation of +complicity in an outrage which had been carried through with remarkable +skill. And when it is impossible to force home an accusation, a wise man +will hold his tongue. + +Colville could not prove that Turner had known Barebone to be in the +carriage waiting in the courtyard, and his own action in the matter had +been limited to the interposition of his own clumsy person between +Colville and the window; which might, after all, have been due to +stupidity. This, as a matter of fact, was Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence's +theory on the subject. For that lady, resting cheerfully on the firm +basis of a self-confidence which the possession of money nearly always +confers on women, had laughed at Turner all her life, and now proposed to +continue that course of treatment. + +"Take my word," she had assured Colville, "he was only acting in his +usual dense way, and probably thinks now that you are subject to brief +fits of mental aberration. I am not afraid of him or anything that he can +do. Leave him to me, and devote all your attention to finding Loo +Barebone again." + +Upon which advice Colville had been content to act. He had a faith in +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence's wit which was almost as great as her own; and +thought, perhaps rightly enough, that if any one were a match for John +Turner it was his sprightly and capable client. For there are two ways of +getting on in this world: one is to get credit for being cleverer than +you are, and the other to be cleverer than your neighbour suspects. But +the latter plan is seldom followed, for the satisfaction it provides must +necessarily be shared with no confidant. + +Colville knew where to look for Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence in Paris, where +she always took an apartment in a quiet and old-fashioned hotel rejoicing +in a select Royalist clientèle on the Place Vendôme. On arriving at the +capital, he hurried thither, and was told that the lady he sought had +gone out a few minutes earlier. "But Madame's maid," the porter added, +"is no doubt within." + +Colville was conducted to Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence's room, and was hardly +there before the lady's French maid came hurrying in with upraised hands. + +"A just Heaven has assuredly sent Monsieur at this moment!" she +exclaimed. "Madame only quitted this room ten minutes ago, and she was +agitated--she, who is usually so calm. She would tell me nothing; but I +know--I, who have done Madame's hair these ten years! And there is only +one thing that could cause her anxiety--except, of course, any mishap to +Monsieur; that would touch the heart--yes!" + +"You are very kind, Catherine," said Colville, with a laugh, "to think me +so important. Is that letter for me?" And he pointed to a note in the +woman's hand. + +"But--yes!" was the reply, and she gave up the letter, somewhat +reluctantly. "There is only one thing, and that is money," she concluded, +watching him tear open the envelope. + +"I am going to John Turner's office," Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence wrote. +"If, by some lucky chance, you should pass through Paris, and happen to +call this morning, follow me to the Rue Lafayette. M. St. P. L." + +It was plain enough. Colville reflected that Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence had +heard of the success of his mission to England and the safe return to +Gemosac of Loo Barebone. For the moment, he could not think how the news +could have reached her. She might have heard it from Miriam Liston; for +their journey hack to Gemosac had occupied nearly a week. On learning the +good news, Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence had promptly grasped the situation; +for she was very quick in thought and deed. The money would be wanted at +once. She had gone to Turner's office to withdraw it in person. + +Dormer Colville bought a flower in a shop in the Rue de la Paix, and had +it affixed to his buttonhole by the handmaid of Flora, who made it her +business to linger over the office with a gentle familiarity no doubt +pleasing enough to the majority of her clients. + +Colville was absent-minded as he drove, in a hired carriage, to the Rue +Lafayette. He was wondering whether Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence's maid had +any grounds for stating that a mishap to him would touch her mistress's +heart. He was a man of unbounded enterprise; but, like many who are +gamblers at heart, he was superstitious. He had never dared to try his +luck with Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence. She was so hard, so worldly, so +infinitely capable of managing her own affairs and regulating her own +life, that to offer her his hand and heart in exchange for her fortune +had hitherto been dismissed from his mind as a last expedient, only to be +faced when ruin awaited him. + +She had only been a widow three years. She had never been a sentimental +woman, and now her liberty and her wealth were obviously so dear to her +that, in common sense, he could scarcely, with any prospect of success, +ask her outright to part with them. Moreover, Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence +knew all about Dormer Colville, as men say. Which is only a saying; for +no human being knows all about another human being, nor one-half, nor +one-tenth of what there is to know. Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence knew enough, +at all events, Colville reflected, rather ruefully, to disillusionise a +schoolgirl, much more a woman of the world, knowing good and evil. + +He had not lived forty years in the world, and twenty years in that world +of French culture which digs and digs into human nature, without having +heard philosophers opine that, in matters of the heart, women have no +illusions at all, and that it is only men who go blindfold into the +tortuous ways of love. But he was too practical a man to build up a false +hope on so frail a basis as a theory applied to a woman's heart. + +He bought a flower for his buttonhole then, and squared his shoulders, +without any definite design. It was a mere habit--the habit acquired by +twenty years of unsuccessful enterprise, and renewed effort and deferred +hope--of leaving no stone unturned. + +His cab wheeled into the Rue Lafayette, and the man drove more slowly, +reading the numbers on the houses. Then he stopped altogether, and turned +round in his seat. + +"Citizen," he said, "there is a great crowd at the house you named. It +extends half across the street. I will go no further. It is not I who +care about publicity." + +Colville stood up and looked in the direction indicated by his driver's +whip. The man had scarcely exaggerated. A number of people were waiting +their turn on the pavement and out into the roadway, while two gendarmes +held the door. Dormer Colville paid his cabman and walked into that +crowd, with a sinking heart. + +"It is the great English banker," explained an on-looker, even before he +was asked, "who has failed." + +Colville had never found any difficulty in making his way through a +crowd--a useful accomplishment in Paris at all times, where government is +conducted, thrones are raised and toppled over, provinces are won and +lost again, by the mob. He had that air of distinction which, if wielded +good-naturedly, is the surest passport in any concourse. Some, no doubt, +recognised him as an Englishman. One after another made way for him. +Persons unknown to him commanded others to step aside and let him pass; +for the busybody we have always with us. + +In a few minutes he was at the top of the stairs, and there elbowed his +way into the office, where the five clerks sat bent up over their +ledgers. The space on the hither side of the counter was crammed with +men, who whispered impatiently together. If any one raised his voice, the +clerk whose business it was lifted his head and looked at the speaker +with a mute surprise. + +One after another these white-faced applicants leant over the counter. + +"_Voyons_, Monsieur!" they urged; "tell me this or inform me of that." + +But the clerk only smiled and shook his head. + +"Patience, Monsieur," he answered. "I cannot tell you yet. We are +awaiting advices from London." + +"But when will you receive them?" inquired several, at once. + +"It may be to-morrow. It may not be for several days." + +"But can one see Mr. Turner?" inquired one, more daring than the rest. + +"He is engaged." + +Colville caught the eye of the clerk, and by a gesture made it known that +he must be allowed to pass on into the inner room. Once more his air of +the great world, his good clothes, his flower in the buttonhole, gave him +the advantage over others; and the clerk got down from his stool. + +"Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence is with him, I know," whispered Colville. "I +come by appointment to meet her here." + +He was shown in without further trouble, and found Mrs. St. Pierre +Lawrence sitting, white-faced and voluble, in the visitors' chair. + +John Turner had his usual air of dense placidity, but the narrow black +tie he always tied in a bow was inclined slightly to one side; his hair +was ruffled, and, although the weather was not warm, his face wore a +shiny look. Any banker, with his clients clamouring on the stairs and out +into the street, might look as John Turner looked. + +"You have heard the news?" asked Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, turning +sharply in her chair and looking at Colville with an expression of sudden +relief. She carried a handkerchief in her hand, but her eyes were dry. +She was, after all, only a forerunner of those who now propose to manage +human affairs. And even in these later days of their great advance, they +have not left their pocket-handkerchiefs behind them. + +"I was told by one of the crowd," replied Colville, with a side smile +full of sympathy for Turner, "that the--er--bank had come to grief." + +"Was just telling Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence," said Turner, imperturbably, +"that it is too early in the day to throw up the sponge and cry out that +all is lost." + +"All!" echoed Colville, angrily. "But do you mean to say--Why, surely, +there is generally something left." + +Turner shrugged his shoulders and sat in silence, gnawing the middle +joint of his thumb. + +"But I must have the money!" cried Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence. "It is most +important, and I must have it at once. I withdraw it all. See, I brought +my cheque-book with me. And I know that there are over a hundred thousand +pounds in my account. As well as that, you hold securities for two +hundred and fifty thousand more--my whole fortune. The money is not +yours: it is mine. I draw it all out, and I insist on having it." + +Turner continued to bite his thumb, and glanced at her without speaking. + +"Now, damn it all, Turner!" said Colville, in a voice suddenly hoarse; +"hand it over, man." + +"I tell you it is gone," was the answer. + +"What? Three hundred and fifty thousand pounds? Then you are a rogue! You +are a fraudulent trustee! I always thought you were a damned scoundrel, +Turner, and now I know it. I'll get you to the galleys for the rest of +your life, I promise you that." + +"You will gain nothing by that," returned the banker, staring at the +date-card in front of him. "And you will lose any chance there is of +recovering something from the wreck. Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence had better +take the advice of her lawyer--in preference to yours." + +"Then I am ruined!" said that lady, rising, with an air of resolution. +She was brave, at all events. + +"At the present moment, it looks like it," admitted Turner, without +meeting her eye. + +"What am I to do?" murmured Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, looking helplessly +round the room and finally at the banker's stolid face. + +"Like the rest of us, I suppose," he admitted. "Begin the world afresh. +Perhaps your friends will come forward." + +And he looked calmly toward Colville. Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence's face +suddenly flushed, and she turned away toward the door. Turner rose, +laboriously, and opened it. + +"There is another staircase through this side door," he said, opening a +second door, which had the appearance of a cupboard. "You can avoid the +crowd." + +They passed out together, and Turner, having closed the door behind them, +crossed the room to where a small mirror was suspended. He set his tie +straight and smoothed his hair, and then returned to his chair, with a +vague smile on his face. + +Colville took the vacant seat in Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence's brougham. She +still held a handkerchief in her hand. + +"I do not mind for myself," she exclaimed, suddenly, when the carriage +moved out of the court-yard. "It is only for your sake, Dormer." + +She turned and glanced at him with eyes that shone, but not with tears. + +"Oh! Don't you understand?" she asked, in a whisper. "Don't you see, +Dormer?" + +"A way out of it?" he answered, hurriedly, almost interrupting her. He +withdrew his hand, upon which she had laid her own; withdrew it +sympathetically, almost tenderly. "See a way out of it?" he repeated, in +a reflective and business-like voice. "No, I am afraid, for the moment, I +don't." + +He sat stroking his moustache, looking out of the window, while she +looked out of the other, resolutely blinking back her tears. They drove +back to her hotel without speaking. