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                          HERE AND HEREAFTER



                          BY THE SAME AUTHOR

                             LINDLEY KAYS
                           THE GIFTED FAMILY
                          THE EXILES OF FALOO



                               HERE AND
                               HEREAFTER

                                  BY

                              BARRY PAIN


                          METHUEN & CO. LTD.
                         36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
                                LONDON


                      _First Published in 1911_




CONTENTS


                                              PAGE
  MALA                                           1
  THE FEAST AND THE RECKONING                   39
  POST-MORTEM                                   57
  THE GIRL WITH THE BEAUTIFUL HAIR              65
  THE WIDOWER                                   74
  THE UNFINISHED GAME                           83
  SPARKLING BURGUNDY                           104
  THE ACT OF HEROISM                           120
  SOME NOTES ON CYRUS VERD                     137
  THE FOUR-FINGERED HAND                       152
  THE TOWER                                    162
  THE FUTILITY OF WILLIAM PENARDEN             175
  THE PATHOS OF THE COMMONPLACE                188
  THE NIGHT OF GLORY                           209
  AN IDYLL OF THE SEA                          222
  THE MAGIC RINGS                              230
  THE UNSEEN POWER                             243
  A BRISK ENGAGEMENT                           259
  HASHEESH                                     276
  THE GARDENER                                 288
  THE SCENT                                    300




HERE AND HEREAFTER




MALA


I

It was Saturday night at the end of a hard week. I was just finishing my
dinner when I was told that a man wished to see me at once in the
surgery. The name, Tarn, was unknown to me.

I found a fair-haired man of thirty in a faded and frayed suit of
mustard-colour, holding in his hand a broken straw hat. His face was
rather fat and roundish; his build powerful but paunchy. The colour of
face and hands showed open-air life and work. His manner was slow,
apathetic, heavy. His speech was slow too, but it was the speech of an
educated man, and the voice was curiously gentle.

"My wife's ill, doctor. Can you come?"

"I can. What's the matter with her, Mr Tarn?"

He explained. I do not regard child-bearing as illness, and told him so.
I told him further that he ought to have made his arrangements and to
have engaged a doctor and nurse beforehand.

"In her own country they do not regard it as illness either. The women
there do not have doctor or nurse. She did not wish it. But, however,
as she seemed to suffer--"

"Well, well. We'll get on. Where do you live?"

"Felonsdene."

"Eight miles away and right up on the downs. Phew! Can I get my car
there?"

"Most of the way at any rate--we could always walk the rest."

"We'll chance it. I'll bring the car round. Shan't keep you a minute, Mr
Tarn."

I kept him rather longer than that. There were the lamps to see to, and
I had directions to give to my servants. I did not take my driver with
me. He had been at work since eight in the morning. When I re-entered
the surgery I found Tarn still standing in just the same pose and place,
as if he had not moved a hair's-breadth since I left him.

"Ready now," I said, as I picked up my bag.

He took out a pinch of sovereigns from his waistcoat-pocket, seven or
eight of them.

"Your fee, doctor," he said.

"That can wait until I've done my work. Come along. Shall I lend you an
overcoat?"

He thanked me but refused it, saying that he was used to all weathers.
The night was fairly warm too. He sat beside me on the front seat. The
first six miles were easy enough along a good road, and I talked to him
as I drove. I omit the professional part of our conversation--the
questions which a doctor would naturally put on such an occasion.

"So your wife's a foreigner," I said. "What nationality?"

"She is a woman of colour--a negress."

It is true that all coloured people inspire me with a feeling of
physical repulsion, and equally true that I can set all feelings of
repulsion aside when there is work to be done.

"Ah!" I said. "And you live up at Felonsdene. To tell the truth, I
didn't know anybody lived there. I remember the place--came on it two
years ago or more when I was roaming over the downs. There was a
farm-house all in ruins--and, let me see, was there a cottage? I didn't
come upon anybody living there then. I remember that, because I was
thirsty after my walk and couldn't get a drink."

"There was no one there then, and there is no cottage. We came last
year. Part of the farm-house has been repaired."

"Well, you've struck about the loneliest spot in England. Who's your
landlord?"

"Eh? It's mine--I bought it. Two acres and the farm-house. Had trouble
to get it--a deal of trouble."

"And who's with your wife now?" I asked.

"Nobody. She's alone in the house."

"Well, that's not right," I said.

"We have no servants--do everything ourselves. The nearest house is a
farmer's at Sandene, three miles away, and we've had no dealings with
him. It couldn't be helped, and--she's different, you know. I was not
long in coming to you. I caught the mail-cart as soon as I reached the
road, and got a lift."

"Still, I'm thinking--how am I to get on?"

"You'll find I can do anything a woman can do, and do it better. I am
more intelligent and I have no nerves. You must pull up at the next
gate, doctor. We strike across the downs there."

We had done the six miles, mostly up hill, in twenty-one minutes. Now we
turned through the gate, along a turf track deeply rutted. Luckily the
weather had been dry for the last fortnight. We crawled up to the top of
the crest and then along it for a mile. I saw lights ahead in a hollow
below. A dog barked savagely.

"That Felonsdene?" I asked.

"That's it. The descent is bad."

When I got to it I found that it was very bad. I stopped the engines.

"If we break our necks we shan't be much use," I said. "I'll leave the
car here. There's nobody to run away with it."

"Shall we take a lamp?" he asked.

"Better."

He picked up my bag, unhitched one lamp, and extinguished the other,
while I spread the rug over the seats. His ordinary slowness was
deceptive. When he was actually doing something he was remarkably quick
without being hurried. He was quick too in seeing a mechanical
device--that was clear from the way he handled the lamps. We began the
brief descent, and the dog barked more furiously than ever.

"Is that dog loose?" I asked, as we neared the house.

"Yes," he said. "But he's educated. He'd kill a stranger who came alone;
he won't touch you."

He gave a whistle and the barking stopped. The dog, an enormous black
retriever, came running towards us; his eyes in the lamplight had a
liquid trustfulness.

"Heel," said Tarn sharply, and the dog paced quietly behind him, taking
no notice of me whatever.

We went through a yard surrounded by a wall of rough stone. By the light
of the lamp I saw that the wall had been mended in places. There was a
rough shed on the left, with crates and packing-cases under it. The
front door was flush with the wall of the house. It was unlocked, and
when Tarn opened it a bright light streamed out. Within was a small
square hall, and I noticed that the light was incandescent gas.

Tarn saw that I had noticed it. "I put in a gas-plant," he said. "Will
you come this way?"

He took me into a great living-room. I should think it was about forty
feet by twenty. There was a big open fireplace at the further end of the
room. The floor was flagged, without rugs or carpets. The walls were the
same inside as out, rough stone and mortar; there were three small
windows high up in the walls. The windows were newly glazed, the walls
had been repaired. There was very little furniture--three wooden windsor
chairs, a couple of deal tables, and some cupboards made from
packing-cases. There was no attempt at ornament or decoration of any
kind, and there was no disorder. The scanty furniture was precisely
arranged, nothing was left lying about, and everything was scrupulously
clean. The timbers of the pointed roof seemed to me to be new. The room
was very brightly lit, with more gas jets (of the cheapest description)
than were needed.

What struck me most was the smell of the place--a smoky, greenish,
sub-acid, slightly aromatic smell. I wondered if it could come from the
great logs that smouldered in the fireplace, before which the retriever
now stretched himself.

"Queer smell here," I said. "What is it?"

"It comes," he said, "from the smoke of juniper leaves."

"You don't burn those in the fireplace, do you?"

"No. I--I don't think you'd understand."

The words were said gently, almost sadly, without offensive intention.
But they annoyed me a little--I did not like to be told by this
scarecrow that I could not understand.

"Very well," I said. "Now then, where's your wife?"

He pointed to a door at the further end of the room, on the right of the
fireplace. "Through there," he said. "I--I don't know if you speak
French."

"I do."

"Mala speaks French more easily than English. She lived for many years
in Paris--was born there. You'll find in that room the things a chemist
in Helmstone thought might be wanted. If you need anything else, or want
my help in any way, I shall be here."

"Good," I said, and passed through the door he had indicated.

I must remember that I am not writing for doctors. All I need say of the
case is that it was a good thing Tarn fetched me. It was a case where
the intervention of a medical man was imperatively necessary. Otherwise
all went perfectly well. The child was born in a little more than an
hour after my arrival, a girl, healthy and vigorous, and as black as the
ace of spades. Tarn did all that was required of him perfectly--quickly,
but without noise or hurry, and with great intelligence.

Mala, his wife, seemed to me to be very young. She was a girl of
splendid physique; her face, like the face of every negress, repelled
me. She showed affection for her child, and expressed her intention of
nursing it herself, of which she seemed capable. This was all
natural--more natural than normal unfortunately--but all the time I was
conscious that I was attending a woman of morbid psychology. When I left
her asleep, it was to join a man of morbid psychology in the great
living-room.

"All well?" asked Tarn, as I entered.

"Quite. Both asleep." My body was tired, and I dare say I ought to have
been sleepy myself, but my mind was awake and alert. The unusual nature
of the experience may account for it. I sat down and gave him some
instructions and advice about his wife, to which he paid close
attention.

"Must you come here again?" he asked. I thought it a question that might
have been better expressed.

"Yes," I said. "I don't want to pile up the visits, but I must do what's
wanted."

"I didn't mean that. I meant that unless you were coming again in any
case, I should have to make arrangements for fetching you if the need
arose."

I laughed. "Arrangements? Well, you've nobody to send but yourself?"

"There's the dog."

"But he doesn't know where I live."

"I was meaning to teach him that to-morrow. I'd better do it in any
case--one never knows what may happen." He sighed profoundly.

"Teach him to fetch the doctor--eh? He must be a clever beggar. What do
you call him?"

"He has no name. He's not a pet. You must take some refreshment before
you go. Whisky?"

"Ah, a drop of whisky and a biscuit would be rather welcome. Thanks."

He brought out a jar of whisky, a gasogen of soda-water, and some large
hard biscuits in their native tin.

"To your daughter's health," I said, as I raised my glass.

He suddenly put his glass down. "Farce," he said savagely. "But it's all
farce--this--this fuss, She's born to die, isn't she? It's the common
lot. She's hauled out of nothing by blind Chance, to be tossed back into
nothing by blind Chance. Drink the health of the seaweed that the tide
throws up on the shore and the tide sucks back again? No! Not I!"

The whole thing had been so strange that this outbreak did not
particularly astonish me. "You'd be a happier man, Mr Tarn, and a more
sensible man, if you would simply accept Nature as you find it. You
can't alter it and you can't understand it. You're beating your head
against a wall."

This ragged fellow took on an air of superiority that annoyed me. "Yes,
yes," he said. "I've heard all that--and so often. It's the point of
view of ordinary materialistic science. You are not a religious man."

"Certainly," I said, "I don't pretend that I know what I do not know.
Nor am I fool enough, Mr Tarn, to complain of what from insufficient
data I am unable to understand. Put in other words, I am neither an
orthodox believer nor an atheist. Do I understand that you are a
religious man yourself?"

"The religion of Mala and her people is mine."

"Really? You turn the tables on the missionaries. Well, the theological
discussion is interesting but it is often interminable; and I have work
to do to-morrow. I must be getting on."

"I will come with you as far as the car. But first, doctor, the dog must
learn that you are welcome here and that he is never to harm you. Call
him and give him a bit of biscuit."

I called him. He looked up from his place before the fire but did not
move. Then Tarn made a movement with his hand, and the dog got up, shook
himself, and walked slowly towards me. He went all round me, sniffing. I
held out the biscuit to him, and he looked away to his master and
whined. Tarn nodded, and the dog immediately took the food from my hand.

"Yes," said Tarn, as if answering what I was thinking, "he has never
been allowed to take food from any hand but mine. He will never forget
you. You can come here at any hour of the day or night now with perfect
safety. It's--it's the freedom of the city."

As Tarn climbed with me up to the car, he spoke again on the subject of
my fee. "I suppose I should not have offered it in advance," he said.
"But it occurred to me that, as I never think about clothes, I looked
very poor, and that the place where I have chosen to live also looked
very poor. And you did not know me. As a matter of fact, I am bothered
with far more money than I want."

"Ah!" I laughed. "I could do with a little worry of that sort."

As he fixed up the lamps he thanked me warmly for what I had done for
Mala, and asked what time he might expect me on the morrow. I opened my
pocket-book and looked at it by the light of the lamp. "Well, I've a
light day to-morrow, barring accidents. I shall be here some time in the
afternoon."

The drive home was accomplished without incident. I ran the car into the
coach-house and went straight to bed. But for more than an hour I could
not get to sleep. I was haunted by that man and his negress wife,
building theories about them, trying to account for them. Just as I was
dropping off I was awakened again by a smell of bitter smoke in my
nostrils--the smell of burning juniper leaves. Then I recognised that
the smell was a memory-illusion, and fell asleep in real earnest.


II

I got back from my Sunday morning round before one. Helmstone was rather
full of visitors that day, and there were many cars before the big hotel
in the Queen's Road. As my man was driving slowly through the traffic I
saw, a hundred yards away, Tarn striding along, in the same shabby
clothes, with his retriever at his heel. He turned down a side-street,
and I saw no more of him. On inquiry I found that he had not called at
my house. He had merely been there, as he said, to give the dog his
lesson.

I am a bachelor. I lunched alone on cold beef and beer, and I read the
_Lancet_. I intended to remain materialistic and scientific, and not to
be infected by that air of mystery and morbidity which seemed to hang
round Tarn and his negress wife at Felonsdene. I had not been in
practice for ten years without coming on strange occurrences before, and
they had all lost their strangeness when the facts had been filled in.
My after-luncheon visit to Felonsdene was of course professional, but if
I had any chance I meant to satisfy an ordinary lay curiosity as well.

I drove myself, and the track across the downs looked worse in daylight
than it had done by night. Still it seemed reasonable to suppose that
what the car had done then it could do now. I could see more clearly now
what had been done in the way of repairs to that ruined and
long-deserted farm-house. The pointed roof over the big room where I had
sat the night before had been mended and made weather-tight. The
chimney-stack was new, and so were the window-casements. Adjoining the
big room was a building of irregular shape that might possibly have
contained three or four other rooms, roofed with new corrugated iron.
One or two outbuildings looked as if they had been newly constructed
from old materials. But that part of the farm-house which had originally
been two-storied had been left quite untouched. Half the roof of it was
down, the windows were without glass, and one saw through them the
broken stairs and torn wall-paper peeling off and flapping in the brisk
March breeze. On the grass-field beyond the court-yard two good Alderney
cows were grazing. Most of the land looked neglected; but Tarn had no
help and had everything to do himself. An orchard of stunted and
miserable-looking fruit trees was sheltered by a dip of the land from
north and east.

The dog barked furiously when he heard my car, and before I began the
climb down to the farm-house I picked up two or three flints with intent
to use them if he went for me. But all signs of hostility vanished when
he saw me. He did not leap and gambol for joy, but he thrust his nose
into my hand and then walked just in front of me, wagging his tail, and
looking back from time to time to see that I understood and was
following him.

He led the way across the court-yard, through the open outer door, and
across the hall to the door of the big room. He scratched at the door.
From impatience I knocked and entered.

Tarn had fallen asleep before the fire in one of the windsor chairs. He
was just rousing himself as I entered. He had taken off his coat and his
heavy boots and wore felt slippers that had a home-made look. From the
table beside him it appeared that he had lunched frugally on whisky,
milk and hard biscuits.

"Sorry I was asleep," he said. "But the dog knew."

"Ah!" I said. "You'd a long walk this morning. I saw you at Helmstone."

"Yes. I told you."

"You should have come into my house for a rest. How's your wife getting
on--had a good night?"

"It seems so. She has slept a long time. So has the child. I will find
out if she will see you." He passed into the inner room.

If she had expressed any disinclination to see me I should have been
extremely angry; also, I might have thought it right to disregard the
disinclination. But Tarn reappeared almost directly and asked me to go
in

I found that all was going as well as possible both with her and with
the child. She really was a splendid animal, unhurt either by excessive
work or--as many modern mothers are--by a rotten fashionable life. With
me she was reticent, almost sullen in manner; yet she seemed docile and
had carried out my orders. The only difficulty was, as I had expected,
to get her to remain in bed. With her child she showed white teeth in
ecstasies of maternal joy. Before I had finished with her I heard the
rain pattering on the iron roof of her room.

I went back into the great living-room. It was rather dark there, for
the sky was heavily clouded and the windows, placed high up, gave but
little light. The table had been cleared, and Tarn was not there. I sat
down to wait for him, and the dog got up from the fire and came over to
me and laid his head on my knee. He was an enormous and very powerful
brute, as much retriever as anything, but evidently with another strain
in his composition. I felt quite safe with him now, talked to him and
patted him--attentions which he received gravely, without resistance but
without any signs of pleasure.

Presently Tarn came in from outside. His hair was wet with the rain.

"I've taken up a tarpaulin," he said, "and thrown it over your car,
doctor."

"That's very good of you," I said. "I was just doubting if that rug of
mine would be enough."

"It comes down heavily. You must remain here awhile, unless you have
other patients whom you must see at once."

"No," I said. "This finishes my work for to-day, I hope. I always try to
arrange for Sunday afternoon free, and I'm glad to accept your
hospitality. No juniper smoke to-day."

"There has been--no occasion." He went on quickly to inquire about his
wife and child. He was not a man who showed his emotions much, but he
certainly left me with the impression that he was fond and proud of the
child. He asked several questions about her as he went round the room,
lighting the gas-jets. Then we sat before the log fire and lit our
pipes.

"One's a little surprised to find gas in a place like this," I said.

"It makes less work than lamps. When one tries to be independent and do
the work oneself that's a consideration. Besides, it gives more light,
and people who live alone as we do need plenty of light. I'm afraid it
must all seem rather puzzling."

"Well," I said, "I don't want to be curious."

"And I don't want to puzzle anybody, nor to enlighten anybody either.
Still, you've done much for us--Mala says she would have died but for
you. If you care for a very simple story you can have it."

"Just as you like," I said. "But I should imagine that your story would
be interesting."

"I do not think so. A little more than a year ago I was in Paris. Mala
was also there. I met her through a friend of mine. I brought her to
England and married her. You know how such a marriage is regarded
here--how a woman of colour is regarded in any case. Very well,
Felonsdene was a place where we could live to ourselves."

He stopped, as if there had been no more to say.

"So far," I said, "you have told me precisely what one might have
conjectured. How did it all happen? What were you doing in Paris--and
Mala? Who was the friend? How did it come about?"

He spoke slowly, more to himself, as it seemed, than to me. "My friend
was an English Catholic, an ex-priest, a religious man like myself. His
mind gave way, and he is shut up in an asylum now. He took me to see
Mala. Night after night. Sometimes it was miraculous--and sometimes
nothing. When the performance went badly, the uncle beat her. We could
stop that because it was only a question of money. I remember it
all--settled after midnight at a _café_ where we drank absinthe--the
uncle with arms too long and very prognathous, like a dressed-up ape,
pouncing on the bank-notes with hairy fingers and counting aloud in
French, very bad French, not like Mala's. He was very old--a hundred
years, he said--he cannot have been her uncle really. A great-uncle
perhaps. He was not a religious man at all. He kept patting the pocket
where the bank-notes were. We put him in a fiacre, because he was drunk.
We were out of Paris that night--my friend, and Mala, and myself. Next
morning we crossed the Channel, and next night there was a riot at the
theatre because Mala did not appear. Did I say where we went in England?
I am not used to speaking so much, and it confuses me."

I was afraid he would stop again. "I don't think you mentioned the exact
name," I said.

"Wilsing, my friend's own place. High walls, and lonely gardens, but too
many servants--they all looked questions at us. Gardeners would touch
their caps and look round after we had passed--you can imagine it. It
was while we were at Wilsing that I married Mala. And shortly afterwards
my poor friend had to be taken away. You see, doctor, he was a very
earnest man, and very religious. He had gone too far along a new road,
and he was horribly frightened but could not go back. It was too much
for him. Mala and I had to go away also, of course. I remember hotels
that would not take us in. We have been followed in the streets by
jeering crowds. Even when I had found Felonsdene there was endless
trouble before I could buy it. No tenant could be found for it--there
is some silly story that the place is haunted. Besides, the house was
all in ruins, and too far from--from everything. And yet the owner would
not sell."

He paused. "And in the end?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, I got it in the end. I tempted him. Here we have arranged life
as we wish it to be, and we practise our religion without molestation.
There are consolations."

"The consolations of religion," I suggested.

Suddenly he put down his pipe and stood up erect. He stretched an arm
out clumsily towards me. His eyes flashed under the bright gas-jets, and
his nostrils quivered. He spoke in a low voice but with the most intense
emphasis. "You don't know what you're saying. In our religion there are
no consolations. There is only propitiation, and again propitiation, and
always propitiation--the sacrifice of more and more as the end draws
nearer." He swept his arm round and pointed at the door of his wife's
room. "What consolation is there from the Power that there--in there,
where you have been--linked love with life only to link life with death
again? What consolation from the Power that has closed and sealed the
door of knowledge?"

He sat down and remained silent. I was beginning to form some
conclusions.

"Then what consolations have you?"

"Linked to bitterness and yet something. For example--I have Mala."

"Your child also."

"Yes, the child too. For a little time perhaps."

There was again a pause. The rain had cleared now and I rose to go. "Mr
Tarn," I said, "before I leave you I think it my duty as a doctor to
tell you something."

"About Mala?" he asked eagerly.

"About yourself." He laughed contemptuously. "If you go on with your
present manner of life I will not answer for the consequences. I think
you are playing, and have been playing, a very dangerous game; the case
of your own friend warns you how dangerous it is. This prolonged
solitude is bad for you and bad for your wife. This pessimistic brooding
over things you cannot understand--which you are pleased to call a
religion--is worse still, especially if it is accompanied by any rites
or ceremonies which might impress a morbid imagination. I'm not going to
mince matters--if you don't give this up you'll lose your reason."

"What is it you want me to do?"

"Do not be so absurdly sensitive about the fact that you have married a
negress. Be a man and not a baby. Go and live in some village and mix
with your fellow-men. No novelty lasts more than three months. Before
the end of that time your wife will excite no attention at all--the
position will be accepted. And if you can't find any better religion
than the dismal rubbish that is poisoning your mind at present, then
have none at all. It will be better for you."

"It is impossible to take your advice," he said stolidly.

"Why?"

"Because Mala and I are as we were made. We won't argue it."

"Please yourself. I've done my duty. Good-bye, Mr Tarn."

He told me that he was coming with me to the road. The very thin skin of
turf on the hard rock of the crest of the hill would be so greasy that
the wheels of my car would go round ineffectively and refuse to bite
without his weight on the back axle. At the rutty descent on the other
side he would get off and walk by the car to lend a hand if the wheels
sank too deep in the mud there. His predictions happened exactly, and I
was very glad of his help. At the road he left me; up on the hill his
dog guarded the tarpaulin and waited for his return.

Certainly, in some simple practical matters the man was still showing
himself sane and shrewd enough.

I dined that night with a bachelor friend in Helmstone who has a good
reference library and a vast fund of curious information. He told me to
what Power the smell of burning juniper was supposed to be agreeable. He
also informed me that Wilsing was the Herefordshire seat of the Earl of
Deljeon.

"Poor beggar!" added my host.

"Deljeon?" I asked. "Why?"

"Oh, well--he's in an asylum, you know. And likely to stop there, so
they say."


III

I happened in the course of the next week to hear of Tarn from another
source.

Tarn had told me that his next neighbour was the farmer at Sandene,
three miles away, and that they had had no dealings together. Now I knew
little Perrot, the farmer at Sandene, very well. I had attended his
robust and prolific wife on three natural occasions, I had seen the
children through measles, I had done what I could for the chronic
dyspepsia of his termagant aunt, I had looked after Perrot's knee when a
horse kicked him. Perrot was a ferret-faced man, a hard man at a bargain
and a very good man on a horse. Between farming and horse-coping he did
very fairly well. He was the willing and abject slave of his wife and
his numerous children. He was interested in medical matters, of which
he had no knowledge whatever, and relished an occasional long word. So
I was not surprised to receive a note from Perrot stating "our Gladys
seems to have omphitis," that he would be glad if I could call, and that
he was my obedient servant. Tommy, the brother of Gladys, took back my
verbal answer that I would call that morning.

Sandene resembles Felonsdene in that both are hollows in the downs, and
resembles it in no other respect. Sandene is approached by a definite
and well-made road. Its farm-house and little group of cottages have a
cheerful and human look. The inhabitants are busy folk, but they find
time to whistle and to laugh. Gladys Perrot, I found, was suffering from
a diet of which the nature and extent had been dictated by enthusiasm
rather than by judgment. I was able to say definitely that she would
soon recover.

Perrot came in from trouble with a chaff-cutter to have a few words with
me.

"So it's not omphitis?" he said with an air of relief.

"I should say it was a slight bilious attack. But I don't know what
omphitis is."

"All I can say is that my poor grandmother died of it. Buried thirty-six
hours afterwards--had to be. Makes one careful. That's why I sent Tom
down. He had cake at your place, he said. If he asked for it, I shall
have to pay him, to learn him manners."

I acquitted Tom. "No," I said, "that was my old housekeeper--trying to
make a job for me."

Perrot saluted the veteran joke heartily.

"I was up with your neighbours at Felonsdene the other day," I said.

"Ah!" said Perrot, grimly. "Man ill?"

"No. His wife's just got a baby."

"And you attended her. Very good of you. Vet's work I should have called
that."

"You don't know them, do you?"

"Nor want. Not but what he and his dog did me a good turn once. If you
like to take the message, sir, you can tell Tarn that Mr Perrot of
Sandene would be glad to give him five sovereigns for that dog. So I
would too, and not think twice about it."

"I'll tell him," I said. "What was the good turn?"

"I lost a couple of sheep. And that annoyed me, though they were marked
and pretty sure to be brought back some time. Still I was annoyed that
night, you ask the missus if I wasn't."

"Like a bear with a sore head," said Mrs Perrot cheerfully.

"Well, at half-past nine I was just on going up to bed, when there came
a great barking outside and a scratching at the door. It wasn't one of
my dogs, I knew, though you may be sure they very soon chipped in. I
went out, and there were my two sheep and Tarn's big dog with them.
Those sheep hadn't been hurried and scurried neither. They'd been
brought in nicely. The dog wouldn't let me get near him. He was what
might be called truculent, as some of the best of them are. He was away
again before you could say knife."

"He's no sheep-dog," said Mrs Perrot. "Five pounds for the likes of him!
What would you say if I talked like that?"

"To my mind," said Perrot, stolidly, "a sheep-dog is a dog that's clever
and reliable at handling sheep, and I don't care what the breed is--I
don't care if he's a poodle. Come to that, Tarn's dog looks like a cross
between a retriever and a--a elephant. All the same, he'd be worth five
sovereigns to me, and I'd back my judgment too. Tell you why. I expected
there was somebody with the dog and I wanted to do the right thing--a
drink for a master or sixpence for his man--and I gave a hulloa. There
was nobody within call, for I went right out and looked. He'd been sent
in by himself, and he'd made no mistake. That's no ordinary dog."

"No," I said, "he's not. I know him. He's rather a friend of mine."

"There--and the missus says he's more like some wild beast. Oh, they're
all right when they've got to know you, dogs are."

Perrot followed me out to the car. "There's rather a queer thing," he
said, "but I know the medical etiquette--doctors aren't supposed to
talk."

"Well," I said, "they're often supposed to talk, but they don't do it."

"Then you can't tell me anything about that--I don't know what to call
it--tabernacle, perhaps--at Felonsdene."

"I've seen nothing of the kind, nor heard of it either. What do you
mean?"

Perrot could only tell me what Ball had told him. Ball was a labourer
whom Perrot employed. Late in the previous October, on a Saturday
morning, Ball had gone in to Helmstone to deliver a horse that Perrot
had sold, and drew his wages before he went. He rode the horse in and
was to walk back. The purchaser of the horse gave Ball a pint. A friend
whom he met by chance gave Ball a quart. A few minutes later Ball gave
himself another quart, because he could afford it, and started for home.
A carter who gave him a lift told him that he was drunk, and though Ball
did not accept the theory completely he thought there might be something
to be said for it. It seemed better to him to roam the downs for a
couple of hours before he faced the inquisitorial glance of Mrs Ball.
When he reached Felonsdene he sat down to rest under some gorse near the
crest of the downs before tackling the three miles home to Sandene. He
fell asleep, and when he woke, shivering with cold, it was midnight. But
he maintained that it was not the cold which woke him; it was music of a
sort. There was a drum beating, not loud, but regularly. At intervals a
woman's voice was heard singing. "Stopping short and then starting in
again on it" was Ball's phrase to describe it. The sounds came from what
looked like an outhouse; it had no windows, but light streamed out from
the open door. And in the path of the light there was a grey smoke. He
crept very quietly and cautiously down to a point from which he might
see what was going on in there. The inside of the building was filled
with the grey smoke, but through it he could see many lighted candles,
candles as long as your arm, and a kneeling figure--he could not say
whether it was man or woman--in a long red garment. The singing and
drum-beating had stopped and all was quite still. Then Ball's foot
slipped and sent stones rattling down. The next minute Ball was running
for his life with, so he maintained, Tarn's dog after him.

As Ball got away, it may be believed that either the dog was chained, or
that it was called off immediately by Tarn himself.

"I don't know what you make of it, sir, but it looks to me as if those
Tarns were Romans," said Perrot.

"Mr Perrot," I said, "it doesn't do to take much notice of what a
fuddled man thinks he sees."

"Perhaps not," said Perrot. "Anyway, it gave Ball a good scare--he's
been teetotal ever since and talks of joining the Plymouth Brethren."

Within a brief period from that day my visits to Felonsdene ceased;
there was no longer any reason for them. Tarn accepted all that the law
required; he registered the birth of the child and he had her
vaccinated. The devotion of Mala and himself to that child was beyond
all question.

I repeated the very good advice which I had already given him, but he
refused to follow it. I think he considered that he had already said too
much, and he quite obviously attempted to minimise it. He said that
perhaps he had expressed himself too strongly. It was quite possible for
a small family to live happily and cheerfully together even in so
desolate a spot as Felonsdene. There was plenty to do. Mala had her baby
and the house to look after. He had the outdoor work. If he wanted to
see what the rest of the world was doing, he could always go into
Helmstone; there were plenty of hotels there where he could get a drink
and a game of billiards. When I told him what Ball professed to have
seen and heard he got rather angry. It was all a lie. Ball had never
been near the place. But a few minutes afterwards he said: "I wish I'd
let the dog get him."

It was all intended to be very reassuring. But it was not candid and it
was vaguely disquieting. It occurred to me to pay a visit one night
secretly to Felonsdene to see if I could make out what was going on. But
my practice in Helmstone was too heavy to leave leisure for nocturnal
expeditions of that sort; besides, it was no business of mine.

Tarn paid my bill--he wanted to pay twice as much--and I regarded the
incident as closed. If I were called in again I thought it likely that
it would be to certify the lunacy of either Tarn or his wife.

But the incident was reopened a little less than a year later, and not
in the way that I had expected.


IV

In the following January I took a partner in my practice. This was a
step which I had long contemplated. I was a bachelor, making far too
much money for my simple needs and working far too hard in order to
accomplish it. I also wanted time for my investigations into the cause
and treatment of a certain disease; these investigations have nothing to
do with the story of Mala and her husband and would not interest laymen.
I have no excuse but vanity for adding that they subsequently brought
me some reputation. My partner was a sound and able young man, much
interested in his profession, and soon made himself liked and respected.
My life became much easier and more comfortable.

In the March following, about four one morning, I was awakened by the
barking of a dog in the street outside my house. Presently I heard him
scratching at my door. I hurried down, switched on the lights, and
opened the door. I had thought of damage to my paint and not of Tarn, of
whom I had heard nothing for a long time. But it was Tarn's dog that lay
on the pavement outside.

I supposed at first that somebody at Felonsdene was ill, and that the
dog had been sent to fetch me. But the dog's appearance did not bear
this out. He had evidently come much further than the distance from
Felonsdene to my house. He got up when he saw me, but the poor brute was
so exhausted that he could hardly stand, and he looked as if he had been
starved for days. I called him into the house and got food for him; he
ate ravenously. I waited to see if he would try to get out again, but he
seemed perfectly content to remain where he was. Finally, he followed me
upstairs to my own room, where he stretched himself on the hearth-rug
and almost instantly fell asleep. I was just about to switch off the
light and get back into my bed again when I noticed the shining brass
plate on the dog's collar. I bent down and examined it. On the brass
plate, neatly engraved, were my own name and address. It looked as if
the dog were to be mine in future. But why? What had happened?

The dog established definitely his relations with the rest of my
household next morning. He took no notice whatever of anybody who left
him alone. But he would allow nobody but myself to touch him. Even my
partner, who understood dogs and was fond of them, had to confess
himself beaten. He was taking the round that morning, and I intended to
walk up to Felonsdene with the dog. But the poor brute was still so
stiff and footsore that I decided after all to take the car. He sat
beside me, and I rather think that he knew where he was going. But he
showed no excitement when the car stopped, and made no attempt to rush
off to the farm-house. He followed me quietly down the hill.

A saddled horse was tethered in the court-yard, and the outer door was
open. In the hall stood Mr Perrot with a penny note-book and a stumpy
pencil in his hand. He looked up as he heard my step, and greeted me
with his usual heartiness.

"This is a surprise, Mr Perrot," I said. "I didn't expect to find you
here. I was looking for Tarn."

"Afraid you won't find him, sir. They all cleared out yesterday morning.
I've bought this place."

"Bought it?"

"House and land, furniture and stock, everything except the dog and
their clothes. It's a little speculation of mine, and looks like being a
very good speculation too. I knew you were going to have the dog--he
told me he meant him as a present to you, and according to Tarn I could
never have done anything with him. Truculent--too truculent."

"I didn't know he was leaving. How did it come about?"

"Oh, he came round one morning three weeks ago, and asked me if I'd buy
his place. I said I'd buy that or anything else if the price were right.
And it was right enough because it was my own price; I came and went
over everything and said what I'd give, and he never haggled. I paid my
ten per cent. next day, and completed at the lawyer's in Helmstone
afternoon before last."

"Tarn was there?"

"He was. What's more, we had a bottle of champagne wine at the Armada
afterwards at his expense, and he drove me back to Sandene in his car."

"Car? I never knew he'd got one."

"Only had it two months, he said. It's a bigger one than yours, sir, and
I expect he'll lose money on it. For he told me he shouldn't take it
over to France with him, and they're bad things to sell. Yes, I felt
like one of the gentlefolk that afternoon--drinking champagne wine and
sitting in a motor-car. He must be a warmer man than ever I supposed."

"How was he looking?"

"Well, he was quiet, and yet he was a bit excited, if you know what I
mean. He'd new clothes on--oh, quite the thing. It's my belief that he's
come into money unexpected, and that he and the two niggers--the wife
and baby--are off on a jaunt together."

I did not share Perrot's belief, but I said nothing.

"In France they're not too particular, so I'm told," said Perrot. "I
daresay niggers go down better there than they do here."

"Did you see the woman and her baby when you were here?"

"No, they weren't shown, and I didn't ask for them. I don't think they
were in the house when I came, for I went into each room. But they must
have come in by another way before I left, for I heard them in the next
room to us. What's more, the baby was laughing and the woman was
sobbing."

"What was she crying about?"

Perrot laughed. "Why, women will cry for anything. Toothache perhaps.
Maybe he'd been giving her a bit of a dressing-down."

I did not agree with Perrot's conclusions, but again I made no comment.
Perrot had to get on his horse and ride back to Sandene. He confided to
me that he'd got a tenant for Felonsdene already. Mrs Lane was going to
live there with her married daughter and her son-in-law. Mrs Lane was
Perrot's bad-tempered and dyspeptic aunt, and so far she had lived in
Perrot's house at Sandene. "But I haven't got room for her any longer,"
said Perrot. "So she's taking her _exeatus_." I recommend _exeatus_ to
the philologist.

Perrot had ridden off, and I was half-way up the hill to my car, when
the idea struck me that I should like to have a look at the building
which had been used for the curious rites that Ball had described and I
turned back again. I found the place; it stood apart from the house, and
was boarded on the inside. That curious smell of bitter smoke still hung
about it. At one end I could see that some sort of fitment had been
removed, and there were splashes of candle-wax on the floor.

Coming out into the sunlight again, I noted that Tarn had done a little
levelling and road-making to enable him to get his car into Felonsdene
from the lower side of the hollow. This would give him a greater
distance to go if he were driving to Helmstone, but by the shorter route
which I had taken the approach was quite impracticable for a car.

And then, quite by chance, I noticed among the stunted trees of the
orchard something white that at a little distance looked not unlike a
big milestone. As I entered the orchard the dog whined and lay down. I
supposed that he was tired and left him there. A nearer view showed me a
column about three feet square and about four feet in height, neatly
built up of rough lumps of chalk. On the top of the column were a pile
of ashes and charred wood. It was then that its resemblance to a
sacrificial altar, such as I had seen pictured in an old illustrated
Bible, first struck me. Among the ashes something gleamed and sparkled.
I fished it out with a bit of stick. It was a small circlet of soft
gold, evidently not European work, and might have served as a child's
bangle. And my disturbance of the ashes had shown me other things.

I found an old wine-case in one of the sheds, and in this I placed all
that I had found on the top of the altar. The lower part of the ashes
and the top of the altar were still quite warm from the fire. I carried
the case up to my car, sweating with the effort and my hurry. I put the
case in the tonneau and covered it with a rug, and then, with the dog by
my side, I went home as fast as I could drive.

My partner had returned from his round and joined me in my examination
of what was in the case. Incineration had been imperfect and we had no
doubt whatever. I could state confidently that on an altar in an orchard
at Felonsdene the body of a young child had been burned, within
thirty-six hours of the time of my discovery, which was precisely twenty
minutes past twelve on the morning of 29th March. I returned at once to
my car and drove to the police-station, where I gave my information.

The number and the appearance of Tarn's car were well known. A white man
travelling with a negress cannot go anywhere in England without being
noticed. He and the woman had been in Paris before, and the man had
admitted to Perrot, under circumstances which might have overcome his
usual reticence, that he was going to France. The inspector who saw me
felt sure that Tarn would be found, and the whole mystery cleared up, in
a very short time.

Tarn and Mala were never found. They had been seen in the car in the
very early morning of the 28th. The car itself was found at Melcombe
Cliffs, an unimportant place on the coast about five miles from
Helmstone. Inquiries at ports gave negative results; no negress
accompanied by a white man had gone by any of the boats; the only
negress who had gone abroad bore no resemblance to Mala and was
satisfactorily accounted for.

The coroner was extremely polite to me at the inquest on the remains of
the child. He said that I had given my evidence in a most clear and open
manner. I had mentioned circumstances which I thought to be suspicious,
and of course it was my duty to mention them. But still I had admitted
fully--and he thought it a most important point--that both Tarn and his
wife were devoted to the child. It made any theory that they had been
guilty of the horrible crime of murdering the child seem very
improbable. Tarn had married a negress and was very sensitive on the
point; he lived alone; he hated any publicity. It seemed to him more
likely that the child died suddenly, perhaps as the result of an
accident, when Tarn and his wife were on the point of departure; and
that sooner than face the publicity and inquiry, they had taken this
quite illegal way of disposing of the body. Tarn was an educated man and
he would know that what he had done was illegal. He would be anxious to
avoid detection, and would probably change his plans in consequence. He
was also a wealthy man; the abandonment of the motor-car would not mean
very much to him. Inquiries had been made on the supposition that Tarn
and his wife had gone to France; but they might have gone elsewhere.
They might have shipped from Liverpool. A negress with the help of a
thick motor-veil, a wig, and grease-paints might easily conceal her race
for a little while. The absence of any evidence from people at Melcombe
Cliffs and the neighbourhood seemed rather to point to this. Tarn was a
gloomy man of rather morbid and religious temperament. He had certainly
said some extraordinary things, but the bark of a man of that type was
generally worse than his bite. The cremation of the child's body was
wrong and illegal, but the jury had nothing to do with that. There was
really no evidence pointing to murder; on the contrary, they had heard
that both parents were devoted to their child. An inconclusive verdict
was given.

It was on 27th March that the child was born; a year later precisely its
body was burned. It may have been a coincidence; it may not. I, at any
rate, have never been able to accept the coroner's comforting theory. I
remember that negress too well, and the power that she and her horrible
faith had over her husband. They loved their child, I believe. But in
the propitiation of the Power of evil, the dearer the victim the more
potent will be the sacrifice. They must have been insane in the end. And
possibly the sea at Melcombe Cliffs still holds the secret of what
became of them.




THE FEAST AND THE RECKONING


Mr Duncan Garth stood at his windows in park Lane and looked out. He was
a man of forty-five, unusually tall and broad, with a strong,
clean-shaven face.

"I should rather like," he said, "to buy Hyde Park."

His secretary, seated at a table behind him, chuckled.

"You are quite right, Ferguson," said Garth. "I can't buy Hyde Park or
the National Gallery. But I presume I've got the money value of both.
Wouldn't you say so, Ferguson?"

Ferguson was a slender young man. He looked far too young for the
important post of secretary to Mr Garth, and much younger than he really
was. His scrupulous care as to his personal appearance rather amused
Garth, who was careless in such matters almost to the point of
untidiness.

Ferguson lit a cigarette and reflected. "I should say not," he said.
"Hyde Park alone, of course, you could buy, if it were for sale. I don't
know what the National Gallery would figure out at, but silly people
give absurd sums for paint and canvas nowadays, and there's any amount
of it there. You might be able to do them both, but I should doubt it."

"Well, I'm going to give a luncheon-party, anyhow."

"Yes," said Ferguson, drily, "you can afford to do that. Whom am I to
ask?"

Garth consulted some memoranda on the back of an envelope. "I'm going to
mix 'em up a bit," he said. "You remember that girl in the post-office
yesterday?"

"The one who asked if you'd got any eyes in your head?"

"Yes. One should not, of course, hand in telegrams to the money-order
department. There was something in the bitter fury of the woman that
interested me. Naturally, I don't know her name and address, but I
suppose you can get that."

"Of course," said Ferguson, making a shorthand note.

"Then I must have old Lady Longshore. I should like an actor-manager,
too. Could you suggest?"

"Want him for his egotism?"

"Quite so," said Mr Garth. "Of course."

"Then you can't do better than Eustace Richards. A fluent talker. But
you've met him."

"So I have," said Garth, "now I come to think of it. He will do
admirably. Then I should like Archdeacon Pringle and his wife, and that
chap I went to about my throat."

"Let me see," said Ferguson--"that was Sir Edwin Goodchild, wasn't it? A
good sort--I know him well. Any more?"

"Yes. Lots more. I want that man who sweeps the crossing just outside
the club. He always seemed to me to be full of character. His name is
Timbs, and I don't know his address. But in this case perhaps you'd
better not write. See him personally. Could you get me a nice
Suffragette?"

"Certainly," said Ferguson. "Any particular one?"

