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Gift of
Lloyd E. Smith








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BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Crown 8vo., cloth, 6s.
BELLAMY THE MAGNIFICENT
Bellamy the Magnificent' is--well, magnificent. It is clear-cut,
coherent, and never dwells too long at any given crisis. The characters
are excellently realized, some of the scenes are delicately comic, the epigrams
are not forced, and the story as a whole is so interesting that its conclusion
will provoke no small amount of discussion."--Outlook.
“The people of whom Mr. Horniman writes ... are far more amusing than
the genuine article. The enjoyment felt by the author when writing is con-
tagious.”—World.
Beyond contradiction, a brilliantly clever book."--Sunday Sun.
• Extremely fascinating ... a really excellent novel ... cleverly constructed
extremely well written, and quite worth reading."-Court journal
.
“Excellent fooling : excellent entertainment. "Glasgow Herald.
“Good epigrams and clever dialogue.”—Manchester Guaruian.
“One of those extremely clever extravaganzas which, like shot silk, may be
looked at in two ways.
Admirable ! As deadly in earnest as it is
extravagantly amusing:"-Scotsman.
“ A highly successful exercise in flippancy, wittily and audaciously written,
and worked out with an ingenious and original plot.”- Morning Leader.
“Much good character-drawing, bright, even witty, dialogue, and amusing
situations.''-Daily News.
“ High spirits, exceedingly funny situations, and really subtle character-
drawing of a serio-comic kind. For an evening's unimproving but
absolutely entertaining reading it will be 'bad to beat.''--St. James's Gazette.
“As brightly written a piece of fooling as may be met with. The dialogue
is very bright.”—Sketch.
“Brilliant and entertaining. ....The dialogue is invariably crisp and full
of wit, and the situations, almost without exception, are amusing." --Literary
World.
Amazingly well written, and undeniably clever. • . Distinctly a book to
be read, for passing criticism can do no justice to the wit, humour, satire, and
keen raillery in which it abounds."-Daily Telegraph.
“Has amused me almost more than I care to own. A novel of
brilliant and pointed dialogue, and of extraordinarily well stage-managed
scenes.” -Sunday Chronicle.
“A piece of genuine satirical comedy, in which the dramatic idea controls
even the wildest flights of incident and the most forceful strokes of character.
It is a brilliant and biting study of the life of pleasure and some of its
modern exponents.:
The book is unbrokenly clever, and few will be able
to refrain from taking it at a draught."--Pall Mall Gazette.
“Its dialogue is entertaining and clever. It contains not a single dull
page. "-Atheneum.
* There is real entertainment in this story. . . A fantastic story of
the smart set, which, unlike most of those boring productions, is witty and
amusing."-Woman.
“A rattling society novel, with any amount of go in it. ... Witty and
brilliant."-Ladies' Field.
Decidedly good. ... A sparkling tale, full of invention and wit.”—
Vanity Fair.
“One of the maddest and merriest farces we have read."-Morning Post.
LONDON : CHATTO & WINDUS, 111, ST. MARTIN's LANE, W.C.





1
ISRAEL RANK





ISRAEL RANK
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CRIMINAL
BY
IMA
ROY HORNIMAN
AUTHOR OF
THE SIN OF ATLANTIS,” “THE LIVING BUDDHA,” “THAT FAST MISS BLOUNT,"
BELLAMY THE MAGNIFICENT," ETC.
16
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1907


All rights reserved


1367937
A PRELIMINARY NOTE
THERE is an old saying, 'Murder will out.' I am really
unable to see why this should be so. At any rate,
it is a statement impossible of proof, and one which
must always remain a matter of opinion. Because
certain clumsy criminals have placed themselves in
full view of that dull dog, the Law, we are asked to
believe that crime is invariably awkward. The logic is
not very obvious. I am convinced that many a de-
lightful member of society has found it necessary at
some time or other to remove a human obstacle, and
has done so undetected and undisturbed by those
pangs of conscience which Society, afraid of itself,
would have us believe wait upon the sinner.
ISRAEL RANK.