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +A SORDID MATTER + + +"_Bon Dieu!_ my old friend, what do you expect?" replied Madame de +Chantonnay to a rather incoherent statement made to her one May afternoon +by the Marquis de Gemosac. "It is the month of May," she further +explained, indicating with a gesture of her dimpled hand the roses abloom +all around them. For the Marquis had found her in a chair beneath the +mulberry-tree in the old garden of that house near Gemosac which looks +across the river toward the sea. "It is the month of May. One is young. +Such things have happened since the world began. They will happen until +it ends, Marquis. It happened in our own time, if I remember correctly." + +And Madame de Chantonnay heaved a prodigious sigh, in memory of the days +that were no more. + +"Given a young man of enterprise and not bad looking, I allow. He has the +grand air and his face is not without distinction. Given a young girl, +fresh as a flower, young, innocent, not without feeling. Ah! I know, for +I was like that myself. Place them in a garden, in the springtime. What +will they talk of--politics? Ah--bah! Let them have long evenings +together while their elders play chess or a hand at bézique. What game +will they play? A much older game than chess or bézique, I fancy." + +"But the circumstances were so exceptional," protested the Marquis, who +had a pleased air, as if his anger were not without an antidote. + +"Circumstances may be exceptional, my friend, but Love is a Rule. You +allow him to stay six weeks in the château, seeing Juliette daily, and +then you are surprised that one fine morning Monsieur de Bourbon comes to +you and tells you brusquely, as you report it, that he wants to marry +your daughter." + +"Yes," admitted the Marquis. "He was what you may describe as brusque. It +is the English way, perhaps, of treating such matters. Now, for myself I +should have been warmer, I think. I should have allowed myself a little +play, as it were. One says a few pretty things--is it not so? One +suggests that the lady is an angel and oneself entirely unworthy of a +happiness which is only to be compared with the happiness that is +promised to us in the hereafter. It is an occasion upon which to be +eloquent." + +"Not for the English," corrected Madame de Chantonnay, holding up a hand +to emphasise her opinion. "And you must remember, that although our +friend is French, he has been brought up in that cold country--by a +minister of their frozen religion, I understand. I, who speak to you, +know what they are, for once I had an Englishman in love with me. It was +in Paris, when Louis XVIII was King. And did this Englishman tell me that +he was heart-broken, I ask you? Never! On the contrary, he appeared to be +of an indifference only to be compared with the indifference of a tree. +He seemed to avoid me rather than seek my society. Once, he made believe +to forget that he had been presented to me. A ruse--a mere ruse to +conceal his passion. But I knew, I knew always." + +"And what was the poor man's fate? What was his name, Comtesse?" + +"I forget, my friend. For the moment I have forgotten it. But tell me +more about Monsieur de Bourbon and Juliette. He is passionately in love +with her, of course; he is so miserable." + +The Marquis reflected for a few moments. + +"Well," he said, at last, "he may be so; he may be so, Comtesse." + +"And you--what did you say?" + +The Marquis looked carefully round before replying. Then he leant forward +with his forefinger raised delicately to the tip of his nose. + +"I temporised, Comtesse," he said, in a low voice. "I explained as +gracefully as one could that it was too early to think of such a +development--that I was taken by surprise." + +"Which could hardly have been true," put in Madame de Chantonnay in an +audible aside to the mulberry-tree, "for neither Guienne nor la Vendée +will be taken by surprise." + +"I said, in other words--a good many words, the more the better, for one +must be polite--'Secure your throne, Monsieur, and you shall marry +Juliette.' But it is not a position into which one hurries the last of +the house of Gemosac--to be the wife of an unsuccessful claimant, eh?" + +Madame de Chantonnay approved in one gesture of her stout hand of these +principles and of the Marquis de Gemosac's masterly demonstration of +them. + +"And Monsieur de Bourbon--did he accept these conditions?" + +"He seemed to, Madame. He seemed content to do so," replied the Marquis, +tapping his snuff-box and avoiding the lady's eye. + +"And Juliette?" inquired Madame, with a sidelong glance. + +"Oh, Juliette is sensible," replied the fond father. "My daughter is, I +hope, sensible, Comtesse." + +"Give yourself no uneasiness, my old friend," said Madame de Chantonnay, +heartily. "She is charming." + +Madame sat back in her chair and fanned herself thoughtfully. It was the +fashion of that day to carry a fan and wield it with grace and effect. To +fan oneself did not mean that the heat was oppressive, any more than the +use of incorrect English signifies to-day ill-breeding or a lack of +education. Both are an indication of a laudable desire to be unmistakably +in the movement of one's day. + +Over her fan Madame cast a sidelong glance at the Marquis, whom she, like +many of his friends, suspected of being much less simple and spontaneous +than he appeared. + +"Then they are not formally affianced?" she suggested. + +"_Mon Dieu!_ no. I clearly indicated that there were other things to be +thought of at the present time. A very arduous task lies before him, but +he is equal to it, I am certain. My conviction as to that grows as one +knows him better." + +"But you are not prepared to allow the young people to force you to take +a leap in the dark," suggested Madame de Chantonnay. "And that poor +Juliette must consume her soul in patience; but she is sensible, as you +justly say. Yes, my dear Marquis, she is charming." + +They were thus engaged in facile talk when Albert de Chantonnay emerged +from the long window of his study, a room opening on to a moss-grown +terrace, where this plotter walked to and fro like another Richelieu and +brooded over nation-shaking schemes. + +He carried a letter in his hand and wore an air of genuine perturbment. +But even in his agitation he looked carefully round before he spoke. + +"Here," he said to the Marquis and his fond mother, who watched him with +complacency--"here I have a letter from Dormer Colville. It is +necessarily couched in very cautious language. He probably knows, as I +know, that any letter addressed to me is liable to be opened. I have +reason to believe that some of my letters have not only been opened, but +that copies of them are actually in the possession of that man--the head +of that which is called the Government." + +He turned and looked darkly into a neighbouring clump of rhododendrons, +as if Louis Napoleon were perhaps lurking there. But he was nevertheless +quite right in his suspicions, which were verified twenty years later, +along with much duplicity which none had suspected. + +"Nevertheless," he went on, "I know what Colville seeks to convey to us, +and is now hurrying away from Paris to confirm to us by word of mouth. +The bank of John Turner in the Rue Lafayette has failed, and with it goes +all the fortune of Madame St. Pierre Lawrence." + +Both his hearers exclaimed aloud, and Madame de Chantonnay showed signs +of a desire to swoon; but as no one took any notice, she changed her +mind. + +"It is a ruse to gain time," explained Albert, brushing the thin end of +his moustache upward with a gesture of resolution. "Just as the other was +a ruse to gain time. It is at present a race between two resolute +parties. The party which is ready first and declares itself will be the +victor. For to-day our poor France is in the gutter: she is in the hands +of the canaille, and the canaille will accept the first who places +himself upon an elevation and scatters gold. What care they--King or +Emperor, Emperor or King! It is the same to them so long as they have a +change of some sort and see, or think they see, gain to themselves to be +snatched from it." + +From which it will be seen that Albert de Chantonnay knew his countrymen. + +"But," protested Madame de Chantonnay, who had a Frenchwoman's inimitable +quickness to grasp a situation--"the Government could scarcely cause a +bank to fail--such an old-established bank as Turner's, which has existed +since the day of Louis XIV--in order to gain time." + +"An unscrupulous Government can do anything in France," replied the +lady's son. "Their existence depends upon delay, and they are aware of +it. They would ruin France rather than forego their own aggrandisement. +And this is part of their scheme. They seek to delay us at all costs. To +kidnap de Bourbon was the first move. It failed. This is their second +move. What must be our counter-move?" + +He clasped his hands behind his willowy back and paced slowly backward +and forward. By a gesture, Madame de Chantonnay bade the Marquis keep +silence while she drew his attention to the attitude of her son. When he +paused and fingered his whisker she gasped excitedly. + +"I have it," said Albert, with an upward glance of inspiration. + +"Yes, my son?" + +"The Beauvoir estate," replied Albert, "left to me by my uncle. It is +worth three hundred thousand francs. That is enough for the moment. That +must be our counter-move." + +Madame de Chantonnay protested volubly. For if Frenchmen are ready to +sacrifice, or, at all events, to risk all for a sentiment--and history +says nothing to the contrary--Frenchwomen are eminently practical and +far-sighted. + +Madame had a hundred reasons why the Beauvoir estate should not be sold. +Many of them contradicted each other. She was not what may be called a +close reasoner, but she was roughly effective. Many a general has won a +victory not by the accuracy, but by the volume of his fire. + +"What will become of France," she cried to Albert's retreating back as he +walked to and fro, "if none of the old families has a son to bless itself +with? And Heaven knows that there are few enough remaining now. Besides, +you will want to marry some day, and what will your bride say when you +have no money? There are no _dots_ growing in the hedgerows now. Not that +I am a stickler for a _dot_. Give me heart, I always say, and keep the +money yourself. And some day you will find a loving heart, but no _dot_. +And there is a tragedy at once--ready made. Is it not so, my old friend?" + +She turned to the Marquis de Gemosac for confirmation of this forecast. + +"It is a danger, Madame," was the reply. "It is a danger which it would +be well to foresee." + +They had discussed a hundred times the possibility of a romantic marriage +between their two houses. Juliette and Albert--the two last +representatives of an old nobility long-famed in the annals of the +west--might well fall in love with each other. It would be charming, +Madame thought; but, alas! Albert would be wise to look for a _dot_. + +The Marquis paused. Again he temporised. For he could not all in an +instant decide which side of this question to take. He looked at Albert, +frail, romantic; an ideal representative of that old nobility of France +which was never practical, and elected to go to the guillotine rather +than seek to cultivate that modern virtue. + +"At the same time, Madame, it is well to remember that a loan offered now +may reasonably be expected to bring such a return in the future as will +provide _dots_ for the de Chantonnays to the end of time." + +Madame was about to make a spirited reply; she might even have suggested +that the Beauvoir estate would be better apportioned to Albert's wife +than to Juliette as the wife of another, but Albert himself stopped in +front of them and swept away all argument by a passionate gesture of his +small, white hand. + +"It is concluded," he said. "I sell the Beauvoir estate! Have not the +Chantonnays proved a hundred times that they are equal to any sacrifice +for the sake of France?