"No. Just an ordinary, plain Suffragette. Also the editor of _Happy
Homes_. Likewise the Unconquerable Belgian. I don't know at which of the
halls he's wrestling now, but you can find out."

"Suppose his trainer won't let him come?"

"My dear Ferguson, you know very well how to deal with a case like that.
There are solid inducements that influence opinion."

"True. Would you like the girl who does my nails?"

"Your manicurist? Yes, that's an excellent idea. We shall also need a
Cabinet Minister, a nice specimen of a modern gilded youth, and somebody
prominent in the Salvation Army."

The list was finally made out. Ferguson looked at it reflectively. "I
suppose you wouldn't ask me too," he said. "I wish to goodness you
would!"

"You can come if you've got any decent clothes," said Garth,
sardonically. "Behave yourself decently, mind. Don't giggle."

"Right," said Ferguson. "This will be the day of my life. You know all
your servants will give notice, of course. But that doesn't matter, you
can get others."

"It might simplify things," said Mr Garth, "if I took some rooms at the
Ritz and gave the luncheon there. Arrange that for me, will you?"

"Certainly. And the date?"

"You'll want a little time to get the gang together. Say four weeks from
to-day."

       *       *       *       *       *

Mr Ferguson needed all his tact to get them together. Lady Longshore, it
is true, expressed herself as willing to meet anybody except her own
relations. But Eustace Richards, on being told of the idea of the party,
said quite frankly that he preferred to mix with his equals. "The devil
of it is to find 'em," said Ferguson. Richards, still frank, admitted
that in the present state of dramatic art there might be something in
that. He decided to attend. A Suffragette was caught by the bait of the
Cabinet Minister, who subsequently refused on hearing of the
Suffragette. Sir Edwin Goodchild, the editor of _Happy Homes_, the
manicure lady, and Colonel Harriet Stokes, of the Salvation Army,
accepted at once. Mr Timbs, who swept the crossing outside the club,
was suspicious and took longer to decide. "Look 'ere, Mr Ferguson," he
said, "is it strite? You aren't gettin' anythin' up for me, eh? I've got
a good suit o' clothes, so far as that goes; one I've kept for funerals,
so far. But I don't want to put that on for nothing. Barrin' sells, now,
is it strite?" With renewed assurances Ferguson secured him. The lady of
the post-office began with a direct refusal, which started in the third
person and trailed off into the first. It said that she had not the
honour of Mr Garth's acquaintance, and that she was at a loss to
understand, and so on. Ferguson returned to the attack, and,
metaphorically, dangled the Dowager Countess of Longshore before her.
This failing, he changed his fly, and caught her with the Archdeacon.
The Archdeacon had known her father, and seemed to Miss Bostock to
guarantee everything. It was not absolutely fair, as the Archdeacon had
a professional engagement in the North on that day, and had been
compelled to refuse. Mrs Pringle, however, would be present, and, as
Ferguson said in self-justification, Mrs Pringle was more archidiaconal
than any archdeacon living. The Unconquerable Belgian accepted in a
letter written by Mr Savage, his trainer. Mr Savage expressed a hope
that the Unconquerable would not be pressed to drink, and that he would
be able to get away for a professional engagement at four o'clock.

       *       *       *       *       *

On the day appointed, Lady Longshore was the first guest to be
announced.

"Came early on purpose," she said. "This is to be a freak lunch, so
Fergy says, and I want to get the hang of it."

"It's simplicity itself," said Garth. "You are going to meet people whom
you have never met before. Conventions that would interfere with this
are abandoned. You will not, for instance, sit next to me."

"Nor to me," added Mr Ferguson. "But bear up."

"Don't be a fool, Fergy, and tell me all about it."

Ferguson glanced at a plan of the table. "On your right hand, Lady
Longshore, you will have Mr Timbs, who sweeps one of the principal
crossings in St James's Street, on your left will be Mr Pudbrook, who
edits that serviceable kitchen weekly, _Happy Homes_. But the table is
oval, and we hope that the conversation will be general."

"Well, it's not half a bad idea. Let me look at the rest of 'em." She
snatched the plan from the secretary's hand. "Thank Heaven, I haven't
got Eustace Richards--these mummers make me angry. Here, who's this?"

Monsieur Renard had just been announced.

"That," said Ferguson, in a low voice, "is Monsieur Renard, better known
as the Unconquerable Belgian. You may have seen him on the stage."

"Quite a good deal of him--_même trop_," said the Countess.

In the meantime the Belgian extended a hand like a twenty-pound York
ham. He was an enormous athlete, whose sweet temper had not yet been
injured by his prolonged war with fat. He was of great simplicity, and
his forehead ran back at a gentle slope from his eyebrows to the back of
his head. Intelligent? _Mais que voulez-vous que je vous dise?_ Can one
have everything? His clothes were of the best quality and of the latest
fashion. Let us be content.

Duncan Garth grasped some of the extended hand. "This is most kind of
you, Monsieur Renard. We have all admired your prowess, and are
delighted to have the chance to know you a little better."

The Belgian was slow and self-possessed. "Thank--you," he said.

"We shall have to behave ourselves," laughed Garth, "or you'll be
throwing all of us out of the window."

"But no," said the Unconquerable, seriously. "That will not be so. My
manager does not permit me to do anything of that kind, unless arranged
with him."

"It would be an excellent advertisement," said Garth. "Just you think it
over." He turned to some new arrivals.

At this moment Ferguson laid a manicured hand on the Belgian's almighty
arm. "Pardon me, Monsieur Renard, but the Countess of Longshore is most
anxious that you should be presented to her."

"That is all right. I kom," said the placid wrestler.

The new arrivals were Miss Bostock of the post-office, Sir Edwin
Goodchild of Harley Street, and Mr Pudbrook of _Happy Homes_. Miss
Bostock was tailor-made, smooth-haired, rather hygienic about the boots,
and wore pince-nez. She looked as if she would have been handsomer if
she had been happier. Her voice shook a little as she responded to Mr
Garth's most respectful salutation, but her nervousness was not too
apparent.

"Is--is the Archdeacon here, Mr Garth?" she inquired. "He used to know
my father slightly."

"The Archdeacon regrets--a conference at York. But that is Mrs Pringle
just coming in. Let me take you up to her."

Sir Edwin Goodchild took Mr Garth's secretary aside. "I say, Fergy," he
said, "what the deuce is all this?"

"This?" said Ferguson, innocently. "This is a private reception-room at
the Ritz. Style, Louis Quinze or thereabouts. Through those folding
doors, when at the appointed time they are opened, we enter the
luncheon-room. There we eat huitres_ Lucullus, consommé norvégienne,
filets_--"

"Now, don't talk nonsense."

"Nonsense, man? Considering I constructed the menu myself, I--"

"Yes, but the people. Look at that lot just come in."

"My poor lost sheep, I'll tell you just two things. Firstly, we are
eccentric millionaires. Secondly, you will be seated at lunch between
Colonel Harriet Stokes, of the Salvation Army, and Miss Paul, a manicure
lady."

"Let me out. This is a nightmare."

"No, it's a fact, and I'll prove it to you by introducing to your kind
attention Mr Pudbrook, the editor of _Happy Homes_. He somewhat
interferes with your profession by giving remedies for black-heads and
indigestion in his paper on alternate weeks. But don't let that
prejudice you against him."

Certainly, the "lot" to which Sir Edwin referred looked strange enough
in their present _entourage_. Mr Timbs wore a complete suit of black
broadcloth, alleviated by new brown shoes, white socks, and a very large
crimson silk handkerchief. His expression combined curiously the
confident and the furtive. Those in his immediate neighbourhood were
conscious of a blended fragrance of benzine and yellow soap. A
white-faced woman with big eyes, severely uniformed, was in conversation
with him, and Mr Timbs was choosing his language with unusual care. Miss
Edith Stunt, the Suffragette, had faced meetings in Trafalgar Square,
and had nothing more to fear. Her fanatical eyes looked round eagerly
for an opportunity to say a good word. At present Duncan Garth was
talking to Mrs Gust, a nicely-dressed lady, slightly mad. The death of
her husband under treatment had not shaken her faith in Christian
Science, any more than his life had shaken her belief in matrimony.
Garth himself had discovered her, and had directed that she should be of
the party.

Miss Vera Paul, the manicurist, was talking to Ferguson. She was a
remarkably pretty girl, but there were many others who wished to speak
to Ferguson. He handed her over to Mrs Pringle, and promised her that
she should be next to him at luncheon. The Unconquerable Belgian bore
down on Ferguson, carrying in his hand a copy of the menu, with which
Ferguson had thoughtfully provided him. He tapped it with a heavy finger
and said plaintively: "You excuse me. I cannot eat moch this food."
Ferguson's suggestion of a porter-house steak was accepted. At the same
moment Timbs approached him with care, as of one who stalked big game.

"You'll keep your eye on me, sir," said Timbs. "You told me it was
strite, and it's to you I looks. I don't want to do anything I didn't
ought."

"My dear chap," said Ferguson, with candour, "we want you to do the
things you didn't ought."

Timbs would have pursued the conversation, but he was put aside by Miss
Edith Stunt, who wished to know if she would have an opportunity to say
a few words to the company. And she was put aside by Harriet Stokes, who
wished to know if she could send round a collecting-card. And Harriet
Stokes was obliterated by Mr Pudbrook, who wished to know if he could
get a few words on private business with Mr Garth.

Then came the arrival of the last guest. Mr Eustace Richards made a
splendid entrance; he was a quarter of an hour late and gracefully
apologetic. "An unexpected rehearsal, my dear fellow," he said to Garth
in a clearly-articulated whisper that carried to every part of the room,
"Royal command for next Friday. Quite unexpected. Gratifying, eh?"

The big folding-doors opened. Ferguson flew around with his plan of the
table, showing people where they were to sit. So far Mr Eustace Richards
had hardly glanced at the company. He did not look much at the audience
when he was acting, and he was almost always acting. But now he
murmured to Garth: "My dear fellow, you warned me--but what have you
done?"

"Don't quite know yet," said Garth, drily.

       *       *       *       *       *

Mr Ferguson had his own little suite of rooms at the house in Park Lane.
He dined at his club that night, and was back again by nine o'clock to
check once more some figures of considerable importance. The work only
took him a few minutes, and he was just finishing it when Duncan Garth
entered, wearing the dinner-jacket and black tie of the domestic life.

"Hallo!" said Ferguson. "Thought you were dining at the Silchesters'."

"So I was," said Garth, dejectedly, "but I didn't." He selected a cigar
from his secretary's cabinet.

"Cheaper for you, anyhow," said Ferguson. "His Grace meant to borrow
money to-night."

"I'm not a fool," said Garth, wearily, "and I'm not lending money to the
Duke of Silchester. How did you think it went this afternoon?"

"What? The lunch? Of course it was very, very funny."

"Or slightly tragic," said Garth, as he took an easy-chair. "Put people
into new circumstances and you can always judge them. I've got a low
opinion of the human race to-night, Fergy."

"But there were nice points," said Ferguson. "I like the self-centred,
complete indifference of our friend Renard. He's a headless Hercules. I
mean, his head is the only thing against him. It's a loss, too, that is
easily excused. You saw how Lady Longshore, and Mrs Pringle, and Colonel
Harriet Stokes of the Salvation Army were anxious to please that lump of
beef."

"Of course I saw it. That's one of the reasons why I call the thing a
tragedy. By the way, you can go over our list and draw a line through
the Archdeacon and his wife."

"Certainly," said Ferguson. "Might one ask why?"

"Because I hate the type," said Garth. "Miss Bostock's father was a
curate, had been at college with the Archdeacon, and knew him fairly
well. Mrs Pringle snubbed Miss Bostock. She was afraid she could not
remember all the curates that her husband might have happened to meet.
She also snubbed Pudbrook. When she saw the nature of the party she
would have left but for Lady Longshore, who, to do her credit, does not
care one curse about anybody on this earth or elsewhere. She was almost
affectionate to Timbs when Lady Longshore repeated his stories. She was
quite nice to your manicurist girl. She recognised the charm of the
Unconquerable Belgian. But she snubbed Miss Bostock and she snubbed
Pudbrook. She admits the hopeless and snubs the hopeful. She is a
mixture of the coward and the bully. I don't like it, and I've no more
to do with it. Strike them off, Fergy. I shall feel happier when it's
done."

Ferguson took down an alphabetical list, turned up the letter "P," and
put a black ink cross where it was required. "I wonder what this has
cost you," he said cheerfully.

"You paid the bill. Nothing, anyhow."

"The Salvationist got a subscription, and so did Mrs Gust. The
Suffragette also hit you. I think you have promised to be manicured. Mr
Pudbrook owns half his paper, and the printer owns the other half. They
are not doing too well, and they are thinking of a limited company. You
know best how far you have come into it. Eustace Richards, in spite of
his jabber, has done no good with his last two things. He stayed with
you for some time. If he was not suggesting that you should release him
from the people who are financing him at present, then, of course, it's
my mistake."

"You're a clear-sighted chap," said Garth, "and you've mentioned nothing
which is very far out. There are even some things which you might have
mentioned and have omitted. They don't really matter. I've done what was
wanted. I've even shown Lady Longshore how to make the money she wants.
But that's not what's worrying me."

"Give it a name," said Ferguson.

The door opened. "A young person of the name of Bostock wishes to see
you, sir," said the butler. "I have told her that you are not in the
habit of seeing people at this time of the evening, but she seemed
rather pressing."

"In here, please," said Garth.

"Let's see," said Ferguson, "Miss Bostock left before the show was
over."

"She did," said Garth; "and I want to know why."

In the meantime the butler had returned to Miss Bostock with a totally
different manner. So far as the rules went, he had made no mistake, but
there were exceptions, of course. On sight, Miss Bostock was a young
person. On further investigation she was a young lady whom Mr Duncan
Garth wished to see, and that made a difference.

She entered the room with perfect composure, wearing the same clothes
that she had worn at the luncheon-party.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have come," she said, "but there are things I want
to say. I want to know why you did that."

"You'll sit down, won't you?" said Garth. "What is it precisely we are
talking about?"

"Why did you give that luncheon? Why did you make me come to it? I
refused at first, you know. Then Mr Ferguson came to see me and
persuaded me. He told me the Archdeacon was coming, and that seemed like
a mutual acquaintance. I think if he had been there he wouldn't have
been as rude to me as his wife was. I dare say, if I had told her I was
a general servant, she would have been as sweet to me as she was to that
half-drunken crossing-sweeper, or that Belgian brute, or some of the
other people whom you ought not to have asked me to meet."

"Yes," said Mr Ferguson, cheerfully. "Lady Longshore also is very
unconventional, isn't she?"

"I'm not speaking about that," said Miss Bostock, doggedly. "The
rudeness of that lady to me is a small personal matter easily forgotten.
It's the ghastly humiliation of the whole thing that makes me sick and
savage."

There was a moment's silence. "Ferguson," said Garth, "there was that
letter."

"Yes," said Ferguson, "I'll see to it," and passed out of the room.

"Now, then," said Garth. "What's the trouble, Miss Bostock?"

"The trouble is that the whole of us were merely a show got up for your
amusement. You gave us a lunch that we might make fools of ourselves.
Fish out of water are very absurd, aren't they? But it's cruel to take
them out of water and to watch them dying, all the same. That
luncheon-party was the most brutal thing done in London to-day, and you
were the brute who did it. What harm was I doing? Why did you drag me
into it?"

"Five or six weeks ago," said Garth, "I met you for the first time. It
was in the post-office. You asked me if I'd got any eyes in my head."

"I remember now," said Miss Bostock. "I ought not to have said it. I
think the tick of the telegraph gets on my nerves. You were not the
first, too, and the notices were up clear enough. Still, why couldn't
you have reported me? That would have been the right way to punish me."

"No," said Garth, "I did not want to punish you. I distinctly liked the
spirit and the temper with which you spoke to me. You will understand,
perhaps, that I get rather too much of the other kind of thing. I had no
wish whatever to humiliate you. I did wish to amuse myself. You may be
glad to hear that I have not done it. Is there anything I can do?"

"Nothing now," said the girl, contemptuously.

"I think there is," said Garth, and rang the bell. He sent the servant
to fetch Mr Ferguson.

"I say, Ferguson," said Garth, "can you tell me what the price of that
luncheon was?"

"Eight shillings a head, exclusive of the wine, of course."

"Let me see, Miss Bostock," said Garth, "I think you drank water."

"Yes, yes, I see it now," said Miss Bostock, eagerly. She fumbled
clumsily at her pocket, and produced an emaciated purse. She took out
half a sovereign. "There is your money. Can you give me change?"

Garth did not carry money. Ferguson handed Garth a florin, and Garth
gravely handed it to Miss Bostock.

"Now I can breathe again," she said. "I am going now. Good-night."

Garth followed her out, along the corridor and into the hall. Servants
were waiting at the door. A sign from Garth dismissed them. As he held
the door open for her, she turned to him, hesitated, and then spoke.

"I thought at lunch to-day that the doctor was the only gentleman there.
I--I am not so sure about it."

"If I were ten years younger," said Garth, "I think I should ask you to
marry me. Good-night."

He stood watching her as she passed down the steps into Park Lane.




POST-MORTEM


I

After dining for the last time at his club, Evan Hurst returned at once
to his flat in Jermyn Street. The greater part of his arrangements had
already been made, and most of his things packed; but there were still a
few details to settle, and he was to leave for the north early on the
following morning.

Yet when he entered his room he did not proceed at once to
letter-writing or to business of any kind. He flung himself down in an
easy-chair. He felt unaccountably tired. All day he had had business to
attend to, necessary no doubt for the carrying out of his somewhat wild
and romantic scheme, none the less wearisome to a man of poetical
temperament and of poor physique. He was a man of slight build, with
fair and rather fluffy hair, a pretty, thin-lipped mouth, and plaintive
blue eyes. To the world in general his lot would have seemed a fairly
easy one. He had sufficient means of his own; and no one in any way
depended upon him. His volume of poems, _Under the Sea_, published a
year or two before, had excited a great deal of public attention and
some controversy; what had seemed genius to one critic had seemed
insanity to another. He was not unpopular at his club although he was
thought to be slightly ridiculous. It was not supposed that he had any
trouble of any kind. Women, of whom in his poems he wrote with such
knowledge and such fervency, had never really come much into his life.

As he lay there and smoked endless cigarettes, he admitted the truth to
himself. It was vanity that was at the root of it. He had seen the
talented and remarkable Evan Hurst dwindling down into nobody again.
Once it was supposed that Evan Hurst was dead, dead by his own act, and
leaving such strange communications behind him, interest would revive.
People would speak again of _Under the Sea_, his unpublished poems would
be produced, and there would be obituary notices. There would be, for a
while at least, breathless interest in the poet and the suicide, and he,
alive and not dead, under another name and acting another part, would
read and enjoy it all. To carry out his scheme meant many sacrifices,
but the fascination of it was too strong for him, and the success of it
seemed to be certain.

His sensations were really very much those of a man who actually knows
that he is about to die. He had withdrawn a large balance from his bank
and transferred it to another bank in the name which he now intended to
take, but it was essential if Evan Hurst were to die that he should
leave money behind him. That money he willingly sacrificed. It was
enough if he retained for his new incarnation sufficient for a
reasonable livelihood. It annoyed him far more to think that he must
leave also his books, the collections, the furniture and the treasures
of his Jermyn Street flat. They had all come together slowly, and all
represented in a way his individuality. The scattering of them by public
auction would be like the disintegration of death. He could imagine
already the notice in the catalogue of a second-hand bookseller offering
that exquisitely-bound set of Huysman's works, "containing the
book-plate of the late Evan Hurst." There were prints and engravings
that from long affection and study had given him almost a feeling as if
he had had a part in their creation. The Durer, a splendid impression,
would fetch fifty pounds at least. Men at the club would remember this
evening. They would recall that Evan Hurst was there only a few days
before his death, and that even then they had remarked how gloomy and
silent he seemed to be.

He laughed bitterly and aloud, flung down his cigarette and passed into
his bedroom. There for a while he packed energetically, but soon he had
to stop for a feeling of intense and almost painful weariness came over
him again. After all there would be time to finish the packing in the
morning. He decided to go to bed.

On the following afternoon he left King's Cross for Salsay on the
Yorkshire coast.


II

Salsay is a small fishing village that has not yet suffered from the
curse of popularity. Evan Hurst put up at the one hotel in the place and
constituted its one permanent visitor. Occasionally a commercial
traveller would arrive one day and leave on the next, and would talk as
much as possible to Evan Hurst. Evan Hurst, in return, would talk as
little as possible, consistent with bare politeness, to the commercial
traveller. Every morning he bathed from the shore before breakfast at a
point at some considerable distance from the village. Here there was a
small cave in the cliffs, a useful shelter if rain came on, and useful
to Evan Hurst for other purposes; for it was here that gradually, bit by
bit, he collected the slender outfit with which he was to begin the
world in his new character on the day that Evan Hurst was supposed to
commit suicide. His plan was simplicity itself. He would go out to bathe
as usual, and he would not return. His clothes would be found on the
shore, and in the pocket of his coat there would be a letter to the
landlord of the hotel leaving no doubt whatever as to his intentions.
In the meantime, in a little cave, he would have altered his appearance,
put on different clothes, and from there struck out for the nearest
railway station. In the evening he would be in Dover, and next day in
Paris, without one tie left between what he had once been and what he
was now going to be.

He looked forward to the change with pleasurable excitement. It was
something more than vanity after all. As Evan Hurst he had begun in a
_rôle_ which he was not competent to sustain; to have continued in it
would have been to disappoint the public opinion of him. In a new part
he could write as he liked; act as he liked; talk as he liked. There
would be no preconceived opinion of him in the world; it would be all
for him to make with the benefit of his experience of his past blunders.

He took immense care with the composition of that brief letter to the
landlord. It ran as follows:--

  "DEAR SIR,--It would be impossible to explain to you the reasons why I
  intend this morning to take my life, but undoubtedly some apology is
  due to you for any inconvenience which my death may cause you. I leave
  behind me at the hotel a quantity of money which will be more than
  sufficient to discharge my obligations to you. Nor have I any
  explanation to offer to the coroner and the British jury. These good
  people will return their usual verdict. Not to be interested in so
  extremely uninteresting a thing as my life has become, would be a
  clear proof to them of insanity. I shall swim out so long as my
  strength lasts, and the end will come under the sea.--Faithfully
  yours,

                                                       "EVAN HURST."

He did not quite like it now that he had finished it. The way in which
he had introduced the title of his book seemed to him to be a little on
the cheap side, but at any rate it was a letter which would call for a
good deal of comment. He promised himself much amusing and interesting
reading when the English papers reached Paris a few days later.

The morning came at last; grey, overcast, and misty, and more likely to
turn to great heat than to rain. Evan Hurst looked at himself in the
glass and laughed. He had spent some hours in his room the night before
dyeing his fluffy hair. Unquestionably it was an improvement to his
appearance. There was no danger that it would be observed on his leaving
the hotel; for he wore his towels slung round his neck, and a
broad-brimmed straw hat. As he walked towards the cave he now felt an
unaccountable nervousness. True, but few people went that way, and even
if they entered the cave his store of clothes was so carefully hidden
that it was unlikely that anybody would find them. Still, there was
just a chance, and it would be maddening if just at the last some trifle
occurred to balk his scheme. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found
everything just as he had left it. In less than half an hour the change
was complete; the clothes of that fluffy poet, Evan Hurst, were disposed
with a careful carelessness on the rocks above high-water mark, with the
letter to the landlord in the pocket of the coat, and Evan Hurst, in his
new incarnation, strode away in a blue serge suit, black felt hat, and
black boots, carrying a small bag, which contained a change of linen and
the articles of his toilet. The rest of his luggage was to be purchased
in London.

For the first mile or so his way lay along the beach, and he was careful
to walk on the sand, where, in half an hour, the sea would obliterate
his footprints. His feelings were at first those of amusement. In every
little detail of his clothes he was so different from what he had ever
been before. He speculated whether he would not perforce become quite a
different kind of man under the clothes' influence. Already he felt
himself a stouter person, readier to tackle the world and deal with it
properly. His satisfaction was intense. He was still meditating on the
subject when he reached the path up the cliffs; a perfectly easy and
safe path with a few low rocks between him and it. As he clambered over
the rocks, inconvenienced by the bag that he was carrying, he slipped
and fell, and lay quite still.

The hours passed, and now the sun blazed. The waves had already touched
one of the black boots. They crept up to the head and came back with a
pinky stain. At last, when the figure was fully covered, it gave a
sudden and ungainly movement, and for a little while floated with arms
and legs shot out queerly like the limbs of a starfish. The black felt
hat had drifted far away, and tossed about on the waves with absurdity.
Then, slowly, the figure disappeared from sight.




THE GIRL WITH THE BEAUTIFUL HAIR

  [By my own unaided intelligence I chose the exactly right spot at the
  farther end of the orchard, and with my own hand I slung the hammock.
  Now that the day is hot and luncheon is over, I take my book and go
  thither to reap the fruits of my labour. And, behold, the hammock is
  already occupied with four large cushions and one small girl--a solemn
  and inscrutable girl who hears to the end a complaint of the cruelty
  and injustice of her trespass, and then says kindly that I may sit on
  the grass.

  "Thank you. I am glad you do not want all the grass as well."

  I do the best that I can with the grass, and open my book, and the
  voice from the hammock bids me to tell a story.

  "What, with no better audience than that?"

  It appears that this is the charm. She has never had a story all to
  herself before.]


There once was a girl who had very long and very beautiful hair.

(_As long as yours? Much longer and much more beautiful. And if you
interrupt me again, I will stop this story, empty you out of the
hammock, tie you to a tree, and teach you as much as I can remember of
the French gender rules. Very well, then._)

As I was saying--there once was a girl who had very long and very
beautiful hair, and she knew it. Her sisters, who were as plain-spoken
as sisters generally are, were in the habit of saying that she was a
perfect peacock. Her hair was very much the colour of a chestnut, and
she took the greatest possible care of it. It was a rule of life with
her, when she had nothing else to do, to brush her hair. Frequently also
she brushed it when she had other things to do. She never would have it
cut. She even refused a lock of it to her own mother. When she went out
for walks with her sisters she listened attentively as people passed
her, because sometimes they said things about her hair which she liked
very much. Then she would try not to look pleased, and when a girl who
is really pleased tries to look as if she did not care, she looks
perfectly horrid. Her sisters remarked upon it.

Her father, who was a good and wise man, explained to her how wicked
vanity was, especially vanity about one's hair. He showed her that
personal attractions, especially if connected in any way with the hair,
were worthless as compared with the intellectual and moral attributes.
On the other hand, her mother took her to a photographer's and had her
taken in fourteen different positions, and they all made such beautiful
pictures that the photographer nearly committed suicide because he was
not allowed to exhibit them in his shop window.

She reached the age at which every good Christian girl wishes to have
long dresses and do her hair up into a lump, but this girl (whose name
was Elsa, of course) would not have her hair done up, and stamped with
her foot and was rude to the governess. In the end, of course, Elsa had
to submit, for it is very wicked for girls of a certain age to wear
their hair down. But she became extremely ingenious. She had ways of
doing that hair so that it would not stop up, but tumbled down
unexpectedly and caused great admiration. She would then pretend to be
confused and embarrassed. Now, when a girl who is not in the least
confused and embarrassed tries to look so, she looks simply silly. Her
sisters told her so. Every single girl friend she had, and many who were
only acquaintances, had seen that hair in its native glory. Some of
these raved about it to Elsa's sisters, and were surprised that the
sisters did not share their enthusiasm.

"She has such a lot of it," the friends would say.

"She thinks such a lot of it," the sisters would answer.

Now, Elsa and her sisters were not the only girls in the world, and they
did not know all the rest; consequently a girl called Kate came to them
as something of a novelty. As she was called Kate, she was, of course,
quite good. Katherine may be proud, and Kitty may be frivolous, but Kate
is solid. If you ask me if Kate is clever, I reply that she is a good
housekeeper. If you ask me if she is pretty, I change the subject
rapidly. There was nothing dazzling about this Kate. She was just Kate.

It is a sad truth that it is the people who are naturally the nicest to
look at who take the greatest trouble to look nice. The woman who, so
far as her face is concerned, makes the best of a bad job, is very rare.
Kate was not a beauty, but she was sensible and resigned. She dressed
herself very quickly in things that wore well. It was her boast that she
could do her hair without a looking-glass, and everybody who saw her
hair believed it. But as it happened, when Kate met Elsa, a change came
over her.

"Your hair is perfectly divine," she said to Elsa.

Elsa tried to be politely bored.

"So kind of you to say so," she said. "I get frightfully sick of my old
wig myself. It's an endless bother."

"And you do it so beautifully," said Kate. "I do wish you'd give me some
idea for my hair, so that it wouldn't look awful."

"It isn't awful at all," said Elsa, politely. "I don't think I should
change the way of doing it if I were you."

Then she went into elaborate technical details and showed Kate that the
thing was bad and that improvement was impossible. Of course, she did
not use these words, and was sweetly delicate about it.

Now, that night, as Elsa was having her own hair brushed, a horrible
suspicion came over her. She put it aside as a thing perfectly absurd.
It might have been a trick of the looking-glass. It might have been her
own imagination. It did not keep her awake for a moment. But next
morning one of her sisters came into her room, looked at her, and said:
"What an idiot you were to have your hair cut!"

"I have not had it cut," said Elsa, furiously. "It's the same as it
always was."

"Rubbish," said the sister. "It's three inches shorter at least."

"It's not," said Elsa; "and I wish you'd go away. I can't get on
properly while you're hanging about talking."

The sister went away, and Elsa flew to the looking-glass. The cold
morning light confirmed her suspicions of the night before. Her
sister was perfectly right. Elsa's hair was undoubtedly three inches
shorter.

That afternoon Elsa secretly and surreptitiously went to a great hair
specialist. She had seen his advertisement, and she felt that here she
might at any rate know the worst. He looked at her hair and said that it
had become shorter from a shrinkage in the cells, owing to undue
epithelial activity of the cranium. It was as well that she came to him
when she did. As it was, if she would rub in a little of his relaxative
she would have nothing to fear. He then sold her a fourpenny pot of
pomatum for three guineas, washed his hands, and went home to tea.

But the pomatum was quite ineffectual. Every day her hair seemed to be a
little shorter and a little thinner. This was particularly the case when
she had been behaving like a peacock or like a spiteful cat. It reached
a point when all her friends who met her exclaimed: "Why, Elsa, what on
earth have you done with your hair?"

Then she would smile sweetly and say: "Brushed it. What did you think?"
But inwardly she was a mad woman.

About this time she saw the advertisement of the Indian hair doctor, and
she thought she could but try. I do not think the man was really Indian,
I know he was not really a doctor, and I fancy he did not know much
about hair. But he said that Elsa's case was extremely grave, and that
in another week she would have been entirely bald. She must take a
course of scalp friction; twelve applications for three guineas the
application. She took them; and at the end of the course her hair was
nearly all gone, her temper was quite gone, her money was almost gone,
and she did not want to see anybody or to do anything except die.

And then unwittingly she did what was best for herself. To escape the
sweet sympathy of her friends and relations she went away all by herself
to live in a little cottage in a forest. It is good for a girl who has
been seeing too many people to live all by herself for a while. It is
good for a girl who has been long in a crowded town to go away into the
forest solitude. Your soul must go to the cleaner, just like your
gloves.

Now that there was no one to sympathise with her loss, and no one to
attract by her beautiful hair even if she had still had it, she could
begin to think of other things. And she thought about squirrels, and
nuts, and blackberries, and sunsets, and streams that made silvery lines
down the green hillsides. And every morning she went all by herself to a
cottage two miles off and fetched milk for herself.

The old woman who kept the cows at this cottage was tall and old and
always polite, but also she was always very sad. She had the face of one
who never ceased to suffer. After Elsa had been two months in her
cottage she suddenly saw that this woman had always looked really sad.
The sadness of other people had never mattered to her in the least
before; but now one day she asked the old woman why this was, and if
there were anything that she might do for her.

Then the old woman said: "I have a daughter and she was very beautiful.
None that saw her ever forgot how beautiful she was. And she fell ill of
a strange disease so that her whole face became loathesome. No one but I
can bear to look on her, lest their dreams should be haunted for ever."

"And she lives here, this poor daughter of yours?" asked Elsa.

"Yes; she lies in the room upstairs. They tell me that she will now soon
be dead."

"I will come up and talk to her," said Elsa, "and help to nurse her, for
you must often be away on your farm."

"No," said the old woman, "that is too much for you to do. I tell you
that no one but myself can bear it. You must not see her."

"Look," said Elsa. And then she took off the big kerchief that she
always wore over her head. "I had pretty hair once," she said, "and I
have lost it all. I can bear anything, and I want to help you."

Then Elsa went upstairs into a room which was darkened, and even in that
dim light she could see that this old woman's daughter, who was once
very beautiful, had now become painful to behold. Elsa was frightened,
but tried not to show it, and a girl who is frightened and tries not to
show it, very frequently does not look nearly such a fool as she thinks.
She remained there a long time, and when she came out her face was quite
white, and she wanted to go back to her cottage and cry.

But every day after that until the end came she went to see the sick
girl who loved and adored her. And the end came one afternoon quite
quietly. And the old woman did not weep at that time, but she blessed
Elsa and went out, for the cows were waiting to be milked, and that must
not be left.

Next morning when Elsa awoke it was very late, and the sun was streaming
into her room. For a while she lay with her eyes closed, thinking over
all that had happened. Each visit to the sick girl had been a separate
terror to her, but now she grieved that the girl was dead, and wondered
in her mind if there were none other for whom she might find something
to do.

At last, since it was a shame to lie so late, she got up, and, behold,
masses of beautiful chestnut-coloured hair fell far down over her white
shoulders! She rubbed her eyes and said that she must be dreaming. But
no, it had really happened. Her mirror echoed the truth. The glory of
her pretty head had come back to it as strangely as it had gone. So that
afternoon she mused what she would do as, sitting in the garden of her
cottage, she made a wreath of white lilies.

And the next day she left her cottage in the wood and went back to her
own home; and her sisters were all delighted to see her, and praised her
beautiful hair, and were glad that it had grown again so quickly. Yet
one of them said secretly to another: "Now she will be as vain and
horrible as ever."

But, as it happened, she was not vain and horrible; she was really quite
nice, so that the prince who married her loved her as much for the
sweetness of her heart as for her angel's face and her beautiful long
hair.




THE WIDOWER


The decision of Edward Morris to marry again was one of the few
practical things of his record. He had married first at the age of
eighteen without the knowledge of his parents. His wife died two years
later. He had no children by her. At her death he was desolate.

He was as desolate, that is, as one can be at twenty. He was free from
the annoying minor-poet habit of advertising his afflictions, but it was
quite clear to himself that there was nothing more left. Yet it is idle
for a man to say he will stop when Nature, his proprietor, says that he
will go on. There is no comedy at ninety, and there is no tragedy at
twenty. After he had deposited the remains of his wife in Brompton
cemetery--she had a strong aversion to cremation and inwardly believed
that it destroyed the immortal soul--he went off into the country,
selecting a village where he knew nobody. Here he learned by heart
considerable portions of the poems of Heine, neglected to return the
call of the rector, and bored himself profusely. It must not be
understood that he resented the boredom. That was what life was to be in
future, a continuous dreariness. After a brief stay in the village he
went off to Paris to study art. At the time when he thought of giving
himself to music all noticed his ability in painting. When he took to
art they remembered that he had musical talent. A year later, when he
returned to England to live the life of a hermit, to teach in song what
he had learned in sorrow, some said that he was a lost artist, and some
that he was a lost musician, and others that he was a well-defined case
of dilettantism. It is, however, difficult to be a hermit in London.
London has many tentacles; it puts them out and draws you into the
liveliest part of itself. A claim of relationship, an old friendship, a
piece of medical advice, a chance meeting--anything may become a
tentacle. Almost before he knows it the misanthropical hermit is dragged
from his shell and is writing that he has much pleasure in accepting her
very kind invitation for the thirteenth, and wonders if that man in
Sackville Street will be able to make him some evening clothes in time,
his others being not so much clothes as a relic of those pre-hermit days
when his wife, his only love, still lived and took him out to dinners,
and would have the glass down in the hansoms. The thought that he
resented this last action at the time saddens him, but the acceptance is
posted. He is drawn into the vortex.

Once in, Edward Morris had to explain to himself how he got there.
Nobody else wanted any explanation. Nobody else knew that the first
time he took his hostess in to dinner he looked down the long table
towards his host's right hand and remembered. His explanation to himself
was that he did it to avoid comment. One could not wear one's heart on
one's coat sleeve. One must go somewhere and must do something. One must
unfortunately live, even when the savour of life has gone. So he lived,
and in living the savour of life came back again.

It was on a muggy December evening that he accompanied Lady Marchsea and
her eminent husband to a first-night performance. When the eminent man
was grumbling at the draught, and Lady Marchsea was, with justification,
admiring herself, her dress, and everything that was hers, Edward Morris
looked up. Out of the gloom of the box above him a brown-faced girl with
dark eyes, her chin leaning on her white gloves, bent forward and looked
down.

Yet it was not till the end of the first act that he asked who she was
and was told that she was nobody, but was apparently with the Martins,
who were very, very dear friends, and would Mr Morris take her round?
That was the beginning of it, and the end of it was his engagement to
Adela Constantia Graham, who was nobody. Everybody who knew Adela
Constantia knew that it was an excellent thing for her--a much wealthier
man than she had any reason to expect. Everyone who knew Edward Morris
knew that it was the best thing for him. "Ballast," said Lady Marchsea,
emphatically, "that is what marriage means to a man like Edward Morris.
He needs ballast; something to make him concentrate himself and trust
himself; something to encourage him and urge him on."

Her notions of the general uses of ballast were vague, but her
conviction was sincere that Edward Morris, happily re-married, would
achieve something in one, or possibly in all, of the arts. Her eminent
husband said: "Nice sort of man, but no good really." But still he paid
for the dinner-service with the sanctifying mark on the bottom of all
the plates, which they forwarded to Edward Morris a short time before
the wedding--the wedding which never took place.

About a week before the date fixed for that wedding it occurred to
Edward Morris in a moment of leisure--he was naturally very busy at the
time--that his first wife had been a jealous woman, and he wondered what
she would have thought and said if she had been alive. He could laugh at
the illogicality. If she had been alive there would have been nothing to
think or to say. The haunting face with the chin pressed on the white
gloves against the darkness at the back of the box would have been
merely a face and nothing more, and would not have haunted. He
collected his old love-letters and burned them. Other little relics of
his first wife he gathered together, had them placed in a box and
deposited at his bankers. The old life was done; the new life was
beginning. Yet one night as he stood in a darkened room with Adela
Constantia in his arms the door opened with a little quick click some
few inches. She stepped back from him, thinking it was a servant, and he
turned white, thinking, in a moment of madness, that it was someone
else; then he went to the door and opened it wider. No one was there.

       *       *       *       *       *

The position of the widower who marries again is irritating to him if he
be, as Edward Morris was, a man of nice feeling. He has to say, and to
believe, that he loves as he never loved in his life before. Scraps of
used romance must be whipped up out of his respectable past to set
against the virginal fervour of the young woman who has just begun to
love him. Yet he feels that all this is an insult to the dead--to the
woman who loved him before. A man of the world has a happy habit of
forgetting and of ignoring. He may marry for the second or third time
quite easily. He takes nothing too seriously. He may order a new
overcoat, but he does not feel that the coat will be worthless unless he
swears and tries to believe that he never wore a coat like that before.
Morris, however, was a sentimentalist, and so he became irritated with
himself. The next step inevitably followed. He became irritated with his
dead wife. She had got her cold arms round his neck and was dragging him
down and holding him back from the joyful development of his life.

When in London it was his custom to visit her grave in Brompton cemetery
at regular intervals, once every month. During his engagement to Adela
Constantia he made up his mind that this regular visit must be dropped.
Some arrangement could be made to have the grave kept in decent order,
but he could not go near it again. He remembered having been told a
story of a widower who married again and went hand-in-hand with his
second wife to stand by the grave of the first. It had been told him as
something pathetic. He had never been able to see in it anything but a
subject for a humorous paper; Guy de Maupassant would have done wonders
with it. He settled the day when the last visit should be made. He
selected an appropriate wreath, in which everlastings and dead leaves
were symbolically interwoven. But that afternoon more than ever before
his hatred to his dead wife grew within him. He recollected her strange
belief with regard to cremation. Fire destroyed everything, even the
immortal soul, and it seemed as if fire destroyed love too. He
remembered that he had burnt her letters. As he drove down Regent
Street an old friend, a man whom he had not seen for some time,
recognised him. He stopped the cab and his friend came up.

"Why do I never see you now?" said the friend. "But of course I know.
Very much engaged aren't you? (That's not bad for an impromptu, by the
way.) I suppose you are going there now?"

"No," said Morris, "as a matter of fact I am not."

"Well, you are evidently going somewhere, and you carry a big box with
you with a florist's label on it, so all I can say is that if you are
not going there you ought to be."

Edward Morris laughed, and to laugh was the last touch of horror.

"Well," the friend said, "if you are really not going to see Miss Graham
I have no scruples in annexing you. Come round to the club for a game of
billiards."

"Thanks," said Morris, "I am afraid I am very busy this afternoon."

However, he let himself be persuaded. The box containing the wreath was
left in the charge of the hall-porter at the club. On the following day
Morris despatched the wreath to Brompton cemetery by a messenger-boy,
where the symbolical offering was deposited on the grave of Charles
Ernest Jessop, who died at the age of two and a half, and of whose death
or previous existence Morris was unaware. Messenger-boys are so
careless. Morris never even attempted to visit the cemetery again. It
was not only anger, it was not only hatred; it was also fear that kept
him away. He was assured in his own mind that the dead woman was awake
again and was watching him jealously.

The moment when he had just awoken from sleep was always a horrible one
for him. The fear of the dead woman was in his mind then and nothing
else was very clear. He left the electric light on all night and, as a
rule, slept fairly well and without any haunting or painful dreams. But
the moment of waking was always a trial. He kept on expecting to see
something that he never did see. He would not have wondered if, as he
awoke, someone had touched his hand, or the electric light had been
suddenly switched off.

Of course everybody noticed that he looked wretchedly ill. Adela
Constantia was in despair about his health. There were things about him
which were very queer; that he did not like dark rooms. That when he was
talking to her he would suddenly look over his shoulder--at nothing. The
comforting doctor told her that Morris has been very busy indeed with
the preparation for his married life and, the doctor added, a lot of
worry upsets the nerves. This is quite true.

       *       *       *       *       *

On his wedding morning he certainly looked much fitter to be buried than
to be married. His best man gave him champagne and told him to hold his
head up more. The bride made an adorable and pathetic figure; a
beautiful young girl is always a pathetic figure on her wedding-morning.
Her sisters fluttered around her, ready to cry at the right moments. Her
father looked a little nervous and elated. He had had quite a long talk
with Lady Marchsea, whose husband was kept away by the toothache. The
ceremony went with its customary brilliance until that point when the
bridegroom was required to say: "I, Edward, take thee, Adela
Constantia." He said this in a loud voice, but he did not say "Adela
Constantia"; he gave another name. There was a moment's pause, and while
everybody was looking at everybody he fainted and fell.