ISRAEL RANK
CHAPTER I
It was the close of a bleak, autumnal afternoon. All
day long in the chill and windy atmosphere the dust
had been driven helter-skelter along the shabbier
streets of Clapham, whirling with it the leaves which
had fallen from the depressed trees in the gardens of
the innumerable semi-detached villas. Here and
there, fragments of torn paper rustled spasmodically
along the gutter as the driving gust caught them, or
—now that the dusk had fallen-floated spectrally for
a few moments in mid-air, like disembodied spirits,
essaying an upward flight, only to be baulked by a
lull in the wind and to come suddenly to earth again,
where they lay until the next gust of wind caught
them.
Among the dismal streets not one was more depress-
ing than Ursula Grove. As if to deprive it of the least
trace of individuality it was but a connecting link
between two more important residential roads running
parallel with each other, and even these were not
very important; hence it is obvious that Ursula
Grove was humble indeed.
Each house had a yard or two of front garden entered
through cheaply varnished wooden gate-lets, which an-
1


2
ISRAEL RANK
nounced in faded gold lettering that should anyone enter
he would find himself in Seaview, or on The Riviera,
as the case might be. Provided the name was inap-
propriate there appeared to have been no initial objec-
tion to its being anything. In fact, those responsible
for the christening of these desirable residences ap-
peared to have acted on the same principle as the
small builder, who, erecting houses at too great a
rate to be able to waste time in seeking appropriate
names, was accustomed to choose them haphazard
out of the newspapers, and thus christened two small
stucco atrocities joined together in semi-detached
matrimony, the Vatican and the Quirinal, because
these two names appeared in the course of the same
leading article.
Each house had a little bow window which belonged
to the drawing-room. If these bow windows could
have been removed and all the little drawing-rooms
placed, as it were, on exhibition they would have pre-
sented an extraordinary likeness. There were the
same three or four saddle-bag chairs, the same saddle-
bag sofa, the same little bamboo occasional table, and
the same little gilt mirror ; all luxuries that were
rewarded, apparently, by their own virtue and a sense
of their own unique beauty, for it was seldom that
their owners enjoyed them. In the summer the blinds
were kept down for fear the sun should spoil the carpet,
which it certainly would have done if it had been
allowed a fair field and no favour with the gaudy little
stiff squares of cheap Kidderminster. These front
rooms, although infinitely the largest and most con-
venient in the house, were never degraded to the level
of living rooms, however large the family. Sometimes
in the winter a fire was lighted on Sundays and the


ISRAEL RANK
3
inhabitants sat round it, but by Monday morning at
breakfast time all traces of this revel had disappeared,
and the fire ornaments were back again, trailing their
gilded and tawdry finery over a highly polished grate,
glittering out on the darkened, frosty room, that sug-
gested nothing so much as the laying out of a corpse.
These chilly arcadias were the pride of their owners'
hearts, and if, when about their household work, they
heard the door of the sacred apartment open they were
immediately on the alert.
Willie, what are you doing in the drawing-room ?”
Nuffin', mama, I was only havin' a look."
Then come out and shut the door immediately.”
Willie, old enough to be troublesome, but not old
enough to go to school, would do as he was bid, at the
same time impressed by his mother's admonition with
a sense of the splendour of the mansion in which it was
his privilege to dwell.
The family always lived in the smaller sitting-room
—an apartment rendered oblong by the exigencies
of the staircase. These rooms were invariably fur-
nished, as were the drawing-rooms, with a depressing
similarity : two horse-hair arm chairs with the springs
in a state of collapse ; six ordinary dining-room chairs
to match; some framed Graphic Christmas numbers
on the wall, an untidy bookcase, and the flooring a
waste of linoleum with a little oasis of moth-eaten rug
before the fire.
I mention these facts because the atmosphere of my
childhood is important in view of my after develop-
ment.
It was on such an evening as I have described-at
least, I am credibly informed that it was so--that
my father descended from his 'bus two or three streets
->
1-2