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +A SQUARE MAN + + +All through the summer of 1851--a year to be marked for all time in the +minds of historians, not in red, but in black letters--the war of +politics tossed France hither and thither. + +There were, at this time, five parties contending for mastery. Should one +of these appear for the moment to be about to make itself secure in +power, the other four would at once unite to tear the common adversary +from his unstable position. Of these parties, only two were of real +cohesion: the Legitimists and the Bonapartists. The Socialists, the +Moderate Republicans, and the Orleanists were too closely allied in the +past to be friendly in the present. Socialists are noisy, but rarely +clever. A man who in France describes himself as Moderate must not expect +to be popular for any length of time. The Orleanists were only just out +of office. It was scarcely a year since Louis Philippe had died in exile +at Claremont--only three years since he signed his abdication and hurried +across to Newhaven. It was not the turn of the Orleanists. + +There is no quarrel so deadly as a family quarrel; no fall so sudden as +that of a house divided against itself. All through the spring and +summer of 1851 France exhibited herself in the eyes of the world a +laughing-stock to her enemies, a thing of pity to those who loved that +great country. + +The Republic of 1848 was already a house divided against itself. + +Its President, Louis Bonaparte, had been elected for four years. He was, +as the law then stood, not eligible again until after the lapse of +another four years. His party tried to abrogate this law, and failed. "No +matter," they said, "we shall elect him again, and President he shall be, +despite the law." + +This was only one of a hundred such clouds, no bigger than a man's hand, +arising at this time on the political horizon. For France was beginning +to wander down that primrose path where a law is only a law so long as it +is convenient. + +There was one man, Louis Bonaparte, who kept his head when others lost +that invaluable adjunct; who pushed on doggedly to a set purpose; whose +task was hard even in France, and would have been impossible in any other +country. For it is only in France that ridicule does not kill. And twice +within the last fifteen years--once at Strasbourg, once at Boulogne--he +had made the world hold its sides at the mention of his name, greeting +with the laughter which is imbittered by scorn, a failure damned by +ridicule. + +It has been said that Louis Bonaparte never gave serious thought to the +Legitimist party. He had inherited, it would seem, that invaluable +knowledge of men by which his uncle had risen to the greatest throne of +modern times. He knew that a party is never for a moment equal to a Man. +And the Legitimists had no man. They had only the Comte de Chambord. + +At Frohsdorff they still clung to their hopes, with that old-world belief +in the ultimate revival of a dead régime which was eminently +characteristic. And at Frohsdorff there died, in the October of this +year, the Duchess of Angoulême, Marie Therese Charlotte, daughter of +Marie Antoinette, who had despised her two uncles, Louis XVIII and +Charles X, for the concessions they had made--who was more Royalist than +the King. She was the last of her generation, the last of her family, and +with her died a part of the greatness of France, almost all the dignity +of royalty, and the last master-mind of the Bourbon race. + +If, as Albert de Chantonny stated, the failure of Turner's bank was +nothing but a ruse to gain time, it had the desired effect. For a space, +nothing could be undertaken, and the Marquis de Gemosac and his friends +were hindered from continuing the work they had so successfully begun. + +All through the summer Loo Barebone remained in France, at Gemosac as +much as anywhere. The Marquis de Gemosac himself went to Frohsdorff. + +"If she had been ten years younger," he said, on his return, "I could +have persuaded her to receive you. She has money. All the influence is +hers. It is she who has had the last word in all our affairs since the +death of the Due de Berri. But she is old--she is broken. I think she is +dying, my friend." + +It was the time of the vintage again. Barebone remembered the last +vintage, and his journey through those provinces that supply all the +world with wine, with Dormer Colville for a companion. Since then he had +journeyed alone. He had made a hundred new friends, had been welcomed in +a hundred historic houses. Wherever he had passed, he had left enthusiasm +behind him--and he knew it. + +He had grown accustomed to his own power, and yet its renewed evidence +was a surprise to him every day. There was something unreal in it. There +is always something unreal in fame, and great men know in their own +hearts that they are not great. It is only the world that thinks them so. +When they are alone--in a room by themselves--they feel for a moment +their own smallness. But the door opens, and in an instant they arise and +play their part mechanically. + +This had come to be Barebone's daily task. It was so easy to make his way +in this world, which threw its doors open to him, greeted him with +outstretched hands, and only asked him to charm them by being himself. He +had not even to make an effort to appear to be that which he was not. He +had only to be himself, and they were satisfied. + +Part of his rôle was Juliette de Gemosac. He found it quite easy to make +love to her; and she, it seemed, desired nothing better. Nothing definite +had been said by the Marquis de Gemosac. They were not formally +affianced. They were not forbidden to see each other. But the +irregularity of these proceedings lent a certain spice of +surreptitiousness to their intercourse which was not without its charm. +They did not see so much of each other after Loo had spoken to the +Marquis de Gemosac on this subject; for Barebone had to make visits to +other parts of France. Once or twice Juliette herself went to stay with +relatives. During these absences they did not write to each other. + +It was, in fact, impossible for Barebone to keep up any correspondence +whatever. He heard that Dormer Colville was still in Paris, seeking to +snatch something from the wreck of Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence's fortune. +The Marquis de Gemosac had been told that affairs might yet be arranged. +He was no financier, however, he admitted; he did not understand such +matters, and all that he knew was that the promised help from the +Englishwoman was not forthcoming. + +"It is," he concluded, "a question of looking elsewhere. It is not only +that we want money. It is that we must have it at once." + +It was not, strictly speaking, Loo's part to think of or to administer +the money. His was the part to be played by Kings--so easy, if the gift +is there, so impossible to acquire if it be lacking--to know many people +and to charm them all. + +Thus the summer ripened into autumn. It had been another great vintage in +the south, and Bordeaux was more than usually busy when Barebone arrived +there, at daybreak, one morning in November, having posted from Toulouse. +He was more daring in winter, and went fearlessly through the streets. In +cold weather it is so much easier for a man to conceal his identity; for +a woman to hide her beauty, if she wish to--which is a large If. Barebone +could wear a fur collar and turn it up round that tell-tale chin, which +made the passer-by pause and turn to look at him again if it was visible. + +He breakfasted at the old-fashioned inn in the heart of the town, where +to this day the diligences deposit their passengers, and then he made his +way to the quay, from whence he would take passage down the river. It was +a cold morning, and there are few colder cities, south of Paris, than +Bordeaux. Barebone hurried, his breath frozen on the fur of his collar. +Suddenly he stopped. His new self--that phantom second-nature bred of +custom--vanished in the twinkling of an eye, and left him plain Loo +Barebone, of Farlingford, staring across the green water toward "The Last +Hope," deep-laden, anchored in mid-stream. + +Seeing him stop, a boatman ran toward him from a neighbouring flight of +steps. + +"An English ship, monsieur," he said; "just come in. Her anchors are +hardly home. Does monsieur wish to go on board?" + +"Of course I do, comrade--as quick as you like," he answered, with a gay +laugh. It was odd that the sight of this structure, made of human hands, +should change him in a flash of thought, should make his heart leap in +his breast. + +In a few minutes he was seated in the wherry, half way out across the +stream. Already a face was looking over the bulwarks. The hands were on +the forecastle, still busy clearing decks after the confusion of letting +go anchor and hauling in the jib-boom. + +Barebone could see them leave off work and turn to look at him. One or +two raised a hand in salutation and then turned again to their task. +Already the mate--a Farlingford man, who had succeeded Loo--was standing +on the rail fingering a coil of rope. + +"Old man is down below," he said, giving Barebone a hand. From the +forecastle came sundry grunts, and half a dozen heads were jerked +sideways at him. + +Captain Clubbe was in the cabin, where the remains of breakfast had been +pushed to one end of the table to make room for pens and ink. The Captain +was laboriously filling in the countless documents required by the French +custom-house. He looked up, pen in hand, and all the wrinkles, graven by +years of hardship and trouble, were swept away like writing from a slate. + +He laid aside his pen and held his hand out across the table. + +"Had your breakfast?" he asked, curtly, with a glance at the empty +coffee-pot. + +Loo laughed as he sat down. It was all so familiar--the disorder of the +cabin; the smell of lamp-oil; the low song of the wind through the +rigging, that came humming in at the doorway, which was never closed, +night or day, unless the seas were washing to and fro on the main deck. +He knew everything so well; the very pen and the rarely used ink-pot; the +Captain's attitude, and the British care that he took not to speak with +his lips that which was in his heart. + +"Well," said Captain Clubbe, taking up his pen again, "how are you +getting on?" + +"With what?" + +"With the business that brought you to this country," answered Clubbe, +with a sudden gruffness; for he was, like the majority of big men, shy. + +Barebone looked at him across the table. + +"Do you know what the business is that brought me to this country?" he +asked. And Captain Clubbe looked thoughtfully at the point of his pen. + +"Did the Marquis de Gemosac and Dormer Colville tell you everything, or +only a little?" + +"I don't suppose they told me everything," was the reply. "Why should +they? I am only a seafaring man." + +"But they told you enough," persisted Barebone, "for you to draw your own +conclusions as to my business over here." + +"Yes," answered Clubbe, with a glance across the table. "Is it going +badly?" + +"No. On the contrary, it is going splendidly," answered Barebone, gaily; +and Captain Clubbe ducked his head down again over the papers of the +French custom-house. "It is going splendidly, but--" + +He paused. Half an hour ago he had no thought in his mind of Captain +Clubbe or of Farlingford. He had come on board merely to greet his old +friends, to hear some news of home, to take up for a moment that old self +of bygone days and drop it again. And now, in half a dozen questions and +answers, whither was he drifting? Captain Clubbe filled in a word, slowly +and very legibly. + +"But I am not the man, you know," said Barebone, slowly. It was as if the +sight of that just man had bidden him cry out the truth. "I am not the +man they think me. My father was not the son of Louis XVI, I know that +now. I did not know it at first, but I know it now. And I have been going +on with the thing, all the same." + +Clubbe sat back in his chair. He was large and ponderous in body. And the +habit of the body at length becomes the nature of the mind. + +"Who has been telling you that?" he asked. + +"Dormer Colville. He told me one thing first and then the other. Only he +and you and I know of it." + +"Then he must have told one lie," said Clubbe, reflectively. "One that we +know of. And what he says is of no value either way; for he doesn't know. +No one knows. Your father was a friend of mine, man and boy, and he +didn't know. He was not the same as other men; I know that--but nothing +more." + +"Then, if you were me, you would give yourself the benefit of the +doubt?" asked Barebone, with a rather reckless laugh. "For the sake of +others--for the sake of France?" + +"Not I," replied Clubbe, bluntly. + +"But it is practically impossible to go back now," explained Loo. "It +would be the ruin of all my friends, the downfall of France. In my +position, what would you do?" + +"I don't understand your position," replied Clubbe. "I don't understand +politics; I am only a seafaring man. But there is only one thing to +do--the square thing." + +"But," protested Dormer Colville's pupil, "I cannot throw over my +friends. I cannot abandon France now." + +"The square thing," repeated the sailor, stubbornly. "The square thing; +and damn your friends--damn France!" + +He rose as he spoke, for they had both heard the customs officers come on +board; and these functionaries were now bowing at the cabin-door. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +MRS. ST. PIERRE LAWRENCE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND + + +It was early in November that the report took wing in Paris that John +Turner's bank was, after all, going to weather the storm. Dormer Colville +was among the first to hear this news, and strangely enough he did not at +once impart it to Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence. + +All through the year, John Turner had kept his client supplied with ready +money. He had, moreover, made no change in his own mode of living. Which +things are a mystery to all who have no money of their own nor the good +fortune to handle other people's. There is no doubt some explanation of +the fact that bankers and other financiers seem to fail, and even become +bankrupt, without tangible effect upon their daily comfort, but the +unfinancial cannot expect to understand it. + +There had, as a matter of fact, been no question of discomfort for Mrs. +St. Pierre Lawrence either. + +"Can I spend as much as I like?" she had asked Turner, and his reply had +been in the affirmative. + +"No use in saving?" + +"None whatever," he replied. To which Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence made +answer that she did not understand things at all. + +"It is no use collecting straws against a flood," the banker answered, +sleepily. + +There was, of course, no question now of supplying the necessary funds to +the Marquis de Gemosac and Albert de Chantonnay, who, it was understood, +were raising the money, not without difficulty, elsewhere. Mrs. St. +Pierre Lawrence had indeed heard little or nothing of her Royalist +friends in the west. Human nature is the same, it would appear, all the +world over, but the upper crust is always the hardest. + +When Colville was informed of the rumour, he remembered that he had never +quarrelled with John Turner. He had, of course, said some hard things in +the heat of the moment, but Turner had not retorted. There was no +quarrel. Colville, therefore, took an early opportunity of lunching at +the club then reputed to have the best chef in Paris. He went late and +found that the majority of members had finished déjeuner and were taking +coffee in one or other of the smoking-rooms. + +After a quick and simple meal, Colville lighted a cigarette and went +upstairs. There were two or three small rooms where members smoked or +played cards or read the newspapers, and in the quietest of these John +Turner was alone, asleep. Colville walked backward into the room, talking +loudly as he did so with a friend in the passage. When well over the +threshold he turned. John Turner, whose slumbers had been rudely +disturbed, was sitting up rubbing his eyes. The surprise was of course +mutual, and for a moment there was an awkward pause; then, with a smile +of frank good-fellowship, Colville advanced, holding out his hand. + +"I hope we have known each other too many years, old fellow," he said, +"to bear any lasting ill-will for words spoken in the heat of anger or +disappointment, eh?" + +He stood in front of the banker frankly holding out the hand of +forgiveness, his head a little on one side, that melancholy smile of +toleration for poor human weakness in his eyes. + +"Well," admitted Turner, "we've certainly known each other a good many +years." + +He somewhat laboriously hoisted himself up, his head emerging from his +tumbled collar like the head of a tortoise aroused from sleep, and gave +into Colville's affectionate grasp a limp and nerveless hand. + +"No one could feel for you more sincerely than I do," Colville assured +him, drawing forward a chair,--"more than I have done all through these +trying months." + +"Very kind, I'm sure," murmured Turner, looking drowsily at his friend's +necktie. One must look somewhere, and Turner always gazed at the necktie +of any one who sat straight in front of him, which usually induced an +uneasy fingering of that ornament and an early consultation of the +nearest mirror. "Have a cigar." + +There was the faint suggestion of a twinkle beneath the banker's heavy +lids as Colville accepted this peace-offering. It was barely twenty-four +hours since he had himself launched in Colville's direction the rumour +which had brought about this reconciliation. + +"And I'm sure," continued the other, turning to cut the end of the cigar, +"that no one would be better pleased to hear that better times are +coming--eh? What did you say?" + +"Nothing. Didn't speak," was the reply to this vague interrogation. Then +they talked of other things. There was no lack of topics for conversation +at this time in France; indeed, the whole country was in a buzz of talk. +But Turner was not, it seemed, in a talkative mood. Only once did he +rouse himself to take more than a passing interest in the subject touched +upon by his easy-going companion. + +"Yes," he admitted, "he may be the best cook in Paris, but he is not what +he was. It is this Revision of the Constitution which is upsetting the +whole country, especially the lower classes. The man's hand is shaky. I +can see it from his way of pouring the mayonnaise over a salad." + +After touching upon each fresh topic, Colville seemed to return +unconsciously to that which must of necessity be foremost in his +companion's thoughts--the possibility of saving Turner's bank from +failure. And each time he learnt a little more. At last, with that +sympathetic spontaneity which was his chief charm, Dormer Colville laid +his hand confidentially on Turner's sleeve. + +"Frankly, old fellow," he said, "are you going to pull it through?" + +"Frankly, old fellow, I am," was the reply, which made Colville glance +hastily at the clock. + +"Gad!" he exclaimed, "look at the time. You have kept me gossiping the +whole afternoon. Must be off. Nobody will be better pleased than I am to +hear the good news. But of course I am mum. Not a word will they hear +from me. I _am_ glad. Good-bye." + +"I dare say you are," murmured Turner to the closed door. + +Dormer Colville was that which is known as an opportunist. It was a dull +grey afternoon. He would be sure to find Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence at +home. She had taken an apartment in the Rue de Lille in the St. Germain +quarter. His way was past the flower-shop, where he sometimes bestowed a +fickle custom. He went in and bought a carnation for his buttonhole. + +It is to be presumed that John Turner devoted the afternoon to his +affairs. It was at all events evening before he also bent his steps +toward the Rue de Lille. + +Yes, the servant told him, Madame was at home and would assuredly see +him. Madame was not alone. No. It was, however, only Monsieur Colville, +who was so frequent a visitor. + +Turner followed the servant along the corridor. The stairs had rather +tried one who had to elevate such a weight at each step; he breathed +hard, but placidly. + +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence received him with an unusual _empressement_. +Dormer Colville, who was discovered sitting as far from her as the size +of the room allowed, was less eager, but he brought forward a chair for +the banker and glanced sharply at his face as he sat down. + +"So glad to see you," the hostess explained. "It is really kind of you to +come and cheer one up on such a dull afternoon. Dormer and I--won't you +take off your coat? No, let _me_ put it aside for you. Dormer and I were +just--just saying how dull it was. Weren't we?" + +She looked from one to the other with a rather unnatural laugh. One would +have thought that she was engaged in carrying off a difficult situation +and, for so practised a woman of the world, not doing it very well. Her +cheeks were flushed, which made her look younger, and a subtle +uncertainty in her voice and manner added to this illusion charmingly. +For a young girl's most precious possession is her inexperience. Mrs. St. +Pierre Lawrence, for the first time in her life, was not sure of herself. + +"Now I hope you have not come on business," she added, drawing forward +her own chair and passing a quick hand over her hair. "Bother business! +Do not let us think about it." + +"Not exactly," replied Turner, recovering his breath. "Quite agree with +you. Let us say, 'Bother business,' and not think of it. Though, for an +old man who is getting stout, there is nothing much left but business and +his dinner, eh?" + +"No. Do not say that," cried the lady. "Never say that. It is time enough +to think that years hence when we are all white-haired. But I used to +think that myself once, you know. When I first had my money. Do you +remember? I was so pleased to have all that wealth that I determined to +learn all about cheque-books and things and manage it myself. So you +taught me, and at last you admitted that I was an excellent man of +business. I know I thought I was myself. And I suppose I lapsed into a +regular business woman and only thought of money and how to increase it. +How horrid you must have thought me!" + +"Never did that," protested Turner, stoutly. + +"But I know I learnt to think much too much about it," Mrs. St. Pierre +Lawrence went on eagerly. "And now that it is all gone, I do not care +_that_ for it." + +She snapped her finger and thumb and laughed gaily. + +"Not that," she repeated. She turned and glanced at Dormer Colville, +raising her eyebrows in some mute interrogation only comprehensible to +him. "Shall I tell him?" she asked, with a laugh of happiness not very +far removed from tears. Then she turned to the banker again. + +"Listen," she said. "I am going to tell you something which no one else +in the world can tell you. Dormer and I are going to be married. I dare +say lots of people will say that they have expected it for a long time. +They can say what they like. We don't care. And I am glad that you are +the first person to hear it. We have only just settled it, so you are the +very first to be told. And I am glad to tell you before anybody else +because you have been so kind to me always. You have been my best friend, +I think. And the kindest thing you ever did for me was to lose my money, +for if you had not lost it, Dormer never would have asked me to marry +him. He has just said so himself. And I suppose all men feel that. All +the nice ones, I mean. It is one of the drawbacks of being rich, is it +not?" + +"I suppose it is," answered Turner, stolidly, without turning an eyelash +in the direction of Colville. "Perhaps that is why no one has ever asked +me to marry them." + +Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence laughed jerkily at this witticism. She laughed +again when John Turner rose from his chair to congratulate her, but the +laugh suddenly ceased when he raised her hand to his lips with a courtesy +which was even in those days dying out of the world, and turned away from +him hastily. She stood with her back toward them for a minute or two +looking at some flowers on a side table. Then she came back into the +middle of the room, all smiles, replacing her handkerchief in her pocket. + +"So that is the news I have to tell you," she said. + +John Turner had placidly resumed his chair after shaking hands with +Dormer Colville for the second time since luncheon. + +"Yes," he answered, "it is news indeed. And I have a little news to give +you. I do not say that it is quite free from the taint of business, but +at all events it is news. Like yours, it has the merit of being at first +hand, and you are the first to hear it. No one else could tell it to +you." + +He broke off and rubbed his chin while he looked apathetically at +Colville's necktie. + +"It has another merit, rare enough," he went on. "It is good news. I +think, in fact I may say I am sure, that we shall pull through now and +your money will be safely returned to you." + +"I am so glad," said Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence, with a glance at Dormer +Colville. "I cannot tell you how glad I am." + +She looked at the banker with bright eyes and the flush still in her +cheeks that made her look younger and less sure of herself. + +"Not only for my own sake, you know. For yours, because I am sure you +must be relieved, and for--well, for everybody's sake. Tell me all about +it, please." And she pushed her chair sideways nearer to Colville's. + +John Turner bit the first joint of his thumb reflectively. It is so rare +that one can tell any one all about anything. + +"Tell me first," Mrs. St. Pierre Lawrence suggested, "whether Miriam +Liston's money is all safe as well." + +"Miriam's money never was in danger," he replied. "Miriam is my ward; you +are only my client. There is no chance of Miriam being able to make ducks +and drakes of her money." + +"That sounds as if I had been trying to do that with mine. + +"Well," admitted the banker, with a placid laugh, "if it had not been for +my failure--" + +"Don't call it hard names," put in Dormer Colville, generously. "It was +not a failure." + +"Call it a temporary suspension of payment, then," agreed the banker, +imperturbably. "If it had not been for that, half your fortune would have +been goodness knows where by now. You wanted to put it into some big +speculation in this country, if I remember aright. And big speculations +in France are the very devil just now. Whereas, now, you see, it is all +safe and you can invest it in the beginning of next year in some good +English securities. It seems providential, does it not?" + +He rose as he spoke and held out his hand to say good-bye. He asked the +question of Colville's necktie, apparently, for he smiled stupidly at it. + +"Well, I do not understand business after all, I admit that," Mrs. St. +Pierre Lawrence called out gaily to him as he went toward the door. "I do +not understand things at all." + +"No, and I don't suppose you ever will," Turner replied as he followed +the servant into the corridor. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +AN UNDERSTANDING + + +Loo Barebone went back to the Château de Gemosac after those travels in +Provence which terminated so oddly on board "The Last Hope," at anchor in +the Garonne River. + +The Marquis received him with enthusiasm and a spirit of optimism which +age could not dim. + +"Everything is going _à merveille!_" he cried. "In three months we shall +be ready to strike our blow--to make our great _coup_ for France. The +failure of Turner's bank was a severe check, I admit, and for a moment I +was in despair. But now we are sure that we shall have the money for +Albert de Chantonnay's Beauvoir estate by the middle of January. The +death of Madame la Duchesse was a misfortune. If we could have persuaded +her to receive you--your face would have done the rest, mon ami--we +should have been invincible. But she was broken, that poor lady. Think of +her life! Few women would have survived half of the troubles that she +carried on those proud shoulders from childhood." + +They were sitting in the little salon in the building that adjoined the +gate-house of Gemosac, of which the stone stairs must have rung beneath +the red spurs of fighting men; of which the walls were dented still with +the mark of arms. + +Barebone had given an account of his journey, which had been carried +through without difficulty. Everywhere success had waited upon +him--enthusiasm had marked his passage. In returning to France, he had +stolen a march on his enemies, for nothing seemed to indicate that his +presence in the country was known to them. + +"I tell you," the Marquis explained, "that he has his hands full--that +man in Paris. It is only a month since he changed his ministry. Who is +this St. Arnaud, his Minister of War? Who is Maupas, his Prefect of +Police? Does Monsieur Manpas know that we are nearly ready for our +_coup?_ Bah! Tell me nothing of that sort, gentlemen." + +And this was the universally accepted opinion at this time, of Louis +Bonaparte the President of a tottering Republic, divided against itself; +a dull man, at his wits' end. For months, all Europe had been turning +an inquiring and watchful eye on France. Socialism was rampant. Secret +societies honeycombed the community. There was some danger in the +air--men knew not what. Catastrophe was imminent, and none knew where to +look for its approach. But all thought that it must come at the end of +the year. A sort of panic took hold of all classes. They dreaded the +end of 1851. + +The Marquis de Gemosac spoke openly of these things before Juliette. She +had been present when Loo and he talked together of this last journey, so +happily accomplished, so fruitful of result. And Loo did not tell the +Marquis that he had seen his old ship, "The Last Hope," in the river at +Bordeaux, and had gone on board of her. + +Juliette listened, as she worked, beneath the lamp at the table in the +middle of the room. The lace-work she had brought from the convent-school +was not finished yet. It was exquisitely fine and delicate, and Juliette +executed the most difficult patterns with a sort of careless ease. +Sometimes, when the Marquis was more than usually extravagant in his +anticipations of success, or showed a superlative contempt for his foes, +Juliette glanced at Barebone over her lace-work, but she rarely took part +in the talk when politics were under discussion. + +In domestic matters, however, this new châtelaine showed considerable +shrewdness. She was not ignorant of the price of hay, and knew to a cask +how much wine was stored in the vault beneath the old chapel. On these +subjects the Marquis good-humouredly followed her advice sometimes. His +word had always been law in the whole neighbourhood. Was he not the head +of one of the oldest families in France? + +"But, _pardieu_, she shows a wisdom quite phenomenal, that little one," +the Marquis would tell his friends, with a hearty laugh. It was only +natural that he should consider amusing the idea of uniting wisdom and +youth and beauty in one person. It is still a universally accepted law +that old people must be wise and young persons only charming. Some may +think that they could point to a wise child born of foolish parents; to a +daughter who is well-educated and shrewd, possessing a sense of logic, +and a mother who is ignorant and foolish; to a son who has more sense +than his father: but of course such observers must be mistaken. Old +theories must be the right ones. The Marquis had no doubt of this, at all +events, and thought it most amusing that Juliette should establish order +in the chaos of domestic affairs at Gemosac. + +"You are grave," said Juliette to Barebone, one evening soon after his +return, when they happened to be alone in the little drawing-room. +Barebone was, in fact, not a lively companion; for he had sat staring at +the log-fire for quite three minutes when his eyes might assuredly have +been better employed. "You are grave. Are you thinking of your sins?" + +"When I think of those, Mademoiselle, I laugh. It is when I think of you +that I am grave." + +"Thank you." + +"So I am always grave, you understand." + +She glanced quickly, not at him but toward him, and then continued her +lace-making, with the ghost of a smile tilting the corners of her lips. + +"It is because I have something to tell you." + +"A secret?" she inquired, and she continued to smile, but differently, +and her eyes hardened almost to resentment. + +"Yes; a secret. It is a secret only known to two other people in the +world besides myself. And they will never let you know even that they +share it with you, Mademoiselle." + +"Then they are not women," she said, with a sudden laugh. "Tell it to me, +then--your secret." + +There had been an odd suggestion of foreknowledge in her manner, as if +she were humouring him by pretending to accept as a secret of vast +importance some news which she had long known--that little air of +patronage which even schoolgirls bestow, at times, upon white-haired men. +It is part of the maternal instinct. But this vanished when she heard +that she was to share the secret with two men, and she repeated, +impatiently, "Tell me, please." + +"It is a secret which will make a difference to us all our lives, +Mademoiselle," he said, warningly. "It will not leave us the same as it +found us. It has made a difference to all who know it. Therefore, I have +only decided to tell you after long consideration. It is, in fact, a +point of honour. It is necessary for you to know, whatever the result may +be. Of that I have no doubt whatever." + +He laughed reassuringly, which made her glance at him gravely, almost +anxiously. + +"And are you going on telling it to other people, afterward," she +inquired; "to my father, for instance?" + +"No, Mademoiselle. It comes to you, and it stops at you. I do not mind +withholding it from your father, and from all the friends who have been +so kind to me in France. I do not mind deceiving kings and emperors, +Mademoiselle, and even the People, which is now always spelt in capital +letters, and must be spoken of with bated breath." + +She gave a scornful little laugh, as at the sound of an old jest--the +note of a deathless disdain which was in the air she breathed. + +"Not even the newspapers, which are trying to govern France. All that is +a question of politics. But when it comes to you, Mademoiselle, that is a +different matter." + +"Ah!" + +"Yes. It is then a question of love." + +Juliette slowly changed colour, but she gave a little gay laugh of +incredulity and bent her head away from the light of the lamp. + +"That is a different code of honour altogether," he said, gravely. "A +code one does not wish to tamper with." + +"No?" she inquired, with the odd little smile of foreknowledge again. + +"No. And, therefore, before I go any farther, I think it best to tell you +that I am not what I am pretending to be. I am pretending to be the son +of the little Dauphin, who escaped from the Temple. He may have escaped +from the Temple; that I don't know. But I know, or at least I think I +know, that he is not buried in Farlingford churchyard and he was not my +father. I can pass as the grandson of Louis XVI; I know that. I can +deceive all the world. I can even climb to the throne of France, perhaps. +There are many, as you know, who think I shall do it without difficulty. +But I do not propose to deceive _you_, Mademoiselle." + +There was a short silence, while Loo watched her face. Juliette had not +even changed colour. When she was satisfied that he had nothing more to +add, she looked at him, her needle poised in the air. + +"Do you think it matters?" she asked, in a little cool, even voice. + +It was so different from what he had expected that, for a moment, he was +taken aback. Captain Clubbe's bluff, uncompromising reception of the same +news had haunted his thoughts. "The square thing," that sailor had said, +"and damn your friends; damn France." Loo looked at Juliette in doubt; +then, suddenly, he understood her point of view; he understood her. He +had learnt to understand a number of people and a number of points of +view during the last twelve months. + +"So long as I succeed?" he suggested. + +"Yes," she answered, simply. "So long as you succeed, I do not see that +it can matter who you are." + +"And if I succeed," pursued Loo, gravely, "will you marry me, +Mademoiselle?" + +"Oh! I never said that," in a voice that was ready to yield to a really +good argument. + +"And if I fail--" Barebone paused for an instant. He still doubted his +own perception. "And if I fail, you would not marry me under any +circumstances?" + +"I do not think my father would let me," she answered, with her eyes cast +down upon her lace-frame. + +Barebone leant forward to put together the logs, which burnt with a white +incandescence that told of a frosty night. The Marquis had business in +the town, and would soon return from the notary's, in time to dress for +dinner. + +"Well," said Loo, over his shoulder, "it is as well to understand each +other, is it not?" + +"Yes," she answered, significantly. She ignored the implied sarcasm +altogether. There was so much meaning in her reply that Loo turned to +look at her. She was smiling as she worked. + +"Yes," she went on; "you have told me your secret--a secret. But I have +the other, too; the secret you have not told me, _mon ami_. I have had it +always." + +"Ah?" + +"The secret that you do not love me," said Juliette, in her little wise, +even voice; "that you have never loved me. Ah! You think we do not know. +You think that I am too young. But we are never too young to know that, +to know all about it. I think we know it in our cradles." + +She spoke with a strange philosophy, far beyond her years. It might have +been Madame de Chantonnay who spoke, with all that lady's vast experience +of life and without any of her folly. + +"You think I am pretty. Perhaps I am. Just pretty enough to enable you to +pretend, and you have pretended very well at times. You are good at +pretending, one must conclude. Oh! I bear no ill-will ..." + +She broke off and looked at him, with a gay laugh, in which there was +certainly no note of ill-will to be detected. + +"But it is as well," she went on, "as you say, that we should understand +each other. Thank you for telling me your secret--the one you have told +me. I am flattered at that mark of your confidence. A woman is always +glad to be told a secret, and immediately begins to anticipate the +pleasure she will take in telling it to others, in confidence." + +She looked up for a moment from her work; for Loo had given a short +laugh. She looked, to satisfy herself that it was not the ungenerous +laugh that nine men out of ten would have cast at her; and it was not. +For Loo was looking at her with frank amusement. + +"Oh, yes," she said; "I know that, too. It is one of the items not +included in a convent education. It is unnecessary to teach us such +things as that. We know them before we go in. Your secret is safe enough +with me, however--the one you have told me. That is the least I can +promise in return for your confidence. As to the other secret, _bon +Dieu_! we will pretend I do not know it, if you like. At all events, you +can vow that you never told me, if--if ever you are called upon to do +so." + +She paused for a moment to finish off a thread. Then, when she reached +out her hand for the reel, she glanced at him with a smile, not unkind. + +"So you need not pretend any more, monsieur," she said, seeing that +Barebone was wise enough to keep silence. "I do not know who you are, +_mon ami,_" she went on, in a little burst of confidence; "and, as I told +you just now, I do not care. And, as to that other matter, there is no +ill-will. I only permit myself to wonder, sometimes, if she is pretty. +That is feminine, I suppose. One can be feminine quite young, you +understand." + +She looked at him with unfathomable eyes and a little smile, such as men +never forget once they have seen it. + +"But you were inclined to be ironical just now, when I said I would marry +you if you were successful. So I mention that other secret just to show +that the understanding you wish to arrive at may be mutual--there may be +two sides to it. I hear my father coming. That is his voice at the gate. +We will leave things as they stand: _n'est ce pas?