At the inquest it was found that the blow on the head from the sharp
edge of the stone step satisfactorily accounted for the death. All the
evening papers had readable paragraphs headed "Tragic End to a
Fashionable Wedding Ceremony."

And Adela Constantia married somebody else.

And the dead woman went to sleep again.




THE UNFINISHED GAME


At Tanslowe, which is on the Thames, I found just the place that I
wanted. I had been born in the hotel business, brought up in it, and
made my living at it for thirty years. For the last twenty I had been
both proprietor and manager, and had worked uncommonly hard, for it is
personal attention and plenty of it which makes a hotel pay. I might
have retired altogether, for I was a bachelor with no claims on me and
had made more money than enough; but that was not what I wanted. I
wanted a nice, old-fashioned house, not too big, in a nice place with a
longish slack season. I cared very little whether I made it pay or not.
The Regency Hotel at Tanslowe was just the thing for me. It would give
me a little to do and not too much. Tanslowe was a village, and though
there were two or three public-houses, there was no other hotel in the
place, nor was any competition likely to come along. I was particular
about that, because my nature is such that competition always sets me
fighting, and I cannot rest until the other shop goes down. I had
reached a time of life when I did want to rest and did not want any more
fighting. It was a free house, and I have always had a partiality for
being my own master. It had just the class of trade that I
liked--principally gentlefolk taking their pleasure in a holiday on the
river. It was very cheap, and I like value for money. The house was
comfortable, and had a beautiful garden sloping down to the river. I
meant to put in some time in that garden--I have a taste that way.

The place was so cheap that I had my doubts. I wondered if it was
flooded when the river rose, if it was dropping to pieces with dry-rot,
if the drainage had been condemned, if they were going to start a
lunatic asylum next door, or what it was. I went into all these points
and a hundred more. I found one or two trifling drawbacks, and one
expects them in any house, however good--especially when it is an old
place like the Regency. I found nothing whatever to stop me from taking
the place.

I bought the whole thing, furniture and all, lock, stock and barrel, and
moved in. I brought with me my own head-waiter and my man-cook,
Englishmen both of them. I knew they would set the thing in the right
key. The head-waiter, Silas Goodheart, was just over sixty, with grey
hair and a wrinkled face. He was worth more to me than two younger men
would have been. He was very precise and rather slow in his movements.
He liked bright silver, clean table-linen, and polished glass.
Artificial flowers in the vases on his tables would have given him a
fit. He handled a decanter of old port as if he loved it--which, as a
matter of fact, he did. His manner to visitors was a perfect mixture of
dignity, respect and friendliness. If a man did not quite know what he
wanted for dinner, Silas had sympathetic and very useful suggestions. He
took, I am sure, a real pleasure in seeing people enjoy their luncheon
or dinner. Americans loved him, and tipped him out of all proportion. I
let him have his own way, even when he gave the thing away.

"Is the coffee all right here?" a customer asked after a good dinner.

"I cannot recommend it," said Silas. "If I might suggest, sir, we have
the Chartreuse of the old French shipping."

I overheard that, but I said nothing. The coffee was extract, for there
was more work than profit in making it good. As it was, that customer
went away pleased, and came back again and again, and brought his
friends too. Silas was really the only permanent waiter. When we were
busy I got one or two foreigners from London temporarily. Silas soon
educated them. My cook, Timbs, was an honest chap, and understood
English fare. He seemed hardly ever to eat, and never sat down to a
meal; he lived principally on beer, drank enough of it to frighten you,
and was apparently never the worse for it. And a butcher who tried to
send him second-quality meat was certain of finding out his mistake.

The only other man I brought with me was young Harry Bryden. He always
called me uncle, but as a matter of fact he was no relation of mine. He
was the son of an old friend. His parents died when he was seven years
old and left him to me. It was about all they had to leave. At this time
he was twenty-two, and was making himself useful. There was nothing
which he was not willing to do, and he could do most things. He would
mark at billiards, and played a good game himself. He had run the
kitchen when the cook was away on his holiday. He had driven the
station-omnibus when the driver was drunk one night. He understood
book-keeping, and when I got a clerk who was a wrong 'un, he was on to
him at once and saved me money. It was my intention to make him take his
proper place more when I got to the Regency; for he was to succeed me
when I died. He was clever, and not bad-looking in a gipsy-faced kind of
way. Nobody is perfect, and Harry was a cigarette-maniac. He began when
he was a boy, and I didn't spare the stick when I caught him at it. But
nothing I could say or do made any difference; at twenty-two he was old
enough and big enough to have his own way, and his way was to smoke
cigarettes eternally. He was a bundle of nerves, and got so jumpy
sometimes that some people thought he drank, though he had never in his
life tasted liquor. He inherited his nerves from his mother, but I
daresay the cigarettes made them worse.

I took Harry down with me when I first thought of taking the place. He
went over it with me and made a lot of useful suggestions. The old
proprietor had died eighteen months before, and the widow had tried to
run it for herself and made a mess of it. She had just sense enough to
clear out before things got any worse. She was very anxious to go, and I
thought that might have been the reason why the price was so low.

The billiard-room was an annexe to the house, with no rooms over it. We
were told that it wasn't used once in a twelvemonth, but we took a look
at it--we took a look at everything. The room had got a very neglected
look about it. I sat down on the platform--tired with so much walking
and standing--and Harry whipped the cover off the table. "This was the
one they had in the Ark," he said.

There was not a straight cue in the rack, the balls were worn and
untrue, the jigger was broken. Harry pointed to the board. "Look at
that, uncle," he said. "Noah had made forty-eight; Ham was doing nicely
at sixty-six; and then the Flood came and they never finished." From
neatness and force of habit he moved over and turned the score back.
"You'll have to spend some money here. My word, if they put the whole
lot in at a florin we're swindled." As we came out Harry gave a shiver.
"I wouldn't spend a night in there," he said, "not for a five-pound
note."

His nerves always made me angry. "That's a very silly thing to say," I
told him. "Who's going to ask you to sleep in a billiard-room?"

Then he got a bit more practical, and began to calculate how much I
should have to spend to make a bright, up-to-date billiard-room of it.
But I was still angry.

"You needn't waste your time on that," I said, "because the place will
stop as it is. You heard what Mrs Parker said--that it wasn't used once
in a twelvemonth. I don't want to attract all the loafers in Tanslowe
into my house. Their custom's worth nothing, and I'd sooner be without
it. Time enough to put that room right if I find my staying visitors
want it, and people who've been on the river all day are mostly too
tired for a game after dinner."

Harry pointed out that it sometimes rained, and there was the winter to
think about. He had always got plenty to say, and what he said now had
sense in it. But I never go chopping and changing about, and I had made
my mind up. So I told him he had got to learn how to manage the house,
and not to waste half his time over the billiard-table. I had a good
deal done to the rest of the house in the way of redecorating and
improvements, but I never touched the annexe.

The next time I saw the room was the day after we moved in. I was
alone, and I thought it certainly did look a dingy hole as compared with
the rest of the house. Then my eye happened to fall on the board, and it
still showed sixty-six--forty-eight, as it had done when I entered the
room with Harry three months before. I altered the board myself this
time. To me it was only a funny coincidence; another game had been
played there and had stopped exactly at the same point. But I was glad
Harry was not with me, for it was the kind of thing that would have made
him jumpier than ever.

It was the summer time and we soon had something to do. I had been told
that motor-cars had cut into the river trade a good deal; so I laid
myself out for the motorist. Tanslowe was just a nice distance for a run
from town before lunch. It was all in the old-fashioned style, but there
was plenty of choice and the stuff was good; and my wine-list was worth
consideration. Prices were high, but people will pay when they are
pleased with the way they are treated. Motorists who had been once came
again and sent their friends. Saturday to Monday we had as much as ever
we could do, and more than I had ever meant to do. But I am built like
that--once I am in a shop I have got to run it for all it's worth.

I had been there about a month, and it was about the height of our
season, when one night, for no reason that I could make out, I couldn't
get to sleep. I had turned in, tired enough, at half-past ten, leaving
Harry to shut up and see the lights out, and at a quarter past twelve I
was still awake. I thought to myself that a pint of stout and a biscuit
might be the cure for that. So I lit my candle and went down to the bar.
The gas was out on the staircase and in the passages, and all was quiet.
The door into the bar was locked, but I had thought to bring my pass-key
with me. I had just drawn my tankard of stout when I heard a sound that
made me put the tankard down and listen again.

The billiard-room door was just outside in the passage, and there could
not be the least doubt that a game was going on. I could hear the
click-click of the balls as plainly as possible. It surprised me a
little, but it did not startle me. We had several staying in the house,
and I supposed two of them had fancied a game. All the time that I was
drinking the stout and munching my biscuit the game went on--click,
click-click, click. Everybody has heard the sound hundreds of times
standing outside the glass-pannelled door of a billiard-room and waiting
for the stroke before entering. No other sound is quite like it.

Suddenly the sound ceased. The game was over. I had nothing on but my
pyjamas and a pair of slippers, and I thought I would get upstairs again
before the players came out. I did not want to stand there shivering and
listening to complaints about the table. I locked the bar, and took a
glance at the billiard-room door as I was about to pass it. What I saw
made me stop short. The glass panels of the door were as black as my
Sunday hat, except where they reflected the light of my candle. The
room, then, was not lit up, and people do not play billiards in the
dark. After a second or two I tried the handle. The door was locked. It
was the only door to the room.

I said to myself: "I'll go on back to bed. It must have been my fancy,
and there was nobody playing billiards at all." I moved a step away, and
then I said to myself again: "I know perfectly well that a game _was_
being played. I'm only making excuses because I'm in a funk."

That settled it. Having driven myself to it, I moved pretty quickly. I
shoved in my pass-key, opened the door, and said "Anybody there?" in a
moderately loud voice that sounded somehow like another man's. I am very
much afraid that I should have jumped if there had come any answer to my
challenge, but all was silent. I took a look round. The cover was on the
table. An old screen was leaning against it; it had been put there to be
out of the way. As I moved my candle the shadows of things slithered
across the floor and crept up the walls. I noticed that the windows were
properly fastened, and then, as I held my candle high, the
marking-board seemed to jump out of the darkness. The score recorded
was sixty-six--forty-eight.

I shut the door, locked it again, and went up to my room. I did these
things slowly and deliberately, but I was frightened and I was puzzled.
One is not at one's best in the small hours.

The next morning I tackled Silas.

"Silas," I said, "what do you do when gentlemen ask for the
billiard-room?"

"Well, sir," said Silas, "I put them off if I can. Mr Harry directed me
to, the place being so much out of order."

"Quite so," I said. "And when you can't put them off?"

"Then they just try it, sir, and the table puts them off. It's very bad.
There's been no game played there since we came."

"Curious," I said. "I thought I heard a game going on last night."

"I've heard it myself, sir, several times. There being no light in the
room, I've put it down to a loose ventilator. The wind moves it and it
clicks."

"That'll be it," I said. Five minutes later I had made sure that there
was no loose ventilator in the billiard-room. Besides, the sound of one
ball striking another is not quite like any other sound. I also went up
to the board and turned the score back, which I had omitted to do the
night before. Just then Harry passed the door on his way from the bar,
with a cigarette in his mouth as usual. I called him in.

"Harry," I said, "give me thirty, and I'll play you a hundred up for a
sovereign. You can tell one of the girls to fetch our cues from
upstairs."

Harry took his cigarette out of his mouth and whistled. "What, uncle!"
he said. "Well, you're going it, I don't think. What would you have said
to me if I'd asked you for a game at ten in the morning?"

"Ah!" I said, "but this is all in the way of business. I can't see much
wrong with the table, and if I can play on it, then other people may.
There's a chance to make a sovereign for you anyhow. You've given me
forty-five and a beating before now."

"No, uncle," he said, "I wouldn't give you thirty. I wouldn't give you
one. The table's not playable. Luck would win against Roberts on it."

He showed me the faults of the thing and said he was busy. So I told him
if he liked to lose the chance of making a sovereign he could.

"I hate that room," he said, as we came out. "It's not too clean, and it
smells like a vault."

"It smells a lot better than your cigarettes," I said.

For the next six weeks we were all busy, and I gave little thought to
the billiard-room. Once or twice I heard old Silas telling a customer
that he could not recommend the table, and that the whole room was to
be redecorated and refitted as soon as we got the estimates. "You see,
sir, we've only been here a little while, and there hasn't been time to
get everything as we should like it quite yet."

One day Mrs Parker, the woman who had the Regency before me, came down
from town to see how we were getting on. I showed the old lady round,
pointed out my improvements, and gave her a bit of lunch in my office.

"Well, now," I said, as she sipped her glass of port afterwards, "I'm
not complaining of my bargain, but isn't the billiard-room a bit queer?"

"It surprises me," she said, "that you've left it as it is. Especially
with everything else going ahead, and the yard half full of motors. I
should have taken it all down myself if I'd stopped. That iron roof's
nothing but an eyesore, and you might have a couple of beds of geraniums
there and improve the look of your front."

"Let's see," I said. "What was the story about that billiard-room?"

"What story do you mean?" she said, looking at me suspiciously.

"The same one you're thinking of," I said.

"About that man, Josiah Ham?"

"That's it."

"Well, I shouldn't worry about that if I were you. That was all thirty
years ago, and I doubt if there's a soul in Tanslowe knows it now. Best
forgotten, I say. Talk of that kind doesn't do a hotel any good. Why,
how did you come to hear of it?"

"That's just it," I said. "The man who told me was none too clear. He
gave me a hint of it. He was an old commercial passing through, and had
known the place in the old days. Let's hear your story and see if it
agrees with his."

But I had told my fibs to no purpose. The old lady seemed a bit
flustered. "If you don't mind, Mr Sanderson, I'd rather not speak of
it."

I thought I knew what was troubling her. I filled her glass and my own.
"Look here," I said. "When you sold the place to me it was a fair deal.
You weren't called upon to go thirty years back, and no reasonable man
would expect it. I'm satisfied. Here I am, and here I mean to stop, and
twenty billiard-rooms wouldn't drive me away. I'm not complaining. But,
just as a matter of curiosity, I'd like to hear your story."

"What's your trouble with the room?"

"Nothing to signify. But there's a game played there and marked
there--and I can't find the players, and it's never finished. It stops
always at sixty-six--forty-eight."

She gave a glance over her shoulder. "Pull the place down," she said.
"You can afford to do it, and I couldn't." She finished her port. "I
must be going, Mr Sanderson. There's rain coming on, and I don't want to
sit in the train in my wet things. I thought I would just run down to
see how you were getting on, and I'm sure I'm glad to see the old place
looking up again."

I tried again to get the story out of her, but she ran away from it. She
had not got the time, and it was better not to speak of such things. I
did not worry her about it much, as she seemed upset over it.

I saw her across to the station, and just got back in time. The rain
came down in torrents. I stood there and watched it, and thought it
would do my garden a bit of good. I heard a step behind me and looked
round. A fat chap with a surly face stood there, as if he had just come
out of the coffee-room. He was the sort that might be a gentleman and
might not.

"Afternoon, sir," I said. "Nasty weather for motoring."

"It is," he said. "Not that I came in a motor. You the proprietor, Mr
Sanderson?"

"I am," I said. "Came here recently."

"I wonder if there's any chance of a game of billiards."

"I'm afraid not," I said. "Table's shocking. I'm having it all done up
afresh, and then--"

"What's it matter?" said he. "I don't care. It's something to do, and
one can't go out."

"Well," I said, "if that's the case, I'll give you a game, sir. But I'm
no flyer at it at the best of times, and I'm all out of practice now."

"I'm no good myself. No good at all. And I'd be glad of the game."

At the billiard-room door I told him I'd fetch a couple of decent cues.
He nodded and went in.

When I came back with my cue and Harry's, I found the gas lit and the
blinds drawn, and he was already knocking the balls about.

"You've been quick, sir," I said, and offered him Harry's cue. But he
refused and said he would keep the one he had taken from the rack. Harry
would have sworn if he had found that I had lent his cue to a stranger,
so I thought that was just as well. Still, it seemed to me that a man
who took a twisted cue by preference was not likely to be an expert.

The table was bad, but not so bad as Harry had made out. The luck was
all my side. I was fairly ashamed of the flukes I made, one after the
other. He said nothing, but gave a short, loud laugh once or twice--it
was a nasty-sounding laugh. I was at thirty-seven when he was nine, and
I put on eleven more at my next visit and thought I had left him
nothing.

Then the fat man woke up. He got out of his first difficulty, and after
that the balls ran right for him. He was a player, too, with plenty of
variety and resource, and I could see that I was going to take a
licking. When he had reached fifty-one, an unlucky kiss left him an
impossible position. But I miscued, and he got going again. He played
very, very carefully now, taking a lot more time for consideration than
he had done in his previous break. He seemed to have got excited over
it, and breathed hard, as fat men do when they are worked up. He had
kept his coat on, and his face shone with perspiration.

At sixty-six he was in trouble again; he walked round to see the exact
position, and chalked his cue. I watched him rather eagerly, for I did
not like the score. I hoped he would go on. His cue slid back to strike,
and then dropped with a clatter from his hand. The fat man was
gone--gone, as I looked at him, like a flame blown out, vanished into
nothing.

I staggered away from the table. I began to back slowly towards the
door, meaning to make a bolt for it. There was a click from the
scoring-board, and I saw the thing marked up. And then--I am thankful to
say--the billiard-room door opened, and I saw Harry standing there. He
was very white and shaky. Somehow, the fact that he was frightened
helped to steady me.

"Good heavens, uncle!" he gasped, "I've been standing outside. What's
the matter? What's happened?"

"Nothing's the matter," I said sharply. "What are you shivering about?"
I swished back the curtain, and sent up the blind with a snap. The rain
was over now, and the sun shone in through the wet glass--I was glad of
it.

"I thought I heard voices--laughing--somebody called the score."

I turned out the gas. "Well," I said, "this table's enough to make any
man laugh, when it don't make him swear. I've been trying your game of
one hand against another, and I daresay I called the score out loud.
It's no catch--not even for a wet afternoon. I'm not both-handed, like
the apes and Harry Bryden."

Harry is as good with the left hand as the right, and a bit proud of it.
I slid my own cue back into its case. Then, whistling a bit of a tune, I
picked up the stranger's cue, which I did not like to touch. I
nearly dropped it again when I saw the initials "J.H." on the butt.
"Been trying the cues," I said, as I put it in the rack. He looked at me
as if he were going to ask more questions. So I put him on to something
else. "We've not got enough cover for those motor-cars," I said. "Lucky
we hadn't got many here in this rain. There's plenty of room for another
shed, and it needn't cost much. Go and see what you can make of it. I'll
come out directly, but I've got to talk to that girl in the bar first."

He went off, looking rather ashamed of his tremors.

I had not really very much to say to Miss Hesketh in the bar. I put
three fingers of whisky in a glass and told her to put a dash of soda on
the top of it. That was all. It was a full-sized drink and did me good.

Then I found Harry in the yard. He was figuring with pencil on the back
of an envelope. He was always pretty smart where there was anything
practical to deal with. He had spotted where the shed was to go, and he
was finding what it would cost at a rough estimate.

"Well," I said, "if I went on with that idea of mine about the
flower-beds it needn't cost much beyond the labour."

"What idea?"

"You've got a head like a sieve. Why, carrying on the flower-beds round
the front where the billiard-room now stands. If we pulled that down it
would give us all the materials we want for the new motor-shed. The
roofing's sound enough, for I was up yesterday looking into it."

"Well, I don't think you mentioned it to me, but it's a rare good idea."

"I'll think about it," I said.

That evening my cook, Timbs, told me he'd be sorry to leave me, but he
was afraid he'd find the place too slow for him--not enough doing. Then
old Silas informed me that he hadn't meant to retire so early, but he
wasn't sure--the place was livelier than he had expected, and there
would be more work than he could get through. I asked no questions. I
knew the billiard-room was somehow or other at the bottom of it, and so
it turned out. In three days' time the workmen were in the house and
bricking up the billiard-room door; and after that Timbs and old Silas
found the Regency suited them very well after all. And it was not just
to oblige Harry, or Timbs, or Silas that I had the alteration made. That
unfinished game was in my mind; I had played it, and wanted never to
play it again. It was of no use for me to tell myself that it had all
been a delusion, for I knew better. My health was good, and I had no
delusions. I had played it with Josiah Ham--with the lost soul of Josiah
Ham--and that thought filled me not with fear, but with a feeling of
sickness and disgust.

It was two years later that I heard the story of Josiah Ham, and it was
not from old Mrs Parker. An old tramp came into the saloon bar begging,
and Miss Hesketh was giving him the rough side of her tongue.

"Nice treatment!" said the old chap. "Thirty years ago I worked here,
and made good money, and was respected, and now it's insults."

And then I struck in. "What did you do here?" I asked.

"Waited at table and marked at billiards."

"Till you took to drink?" I said.

"Till I resigned from a strange circumstance."

I sent him out of the bar, and took him down the garden, saying I'd find
him an hour or two's work. "Now, then," I said, as soon as I had got him
alone, "what made you leave?"

He looked at me curiously. "I expect you know, sir," he said.
"Sixty-six. Unfinished."

And then he told me of a game played in that old billiard-room on a wet
summer afternoon thirty years before. He, the marker, was one of the
players. The other man was a commercial traveller, who used the house
pretty regularly. "A fat man, ugly-looking, with a nasty laugh. Josiah
Ham his name was. He was at sixty-six when he got himself into a tight
place. He moved his ball--did it when he thought I wasn't looking. But I
saw it in the glass, and I told him of it. He got very angry. He said he
wished he might be struck dead if he ever touched the ball."

The old tramp stopped. "I see," I said.

"They said it was apoplexy. It's known to be dangerous for fat men to
get very angry. But I'd had enough of it before long. I cleared out, and
so did the rest of the servants."

"Well," I said, "we're not so superstitious nowadays. And what brought
you down in the world?"

"It would have driven any man to it," he said. "And once the habit is
formed--well, it's there."

"If you keep off it I can give you a job weeding for three days."

He did not want the work. He wanted a shilling, and he got it; and I saw
to it that he did not spend it in my house.

We have got a very nice billiard-room upstairs now. Two new tables and
everything ship-shape. You may find Harry there most evenings. It is all
right. But I have never taken to billiards again myself.

And where the old billiard-room was there are flower-beds. The pansies
that grow there have got funny markings--like figures.




SPARKLING BURGUNDY


In London a day in mid-August drew to its close. The air was motionless,
the pavements were hot. Weary children came home with the perambulator
from the sand-pit of Regent's Park or the playground of Kensington
Gardens. Young men from the city wore straw hats and thronged the
outside of motor-omnibuses. Oxford Street, that singularly striving
street, was still striving, still exhibiting some of its numerous
activities. Starting from a humble and Holborn origin, it lives to touch
the lips of Park Lane, but it goes to Bayswater when it dies. It was
still protesting that it was not tired and still crowded with traffic.
Irregular masses of buildings and heavy dusty trees stood out darkly
against a sky of fainting lettuce colour. Young Mrs Bablove noticed them
as she came out of the Tube station, drawing her cloak round her
unwonted evening-dress. "Yes," said her husband, as she called his
attention to the effect. "Striking." It was scarcely a minute's walk
from the station to the Restaurant Merveilleux, where they were to be
the guests of Mr Albert Carver.

The Restaurant Merveilleux does its best. It has an arc-lamp and a
medium-sized commissionaire. It bears its name proudly in gilt letters a
foot and a half high. In the entrance are bay trees in green tubs and a
framed bill of our celebrated _diner du jour_ at half-a-crown. Within
are little tables brightly appointed and many electric lights. A
mahogany screen is carved with challenging pine-apples and grapes, and
against it is a table for six. Mr Carver had reserved this table. Yet
somehow one gets the correct impression that this is a small
eating-house under Italian proprietorship.

The occasion of the little dinner given by this bachelor and _viveur_
was the engagement of Ada Bunting to Harold Simcox. Albert Carver had
received much hospitality from Miss Bunting's parents. He had as nearly
as possible got engaged to Miss Bunting himself, and now knew what the
condemned man feels like who is unexpectedly reprieved. Miss Bunting and
Mr Simcox were the guests of importance. She was lymphatic and
pale-haired; her future husband was smaller and a shade shorter than
she. He concentrated on politeness, and made anyone to whom he spoke
feel like a possible customer. As for Mr and Mrs Bablove, Mr Albert
Carver had always intended to ask them, if he ever asked anybody. He
frankly admired young Mrs Bablove, and said so, and was slightly pleased
when this created surprise and it was suggested that she was hardly his
type. It seemed to imply that Mr Carver was a problem, and this was
subtly flattering to Mr Carver--who, if a problem, was singularly
soluble. It is true none the less that the women whom Albert Carver
admired were mostly fleshy and exuberant. Mrs Bablove looked like an
angel who had gone into domestic service--a soul in servitude. She had
to make a just-sufficient income suffice, and as she was devoted to her
husband and her two little boys she did a good deal of work herself. She
had a sweet and rather childish nature, was not without some true
æsthetic perception, and under less stringent limitations might have
developed further. Mr Bablove, a very quiet and prosaic man, who wore
spectacles only when he was reading, made about the same income as Mr
Carver. They both held responsible positions in the same firm. They both
lived in the same street in the Shepherd's Bush neighbourhood. But Mr
Bablove's income had to provide for a household, and Mr Albert Carver's
income was all ear-marked for Mr Albert Carver. There was less splendour
in Mr Bablove's house than in Mr Carver's wicked flat with the hookah
(from the cut-price tobacconist) standing on the low inlaid table and
the French photogravure of a bathing subject over the mantelpiece.

The remaining guest was Miss Adela Holmes. She was beautiful and looked
Oriental. Her movements (after office-hours) were slow and very
graceful. Her voice was soft and languorous; her eyes also spoke. During
the day she was the third quickest typist in London, and ran her own
office strictly on business lines. Mr Carver in his light way would
sometimes call her "Nirvana"; he was convinced that this was an Eastern
term of endearment, and, though an allusion to her appearance,
permissible in a platonic friend who had known her for years.

Mr Carver surveyed his little party with pleasure. It was not the
celebrated half-crown dinner that was being served for this Lucullus; it
was the rich man's alternative--the _diner de luxe_ at four-and-six. Mr
Carver always said that if he did a thing at all he liked to do it well.
He was a man of middle stature and middle age. His hair was very black
and intensely smooth. His face suggested a commercial Napoleon. He was
dressed with some elaboration; pink coral buttons constrained his white
waistcoat over a slight protuberance. Other diners at other tables were
not so dressed--not dressed for the evening at all. One blackguard had
entered in a suit of flannels and a straw hat. But other tables had not
the profusion of smilax and carnations which graced the table reserved
for Mr Carver's party. A paper simulation of chrysanthemums was good
enough for the half-crowners. How could they expect the eager attendance
given to Mr Carver's party? The frock-coated proprietor hovered near the
mahogany screen. The head-waiter, at a side-table, took the neck of a
bottle of sparkling burgundy between his dusky hands and caused it to
rotate vigorously in the ice-pail. This does not really make that
curious wine any the worse. Another waiter handed up for Mr Carver's
approval the _chef's_ attempt to make a lobster look like a sunset on
the Matterhorn.

"Looks almost too good to eat," said Adela Holmes, drowsily.

Mr Carver laughed joyously. "Think so, Nirvana? Well, we'll try it."

The wonder had not yet quite gone out of the soft brown eyes of Dora
Bablove. This was luxury indeed. It was a new way of living that she had
never known; in the course of her married life she had dined out very
rarely, and never after this manner. Somehow she felt as if she was not
Dora Bablove at all.

The proprietor made a suggestion to Mr Carver. "Good idea, signor," said
Mr Carver. "You'd like an electric fan, Mrs Bablove, wouldn't you?"

It was done in a moment. An electric lamp was taken out, and something
plugged in its place. A gentle whirr, with a hint of an aeroplane in it.
A cool breeze that fluttered the pendent smilax.

"I think you're being very well looked after," said Mrs Bablove,
timidly.

"You've got it," said Mr Carver, with conviction. "That's just the
advantage of a little place like this. I'm here pretty often, and the
signor knows me; and--oh, well, I daresay he thinks it worth his while
to keep my custom. I assure you I get an amount of personal attention
here that I never get at the Ritz." As Mr Carver had never been to the
Ritz this is credible.

"I like being looked after," said Mrs Bablove. "I like to think that so
many people are taking so much trouble to please me."

"I should think--er--that that must always happen," said the polite Mr
Simcox on her other side.

"Not a bit," laughed Dora. "As a rule, I take all the trouble. Ask Teddy
if I don't."

But nobody asked Teddy. Mr Bablove was discussing palmistry with Miss
Bunting, who thought there might be something in it, and with Miss
Holmes, who was quite expert and offered to read his hand.

Mr Carver said, in his whimsical way, that he thought Mrs Bablove should
drink and forget it. He watched her as she touched with her full lips
the magenta foam in her glass. He had never seen Mrs Bablove in a low
dress before; certainly she had a charm. The conversation grew animated.
The question of London in August was settled. London empty? Not a bit of
it. That was the old idea. Why, this year, with the House sitting, half
the best people were still in London. You could walk through Mayfair and
see for yourself.

Mrs Bablove was not deeply interested in the question. She knew that
Teddy and Mr Carter would take their holidays just when the firm
decided. She was more interested in the people in the room. The
blackguard in the flannel suit had finished his lager and had attempted
to light a pipe; it had been politely explained to him that pipes were
not permissible. At a little table in the corner were a man with a
saturnine face and a very young girl in red. They drank champagne,
talked low and confidentially, and paid no attention to anybody. Dora
Bablove had strayed into a world previously unexplored by her.

More and more the conviction came on her that the Dora who was
unwrapping the vine-leaf from the fat quail on her plate was not the
Dora who had been married six years, who looked after her two little
boys so well, who mended, and cleaned, and did rather clever things with
the rest of the cold mutton. She was for the moment a woman untrammelled
by circumstances. She delighted in it, enjoyed it desperately, and was
half afraid of it. Had this Dora quite the same ideas about--well, about
what was right?

The girl in red had lit a cigarette now, and she was getting rather
angry with the man who was with her. Dora thought he was making her
angry on purpose. She wondered why. She asked Mr Carver.

Mr Carver shook his head. A mistake to make the ladies angry--that was
what he always thought. But some of them had tempers. Now--well, he
mustn't say that.

"Oh, go on, you must," said Dora.

"Well, I was only going to say that appearances are deceptive. You look
at first sight as if you had the most placid nature in the world. But I
think you could get angry, Mrs Bablove--very angry."

"Oh, no. Quite wrong. Whatever makes you think that?"

"There's a look in the eyes sometimes. Oh, I assure you it makes me very
careful," laughed Mr Carver. "Frightens me. Now, really, Mrs Bablove,
you must have a little yellow Chartreuse with your coffee."

But Mrs Bablove was resolute in her refusal. She did not care in the
least about such things. She had drunk one glass of the sparkling
burgundy, not to be out of the picture, and after that had sipped iced
water. At the other end of the table "Nirvana" was saying that she
didn't see why she shouldn't--two other women in the room had set the
example. And with that she accepted a cigarette from Mr Bablove's silver
case. The smoke wandered gently through the smilax plantation, and left
hurriedly when it met the electric fan.

And now Mr Simcox had to take Miss Bunting home, for Miss Bunting lived
in remote Wimbledon and in an early household, and the privilege of the
latch-key was not accorded to her. Mr Simcox, who had not refused the
yellow Chartreuse or anything else, was slightly flushed and more polite
than ever. He assured his host that it had been the pleasantest evening
of his life and he should never forget it. Even the lymphatic Miss
Bunting had become quite animated. At the beginning of the dinner they
had maintained towards one another a pre-concerted air of dignified
reserve, but that was now quite broken down.

Mr Carver rose to see them to their cab. "And if anybody else tries to
go," he said to the rest of his guests, "I shall lose my temper."

"Might have got a box at one of the halls if I'd thought about it," said
Mr Carver on his return. It was a well-meant effort of the imagination.
He might, but it would have been unlike him.

"Much pleasanter where we are," said Miss Holmes, languorously.
"Performances always bore me."

"Ah, well, Nirvana," said Mr Carver, "so long as you're pleased--"

Miss Holmes turned again to Mr Bablove. His wife hoped that Teddy was
not being too prosaic. From a word or two she caught she knew he was
talking politics. But Miss Holmes did not look bored. Perhaps she was
interested in politics too.

"Why do you call her Nirvana?" Mrs Bablove asked, dropping her voice a
little. But the couple at the further end of the table were absorbed in
their talk now and taking no notice of what the others were saying.

"Why do I call her Nirvana? Because she looks like a gipsy. She does,
doesn't she?"

Mr Carver's fruity voice had also become discreet.

"I don't know. I think she looks charming."

"Do you?" said Mr Carver. "I'd like to talk to you about that. Not
now--presently." He knew the value of a slight hint of mystery. "Have a
cigarette now, Mrs Bablove?"

"Thanks. I think I will."

"Why wouldn't you smoke before?" he asked as he lit the cigarette for
her.

"Too many people. The room's nearly empty now. I'm not so brave
as--Nirvana."

"I don't think you quite know what you are. You're full of
possibilities."

"I like these cigarettes," said Dora. "Teddy gives me one sometimes,
though I don't often smoke, but his are not quite so nice as these."

Mr Carver became informative on the subject of Turkish tobacco, but with
the information he wove much which was personal. It appeared that it was
Mr Carver's ambition to leave business and London and to spend the rest
of his life in Japan.

"I thought you were devoted to London," said Mrs Bablove. "What you say
rather surprises me."

"I surprise myself sometimes," said Mr Carver, darkly.

A little later all rose to go.

A hansom was waiting just outside, and Mr Carver began to organise
briskly.

"Will you take Miss Holmes in that cab, Teddy? It's scarcely two
minutes out of your way. I'll bring Mrs Bablove in the next cab."

Mr Carver took it all for granted, and it was done as he suggested. The
next cab was a taxi.

"We shall be home before them," laughed Dora as she got into the cab.
"By the way, Mr Carver, what were you going to tell me about Nirvana?"

And presently Mr Carver was saying why Miss Holmes could not seem
charming when Dora Bablove was present. He compared them in some detail.
"I don't think you know enough about yourself," he said. "That delicious
mouth of yours!"

       *       *       *       *       *

When they reached Mrs Bablove's house Dora did not ask Mr Carver to come
in. She thanked him and said good-night rather briefly. She switched on
the light in the hall, ran upstairs to see that her two little boys were
safely asleep, and came down to the dining-room to wait for her husband.

She poured out a glass of water and drank it. Then she sat quite still
in the easy-chair with her head in her hands. What was she to do? What
on earth was she to do? A man had kissed her on the lips--a man who was
not her husband. She had let him do it. She thought--she hardly
knew--that her lips had answered to his. Such a thing had never happened
to her before. She was wide awake now. But surely in the cab she must
have been half asleep.

She had leaned back with her eyes half-closed, suffused with a pleasant
warmth and tiredness, and had heard his caressing voice praising her as
she had never before been praised. She had not guessed that he thought
so much of her--that he admired her so much. Then as he spoke of the
beauty of her hands, he took one of her hands in his. She knew what
would come, and was without any power to prevent it. She had seen his
face come near to her own and--no, she would tell the truth to herself.
For a moment she had gone mad and let herself go completely. She had
wanted to be kissed, and as she felt his lips upon her own her kiss had
met his.

True, the next moment she had recovered herself; she chatted gaily, was
merely amused when Mr Carver would have been sentimental, and would not
let him get near her. Her one reference to what had happened was as the
cab neared her own door. She said, "You know what you did when I had
fallen asleep. Never try to do it again. And never speak of it to me. I
couldn't forgive it twice, you know. To-night I've--I made some
allowance for--well, here we are. I must get out."

She was not troubled about Mr Carver. She had told him that she was
asleep, and had implied that he was under the influence of wine. She
felt that she could always manage Mr Carver.

But what about Teddy? He must never, never know. It was one little
slip, one moment of madness, and it would never happen again. It would
be wicked to let Teddy know and to make him wretched.

On the other hand, if she did not tell him, how was she to quiet the
voice of conscience? What became of their mutual confidence? She felt
that she could never be happy again until she had told all and been
forgiven.

She took the thing tragically. She saw the whole of her own happiness
and Teddy's happiness ruined by that one moment of madness and the
future of the little boys seriously imperilled. She was just wondering
who, in the event of a separation, would have the custody of the
children, when she heard the sound of Teddy's hansom as it stopped at
the door.

What on earth was she to do? She could never face him. She would just
burst into tears and tell him everything.

But she found herself quite unable to carry out this decision. Teddy
looked so cheerful. He talked more than usual. How had she liked it? A
rare good dinner, it seemed to him. And she had been by far the
prettiest woman there. He had felt proud of her.

She smiled sadly, and said that he was prejudiced. "And how did you get
on with Miss Holmes?"

"Oh, all right. The trouble with her is that she's rather affected, and
affectation is just one of those things that I can't stand."

If only for one moment he would take his eyes off her. She felt
distraught. She hardly knew what she was saying. She observed that
sparkling Burgundy seemed rather a heady wine. He hastened to agree with
her.

"I didn't take much of it. To tell the truth, it's not a wine I ever met
before, and the taste seemed to me rather funny. I'd sooner have a
whisky-and-soda any day."

"Have one now. Do. Why not? I'll run up to bed because I'm so tired. I
daresay I shall be asleep by the time you come."

"Oh, I shan't be long," said Teddy, and Dora managed to get out of the
room without being kissed.

The moment she had gone Teddy's cheerfulness vanished. He mixed himself
a very stiff whisky-and-soda, and sipped gloomily, staring at the dead
cigarette between his fingers.

Dora panted as she undressed. Tragedy seemed to be choking her. She
hurried into bed. When Teddy came up she pretended to be asleep, but she
got little sleep that night.

       *       *       *       *       *

Two days had passed and Dora had not spoken. There were dark lines under
her eyes, and she seldom smiled. Teddy, always kind, had been kinder to
her than ever. He said complimentary things to her. Every evening he
brought her fruit from the city, because she liked fruit; it was
expensive fruit too. And every kind word or act seemed to cut her heart
like a knife. She felt so unworthy of devotion. The position was
unendurable, and on the third morning as they rose from breakfast she
suddenly determined to end it there and then--to tell him everything and
throw herself on his mercy.

"I want to speak to you for a minute before you go to the city," she
said. "Will you come into the drawing-room?"

"Very well," said Teddy.

In the drawing-room she found that she was shaking all over and had to
sit down. She was thinking how she would begin, when she heard a hollow
voice say, "Wait. You need say nothing." It was Teddy's voice.

"What do you mean?" she asked in a choked whisper.

"Do you think I haven't seen?" said Teddy, almost fiercely. "You guessed
it somehow when I came into the house that night. I suppose a bad
conscience gives itself away. I thought you knew when you asked me how I
got on with Miss Holmes. These last two days you've been upset. You've
not been yourself. And that of course made me certain you knew. Only let
me tell you how I came to do it."

"Yes," said Dora, with great self-possession, "tell me that."

"Well, she was talking about the loneliness of her life. It was as much
pity as anything. And the cab was going down a dark street at the time.
Mind, I only kissed her once. And the moment I did it I--I was ashamed
of myself. You don't know what I've been through."

Dora thought she did, but she said nothing.

"I swear that I care for no woman in the world but you, Dora. I'm
awfully sorry I've hurt you like this. Can you ever forgive me?"

Dora rose, and placed both hands on his shoulders. "Could you have
forgiven me," she said, "if I had let a man kiss me?"

He paused a moment. "Yes, Dora," he said, "I think so."

Her face was like the face of an angel. "Then, Teddy dear, I forgive you
absolutely. We will never speak of this again. And it will never happen
again, will it?"

"Never," said the repentant sinner, and kissed her.

Mrs Bablove sang happily as she helped to make the beds that morning.

And they never did speak of it again. Once, two years later--this was
after poor Aunt Mary had been called to her rest and the Babloves had
become prosperous in consequence--Teddy gave it as his opinion that
there was only one sparkling wine worth consideration and that wine was
champagne. Dora cordially agreed with him, but changed the subject
rapidly.




THE ACT OF HEROISM


I

Do not go outside your part, for whatever part in life you may be cast.
If you are Nature's low comedian, do not usurp the business of the hero.
Hear the plain story of Alfred Smithers, who stood five foot eight, had
sandy hair and an apologetic eye, earned four pounds a week by
book-keeping, and was a good husband until by the merest chance he was
led into the paths of heroism.

Chance plays the devil at times. Emily Trimmins, housemaid by profession
and hysterical by nature, found that the postman was walking out with
another lady. Consulting her recollection of penny romances she saw that
suicide was clearly indicated. The relics of sense which distinguish
hysteria from madness made her choose the manner of her suicide. She
went up on to the Heath one afternoon and flung herself into a pond, in
the presence of several philosophical male loafers, one emotional
nursemaid, and two fat-headed children. Her last thought as she entered
the water was which of the male loafers would pull her out again.

The first loafer said that was as silly an act as ever he saw, and he
should be moving home. The second loafer observed that something ought
to be done at once. The third called for help. The fourth said the
police were never there when they were wanted.

The emotional nursemaid sat down at once on the grass, removed her hat,
unhooked her dress at the neck, fanned herself with a handkerchief, and
said, "Oh! that _has_ give me a turn!"

The two fat-headed children cried, "Ain't that funny? Nurse, make her
come out and do it again. Nurse, ain't that funny? Nurse, make her come
out and do it again." _Da capo._

And at this moment chance--playing the devil as aforesaid--brought upon
the scene Alfred Smithers, who had fished the pond and believed the
depth nowhere exceeded three feet, who saw a policeman with a coil of
rope under his arm rapidly approaching, who observed that he had an
audience and was accordingly inspirited.

"Go in from where you are!" shouted the second loafer. "Don't waste time
thinking abart it." Smithers removed his silk hat and frock-coat.

"That's couridge! That's a man!" screamed the emotional nursemaid.

That settled it. With a stentorian cry of "Stand back, there!" to the
two fat-headed children--a cry which was not needed, but inserted by way
of trimming--Smithers jumped feet foremost. There was a mighty splash.
When it subsided, Smithers was observed standing in the pond, the water
reaching up to the terminals of his string-mended braces.

The two children rolled over and over on the grass in fits of
inextinguishable laughter. It was a good afternoon; they had had nothing
quite so good since the pantomime.

"Don't wait for her to come up," roared the second loafer. "Dive. That's
what you've got to do."

"I know what to do all right," replied Smithers, who, as a matter of
fact, didn't. He took one step forward, and incontinently vanished down
a fifteen-foot hole, of the existence of which, though he had fished
that pond, he had previously been unaware.

As he was going down the hole he met Emily Trimmins coming up. She
paused and soldered herself firmly on to as much of Smithers as she
could reach. He trod water very fast and very furiously, like a child
stamping its feet on the nursery floor because it mayn't begin tea cake
first. He lashed out hard and indiscriminately with both hands, and
might have succeeded in scraping off most of the half-drowned lady, but
that he found in his struggles they had both become entangled and tied
together by a rope. He could remember no prayer but the grace after
meat, which he repeated to himself fervently. Then he gave up. His
breath exploded into the green jelly. He gave one more kick, and lost
his interest in things.