4
ISRAEL RANK
off, and, after threading his way through the inter-
vening maze of semi-detached villadom, entered the
depressing length of Ursula Grove.
An unusual though not astonishing sight met his
eyes. The blinds of the first-floor-front of his own
house were drawn down and a bright light from within
glowed against them and streamed from under them.
It could not be his wife dressing for dinner, for they
did not have dinner, and had they been in the habit
of dining neither of them would have thought of dress-
ing. Their evening meal was tea ; it might be with
an egg or it might be with ham, but it was certainly
tea.
My father hastened his footsteps. The cause of
this phenomenon had suddenly dawned on him. He
opened the wooden gate-let with unwonted gentle-
ness and without letting it swing to, which was the
usual signal that he had come home. Then he went
round to the back and softly let himself in.
He walked along the passage and paused at the foot
of the stairs. There was borne down to him from
above the wail of an infant. He was obliged to catch
hold of the bannisters, for his heart leapt into his
mouth and nearly suffocated him.
He sat down on the stairs to recover himself, while
the tears of joy and pride welled into his tired eyes
and flowed down his faded cheeks.
The doctor on his way downstairs nearly fell over
him.
“Come, come, Mr. Rank, you must bear up. In
the midst of life we are in death.'”
Apparently the doctor was condoling from force of
habit. The speech was certainly alarming, and my
father whitened.


ISRAEL RANK
66
“But my wife ?"
“Mother and child, Mr. Rank, both doing well. It's
a boy."
The alarm disappeared from his face. He was a
father at last. An Isaac was born unto him."
May I go up ?” he asked timidly.
Most certainly, but be careful not to excite the
patient.”
My father went upstairs and knocked nervously.
The nurse opened the door holding me in her arms.
It is to my father's credit, however, that he hardly
cast a look at the desire of their married life, but
crossed at once to the bed.
My poor mother looked up tenderly and lovingly at
the dowdy little figure bending over her, and smiled.
“It's a boy,” she whispered, and then added : “We
wanted a boy.”
My father pressed her hand gently, but remembering
the doctor's instructions not to excite the patient
kissed her lips and stolo gently out to look at his first,
though somewhat late, born. A puckered face, to
which the blood rushed spasmodically, clouding it
almost to the suggestion of apoplexy, was all he could
see. My father looked down at me and saw that I
was dark. I could not well have been otherwise if
he were to believe himself my father, for he was Jewish
from the crown of his well-shaped head to the soles
of his rather large feet.
If my mother is to be credited, he was when she
fell in love with him a singularly handsome little man,
but at the time of my birth the physical blight which
falls on nearly all men of our race towards middle age
was upon him.
She possessed a small cabinet photograph of him,


6
ISRAEL RANK
taken when such things were a novelty. In early
years I was accustomed-misled by the out-of-date
clothes—to regard it as a very frumpish affair indeed.
When I grew up I came to think otherwise : for one
day, placing my hand over the offending clothes, there
looked out at me a face which, granting the wonderful
complexion which my mother always insisted he
possessed, was singularly handsome and very like
my own.
I only remember him as a faded little creature, who
had run to stomach to an extent which was absurd,
especially when it was contrasted with the extreme
thinness of the rest of his body. He was a commercial
traveller, and always attributed this inharmonious
excrescence on an otherwise slim form to the amount
of aerated waters he was obliged to mix with those
drinks the taking of which was indispensable to his
calling.
My mother was dark too, so it was little wonder
that such hair as I had when I was born was of the
blackest imaginable hue, as likewise were my eyes.
He's a beautiful baby ; a bit small, but beautiful,”
said the nurse.
My father, who could not at the moment dissociate
my appearance from Mr. Darwin's theory of the origin
of species, tried to believe her, and stole downstairs,
where he made his own tea and boiled himself a couple
A meat pie with the unbaked crust lying
beside it suggested that I had arrived quite un-
expectedly, as indeed had been the case. This perhaps
accounted for the fact that as a baby I was weakly.
Before the first year of my life was over, my doting
parents had gone through many an agony of suspense,
and my father had more than once slackened his steps
66
of eggs.