_" + +She rose as she spoke and went toward the door. The Marquis's voice was +raised, and there seemed to be some unusual clamour at the gate. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +A COUP-D'ÉTAT + + +As the Marquis de Gemosac's step was already on the stairs, Barebone was +spared the necessity of agreeing in words to the inevitable. + +A moment later the old man hurried into the room. He had not even waited +to remove his coat and gloves. A few snow-flakes powdered his shoulders. + +"Ah!" he cried, on perceiving Barebone. "Good--you are safe!" He turned +to speak to some one who was following him up the stairs with the slower +steps of one who knew not his way. + +"All is well!" he cried. "He is here. Give yourself no anxiety." + +And the second comer crossed the threshold, coming suddenly out of the +shadow of the staircase. It was Dormer Colville, white with snow, his +face grey and worn. He shook hands with Barebone and bowed to Juliette, +but the Marquis gave him no time to speak. + +"I go down into the town," he explained, breathlessly. "The streets are +full. There is a crowd on the marketplace, more especially round the +tobacconist's, where the newspapers are to be bought. No newspapers, if +you please. The Paris journals of last Sunday, and this is Friday +evening. Nothing since that. No Bordeaux journal. No news at all from +Paris: absolute silence from Toulouse and Limoges. 'It is another +revolution,' they tell each other. Something has happened and no one +knows what. A man comes up to me and tugs at my sleeve. 'Inside your +walls, Monsieur le Marquis, waste no time,' he whispers, and is gone. He +is some stable-boy. I have seen him somewhere. I! inside my walls! Here +in Gemosac, where I see nothing but bare heads as I walk through the +streets. Name of God! I should laugh at such a precaution. And while I am +still trying to gather information the man comes back to me. 'It is not +the people you have to fear,' he whispers in my ear, 'it is the +Government. The order for your arrest is at the Gendarmerie, for it was I +who took it there. Monsieur Albert was arrested yesterday, and is now in +La Rochelle. Madame de Chantonnay's house is guarded. It is from Madame I +come.' And again he goes. While I am hesitating, I hear the step of a +horse, tired and yet urged to its utmost. It is Dormer Colville, this +faithful friend, who is from Paris in thirty-six hours to warn us. He +shall tell his story himself." + +"There is not much to tell," said Colville, in a hollow voice. He looked +round for a chair and sat down rather abruptly. "Louis Bonaparte is +absolute master of France; that is all. He must be so by this time. When +I escaped from Paris yesterday morning nearly all the streets were +barricaded. But the troops were pouring into the city as I rode out--and +artillery. I saw one barricade carried by artillery. Thousands must have +been killed in the streets of Paris yesterday--" + +"--And, _bon Dieu!_ it is called a _coup-d'état_," interrupted the +Marquis. + +"That was on Tuesday," explained Colville, in his tired voice--"at six +o'clock on Tuesday morning. Yesterday and Wednesday were days of +massacre." + +"But, my friend," exclaimed the Marquis, impatiently, "tell us how it +happened. You laugh! It is no time to laugh." + +"I do not know," replied Colville, with an odd smile. "I think there is +nothing else to be done--it is all so complete. We are all so utterly +fooled by this man whom all the world took to be a dolt. On Tuesday +morning he arrested seventy-eight of the Representatives. When Paris +awoke, the streets had been placarded in the night with the decree of the +President of the Republic. The National Assembly was dissolved. The +Council of State was dissolved. Martial law was declared. And why? He +does not even trouble to give a reason. He has the army at his back. The +soldiers cried '_Vive l'Empereur_' as they charged the crowd on +Wednesday. He has got rid of his opponents by putting them in prison. +Many, it is said, are already on their way to exile in Cayenne; the +prisons are full. There is a warrant out against myself; against you, +Barebone; against you, of course, Monsieur le Marquis. Albert de +Chantonnay was arrested at Tours, and is now in La Rochelle. We may +escape--we may get away to-night--" + +He paused and looked hurriedly toward the door, for some one was coming +up the stairs--some one who wore sabots. It was the servant, Marie, who +came unceremoniously into the room with the exaggerated calm of one who +realises the gravity of the situation and means to master it. + +"The town is on fire," she explained, curtly; "they have begun on the +Gendarmerie. Doubtless they have heard that these gentlemen are to be +arrested, and it is to give other employment to the gendarmes. But the +cavalry has arrived from Saintes, and I come upstairs to ask Monsieur to +come down and help. It is my husband who is a fool. Holy Virgin! how many +times have I regretted having married such a blockhead as that. He says +he cannot raise the drawbridge. To raise it three feet would be to gain +three hours. So I came to get Monsieur," she pointed at Barebone with a +steady finger, "who has his wits on the top always and two hands at the +end of his arms." + +"But it is little use to raise the drawbridge," objected the Marquis. +"They will soon get a ladder and place it against the breach in the wall +and climb in." + +"Not if I am on the wall who amuse myself with a hayfork, Monsieur le +Marquis," replied Marie, with that exaggerated respect which implies a +knowledge of mental superiority. She beckoned curtly to Loo and clattered +down the stairs, followed by Barebone. The others did not attempt to go +to their assistance, and the Marquis de Gemosac had a hundred questions +to ask Colville. + +The Englishman had little to tell of his own escape. There were so many +more important arrests to be made that the overworked police of Monsieur +de Maupas had only been able to apportion to him a bungler whom Colville +had easily outwitted. + +"And Madame St. Pierre Lawrence?" inquired the Marquis. + +"Madame quitted Paris on Tuesday for England under the care of John +Turner, who had business in London. He kindly offered to escort her +across the Channel." + +"Then she, at all events, is safe," said the Marquis, with a little wave +of the hand indicating his satisfaction. "He is not brilliant, Monsieur +Turner--so few English are--but he is solid, I think." + +"I think he is the cleverest man I know," said Dormer Colville, +thoughtfully. And before they had spoken again Loo Barebone returned. + +He, like Marie, had grasped at once the serious aspect of the situation, +whereas the Marquis succeeded only in reaching it with a superficial +touch. He prattled of the political crisis in Paris and bade his friends +rest assured that law and order must ultimately prevail. He even seemed +to cherish the comforting assurance that Providence must in the end +interfere on behalf of a Legitimate Succession. For this old noble was +the true son of a father who had believed to the end in that King who +talked grandiloquently of the works of Seneca and Tacitus while driving +from the Temple to his trial, with the mob hooting and yelling +imprecations into the carriage windows. + +The Marquis de Gemosac found time to give a polite opinion on John Turner +while the streets of Gemosac were being cleared by the cavalry from +Saintes, and the Gendarmerie, burning briskly, lighted up a scene of +bloodshed. + +"We have raised the drawbridge a few feet," said Barebone; "but the +chains are rusted and may easily be broken by a blacksmith. It will serve +to delay them a few minutes; but it is not the mob we seek to keep out, +and any organised attempt to break in would succeed in half an hour. We +must go, of course." + +He turned to Colville, with whom he had met and faced difficulties in the +past. Colville might easily have escaped to England with Mrs. St. Pierre +Lawrence, but he had chosen the better part. He had undertaken a long +journey through disturbed France only to throw in his lot at the end of +it with two pre-condemned men. Loo turned to him as to one who had proved +himself capable enough in an emergency, brave in face of danger. + +"We cannot stay here," he said; "the gates will serve to give us an +hour's start, but no more. I suppose there is another way out of the +château." + +"There are two ways," answered the Marquis. "One leads to a house in the +town and the other emerges at the mill down below the walls. But, alas! +both are lost sight of. My ancestors--" + +"I know the shorter one," put in Juliette, "the passage that leads to the +mill. I can show you the entrance to that, which is in the crypt of the +chapel, hidden behind the casks of wine." + +She spoke to Barebone, only half-concealing, as Marie had done, the fact +that the great respect with which the Marquis de Gemosac was treated was +artificial, and would fall to pieces under the strain of an emergency--a +faint echo of the old regime. + +"When you are gone," the girl continued, still addressing Barebone, +"Marie and I can keep them out at least an hour--probably more. We may be +able to keep them outside the walls all night, and when at last they come +in it will take them hours to satisfy themselves that you are not +concealed within the enceinte." + +She was quite cool, and even smiled at him with a white face. + +"You are always right, Mademoiselle, and have a clear head," said +Barebone. + +"But no heart?" she answered in an undertone, under cover of her father's +endless talk to Colville and with a glance which Barebone could not +understand. + +In a few minutes Dormer Colville pronounced himself ready to go, and +refused to waste further precious minutes in response to Monsieur de +Gemosac's offers of hospitality. No dinner had been prepared, for Marie +had sterner business in hand and could be heard beneath the windows +urging her husband to display a courage superior to that of a rabbit. +Juliette hurried to the kitchen and there prepared a parcel of cold meat +and bread for the fugitives to eat as they fled. + +"We might remain hidden in a remote cottage," Barebone had suggested to +Colville, "awaiting the development of events, but our best chance is +'The Last Hope.' She is at Bordeaux, and must be nearly ready for sea." + +So it was hurriedly arranged that they should make their way on foot to a +cottage on the marsh while Jean was despatched to Bordeaux with a letter +for Captain Clubbe. + +"It is a pity," said Marie, when informed of this plan, "that it is not I +who wear the breeches. But I will make it clear to Jean that if he fails +to carry out his task he need not show his face at the gate again." + +The Marquis ran hither and thither, making a hundred suggestions, which +were accepted in the soothing manner adopted toward children. He assured +Juliette that their absence would be of short duration; that there was +indeed no danger, but that he was acceding to the urgent persuasions of +Barebone and Colville, who were perhaps unnecessarily alarmed--who did +not understand how affairs were conducted in France. He felt assured that +law and order must prevail. + +"But if they have put Albert de Chantonnay in prison, why should you be +safe?" asked Juliette. To which the Marquis replied with a meaning cackle +that she had a kind heart, and that it was only natural that it should be +occupied at that moment with thoughts of that excellent young man who, in +his turn, was doubtless thinking of her in his cell at La Rochelle. + +Which playful allusion to Albert de Chantonnay's pretensions was received +by their object with a calm indifference. + +"When Jean returns," she said, practically, "I will send him to you at +the Brémonts' cottage with food and clothing. But you must not attempt to +communicate with us. You would only betray your whereabouts and do no +good to us. We shall be quite safe in the château. Marie and I and Madame +Maugiron are not afraid." + +At which the Marquis laughed heartily. It was so amusing to think that +one should be young and pretty--and not afraid. In the mean time Barebone +was sealing his letter to Captain Clubbe. He had written it in the +Suffolk dialect, spelling all the words as they are pronounced on that +coast and employing when he could the Danish and Dutch expressions in +daily use on the foreshore, which no French official seeking to translate +could find in any dictionary. + +Loo gave his instructions to Jean himself, who received them in a silence +not devoid of intelligence. The man had been round the walls and reported +that nothing stirred beneath them; that there was more than one fire in +the town, and that the streets appeared to be given over to disorder and +riot. + +"It is assuredly a change in the Government," he explained, simply. "And +there will be many for Monsieur l'Abbé to bury on Sunday." + +Jean was to accompany them to the cottage of an old man who had once +lived by ferrying the rare passenger across the Gironde. Having left them +here, he could reach Blaye before daylight, from whence a passage up the +river to Bordeaux would be easily procurable. + +The boatman's cottage stood on the bank of a creek running into the +Gironde. It was a lone building hidden among the low dunes that lie +between the river and the marsh. Any one approaching it by daylight would +be discernible half an hour in advance, and the man's boat, though old, +was seaworthy. None would care to cross the lowlands at night except +under the guidance of one or two, who, like Jean, knew their way even in +the dark. + +Colville and Barebone had to help Jean to move the great casks stored in +the crypt of the old chapel by which the entrance to the passage was +masked. + +"It is, I recollect having been told, more than a passage--it is a ramp," +explained the Marquis, who stood by. "It was intended for the passage of +horses, so that a man might mount here and ride out into the mill-stream, +actually beneath the mill-wheel which conceals the exit." + +Juliette, a cloak thrown over her evening dress, had accompanied them and +stood near, holding a lantern above her head to give them light. It was +an odd scene--a strange occupation for the last of the de Gemosacs. +Through the gaps in the toppling walls they could hear the roar of voices +and the occasional report of a firearm in the streets of the town below. +The door opened easily enough, and Jean, lighting a candle, led the way. +Barebone was the last to follow. Within the doorway he turned to say +good-bye. The light of the lantern flickered uncertainly on Juliette's +fair hair. + +"We may be back sooner than you expect, mademoiselle," said Barebone. + +"Or you may go--to England," she answered. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +"JOHN DARBY" + + +Although it was snowing hard, it was not a dark night. There was a half +moon hidden behind those thin, fleecy clouds, which carry the snow across +the North Sea and cast it noiselessly upon the low-lying coast, from +Thanet to the Wash, which knows less rain and more snow than any in +England. + +A gale of wind was blowing from the north-east; not in itself a wild +gale, but at short intervals a fresh burst of wind brought with it a +thicker fall of snow, and during these squalls the force of the storm was +terrific. A man, who had waited on the far shore of the river for a quiet +interval, had at last made his way to the Farlingford side. He moored his +boat and stumbled heavily up the steps. + +There was no one on the quay. The street was deserted, but the lights +within the cottages glowed warmly through red blinds here and there. The +majority of windows were, however, secured with a shutter, screwed tight +from within. The man trotted steadily up the street. He had an +unmistakable air of discipline. It was only six o'clock, but night had +closed in three hours ago. The coast-guard looked neither to one side nor +the other, but ran on at the pace of one who had run far and knows that +he cannot afford to lose his breath; for his night's work was only begun. + +The coast-guard station stands on the left-hand side of the street, a +long, low house in a bare garden. In answer to the loud summons, a +red-faced little man opened the door and let out into the night a smell +of bloaters and tea--the smell that pervades all Farlingford at six +o'clock in the evening. + +"Something on the Inner Curlo Bank," shouted the coast-guard in his face, +and turning on his heel, he ran with the same slow, organised haste, +leaving the red-faced man finishing a mouthful on the mat. + +The next place of call was at River Andrew's, the little low cottage with +rounded corners, below the church. + +"Come out o' that," said the coast-guard, with a contemptuous glance of +snow-rimmed eyes at River Andrew's comfortable tea-table. "Ring yer bell. +Something on the Inner Curlo Bank." + +River Andrew had never hurried in his life, and like all his fellows, he +looked upon coast-guards as amateurs mindful, as all amateurs are, of +their clothes. + +"A'm now going," he answered, rising laboriously from his chair. The +coast-guard glanced at his feet clad in the bright green carpet-slippers, +dear to seafaring men. Then he turned to the side of the mantelpiece and +took the church keys from the nail. For everybody knows where everybody +else keeps his keys in Farlingford. He forgot to shut the door behind +him, and River Andrew, pessimistically getting into his sea-boots, swore +at his retreating back. + +"Likely as not, he'll getten howld o' the wrong roup," he muttered; +though he knew that every boy in the village could point out the rope of +"John Darby," as that which had a piece of faded scarlet flannel twisted +through the strands. + +In a few minutes the man, who hastened slowly, gave the call, which +every man in Farlingford answered with an emotionless, mechanical +promptitude. From each fireside some tired worker reached out his hand +toward his most precious possession, his sea-boots, as his forefathers +had done before him for two hundred years at the sound of "John Darby." +The women crammed into the pockets of the men's stiff oilskins a piece of +bread, a half-filled bottle--knowing that, as often as not, their +husbands must pass the night and half the next day on the beach, or out +at sea, should the weather permit a launch through the surf. + +There was no need of excitement, or even of comment. Did not "John Darby" +call them from their firesides or their beds a dozen times every winter, +to scramble out across the shingle? As often as not, there was nothing to +be done but drag the dead bodies from the surf; but sometimes the dead +revived--some fair-haired, mystic foreigner from the northern seas, who +came to and said, "T'ank you," and nothing else. And next day, rigged out +in dry clothes and despatched toward Ipswich on the carrier's cart, he +would shake hands awkwardly with any standing near and bob his head and +say "T'ank you" again, and go away, monosyllabic, mystic, never to be +heard of more. But the ocean, as it is called at Farlingford, seemed to +have an inexhaustible supply of such Titans to throw up on the rattling +shingle winter after winter. And, after all, they were seafaring men, and +therefore brothers. Farlingford turned out to a man, each seeking to be +first across the river every time "John Darby" called them, as if he had +never called them before. + +To-night none paused to finish the meal, and many a cup raised half-way +was set down again untasted. It is so easy to be too late. + +Already the flicker of lanterns on the sea-wall showed that the rectory +was astir. For Septimus Marvin, vaguely recalling some schoolboy instinct +of fair-play, knew the place of the gentleman and the man of education +among humbler men in moments of danger and hardship, which should, +assuredly, never be at the back. + +"Yonder's parson," some one muttered. "His head is clear now, I'll +warrant, when he hears 'John Darby.'" + +"'Tis only on Sundays, when 'John' rings slow, 'tis misty," answered a +sharp-voiced woman, with a laugh. For half of Farlingford was already at +the quay, and three or four boats were bumping and splashing against the +steps. The tide was racing out, and the wind, whizzing slantwise across +it, pushed it against the wooden piles of the quay, making them throb and +tremble. + +"Not less'n four to the oars!" shouted a gruff voice, at the foot of the +steps, where the salt water, splashing on the snow, had laid bare the +green and slimy moss. Two or three volunteers stumbled down the steps, +and the first boat got away, swinging down-stream at once, only to be +brought slowly back, head to wind. She hung motionless a few yards from +the quay, each dip of the oars stirring the water into a whirl of +phosphorescence, and then forged slowly ahead. + +Septimus Marvin was not alone, but was accompanied by a bulky man, not +unknown in Farlingford--John Turner, of Ipswich, understood to live +"foreign," but to return, after the manner of East Anglians, when +occasion offered. The rector was in oilskins and sou'wester, like any one +else, and the gleam of his spectacles under the snowy brim of his +headgear seemed to strike no one as incongruous. His pockets bulged with +bottles and bandages. Under his arm he carried a couple of blanket +horse-cloths, useful for carrying the injured or the dead. + +"The Curlo--the Inner Curlo--yes, yes!" he shouted in response to +information volunteered on all sides. "Poor fellows! The Inner Curlo, +dear, dear!" + +And he groped his way down the steps, into the first boat he saw, with a +simple haste. John Turner followed him. He had tied a silk handkerchief +over his soft felt hat and under his chin. + +"No, no!" he said, as Septimus Marvin made room for him on the +after-thwart. "I'm too heavy for a passenger. Put my weight on an oar," +and he clambered forward to a vacant thwart. + +"Mind you come back for us, River Andrew!" cried little Sep's thin voice, +as the boat swirled down stream. His wavering bull's-eye lantern followed +it, and showed River Andrew and another pulling stroke to John Turner's +bow, for the banker had been a famous oar on the Orwell in his boyhood. +Then, with a smack like a box on the ear, another snow-squall swept in +from the sea, and forced all on the quay to turn their backs and crouch. +Many went back to their homes, knowing that nothing could be known for +some hours. Others crouched on the landward side of an old coal-shed, +peeping round the corner. + +Miriam and Sep, and a few others, waited on the quay until River Andrew +or another should return. It was an understood thing that the helpers, +such as could man a boat or carry a drowned man, should go first. In a +few minutes the squall was past, and by the light of the moon, now thinly +covered by clouds, the black forms of the first to reach the other shore +could be seen straggling across the marsh toward the great shingle-bank +that lies between the river and the sea. Two boats were moored at the far +side, another was just making the jetty, while a fourth was returning +toward the quay. It was River Andrew, faithful to his own element, who +preferred to be first here, rather than obey orders on the open beach. + +There were several ready to lend a helping hand against tide and wind, +and Miriam and Sep were soon struggling across the shingle, in the +footsteps of those who had gone before. The north-east wind seared their +faces like a hot iron, but the snow had ceased falling. As they reached +the summit of the shingle-bank, they could see in front of them the black +line of the sea, and on the beach, where the white of the snow and the +white of the roaring surf merged together, a group of men. + +One or two stragglers had left this group to search the beach, north or +south; but it was known, from a long and grim experience, that anything +floating in from the tail of the Inner Curlo Bank must reach the shore at +one particular point. A few lanterns twinkled here and there, but near +the group of watchers a bonfire of wreckage and tarry fragments and old +rope, brought hither for the purpose, had been kindled. + +Two boats, hauled out of reach of a spring tide, were being leisurely +prepared for launching. There was no hurry; for it had been decided by +the older men that no boat could be put to sea through the surf then +rolling in. At the turn of the tide, in two hours' time, something might +be done. + +"Us cannot see anything," a bystander said to Miriam. "It is just there, +where I am pointing. Sea Andrew saw something a while back--says it +looked like a schooner." + +The man stood pointing out to sea to the southward. He carried an +unlighted torch--a flare, roughly made, of tarred rope, bound round a +stick. At times, one or another would ignite his flare, and go down the +beach holding it above his head, while he stood knee deep in the churning +foam to peer out to sea. He would presently return, without comment, to +beat out his flare against his foot and take his place among the silent +watchers. No one spoke; but if any turned his head sharply to one side or +other, all the rest wheeled, like one man, in the same direction and +after staring at the tumbled sea would turn reproachful glances on the +false alarmist. + +Suddenly, after a long wait, four men rushed without a word into the +surf; their silent fury suggesting oddly the rush of hounds upon a fox. +They had simultaneously caught sight of something dark, half sunk in the +shallow water. In a moment they were struggling up the shingle slope +toward the fire, carrying a heavy weight. They laid their burden by the +fire, where the snow had melted away, and it was a man. He was in +oilskins, and some one cut the tape that tied his sou'wester. His face +was covered with blood. + +"'Tis warm," said the man who had cut away the oilskin cap, and with his +hand he wiped the blood away from the eyes and mouth. Some one in the +background drew a cork, with his teeth, and a bottle was handed down to +those kneeling on the ground. + +Suddenly the man sat up--and coughed. + +"Shipmets," he said, with a splutter, and lay down again. + +Some one held the bottle to his lips and wiped the blood away from his +face again. + +"My God!" shouted a bystander, gruffly. "'Tis William Brooke, of the +Cottages." + +"Yes. 