In the meantime the policeman, assisted by the loafers, was pulling hard
at the other end of the rope, and brought to bank a job lot of mixed
scarecrows. Those being sorted out on the grass proved to be one moiety
Smithers and one moiety Trimmins. The treatment of the apparently
drowned was then proceeded with energetically, to the great satisfaction
of a considerable number of spectators. They had gathered in a moment.

Smithers came to himself, feeling ill but magnificent, and assured the
policeman that he was all right. He was not much to look at at the
moment, yet everywhere he felt the admiring gaze upon him. "Bravo!"
exclaimed an old gentleman. A very chorus of bravos followed, in which
the policeman and the doctor, who was busy with Emily Trimmins, joined
enthusiastically. Oh, it was good. It was very joyous.

"You done splendid, sir," said the policeman; "the way you just managed
to grab the end of the rope as you went down the hole to fetch her up
was very smart. You must be pretty quick and neat with your hands, and
pretty cool and collected too, for I daresay she give a lot of trouble
when you got 'er."

"Well, you see," said Smithers, indulgently, "she'd quite lost her
head."

"And yet you managed to get the rope under her armpits, tied a good
knot, and wound the slack twice round yourself! And it couldn't have
been done quicker if you had been on dry land, instead of under water
and 'ampered by the woman."

Emily Trimmins was by this time so far recovered as to be ripe for
removal in a four-wheeler, with a policeman on the box. She did not look
pretty. Her hair had come down, and something had happened to her nose.
It was suggested that she had struck it in entering the water. Alfred
Smithers remembered at an early stage of the struggle he had kicked
something; it was not worth mentioning. He took, under advice, another
drop of the brandy, and was driven home. The crowd cheered.

Mrs Smithers was a woman of some energy. Smithers was wrapped in hot
blankets and tucked away in bed in no time. He had a hot-water bottle at
his feet, and steaming rum-and-water at his head. Mrs Smithers sent a
polite note to Messrs Garson & Begg to say why her husband would be
unable to be at work as usual on the following day. She threw the story
over the right-hand wall of the back-yard to Mrs Warboys, and over the
left-hand wall to the widow of the late Charles Push. In twenty minutes
the story was all over the terrace and had not shrunk. There was great
excitement, and three separate houses hoped that Mrs Smithers would look
in for a cup of tea, and would be glad if they could do anything to
help. She accepted two of the invitations, and would visit the third
house on the morrow, and would be obliged by the loan of a nutmeg, it
being necessary to keep up an internal glow after prolonged struggle in
cold water--the dare-devil had dived six times before he found the
woman--and the patient otherwise being likely to take a chill in the
vitals and die hurriedly. Then she decided to have the newspaper
cuttings framed. The medal would go on the mantelpiece, under glass.

Smithers lay upstairs, with the feeling that his head was a large lump
of dough traversed by a steam-propelled roller, but satisfied that
heroism and hot rum were both excellent. He was soon asleep.

Glory reached its flood on the following day. An offering was brought
from the mother of Emily Trimmins--a box encrusted without with small
shells and two pieces of looking-glass and lined with pink satin within.
The slip of paper which accompanied it was inscribed--"A mother's
tribute to her daughter's presserver" (_sic_). The newspapers on the
whole did well, though the _Times_ was quite outclassed in the race for
news, having but two lines to the half column of the local organ. The
magistrate cautioned Miss Trimmins with some severity, and handed her
over to the care of her mother. He said that the loafers were not men.
He referred to the intrepid courage, cool head, strength wedded with
skill, of Alfred Smithers--one of the men of whom England had good cause
to be proud.

In the course of a week the postman had explained away the other lady
and was _au mieux_ with Emily Trimmins, who, so far as this story is
concerned, may now take a seat at the back.

A considerable number of Smithers' friends were waiting, when the
magistrate had finished, to have the pleasure of shaking hands with
Smithers, and congratulating him, and so on.

And that night one of the men of whom England had good cause to be proud
went home most painfully and uncompromisingly drunk.


II

Alfred Smithers, as he made his modest breakfast of a cup of tea and two
liver pills next morning, explained to his wife that it had not been the
drink so much as the reaction.

She said that he needn't have taken the reaction. She should overlook it
this time and say no more, knowing what he was when not misled. But no
amount of ironing would make that hat look anything again. He went to
work feeling that the glory had been turned a little lower.

There were more newspaper cuttings, and later there was something on
vellum. Smithers said rather bitterly that the Society seemed to do
things on the cheap. A medal came at last, presented by the vicar on
behalf of a few friends and local inhabitants. It was of silver and very
large. It was kept on the mantelpiece and shown to everybody who would
look at it.

But the excitement was dying down. Glory was on the ebb. Mrs Smithers
would sometimes allow two days to pass without alluding to the act
of heroism. Smithers watched the ebbing of the tide with inward
rage and with many vain efforts to stay it. The neighbourhood sickened
slowly of conversations on the different ways of rescuing the
drowning--conversations initiated by Smithers in order to lead to the
case of the poor girl, Emily Trimmins. But he had eaten praise-poison,
and no other diet was rich enough for him now. The neighbourhood
wearying of him and hinting as much, he would slip the medal into his
pocket on Saturday afternoons, get on his bicycle, and seek fresh
fields. A little group and a bar-parlour sufficed. Whatever the group
was discussing when Smithers first leaned his bicycle against the
horse-trough outside, five minutes later they were listening while
Smithers got in with "I remember once being on the Heath when some fool
of a girl jumped into twenty feet of water. What did I do? Watched for
the bubbles coming up and then dived. The devil of it was that there was
a strong cross-current and--" etc. Later, the medal would be produced.
Poor Alfred Smithers! Nature's low comedian, and yet smitten with a
raging madness for the strut, the soliloquy, the limelight, the
sympathetic music, the roar of applause!

In his new part of hero he invented business that was not good. He began
to be, as he phrased it, "master in his own house." He interfered in
matters which were the special province of Mrs Smithers. He gave
detailed instructions in domestic subjects of which he was completely
ignorant, and brought upon himself ridicule. He was rude to Mrs
Smithers, and said that she needed to be driven with a firm hand. He
told the eight-pound general that his word was law, and she forthwith
gave notice on the ground that she could put up with anything except
haughtiness.

Mrs Smithers told him with some frankness that she was glad to see his
back when he went to business of a morning, for he was more nuisance in
a house than a cartload of monkeys.

At business he had got, as a rule, just enough sense not to try any
heroism. He was a good book-keeper and he had got a good place and he
knew it. One day, however, as his mind strayed for a moment to high
things, he made a small blunder affecting a large sum, and the sum got
on to the wrong side of the book and caused trouble. In due course Mr
Peter Begg said, "Send me Smithers." The clerk who took the message said
to Smithers, "You're going to get beans." And at this all the heroism in
Smithers arose and boiled over, and he spluttered out that he thought
it would be rather the other way.

"Look here," said Mr Begg, "how do you come to make such an infernal
fool of yourself as this, Smithers?" Smithers was now well alight.

"Kindly understand once for all that there are some expressions I don't
permit to be used to me by any man."

Mr Begg gazed at Smithers pensively through his eye-glass and sighed.
"Get out," he said, "I'll finish with you to-morrow morning. You may be
sober by then. Get out, go on!"

Smithers got out, and a slight chill fell on him. Possibly he had gone
too far. He was unusually civil to his wife at supper that night, and
appeared somewhat preoccupied. After supper he asked his wife what she
thought of Klondike.

"I wouldn't care to have much to do with it. Why?"

"Well, I had a few words with Begg to-day--Peter Begg, the old one. I
was in the right, as it happened, but something I said seemed to sting
him rather. I can't say how it will end. I've as good as promised to see
him again to-morrow morning, but he may not meet my views. And you know
how it is when either the senior partner's got to go or the
book-keeper."

"You apologise and ask to be took on again," said Mrs Smithers, going
right through the elegancies of her husband's version and getting
straight down to the bedrock facts. "That's what you'll do if you're not
silly. You don't want to lose a good place."

"I don't know," said Smithers, with an air of melancholy, "same old
drudgery day after day, and what's it all to come to? Nothing. I might
strike it if we went to Klondike."

"You aren't going to no Klondike," said Mrs Smithers.

"I'm not sure it wouldn't be the right life for me. I'm naturally a man
of action. I do the book-keeping well enough, but adventures and
emergencies are more my line. You remember what the magistrate said
when--"

"I remember how drunk you were that night."

"Little you know!" said Smithers, though conscious that the retort was
somewhat vague. After some meditation he managed to supplement it as
follows: "And little you care either--top button's been off my wescut
for the last four days."

"You've got a tongue in your head to ask with, haven't you? Give it here
and don't grumble."

And a little later Alfred Smithers, with a distinct chill on the
heroism, went up to bed.

The chill was even more distinct when in the small hours of the morning
Mrs Smithers shook him by the shoulder, awoke him, told him that there
was a burglar in the kitchen, and asked him to go down.

In the small hours of the morning one's vitality is low.


III

They had been unable to get any satisfactory sleep after the
disturbance, and they breakfasted early. Mrs Smithers looked amused;
Alfred Smithers looked conciliatory.

"I want you to understand how it was," he said pleadingly.

"I understand it all right. And how my poor sides do ache with laughing.
'Lock our door as quietly as you can,' you says, 'and don't make a
sound,' you says, 'for,' you says, 'if he knows we've discovered him
he'll have the lives of both of us.' Sounds funnier still when it's said
over again by daylight. Oh, my poor sides!"

And even then Alfred Smithers did not become rebellious; on the
contrary, in a mirthless and subservient way he smiled.

"I'm quite willing to own I blundered in what seems now rather a funny
way. But it wasn't in the way you think, my dear. My dear Agnes, it
really wasn't."

"Tell your own story," said Mrs Smithers, with a victor's easiness.

"I was awoke sudden," said Smithers. "I don't suppose I was more than
half awake, which accounts for the error of judgment. I'm a man, and not
a machine. We all blunder at times. I own I made a mistake, and I can
afford to laugh at it." He managed to jerk up another semblance of a
smile. "At first I said that what you'd heard was a rat, and what you'd
seen was a shadow. Then when you made me look through the corner of the
blind, and I saw the end of the man's leg drawn inwardly through the
downstairs window, I, being half asleep, supposed that it was a regular
professional burglar. And if it had been that, my advice would have been
correct. Professional burglars carry revolvers in their 'ip-pockets, and
they'll shoot anybody--policeman or any man--to destroy evidence against
them. Very well. What good was I unarmed against an armed burglar?
Foolhardiness isn't courage. If you knew life as I know it you'd realise
that. You didn't agree with my ideas, and, as I was half asleep, I own
you were right; you said--"

Mrs Smithers took up the story triumphantly.

"I said it was stuff and nonsense, and so it was. Burglars don't come to
a penny-farthing place like this; and if they did, they wouldn't wake up
the house opening a window. Two drops of ile, a shove with the knife,
and a wad o' paper to deaden the sound of the spring when it comes
back."

Smithers recovered himself sufficiently to ask how they put in the two
drops of oil and the wad of paper.

"How should I know, not being a burglar myself? Anyhow, I was right. I
said it was just some tramp new to the business, and hungry for a
supper, and that he'd bolt as soon as he heard anybody moving. And
didn't he?"

"Yes," said Smithers, "he did. I was just thinking of getting out of bed
and following you down the stairs. But he bolted as soon as he heard our
door open, and was out of the house before you were half-way down.
That's my point. It was an error of judgment on my part, not a want of
courage. It's a mercy he'd no time to take much."

"Well, 'e'd got the cold beef out, and precious little he'd have left of
it. The bottle of beer he knocked over and broke in his hurry. The only
thing he actually got away with was that--er--that medal."

At this point Mrs Smithers' face became dark and inscrutable.

"That's a sad pity," she added; "we shall miss it too, with that
inscription, 'For Gallantry and Courage; Presented by a Few Admirers of
Alfred Smithers.' But you'll inquire of the police, of course, and as
likely as not you'll get it back. I believe I was right in saying you
ought to have gone to the police there and then."

"I believe you were," said Alfred, with alacrity. "It's no good going
now, for the medal's certain to be in the melting-pot. Besides, I've no
fancy for having the police in, interfering with my private business.
And I think it would be just as well if we neither of us said a word
about it."

"Oh, I must tell Mrs Warboys," said Mrs Smithers. "I wouldn't miss
seeing her laugh over that story were it ever so. As for pore Mrs Push,
when I come to the part when I put your boots on my feet because yours
squeaked louder, and you'd got your head under the bed-clothes, and I
said--"

"Oh, look here," said Alfred, desperately, "I do wish you wouldn't. I'd
really much rather not. It isn't often I ask for anything particular,
but if that story's told it's almost certain to be taken up in the wrong
way as far as it concerns me. I've made a blunder and I've lost my
medal. Ain't that enough for you?"

"Then you've given up that Klondike idea," observed Mrs Smithers, with
more consecutiveness than was immediately apparent.

"Certainly; oh, certainly! It was just a wandering notion that wouldn't
stand thinking over. And I shall smooth old Peter Begg down all right.
There will be a little give-and-take compromise on both sides. It only
wants tactful handling. Garson & Begg have been very good friends to me,
and I'm not going to throw them over. I couldn't do it, even if you
asked it."

"I don't ask it," said Mrs Smithers, drily. "Get that fixed right by
to-night and I won't say nothing."

On his way to the City he reflected that it would indeed require tact.
However, he entered Mr Begg's room and did his best.

"I've come," he said, "to apologise, sir, very humbly for the way I
spoke yesterday. As you saw, I wasn't myself, sir."

"Then you _were_ drunk?" said Mr Begg with mild interest.

"Oh, no, sir. At least it was more drugged. I'd suffered torments all
day with toothache, and took a little laudanum for it, and that made me
come over all anyhow. If I'd been myself I'd sooner have cut off my
right hand--"

"That'll do," said Mr Begg. "No more need be said about it in that case.
But when you are troubled with toothache again I should advise you
either to take a little less laudanum _or to take a good deal more_. Now
get on with your work."

Thus tact triumphed.

Mrs Smithers kept her word, and Mrs Warboys and the relict of the late
Charles Push have missed a story which would undoubtedly have amused
them. Smithers has returned to his natural _rôle_. The newspaper
cuttings have been replaced by a chromo which happened to fit the frame
exactly, and the happiness is general.




SOME NOTES ON CYRUS VERD


The name of Cyrus Verd, once so frequently seen in the newspapers and
heard in conversation, has now for many years past been rarely
mentioned. The absolute retirement of the latter part of his life helped
the public--always ready to forget--to forget him. A few weeks ago at
the club I happened to say something or other about him, and a man who,
as a rule, knows his world turned to me and asked who Cyrus Verd was.
The obituary notice of him in the _Times_ the other day may possibly
have revived interest in what was really rather an extraordinary
personality. But the notice was brief, and beyond names and dates said
little more than that he was "an eccentric millionaire, who, at the age
of forty-five, chose to surrender almost the whole of his wealth and
live a life of comparative poverty. It is said that this step was the
result of some curious religious convictions, but Cyrus Verd himself
never in his lifetime offered any explanation of it."

The few notes which I propose to add, including as they do a personal
reminiscence of the man, may possibly be of interest. A writer of
fiction constantly arranges his problem to suit his solution of it; it
is perhaps beneficial, though somewhat humiliating, that he should
occasionally turn his attention to the problems that real life sets him,
and see how much more difficult it is to find the solution then.

       *       *       *       *       *

Cyrus Verd came to England in his thirty-fourth year, an age at which
many men are only at the commencement of their career. He had already
made his fortune. I cannot say exactly how rich he was. Many newspaper
paragraphs at the time gave estimates of his annual income--all
different. I should say that the only man who really knew was Cyrus Verd
himself. He owned steamships, railways, factories, mines, and enough
land for a small nation. On his arrival in London many stories were told
of his extravagance and eccentricity.

He was debating where he should reside, and a friend suggested that he
should take or build a house in Park Lane.

"Where is Park Lane?" asked Cyrus Verd. He had been only two days in
London.

"Runs along the east side of Hyde Park, in the most fashionable quarter.
Your coachman would know it."

Verd went to look at it, and returned.

"Yes," he said, "it would be a fair site for a house--one house. But
there seems to be some brick tenements there of some sort or other
already. I suppose I could get those cleared away?"

He made the attempt, and was very angry at first when he found that he
could not "get those cleared away." But he soon grew more philosophical.

"Your people," he observed, "cling to their little homes, I guess."

He was always much disappointed at first if he found there was anything
which he could not buy. He went over the National Gallery alone one
morning; he was a judge of pictures, and occasionally he put a pencil
cross on his catalogue. When he got downstairs again he said to the man
who handed him his umbrella:

"My name's Cyrus Verd, and I'm at the Métropole. Write that down. Send
me round the things I've marked on my list and my secretary will hand
you the cheque."

This story was much exaggerated in the newspapers; it was said that he
had offered to buy the entire National Gallery, building and all, as it
stood. I cannot say whether or not there was any truth in the report
which appeared about the same time, to the effect that he had
endeavoured to buy the Crown jewels; but, as far as I can judge his
character, it does not seem impossible.

At the same time it would be rash to attempt to judge his character only
from such reports as these. The secretary of a well-known charitable
institution made that mistake. He wrote to ask for a donation to the
institution, and guaranteed that it should be acknowledged by public
advertisement in four of the leading dailies. Cyrus Verd wrote back that
he had much pleasure in accepting the offer, and enclosed fourpence in
stamps. The acknowledgment appeared as promised, and once more made
Cyrus Verd a common topic of conversation.

But one of the strangest things that he did never got into the
newspapers at all. He left, intentionally, ten pounds in gold on the
seat of a railway carriage. On the following day he inquired at the Lost
Property Office if the money had been brought back. He was told, with a
smile, that it had not been brought back, and that there was no earthly
probability that it ever would be. He repeated the experiment, and again
failed to recover the money. He repeated it twenty times on different
lines, and at last a carriage-cleaner found the money and brought it
back. Cyrus Verd took the name and address of that carriage-cleaner,
made inquiries about him and then sent for him.

"I don't see why I should reward you at all. It's the company's
business. You're their servant, and such actions as yours increase the
feelings of security and confidence in their passengers. Are you suited
to a better position than you've got?"

"Yes, I am," said the man, "I'm a steady man, and I've a talent for
figures. I'm known for it among my mates."

"Call on the chairman of directors--here is his private address--give
him my card, explain the circumstances, and tell him from me that he is
to put you in a position of trust, with at least three times your
present wages."

The man came back to say that the chairman had laughed at him--had said
that he was not the man to whom the application should have been made,
and that there was no chance of its being entertained in any case.

"I must go and see him myself then," said Cyrus Verd.

The chairman was not in a very good temper.

"Really, Mr Verd, you'll be asking me to carry your luggage next. It's
no part of my duties as chairman of the directors to undertake business
of this kind. What that man ought to have done--"

"He did what I told him. You can get this put through if you like. Will
you?"

"Frankly, I won't. It creates a precedent. It--"

"One moment, sir. If you'll have a copy of Bradshaw brought in here I'll
show you something."

Now, the chairman knew that Cyrus Verd was eccentric, and so he was not
surprised. He did not respect eccentricity. But he respected capital;
and he knew that Cyrus Verd had already--thanks to his capital--had some
little games with railway companies. So he rang the bell, and a Bradshaw
was brought.

When the servant had gone Verd drew a penny blue chalk-pencil from his
pocket. He opened the Bradshaw, unfolded the map, and, without saying a
word, made certain marks upon it.

The chairman watched him closely, and his face changed. "Who's going to
do it?" he gasped. Then he repented, as a man does repent when he has
given himself away. "Parliament?" he said.

"That's all right," remarked Cyrus Verd, replacing his blue pencil.
"I've asked. They daren't block it."

"It wouldn't pay," the chairman said, with an effort at the careless
smile.

"That matters only to the man who runs it. Either way it would wreck
your line--and you. As my time here is short, don't pretend that it
wouldn't, because, of course, I know that you know that it would."

"Am I to understand," said the chairman, angrily, "that you come here to
threaten me with this new line?"

"Well, I was talking about a carriage-cleaner. I want him rewarded. I
want it done right away. When I want anything done I don't tell myself
that I won't spend more than a couple of millions on getting it done."

"Men like you ought not to be allowed to live. I tell you that plainly,
Mr Verd."

"There are no men like me. Good-afternoon, then."

"Oh, wait, wait! The man deserves to be rewarded, only these things must
be done in the regular way. If he will write to--"

"I'm going to no underlings," said Cyrus Verd, "and I'm in a hurry. Next
time I mark that map, _those marks will stop there_!"

The chairman seemed suddenly to recollect something. "What was this
about a carriage-cleaner? Oh, yes, it's irregular; but naturally you
wouldn't understand. I'll see about it myself."

"When?"

"Within six weeks."

"Days?"

"Weeks."

"Then it shan't be days. It shall be within six hours--a position of
trust and three times his present wages within six hours. The way you
talk makes me tired. If you know enough to come in when it rains, I
guess you'll drop this argument."

The chairman did drop it, and that same night the carriage-cleaner
received the official intimation of his promotion.

       *       *       *       *       *

Cyrus Verd was young, fabulously wealthy, and unmarried. He was a tall,
broad-shouldered man. He was not exactly handsome, but he had that look
of power which, in the eyes of women, does just as well. When he first
came over he was the hope of many noble matrons with unmarried
daughters. He afterwards became their despair; and this was in
consequence of his marriage with Anna Fokes--a woman who had neither
wealth nor high position--she had been a governess. She was remarkably
beautiful, but her beauty was somewhat discounted by the fact that she
had--or was said to have--a trace of negro blood in her veins. When this
marriage was announced, a certain noble matron said a cruel thing to
Cyrus Verd. She congratulated him sardonically on having no racial
prejudices.

"I shall remember your kind words, countess," he said pleasantly.

Within a year the countess was a ruined woman. Evidence came to her
husband's knowledge which led him to divorce her. This terrible fall was
closely followed by the loss of a part of her private income. She was
left without a friend in the world and with much reduced means--a
disgraced woman. There were some who said that Cyrus Verd had
"remembered those kind words"; but if he was responsible for her
exposure and ruin he was careful not to let any evidence of his actions
appear.

It was seven years after his marriage that, as the _Times_ obituary
states, he gave up almost the whole of his property. He prepared a long
list of relations and friends of himself and of his wife, and of certain
charitable and religious institutions in which they were interested. He
reserved for himself an annual income of five hundred pounds only, which
to a man who had lived as a millionaire for years would be abject
poverty. The remainder was divided among these relations, friends and
institutions, and made over to them by deed of gift. Of course, many
people said that he was mad. If he was, his wife was mad also, for the
step that he took was planned by him with her, and she fully agreed to
it.

       *       *       *       *       *

Personally, I do not think he was mad. I had expected him to take that
step, and I think I could produce evidence that in a private letter I
actually foretold it. For it happened by chance that I came upon him
when he was in the enjoyment of what he called his annual holiday, and
it was significant.

It was in an out-of-the-way Welsh village, one year before his marriage.
I was stopping there because it was out of the way chiefly--I had some
work to do. Cyrus Verd was there in a caravan, and he was masquerading.
He was "H. Jackson, photographer," a travelling photographer in a very
small way of business, with show-cases of fly-blown photographs of
posed rustics affixed to the outside of his caravan. He wore a shabby
serge suit, much stained with chemicals, and a soft felt hat. He had not
attempted to disguise his face; he had never allowed any portrait of
himself to appear in any illustrated paper, shop window, or public
gallery, and probably considered himself safe from recognition. But I
had once been in the same drawing-room with Cyrus Verd, and he had been
pointed out to me. He was not a man who could easily be forgotten. I
never had the least doubt that the shabby man who stood touting for
custom outside that caravan was Cyrus Verd.

I allowed him to photograph me. I remember that the price was seven
shillings and sixpence for a dozen, and that he bothered me to take two
dozen for fourteen shillings.

"No thanks, Mr Verd," I said.

He seemed to reflect for a moment, and then he asked me how I knew. I
told him where I met him.

"It's my only enjoyment," he said. "You won't spoil it--everybody thinks
I'm yachting."

"I won't spoil it," I said. "You might enjoy it always if you cared so
much about it."

"No, I couldn't. Thank you. I am obliged to you."

"All right," I said. "Good-morning," and I moved off. He called me back
again.

"You'll excuse me," he said, "but you've not paid for those
photographs."

"You haven't printed them yet."

"My rule is that payment must be made at the time of sitting."

"Well, I won't pay for a thing until I get it."

We squabbled about it, and finally came to a compromise. Then rather
abruptly he asked me to come to supper with him that night.

"And I warn you," he said, "that I live solely on what I make by this
photographic business."

Of course I went. We had supper in the caravan. It consisted of chops
and potatoes, which Cyrus Verd cooked. He cooked better than he
photographed. We drank beer, which Verd had fetched from the
public-house in a jug. He had no servant with him, and did everything
for himself. I jeered at him gently all through supper.

"It's very pretty," I said, "but it is play-acting. It's not genuine."

"It is absolutely genuine. I tell you that I love simplicity. Had I my
choice, I would always go on like this, and I like the work too. In this
little village I've already picked up enough orders to keep me busy for
a week. Every year I have a month of this, and I look forward to it as I
look forward to nothing else."

"What?" I said. "Do you think that this sort of thing proves that you
love simplicity? It proves the absolute contrary--that you love variety.
No one is compelled to live the life of a rich man against his will. If
you live that life for eleven months in the year, and the life of a poor
man for one month, you like to be rich eleven times as much as you like
to be poor."

"What you say," he said, "sounds plausible. But you don't know the
circumstances. I am sorry I cannot offer you a cigar. 'H. Jackson,
photographer,' cannot afford to smoke cigars."

"I have my own case here," I said.

I selected a cigar, lit it, put the case back in my pocket, and watched
Cyrus Verd. The fragrance reached him. He grew uneasy. He rose, and
began to put the supper things away in silence.

"Shall I help you?" I asked.

"No!" he said snappishly. He held out for about five minutes, and then
said, "Give me one of those cigars."

He opened the case with trembling hands, and took no notice of my
amusement at first. When his cigar was lit, and the first sigh of
satisfaction was over, he appeared aggrieved, and asked me what I was
laughing at.

"Go back and be a millionaire," I said. "You dress this part well,
and"--glancing round the caravan--"it's very correctly staged; but you
make the feeblest H. Jackson, peripatetic photographer, that ever
disgraced the British drama."

"Listen," he said eagerly. "H. Jackson is a poor man. As a rule he
smokes cheap shag in a clay. A gentleman comes along and offers him a
cigar. H. Jackson jumps at the treat, of course. Where's the
inconsistency?"

"I didn't offer you a cigar. You asked for it. Cyrus Verd could do that,
but H. Jackson could not."

"I've half a mind to pitch your beastly cigar out of the window!"

But he did not. He smoked that, and others, and talked delightfully. He
had a fine sense of humour, and was willing enough to laugh at himself
as a millionaire; but in the character of H. Jackson he had an ardent
belief in himself and a strong desire to be taken seriously.

After that, for a week, we always spent the evenings together. Gradually
I guessed at the "circumstances" to which he had alluded. Near to the
village was the country seat of a baronet, and Anna Fokes was governess
to his children, and Cyrus Verd was in love with Anna Fokes. He had met
her in the same place a year before. She and I knew who he really was;
but no one else in the village did. Her method of procedure was simple.
On the arrival of H. Jackson she took the baronet's children to be
photographed; afterwards she called every day to see if the photographs
were finished. He was, in fact, engaged to her before the night on which
I first had supper with him.

A week after my return to town I got a note from Cyrus Verd, asking me
to dine with him and "assist at the funeral of H. Jackson." I accepted.
We were alone, and the dinner was ridiculously magnificent. I
congratulated him on his engagement, which that morning had been made
public. He seemed in the best of spirits. After dinner he said:

"I am going to explain the death of H. Jackson. Money has power, and the
novelty of possession is attractive. But any other kind of power is
better worth while, and the novelty ceases."

"Also," I observed, "time flies, and one must not judge by appearances."

"Yes, I quite understand what you would imply. I am talking platitudes.
I guess, if the platitude happens to be the truth that doesn't matter.
The actual enjoyment to be obtained from money must soon go, and can
only be renewed in the enjoyment of another. I marry a poor woman who
has worked in a subservient position; in her enjoyment I shall enjoy
again. Wealth, and the power it gives, will be so new and attractive to
her that I may safely calculate on a fair period of very decent
second-hand enjoyment; consequently, H. Jackson may die."

"Wait," I said, "your wife's enjoyment will cease in the end, and yours
with it. What then?"

"Some women have a special gift for enjoying wealth for ever," he said
meditatively. "But you are right; Miss Fokes has not that gift.
Then--then--there will be a revival of H. Jackson, or something very
like it, perhaps in a less crude form."

       *       *       *       *       *

This practically ended my acquaintance with Cyrus Verd. At first I still
saw him occasionally, but I could not afford to know millionaires, and
told him so. Afterwards, at the time when he renounced his wealth, I was
away from England.

I can see, of course, that a practised author might make something of a
character--a consistent whole--out of Cyrus Verd. I only give notes of
what came to my knowledge, and confess that I have not the imagination
requisite to connect them, supplement them, and give them that air of
probability which is always found in the best fiction, and so seldom in
real life.




THE FOUR-FINGERED HAND


Charles Yarrow held fours, but as he had come up against Brackley's
straight flush they only did him harm, leading him to remark--by no
means for the first time--that it did not matter what cards one held,
but only when one held them. "I get out here," he remarked, with
resignation. No one else seemed to care for further play. The two other
men left at once, and shortly afterwards Yarrow and Brackley sauntered
out of the club together.

"The night's young," said Brackley; "if you're doing nothing you may as
well come round to me."

"Thanks, I will. I'll talk, or smoke, or go so far as to drink; but I
don't play poker. It's not my night."

"I didn't know," said Brackley, "that you had any superstitions."

"Haven't. I've only noticed that, as a rule, my luck goes in runs, and
that a good run or a bad run usually lasts the length of a night's play.
There is probably some simple reason for it, if I were enough of a
mathematician to worry it out. In luck as distinct from arithmetic I
have no belief at all."

"I wish you could bring me to that happy condition. The hard-headed man
of the world, without a superstition or a belief of any kind, has the
best time of it."

They reached Brackley's chambers, lit pipes, and mixed drinks. Yarrow
stretched himself in a lounge chair, and took up the subject again,
speaking lazily and meditatively. He was a man of thirty-eight, with a
clean-shaven face; he looked, as indeed he was, travelled and
experienced.

"I don't read any books," he remarked, "but I've been twice round the
world, and am just about to leave England again. I've been alive for
thirty-eight years, and during most of them I have been living.
Consequently, I've formed opinions, and one of my opinions is that it is
better to dispense with superfluous luggage. Prejudices, superstitions,
beliefs of any kind that are not capable of easy and immediate proof are
superfluous luggage; one goes more easily without them. You implied just
now that you had a certain amount of this superfluous luggage, Brackley.
What form does it take? Do you turn your chair?--are you afraid of
thirteen at dinner?"

"No, nothing of that sort. I'll tell you about it. You've heard of my
grandfather--who made the money?"

"Heard of him? Had him rubbed into me in my childhood. He's in Smiles or
one of those books, isn't he? Started life as a navvy, educated himself,
invented things, made a fortune, gave vast sums in charity."

"That is the man. Well, he lived to be a fair age, but he was dead
before I was born. What I know of him I know from my father, and some of
it is not included in those improving books for the young. For instance,
there is no mention in the printed biography of his curious belief in
the four-fingered hand. His belief was that from time to time he saw a
phantom hand. Sometimes it appeared to him in the daytime, and sometimes
at night. It was a right hand with the second finger missing. He always
regarded the appearance of the hand as a warning. It meant, he supposed,
that he was to stop anything on which he was engaged; if he was about to
let a house, buy a horse, go a journey, or whatever it was, he stopped
if he saw the four-fingered hand."

"Now, look here," said Yarrow, "we'll examine this thing rationally. Can
you quote one special instance in which your grandfather saw this maimed
hand, broke off a particular project, and found himself benefited?"

"No. In telling my father about it he spoke quite generally."

"Oh, yes," said Yarrow, drily. "The people who see these things do speak
quite generally as a rule."

"But wait a moment. This vision of the four-fingered hand appears to
have been hereditary. My father also saw it from time to time. And here
I can give you the special instances. Do you remember the Crewe disaster
some years ago? Well, my father had intended to travel by the train that
was wrecked. Just as he was getting into the carriage he saw the
four-fingered hand. He at once got out and postponed his journey until
later in the day. Another occasion was two months before the failure of
Varings'. My father banked there. As a rule he kept a comparatively
small balance at the bank, but on this occasion he had just realised an
investment, and was about to place the result--six thousand pounds--in
the bank, pending re-investment. He was on the point of sending off his
confidential clerk with the money, when once more he saw the
four-fingered hand. Now at that time Varings' was considered to be as
safe as a church. Possibly a few people with special means of
information may have had some slight suspicion at the time, but my
father certainly had none. He had always banked with Varings, as his
father had done before him. However, his faith in the warning hand was
so great that instead of paying in the six thousand he withdrew his
balance that day. Is that good enough for you?"

"Not entirely. Mind, I don't dispute your facts, but I doubt if it
requires the supernatural to explain them. You say that the vision
appears to be hereditary. Does that mean that you yourself have ever
seen it?"

"I have seen it once."

"When?"

"I saw it to-night." Brackley spoke like a man suppressing some strong
excitement. "It was just as you got up from the card-table after losing
on your fours. I was on the point of urging you and the other two men to
go on playing. I saw the hand distinctly. It seemed to be floating in
the air about a couple of yards away from me. It was a small white hand,
like a lady's hand, cut short off at the wrist. For a second it moved
slowly towards me, and then vanished. Nothing would have induced me to
go on playing poker to-night."

"You are--excuse me for mentioning it--not in the least degree under the
influence of drink. Further, you are by habit an almost absurdly
temperate man. I mention these things because they have to be taken into
consideration. They show that you were not at any rate the victim of a
common and disreputable form of illusion. But what service has the hand
done you? We play a regular point at the club. We are not the excited
gamblers of fiction. We don't increase the points, and we never play
after one in the morning. At the moment when the hand appeared to you,
how much had you won?"

"Twenty-five pounds--an exceptionally large amount."

"Very well. You're a careful player. You play best when your luck's
worst. We stopped play at half-past eleven. If we had gone on playing
till one, and your luck had been of the worst possible description all
the time, we will say that you might have lost that twenty-five and
twenty-five more. To me it is inconceivable, but with the worst luck and
the worst play it is perhaps possible. Now then, do you mean to tell me
that the loss of twenty-five pounds is a matter of such importance to a
man with your income as to require a supernatural intervention to
prevent you from losing it?"

"Of course it isn't."

"Well, then, the four-fingered hand has not accomplished its mission. It
has not saved you from anything. It might even have been inconvenient.
If you had been playing with strangers and winning, and they had wished
to go on playing, you could hardly have refused. Of course, it did not
matter with us--we play with you constantly, and can have our revenge at
any time. The four-fingered hand is proved in this instance to have
been useless and inept. Therefore, I am inclined to believe that the
appearances when it really did some good were coincidences. Doubtless
your grandfather and father and yourself have seen the hand, but surely
that may be due to some slight hereditary defect in the seeing
apparatus, which, under certain conditions, say, of the light and of
your own health creates the illusion. The four-fingered hand is natural
and not supernatural, subjective and not objective."

"It sounds plausible," remarked Brackley. He got up, crossed the room,
and began to open the card-table. "Practical tests are always the most
satisfactory, and we can soon have a practical test." As he put the
candles on the table he started a little and nearly dropped one of them.
He laughed drily. "I saw the four-fingered hand again just then," he
said. "But no matter--come--let us play."

"Oh, the two game isn't funny enough."

"Then I'll fetch up Blake from downstairs; you know him. He never goes
to bed, and he plays the game."

Blake, who was a youngish man, had chambers downstairs. Brackley easily
persuaded him to join the party. It was decided that they should play
for exactly an hour. It was a poor game; the cards ran low, and there
was very little betting. At the end of the hour Brackley had lost a
sovereign, and Yarrow had lost five pounds.

"I don't like to get up a winner, like this," said Blake. "Let's go on."

But Yarrow was not to be persuaded. He said that he was going off to
bed. No allusion to the four-fingered hand was made in speaking in the
presence of Blake, but Yarrow's smile of conscious superiority had its
meaning for Brackley. It meant that Yarrow had overthrown a
superstition, and was consequently pleased with himself. After a few
minutes' chat Yarrow and Blake said good-night to Brackley, and went
downstairs together.

Just as they reached the ground-floor they heard, from far up the
staircase, a short cry, followed a moment afterwards by the sound of a
heavy fall.

"What's that?" Blake exclaimed.

"I'm just going to see," said Yarrow, quietly. "It seemed to me to come
from Brackley's rooms. Let's go up again."

They hurried up the staircase and knocked at Brackley's door. There was
no answer. The whole place was absolutely silent. The door was ajar;
Yarrow pushed it open, and the two men went in.

The candles on the card-table were still burning. At some distance from
them, in a dark corner of the room, lay Brackley, face downwards, with
one arm folded under him and the other stretched wide.

Blake stood in the doorway. Yarrow went quickly over to Brackley, and
turned the body partially over.

"What is it?" asked Blake, excitedly. "Is the man ill? Has he fainted?"

"Run downstairs," said Yarrow, curtly. "Rouse the porter and get a
doctor at once."

The moment Blake had gone, Yarrow took a candle from the card-table, and
by the light of it examined once more the body of the dead man. On the
throat there was the imprint of a hand--a right hand with the second
finger missing. The marks, which were crimson at first, grew gradually
fainter.

       *       *       *       *       *

Some years afterwards, in Yarrow's presence, a man happened to tell some
story of a warning apparition that he himself had investigated.

"And do you believe that?" Yarrow asked.

"The evidence that the apparition was seen--and seen by more than one
person--seems to me fairly conclusive in this case."

"That is all very well. I will grant you the apparition if you like. But
why speak of it as a warning? If such appearances take place, it still
seems to me absurd and disproportionate to suppose that they do so in
order to warn us, or help us, or hinder us, or anything of the kind.
They appear for their own unfathomable reasons only. If they seem to
forbid one thing or command another, that also is for their own purpose.
I have an experience of my own which would tend to show that."




THE TOWER


In the billiard-room of the Cabinet Club, shortly after midnight, two
men had just finished a game. A third had been watching it from the
lounge at the end of the room. The winner put up his cue, slipped on his
coat, and with a brief "Good-night" passed out of the room. He was tall,
dark, clean-shaven and foreign in appearance. It would not have been
easy to guess his nationality, but he did not look English.

The loser, a fair-haired boy of twenty-five, came over to the lounge and
dropped down by the side of the elderly man who had been watching the
billiards.

"Silly game, ain't it, doctor?" he said cheerfully. The doctor smiled.

"Yes," he said, "Vyse is a bit too hot for you, Bill."

"A bit too hot for anything," said the boy. "He never takes any trouble;
he never hesitates; he never thinks; he never takes an easy shot when
there's a brilliant one to be pulled off. It's almost uncanny."

"Ah," said the doctor, reflectively, "it's a queer thing. You're the
third man whom I have heard say that about Vyse within the last week."

"I believe he's quite all right--good sort of chap, you know. He's
frightfully clever too--speaks a lot of beastly difficult Oriental
languages--does well at any game he takes up."

"Yes," said the doctor, "he is clever; and he is also a fool."

"What do you mean? He's eccentric, of course. Fancy his buying that
rotten tower--a sweet place to spend Christmas in all alone, I don't
think."

"Why does he say he's going there?"

"Says he hates the conventional Christmas, and wants to be out of it;
says also that he wants to shoot duck."

"That won't do," said the doctor. "He may hate the conventional
Christmas. He may, and he probably will, shoot duck. But that's not his
reason for going there."

"Then what is it?" asked the boy.

"Nothing that would interest you much, Bill. Vyse is one of the chaps
that want to know too much. He's playing about in a way that every
medical man knows to be a rotten, dangerous way. Mind, he may get at
something; if the stories are true he has already got at a good deal. I
believe it is possible for a man to develop in himself certain powers at
a certain price."

"What's the price?"

"Insanity, as often as not. Here, let's talk about something
pleasanter. Where are you yourself going this Christmas, by the way?"

"My sister has taken compassion upon this lone bachelor. And you?"

"I shall be out of England," said the doctor. "Cairo, probably."

The two men passed out into the hall of the club.

"Has Mr Vyse gone yet?" the boy asked the porter.

"Not yet, Sir William. Mr Vyse is changing in one of the dressing-rooms.
His car is outside."

The two men passed the car in the street, and noticed the luggage in the
tonneau. The driver, in his long leather coat, stood motionless beside
it, waiting for his master. The powerful headlight raked the dusk of the
street; you could see the paint on a tired woman's cheek as she passed
through it on her way home at last.

"See his game?" said Bill.

"Of course," said the doctor. "He's off to the marshes and that blessed
tower of his to-night."

"Well, I don't envy him--holy sort of amusement it must be driving all
that way on a cold night like this. I wonder if the beggar ever goes to
sleep at all?"

They had reached Bill's chambers in Jermyn Street.

"You must come in and have a drink," said Bill.

"Don't think so, thanks," said the doctor; "it's late, you know."

"You'd better," said Bill, and the doctor followed him in.

A letter and a telegram were lying on the table in the diminutive hall.
The letter had been sent by messenger, and was addressed to Sir William
Orlsey, Bart., in a remarkably small hand-writing. Bill picked it up,
and thrust it into his pocket at once, unopened. He took the telegram
with him into the room where the drinks had been put out, and opened it
as he sipped his whisky-and-soda.

"Great Scot!" he exclaimed.

"Nothing serious, I hope," said the doctor.

"I hope not. I suppose all children have got to have the measles some
time or another; but it's a bit unlucky that my sister's three should
all go down with it just now. That does for her house-party at
Christmas, of course."

A few minutes later, when the doctor had gone, Bill took the letter from
his pocket and tore it open. A cheque fell from the envelope and
fluttered to the ground. The letter ran as follows:

  "DEAR BILL,--I could not talk to you to-night, as the doctor, who
  happens to disapprove of me, was in the billiard-room. Of course, I
  can let you have the hundred you want, and enclose it herewith with
  the utmost pleasure. The time you mention for repayment would suit me
  all right, and so would any other time. Suit your own convenience
  entirely.

  "I have a favour to ask of you. I know you are intending to go down to
  the Leylands' for Christmas. I think you will be prevented from doing
  so. If that is the case, and you have no better engagement, would you
  hold yourself at my disposal for a week? It is just possible that I
  may want a man like you pretty badly. There ought to be plenty of duck
  this weather, but I don't know that I can offer any other
  attraction.--Very sincerely yours,

                                                      "EDWARD VYSE."