ISRAEL RANK
7
on returning home after his day's work, fearing to enter
the house lest my mother should meet him and weeping
inform him that the tiny thread of life, by which I was
alone prevented from flying away and becoming a
little angel, had snapped.
But by dint of the greatest care from a mother, who,
whatever may have been her coldness to the outside
world, possessed a burning affection for her husband
and child, I was brought safely to my first birthday.
Sitting here during the last few unpleasant days
with nothing to entertain me but the faces of ever-
changing warders—whose personalities seem all to
have been supplied from one pattern-I have had time
to think over many things, and I have more than once
reflected whether I would not rather my mother had
been less careful and had allowed the before mentioned
tiny thread to snap.
My present nervousness, which even my worst enemy
will find excusable, tempts me to regret that her
extreme care was so well rewarded. My intellect,
however, which has always shone brightly through
the murk of my emotions, tells me—and supports
the information with irrefutable logic—that I am
an ignoble fool to think anything of the kind. I
question whether Napoleon would have foregone his
triumphant career to escape St. Helena. The principle
involved in his case and my own is the same. I have
had a great career; I am paying for it-only fortunately
the public are asking an absurdly low price. It is only
when I have smoked too many cigarettes that I feel
nervous about Monday's ceremony.
One thing I trust, however, and that is that my
mother will not in any way be made unhappy, for
should her spirit have the power of seeing my present


8
ISRAEL RANK
condition, and of suffering by reason of it, it would
give me the greatest concern.
But to resume. My arrival must have been an
immense comfort to my mother even more than to my
father. His business frequently took him away from
home for a week at a time, and although he rarely
failed to be with us from Saturday till Monday the
shabby little Clapham house had been very dull till
my shrill baby cries broke the silence of his absence.
Until I arrived to keep her company my mother had
been thrown almost entirely on her own resources,
and the reason of this loneliness is also the reason of
my strange career. They are inseparable one from
the other.
My mother had married beneath her. Her father
had been a solicitor in a fair way of business, blessed
with one son and one daughter. They were not rich
but they were gentlefolk, and by descent something
In fact, only nine lives stood between my
mother's brother and one of the most ancient peerages
in the United Kingdom.
My mother's maiden name was Gascoyne, and her
father was the great-grandson of a younger son.
Her
father's family had for the last two generations drifted
away from, and ceased to have any acquaintance
with, the main and aristocratic branch of the family.
Beyond a couple of ancestral portraits, the one of
Lord George Gascoyne, my mother's great-grand-
father, and the other of that spendthrift's wife, there
was no visible evidence that they were in any way of
superior social extraction to their well-to-do but
suburban surroundings.
My father and mother were brought together in this
way. My mother's brother belonged to a cricket club
more.


ISRAEL RANK
9
of which my father was also a member. The two
struck up a friendship, although at a first glance
there could appear to be very little in common between
the successful solicitor's heir and the junior clerk in a
wholesale city house. My father, however, had a gift
of music which recommended him strongly to his new
friend, and, as my mother always said, a natural
refinement of manner which made him a quite possible
guest at the quasi-aristocratic house of the Gascoynes.
“Perhaps I was sentimental and foolish," my mother
would say, with that quiet, unemotional voice of hers
which caused strangers to doubt whether she could
ever be either, “but he had such beautiful eyes and
played in such an unaffected, dreamy way. And he
was so good," she would add, as if this were the quality
which in the end had impressed her most. “He might
have been much better off than he was, only he never
could do anything underhand or mean. I don't think
such things ever even tempted him. He was simply
above them."
My father became a great favourite with the house-
hold till he committed the intolerable impertinence of
falling in love with Miss Gascoyne. From the position
of an ever welcome guest he descended to that of a
presuming little Jewish quill-driver," as my uncle--
whose friendship for him had always been of a some-
what patronising order-described him.
In fact, my uncle was considerably more bitter in
denouncing his presumption than my grandfather,
who, his first irritation over, went so far as to
suggest that the best should be made of a bad job,
and that they should turn him into a lawyer, urging
his nationality as a plea that his admission into the
firm was not likely to do any harm.