'Tis me," said the man, sitting up again. "Not that arm, mate; +don't ye touch it. 'Tis bruk. Yes; 'tis me. And 'The Last Hope' is on the +tail of the Inner Curlo--and the spar that knocked me overboard fell on +the old man, and must have half killed him. But Loo Barebone's aboard." + +He rose to his knees, with one arm hanging straight and piteous from his +shoulder, then slowly to his feet. He stood wavering for a moment, and +wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and spluttered. Then, looking +straight in front of him, with that strange air of a whipped dog which +humble men wear when the hand of Heaven is upon them, he staggered up the +beach toward the river and Farlingford. + +"Where are ye goin'?" some one asked. + +"Over to mine," was the reply. "A'm going to my old woman, shipmets." + +And he staggered away in the darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +FARLINGFORD ONCE MORE +After a hurried consultation, Septimus Marvin was deputed to follow the +injured man and take him home, seeing that he had as yet but half +recovered his senses. This good Samaritan had scarcely disappeared when a +shout from the beach drew the attention of all in another direction. + +One of the outposts was running toward the fire, waving his lantern and +shouting incoherently. It was a coast-guard. + +"Comin' ashore in their own boat," he cried. "They're coming in in their +own boat!" + +"There she rides--there she rides!" added Sea Andrew, almost immediately, +and he pointed to the south. + +Quite close in, just outside the line of breakers, a black shadow was +rising and falling on the water. It seemed to make scarcely any way at +all, and each sea that curled underneath the boat and roared toward the +beach was a new danger. + +"They're going to run her in here," said Sea Andrew. "There's more left +on board; that's what that means, and they're goin' back for 'em. If +'twasn't so they'd run in anywheres and let her break." + +For one sailor will always tell what another is about, however great the +distance intervening. + +Slowly the boat came on, rolling tremendously on the curve of the +breakers, between the broken water of the tideway and the spume of the +surf. + +"That's Loo at the hellum," said Sea Andrew--the keenest eyes in +Farlingford. + +And suddenly Miriam swayed sideways against John Turner, who was perhaps +watching her, for he gripped her arm and stood firm. No one spoke. The +watchers on the beach stared open-mouthed, making unconscious grimaces as +the boat rose and fell. All had been ready for some minutes; every +preparation made according to the time-honoured use of these coasts: four +men with life-lines round them standing knee-deep waiting to dash in +deeper, others behind them grouped in two files, some holding the slack +of the life-lines, forming a double rank from the shore to the fire, +giving the steersman his course. There was no need to wave a torch or +shout an order. They were Farlingford men on the shore and Farlingford +men in the boat. + +At last, after breathless moments of suspense, the boat turned, and came +spinning in on the top of a breaker, with the useless oars sticking out +like the legs of some huge insect. For a few seconds it was impossible to +distinguish anything. The moment the boat touched ground, the waves +beating on it enveloped all near it in a whirl of spray, and the black +forms seemed to be tumbling over each other in confusion. + +"You see," said Turner to Miriam, "he has come back to you after all." + +She did not answer but stood, her two hands clasped together on her +breast, seeking to disentangle the confused group, half in half out of +the water. + +Then they heard Loo Barebone's voice, cheerful and energetic, almost +laughing. Before they could understand what was taking place his voice +was audible again, giving a sharp, clear order, and all the black forms +rushed together down into the surf. A moment later the boat danced out +over the crest of a breaker, splashing into the next and throwing up a +fan of spray. + +"She's through, she's through!" cried some one. And the boat rode for a +brief minute head to wind before she turned southward. There were only +three on the thwarts--Loo Barebone and two others. + +The group now broke up and straggled up toward the fire. One man was +being supported, and could scarcely walk. It was Captain Clubbe, hatless, +his grey hair plastered across his head by salt water. + +He did not heed any one, but sat down heavily on the shingle and felt his +leg with one hand, the other arm hung limply. + +"Leave me here," he said, gruffly, to two or three who were spreading out +a horse-cloth and preparing to carry him. "Here I stay till all are +ashore." + +Behind him were several new-comers, one of them a little man talking +excitedly to his companion. + +"But it is a folly," he was saying in French, "to go back in such a sea +as that." + +It was the Marquis de Gemosac, and no one was taking any notice of him. +Dormer Colville, stumbling over the shingle beside him, recognised Miriam +in the firelight and turned again to look at her companion as if scarcely +believing the evidence of his own eyes. + +"Is that you, Turner?" he said. "We are all here,--the Marquis, Barebone, +and I. Clubbe took us on board one dark night in the Gironde and brought +us home." + +"Are you hurt?" asked Turner, curtly. + +"Oh, no. But Clubbe's collar-bone is broken and his leg is crushed. We +had to leave four on board; not room for them in the boat. That fool +Barebone has gone back for them. He promised them he would. The sea out +there is awful!" + +He knelt down and held his shaking hands to the flames. Some one handed +him a bottle, but he turned first and gave it the Marquis de Gemosac, who +was shaking all over like one far gone in a palsy. + +Sea Andrew and the coast-guard captain were persuading Captain Clubbe to +quit the beach, but he only answered them roughly in monosyllables. + +"My place is here till all are safe," he said. "Let me lie." + +And with a groan of pain he lay back on the beach. Miriam folded a +blanket and placed it under his head. He looked round, recognised her and +nodded. + +"No place for you, miss," he said, and closed his eyes. After a moment he +raised himself on his elbow and looked into the faces peering down at +him. + +"Loo will beach her anywhere he can. Keep a bright lookout for him," he +said. Then he was silent, and all turned their faces toward the sea. + +Another snow-squall swept in with a rush from the eastward, and half of +the fire was blown away--a trail of sparks hissing on the snow. They +built up the fire again and waited, crouching low over the embers. They +could see nothing out to sea. There was nothing to be done but to wait. +Some had gone along the shore to the south, keeping pace with the +supposed progress of the boat, ready to help should she be thrown ashore. + +Suddenly the Marquis de Gemosac, shivering over the fire, raised his +voice querulously. His emotions always found vent in speech. + +"It is a folly," he repeated, "that he has committed. I do not +understand, gentlemen, how he was permitted to do such a thing--he whose +life is of value to millions." + +He turned his head to glance sharply at Captain Clubbe, at Colville, at +Turner, who listened with that half-contemptuous silence which Englishmen +oppose to unnecessary or inopportune speech. + +"Ah!" he said, "you do not understand--you Englishmen--or you do not +believe, perhaps, that he is the King. You would demand proofs which you +know cannot be produced. I demand no proofs, for I know. I know without +any proof at all but his face, his manner, his whole being. I knew at +once when I saw him step out of his boat here in this sad village, and I +have lived with him almost daily ever since--only to be more sure than at +first." + +His hearers made no answer. They listened tolerantly enough, as one +listens to a child or to any other incapable of keeping to the business +in hand. + +"Oh. I know more than you suspect," said the Marquis, suddenly. "There +are some even in our own party who have doubts, who are not quite sure. I +know that there was a doubt as to that portrait of the Queen," he half +glanced toward Dormer Colville. "Some say one thing, some another. I have +been told that, when the child--Monsieur de Bourbon's father--landed +here, there were two portraits among his few possessions--the miniature +and a larger print, an engraving. Where is that engraving, one would +ask?" + +"I have it in my safe in Paris," said a thick voice in the darkness. +"Thought it was better in my possession than anywhere else." + +"Indeed! And now, Monsieur Turner--" the Marquis raised himself on his +knees and pointed in his eager way a thin finger in the direction of the +banker--"tell me this. Those portraits to which some would attach +importance--they are of the Duchess de Guiche. Admitted? Good! If you +yourself--who have the reputation of being a man of wit--desired to +secure the escape of a child and his nurse, would you content yourself +with the mere precaution of concealing the child's identity? Would you +not go farther and provide the nurse with a subterfuge, a blind, +something for the woman to produce and say, 'This is not the little +Dauphin. This is so-and-so. See, here is the portrait of his mother?' +What so effective, I ask you? What so likely to be believed as a scandal +directed against the hated aristocrats? Can you advance anything against +that theory?" + +"No, Monsieur," replied Turner. + +"But Monsieur de Bourbon knows of these doubts," went on the Marquis. +"They have even touched his own mind, I know that. But he has continued +to fight undaunted. He has made sacrifices--any looking at his face can +see that. It was not in France that he looked for happiness, but +elsewhere. He was not heart-whole--I who have seen him with the most +beautiful women in France paying court to him know that. But this +sacrifice, also, he made for the sake of France. Or perhaps some woman of +whom we know nothing stepped back and bade him go forward alone, for the +sake of his own greatness--who can tell?" + +Again no one answered him. He had not perceived Miriam, and John Turner, +with that light step which sometimes goes with a vast bulk, had placed +himself between her and the firelight. Monsieur de Gemosac rose to his +feet and stood looking seaward. The snow-clouds were rolling away to the +west, and the moon, breaking through, was beginning to illumine the wild +sky. + +"Gentlemen," said the Marquis, "they have been gone a long time?" + +Captain Clubbe moved restlessly, but he made no answer. The Marquis had, +of course, spoken in French, and the Captain had no use for that +language. + +The group round the fire had dwindled until only half a dozen remained. +One after another the watchers had moved away uneasily toward the beach. +The Marquis was right--the boat had been gone too long. + +At last the moon broke through, and the snowy scene was almost as light +as day. + +John Turner was looking along the beach to the south, and one after +another the watchers by the fire turned their anxious eyes in the same +direction. The sea, whipped white, was bare of any wreck. "The Last Hope" +of Farlingford was gone. She had broken up or rolled into deep water. + +A number of men were coming up the shingle in silence. Sea Andrew, +dragging his feet wearily, approached in advance of them. + +"Boat's thrown up on the beach," he said to Captain Clubbe. "Stove in by +a sea. We've found them." + +He stood back and the others, coming slowly into the light, deposited +their burdens side by side near the fire. The Marquis, who had understood +nothing, took a torch from the hand of a bystander and held it down +toward the face of the man they had brought last. + +It was Loo Barebone, and the clean-cut, royal features seemed to wear a +reflective smile. + +Miriam had come forward toward the fire, and by chance or by some vague +instinct the bearers had laid their burden at her feet. After all, as +John Turner had said, Loo Barebone had come back to her. She had denied +him twice, and the third time he would take no denial. The taciturn +sailors laid him there and stepped back--as if he was hers and this was +the inevitable end of his short and stormy voyage. + +She looked down at him with tired eyes. She had done the right, and this +was the end. There are some who may say that she had done what she +thought was right, and this only seemed to be the end. It may be so. + +The Marquis de Gemosac was dumb for once. He looked round him with a +half-defiant question in his eyes. Then he pointed a lean finger down +toward the dead man's face. + +"Others may question," he said, "but I know--I _know_." + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Hope, by Henry Seton Merriman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST HOPE *** + +***** This file should be named 8942-8.txt or 8942-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/9/4/8942/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Mary Meehan and Distributed Proofreaders +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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