Bill picked up the cheque, and thrust it into the drawer with a feeling
of relief. It was a queer invitation, he thought--funnily worded, with
the usual intimations of time and place missing. He switched off the
electric lights and went into his bedroom. As he was undressing a
thought struck him suddenly.

"How the deuce," he said aloud, "did he know that I should be prevented
from going to Polly's place?" Then he looked round quickly. He thought
that he had heard a faint laugh just behind him. No one was there, and
Bill's nerves were good enough. In twenty minutes he was fast asleep.

       *       *       *       *       *

The cottage, built of grey stone, stood some thirty yards back from the
road, from which it was screened by a shrubbery. It was an ordinary
eight-roomed cottage, and it did well enough for Vyse and his servants
and one guest--if Vyse happened to want a guest. There was a pleasant
little walled garden of a couple of acres behind the cottage. Through a
doorway in the further wall one passed into a stunted and dismal
plantation, and in the middle of this rose the tower, far higher than
any of the trees that surrounded it.

Sir William Orlsey had arrived just in time to change before dinner.
Talk at dinner had been of indifferent subjects--the queer characters of
the village and the chances of sport on the morrow. Bill had mentioned
the tower, and his host had hastened to talk of other things. But now
that dinner was over, and the man who had waited on them had left the
room, Vyse of his own accord returned to the subject.

"Danvers is a superstitious ass," he observed, "and he's in quite enough
of a funk about that tower as it is; that's why I wouldn't give you the
story of it while he was in the room. According to the village
tradition, a witch was burned on the site where the tower now stands,
and she declared that where she burned the devil should have his house.
The lord of the manor at that time, hearing what the old lady had said,
and wishing to discourage house-building on that particular site, had it
covered with a plantation, and made it a condition of his will that this
plantation should be kept up."

Bill lit a large cigar. "Looks like checkmate," he said. "However,
seeing that the tower is actually there--"

"Quite so. This man's son came no end of a cropper, and the property
changed hands several times. It was divided and sub-divided. I, for
instance, only own about twenty acres of it. Presently there came along
a scientific old gentleman and bought the piece that I now have. Whether
he knew of the story, or whether he didn't, I cannot say, but he set to
work to build the tower that is now standing in the middle of the
plantation. He may have intended it as an observatory. He got the stone
for it on the spot from his own quarry, but he had to import his labour,
as the people in these parts didn't think the work healthy. Then one
fine morning before the tower was finished they found the old gentleman
at the bottom of his quarry with his neck broken."

"So," said Bill, "they say of course that the tower is haunted. What is
it that they think they see?"

"Nothing. You can't see it. But there are people who think they have
touched it and have heard it."

"Rot, ain't it?"

"I don't know exactly. You see, I happen to be one of those people."

"Then, if you think so, there's something in it. This is interesting. I
say, can't we go across there now?"

"Certainly, if you like. Sure you won't have any more wine? Come along,
then."

The two men slipped on their coats and caps. Vyse carried a lighted
stable-lantern. It was a frosty moonlit night, and the path was crisp
and hard beneath their feet. As Vyse slid back the bolts of the gate in
the garden wall, Bill said suddenly, "By the way, Vyse, how did you know
that I shouldn't be at the Leylands' this Christmas? I told you I was
going there."

"I don't know. I had a feeling that you were going to be with me. It
might have been wrong. Anyhow, I'm very glad you're here. You are just
exactly the man I want. We've only a few steps to go now. This path is
ours. That cart-track leads away to the quarry where the scientific
gentleman took the short cut to further knowledge. And here is the door
of the tower."

They walked round the tower before entering. The night was so still
that, unconsciously, they spoke in lowered voices and trod as softly as
possible. The lock of the heavy door groaned and screeched as the key
turned. The light of the lantern fell now on the white sand of the floor
and on a broken spiral staircase on the further side. Far up above one
saw a tangle of beams and the stars beyond them. Bill heard Vyse saying
that it was left like that after the death in the quarry.

"It's a good solid bit of masonry," said Bill, "but it ain't a cheerful
spot exactly. And, by Jove! it smells like a menagerie."

"It does," said Vyse, who was examining the sand on the floor.

Bill also looked down at the prints in the sand. "Some dog's been in
here."

"No," said Vyse, thoughtfully. "Dogs won't come in here, and you can't
make them. Also, there were no marks on the sand when I left the place
and locked the door this afternoon. Queer, isn't it?"

"But the thing's a blank impossibility. Unless, of course, we are to
suppose that--"

He did not finish his sentence, and, if he had finished it, it would not
have been audible. A chorus of grunting, growling and squealing broke
out almost from under his feet, and he sprang backwards. It lasted for a
few seconds, and then died slowly away.

"Did you hear that?" Vyse asked quietly.

"I should rather think so."

"Good; then it was not subjective. What was it?"

"Only one kind of beast makes that row. Pigs, of course--a whole drove
of them. It sounded as if they were in here, close to us. But as they
obviously are not, they must be outside."

"But they are not outside," said Vyse. "Come and see."

They hunted the plantation through and through with no result, and then
locked the tower door and went back to the cottage. Bill said very
little. He was not capable of much self-analysis, but he was conscious
of a sudden dislike of Vyse. He was angry that he had ever put himself
under an obligation to this man. He had wanted the money for a gambling
debt, and he had already repaid it. Now he saw Vyse in the light of a
man with whom one should have no dealings, and the last man from whom
one should accept a kindness. The strange experience that he had just
been through filled him with loathing far more than with fear or wonder.
There was something unclean and diabolical about the whole thing that
made a decent man reluctant to question or to investigate. The filthy
smell of the brutes seemed still to linger in his nostrils. He was
determined that on no account would he enter the tower again, and that
as soon as he could find a decent excuse he would leave the place
altogether.

A little later, as he sat before the log fire and filled his pipe, he
turned to his host with a sudden question: "I say, Vyse, why did you
want me to come down here? What's the meaning of it all?"

"My dear fellow," said Vyse, "I wanted you for the pleasure of your
society. Now, don't get impatient. I also wanted you because you are the
most normal man I know. Your confirmation of my experiences in the tower
is most valuable to me. Also, you have good nerves, and, if you will
forgive me for saying so, no imagination. I may want help that only a
man with good nerves would be able to give."

"Why don't you leave the thing alone? It's too beastly."

Vyse laughed. "I'm afraid my hobby bores you. We won't talk about it.
After all, there's no reason why you should help me?"

"Tell me just what it is that you wanted."

"I wanted you if you heard this whistle"--he took an ordinary
police-whistle down from the mantelpiece--"any time to-night or
to-morrow night, to come over to the tower at once and bring a revolver
with you. The whistle would be a sign that I was in a tight place--that
my life, in fact, was in danger. You see, we are dealing here with
something preternatural, but it is also something material; in addition
to other risks, one risks ordinary physical destruction. However, I
could see that you were repelled by the sight and the sound of these
beasts, whatever they may be; and I can tell you from my own experience
that the touch of them is even worse. There is no reason why you should
bother yourself any further about the thing."

"You can take the whistle with you," said Bill. "If I hear it I will
come."

"Thanks," said Vyse, and immediately changed the subject. He did not say
why he was spending the night in the tower, or what it was he proposed
to do there.

       *       *       *       *       *

It was three in the morning when Bill was suddenly startled out of his
sleep. He heard the whistle being blown repeatedly. He hurried on some
clothes and dashed down into the hall, where his lantern and revolver
lay all ready for him. He ran along the garden path and through the door
in the wall until he got to the tower. The sound of the whistle had
ceased now, and everything was horribly still. The door of the tower
stood wide open, and without hesitation Bill entered, holding his
lantern high.

The tower was absolutely empty. Not a sound was to be heard. Bill called
Vyse by name twice loudly, and then again the awful silence spread over
the place.

Then, as if guided by some unseen hand, he took the track that led to
the quarry, well knowing what he would find at the bottom of it.

       *       *       *       *       *

The jury assigned the death of Vyse to an accident, and said that the
quarry should be fenced in. They had no explanation to offer of the
mutilation of the face, as if by the teeth of some savage beast.




THE FUTILITY OF WILLIAM PENARDEN

  "Let the great book of the world be your principal study."
                                                       CHESTERFIELD.


General Penarden, C.B., married late in life, and had one son, who was
intended by General Penarden to follow his father's profession, to be
V.C., and D.S.O., and to be a bright and shining light. As the
intentions of destiny did not precisely agree with the intentions of
General Penarden, it is, perhaps, just as well that the old man died
when William, his son, was a boy of six. He was thus saved some
disappointment.

But even in those brief years he was not saved all disappointment. He
made, grimly, a list of the different things of which the child was
frightened, and it was a very long list. Many, of course, were things of
which any child is frightened; many others came into a doubtful
category; the fear would have been excusable, perhaps, in a girl. There
was left a residue which was all wrong and quite inexplicable. The
General, though disappointed, did not despair. He quoted instances of
brave men who had had a timid childhood. His optimistic programme was
that his son should have it all knocked out of him by the paternal
hand, by the severe discipline of a public school, and by experience of
dangers. Familiarity of them would breed contempt, and all would yet be
well. On the day before his death from apoplexy he imagined to himself
despatches in which his son's name figured brilliantly.

The General had married a woman much younger than himself. She was
beautiful and she was bored. She came of a decaying race. The brilliant
vices and wild extravagances of her eighteenth-century forefathers had
ended with the usual and prosaic sequel of tainted blood and fallen
fortunes. Possibly there were few things that bored this tired London
woman more than her son William. She remembered to talk about him a
little to her friends; she had the best possible care taken of him by
the best possible servants; she gave him expensive presents on the days
appointed. But she did not want to be with him very much. When she was
with him she either spoiled him or bullied him, and more often she
bullied him. At the age of twelve, William, at a preparatory school
which he hated, was bidden to write an essay on the subject of war. He
wrote childishly, and with many faults of punctuation and spelling, to
the effect that war was the wickedest thing in the world, and that a
soldier's profession was the most inhuman and abominable. By chance the
essay came into his mother's way, and she laughed till she cried over
it. He was not a pretty boy, and he could never be admirable, but there
seemed to be some chance that he might, at least, be quaint. At the age
of fourteen he made to his mother a profound observation, to wit, that
though for many long years past he himself had been getting older and
older, she had never changed one little bit. For this she kissed him; he
might have found her in a mood when she would have struck him for it.

It was quite clear by this time that he was not to be a soldier. The
weakness of his physique supported the firmness of his wishes in this
respect. He could have never passed the doctor. At his public school,
which he hated even more than the preparatory school, medical
certificates freed him to some extent from compulsory games. He was a
muff at all games, and he was no great scholar; yet he was less
unpopular at school than might have been expected. He had no pretensions
whatever, and he was very obliging. He would do anything for anybody. He
had the fatal gift of imagination, and a few eccentricities that amused
other boys. Boys treat with good humour that with which they are amused.
There was, for instance, a certain short cut, a footpath across some
fields, in common use by the boys, which William Penarden resolutely
refused to take. He gave no reasons, but he said that he could not take
that path. So he went all the way round, and was frequently late, and
from that came trouble. But he remained obstinate. It was one of the
things that pleased the other boys. "Mad as a hatter," they would say,
and quote his dislike of the field-path in proof.

It was during his first term at Cambridge that he heard from his mother
that she intended to marry again. She had not aged at all, except to the
most careful observer and to her own maid, and even her own maid did not
know everything. It was, perhaps, rather remarkable that she had not
re-married before, but she had always preferred the admiration of the
many to the devotion of one, and, by the terms of the late General's
will, her re-marriage made her son much richer and herself much poorer.
It may have occurred to her that this prolonged struggle with age could
not be carried on indefinitely. As for the money, she was marrying a
wealthy baronet, and knew how to take care of herself. It was true that
he was a sportsman who hated London, and that she would have to live for
the most part in the country. But the things which are supposed to amuse
had bored her so long that she had begun to wonder if she could not be
amused by the things that are supposed to bore. Then there was always
the resource of foreign travel. She knew a doctor who could generally be
counted upon to order her to the place to which she wished to go.

William was not much surprised by the news, and he wrote the kindest of
letters to his mother. He was really an extremely kind young man. He had
already met many characters of doubtful probity. None of them had ever
asked him to lend money; he had always anticipated them by the offer of
a loan. On the occasions when his mother got to hear of this she had
been unfailingly very, very mad with him. At present, William was quite
ready to accept the situation, but the situation was not quite ready to
accept William. He was not much of a sportsman, and his new father said
candidly that he could see nothing in the boy. Lady Quyne, formerly Mrs
Penarden, became suddenly serious and flagrantly moral on the subject of
William's career. She spelt career with a capital letter in her letters
to him; she pronounced it in italics in her talk. It was true that it
was not necessary for him to make an income, but no good ever came of
idleness. She had, by the way, made an exhaustive trial of it herself
for the last twenty years, and was, therefore, in a position to speak.
She suggested politics and the Diplomatic Service; he had no taste for
either. Above all, she emphasised the bad effect which a prolonged
homelife had upon a young man. Before he took his degree--it was a pass
degree--he had learned to interpret this correctly, and spent very
little of his vacations at home. He had made friends who found him
amiable and liked him to visit them occasionally. Sometimes he
travelled. When he was at home he did not see very much of his mother.
There were always other visitors staying in the house. Sir Charles Quyne
was pessimistic on the subject of William. "He can play the piano a
bit," he said, "and he can drive the car. And there is not one other
solitary damned thing that he can do. I wish to goodness he would get
married."

William did not get married, but he kept out of the way, which, after
all, was almost as good. Further, to please his mother, he said that he
proposed ultimately to become a candidate for Parliament. In the
meantime, he would like to devote two or three years to serious
preparation. Lady Quyne observed that he could cram up all that a Member
needed to know in two or three weeks, but did not remonstrate further.
William took a riverside cottage and a small flat in London. He went
from one to the other as the mood took him, and as a rule made the
journey on his motor-car. He liked driving the car, but it was rather a
fearful pleasure. He was, perhaps, the most cautious driver extant, and
the secret amusement of his hireling chauffeur. When William went from
his cottage to his flat in town, he made the chauffeur take the wheel
when they approached London. William did not like driving through thick
traffic at any time, and did not like driving by night at all.

One Saturday night in June, Dolling, the chauffeur, received an
unexpected visit from a long-absent brother. The visitor arrived just at
the moment when he and his master were about to start for London in the
car. Timidity and amiability struggled in the breast of William
Penarden, and amiability won.

"I shan't want you, Dolling," he said, "I can manage it all right by
myself."

Mr Dolling was sure that it was very kind of him. It was a bright
moonlight night, with deep, bothering shadows.

William started slowly. He already felt nervous. How would it be if he
gave up the London idea altogether? He could telegraph in the morning to
the friend whom he was to have met. He turned off from the London road,
where a circuit of two or three miles would bring him back to his
cottage again. There was a dark stretch of road here, trees on either
side almost meeting overhead. Beyond, the road lay white and open.
William went into his third speed as he emerged from the darkness. At
that moment a black figure shot out from the hedge into the road right
across the way of the car. In a moment or two William had jammed on the
brakes, and the car stood still, with the engines racing. Had he touched
the man or not? It seemed to him to be a long while before he could
force himself to look round and see. When he did so, he saw the black
figure lying motionless on the road in the bright moonlight.

"Are you hurt?" William called hoarsely. All was silent. With great care
William turned his car round in the road and crawled up alongside. He
could see now that it was the figure of a man, raggedly dressed,
absolutely motionless. The hat had fallen off, and the moonlight made
the thick, white hair brilliant.

"Are you hurt?" William asked again. He stared hard to see if he could
detect the slightest movement. There was none. He listened intently,
stopping his engines. The whole night seemed to him full of the silence
of the dead.

He knew perfectly well what he ought to do, but sheer panic had hold of
him. He touched the switch and his engines started again. For once in
his life he drove recklessly, and he drove to London. There would be
ample evidence that he had been intending to go to London when he
started, and there would be no reason why he should ever have taken his
car on the road where the dead body would be found. No one had seen him;
no suspicion could attach to him.

Long before he reached London, the drunken tramp, whom William supposed
that he had killed, sat up. The car had never touched him. He had fallen
in the road and had been slightly stunned. He rubbed his aged and
disreputable head and grumbled to himself that this was what came of
those sanguinary motors. Then he walked home, kicked his wife, and slept
the sleep of the just.

The price that William Penarden was to pay for his cowardice was heavy
enough. He was never to know that he had not even touched the man.
Coincidence was already busy to convince him that he had killed that
man, and to keep the terror of it fresh in his mind for the remaining
two years of his life.

He came back from London by train on Sunday afternoon. He told Dolling
that he was ill, and that he did not feel up to driving the car. Dolling
could fetch it back from the garage on Monday. Dolling looked remarkably
serious. He did not know if his master had heard of it, but a terrible
thing had happened not three miles away from them. A man had been found
dead in the road on Saturday night, and it was supposed that he had been
knocked down by a motor-car. It was not the London road; it was just
where--

William Penarden stopped him abruptly and savagely. It was all true,
then, and not the dream that he had hoped to find it.

Yes, it was true enough, but it was another man and another car. The
hoary reprobate who had been dazzled by the head-lights of Penarden's
car, and had stunned himself in his fall, was now no worse than he
usually was after his usual Saturday night.

For many weeks Penarden carefully avoided the newspapers. He was afraid
of what he would find there. After that came a feeling of security, but
never a moment's peace. That brilliant white hair in the moonlight wove
itself into the fabric of his dreams. That black figure lurched ever
before his car, till Penarden had a nervous breakdown and gave up
motoring. When he got a little better, the chief question in his mind
was how long he could stand it, how long it would be before his mind
gave way and in his ravings he let loose his secret. Morose, nervous,
ill, he saw no one. For a long time he travelled. Change of scene was an
opiate. It put the day of madness a little further off.

       *       *       *       *       *

The poor man did his best. The political career was now definitely given
up. Lady Quyne spoke with a sigh to the more intimate part of her circle
of her son's incurable idleness. On his return to England he had yielded
to archæology; it was a subject which had always interested him, and he
looked to it now to take his mind off. He journeyed from one cathedral
city to another, asking erudite questions, making rubbings of brasses,
and always haunted.

In the course of his wanderings in quest of the quaint he stopped at a
provincial town, the normal serenity of which was in a state of
temporary interruption owing to some reliability trials of motors being
held in its neighbourhood. Penarden drove to the hotel which the railway
porter impressed upon him was the only one likely to have accommodation
for such as himself, and asked for a room. The clerk announced
mournfully that "only No. 54 was unoccupied, and--well--before offering
it to the gentleman he had better see the manager."

That official saw the class of man he was dealing with, and regretted
deeply that he had no other room. But the reliability trials were on,
and his resources were strained to the uttermost. It was all that he had
to offer, and it was on the top floor of an annexe, the decoration of
which was not yet completed. The painters' step-ladders and planks still
lingered in the corridor. The view from the window was obstructed by a
mean building scarcely eight feet away. True, the mean building had been
condemned and was to come down; and the decorations would be finished
and the workmen would be out in a fortnight; but in the meantime--

Well, in the meantime, William Penarden did not care much in what room
he failed to get to sleep, and he accepted the bedroom that was offered.
He even managed to sleep in it, until in the early hours he was aroused
by the waiter (in dress trousers and the jacket of his pyjamas), who
told him that the building opposite was well alight, and that they hoped
that the annexe would not catch, the wind being favourable to them, but
that Mr Penarden had better get down at once and bring his travelling
bag with him.

"Right," said Penarden, and sent the waiter to wake up the others. Then
he dressed quickly, and looked out of his window down to the alley
beneath. The fire brigade had not yet arrived. Two policemen were doing
their best to keep the narrow alley clear. An ugly old woman, in violent
hysterics, was screaming, "They're up there!" and a man was trying to
quiet her. Then Penarden gave a great sigh of relief, for here was the
chance of expiation. He took the longest of the planks that the painters
had left and ran it through his own window so that it dropped on a
window-ledge of the burning house opposite. As a rule, he had no head at
all for heights, but now he felt perfectly unperturbed. He did not
attempt to walk along the plank, for he was not giving a circus
exhibition, but he began to work himself along it slowly in a sitting
position, taking great care not to jolt the end of it off the
window-ledge opposite. An authoritative voice below shouted to him to go
back. He went on. He reached the window opposite and flung it open. A
volley of black and stifling smoke poured forth and he nearly fell. Then
he climbed into the room, and the last that was seen of him was that he
stood at the window, taking off his coat to put it over his head before
he could go further. He was not seen again alive.

And, as his mother, Lady Quyne, observed, it was all so absolutely
futile. The people in the house had already got out, and he had let
himself be guided by the hysterical raving of some chance woman in the
crowd. So he annoyed her almost as much in death as he had done in life.
But it is possible that his death, horrible though it was, was for him
of an extreme happiness.




THE PATHOS OF THE COMMONPLACE


He was a middle-aged man when he first came to the town. He had taken an
appointment as clerk to a firm of solicitors, and he was happy in that
appointment, regarding it as a step upwards. He was small in stature and
wild in manner. His eyes had a hesitating look in them, and he pressed
his thin lips tightly together, as though to counterbalance his look of
hesitation and make himself appear rather firm. He found himself
furnished apartments in a house that was one of a row on the very
outskirts of the great town. They were two rooms at the top of the
house, small and shabbily furnished, looking out on a piece of waste
land at the back. On this piece of waste land there was one large tree
growing. At the time when he first took the rooms he was talkative and
told the landlady all about himself.

"My name is Peters. You see, I've just got a step upwards rather, by
being appointed clerk to Grantham & Flynders. Formerly, I used to keep
the books for Flynders's cousin, who's a grocer in a small way at
Melstowe--oh, quite a comparatively small way."

"Really now," said Mrs Marks, a good woman, but not always logical; "and
then for this Flynders to give himself those airs--and his cousin no
more than that! Ah! I've many a time said that half the world doesn't
know who the other half's relations are!"

"So it is!" replied Peters. "I may say--I think I may say--that I've
done a good deal for Flynders's cousin. He's taken my advice more than
once, notably in an extension of the counter-trade in effervescents
during the hot weather, and he's found it pay him. Well, _he_ knew that
I could do a good deal better than I was doing. I'd taught myself
things, you see. There was shorthand now. At Melstowe my shorthand was,
if it's not to use too strong a term, going to rot, simply going to
rot--in a grocery and general, there's no use for it. I pointed that all
out to Flynders's cousin, and he--being good-natured and seeing what I
was--got me this berth with this Flynders himself. So I left Melstowe,
and I left Flynders's cousin--left him, thanks to me, doing to my
certain knowledge some gross more in the lemonade than he had ever done
in the past." Peters paused, and looked proud of himself. "Mind," he
went on, rather weakly, "I'm telling you all this not from any--any
desire to tell anyone anything, but because I may be giving up these
rooms in two or three years, or even less. You see, I've taken one of
those steps upwards that may lead to anything. In a post like mine you
just work yourself up and work yourself up. Starting with what I may
call family influence, and having rather a strong natural turn, I may
be made managing clerk in no time; then, perhaps, Flynders dies, and
I'm took in. 'Grantham & Peters' wouldn't sound bad. Only then, of
course, I shouldn't keep these rooms--I should be taking a house of my
own."

Mrs Marks considered this, not unjustly, to be a little wild. But it was
cheaper always to humour a lodger; and she mostly chose the cheapest.
"Then you'd be getting married," she said.

"Under the circumstances I should ask Flynders's cousin's second
daughter to--to--"

"To consider it," suggested the landlady.

"To _re_-consider it," said Peters, sadly and correctively. He had a
nervous anxiety to get away from the subject. He glanced out of the
window. "I call that a pleasant lookout," he said. "Being high up, and
that sycamore touching the window nearly, it ain't unlike Zaccheus."

"That's no sycamore, Mr Peters. It's a plane."

"I don't know about such things. I ain't a talker as a rule. It may be
that I'm a bit excited at entering on a new sp'ere, a sp'ere from which
much may be hoped. Not for worlds would I have 'em know in the office
that I've got ambitions--oh, no!"

The landlady moved to the door. "Will there be anything else now?"

"A little tea, if it's not too much trouble," said Peters. "I have a
partiality for tea."

"You shall have it," said Mrs Marks. She did a good deal with the manner
and the tone of the voice. Peters vaguely understood that all this was
exceptional, and must not occur again; he must not make a practice of
taking up Mrs Marks's precious time by sheer garrulousness; and he must
not get into the habit of ordering tea or anything else that he
wanted--he must wait until it was brought to him spontaneously. He began
to unpack his few belongings and put them away neatly. He had a
picture--an engraving that he had purchased, ready framed, in Melstowe.
It represented David playing before Saul. He hung it over the
mantelpiece. Beneath stood a partly-decayed model of a Swiss mountain
and châlet, protected by a glass case.

When everything was tidy Peters sat down and drank his tea, and thought
about his ambitions.

       *       *       *       *       *

Now, Mr Peters, as will have been gathered, was as ignorant as a child
of the manner in which promotion takes place in a solicitor's office,
and of the fact that he had no chance whatever. He was conscientious and
patient, and could do mechanical work; he was quite regular. Some men
can do a thing one day which they cannot do on the next, but Peters was
never unexpected. He was invariable in his merits, and in his
incompetence. With him Nature had drawn a line, and said, "Peters, you
are never going beyond that."

His disappointment dawned very slowly upon him. He found that a
solicitor's office was not what he had supposed it to be. Neither
Grantham nor Flynders was at all by way of being intimate with him; in
fact, they rarely spoke to him, except to dictate a letter; it was the
managing clerk who told him what to do, and he always did it as well as
he could, and that was never very well, nor very badly. Sometimes he
thought with regret of the nearly social terms upon which he had been
with Flynders's cousin; Flynders's cousin had taken his advice about the
lemonade. Now he was not on social terms with anybody. He was not good
at making friends. He did not get on very well with the other clerks.
They were not serious; they played practical jokes upon him, which he
took, as a rule, with his accustomed mildness; once or twice he lost his
temper, and then he was undignified but very funny.

His position was not in any danger. He was careful, methodical,
punctual. It was only that his step upwards had been the last step that
he was able to take in that direction. He had found his level. In the
first few months of his appointment he had purchased a large law-book
second hand. He picked that one because it was so very cheap, and it was
so very cheap because it was also so very obsolete; but Peters did not
know this. He studied his book, without entirely understanding it, by
the light of an evil-smelling lamp in the long evenings. When his
disappointment had finally dawned upon him, he took the book back to the
second-hand bookseller and tried to get him to purchase it again; but
that was of no use. It had taken the second-hand man some years to sell
that book once, and he did not feel inclined to recommence the struggle.
So Peters put it up on a shelf and did his best to forget it. Now he
read Mrs Marks's newspaper (she obliged him with the loan of it) in the
evening. On one occasion another clerk lent him something described as a
regular spicy novel. Peters read a few pages, but he did not like it,
and gave it back.

He began to be sorry that on his first arrival he had been so
confidential with his landlady; he had given her a false impression, and
he must correct it. So one day he mentioned to her that he had
relinquished the notion of a partnership.

"Ah, yes," she said. She had quite forgotten about it, but one must
verbally humour lodgers. Besides, she had an apposite observation to
make. "I've often remarked," she said, "that if we _could_ all have
everything we wanted, there wouldn't be enough to go round."

Peters felt a little lonely. One day was very much like another. He
always went to bed at the same time, and always rose at the same time.
His life seemed to be going on by machinery with himself left out of
it. He had a fancy that it was the plane tree which woke him in the
morning; its boughs touched lightly against his window sometimes when
the wind blew. He was rather attached to that tree. In the summer it
looked so cool and pleasant. There was a door at the back of the house,
leading on to that piece of waste land, and he would have liked to have
gone outside and sat under the tree in the hot weather. But he doubted
if he had any right to use that back door. He had a right to his two
rooms and to the front door and staircase which led to them; but he was
doubtful about the back door. On one or two occasions he had
inadvertently exceeded his rights, and Mrs Marks had seemed to him
rather put out. As a matter of fact, Mrs Marks was very well satisfied
with him. He was a good lodger, gave no trouble, and paid his book
punctually; he rarely rang, never seemed to mind if the bell was not
answered, went to church twice every Sunday, and was a credit to the
house. He was an economical man, and was putting by a little money. He
had a small sum of his own--£20 a year--that his father had left him,
or, as he preferred to call it, a certain private income independent of
his salary. The days went on; the old tree looked in at his window and
seemed interested in him, and he was interested in the tree, noting the
way it took the seasons. Otherwise there was nothing, and it was rather
lonely.

And then one day Mrs Marks brought him a piece of news. Her little
niece, Elsa, was coming to spend a holiday with her. She thought she
would mention it, because there were some lodgers who objected to
children.

Of course Peters was delighted to say that he did not object to children
at all. "Oh, and about that back door, Mrs Marks," he added. "I've
sometimes thought I'd like to make use of it, so as to sit out under
that tree of a warm evening."

"Most certainly, Mr Peters, and no need to ask either."

       *       *       *       *       *

Under the plane tree Peters found a thin girl, with a white dress, black
stockings, yellow hair, and a large doll. He gazed at her mildly.

"Are you Elsa?"

"Yes. Are you the lodger?"

"Yes." He paused for want of ideas, and added that it was a fine
Saturday afternoon.

She had much more self-possession than he had. She looked at him
critically. "Were you going to sit out here, lodger?"

"I had been thinking of it."

"Well, do it then."

He sat down beside her, and said that she had a nice doll.

"Yes; its name is Mrs Markham. I'm giving her up, because I'm nearly
nine, and it's silly to keep on with dolls when you're nearly grown up.
I used to have six dolls, and I've given them all up except Mrs Markham.
She'll have to go too."

"I say, how do you play with dolls?"

"You pretend things. Can you do that?"

"Bless you, yes!" said Peters, cheerfully. "I can pretend anything you
like. What shall it be?"

"Let's pretend it's night."

"All right. It's night. And what do you do then?"

"Well, if it's night, of course we must put Mrs Markham to bed. I've got
her nightdress in my pocket." She pulled it out and smoothed it on her
knee. "Now, I must undress her." But she did not do it; she sat quite
still, humming a little tune, while Peters watched her with interest.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked.

"I'm waiting," she said, with some severity, "for you to look the other
way. I can't undress Mrs Markham while you're staring at her."

Peters blushed, apologised, and looked the other way. Presently he was
told that he might turn round again; Mrs Markham was properly attired,
and asleep, with her head supported by part of a brick.

"Capital!" exclaimed Peters.

"Hush!" said Elsa, reproachfully. "It doesn't seem as if you could
pretend very well. Mrs Markham's asleep, and so we must speak in
whispers. Now, what are you, besides being a lodger?"

"I'm a clerk to a firm of solicitors," Peters replied, in the repressed
and husky voice enjoined upon him.

"That all?"

"I'm afraid so. I had expected to be one of the firm, but there are
difficulties. It seems to be usual for a solicitor to be articled, and I
doubt if the firm will see its way to--"

Elsa yawned and interrupted. "That'll do. This isn't any good. Let's
play at something else. Can't you think of _anything_?"

Peters had an idea. He passed a small confectioner's shop on his way
from business, and he had observed and remembered a label in the window.

"Look here, Elsa, do you think you could manage a liquorice jujube?"

Elsa looked down at the grass and waggled one foot nervously; her eyes
seemed to get larger.

"Yes, thank you," she said demurely, "I think I could."

So they went off to the confectioner's shop. Peters cross-examined the
woman behind the counter almost imperiously as to the presence of
deleterious mineral colouring matter in the desired sweetmeat. The woman
answered him with cold confidence:

"The liquorice jujube takes its colour from the liquorice, which is a
vegetable and wholesome."

Then the purchase was made, and they sauntered back--Elsa slowly
becoming sticky, and Peters smiling abundantly.

       *       *       *       *       *

Peters was lonely no longer while Elsa's holiday lasted. As a rule she
made suggestions, and he acted upon them. She wanted to know why he
never went on the river; so one afternoon he took her. A man from the
boat-house rowed them.

"Why don't you row yourself?" asked Elsa.

"Because," Peters answered, as he ran the boat's nose hard into a thorn
bush, "I have to steer. Mind your head--I took that a little too close."

The man from the boat-house backed them out. Similar incidents had
occurred frequently since Peters took the lines. At the boatman's
suggestion he now relinquished them.

In the course of her holiday Mrs Markham, so Elsa said, died; she was
buried under the plane tree. Peters dug the grave with his pocket-knife
and a portion of a broken tea-cup. When the funeral service was over
Peters produced a toy cricket set, and proposed a game. Elsa went in,
and Peters bowled. After an hour and a half she retired hot; she was not
out. Peters had bowled her twice, but on each occasion the ball was
disqualified by the umpire. Elsa was the umpire. On the first occasion
he had forgotten to say play, and on the second he had bowled faster
than the rules of cricket permitted. Peters did not get an innings--that
was characteristic of him.

On Sundays Peters took Elsa to church. She refused to go more than once
a Sunday, because her father went only once; if she went twice, she
explained, it would be like saying that her father was a bad man; and he
was a very good man. Peters asked her what prayers she said night and
morning.

"I used to have special ones," she said, "but I've forgotten them.
Besides, I'm too old for them; they were baby things. Now I say any
colic out of the prayer-book. They're all good."

"I don't think that's quite right," said Peters.

"Pa," she observed, with subtle relevancy, "used to say that all
s'listers were liars."

"Well, I'm _not_ a solicitor," Peters objected triumphantly.

He remembered two prayers for morning and evening that he had learned
when he was a boy. He copied them out in an exquisite hand, with Old
English titles, on a sheet of tinted cardboard. Then he ruled a frame
round them--three thin red lines within a broad black line. He was proud
of his work. He presented it to Elsa. The wayward Elsa chose to be
pleased with it, and owned that Peters wrote better than she did. She
took the card away to her room at once--"to try them," she explained.

       *       *       *       *       *

Peters found himself very dull indeed when Elsa had gone. He thought it
over, and concluded that he was a man who needed companionship. One
night he wrote a long letter--not a love-letter--to Flynders's cousin's
second daughter, and posted it; he got no reply, and a few months
afterwards he read in Mrs Marks's newspaper the announcement that
Flynders's cousin's second daughter had married the curate.

"She was always one for social success," Peters reflected.

He wrote to Elsa, and she also did not answer--she had explained to him
that he must not expect it, because she disliked writing letters. He
sent her every year a birthday card (with a present), a Christmas card
(also with a present), and a valentine. She sent him, so far as he knew,
nothing at all; but one year he received a very ugly valentine, an
insulting valentine. He thought that it must have come either from Elsa
or from that young clerk who had lent him the really spicy novel.

One day that young clerk seemed almost friendly to Peters. "You're a
lonely old chap," he said to him in the luncheon hour. "Why don't you
buy a dog? It would be a companion to you." Peters thought it rather a
good idea. As it happened, the young clerk had one that he wanted to
sell; he described it as a faithful, pure-bred, sweet-tempered
fox-terrier. It's name was Tommy. Peters bought it, and its kennel was
located under the plane tree.

Tommy liked almost everyone except Peters. He would follow anyone except
Peters. If he was in the mood to snap at anybody, he preferred to snap
at Peters. Mrs Marks (under a special pecuniary arrangement) agreed to
wash the dog. But she soon pleaded for the use of a muzzle on those
occasions.

"For the way that dog turns against anything in the shape of soap and
water is pretty nigh human. Instink, they calls it."

Peters thought that muzzles were inhuman, and said that he would wash
the dog himself. The first time he tried Tommy bit him in three places,
and escaped before the operation was over. He bolted into the street,
ran away, and never came back.

So Peters was quite alone. Mrs Marks was too busy to talk to him. Elsa
did not come back. But the old plane tree did not seem to mind him.

       *       *       *       *       *

As the years went on Peters found that he got old very quickly. One of
the effects of age, in his case, was a violent pain in the chest, which
came on after any great exertion or if he walked fast uphill. He went
for a holiday--a week at Hunstanton--but it did not seem to do him much
good. But when he came back he heard glorious news. Elsa was coming
again for a few days.

"Now, I'm glad," said Peters. "I always liked the child. Such bright
ways she had! We shall soon be playing cricket together again."

"Why, you forget, Mr Peters," said Mrs Marks. "Elsa's near seventeen
now. Besides, you're too much of an invalid to think of running about.
You've aged." Mrs Marks herself did not age; she was one of those hard,
wiry women that are capable of looking forty for twenty years.

Elsa looked very pretty. She still wore her hair down, but her dresses
were much longer. She had a very superior manner, and did not seem
particularly glad to see Peters. She took one of the liquorice jujubes
that he offered her. But she explained that she did not care about that
sort now; she only liked the best chocolates. "You can't get them here.
If you want to give me anything, Mr Peters, there's a blouse
(two-and-eleven) in Higginson's window that would do me nicely."

He looked a little bewildered, but he bought her the blouse, and it did
her very nicely indeed--so nicely that she thought it was a pity that
she was not to be photographed in it. "We might be photographed
together," she said alluringly; "I shouldn't want more than two
copies--cabinets."

This was better. Peters was pleased that she wanted him to be
photographed with her. The photographer placed her on a rustic stile,
with Peters standing by her side. He smiled widely and with feeling, as
he looked at her. She shook her head impatiently. "Oh, this won't do!"
she said, "your grinning puts me out. Besides, you shake the stile. I
wish you'd stand away and let me be done alone. Then you can have
yourself took afterwards."

So Peters stood away meekly. But on the whole he did not think it worth
while to have himself taken afterwards.

The two copies arrived, and satisfied Elsa. "Though I've known myself
look better," she said. One copy was for herself, and the other she
destined for a particular friend. Peters had bought a plush frame,
supposing that she had intended to give him one copy; well, that did not
matter; he could order a third from the photographer. In the meantime he
was required to pack up the photograph for the particular friend.

"It would travel safer," he said, "if you packed it between a couple of
pieces of card."

Elsa looked thoughtful. "I've got an old bit in my writing-case," she
said. "Go and fetch it, Mr Peters."

He hunted through the writing-case, but could not find it.

"Well, I know it's there, anyhow," she retorted. "I kept it, knowing it
would come in some day. It's got those prayers on it that you wrote out
for me when I was here before."

"Oh, yes, I saw that. I didn't think--"

"Well, never mind, I'll go and get it myself; torn in half, it will just
do. It will puzzle my friend, though--he's not one of the praying sort."

Peters was guilty of looking somewhat despondent as he moved away; this
made Elsa rather angry. "You needn't look so glum," she said; "you
didn't expect me to keep it all my life, and have it buried with
me--silly old card--did you?"

       *       *       *       *       *

"One thing I will say," Mrs Marks observed, after Elsa had gone, "is
that she does brighten up a house. And I hope her looks mayn't be a
snare to her. She has one young admirer already, and she a mere child!
She's promised to come again next year. I hope you'll get on better with
her then. You seemed more stand-offish this time--you've no complaint
against her?"

"Oh, no! certainly not."

"You're not looking well, Mr Peters. You'll excuse my mentioning it, but
you want a doctor."

Peters shook his head slowly, but owned to a touch of
something--probably liver. It was Sunday evening, and he had been
intending to go to church as usual. But he changed his mind. He did not
feel up to it. He sat under the plane tree and thought about Elsa as she
used to be before she grew up.

He knew that old tree well now, knew every twist of the branches, every
kink of the bark. In an unreasoning way he loved the tree. It had never
repulsed him; it had always been there for him.

Mrs Marks was right. Peters did want a doctor. He took to fainting when
he was at work at the office. He apologised for it to the senior
partner, who had found him unconscious, and promised that it should not
occur again. But it did. One morning he was summoned to the senior
partner's private room. Grantham and Flynders were both there. They told
him that he had been for many years a faithful servant to them, and that
now--when he was past work--they wanted to mark their sense of his
services. He was not to come to the office any more, but they named a
sum which would be paid him by way of pension for the rest of his life.
And they advised him to see a doctor.

Peters could not understand it, and it had to be explained to him again.
Then he tried to thank them. He felt proud and tremulous. He had been
praised--it was years since anybody had praised him. He walked home and
told Mrs Marks about it. He was not to work any more. Grantham &
Flynders had praised him very highly. And he had a pension. And Mrs
Marks congratulated him, and said that he deserved his luck. And finally
Peters broke down and wept.

       *       *       *       *       *

Peters spent most of his days, doing absolutely nothing, stretched on
the grass under the plane tree. He had grown rather queer in one or two
points. Mrs Marks could not make him believe that the strip of land was
to be built over, and that the tree would have to come down. He did not
argue about it. He merely said, "They shall not cut that tree down. I
shall see about it."

"Now that _is_ silly, Mr Peters. The tree _will_ come down before they
begin to build."

"No, it will not," said Peters.

One day, while Peters was lying under the tree, a party of men came and
took measurements, and cut lines in the turf, but they did not attempt
to touch the tree. Peters chuckled.

But next morning he was awakened by a sound of sawing. A party of
labourers had come early, and were at work on the tree, sawing off the
heavy lower boughs. Peters leant half out of the window in his
night-shirt and shook his fist at them. He was wild with excitement.

"Leave my tree alone!" he screamed.

The men stopped work for a minute. Two of them laughed. One of them
shouted up to him:

"Hold your row, you old fool! It ain't your tree."

"It _is_ mine," cried Peters. "I shall come down to you and stop you.
I'm coming now." Then he fell back on the bed fainting.

Mrs Marks was much alarmed, and--whether Peters liked it or
not--insisted on having a doctor.

When the doctor came downstairs she met him in the passage. "Well, sir?"
she said.

"I can do nothing--might have done if I'd been called in years ago. It's
the heart. He can't last long. Don't let him be excited, and I'll send
you something to give him for these fainting attacks."

Mrs Marks was a hard woman, but she wiped her eyes with her apron. "He's
been here so long, you see," she explained.

       *       *       *       *       *

Peters protested against the doctor. It was a foolish expense, if he was
certain to die.

"I've got a little put by--yes, that's true. But it's all to go to Elsa,
you see, and I don't want any of it wasted."

The blinds were drawn in order that he might not be excited by seeing
the felling of the tree; but he could hear the work going on, though he
pressed his thin hands to his ears.

As the sun shone in at his window one morning, and he lay awake in bed,
a big, swift shadow swept across the blind, and then came a deafening
crash.

Peters half raised himself in bed, one hand on his heart. His voice came
in a whisper, "My God!"

He sank quite gently back again on the bed, and did not move.




THE NIGHT OF GLORY


It was half-past six at night when she came down from the workrooms and
out into the street. She was an intensely anæmic girl, neatly dressed,
thin, tired. Given better health, she would not have been unattractive;
given a better way of life, she would have had better health.

A gentleman of forty-five crossed the street towards her, raised his
hat, and said, "You're late to-night."

She took absolutely no notice, and slightly quickened in her pace.

"Please do not hurry," he said. "I have so much to say to you." Then she
turned round on him and was very furious. If he bothered her any more
she would hand him over to the police.

"Pray don't misunderstand me," said the gentleman, plaintively; "I would
not insult you or treat you with anything but the greatest respect on
any account."

"Then what on earth do you want?" she said rather irritably.