10
ISRAEL RANK
But
my uncle was certainly right in receiving such
a proposal with derision.
“He hasn't even got the qualities of his race," he
said-although this very fact had been, till their
quarrel, a constantly reiterated argument in my
father's favour.
My father and mother were forbidden to meet, and
so one Sunday morning-Sunday being the only day
on which my father could devote the whole day to
so important an event-my mother stole out of the
house and they were married before morning service,
on a prospective income of a hundred a year. As mad
a piece of sentimental folly as was ever perpetrated by
a pair of foolish lovers.
The strange thing was that they were happy. They
loved one another devotedly, and my grandfather-
though quite under the thumb of my uncle-sur-
reptitiously paid the rent of the small house where they
spent the whole of their married life, and which after a
time, still unknown to my uncle, he bought for them.
My uncle, whom even when I was a child I thought a
singularly interesting man—and the estrangement was
certainly one of the griefs of my mother's life—had a
great opinion of himself on account of the family from
which he was derived.
He made a point of having in readiness all proofs of
his claim to the title in case the extraordinary event
should happen of the intervening lives going out one
after the other like a row of candles. His researches
on the subject enabled him to show a respectable
number of instances in which an heir even as distant as
himself had succeeded.
My mother's unequal marriage caused him to make
all haste in choosing a wife. He might not have


ISRAEL RANK
11
betrayed nearly so much antipathy to my father as a
brother-in-law had not the Gascoyne earldom been one
of the few peerages capable of descending through the
female line. Thus, till he should have an heir of his
own, his sister and any child of hers stood next in
succession.
He chose his wife with circumspection. She was
the daughter of a baronet, not so reduced as to have
ceased to be respectable ; and the main point was that
the match would look well on the family tree. To his
infinite chagrin his first child died an hour after birth,
and Mrs. Gascoyne suffered so severely that a consola-
tion was impossible. It thus became inevitable that
should the unexpected happen the title would pass
after himself to his sister and her children.
He drew some comfort from the fact that so far my
father and mother had no child.
Whether it was the disappointment of his own
childlessness, or a natural disposition to ostentation, I
do not know, but from this time my uncle's mode of
living grew more extravagant.
Through the death of my grandfather he became
the head of the firm. He left the suburbs where he
had been born, and he and his wife set up house in
the West End, where they moved in a very expensive
set, so expensive, in fact, that in less than five years
my uncle, to avoid criminal proceedings—which must
have ensued as the result of a protracted juggling with
clients' money-put a bullet through his brains.
He was much mourned by my father and mother,
who had both loved him. He was a fine, handsome
fellow, good-natured at heart, and they had always
deemed it certain that one day a reconciliation would
take place.