"I will put it as briefly as I can. I happen to be very wealthy. I can
enjoy nothing--the day for that has gone past for me. I wish for one
night to see somebody else enjoy something. It had to be somebody who
did not usually spend money freely; somebody who worked hard; somebody
who had refinement and education. I thought, and I still think, that I
have found all these things in you. Will you come with me? Dinner, a
theatre or a music-hall, a little supper at the Carlton, and then my
brougham shall drive you home. You will be rendering me the greatest
possible service."

She was a girl that was quite used to taking care of herself. If she had
not much confidence in him, she had great confidence in herself. She
could, at any rate, test it, and abandon the experiment when it pleased
her.

"But," she said, "I have no proper dress for that kind of thing."

"You know what the proper dress would be?"

"Of course I do. It's my business."

"Very well, then, the rest is simple. You will go immediately and get
all that you require in that way--dress, gloves, everything. Do not
think about money, merely exercise the excellent taste which you show in
your present costume. If the dress gives you the least pleasure, I know
that it will give me much more. I shall be your debtor."

"It is like a fairy tale," she said.

"My brougham is here, and at your service."

The electric brougham slid noiselessly up to them. They got in.

In the brougham she watched him nervously, sideways. Yes, he was
forty-five. His dark hair was grey on the temples; there was a
melancholy cruelty in his thin-lipped mouth; but the greenish eyes,
strong and searching, were not the eyes of one who had out-lived
himself.

"I can't understand," she said. "What do you mean? You can't enjoy
anything?"

"Almost that. I am, unfortunately, one who must have novelty. There are
many women to whom I have given pretty toys and suppers at the Carlton.
That--well, that was another affair. This is quite different. To-night I
give for no other motive than to bring enjoyment to you. You see? I
shall enjoy it second-hand. Tell me all about the dress."

She laughed. "Oh! you wouldn't understand if I did. I am going to
Lambert's. One of the ladies there is a great friend of mine. Lucky that
I am stock size, isn't it?"

"Very," said the man, with enthusiasm. He had not the faintest notion
what stock size meant.

When the brougham stopped at Lambert's she seemed a little troubled.
"Half an hour is the least time I can possibly be," she said. "You won't
like waiting."

"Like it? It will be a luxury to me. Nobody has dared to make me wait
for twenty years. You shall do it. Your foot is on my neck. Seriously, I
have one or two little things to do myself. In the meantime"--he handed
her a roll of notes--"get everything you want and pay for it."

She was fully three-quarters of an hour away, but she was a very
transfigured maiden when the commissionaire opened the door of the
brougham for her. Excitement, or a touch of rouge, had put a little
colour into her pale face. Her dark hair was beautiful, and becomingly
dressed. For the rest, all was perfect, from that shapely head down to
the white satin shoes.

"Will this do?" she said eagerly.

"It is superb. You are transformed."

"That's quite true," she said. "I don't seem to myself to be the same
kind of person. I don't think the same way. Oh! please, it didn't take
nearly all that money. Look, I have got it here somewhere." She fumbled
under her cloak.

"Oh! please don't bother," said her companion. "You may want it later
for something or other. See what I have been doing to fill in time."

He took from its box an old ivory fan exquisitely painted, and handed it
to her.

"That fan," he said, "belonged once to a princess, a daughter of George
the Third. She was his favourite daughter, and it was her death which
finally dethroned his reason. Take it; you also are a princess
to-night."

"I cannot thank you--I cannot even begin to thank you. It is like a most
heavenly dream coming true."

"Pray don't speak of thanks. It is I who am indebted to you for being
pleased. I have bought another little toy for you as well."

He opened a case, containing a necklace of pearls, a single row. Not of
great size, but well matched and graduated.

"I am afraid," he said, "that this has no romantic history. The best I
can imagine is that the diver who brought the pearls was snapped in two
by a shark."

"The best?" she cried. "That is the worst! That is horrible! Oh! but
what a lovely necklace!"

"Then," said the man, "he was not snapped in two by a shark. He amassed
great wealth in the pearl fishery business, retired from it, married a
wife, had seventeen children, and was very, very happy."

"Seventeen seems a lot," said the girl.

"To-night you have only to command. The poor man had but two. May I put
the necklace on for you?"

She hesitated. After all, why be a fool? "Of course, if you like," she
said.

He fastened the snap quickly and deftly. "That is the way pearls look
best," he said.

She rubbed her eyes.

"Oh! don't do that," said the man.

She laughed. "I was trying to wake up," she said.

"Don't wake up. But as we now know one another so well shall we say what
our names are?"

"Well, your lordship," said the girl, a little timidly, "my name is
Appleby--Marion Appleby."

"Not 'your lordship'; Lord Alcester, please."

Presently she had recovered from the shock of the introduction, and was
eating iced Cantaloup melon. She looked pleased with the world. She
tasted everything, and drank a very little champagne.

His lordship dined principally on dry toast and old brandy. He was
evidently well known and appreciated in the restaurant.

"Tell me all about yourself," he said to her. "What is your ordinary day
like?"

"That is what I'd like to forget just now," she said. "We live in
Fulham, and it's a big family. Father's a very highly-educated man and
speaks three languages. He is a clerk in a very good position; but
still, you see, there are so many of us, and mamma's health isn't good.
I am up early every morning seeing to the children, and there is my own
work all day, and those workrooms are awful in the summer; then there is
the walk back, or sometimes a 'bus if I am very tired, and after that
there is always something to do about the house before I go to bed."

"Any holidays?"

"Oh! yes. We have our fortnight at the sea every summer. Father says
that is not a luxury but a necessity, and he'd save in almost any way
sooner than give that up. I believe he's right, too; you'd hardly know
me after a fortnight at Margate, if the weather's been good. I get
tanned, but I don't freckle. That's luck, isn't it?"

"It is the luckiest thing in the world. Waiter, I want a box at the
Frivolity to-night; see about it, please. If there is no box to be had I
will not take stalls, I will go somewhere else. And, Miss Appleby, what
do you suppose a day of my life is like?"

"I haven't the least idea."

"It is far harder work than yours, and much duller. Believe me, my
child, there is no toil so hard or so absolutely uninteresting as the
toil that one goes through in order to enjoy one's self. In August, when
I go North for the shooting, I still enjoy a little pleasure--at any
rate, the life there is not too actively disgusting. But the London
season--and I would far sooner die than miss any London season--is, if I
may use the expression, unmitigated hell."

"I think," the girl said, "that I could be happy if I were you."

"Undoubtedly--for six months; not always. This is really the only
pleasant evening that I have spent this summer."

"What made you think of it? Why did you choose me?"

"An all-merciful Providence that did not desire that I should slit my
throat out of sheer boredom made me think of it. I waited, and I saw
the rest of your companions pass out from the shop. Not one of them
would have suited me. Frankly, they are all a little vulgar, and, which
is far worse, a little uninteresting. You, on the other hand, are quite
charming. You possess a fascination peculiar to yourself."

"What is it?" the girl asked breathlessly.

"You are very good, and you have a potentiality of being very bad. If
you had been very bad, with a potentiality of being very good, you would
also have fascinated me. I like potentiality in others, for there is
none in myself. I shall never be any better and I could not be any
worse, and I don't care two straws either way. Let's talk about
something more interesting than myself. What? Oh! the box at the
Frivolity. Very well, shall we go, my child, or would you like to change
your mind and go to something else?"

It was quite late that night when he put her carefully into his
brougham, shook hands with her, refused to hear a word of thanks, and
gave the coachman the address in Fulham to which he was to take her.

       *       *       *       *       *

Five years had done a good deal. They had nearly, but not quite, killed
Lord Alcester. This winter night, bent, wizened, wrapped in furs, and
leaning heavily on his stick, he crawled slowly along Piccadilly on his
way from one club to another.

An ungloved hand touched his arm, and a hoarse woman's voice said, "Half
a moment, my lord."

He gave her one quick glance from under his heavy eyebrows. Those eyes
were not dead yet.

"It won't do," said Lord Alcester.

The girl laughed bitterly. "I thought you might like to look at your
work," she said. "You were the ruin of me five years ago."

"My good woman," said Lord Alcester. "If I stopped in Piccadilly to talk
to all the women who think I have been the ruin of them, it would stop
the traffic. Let me go, please."

She still clung to his arm. "Just half a moment," she said. "The
work-girl whom you gave a pretty dress to, and a string of pearls, and a
fan that once belonged to a princess. You remember?"

"Good God!" said Lord Alcester. "Where can we talk?"

She laughed again, the same bitter laugh, and surveyed her reflection in
a shop-window.

"Yes," she said, "a box at the Frivolity wouldn't do for me now, would
it? Here, I know of a place, if you'll follow me."

"All right," said Lord Alcester. "Walk slowly."

She led him by side-streets into back-streets. The little public-house
was very quiet, discreet, sinful and unsavoury. She pushed her way
through to a little room behind the bar.

"Now then," she said.

With difficulty Lord Alcester dragged off his heavy fur coat and flung
himself down on the crimson velveteen.

"What a godless hole this is," he said. "What are you going to have?"

"Glass of port," she said promptly.

"You haven't taken to spirits yet?"

"I keep that for the mornings. Shall I ring the bell?"

He nodded. The waiter who entered looked curiously from one to another.
Lord Alcester had a firm, quiet, impressive manner.

"You will bring me," he said, "a bottle of the best port you have and a
small bottle of soda-water. Make up that fire."

"I never said a bottle," said the woman. "Are you going to drink the
rest?"

"I am going to drink the soda-water. Don't talk about that. Sit down by
the fire. Warm your hands and tell me about yourself."

It was not until she had finished her first glass of port that she began
on the subject. "There is no more to say than what I said before," she
said. "You were my ruin."

"I remember that night very distinctly. I never made love to you. I
never tried to kiss you. I never treated you with any less respect than
I would have treated a woman of my own class. What are you talking
about? What is all this nonsense?"

"No nonsense at all. How did you think it would be when I got home that
night with fifty pounds' worth of new clothes, and my pearl necklace,
and a story of a theatre and supper afterwards? Do you think they would
believe my word at home? They said they did; I have got a temper, and
they daren't say anything else; but they let me see very well that they
didn't believe me. I wasn't going to stand it. Next morning at
breakfast, when they were all full of the thing, I gave them some
straight talking, and then I cleared out."

"Am I responsible for the heat of your temper and the straightness of
your talking?"

"You might have guessed how it would be with me. Did you think that
after one night of glory like that I was going back to perpetual
drudgery? I'd seen life as it might be, and I'd been given a bad name.
I'd only got to deserve it."

"How much did you get for the pearl necklace?"

"Three hundred and fifty."

"Then you were swindled."

"I know that, of course. I told them so. What did it matter? It was all
gone in a few weeks. I can tell you I made money fly in those days.
That's all past. I've lost what little good looks I ever had, haven't
I?"

"Quite," said Lord Alcester, mercilessly. "You drink, you see," he
added.

The girl put down her glass and fumbled desperately for a dirty little
handkerchief with her face screwed awry. She dabbed at her eyes and
shook with sobs.

"Stop that," said Lord Alcester. "You are making the devil of a row.
Look here, come to business."

"I might have been good," she moaned. "If I had never met you I might
have been good."

Lord Alcester was writing something on one of his visiting-cards. He
stepped over to her and touched her on the shoulder. "Can you read that
address?" he said.

"Yes," she said between her sobs. "Lincoln's Inn Fields. Solicitors, I
suppose?"

"Quite so," said Lord Alcester, as he struggled back into his coat
again. "They'll give you a pound a week as long as you live. Call for it
on Saturday mornings. I could also give you plenty of good advice, but I
won't. Are you coming?"

She glanced at the decanter by her side. "Not quite yet," she said. "I
think I'll just--"

"Oh! I see," said Lord Alcester, contemptuously. "Good-night, then."

Out in the street he stopped the first hansom that he saw. The man had
often driven him before.

"What will you take," he said to the man, "to drive this cab to eternal
smash? Drive it, for instance, down the Duke of York's steps?"

The cabman smiled patiently. "Which club did you say, my lord?" Lord
Alcester gave the address of his club and got into the cab.




AN IDYLL OF THE SEA


The repellent mid-day meal grew to its untidy close in a frowsy
boarding-house in one of the less-pleasing back streets of
Sefton-on-Sea. Mr Sigismund Porter had eaten so remarkably little that
he might almost have won an approving smile from the hawk-eyed
proprietress. As a rule, Mr Porter was a young man who liked value for
his money, but to-day there was something on his mind, a gloomy
resolution which destroyed his appetite.

"I am going," he said to himself, "to put my cards down on the table. I
am going to own up, and to act on the square, and to be chucked for
doing it, and to leave this blighted place to-morrow."

In his small bedroom at the very top of the house he arrayed himself
with his usual scrupulous care. He wore a pair of the yellowest boots in
Sefton-on-Sea, waistcoat and trousers of grey flannel, a dark blue
smoking-jacket of the reach-me-down or Edgware Road order, and a straw
hat adorned with the bewitching colours of the Advance Guard Cycling
Club. His necktie was of the palest saffron, saving for such stains as
it had acquired by natural wear and tear. He surveyed himself in the
looking-glass and was satisfied.

Considering that he was really rather a nice-looking young man, he was
a pretty bad sight. He had dark, wavy hair, and a girl had once said
that he had the most pathetic eyes in Brixton. He lived at Brixton, and
so did the girl. That was now merely an incident in the dead past.

He selected one of those cigarettes the principal characteristic of
which is that you get an amazing amount of them for threepence. He shut
the case with a snap--a real silver case which gave him pleasure--and so
he went forth jauntily. He was going to his doom, of course, and he knew
that he was going to his doom. But as his way to his doom lay along the
sea-front, it was as well for the present to keep up appearances. From
the sea-front he reached the pier, cast down his penny at the
turnstiles, and walked up to the further end of it to a secluded seat
behind the little pavilion where they let the entertainments loose.
There he waited, leaning forward with his rather weak chin on the handle
of his walking-stick. For a moment the wicked thought flashed across him
that there was no necessity for him to put his cards down on the table,
that he might as well have played the game out to the end. He cast the
temptation from him. He would lose the girl, of course, but there was
the very devil in it. He would rather lose her fairly than leave her
with the glittering but untrue portrait of himself that she must now
possess.

He looked up and saw the girl herself walking towards him.

"Walks like a queen," he said to himself. "Walks as if she'd bought the
whole place, and could pay for it--and she gets thirty bob a week from a
Dover Street milliner. You couldn't hardly believe it." Then he arose
and lifted his absurd hat.

The girl shook hands with him frankly. She was simply and quietly
dressed, but perhaps her profession gave her advantages there.

"Good afternoon, Mr Porter," she said. "You are getting splendid weather
for your last day here." She was a pretty girl with enigmatical eyes,
and her voice was softer and pleasanter than the voice of Mr Sigismund
Porter.

"Yes," said Mr Porter, gloomily, "the weather's a bit of all right, I
suppose, if the weather were everything."

"But the weather is quite a good deal, isn't it?" said the girl,
cheerfully. "You wouldn't enjoy your run on your motor-car up to the
Lakes if it came on wet."

"There ain't going to be any run," said the young man.

"What? But what about your friends--Colonel Raynes and Lord Daybrooke?
You can't disappoint them."

"I shan't," he said bitterly. "They won't be disappointed, because they
don't exist. I haven't got any colonels and lords amongst my friends.
It was all lies and brag. For that matter, I haven't got any friends
except one girl, and she's just going to give me the chuck for taking
her in."

"I see," said the girl, thoughtfully. "Would you mind very much if we
left this disgusting, vulgar little pier and walked along by the sands?
They begin to make music of sorts here directly, and it will be quieter
out of the crowd."

The thought flashed into his mind that it was hardly worth while to pay
a penny for the pier and leave it at the end of five minutes, for his
mind was perforce economical. But money questions at the moment seemed
too sordid.

"All right," he said. "Considering the way I've carried on--I may say
the rotten way I've carried on--it's pretty decent of you to hear the
story out. I suppose I could kick up some sort of an excuse."

"Perhaps I could find the excuses for you," said the girl, as they went
down together on to the beach. "You are not really stopping at the
Grand, then?"

"No, I'm not. I've been stopping at the cheapest and muckiest
boarding-house in the place, and in a mortal funk all the time lest you
should see me going in and out. Well, that's all over, at any rate. You
know the worst now. The way it started was that I wanted to impress you
a bit. I wanted to make myself out one of the lucky ones. I wanted to
seem a superior class to you altogether. And that's the damned funny
thing about it, if you'll excuse my swearing. All the time that I was
bragging about motor-cars, and you were talking about the stuffy
workrooms, you were the superior class to me, and I was the dirt under
your feet. Looking back on it, I can't think how I came to make such a
fool of myself. Your superior, indeed! Why, even on the outside facts
I'm not that, for I only make twenty-eight bob to your thirty, and I
haven't got your chance of a rise."

"I think I see how it all happened," said the girl. "It was all very
natural. I was sorry you told me those fibs, but I was not half as sorry
then as I am glad now when you've taken them back again."

"Hold on," said the man. "I mean, just half a moment, if you don't mind.
You said you were sorry when I began blowing about my position and all
that. You knew, then?"

"Yes," said the girl. "I knew all the time. And all the time I was
rather thinking that you wouldn't go on with it."

The young man stared at her hard. "You beat me altogether," he said. "I
can't make head or tail of it. Of course, you've had opportunities of
picking up style in your work, and there's no manner of doubt that
you've got it. Well, I've known other girls who worked at a milliner's
who have done the same. What beats me is that you've got that way of
thinking. That's where they slip up. They say it all right, but what
they say is all wrong. It's the same here, for the matter of that," he
added gloomily.

"Now I want to talk to you," said the girl. "We are out of the crowd
here. Let's sit down. I've got to apologise to you too, you know. I've
told you lies, too. I never worked for a milliner in my life. I've got a
motor-car and more money than I want, and I am stopping at the very
hotel where you said you were."

"I take it," said the young man, quietly, "that this is about the last
straw. If you'll permit one question, miss, that being the case, why on
earth did you ever let me speak to you?"

"We will both be honest now," said the girl. "I saw you several times,
and always alone. You did not seem to be having a particularly happy
holiday. I saw that you wanted to talk to me. The book that I left on
the seat gave you your chance, but I did not leave my book there on
purpose. I had not even made up my mind at the moment when you brought
it to me what I would do. When you began to talk, I saw that right at
the back of all the talk you were quite a good young man. You always
treated me properly and with respect."

"The man's not been born yet who would dare do anything else."

The girl laughed. "Well, I was inclined to like you. I don't value what
you call the outside facts so very, very much. I rather like doing
something unconventional, if it is not actually wrong. I thought it
would please you if I let you meet me sometimes."

"That's rather a mild way of putting it."

"It pleased me too. At the back of everything that was wrong in you
there were such lots and lots of good. I don't want you to look on it as
simply an idle experiment on my part. Perhaps there was a slight shade
of that in it, and I am rather ashamed of it. But it was chiefly that I
wanted you to have a rather happier time here."

"I believe all that," said Mr Porter, "and I did have a happier time
here. But think how I've got to pay for it afterwards. There's the
contempt you must have felt for me--that's a nice sort of thing to have
in your mind when you can't sleep at night! By God!" he burst out with
sudden ferocity, "you lied worse than I did. You did more harm."

"Now you talk like a man," she said. "But you're mistaken on one point.
There was never any contempt. All the time I was thinking that in your
circumstances I should probably have been sorely tempted to do exactly
as you did. Think of that when you can't sleep."

"That isn't everything," said the young man, jabbing holes in the sand
with his stick.

"Isn't it?" said the girl. "What's the rest?"

"Thanks," said the young man, bitterly, "but I'm not going to make a
fool of myself again. You go and become what you pretended to be. Come
to me as a thirty-bob-a-week girl, working for a milliner, then I'll
tell you the rest fast enough. Now I'm going to say 'Good-bye' to you."

"I think I see," said the girl. "That could never have been in any
circumstances. But because I want you to know that I'm a friend to you,
good-bye." She held out both her hands to him. "And remember this." Then
she put her face up to his and kissed him.

In a moment she was gone.

The young man remained standing there. "And," he said to himself, "one
ought to go straight up to heaven in a chariot of golden fire."




THE MAGIC RINGS


PART I.--NETTA, THE MAKE-BELIEVER

Netta's father one day picked her up, swung her into the air, and put
her down on the top of the high Italian cabinet in the hall. "There, you
little slut," he said, "what does the world look like from up there?"

"Quite different; you wouldn't know it. The pictures look so
queer--upside down; and the staircase isn't the same--or anything. Can't
you come up too?"

"No; I'm afraid."

"Did you know there were two--no, three--big rings up here on the top of
the cabinet? You can't see them from down below. May I bring them down?"

"If you like."

They were three disused wooden curtain rings, very dusty.

"How did they get there?" asked Netta.

"That," said her father, "is one of the things that I do not know; ask
somebody else."

So she asked her mother, her governess, her nurse, and all the servants.
They also did not know. They supposed that somebody must have put them
there some time. Netta went back to her father and obtained permission
to have those rings for her own. She carried them out into the garden
into a secluded place under a weeping ash. There she examined the rings
very carefully, and thought about the mystery which surrounded them.
When she took them upstairs she showed them to her nurse.

"These are the magic rings," she said.

"Are they, indeed, now?" said the nurse, used to being interested,
fictitiously, but at the shortest notice, in anything childish.

On the next day Netta felt the need of a temple. The romance of the
rings was growing rapidly. Invested with a mysterious origin and
properties not yet fully defined, but vaguely magical, they required to
be enshrined in a temple. For one night they had put up with the shelter
of the toy-cupboard. But in view of their character they were now to
have a place apart. Netta went to her father and asked him if he had an
empty box that he could spare.

"Would a cardboard box do?"

"Yes. It ought to be pure white, though."

The pure white cardboard box was found and given to her. This became the
temple. Netta placed the three magic rings in it, and called her
brother, who was a year older than she, and at that time rather a pious
little prig.

"Would you like to see what's in that box, Jimmy?"

"I don't much mind."

"It's a temple, and I don't think I shall let you. I certainly shan't
let _everybody_."

"You ought to let me see, because I'm your brother."

"Well, first of all I must write your name inside the lid. Everyone who
is allowed to see into the temple is going to be written down there.
You're not to look until I've done it." She wrote the name as neatly as
she could with a long new pencil, beautifully pointed. "Now you can
look," she said.

"It isn't anything at all. It's only three old rings."

"Yes, but they're magic rings."

"Pooh! They can't do anything."

"Can't they?" said Netta with immense indifference, as she replaced the
lid. She sat on the table, swinging her slim legs, and hummed
provokingly.

"I _know_ they can't do anything," Jimmy repeated.

Netta looked away from him, up at the flies circling on the white
ceiling. Her eyes grew big and meditative. She continued humming.

"Well," said Jimmy, desperately, "what _can_ they do?"

"Every night when you're in bed and asleep, and when everybody else is
in bed and asleep, they can come out of the temple and run about. They
run up walls and along the roofs of houses. And they can fly, too. They
fly just like--like flies."

"I don't believe it. You're being a liar, and you know where liars go
to. You ought to be punished."

"I'm not being a liar. I might be a make-believer, perhaps, but I shan't
say if I am. Nobody knows where those rings came from. Papa himself
doesn't know."

"I shall go and ask him this minute myself." Jimmy walked firmly to the
door, paused, and added, "And lying is the same as make-believing."

He found his father, and asked him if he knew where those rings that
Netta had came from.

"No," said his father, "I told her I didn't."

Jimmy was disappointed. "Lying and make-believing are the same thing,
aren't they?" he said.

"Not at all the same thing." This was yet another disappointment. Later
in the day Jimmy went to Netta and said that she really ought to give
him one of those rings as he was her brother. She refused. He then asked
if he might look inside the temple at them again. Once more he was
refused.

"It is not a good thing," said Netta, gravely, "to look at them too much
in one day."

"It seems as if I couldn't do anything or have anything, or play at
anything," said Jimmy, gloomily. Netta, being tender-hearted, relented,
and allowed him to look once more.

Netta had girl-friends of her own age. They were Dorothy, and Cecilia
Vane, and Rose Heritage. Netta told them about the magic rings, and they
were all deeply impressed.

A ritual sprang up. Netta was the priestess and Rose Heritage was the
under-priestess. It became necessary always to wave a green leaf slowly
over the temple before opening it. Every morning the magic rings were
taken out and placed for a few minutes in a basin of pure water. Then
they were dried and put back again in the temple. Dorothy Vane, who read
deeply, suggested amulets, and they were made at once. Each girl wore
round her neck a gold thread--it had come off a box of crackers--and to
the thread was attached a small square of white cardboard, on which
three circles had been drawn. Netta and Rose had amulets on which the
circles were drawn in red chalk. Dorothy and Cecilia had to be content
with black ink. But it was understood that after a certain time Dorothy
would be raised to the position of under-priestess, and then she also
would have the red-chalk privilege. The amulets were to be worn under
the dress, and to be shown to no one. The secrecy observed was
tremendous. Nobody was to know anything. When engaged with the magic
rings, Christian names were forbidden. Netta was addressed as the
priestess and Rose as the under-priestess; Dorothy was called One and
Cecilia Two. Of course, Two was the least honourable position. It had
been assigned to Cecilia because, owing to her sweet and gentle
disposition, she consented to take it--which none of the other three
would have done. Jimmy was by unanimous vote left out of it altogether.
They would ask him if he would not go and play in the garden, like a
kind boy, because they had some private secrets to talk about; and if he
came suddenly into the room where they were they hid things hurriedly
and talked ostentatiously about the weather. This maddened Jimmy.
Sometimes he said that he knew all about it, and at other times pointed
out to Netta that the claims of their relationship required that she
should tell him all about it, and at other times that he did not want to
know. Occasionally he threatened to throw the temple and the magic rings
(he called them "old curtain-rings," but that was only his
offensiveness) into the duck-pond. He did not do it. The devotees were
four in number, and he was only one, and foolhardiness is not courage.
"Anyhow," he said, "if you weren't doing wrong, you'd let me into it,
and so you're certain to be punished. I have got secrets of my own and
mine are not wrong, but I shan't say anything about them." But he
prevailed nothing.

The legends about the magic rings grew rapidly in number and in
strength. Their origin was now accounted for. They had been hoops
belonging to the fairies, and they had undergone trundling so willingly
and beautifully that the fairies had set them free and given them
magical powers. This aetiological myth was, like the rest, given out by
big-eyed Netta, the make-believer, and received with wonderment and
satisfaction by her followers. The magic rings always lived a day on
ahead; what is merely Monday to us was Tuesday to them. Reports of their
nocturnal wanderings were received from time to time. They frequently
went to the moon. They could fly like flies, it will be remembered. Once
they went to the Star of Dolls. This star is inhabited by dolls only,
and they can talk. A penny exercise book was procured (the generous and
sweet-tempered Cecilia defraying the total expense), and in it the myths
were written out, together with certain rules to be observed. It was
called the "Volume of the Magic Rings," and the under-priestess had
charge of it just as the priestess had charge of the temple. Letters
passed freely between the four girls. I give the one which was the
beginning of the end:

  "DEAREST PRIESTESS,--When you bring the temple with you to tea on
  their Thursday wich is our Wensday, mind to bring two handkercheeves,
  and one of them must be clean. This is important. I have something to
  show you. I hope you tell Jimy nothing.--Your loving

                                                  "UNDER-PRIESTESS."

The other girls had received similar instructions. Cecilia had been told
to bring her musical-box as well. They all met in Rose's schoolroom, and
at first she did not explain her instructions fully.

"I've got a splendid thing," she said. "First of all, when I say 'Go,'
you must all run after me at once, bringing the things with you, and
then when we get there I'll tell you the rest."

Rose's governess was with them at tea, but afterwards she made ready to
go out into the garden, suggesting that they should come too.

"May we wait a little and then come?" asked Rose. "We want to play in
the house first."

"Very well," said Miss Stagg. "Don't get into any mischief."

The moment she had gone Rose said "Go!" In single file, with Rose
leading, they ran down a long passage and into the spare bedroom at the
end of it.

"Now, then," said Rose, "first of all, we tie clean white handkerchiefs
on our heads." It was done. "Now, come and look."

In the spare room there was a very large toilet-table. It was hung all
round with pink chintz with thin white muslin over it. When you got
under the table the world was shut out by these curtains, and the light
came through them in a holy, pink, subdued glow. It was a charming and
secluded spot, and here Miss Rose had placed all ready two small
coloured candles and a box of matches, and the lid of a box piled high
with rose petals, and the green leaf essential to the opening of the
temple. All agreed that it really was as splendid as she had said. A
conference was held, and the ritual decided. The candles were lighted,
and placed one on each side of the temple. The green leaf was waved, the
temple opened, and the magic rings taken out. At this point the
musical-box was to begin to play. The Priestess had assigned the turning
of the musical-box to Two, because, after all, it was her own
musical-box, and she had so few privileges. So Two was radiant. The
magic rings were to be covered over with the rose petals, left there
until the music ceased, and then replaced in the temple. Then everybody
was to say, "O magic rings!" three times, and the candles were to be
extinguished. The programme was never concluded, because, in the middle
of it, Rose's governess, Miss Stagg, came and caught them.

It was Miss Stagg's opinion that they were very naughty, wicked,
irreverent children, and that they ran a risk of burning the house down.
The first accusation was untrue, but the latter had something in it.

The four children wandered out into the garden, a dejected group.
Cecilia was the only one who had actually cried though, and they had all
comforted her as well as they could.

"I do hate Miss Stagg," said Rose. "This is the end of the magic rings."

Netta, the make-believer, rose to the occasion with a new myth.

"The magic rings have been insulted. They do not like that. I don't like
being insulted myself, and if it had been _my_ governess I should have
answered back. Well, I know what the magic rings will do now."

"What?"--breathlessly, from all.

"They will go away. To-night I shall put them in their temple in their
usual place. But to-morrow all of you come in the morning after lessons,
and you'll see--they'll be gone! They will go right away by themselves,
perhaps to the moon and perhaps to the Star of Dolls."

Miss Stagg thought it her duty to inform Mrs Heritage, who heard the
story gravely, and thanked her, but repeated it brilliantly, amid a good
deal of merriment, to the make-believer's father, when she dined at his
house that night.

"Ah!" he said, "I must manage a mysterious disappearance for those
rings."

When next morning Netta and her companions opened the temple the rings
were not there, but in their place was a slip of paper, on which the
word "Good-bye" was written. Not one of the four was more astonished
than Netta herself. "It's really happened. I wasn't _sure_ it would, you
know."

"I shall tell Miss Stagg," said Rose, triumphantly.

"I wonder if we really were wicked," said Cecilia, with a troubled look
in her angel-eyes. "I didn't mean to be."

They never solved the mystery; gradually they forgot it.


PART II.--FURTHER OFF FROM HEAVEN

Forty years passed, and but two of the people of this story were left
alive--Rose Heritage and Netta. Rose Heritage had become Lady Mallard,
lived in a big house in the country, and had a grown-up family. Netta
lived alone in a small house in West Kensington. The two never
corresponded, and heard nothing of each other now. The friendship had
never been violently broken off. It had perished from time and
separation, as friendships will.

Of the others, Cecilia was the first to die. As a child her nurses had
said that she was too good to live. As a girl of eighteen she seemed too
beautiful to live. It was a beauty so spiritual, so unearthly, that to
see it was to feel that it was claimed elsewhere. Netta's father had
died with the complaint on his lips that physical pain had so far
destroyed his sense of humour that he got no more pleasure out of
leading articles. Jimmy had gone into the army, spent his own share of
his father's property and most of Netta's, and finally redeemed by a
gallant death a life that had been remarkably extravagant and bad.

Netta's hair was grey; her face was worn and ascetic. But one would have
said rightly that she must have been a handsome woman in her time. She
had never married. At seventeen she had been in love with a man whom
she could not marry, a hopeless affair, and horrible enough for her
while it lasted. It lasted three years. It was all forgotten now, or
only the vague memory of a bad dream. Jimmy had been a care to her, too;
she never knew while he lived what might not be the next news that she
would hear of him. She had become a learned, lonely woman now, had taken
the degree of doctor of medicine, practised a little, and wrote very
often. She wrote mostly on her own special subject, but occasionally for
less technical and more widely-read journals.

She had been writing for one of them, this afternoon, in her
poorly-furnished study upstairs. It was growing dark, and her
reading-lamp by her side was lit; but she had not yet had the curtains
drawn, and through the windows she could see the white snow falling
slowly into the dirty street. She had stopped writing in the middle of a
sentence:

"And, whether the sentimentalist--"

She had flung down her pen impatiently. She had been teased all day by
an effort to remember something--to explain what was after all a
perfectly trivial thing. In turning over a cupboardful of papers, which
had belonged to her father and been left practically untouched ever
since they had been sent to her house, she had come across three old
curtain rings carefully tied together. A label was attached to them, and
on it was written--the ink was faded and yellow--"Netta, the
Make-Believer." Underneath were a few words of Greek. She remembered
vaguely that when she was a child there was something about
curtain-rings--she had played with them, possibly. But if that was all,
why had her father thought it worth while to keep them? What was it
exactly that she used to do with those rings?

These silly questions would keep coming into her head and distracting
her attention from her work. She shivered a little--the room was
chilly--and took up her pen again. She wrote:

"And, whether the sentimentalist believes it or whether he does not,
this religious passion which he admires so vastly in his nuns and
martyrs is but a perversion of an instinct which--"

Once more she paused. The room was really too cold. Looking round, she
saw that the fire was almost out. She was accustomed to do things for
herself, and she set to work to revive it at once. She opened the
cupboard where she generally kept a few sticks for the purpose, but this
afternoon there was none there. The curtain-rings lay on her
writing-table, still tied together. Why, of course, they would do as
well.

In a few minutes the fire was blazing brightly She warmed her hands at
it, gazing abstractedly into the red embers. Then she went back to her
work and wrote rapidly until the article was finished.




THE UNSEEN POWER


Winter walked restlessly about the room as he told his story. He was a
slender young man, with very smooth hair worn rather too long, a
gold-mounted pince-nez, and an expression which showed that vanity was
not wholly absent from his composition. It was the story of a haunted
house. The man who owned it, and was now unable to let it, had asked
Winter to investigate.

"And the whole point of it is that you've got to come along and help
me," he concluded.

"Thank you," said Mr Arden, "but I will not go."

Arden was a man of fifty, white-haired, thin, heavily lined.

"Well, why not?" said Winter, peevishly. "I want to know why not. It
seems to me it would be rather interesting. You can choose any night you
like, and--"

Arden waved the subject away with one hand. "It's useless to talk about
it," he said, "I'm not going."

"But what do you mean?" said Winter. "You are not going to tell me that
you're superstitious or afraid?"

"I should say," said Arden, "that I am what you would call
superstitious. You, I presume, are not."

"Emphatically not," said Winter.

"Nor afraid?"

"Nor afraid," Winter echoed.

"Then why don't you go alone?" said Arden.

Winter murmured of sociability; it was no great fun to sit up all night
by one's self. Besides, in the detection of a practical joke, which was
probably all that it was, two would be better than one. Arden must see
for himself that--

Arden broke in impetuously. "Look here," he said. "Stop wandering about
the room and sit down. I'll tell you why I won't come. Did you ever hear
of Minnerton Priory?"

"Of course I've heard about it. I don't know the whole story, and I
don't suppose anybody does. A man lost his life over it, didn't he?"

"Two men lost their lives. I was the third man. Now, you know why I
won't play with these things any more."

"Tell me about it," said Winter. "I've only heard scraps here and there,
and reports are always inaccurate. So you were actually one of them. I
should never have guessed it."

"I will tell you the story if you wish. Will you have it now, or will
you wait till you have finished your investigation of the house at
Falmouth?"

"I will hear it now," said Winter.

This is the story that Arden told.

       *       *       *       *       *

"In 1871 my aunt, Lady Wytham, bought Minnerton Priory. The place had
been uninhabited for the best part of half a century, and was in very
bad repair. It was cheap and it was picturesque, and both cheapness and
picturesqueness appealed to Lady Wytham. Of the original Priory there
was very little left standing. Frequent additions had been made to it at
different periods, and the general effect of the place when I first saw
it was rather grim and queer. Lady Wytham was very energetic, had the
place surveyed, and in a few months had got her workmen down there. In
one wing of the house a secret chamber had been found. It was on the
ground floor, and it was a small room of perhaps twelve feet square.
There was one window to it, placed very high up, and this window had
been built up on the outside. Opposite to the window was a small
fireplace, and the only entrance to the room was from the big
dining-hall. The hall was panelled, and one of the panels formed the
door into the secret chamber. I believe this kind of thing is fairly
common in old houses dating back to the times of religious and political
trouble, when hiding-places were constantly wanted.

"The builders had not been at work many months at the Priory before
there was trouble. I cannot say exactly what it was. It began with the
unbricking of the little window in the secret chamber. I know that the
men refused point-blank to do any work whatever in the great
dining-hall. Many were dismissed and new hands were taken on, but the
trouble still persisted, till finally Lady Wytham herself went down to
interview the clerk of works and a foreman or two. On the following day
she wrote to me. She said that an idiotic story was being told with
reference to the newly-discovered chamber of Minnerton Priory, and she
was anxious to have it satisfactorily knocked on the head. Would I, and
any friends that I might care to bring down, spend a few nights in the
secret chamber? It would probably be very uncomfortable, but she would
send over furniture and a servant to wait on us. The postscript
explained that the servant would not sleep in the house.

"The idea rather appealed to me, but being, unlike yourself, a little
nervous over the business, I determined to take a couple of men down
with me. One of them was an intimate friend of mine, Charles Stavold, a
good-natured giant, but a useful man in a row. He and I talked it over
together, and finally selected as the third man a young doctor, Bernard
Ash. Ash was a remarkably brilliant young man, and we looked to him to
supply the brains of the trio. If any practical joke were attempted he
would be quite certain to find it out, and both Stavold and myself were
quite sure that some practical joke would be attempted. Minnerton Priory
lies in a very conservative county. The rustics of the village were
quite capable of resenting Lady Wytham's intrusion into the Priory. It
had always been uninhabited in their father's time, and that would be
quite reason enough to determine them that it should not be inhabited
now. There were some objections to our choice. Ash led an extremely
dissipated life, and Stavold and myself were a little inclined to doubt
his nerves. This doubt, by the way, was not justified by results.

"We reached Minnerton in the afternoon. A large staff of men was busy at
work at the place, but the only person in or anywhere near the great
dining-hall was Lady Wytham's servant, Rudd. She could not have sent us
a better man. He could turn his hand to anything. He had already
unpacked the beds and other furniture that had been sent and put them in
place, and was at present engaged on getting dinner for us. We went
through the dining-hall and into the secret chamber.

"'This won't do,' said Ash at once.

"'What don't do?' asked Stavold.

"'Why, there's no furniture in here of any kind. One can't sleep on
these stone flags.'

"'Are we going to sleep in here?' I asked.

"'One of us is,' he said.

"I called up Rudd and gave my directions. He brought mattresses and made
up a bed on the floor. Then we went round and examined the walls
carefully, for, as Ash observed, where there is one trick panel there
may be another. But we could find nothing that seemed in any way
suspicious.

"We came back into the great hall, and sat down there and talked the
thing over. It was now growing dusk. Already the tapping and hammering
of the workmen had ceased, and we had heard them laughing as they passed
the window on their way home. Right away at the other end of the hall
came the chink of plates and the hiss of a frying-pan where Rudd was
busy with his preparations. He had brought four big lamps with him, and
these he now lit, but there seemed to be something impenetrable about
the darkness of this vast room. The light was still dim, with masses of
dark shadow waving in the far corners and in the vaulted roof above us.

"'Who's going to sleep in the haunted chamber?' Stavold asked.

"'I am,' said Ash.

"We squabbled about it, and finally decided to toss for it. Ash had his
own way. He was to sleep there that night, Stavold was to sleep there
the second night, and I myself was left the third night. By this time
we had little doubt that we should be at the bottom of the mystery.

"Rudd gave us an excellent dinner, and had shown wisdom in his choice of
the wine which he had brought with him. The wine made glad the heart of
man, and before dinner was over we were treating the whole thing more as
an amusing kind of spree than as a serious investigation. At ten o'clock
Rudd inquired at what hour we should like breakfast in the morning, and
asked if there was anything further he could do for us that night.

"'Aren't you going to stop and see the ghost, Rudd?' I asked.

"'I think not, sir,' he said quietly. 'Her ladyship had arranged, sir,
that I should sleep at the inn.'

"So we let him go, and I had a curious feeling that with him went the
most competent man of the four. Perhaps the same idea had occurred to
Ash.

"'He's a perfect wonder,' said Ash. 'Fancy being able to turn out a
dinner like that here, with no proper appliances of any kind. I don't
call it cooking; I call it conjuring tricks.'

"'Perhaps you'll see some more conjuring tricks a little later,' said
Stavold, grimly.

"After dinner we played poker for an hour or so and then turned in. One
of the lamps was left burning in the big hall, and Ash took a candle
with him into the secret chamber. But he did not propose to leave it
lighted. It wouldn't be playing the game, he said.

"Some time after I had got into bed I could hear Ash tapping on the
panels and trying them again, and I could see the light under the door.
Stavold was already heavily sleeping. I knew nothing more till I was
awakened by him early on the following morning. Rudd had already
returned, and was preparing breakfast. Naturally our first move was to
the secret chamber. We opened the panel door and went in. Ash's clothes
were lying on the only chair in the room. The bed had been slept in, but
there was no one there now. I noticed that the two candlesticks had also
vanished. For a moment or two neither of us spoke, and then I asked my
companion what he made of it.

"'That's all right,' he said, 'Ash woke early, and has slipped down to
the river in his pyjamas to get a swim. It's ten to one we find him
there.'

"It was not impossible, but I was surprised that he had not awakened
either of us in passing through the hall. We picked up our towels and
went down to the river. We called and got no answer, but we had not at
this time begun to be anxious. Possibly after his bath he had gone off
for a stroll through the plantations. We took a long swim, lit our
pipes, and walked up to the house. The workmen were busy now on the new
part far away from the big hall. In the hall itself we found breakfast
laid for three.

"'Dr Ash has come back then?' I said to Rudd.

"Rudd looked puzzled. 'I have not seen him this morning, sir.'

"'Drowned himself?' I suggested to Stavold.

"'Not a bit of it. Why should he? This is a little practical joke of
Ash's. We'll see if he doesn't get tired of it before we do. Hunger will
bring him back at lunch-time.'

"Late in the afternoon he had not returned, and we sent word up to the
police-station. The police-station sent us the usual idiot, who made his
notes and did his best to look as if he knew what to do. We spent the
rest of the day in searching for Ash with no success. At ten o'clock we
gave it up, and Rudd went back to the inn. We did very little talking,
and I had some curious and inexplicable feelings as I sat there in the
silence. My tobacco pouch lay on the table at arm's length, and I found
myself thinking that I might have an impulse to take it up in my hand
but that as I did not want the pouch at the moment I should resist the
impulse. Then my hand shot right out to the pouch, gripped it, and shook
it.

"'What the devil are you doing?' said Stavold.

"I flung the pouch down and got up from my chair. 'Dropping off to
sleep, I fancy,' I said.

"'You didn't look it.'

"'Well, I ought to know, oughtn't I? Help me to drag another bed into
that chamber there. We'll see it through together to-night.'

"'Oh, no, we won't,' said my companion. 'If we did that we should leave
this hall here for the use of the practical jokers, if there are any.
You will sleep here to-night. I shall take my turn in the secret
chamber; only, if I can help it, I shan't sleep.'

"'I wonder where on earth Ash is,' I said.

"'We don't know and it won't improve our nerves to imagine. Yours seem a
bit jumpy anyhow. We've done all we can to find him. Leave it at that.'

"I did not expect to sleep that night, yet sleep came to me in fits. I
had wakened many times, and at last I determined that I might as well
get up. In half an hour the grey dawn would be beginning. I remembered
that Stavold had told me that he did not mean to go to sleep. I whistled
softly as I slipped on my clothes, so that he might hear that I was
moving about and join me. As he did not come I listened at the door of
the chamber and heard no sound. In a moment I was standing inside it
with the lamp shaking in my hand. The room was exactly as we had found
it the morning before. There was nobody there. The bed had been slept
in, and was now empty. The clothes lay on the chair. The candlestick
had gone. I was horribly frightened.

"I did not wait for Rudd to come back. I went on to the village
police-station at once and told my story. There was no doubt that this
was a serious matter, and before breakfast-time an inspector had arrived
from Saltham. Accompanied by a serjeant and myself he came over to the
Priory and into the dining-hall.

"'I think I'll take a look round by myself first,' he said. 'You can
wait here.' He went into the chamber, and I could hear his heavy boots
on the flags and the useless tapping on the walls. I was confident that
nothing could be found there. There were a few minutes of silence, and
he opened the door and said, 'Will you come in here, Mr Arden?'

"I went in and saw that the bed had been pulled out from its usual place
in the corner. He pointed to a large flagstone which the bed had
covered.

"'I should like to show you, sir, a curious optical effect there is in
this room. Would you mind standing on that flagstone there?'

"I came round the bed to it, and my foot had just touched it when I was
jerked backwards and fell to the floor.

"'Beg your pardon, sir,' said the inspector behind me. 'I had to
satisfy myself that you didn't know of the trap. See here.'

"He knelt down beside the big flagstone and touched it lightly with his
fingers. It was exactly balanced by a big iron pin through the centre,
and it now swung open, showing a dark shaft going far down into the
earth.

"'You mean that they are down there?' I said.

"'Not a doubt. Each of them, as is only natural, tried the floor as well
as the walls, and moved the bed for the purpose. That finished them.
It's the merest chance that I didn't go down the shaft myself.'

"'Well,' I said, 'the sooner we go down there the better. Where can we
get a rope?'

"The inspector picked up a small tin match-box and emptied out the
matches into the palm of his hand. 'Listen,' he said. He flung the box
down the shaft. We listened, and listened, but heard no sound. 'See?' he
said. 'That's deep. No use to get a rope there. Anyone who fell down
there is dead. That's been a well, I should say.'

"I was angry with the man's cock-surety, and said that I was going down
in any case. A rope was brought and attached to a lighted lantern. The
lantern was lowered, and in a few yards went out. The experiment was
tried again and again, and each time the lantern was extinguished by the
foul air. It was hopeless. No human being could have lived for five
minutes down there.

"I rose from the floor, put on my coat, and turned to the inspector.
'This explains nothing,' I said. 'On the morning that Dr Ash was missed
I went in here with Mr Stavold, and we found the bed placed as it had
been the night before, immediately over this trap. If Dr Ash fell down
it how did he put the bed back after him? The same thing applies to Mr
Stavold; again the bed was left over the trap.'

"'They did not move the bed back again, but somebody else did.'

"'Who?'

"'That is what I hope to find out to-night? Are you yourself willing to
sleep to-night in the big hall alone?'

"'Certainly. I don't exactly see what the idea is.'

"'Never mind about that. It may come to nothing. One can but try. You
say that Rudd locked the door to this hall when he went out at night?'

"'Yes. A modern lock had been fitted, and the door locked itself as soon
as it was shut. It could only be opened from the outside with a
latch-key.'

"'And no one but yourself, that you know of, had a key?'

"'No one that I know of.'

"'Very well. I have a few things to see after. I must speak to this man
Rudd. I shall see you again before nightfall.'

"I spent a horribly long day. I had to telegraph to the relatives of my
two friends. I sent Rudd for books, and tried in vain to read. Rudd was
aware that the police had a suspicious eye upon him and was in a state
of suppressed fury. While Rudd was away I again examined the inner
chamber. The window was too high up to be reached by anyone within the
room, and too closely barred to admit of anyone passing through it. The
chimney was equally impassable. No vestige of hope was left to me. At
ten o'clock the inspector came in and told me that he had given up for
the night. He looked thoughtfully towards the whisky decanter. I gave
him a drink and mixed one for myself. Then he said good-night and went
off.

"I had not expected to sleep, but an insurmountable drowsiness came over
me. I flung myself down on the bed as I was, without undressing, hoping
that in this way I should wake again in an hour or so.

"When I woke the room was brightly lighted. The inspector, two of his
men, and Rudd himself were all there. I was startled.

"'What's the matter? What's up?' I said.

"'Nothing much,' said the inspector, 'but I know who put the bed back in
its place.'

"'Who was it?'

"'It was yourself, sir. You did it in your sleep. It had occurred to me
that this was just possible, and I had a man watching through the window
of the room.'

"'It is impossible,' I said. 'I should know something of it. I am sure I
have been here ever since you left me. Your man must have made a
mistake.'

"'My man made no mistake,' said the inspector, drily, 'for my man
happened to be myself. You came in, set the lamp down, pushed the bed
over to one corner, and then went to the chair, where you seemed to be
folding up imaginary clothes.'

"The bodies were recovered two days later, and the whole story of course
got into the papers. I was away from England for some years after that.
It was one of the things that one wishes to forget. You ask me to take
part in another of these investigations. In all probability there is
nothing to investigate but a practical joke, or a chance noise, or
something equally explicable, but you will understand that I will not
take the risk that there may be something else."

       *       *       *       *       *

"But, my dear Arden," said Winter, balancing the pince-nez in his hand,
"there is nothing whatever in the story that you have told me. What
could be more natural than that your two friends should examine the
floor, should do so with too little care, and should reap the
consequences? The repeated dream is itself quite natural; I should
imagine there are few people who have not had it. At the most it is a
coincidence that the dream, accompanied by somnambulism, should have
come three nights in succession, but there is nothing supernatural
there."

"Never mind that word supernatural. Do you think there is anything
inexplicable? You are forgetting that the bed in that chamber had been
slept in both nights. The sleeper had been awakened by some sound. What
was it? What drew him to the trap-door? What was it that took possession
of my will and my body so that my own personality was as blotted out as
if I had been dead? But," he added, impatiently, "I do not want to
convince you. When you are brought in touch, as I have been, with the
unseen power you will be convinced. As your friend, I hope you never
will be."




A BRISK ENGAGEMENT


He stepped out of the fashionable bazaar into the crowded street, where
the July sun flashed on the ugly and beautiful and on the grey
background. He was a young man with the face of a dreamer, but his hair
was properly cut and he was as well and cleanly turned out as if he had
been a soldier. He wore in his buttonhole a red rose; it was not his
habit to decorate himself florally, but these things happen at bazaars;
some pretty fool-girl had sold it to him. And Lady Mabel Silverton, who
is not pretty but a dear sweet creature, had sold him iced coffee and
drunk it for him--she would do anything for a charity--and bothered him
to come and sing one Saturday night to her darling factory-girls, who
would be so very, very grateful. The hum of many nicely-toned voices and
the passionate waltz of the Mauve Hungarians still blended and swam in
his ears. He still seemed to smell the scent of the smouldering incense
sticks on the stall where Mrs Bunningham Smythe, clad in an Oriental
robe of thoroughly Western impropriety, sold penny "Turkish Amulets" at
ten shillings apiece to those young men who were sufficiently fond of
her for the purpose. He was stupid with it all. He left it, and the long
string of carriages at the doors, and wandered out into the Park. And he
chose the more deserted part of the Park.

Yes, it was no worse than anything else, as his cousin had said when she
had bothered him into going. But the young man was mildly, temporarily,
and uncomplainingly bored with most things. There was too much sugar in
the cup; he found the taste sickly. This London world in which he lived
was too luxurious, too idle, and worked too hard at being too idle. He
was weary of the mechanical metallic frivolity of smart people,
frivolity without one touch of sincerity and earnestness to give it
contrast and effect. It was the end of the season, and he would soon be
away in the country--only to find London in the country. There would be
the same people with the same bad habits, merely transplanted to a scene
which did not suit them.

He stood still and looked around him. There was a man with a crowd
before him in the distance by the Marble Arch; he waved his arms and
lectured violently. Children chased one another across the grass. Down
the path towards him came a girl who held herself well. A tramp under
the trees roused himself from slumber, and began slowly and painfully to
put on his boots. And the young man thought it would make the very
pleasantest holiday if he could change with somebody--even with the
tramp under the trees for a few hours and get rid of himself. He chanced
to remember that rose in his coat, and did not like it. He raised his
hand to take it out. And the girl whose graceful carriage he had noticed
stepped shyly up to him.

"It is you then? It must be," she said, in rather a frightened voice.

In a flash he saw that the girl mistook him for somebody else,
and--since chance willed it--decided to be for a while that somebody.

"Certainly, it is," he said. "I do hope I have not kept you waiting."

This was more interesting than private theatricals. But even as he spoke
it struck him that it would be easier if he knew who he was supposed to
be.

She was charming, he thought, and not foolish; the face was full of life
and expression. He noted that she looked at him and away from him in
quick flashes, as if trying to hide a surprised curiosity.

"No," she said, "I have only just come. I think we are both a few
minutes before the time."

"You did not seem quite--well, quite sure of it when you recognised me."

She laughed, showing her pretty teeth. "You did not seem to be looking
out for me."

"I was--but in the wrong direction."

"Yes, of course you didn't know which way I should come. And then I
thought you looked rather too splendid for a solicitor's clerk. You
don't mind my saying that?" she added rapidly.

(So he was a solicitor's clerk in his new impersonation; this was useful
information.) "Not in the least. We put on our nicest clothes for these
occasions. My firm expects me to keep one good suit--to wear when I have
to go and see wealthy and important clients--to--er--take their
instructions." (He felt that this was a happy touch; he was falling
quite easily into his part). "And, if I may say so, that must be quite
your prettiest dress."

She glanced downward at it. She raised her eyebrows, and there was a
quaint prettiness in the wilful twist of her lips. She seemed perplexed.
"I don't think so," she said.

"And what made you decide that it was really I?"

"You were standing there just at the spot we arranged, and just at the
time we arranged. You were wearing the red rose, and you raised your
hand as if to call my attention to it. It was beyond mistake. But why
did you say in your letter that you were of medium height? You are
tall."

"Slightly over medium height, perhaps. I should hardly say tall."

"In many ways you are not what I expected. These preconceived ideas of
people are always wrong. But indeed you don't look the part at all."

"Really?"

"No," she said. "I should have taken you for a man of
leisure--wealthy--rather bored with life--clever perhaps--certainly
selfish." And she would have taken him for very much what he was.

"I will plead guilty to the last item. And now, what shall we do?"

"Do? Just as we arranged of course. We can stroll through the Park for
half an hour--talk--make each other's acquaintance. And then I shall see
if in any way I can help you in your work and make your life happier."

"Suppose," said the young man, "we change the programme a little. Let me
take you down to Bond Street and give you some tea there."

The look of surprise became almost suspicion. She hesitated for a
moment. "Very well," she said. "That will be charming."

They had reached the Park gate. The young man stopped a hansom and they
got in.

"You are extravagant," she said. "We might have taken a 'bus or the
Tube. We might even have walked."

The young man reminded himself that he was now a solicitor's clerk.
"True," he said. "But it is only a shilling fare. And Saturday
afternoon is our holiday, you know."

"I shall insist on paying half the cab and half everything."

"That must be just as you wish. But if you do it will be a
disappointment for me. And it is really not a very serious matter, even
for me."

She seemed to think this over. Lady Mabel met them in her victoria, and
the young man saluted her.

"Very well," said the girl, suddenly. "I won't pay for anything at all."

"Thanks so much," said the young man.

"But all of this," said the girl, much as if she had been speaking to
herself, "is not in the least like what I had expected."

At the shop in Bond Street he took her upstairs to a table in a secluded
corner.

"You seem to know your way about this place," she said, as she
unbuttoned her gloves.

"I was here once on business. And I never forget places."

"Five times since we left the Park we have met people that you knew."

"Yes. Queer coincidence, isn't it?"

"And they were all wealthy-looking people."

"Clients," he said dreamily. "All clients." Then, with an awakening
interest, "Will you have tea or coffee?"

"Tea, please. And they all smiled and bowed to you just as if they had
been your personal friends."

"Well, you know, it's like this. I've had to deal with them in some very
important family matters--dark secrets. They possibly have the feeling
that it is better to be on good terms with me--that I shall be more
careful not to talk about their secrets, you know."

Even as the young man said it he was aware of the remarkable feebleness
of it. So apparently was the girl.

"But I thought solicitors never talked about their clients' business,"
she said.

"They don't. Of course. Certainly not. But then I'm not a solicitor; I'm
only a clerk. Still, it's a mistaken feeling; I've often wondered how it
gets to be so common."

The young man felt that the game, though interesting, was becoming
difficult. He reflected that at any minute people who knew him might
come in and insist on talking to him. And then--the girl would discover
everything and never forgive him. And the more he saw of her the more he
wanted to be forgiven when the game came to its end.

He was unable to place her exactly. She was not a typist. She seemed too
educated to be a governess. It was even more certain that she was not a
fashionable London woman. She might possibly be a student of one of the
arts. She was a little imperious in her way, yet she had the kindest and
friendliest eyes. She was transparently good, and he guessed that
unconventionality was unusual with her. She had not spoiled its effect
for herself by making it commonplace. And who on earth was this
solicitor's clerk whom this charming person had meant to meet, and why
had she been going to meet him? It occurred to the young man that he
would like to wring the neck of that clerk (whom he was at present
fraudulently under-studying) for his infernal impertinence.

"Now," said the girl, "I want you to tell me why you wrote in the first
instance?"

This was a facer. He chanced it. "But I think you know," he said; and it
turned out very well.

"Yes, I do, more or less. I know you read my verses, and that you then
wrote to me at the office of the paper and said the kindest things."

The young man shook his head. "They were less than the truth," he said.

"But, after all, the idea in the verses--the kindred souls that Fate
keeps strangers to each other--that's not a new idea. You must have seen
something of the kind scores of times before."

"If I had seen it before I did not remember it. I certainly had not seen
it treated in that way. Your poem seemed to come to me like a message."
This for a young man who had not read one word of the poem was
distinctly good--or, if you prefer it, distinctly bad.

"Well, when you wrote the first letter had you any idea of writing the
second, the one in which you asked me to meet you?"

"I had to see how you would take it. I know it was great presumption on
my part to hope for anything of the kind; it was most good of you to
come."

"I wondered how long it would be before you thanked me."

"A thousand pardons. I see little society, of course. I am shy and
awkward. I never say the right thing."

"But you are not shy and awkward. You are not at all what I expected. I
have your second letter here. Listen. I leave out the part where you
speak of your loneliness."

"There are few lives," said the young man, sorrowfully, "more solitary
than that of a solicitor's clerk. You don't know." Nor, for that matter,
did he.

"Then the letter goes on: 'If you could make it convenient to spare me a
few moments of your valuable time--'"

"Did I really say that?"

"Of course you did. Here it is."

"These business forms ring in one's head. They get into one's blood.
One uses them unconsciously and inelegantly."

"I will read on: 'If you could make it convenient to spare me a few
moments of your valuable time I should like to have a go at telling you
my story. Sympathy in my case has generally been conspicuous by its
absence, but I think I could depend on the author of "The Strangers." I
am rather a doleful sort, I am afraid, but I daresay you don't care for
larking about any more than I do.'"

He had to hear that letter through to the end, and there was a good deal
more of it. He had made himself responsible for the personality of a man
who described himself as rather a doleful sort, said that he did not
care for larking about, and spoke of a thing being conspicuous by its
absence. And there was not even the possibility of protest. He had to
accept it. He could not even groan out loud. The punishment for yielding
to sudden impulses was heavy indeed.

"Now," she went on, "you see what I mean when I say that you do not at
all match with the Samuel Pepper who wrote that letter."

His name was Samuel Pepper then! It was almost too much. This, he felt,
would be a lifelong lesson to him. He had to say something. "But," he
pleaded, "few people write and speak in just the same way."

"That is not my point. You write to me as a humble pleader for a
favour."

"Naturally."

"When you meet me, you take something very much like the air of an
amused social superior."

"I hope not!" exclaimed the young man with real sincerity. He struggled
mentally after a correct Samuel Pepper attitude. "It was quite
unintentional, and no disrespect meant. I suppose on a Saturday out,
when I come up West, I get a bit above myself and my station. But I
never meant to presume." He felt that this had the right Pepperian touch
of humble commonness. "In the office or at home--"

"You mean in the Guildford Street boarding-house?"

"Quite so. It's the only London home I've got. In the office or at home
I'm quite a different person."

"Oh, please! I don't mention the difference in manner because I care
twopence about it, but to point out an inconsistency which puzzles
me--perhaps I should say which did puzzle me at first. And why have you
not told me that story that you wished me to hear. Why is it that you
have not even referred to it?"

"Ah," said the young man, "how often one gets to the verge of a
confession and then shirks it! Believe me, it is not an easy story for
me to tell. Perhaps even it would be better for me to bear my burden
alone."

"Very well. And those poems that you have written--you wished to show
them to me, to get my opinion and see if I could help you towards
publication."

"My fatal shyness! You, a writer yourself, must know what that is!" He
felt that he was quite lost, and that the girl was getting angry, and he
wished he could think of some way out of it.

"So I am not to have your verses or your story. But I think I will
trouble you to hear a little of my story. You are not Samuel Pepper.
With my experience of story-writing I ought to have seen that that was a
make-up name, to suit the part of a solicitor's clerk. There is no
Samuel Pepper. Your letters then were not genuine. They were very well
done; as an artist I congratulate you. The thing that puzzles me is that
you could not keep it up better when you had trapped me into meeting
you. You cannot act a bit. You have not even dressed the part. You have
not even taken the trouble to put a few verses in manuscript in your
pocket. I will tell you why you succeeded in deceiving me in your
letters. I live with my family, and I write stories and verses. I know
they are not very good, but the money that I get for them is a
consideration, and I hope with practice to do better. You touched my
vanity, it is not often that anybody takes any notice of my work. And
you appealed to my compassion. That part of your letter where you spoke
of your loneliness among the people at the boarding-house seemed to me
to be quite simple and unaffected. It made some impression on me. I was
interested in what you said about your writing, and I remembered what a
struggle I had at first myself; I thought I could help you. I felt safe
because I trusted to your timidity and your sense of the difference
between us, so cleverly conveyed in your letters. That was why you were
able to trap me; and it will teach me in future not to be vain or
kind-hearted. I don't know why you wanted to do it. You have had your
joke, perhaps, or you have won your bet. You won't make the mistake of
supposing that you have made my acquaintance, or of writing to me again.
Now, I am going."

So that was it; she had taken a firm feminine intelligent grasp of the
wrong end of the stick. She had also caught up her gloves. Her eyes were
filled with tears of rage, and he felt very bad indeed. If he had asked
her to stop she would have hurried away all the quicker; he could see
that.

"Our meeting was a chance one," he said. "I know nothing of Pepper or
his letters except what you have told me. You mistook me for the man
you were going to meet. I am sorry I did not correct your mistake since
it has pained you. Otherwise I should have been very glad of it."

She sat down again, bewildered. "Chance?" she said.

"Pure chance. I shouldn't like to say much for my taste this afternoon,
but really I don't make bets or jokes of that kind. I was at a silly
bazaar in Hill Street this afternoon for a few minutes, and some idiot
sold me this rose. I don't wear flowers, and I was on the point of
taking it out of my coat when you spoke to me. The other man probably
arrived after we had gone; you remember you said that we were a few
minutes before the time."

The girl leaned her elbow on the table and her head on her hand and
looked at him intently. "It is too amazing," she said. "I think you are
telling me the truth now. But how am I to know? You have not behaved
well. You have deceived me." There were perplexed pauses between her
sentences.

"I tried to deceive you, with the intention of undeceiving you in the
end. You must own that I failed and that the humiliation is mine. But it
is true that I have behaved badly; and it is true that I am sorry for
it."

"Why did you do it? I can't think why."

"Do you remember your first impression of me?"

"Perfectly."

"I am not clever, but in other respects you were about right. I was
tired of everything and particularly tired of myself. It was a sudden
whim. I began it in order to get away from myself."

"But why did you go on with it?"

"I went on with it to be with you."

She looked away from him, and there was a quick flush of colour in her
cheeks. "Anyhow," she said, "the mistake is at an end now. I must be
going." But she did not speak very resolutely.

"Will you forgive me before you go?"

"Why should I forgive you?"

"Because," said the young man, with some audacity, "I have done you a
very great service."

Her eyebrows were interrogative.

"Yes, I have stopped you from meeting this Pepper person. I know your
motives. I don't believe in the vanity at all. It is natural to be
pleased when one's work is praised; I'm always pleased if anybody likes
my music. I do believe that you were actuated solely by your kindness of
heart and nothing else. But you were doing an indiscreet thing, and I
feel sure from his letters that this man would have misunderstood it.
Even if he had not shown presumption in his manner to you, I am sure he
would have talked you over afterwards at his disgusting boarding-house
and with his fellow-clerks. Why did he propose a meeting at all? Why
could he not have submitted his doggerel to you by post, if you were
kind enough to look at it for him? Why did he suggest this red rose
nonsense if he had not got some romantic ideas in his stupid head? The
man's impertinence simply staggers me."

She smiled a little. "You are right perhaps. It was indiscreet. But you
are too hard on him."

"I don't think so. I want you to promise me you will not meet him. You
can write and say that you have changed your mind; he can post his
verses to you, if you want to let him down easily."

"Very well. I think that would be best, though I don't know why I should
promise you. Good-bye."

"Already?"

"I live away at Surbiton. I have a train to catch."

"Am I forgiven?"

"Yes; quite."

"Then let me at least take you as far as Waterloo."

She said nothing. But they went to Waterloo together, and in the cab
they explained quite a number of things about themselves to each other.
He also got into the train with her, and they had the carriage to
themselves. And there he told her that he loved her and wished to marry
her, and he did it far more beautifully than a bare record of the facts
can suggest.

She tried to speak three times and failed. So he understood her
perfectly.

And some few minuter after they had exchanged their hearts' love, they
also exchanged their names and addresses.

       *       *       *       *       *

Lady Mabel Silverton says that it is a perfectly ideal marriage. The
world thinks that he might have done much better for himself. He is
inclined to agree with Lady Mabel. His wife would say that she agreed
with the world; but I should doubt her sincerity.




HASHEESH


I

The season was nearly at its end. On the terrace of Shepherd's were many
groups, German, American and English, stopping for a few days in Cairo
on their way home. In the street in front of the terrace the hawkers
displayed their wares--panpipes, fly-whisks, images of the Sphinx,
picture post-cards, matches. One offered for sale an inlaid table that
he carried on his head. Another handed up an old flint-lock pistol,
heavily mounted in silver, for the inspection of a pretty girl from
Cincinnati. Every now and then a carriage drove up, and a party of
tourists passed up the steps, followed by a dragoman laden with kodaks,
and dust cloaks, and bazaar purchases. The bright sunlight flooded a
scene of brilliant colours.

At one of the tables--next to that where the pretty girl from Cincinnati
was sipping her tea--sat three men of different ages. Mr Nathaniel
Brookes, a man of some sixty years and rather distinguished appearance,
was discussing total prohibitions with Dr Henson-Blake. The doctor was
a man of wiry build, with the face of a hawk, and that indescribable
look which comes only of strength and experience. The third man listened
and fidgeted. From babyhood he had been precocious and preferred to
associate with those who were older than he was. In consequence he
sometimes had to sit, as now, rather on the outside of the association.
He smoked endless cigarettes and drank something which was cold and not
good for him out of a long glass in which the ice tinkled pleasantly. He
was a fair-haired young man whom the sun had merely freckled. He wore a
single eye-glass, but did not always dare to use it. When you had got to
the bottom of his failings you found fundamentally by no means a bad
sort of man, by name Percival Lake. This was his first year in Egypt.
Both Brookes and the doctor had known Egypt for many years.

It was Brookes who was speaking. "The Fellaheen should be allowed to
dig," he said, "and it should be made well worth their while to dig."

"But they do," said the doctor. "They all of them do it in the summer,
and they always have done."

"Yes," said Brookes. "Prohibitions which are too strict are always
evaded. It's the same thing with hasheesh. But what I mean is that if we
succeed in stopping the Fellaheen from digging, the working European
Egyptologist will find very little. The native will take care of that,
and this is a case where the native has knowledge that the European can
get only from him."

"That's possible," the doctor agreed.

"What's that about hasheesh?" the young man asked. "I thought it was the
kind of drug that one came across frequently in stories, and rarely in
chemist's shops, and nowhere else."

"Nominally," said Brookes, "there is no hasheesh in Egypt. It is not
allowed. It is contraband. I forget how many tons of it were seized last
year, and I should be sorry to say how much managed to get through."

"Then the natives really use it?"

"Of course they do. There is a common type in all races which requires a
nerve alterative and will have it. If religion or sentiment or custom
shuts out alcohol, then it will be opium or hasheesh. Egypt goes for
hasheesh."

"And the prohibition is of no use?" asked Lake.

"I wouldn't say that," Brookes replied grimly. "If a native has a
quarrel with his neighbour, he can--and sometimes does--sow cannabis
Indica on his neighbour's land and then report him for growing illegal
stuff as soon as the crop comes up. That is useful. Speaking seriously,
the prohibition may lessen the amount of hasheesh consumed, and
undoubtedly has raised its price considerably--vices are the monopoly
of the rich. All the same, I had a boy working on my dahabeeah last year
who was an excellent fellow. This year he was impossible, and I had to
sack him. That was hasheesh."

"And what is the effect of it?"

"Ask the doctor."

"If you take enough and take it long enough," said Dr Henson-Blake, "the
effect is insanity. The given percentage in the asylums is fairly high,
and should perhaps be higher. They don't admit that they smoke hasheesh
or have ever smoked it if they can help it, and it cannot always be
spotted."

"But what is the immediate effect?"

"A sense of _bien étre_, of the absence of all worry. Sometimes there
are delusions. The typical smoker generally gets an excessive
vanity--swelled head--and becomes very quarrelsome. That is why Brookes
had to sack that boy of his."

"All the same," said Lake, "I should very much like to try it."

"If I thought you meant that--" the doctor began, with the suspicion of
a sneer.

Lake was rather angry. "I can assure you I am not talking for effect.
There are some people who don't, you know."

"All right," said the doctor, unperturbed. "Keep your hair on. I've got
some tobacco prepared with hasheesh upstairs. It is some that I had to
confiscate. I'll give you a pipeful and you can try it after dinner.
Smoke it in your own room, though--not downstairs."

"Leave it alone," growled Brookes.

"Thanks very much," said Lake to the doctor. "I'll come up with you now
and get it."

The three men rose. As they did so the pretty girl from Cincinnati
stepped up to the doctor.

"Say, doctor--listen to me. Am I to give that man five dollars and a
half for this?"

The doctor took the scarab in his hand and examined it.

"No, Miss Jocelyn," he said.

"Why not? I call that a dandy scarab. White amethyst. Genuine antique."

"It is not white amethyst and I know the man who made it--the day before
yesterday. If you want it for a toy, ten piastres is an outside price.
The man will take that."

"My!" exclaimed Miss Jocelyn. "Thank you vurry much," and she returned
to her negotiations.

The three men passed through into the hall.


II

After dinner, Brookes and Dr Henson-Blake went off to see a friend at
the Savoy. They left with grim half-chaffing injunctions to young Lake
to take care of himself. Lake, a little sulky, settled himself in one
corner of the hall to smoke a cigarette before his experiment.

And suddenly Miss Jocelyn, whom he did not know, came up to him.

She was a dark girl, pale-skinned and red-lipped. She had a little of
that jaunty, almost slangy American air of being able to take care of
herself. But she also carried the impression that this air was
superficial, and underneath it there might be poetry of a rather
volcanic order. She sat down quietly on the other side of the table, and
said:

"Do you not know me, Mr Lake?"

Lake said that at any rate he was charmed to have the privilege of
making her acquaintance.

"But," she went on, "I want you to behave just as if you had known me
for some time. My Aunt Esmeralda is watching us from away back, and
she's pretty 'cute. Don't smile too much. Offer me a cigarette or order
some coffee for me, as if it were an ordinary thing that you had often
done before for me. Don't look at me all the time--look away now and
then. I'll tell you why I'm doing this directly."

Lake did his best to act the part, and to take things more simply. He
was consumed with curiosity, and for that reason he said, as he lighted
her cigarette, "It is so nice of you to do this--to take pity on my
loneliness--that I feel the reason why does not matter at all. I am
unquestioningly contented with things as they are."

"I just want to tell you. I know Dr Henson-Blake--we were on the tourist
boat together. He's playing it low down on you. That tobacco he gave you
is ordinary tobacco. He wants to make you say afterwards that you got a
lot of funny sensations out of it, and then he'll say there was no
hasheesh in it at all, and just laugh at you. You needn't ask me how I
know, but it's the truth."

"I believe you. The possibility of it had occurred to me. Well, I have
only to tell him that I got no sensations at all, and that's all over
with this little joke."

"Yes," said Miss Jocelyn, "but you can get back on him. That's better."

"How?"

"Spin him a long story. Tell him you smoked it and it gave you visions.
Then when he's finished with his laugh, give him his tobacco back again
to prove that you knew his game all the time."

"Excellent." He took from his pocket a little box in which the tobacco
was placed, put it in one of the hotel envelopes and sealed it and dated
it. "But the triumph must be yours," he said.

She leaned forward seriously. "Listen to me. You don't want to mention
my name--you don't even know it, but I'm Irene Jocelyn. I've put
confidence in you. See, he's not got to know that I've had anything to
do with it. You promise me that?"

"Certainly. But I'm puzzled. Why do you come along to save me from
making myself ridiculous? It's very kind of you. I'm very glad you've
done it. But why?"

She hesitated and blushed slightly. "For myself, perhaps."

It seemed promising; he was emboldened. "What a pity I have wasted my
time by not meeting you before? Have you been long in Cairo?"

"A few days," she said absent-mindedly. "My!" she exclaimed. "If I don't
go back to my Aunt Esmeralda right now, there's going to be a deal of
trouble. I'll say good-night to you, Mr Lake."

He was rather staggered. "Good-night," he said. "But I hope this is not
the last time--"

"It depends. Mind that when he's about you don't know me."

He watched her as she went up the hall. Her bright smile came off very
easily. She looked a little tired and hunted.

That night he could come to no satisfactory explanation. He could only
decide to do exactly as he had been told, and await events. In the
meantime the girl's face haunted him, and always as it had been when
she did not know that he could see her--always with that tired and
hunted look. What had been her story? What was inside her heart and
mind? What cards was she playing? Why had she spoken to him? The
questions were endless. His interest in her, strangely powerful, kept
him for long awake.


III

The little farce was played out with great success next morning. Lake
told a beautiful story, and did it the better because Irene Jocelyn,
breakfasting alone at the next table, was listening intently. After
smoking the hasheesh he had heard the Sphinx talking. Then a black and
limitless ocean had broken over it, and out of the ocean a strange white
woman had crept and cut herself with a gold-handled knife.

"Good," said the doctor, with dry triumph. "And the more interesting
because you have never had any hasheesh at all."

"No?" asked Lake. "I thought that would be it." He tossed the envelope
across to the doctor. "You'll find your tobacco inside--how do you give
it that green colour? I think the score is with me."

The doctor was angry, the more so because Brookes was undisguisedly
amused at the failure. But he made one shrewd guess. "If I had mentioned
the thing to a solitary soul I should have been certain that it had
been given away to you. As it is, I can't see how you came to think of
it for yourself. It's quite unlike you."


IV

For the next two days Irene Jocelyn successfully avoided young Lake, and
thereby drove him to the verge of madness. It even occurred to him to
play a bold stroke and ask the doctor to introduce him. But he had the
reasonable conviction that that introduction would do him more harm than
good with this strange girl. He grew to hate Henson-Blake; it was
evident that while he was there Irene would not speak. He invented
excuses to get him out of the way.

On the third day she came up to him in the hall with hand outstretched.
"I just want to say good-bye to you, Mr Lake," she said. "We leave this
afternoon."

"Won't you tell me anything before you go? I can find no reason why you
should have interested yourself in my defence. Still less can I find any
reason why you should have avoided me ever since?"

"But I wasn't interested in you. You're not--what do you say?--not on in
this act. Didn't I tell you that I was doing it for myself?"

"Yes. You are clever--you found out the doctor's trick."

"I know him. I told you that I met him on the tourist boat. I knew what
he would do."

"I am stupid--for I also knew him, and did not find out. I'm not vain
enough, believe me, to suppose that you did this for love of me."

She laughed and snapped her fingers.

"I wish to God you had!" he added, and the tone and simplicity of the
words carried conviction. She changed her manner. She became serious.

"What was done, not for love of you, was done for hate of somebody else!
Can't you imagine a woman wanting to hit back, and too proud to let it
be known that she wants to hit at all? Can't you imagine her hungering
and thirsting to see a certain man fail, if only in some little thing,
just for once? Can't you--Oh, you don't want the whole humiliating
story, do you?"

"No, no. I'm sorry. Good-bye."

"Good-bye."

"Only you know--that is not for hate of a man. If you hated, there might
be a chance for those who loved."

She shook her head and turned away. A minute later he heard her
laughing, and talking her best American to a group of hotel
acquaintances.

And this is perhaps the primary reason why Percival Lake did ultimately
take to hasheesh in sober earnest. His friends have ceased to speak of
him. Dr Henson-Blake is interested in the case.




THE GARDENER


Seven years to-day have I been in this place, and I am beginning to ask
myself whether it is not time that I made a move. When I come to think
of it, in my last place I had ten under me, and here it's but three men
and a boy, and I always have said and always shall say that a boy is
worse than nothing. In some ways I might be sorry to leave. There is
work which I have begun here, and which I should be sorry to see pass
into other hands to be made a muddle of. Still, as my father used to
say, if you don't respect yourself, nobody is going to respect you, and
I'm in two minds whether I ought to put up with such language as I had
to-day.

"It's all damned carelessness," he said. "You know how particular I am
about those Blenheims, and I'd sooner have lost anything in the garden.
It isn't because you can't do it. I've always been proud of my melons
before. It's just because you've got careless and don't care a curse how
much you neglect your work. Most men would have given you the sack at
once, and you shall have it from me if ever I find anything of this kind
again."

That's what he said. And in one way it's all true enough. That lot of
melons should have been shut up at the right time, and I've lost 'em in
consequence. But it's the first time I've lost anything like that all
the years I've been here, and I don't know that I feel inclined to put
up with it. Here am I, a single man of good character. There may be some
as can teach me a little about my business, and I'm always willing to
learn; but I've never found 'em yet. I can show as good testimonials as
anybody, and I'm not likely to be long out of a berth. Even if I was, it
wouldn't much matter; for, not being a fool, like Townes, I haven't got
a wife and six children to keep, and I've been able to put by money.

One of those Townes children walked back with me as I came from my work
to-day. It was the one they call Hilda. She's a pretty enough child, but
nothing like what Townes thinks. The way that man talks about them, as
if they were a set of angels, makes me laugh. Thank God, I've none of my
own to make a fool of myself about. It's lucky for Townes, too, that I'm
not a married man, for otherwise I should have had the lodge and he
wouldn't, and the lodge is a lot better than anything he could afford
out of his wages.

       *       *       *       *       *

About half-past eight to-night Townes came round to the cottage to see
me, and pulled out a rabbit from under his coat.

"I don't know whether you'd care about anything in this way, Mr Adam,"
he said. "It's a nice fat young rabbit."

"Where did you get that, Townes?" I said.

He gave a sheepish kind of grin. "Well," he said, "there's plenty of
them about, aren't there? I count they're more a pest than anything
else. Anyway, one rabbit more or less won't matter to 'em up at the
House. It's not as if rabbits were game."

"I don't know nothing about that, Townes, and I don't care nothing,
either. I won't have it. As you've got it, you'd better take it back to
your wife; and if I find you getting any more, you'll get the sack as
sure as my name's Stephen Adam."

"All right, Mr Adam," he said. "That shall be as you say, of course. I
thought perhaps, rabbits not coming into your province, you wouldn't
mind. Then I wanted to call round too, to say how much obliged I am to
you."

"What for?" I said.

"About those melons. There was a holy row about it, wasn't there? I
don't deny it. You told me yourself to shut those lights, and I said I
would. How I came to miss it I can't think. Something or other must have
got into my head."

"It's a pity, Townes, that a bit of sense don't get into your head
sometimes."

"Well, there it was, anyhow. We heard the governor laying into you about
it, and not a word did you say about it's being anybody's fault but your
own. Of course the governor thinks a lot of you, and he'd put up with a
thing in you which he'd give me the sack for right off. Still, I do take
it as being very kind--"

"You can hold your tongue, Townes. I've got no kindness for such as
you--wasting hours of skilled work by your damned wool-gathering
forgetfulness."

"The fact of the case is that I'd got that child Hilda a bit on my mind
at the time. The missus thought she was sickening for the measles."

"Well, she wasn't. What would it have mattered if she had been? All
children have the measles, don't they? Do you think yours have got to be
so blessed superior? That's no excuse at all. As for the kindness, it
was simply justice. If I choose to give an order to an idiot, then it's
only fair that I should suffer for it."

"I don't know that I've forgotten much before, Mr Adam."

"No, my boy, you haven't. And you'd better not forget much again if you
want to keep your place. Just you let it be a lesson to you. And if you
must be the father of six squalling brats, keep 'em out of your mind
during work-hours. The truth is, Townes, that you think too much of
those children of yours. I'm sure I don't know what they'll come to.
You'll spoil 'em. Your own wife told me only the other day that you
spoilt 'em."

Townes gave that stupid grin of his again. "Anyhow," he said, "I don't
go buying chocolates for 'em in the village."

"Well," I said, "you can get about your business. I want to read my
paper, and I'm not one of those that sit up half the night."

I wonder if Hilda told him about those sweets, or if he found her eating
them and then guessed. It was a fool of a thing for me to do, and I
shan't do it again. That's the way you lose your authority over the men
under you, by being a bit too familiar, and then of course they shirk
their work and you get blamed for it.

The governor was pretty civil to-day, and after all, I don't know as I
want to change at my time of life. There's a lot of half-finished work
about the place still and some of it'll take a long time to get exactly
to my liking.

       *       *       *       *       *

I can't make things out. We did a lot better than we expected at the
Horticultural, and the governor behaved handsomely by me, as he always
does. But he's not as cheerful as usual. I see him wandering about the
garden by himself, just as if he'd got something on his mind. He's sold
his hunters, and I want to know what for. It's given out that he finds
he's getting too old for it. Looks to me more like something in the
cutting-down way. I had a word with the cook up at the House, and she's
of the same way of thinking. It's not only the hunters. She says there's
less ordered and less entertaining done, and one of the maids has been
turned off. If he's lost money, I wonder how he's lost it. It's not
betting or gambling, for he was never that sort. I should say it was
some investment gone wrong. I'm glad I took my father's advice there and
put my savings into Consols. It may not bring in much, but the money is
always there. The fact of the case is that these gentlefolk never ought
to touch business at all. There are plenty of solicitors and such to
look after it for them. A gentleman isn't meant to do anything except
amuse himself, and when he interferes with other things he is going out
of his station in life and acting foolishly. This is particularly the
case when a gentleman tries to talk as if he knew anything about
gardening. I was looking round the place to-day, and I should be sorry
to leave it--in fact, I doubt if I should be able to make myself
comfortable anywhere else. Three weeks ago, when there was that row
about the melons, I did think of going. But that was a fit of temper,
and with me a fit of temper's soon over. I believe I'd sooner work for
half the wages than go. And if the governor says anything to me about
cutting down, I don't know as I shan't hint at something of the kind.
He's cut down in the stable and in the house, and it won't surprise me
if the garden has the next turn. I may be wrong. He's always very keen
about his garden, and I fancy he'd as soon spend money on that as
anything.

Had to give that fool Townes a bit of the rough side of my tongue. I
found one of his children, the one they call Hilda, up on Sunley Hill,
and they've got measles in those cottages there, as he well knows. Of
course he had to make his excuse. He couldn't always be looking after
them, and there were such a lot of them, and he knew his missus was hard
at it all day. That last part's true. I had to promise that child Hilda
something if she wouldn't go Sunley Hill way any more, but it's all
against my better judgment. What I ought to have done was to have given
her a good dressing-down and frightened her a bit. Seems a queer thing
that a man who knows how to handle men and keep them in their place
shouldn't know how to treat a child. All I can say is that it's the last
time I shall make that mistake. Otherwise I don't know that I can say
much against Townes. He's at his work smart and early every morning,
which is what I like; and he doesn't loiter about. I hate a man who
stands like a statue, with one foot on his spade, when he thinks nobody
is looking at him. What's more, he takes a real interest in his work.
He's not an educated man, as I am, and he's never had my advantages, but
I will say for him that he's as willing to learn as anybody can want. In
fact, I sometimes wonder if I'm not spoiling my own game by teaching him
a bit too much. I must be on the lookout about that.

       *       *       *       *       *

It's just exactly what I thought. One of Townes' kids has got the
measles. It's the one they call Hilda; and that's a very stupid name, to
my mind, to give to the daughter of a working gardener. Of course Townes
is about half off his head, and that's a bad thing, for he never had too
much sense at any time. I told him yesterday, as I've told him before,
that all children have measles, and the sooner they have 'em the sooner
it's over, and the better it is every way. Then he says the child's rare
bad, and the doctor wouldn't come twice a day if he didn't think so. As
I told him, the doctor comes twice a day to make his bill a bit bigger.
I suppose doctors are on the make, same as gardeners and everybody else.
Why wasn't Townes in any club? He says he shall be now. He's always
shutting the stable door after he's lost the horse. That's the way
things happen. I've been in a club for years, and never had any occasion
for a doctor at all. I looked in at the lodge yesterday to give Hilda
what I had promised, having first of all found out that she had kept
her word and had not been up to Sunley Hill again. Otherwise I shouldn't
have gone in. As it was, it was of no use, as she was too bad to eat
what I'd brought, and was a bit light-headed. She didn't seem to
recognise me; and, queerly enough, that was almost a kind of
disappointment. I felt quite angry with the child. As she couldn't take
what I'd promised, and I found there were one or two other little things
that were wanted, I got them instead. I believe in acting fairly by
everybody, even if it's only one of Townes' brats. I went in again
to-day, and this time she knew me. That speaks for itself, and shows
that she must be getting better. I've had the measles myself or I
wouldn't have taken the risk.