12
ISRAEL RANK
Inasmuch as my parents had never met my aunt
she could not become less to them than she had been,
but evidently to show how little she desired to have
anything to do with them, she allowed their letter of
condolence to remain unanswered. Those who were
responsible for winding up my uncle's affairs forwarded
to my mother, in accordance with his wishes, the por-
trait of my ancestor, Lord George Gascoyne, together
with an envelope containing a full statement of her
claim to the Gascoyne peerage. My father, who was
certainly more interested than ever my mother was in
the documents that constituted this claim, took charge
of them, and I believe that at my birth not a little of
his elation was due to the fact that he was the parent
of a being so exalted as to be only nine removes from
an earldom. In time he came to regard himself as a
sort of Prince Consort whose claims as father of the
heir-apparent could not fail to be substantial.
I don't think there ever was a child more devotedly
tended than I was. Arriving late, and being the only
one, my parents were able to afford positive extrava-
gances in the way of extra-quality perambulators and
superfine toys, and in my earliest years it would have
been quite impossible for me to guess that I was other
than the child of affluence.
I was christened Israel Gascoyne Rank. From my
earliest years, however, I cannot remember being called
anything but Israel, and in my childhood if I were
asked my name I was sure to answer
“ Israel Rank,'
and equally sure to supplement the information by
adding, “and my other name is Gascoyne—Israel
Gascoyne Rank.”
I suppose that it is due to my sense of humour-
which has never deserted me and which I trust will


ISRAEL RANK
13
not do so even at the last trying moment—that I
cannot help feeling just a trifle amused at the idea of
my saintly mother and my dear, lovable little father
carefully bringing up--with all the love and affection
which was in them--me. It must be admitted to
have its humorous side.
I played about the dingy house at Clapham during
my happy childhood and was strangely contented
without other companionship than my mother's. I
certainly betrayed no morbid symptoms, but was,
on the contrary, noted for a particularly sunny dis-
position. My mother declared that my laugh was most
infectious, so full was it of real enjoyment and gaiety.
I have always attributed my psychological develop-
ment along the line it afterwards took to a remark
made to my mother by a woman who used to come in
and sew for her.
I was playing just outside the room with a wooden
horse, when Mrs. Ives remarked as she threaded the
needle preparatory to driving the machine : "Lord,
mum, I do believe that boy of yours gets handsomer
every time I come. I never see such a picture, never.
I was quite old enough to grasp the remark, and for
it to sink deep into my soul, planting there the seeds
of a superb self-consciousness. From that moment I
was vain. I grew quite used to people turning to
look at me in the streets, and saying: “What a lovely
child !” and in time felt positively injured if the passers-
by did not testify openly to their admiration. My
mother discouraged my being flattered-I suppose
from the point of view of strict morality, with which
I cannot claim acquaintance. Flattery is bad, and
yet at the same time it always seems an absurd thing
to talk to and bring up a child of exceptional personal
> >


14
ISRAEL RANK
attractions as if he or she were quite ordinary. If he
be a boy, he is told that personal attractions are of no
consequence, things not to be thought of and which
can on no account make him better or worse, and then,
whether girl or boy, the child finds on going out into
the world that it is as valuable a weapon as can be
given to anybody, that to beauty many obstacles are
made easy which to the plain are often insuperable,
and that above all his moral direction and his looks
stand in very definite relation.
It was of no use telling me that I was not exception-
ally good-looking ; I grasped the fact from the moment
of Mrs. Ives' flattering little outburst
My father was immensely proud of my appearance ;
I
suppose the more so because he could claim that I
was like him and that I did not resemble the Gascoynes
in any way.
I was dark and Jewish, with an amazingly well-cut
face and an instinctive grace of which I was quite
conscious. I have never known from my childhood
what it was to be ill at ease, and I have certainly never
been shy. I inherited my father's gift of music.
With him it had never developed into more than what
might give him a slight social advantage; with myself
I was early determined it should be something more,
and was quick to see the use it might be in intro-
ducing me into good society.
;


CHAPTER II
WHEN I was about seven years of age my father died.
I think the cause was aerated waters, although I re-
member that on being shown his body after death
it looked so small that my mind hardly established
any very definite relation between it and the weary,
kindly little man with the abnormal waist whom I had
known as my father.
My mother must, I am sure, have sorrowed greatly,
but she spared my tender years any harrowing spectacle
of grief and set herself courageously to the task of
keeping our home together.
My father had been insured for some five hundred
pounds, which brought my mother in a tiny income.
The house fortunately was her own. She immediately
dismissed her one servant and let the front rooms, so
that we were not so badly off after all. My mother,
who had hitherto superintended my education, was
now no longer able to do so, as the house took
up
most
of her time. Certainly, the school I was sent to was
a very much better one than a boy circumstanced as
I was could have expected to attend. It was patron-
ised by a great many sons of the comparatively
wealthy in the neighbourhood, and was by no means
inexpensive. I went right through it from the lowest
form to the highest.
15