Had to complain to Townes to-day about his half starving himself. He
said that he'd had a good deal of expense lately, and money was a bit
short, and he had to save where he could. I told him, as I've told him
twenty times, not to act like a fool. If a man doesn't eat, he can't
work. If a man is paid to work, and doesn't work, he's swindling his
boss. As I'm here to see, amongst other things, that Townes doesn't
swindle the governor, I had to make some sort of an arrangement with
him. I've told him we'll settle about the interest later. Strictly
speaking, I ought to make it pretty stiff, for Townes isn't Consols by a
long way. Now I'll go off for a stroll and my evening pipe. Possibly I
may look in at the lodge. In that case I think I'll leave the pipe till
afterwards, as the child may not like it.

       *       *       *       *       *

That brat of Townes' is better--ever so much better. In another week
she'll be about, all over the place, and worrying the life out of me,
same as usual. I did get a little peace and quietness when she was ill.
Townes, of course, is as pleased as Punch, but I very soon knocked that
out of him. I asked him how he thought he was going to support his
children when they were a bit bigger on the wages that he got. I told
him he was fit to be a head-gardener now, and asked him if he was
content to be second all his life. He said, as things were at present,
he didn't like to chuck a sure thing for what was only a chance. He's
got no more enterprise than a dead dog. That's the curse of children.
They hang round you like a dead weight, and you never get on at all.
Thank Heaven, I've none of my own.

       *       *       *       *       *

I will say this for myself, that I can generally foresee what's going to
happen. I'm not one of those that has to look at a newspaper to know
what the weather's going to be. It was the stables first, and then it
was the house, and I said at the time it would be the garden next. The
governor came along to me this morning with a sort of melancholy smile
on his face, and talked to me just as openly and frankly as if I'd been
a gentleman like himself.

"Adam," he said, "I've lost a lot of money lately. Been swindled out of
it. I daresay you heard?"

"I'd heard nothing definite, sir. I'm sure I'm very sorry to hear it
now."

"Well," he said, "what I came to tell you is that you'll have to get
along with one man less in the garden. I think Green will be the one to
go."

"Well, sir," I said, "I don't know if I might venture on a suggestion."

"What is it?"

"I was going to say that Green's wages don't amount to very much in the
year, not as compared with mine. If I might suggest, I think you might
do a lot worse than to let me go and make Townes the head man here,
with, say, a small rise. That'd save a lot of money, and I know you'd
find Townes satisfactory."

"Does he know enough about it?"

"To speak plainly, by this time he knows as much about it as I do. He's
one of the cleverest and smartest men I ever had under me, and he's a
beggar to work as well. He's never done one single thing wrong since
he's been here."

"What about yourself, Adam? I thought you were attached to the place. I
didn't think you'd ever want to leave my service."

"No, sir, I've been very well suited here. But then, you see, it all
fits in. I could take a rather bigger place. Before I came here I'd ten
men under me. And I should feel quite comfortable if Townes was taking
on the work, for he knows how things ought to be done."

So it's all settled. Townes has got a grin on him that would reach from
here to London, and would keep on thanking me all day if I didn't tell
him to shut his head and get on with his work. I may be leaving, but so
long as I am here I'll see proper order kept.

That kid of his, the one they call Hilda, isn't pleased at all. She says
that if I go she'll come with me.

I wish to God she would.




THE SCENT


There was no one but myself in the smaller of the two smoking-rooms when
he entered. I had picked up an evening paper, and was boring myself with
it for a few minutes in front of the fire, before going on to bore
myself somewhere else. He walked rapidly to the fireplace and rang the
bell, and then turned abruptly to me.

"Hullo! How are you! Didn't know you were here." Then he caught sight of
the evening paper in my hands and asked me for God's sake to put that
thing down. I put it down and asked him what was the matter. He was very
pale and had just the appearance of a man whose nerves were suffering
from over-strain.

"I must tell you," he said abruptly. "I'm glad I found you. It's the
most perfectly--"

He stopped there because the waiter who answered the bell had just
entered. He ordered some brandy and resumed again.

"You will laugh your head off by the time I have finished my story,
ghastly though it is. You won't believe a word of it. See here."

He picked up the paper which I had thrown down, opened it rapidly, and
handed it to me with his finger on one particular paragraph. The
paragraph referred to an inquest on a somewhat commonplace suicide in
Soho. The suicide, an Italian judging by his name, had flung himself
from a window on the first floor, and had broken his neck on the
pavement. Evidence was given by those who knew him that he had been very
queer in his manners of late, and the usual verdict had been returned.

"Well?" I said.

"It's God's mercy that I wasn't a witness at that inquest."

"What does it matter?" I replied. "I suppose you saw the accident. You
are required to go and say that; it doesn't hurt you. Nobody thinks any
the worse of you. It may be a little tiresome, but there is nothing to
bring you to this condition, even if you had really given evidence,
which it seems you haven't."

The waiter brought the brandy. He drank it, ordered another, and
continued more quietly.

"I am afraid I have let the thing prey on my mind a little. I confess
that I have had a shock. The story is not at all what you imagine. I did
not witness the accident; it was only within the last two hours that I
heard of it, but I know how it was that it happened."

He paused. I selected another cigar, lit it, and said nothing. He
continued:

"You know me well enough to know my interest in anything which is a
little out of the way. I will even run some slight risk to meet and talk
with a man who is not as other men are, or, better still, a woman who is
not as other women are. I have a fancy for human curiosities; I should
like to take a museum and collect them."

"Yes," I said, "I know that. You will get yourself into trouble one of
these days."

He went on speaking.

"About a week ago I went down Wardour Street and saw an Italian looking
in at a shop window. I did not know that he was an Italian at the time.
The national characteristics were not very strongly marked in him. He
was quite well dressed, rather like a well-to-do young City man. His
head was abnormal. The breadth from the end of the eyebrow to the ear
was enormous. His eyes were not of the same colour; his skin was like
parchment; he continually moved the tip of his nose. His nostrils opened
and shut. He looked to me to be a very queer beast indeed, and I meant
to talk to him.

"After a while he went into a restaurant. I waited ten minutes and then
went in after him. I sat down at the same table, and, by way of opening
a conversation, knocked over his glass of claret, breaking the glass.
Then, of course, I apologised and ordered a waiter to replace it. He at
once countermanded the order, and turned to me, saying in excellent
English, 'Pray do not trouble. I had quite finished with it.'

"'But,' I said, 'you must let me. Your glass was untouched.'

"'Yes,' he said, 'but I never drink it.'

"I looked amazed. 'I could explain,' he added, 'but it is a little
difficult to understand, and it would bore you.'

"'The only things that I care about,' I replied, 'are the things which
are not ordinary, and are a little difficult to understand. Unless you
are a dipsomaniac, triumphing over temptation, I fail to see why you
should order wine which you have no intention of drinking.'

"'Your explanation is wrong,' he replied. 'I ordered the claret because
I wanted to smell it.'

"As he seemed to find that conclusive, I observed that even that did not
clear the thing up.

"'You must know,' he said a little impatiently, 'that with some people
the scents of different objects have curious results. The possibilities
implied in the sense of smell are enormous. In most people they are
undeveloped; in very few are they at all understood. The connection
between a scent and a memory has been noticed. I have seen a woman who
smelt wallflowers for the first time for ten years burst into tears.
The scent of eau de Cologne is supposed to be refreshing, and that of
ammonia to be vivifying, and that of ether sickening. No scent possesses
the very curious attraction for a human being that valerian does for the
lower animals.'

"'The whole art of obtaining a new sensation by the use of scents is
absolutely unknown to most people. Most women divide scents vaguely into
opaque and transparent; most virtuous women prefer the transparent. But
that is really as far as they have gone. As for the effect of those
scents which are not pleasant to anybody, and therefore are generally
called by an unpleasant name, there seems to be no knowledge at all.'

"'I knew a case,' I said, 'of a gardener who had to work in a hothouse
filled with lilies-of-the-valley. He fainted away.'

"My Italian friend took up the story.

"'And when he recovered consciousness he was angry and entreated to be
put back again?'

"'Yes,' I said, 'but how did you know it?'

"'Because I know the effect of different scents.'

"I was more fascinated than ever, and made him talk for a long time.
Several times he seemed to be hesitating whether or not to tell me
something, and I urged him on. It came at last. He had got a secret. He
had invented a scent and was assured of the marvellous power of it, but
not of the whole of its effects, afterwards or immediate. These he was
investigating. 'And,' he added impressively, 'it gives one an entirely
new way of living.'

"'I wish,' I said, 'that you were a poor man wanting money with which to
carry on your experiments. If I offered to finance you perhaps you would
let me witness some of them. I love nothing better than to see something
new.'

"'I do not want any money,' he answered laughing. 'My workshop is near
here, and I will show it to you if you care to take the risk of coming.'

"'I will come,' I replied, 'with pleasure.'

"And we both walked out together. He took me up a side-street, and then
up a precipitous staircase to the first floor of a dingy-looking house.
He had three large rooms there, opening into one another. He made me
wait in the first, which was somewhat poorly furnished as a library, and
he went through into the others. After about ten minutes he came back
and fetched me through the second room, where a lot of things were
cooking over tiny little spirit lamps, and into the third. The third was
furnished as the first, but it was much more luxurious. He opened a
corner cupboard and took down an ordinary glass stopper bottle,
unlabelled and containing a colourless liquid.

"'That is it,' he said smiling; 'that is what makes all things new.'

"Of course by this time I knew he was cracked, but I asked him how.

"'After frequent inhalations of this scent,' he said, 'one loses all
sense of limitations or conditions. One believes that one can walk
straight through a brick wall, or fly in the air, or live in the year
one, or in the year two million, or in any intervening year. One is sure
that he can do anything which it occurs to him that he would like to do.
One has a feeling of complete omnipotence, and that means a feeling of
complete happiness. No one conscious of a limitation can be completely
happy. At present the effects are very transient, but I may be able to
improve upon that.'

"'One moment,' I said. 'This scent does not really remove limitations
and conditions.'

"'Subjectively, yes, objectively, no; but that matters little. Nothing
can be unreal to us at the time that we fully believe it to be real. It
is because the effects are illusive that I now refrain from
experimenting with myself unless there is someone in the room with me.
It is a hard struggle to keep off it. Frankly, I was very glad when you
suggested that you should come here. Now, watch me.'

"He removed the stopper, and for perhaps two minutes continued to inhale
the perfume. Then he put the stopper back again in the bottle and set it
down on the table by his side. He did not change in appearance in the
least. Half-jokingly I asked him if he could now write stories like Mr
Rudyard Kipling.

"'Better,' he said, 'infinitely better. They are nothing. I will show
you one very short thing.'

"He took paper, pen and ink, and covered one sheet with feverish haste.
Then he handed it to me with an air of triumph. It was absolute nonsense
from beginning to end, and absolutely incoherent. There were phrases in
it which we had used in our conversation, phrases which he might have
seen in advertisements on hoardings, two or three lines of a song which
is very popular just now, the whole strung together anyhow. I looked
over it.

"'Capital,' I said; 'and can you fly?'

"'Of course.' He got up and opened the window. I let him climb up on the
ledge, where a nervous man would certainly have fallen. I saved him only
just in time, and he was angry with me. As I told him unfortunately I
was not able to fly and wished for his company, he sat down and talked
rubbish about the things which he said he could do for about five
minutes. Then he stretched himself and yawned.

"'It has passed off now,' he said. I had a long argument with him, but
it was of no use. He would not give up the bottle and he would not
promise to leave it alone in the future, and he would not tell me what
he called it. To irritate him I said that the whole thing was a fraud
from beginning to end; the bottle contained water, and nothing else. I
picked it up, took a long sniff at it, and went out.

"In the street a moment later I called a cabman and told him to drive to
Downing Street. I wanted to show Lord Salisbury the means of destroying
any nation. I had the power of destroying any nation, and I wished to
use it for the benefit of England. Long before the cab reached Downing
Street I also stretched my arms and yawned, and knew that the effect had
gone off. I drove back to my chambers.

"To-day I read of the suicide. He had tried to fly and he did it because
I suggested it to him when he was in that state the other day. It was my
fault, really."

       *       *       *       *       *

He picked up his second glass of brandy and began sipping it. He talked
it over for a long time, but he would not contradict himself or be
shaken in any way.

It is at any rate perfectly true that at the sale of the suicide's
property he made some large purchases. I found that out afterwards from
the auctioneer.

He is living abroad now.




    A SELECTION OF BOOKS PUBLISHED BY METHUEN AND COMPANY LIMITED
                     36 ESSEX STREET LONDON W.C.



CONTENTS

                                                            PAGE
  General Literature                                           1
  Ancient Cities                                              15
  Antiquary's Books                                           15
  Arden Shakespeare                                           15
  Classics of Art                                             16
  "Complete" Series                                           16
  Connoisseur's Library                                       16
  Handbooks of English Church History                         17
  Illustrated Pocket Library of Plain and Coloured Books      17
  Leaders of Religion                                         18
  Library of Devotion                                         18
  Little Books on Art                                         19
  Little Galleries                                            19
  Little Guides                                               19
  Little Library                                              20
  Little Quarto Shakespeare                                   21
  Miniature Library                                           21
  New Library of Medicine                                     21
  New Library of Music                                        22
  Oxford Biographies                                          22
  Romantic History                                            22
  Handbooks of Theology                                       22
  Westminster Commentaries                                    23
  Fiction                                                     23
  Books for Boys and Girls                                    28
  Novels of Alexandre Dumas                                   29
  Methuen's Sixpenny Books                                    29



A SELECTION OF MESSRS. METHUEN'S PUBLICATIONS


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    LYRA SACRA: A Book of Sacred Verse. _Second Edition._
    A DAY BOOK FROM THE SAINTS AND FATHERS.
    A LITTLE BOOK OF HEAVENLY WISDOM. A Selection from the English
        Mystics.
    LIGHT, LIFE, and LOVE. A Selection from the German Mystics.
    AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOUT LIFE.
    THE LITTLE FLOWERS OF THE GLORIOUS MESSER ST. FRANCIS AND OF HIS
        FRIARS.
    DEATH AND IMMORTALITY.
    THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE.
    DEVOTIONS FOR EVERY DAY IN THE WEEK AND THE GREAT FESTIVALS.
    PRECES PRIVATÆ.
    HORÆ MYSTICÆ: A Day Book from the Writings of Mystics of Many
        Nations.


Little Books on Art.

  _With many Illustrations. Demy 16mo. Gilt top. 2s. 6d. net._

  Each volume consists of about 200 pages, and contains from 30 to 40
  Illustrations, including a Frontispiece in Photogravure.

    ALBRECHT DURER. J. Allen.
    ARTS OF JAPAN, THE. E. Dillon.
    BOOKPLATES. E. Almack.
    BOTTICELLI. Mary L. Bloomer.
    BURNE-JONES. F. de Lisle.
    *CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM. Mrs. H. Jenner.
    CHRIST IN ART. Mrs. H. Jenner.
    CLAUDE. E. Dillon.
    CONSTABLE. H. W. Tompkins.
    COROT. A. Pollard and E. Birnstingl.
    ENAMELS. Mrs. N. Dawson.
    FREDERIC LEIGHTON. A. Corkran.
    GEORGE ROMNEY. G. Paston.
    GREEK ART. H. B. Walters.
    GREUZE AND BOUCHER. E. F. Pollard.
    HOLBEIN. Mrs. G. Fortescue.
    ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS. J. W. Bradley.
    JEWELLERY. C. Davenport.
    JOHN HOPPNER. H. P. K. Skipton.
    SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. J. Sime.
    MILLET. N. Peacock.
    MINIATURES. C. Davenport.
    OUR LADY IN ART. Mrs. H. Jenner.
    RAPHAEL. A. R. Dryhurst. Second Edition.
    REMBRANDT. Mrs. E. A. Sharp.
    TURNER. F. Tyrrell-Gill.
    VANDYCK. M. G. Smallwood.
    VELASQUEZ. W. Wilberforce and A. R. Gilbert.
    WATTS. R. E. D. Sketchley.


The Little Galleries.

  _Demy 16mo. 2s. 6d. net._

  Each volume contains 20 plates in Photogravure, together with a
  short outline of the life and work of the master to whom the book
  is devoted.

    A LITTLE GALLERY OF REYNOLDS.
    A LITTLE GALLERY OF ROMNEY.
    A LITTLE GALLERY OF HOPPNER.
    A LITTLE GALLERY OF MILLAIS.
    A LITTLE GALLERY OF ENGLISH POETS.


The Little Guides.

  With many Illustrations by E. H. NEW and other artists, and from
  photographs.

  _Small Pott 8vo, gilt top, cloth, 2s. 6d. net; leather, 3s. 6d. net._

  The main features of these Guides are (1) a handy and charming form;
  (2) illustrations from photographs and by well-known artists; (3) good
  plans and maps; (4) an adequate but compact presentation of everything
  that is interesting in the natural features, history, archæology, and
  architecture of the town or district treated.

    CAMBRIDGE AND ITS COLLEGES. A. H. Thompson. _Second Edition._
    ENGLISH LAKES, THE. F. G. Brabant.
    ISLE OF WIGHT, THE. G. Clinch.
    MALVERN COUNTRY, THE. B. C. A. Windle.
    NORTH WALES. A. T. Story.
    OXFORD AND ITS COLLEGES. J. Wells. _Ninth Edition._
    SHAKESPEARE'S COUNTRY. B. C. A. Windle. _Third Edition._
    ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. G. Clinch.
    WESTMINSTER ABBEY. G. E. Troutbeck. _Second Edition._

       *       *       *       *       *

    BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. E. S. Roscoe.
    CHESHIRE. W. M. Gallichan.
    CORNWALL. A. L. Salmon.
    DERBYSHIRE. J. C. Cox.
    DEVON. S. Baring-Gould.
    DORSET. F. R. Heath. _Second Edition._
    ESSEX. J. C. Cox.
    HAMPSHIRE. J. C. Cox.
    HERTFORDSHIRE. H. W. Tompkins.
    KENT. G. Clinch.
    KERRY. C. P. Crane.
    MIDDLESEX. J. B. Firth.
    MONMOUTHSHIRE. G. W. Wade and J. H. Wade.
    NORFOLK. W. A. Dutt. _Second Edition, Revised._
    NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. W. Dry.
    *NORTHUMBERLAND. J. E. Morris.
    NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. L. Guilford.
    OXFORDSHIRE. F. G. Brabant.
    SOMERSET. G. W. and J. H. Wade.
    *STAFFORDSHIRE. C. E. Masefield.
    SUFFOLK. W. A. Dutt.
    SURREY. F. A. H. Lambert.
    SUSSEX. F. G. Brabant. _Second Edition._
    *WILTSHIRE. F. R. Heath.
    YORKSHIRE, THE EAST RIDING. J. E. Morris.
    YORKSHIRE, THE NORTH RIDING. J. E. Morris.

       *       *       *       *       *

    BRITTANY. S. Baring-Gould.
    NORMANDY. C. Scudamore.
    ROME. C. G. Ellaby.
    SICILY. F. H. Jackson.


The Little Library.

  With Introductions, Notes, and Photogravure Frontispieces.

  _Small Pott 8vo. Gilt top. Each Volume, cloth, 1s. 6d. net; leather,
  2s. 6d. net._

  =Anon.=
    A LITTLE BOOK OF ENGLISH LYRICS. _Second Edition._

  =Austen (Jane).=
    PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. _Two Volumes._
    NORTHANGER ABBEY.

  =Bacon (Francis).=
    THE ESSAYS OF LORD BACON.

  =Barham (R. H.).=
    THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS. _Two Volumes._

  =Barnet (Mrs. P. A.).=
    A LITTLE BOOK OF ENGLISH PROSE.

  =Beckford (William).=
    THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEK.

  =Blake (William).=
    SELECTIONS FROM WILLIAM BLAKE.

  =Borrow (George).=
    LAVENGRO. _Two Volumes._
    THE ROMANY RYE.

  =Browning (Robert).=
    SELECTIONS FROM THE EARLY POEMS OF ROBERT BROWNING.

  =Canning (George).=
    SELECTIONS FROM THE ANTI-JACOBIN: with GEORGE CANNING'S
        additional Poems.

  =Cowley (Abraham).=
    THE ESSAYS OF ABRAHAM COWLEY.

  =Crabbe (George).=
    SELECTIONS FROM GEORGE CRABBE.

  =Craik (Mrs.).=
    JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN. _Two Volumes._

  =Crashaw (Richard).=
    THE ENGLISH POEMS OF RICHARD CRASHAW.

  =Dante (Allghieri).=
    THE INFERNO OF DANTE. Translated by H. F. CARY.
    THE PURGATORIO OF DANTE. Translated by H. F. CARY.
    THE PARADISO OF DANTE. Translated by H. F. CARY.

  =Darley (George).=
    SELECTIONS FROM THE POEMS OF GEORGE DARLEY.

  =Deane (A. C.).=
    A LITTLE BOOK OF LIGHT VERSE.

  =Dickens (Charles).=
    CHRISTMAS BOOKS. _Two Volumes._

  =Ferrier (Susan).=
    MARRIAGE. _Two Volumes._
    THE INHERITANCE. _Two Volumes._

  =Gaskell (Mrs.).=
    CRANFORD.

  =Hawthorne (Nathaniel).=
    THE SCARLET LETTER.

  =Henderson (T. F.).=
    A LITTLE BOOK OF SCOTTISH VERSE.

  =Keats (John).=
    POEMS.

  =Kinglake (A. W.).=
    EOTHEN. Second Edition.

  =Lamb (Charles).=
    ELIA, AND THE LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA.

  =Locker (F.).=
    LONDON LYRICS.

  =Longfellow (H. W.).=
    SELECTIONS FROM LONGFELLOW.

  =Marvell (Andrew).=
    THE POEMS OF ANDREW MARVELL.

  =Milton (John).=
    THE MINOR POEMS OF JOHN MILTON.

  =Moir (D. M.).=
    MANSIE WAUCH.

  =Nichols (J. B. B.).=
    A LITTLE BOOK OF ENGLISH SONNETS.

  =Rochefoucauld (La).=
    THE MAXIMS OF LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

  =Smith (Horace and James).=
    REJECTED ADDRESSES.

  =Sterne (Laurence).=
    A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY.

  =Tennyson (Alfred, Lord).=
    THE EARLY POEMS OF ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON.
    IN MEMORIAM.
    THE PRINCESS.
    MAUD.

  =Thackeray (W. M.).=
    VANITY FAIR. _Three Volumes_.
    PENDENNIS. _Three Volumes_.
    ESMOND.
    CHRISTMAS BOOKS.

  =Vaughan (Henry).=
    THE POEMS OF HENRY VAUGHAN.

  =Walton (Izaak).=
    THE COMPLEAT ANGLER.

  =Waterhouse (Elizabeth).=
    A LITTLE BOOK OF LIFE AND DEATH. _Thirteenth Edition_.

  =Wordsworth (W.).=
    SELECTIONS FROM WORDSWORTH.

  =Wordsworth (W.)= and =Coleridge (S. T.)=
    LYRICAL BALLADS.


The Little Quarto Shakespeare.

  Edited by W. J. CRAIG. With Introductions and Notes.

  _Pott 16mo. In 40 Volumes. Gilt top. Leather, price 1s. net each
  volume. Mahogany Revolving Book Case. 10s. net._


Miniature Library.

  _Gilt top_.

    EUPHRANOR: A Dialogue on Youth. By Edward FitzGerald.
        _Demy 32mo. Leather, 2s. net._

    THE LIFE OF EDWARD, LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY. Written by himself.
        _Demy 32mo. Leather, 2s. net._

    POLONIUS: or Wise Saws and Modern Instances. By Edward FitzGerald.
        _Demy 32mo. Leather, 2s. net._

    THE RUBÁYAT OF OMAR KHAYYÁM. By Edward FitzGerald. _Fourth Edition.
        Leather, 1s. net._


The New Library of Medicine.

  Edited by C. W. SALEEBY, M.D., F.R.S.Edin. _Demy 8vo._

    CARE OF THE BODY, THE. By F. Cavanagh. _Second Edition,
        7s. 6d. net._

    CHILDREN OF THE NATION, THE. By the Right Hon. Sir John Gorst.
        _Second Edition. 7s. 6d. net._

    CONTROL OF A SCOURGE, THE: or, How Cancer is Curable. By
        Chas. P. Childe. _7s. 6d. net._

    DISEASES OF OCCUPATION. By Sir Thomas Oliver. _10s. 6d. net._

    DRINK PROBLEM, THE, in its Medico-Sociological Aspects. Edited by
        T. N. Kelynack. _7s. 6d. net._

    DRUGS AND THE DRUG HABIT. By H. Sainsbury.

    FUNCTIONAL NERVE DISEASES. By A. T. Schofield. _7s. 6d. net._

    *HEREDITY, THE LAWS OF. By Archdall Reid. _21s. net._

    HYGIENE OF MIND, THE. By T. S. Clouston. _Fifth Edition.
        7s. 6d. net._

    INFANT MORTALITY. By George Newman. _7s. 6d. net._

    PREVENTION OF TUBERCULOSIS (CONSUMPTION), THE. By Arthur Newsholme.
        _10s. 6d. net._

    AIR AND HEALTH. By Ronald C. Macfie. _7s. 6d. net. Second Edition._


The New Library of Music.

  Edited by ERNEST NEWMAN. _Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net._

    HUGO WOLF. By Ernest Newman. Illustrated.
    HANDEL. By R. A. Streatfeild. Illustrated. _Second Edition._


Oxford Biographies.

  _Illustrated. Fcap. 8vo. Gilt top. Each volume, cloth, 2s. 6d. net;
  leather, 3s. 6d. net._

    DANTE ALIGHIERI. By Paget Tonybee, M.A., D. Litt. _Third Edition._
    GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA By E. L. S. Horsburgh, M.A. _Second Edition._
    JOHN HOWARD. By E. C. S. Gibson, D.D., Bishop of Gloucester.
    ALFRED TENNYSON, By A. C. Benson, M.A. _Second Edition._
    SIR WALTER RALEIGH. By I. A Taylor.
    ERASMUS. By E. F. H. Capey.
    THE YOUNG PRETENDER. By C. S. Terry.
    ROBERT BURNS. By T. F. Henderson.
    CHATHAM. By A. S. M'Dowall.
    FRANCIS OF ASSISI. By Anna M. Stoddart.
    CANNING. By W. Alison Phillips.
    BEACONSFIELD. By Walter Sichel.
    JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE. By H. G. Atkins.
    FRANÇOIS FENELON. By Viscount St. Cyres.


Romantic History.

  Edited by MARTIN HUME, M.A. _Illustrated. Demy 8vo._

  A series of attractive volumes in which the periods and personalities
  selected are such as afford romantic human interest, in addition to
  their historical importance.

    THE FIRST GOVERNESS OF THE NETHERLANDS, MARGARET OF AUSTRIA.
        Eleanor E. Tremayne. _10s. 6d. net._

    TWO ENGLISH QUEENS AND PHILIP. Martin Hume, M.A. _15s. net._

    THE NINE DAYS' QUEEN. Richard Davey. With a Preface by
        Martin Hume, M.A. _10s. 6d. net._


Handbooks of Theology.

    THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION. By R. L. Ottley, D.D.
        _Fourth Edition revised. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d._

    A HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. By J. F. Bethune-Baker, M.A.
        _Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d._

    AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF RELIGION. By F. B. Jevons. M.A.
        Litt. D. _Fourth Edition. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d._

    AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE CREEDS. By A. E. Burn, D.D.
        _Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d._

    THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. By Alfred
        Caldecott, D.D. _Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d._

    THE XXXIX. ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Edited by E. C. S.
        Gibson, D.D. _Sixth Edition. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d._


The Westminster Commentaries.

  General Editor, WALTER LOCK, D.D., Warden of Keble College.
  Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis in the University of Oxford.

    THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Edited by R. B. Rackham, M.A.
        _Demy 8vo. Fourth Edition. 10s. 6d._

    THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.
        Edited by H. L. Goudge, M.A. _Second Ed. Demy 8vo. 6s._

    THE BOOK OF EXODUS. Edited by A. H. M'Neile, B.D.
        With a Map and 3 Plans. _Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d._

    THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL. Edited by H. A. Redpath, M.A., D. Litt.
        _Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d._

    THE BOOK OF GENESIS. Edited with Introduction and Notes by
        S. R. Driver, D.D. _Eighth Edition. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d._

    ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS IN THE SEVENTH EDITION OF THE BOOK OF
        GENESIS. By S. R. Driver, D.D. _Demy 8vo. 1s._

    THE BOOK OF JOB. Edited by E. C. S. Gibson, D.D. _Second Edition.
        Demy 8vo. 6s._

    THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. Edited with Introduction and Notes by
        R. J. Knowling, D.D. _Second Edition. Demy 8vo. 6s._



PART III.--A SELECTION OF WORKS OF FICTION


  =Albanesi (E. Maria).=
    SUSANNAH AND ONE OTHER. _Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    LOVE AND LOUISA. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE BROWN EYES OF MARY. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    I KNOW A MAIDEN. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE INVINCIBLE AMELIA: OR, THE POLITE ADVENTURESS.
        _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d._
    *THE GLAD HEART. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Allerton (Mark).=
    SUCH AND SUCH THINGS. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Annesley (Maude).=
    THIS DAY'S MADNESS. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Bagot (Richard).=
    A ROMAN MYSTERY. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE PASSPORT. _Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    TEMPTATION. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    ANTHONY CUTHBERT. _Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    LOVE'S PROXY. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    DONNA DIANA. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    CASTING OF NETS. _Twelfth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Bailey (H. C.).=
    STORM AND TREASURE. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Ball (Oona H.)=
    (Barbara Burke). THEIR OXFORD YEAR. Illustrated. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    BARBARA GOES TO OXFORD. Illustrated. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Baring-Gould (S.).=
    ARMINELL. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA. _Seventh Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    MARGERY OF QUETHER. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE QUEEN OF LOVE. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    JACQUETTA. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    KITTY ALONE. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    NOÉMI. Illustrated. _Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE BROOM-SQUIRE. Illustrated. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    DARTMOOR IDYLLS. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    GUAVAS THE TINNER. Illustrated. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    BLADYS OF THE STEWPONEY. Illustrated. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    PABO THE PRIEST. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    WINEFRED. Illustrated. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    ROYAL GEORGIE. Illustrated. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    CHRIS OF ALL SORTS. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    IN DEWISLAND. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE FROBISHERS. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    DOMITIA. Illustrated. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Barr (Robert).=
    IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE COUNTESS TEKLA. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE MUTABLE MANY. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Begbie (Harold).=
    THE CURIOUS AND DIVERTING ADVENTURES OF SIR JOHN SPARROW; OR, THE
        PROGRESS OF AN OPEN MIND. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Belloc (H.).=
    EMMANUEL BURDEN, MERCHANT. Illustrated. _Second Edition. Cr.
        8vo. 6s._
    A CHANGE IN THE CABINET. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Benson (E. F.).=
    DODO: A DETAIL OF THE DAY. _Sixteenth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Birmingham (George A.).=
    THE BAD TIMES. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    SPANISH GOLD. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE SEARCH PARTY. _Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Bowen (Marjorie).=
    I WILL MAINTAIN. _Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Bretherton (Ralph Harold).=
    AN HONEST MAN. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Capes (Bernard).=
    WHY DID HE DO IT? _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Castle= (=Agnes= and =Egerton=).
    FLOWER O' THE ORANGE, and Other Tales. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Clifford (Mrs. W. K.).=
    THE GETTING WELL OF DOROTHY. Illustrated. _Second Edition. Cr.
        8vo. 3s. 6d._

  =Conrad (Joseph).=
    THE SECRET AGENT: A Simple Tale. _Fourth Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    A SET OF SIX. _Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Corelli (Marie).=
    A ROMANCE OF TWO WORLDS. _Thirtieth Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    VENDETTA. _Twenty-Eighth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THELMA. _Fortieth Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    ARDATH: THE STORY OF A DEAD SELF. _Nineteenth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE SOUL OF LILITH. _Sixteenth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    WORMWOOD. _Seventeenth Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    BARABBAS: A DREAM OF THE WORLD'S TRAGEDY. _Forty-Fourth Edition.
        Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE SORROWS OF SATAN. _Fifty-Sixth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE MASTER CHRISTIAN. _Twelfth Edition. 177th Thousand.
        Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    TEMPORAL POWER: A STUDY IN SUPREMACY. _Second Edition.
        150th Thousand. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    GOD'S GOOD MAN: A SIMPLE LOVE STORY. _Fourteenth Edition.
        152nd Thousand. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    HOLY ORDERS: THE TRAGEDY OF A QUIET LIFE. _Second Edition.
        120th Thousand. Crown 8vo. 6s._
    THE MIGHTY ATOM. _Twenty-eighth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    BOY: a Sketch. _Eleventh Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    CAMEOS. _Thirteenth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Cotes (Mrs. Everard).= See Duncan (Sara Jeannette).

  =Crockett (S. R.).=
    LOCHINVAR. Illustrated. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE STANDARD BEARER. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Croker (Mrs. B. M.).=
    THE OLD CANTONMENT. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    JOHANNA. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE HAPPY VALLEY. _Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    A NINE DAYS' WONDER. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    PEGGY OF THE BARTONS. _Seventh Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    ANGEL. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    A STATE SECRET. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d._
    KATHERINE THE ARROGANT. _Sixth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Cuthell (Edith E.).=
    ONLY A GUARDROOM DOG. Illustrated. _Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d._

  =Dawson (Warrington).=
    THE SCAR. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE SCOURGE. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Douglas (Theo.).=
    COUSIN HUGH. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Doyle (A. Conan).=
    ROUND THE RED LAMP. _Eleventh Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Duncan (Sara Jeannette)= (Mrs. Everard Cotes).
    A VOYAGE OF CONSOLATION. Illustrated. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    COUSIN CINDERELLA. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE BURNT OFFERING. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  *=Elliott (Robert).=
    THE IMMORTAL CHARLATAN. _Crown 8vo. 6s._

  =Fenn (G. Manville).=
    SYD BELTON; or, The Boy who would not go to Sea. Illustrated.
        _Second Ed. Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d._

  =Findlater (J. H.).=
    THE GREEN GRAVES OF BALGOWRIE. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE LADDER TO THE STARS. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Findlater (Mary).=
    A NARROW WAY. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    OVER THE HILLS. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    THE ROSE OF JOY. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    A BLIND BIRD'S NEST. Illustrated. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Francis (M. E.).= (Mrs. Francis Blundell).
    STEPPING WESTWARD. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    MARGERY O' THE MILL. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    HARDY-ON-THE-HILL. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    GALATEA OF THE WHEATFIELD. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Fraser (Mrs. Hugh).=
    THE SLAKING OF THE SWORD. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    GIANNELLA. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._
    IN THE SHADOW OF THE LORD. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Fry (B. and C. B.).=
    A MOTHER'S SON. _Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Gerard (Louise).=
    THE GOLDEN CENTIPEDE. _Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Gibbs (Philip).=
    THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT. _Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Gissing (George).=
    THE CROWN OF LIFE. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Glendon (George).=
    THE EMPEROR OF THE AIR. Illustrated. _Cr. 8vo. 6s._

  =Hamilton (Cosmo).=
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Books for Boys and Girls.

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    SYD BELTON: Or, the Boy who would not go to Sea.
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The Novels of Alexandre Dumas.

  _Medium 8vo. Price 6d. Double Volumes, 1s._

    ACTÉ.
    THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN PAMPHILE.
    AMAURY.
    THE BIRD OF FATE.
    THE BLACK TULIP.
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    CATHERINE BLUM.
    CÉCILE.
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    CROP-EARED JACQUOT.
    DOM GORENFLOT.
    THE FATAL COMBAT.
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    FERNANDE.
    GABRIEL LAMBERT.
    GEORGES.
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    MAÎTRE ADAM.
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    TWENTY YEARS AFTER. (Double volume.)
    THE WILD-DUCK SHOOTER.
    THE WOLF-LEADER.


Methuen's Sixpenny Books.

  _Medium 8vo._

  =Albanesi (E. Maria).=
    LOVE AND LOUISA.
    I KNOW A MAIDEN.

  =Anstey (F.).=
    A BAYARD OF BENGAL.

  =Austen (J.).=
    PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

  =Bagot (Richard).=
    A ROMAN MYSTERY.
    CASTING OF NETS.
    DONNA DIANA.

  =Balfour (Andrew).=
    BY STROKE OF SWORD.

  =Baring-Gould (S.).=
    FURZE BLOOM.
    CHEAP JACK ZITA.
    KITTY ALONE.
    URITH.
    THE BROOM SQUIRE.
    IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA.
    NOÉMI.
    A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES. Illustrated.
    LITTLE TU'PENNY.
    WINEFRED.
    THE FROBISHERS.
    THE QUEEN OF LOVE.
    ARMINELL.
    BLADYS OF THE STEWPONEY.

  =Barr (Robert).=
    JENNIE BAXTER.
    IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS.
    THE COUNTESS TEKLA.
    THE MUTABLE MANY.

  =Benson (E. F.).=
    DODO.
    THE VINTAGE.

  =Brontë (Charlotte).=
    SHIRLEY.

  =Brownell (C. L.).=
    THE HEART OF JAPAN.

  =Burton (J. Bloundelle).=
    ACROSS THE SALT SEAS.

  =Caffyn (Mrs.).=
    ANNE MAULEVERER.

  =Capes (Bernard).=
    THE LAKE OF WINE.

  =Clifford (Mrs. W. K.).=
    A FLASH OF SUMMER.
    MRS. KEITH'S CRIME.

  =Corbett (Julian).=
    A BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS.

  =Croker (Mrs. B. M.).=
    ANGEL.
    A STATE SECRET.
    PEGGY OF THE BARTONS.
    JOHANNA.

  =Dante (Alighieri).=
    THE DIVINE COMEDY (Cary).

  =Doyle (A. Conan).=
    ROUND THE RED LAMP.

  =Duncan (Sara Jeannette).=
    A VOYAGE OF CONSOLATION.
    THOSE DELIGHTFUL AMERICANS.

  =Eliot (George).=
    THE MILL ON THE FLOSS.

  =Findlater (Jane H.).=
    THE GREEN GRAVES OF BALGOWRIE.

  =Gallon (Tom).=
    RICKERBY'S FOLLY.

  =Gaskell (Mrs.).=
    CRANFORD.
    MARY BARTON.
    NORTH AND SOUTH.

  =Gerard (Dorothea).=
    HOLY MATRIMONY.
    THE CONQUEST OF LONDON.
    MADE OF MONEY.

  =Gissing (G.).=
    THE TOWN TRAVELLER.
    THE CROWN OF LIFE.

  =Glanville (Ernest).=
    THE INCA'S TREASURE.
    THE KLOOF BRIDE.

  =Gleig (Charles).=
    BUNTER'S CRUISE.

  =Grimm (The Brothers).=
    GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES.

  =Hope (Anthony).=
    A MAN OF MARK.
    A CHANGE OF AIR.
    THE CHRONICLES OF COUNT ANTONIO.
    PHROSO.
    THE DOLLY DIALOGUES.

  =Hornung (E. W.).=
    DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES.

  =Ingraham (J. H.).=
    THE THRONE OF DAVID.

  =Le Queux (W.).=
    THE HUNCHBACK OF WESTMINSTER.

  =Levett-Yeats (S. K.).=
    THE TRAITOR'S WAY.
    ORRAIN.

  =Linton (E. Lynn).=
    THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVIDSON.

  =Lyall (Edna).=
    DERRICK VAUGHAN.

  =Malet (Lucas).=
    THE CARISSIMA.
    A COUNSEL OF PERFECTION.

  =Mann (Mrs. M. E.).=
    MRS. PETER HOWARD.
    A LOST ESTATE.
    THE CEDAR STAR.
    ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS.
    THE PATTEN EXPERIMENT.
    A WINTER'S TALE.

  =Marchmont (A. W.).=
    MISER HOADLEY'S SECRET.
    A MOMENT'S ERROR.

  =Marryat (Captain).=
    PETER SIMPLE.
    JACOB FAITHFUL.

  =March (Richard).=
    A METAMORPHOSIS.
    THE TWICKENHAM PEERAGE.
    THE GODDESS.
    THE JOSS.

  =Mason (A. E. W.).=
    CLEMENTINA.

  =Mathers (Helen).=
    HONEY.
    GRIFF OF GRIFFITHSCOURT.
    SAM'S SWEETHEART.
    THE FERRYMAN.

  =Meade (Mrs. L. T.).=
    DRIFT.

  =Miller (Esther).=
    LIVING LIES.

  =Mitford (Bertram).=
    THE SIGN OF THE SPIDER.

  =Montresor (F. F.).=
    THE ALIEN.

  =Morrison (Arthur).=
    THE HOLE IN THE WALL.

  =Nesbit (E.).=
    THE RED HOUSE.

  =Norris (W. E.).=
    HIS GRACE.
    GILES INGILBY.
    THE CREDIT OF THE COUNTY.
    LORD LEONARD THE LUCKLESS.
    MATTHEW AUSTEN.
    CLARISSA FURIOSA.

  =Oliphant (Mrs.).=
    THE LADY'S WALK.
    SIR ROBERT'S FORTUNE.
    THE PRODIGALS.
    THE TWO MARYS.

  =Oppenheim (E. P.).=
    MASTER OF MEN.

  =Parker (Gilbert).=
    THE POMP OF THE LAVILETTES.
    WHEN VALMOND CAME TO PONTIAC.
    THE TRAIL OF THE SWORD.

  =Pemberton (Max).=
    THE FOOTSTEPS OF A THRONE.
    I CROWN THEE KING.

  =Phillpotts (Eden).=
    THE HUMAN BOY.
    CHILDREN OF THE MIST.
    THE POACHER'S WIFE.
    THE RIVER.

  ='Q' (A. T. Quiller Couch).=
    THE WHITE WOLF.

  =Ridge (W. Pett).=
    A SON OF THE STATE.
    LOST PROPERTY.
    GEORGE and THE GENERAL.
    ERB.

  =Russell (W. Clark).=
    ABANDONED.
    A MARRIAGE AT SEA.
    MY DANISH SWEETHEART.
    HIS ISLAND PRINCESS.

  =Sergeant (Adeline).=
    THE MASTER OF BEECHWOOD.
    BALBARA'S MONEY.
    THE YELLOW DIAMOND.
    THE LOVE THAT OVERCAME.

  =Sidgwick (Mrs. Alfred).=
    THE KINSMAN.

  =Surtees (R. S.).=
    HANDLEY CROSS.
    MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR.
    ASK MAMMA.

  =Walford (Mrs. L. B.).=
    MR. SMITH.
    COUSINS.
    THE BABY'S GRANDMOTHER.
    TROUBLESOME DAUGHTERS.

  =Wallace (General Lew).=
    BEN-HUR.
    THE FAIR GOD.

  =Watson (H. B. Marriott).=
    THE ADVENTURERS.
    *CAPTAIN FORTUNE.

  =Weekes (A. B.).=
    PRISONERS OF WAR.

  =Wells (H. G.).=
    THE SEA LADY.

  =White (Percy).=
    A PASSIONATE PILGRIM.



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