16
ISRAEL RANK
My masters pronounced me quick, but not studious.
Personally, I don't think highly imaginative people
are ever very studious in childhood or early youth.
How is it possible ? The imaginative temperament
sets one dreaming of wonderful results achieved at a
remarkably small outlay of effort. It is only the dull
who receive any demonstration of the value of applica-
tion,
My mother was careful that I should not be
dressed so as to compare unfavourably in any way
with my schoolfellows, and managed that I should
always have a sufficiency of pocket-money, advantages
which I hardly appreciated at the time. How she
accomplished this I do not know, but I can honestly
say that I never knew what want meant, and although
my mother did all the work of the house herself, and
cooked for the gentleman to whom our front rooms
were let, we never lived in the kitchen or descended
to a slovenly mode of life. We had our meals in quite
a well-bred manner in the dining-room, which was also
our living-room.
Our lodger was a mysterious creature who always
brought me a handsome birthday and Christmas
present and declined to be thanked. The first time
he saw me he pronounced me to be too good-looking
for a boy.
He was gruff and abrupt in manner, but the incar-
nation of deferential courtesy to my mother, whom I
truly think he worshipped. I believe that his pro-
longed residence in our front rooms was not entirely
due to their comfort or to my mother's cooking.
I am sure he embarrassed her by his chronic
efforts to spare her trouble. By degrees he took to
dining out nearly every evening, although his arrival


ISRAEL RANK
17
immediately after the dinner hour showed that he
had no engagement anywhere else.
I have every reason to believe that he made her an
offer of marriage, but if it were so he did not allow
her refusal to drive him away. He remained, and
continued to treat her with even greater deference
than before.
Apart from the memory of my father, which she
held sacred, her devotion as a mother would, I think,
have kept her from the remotest contemplation of a
second marriage. She lived entirely for me.
I was early made acquainted with the story of the
Gascoyne succession, and it was with a quiet smile of
indulgence that my mother told me of the interest
with which my father would watch the ebb and flow
of the heirs that stood between his wife and the
peerage.
The idea, however, seized my vivid imagination. I
got my mother to bring out all the papers and I set to
work at once to see how far my claims had advanced
or receded since my father's death.
I was obliged before I could completely determine
my position to have recourse to a Peerage. I was
surprised to discover that I had come appreciably
nearer to the succession. There were still six lives
between myself and the peerage, but two branches
which had formerly barred the way had become
extinct. Perhaps it will be as well to give a tree of
the succession from the point where the branch to
which I belong came into existence. It must be
understood that I do not give those branches which
had died out, or the names of individuals who did not
affect the succession,
2


18
ISRAEL RANK
Henry, tenth Earl Gascoyne
Henry
Adalbert
George
Henry
Patrick
Henry
Simeon
Henry Ughtred Gascoyne Ughtred (d.) Henry
Henry Ronald
(80)
Henry Ughtred Henry Marma- Gascoyne Patrick George Mary
(45) (53) duke (a.) (59)
(m. Israel
Rank)
Simeon
Gascoyne Henry Edith
(16)
(17) (13) (14)
ISRAEL RANK
It will thus be seen that there was by no means a
lack of male heirs and that my chance was remote
indeed. In fact, on going into the question, so little
prospect did there seem of my ever standing near to
the succession that I gave up taking an interest in the
matter, at least for the time being.
In looking back at the development of my character,
I am not conscious of a natural wickedness staining
and perverting all my actions. My career has been
simply the result of an immense desire to be some-
body of importance. My chief boyish trait was a
love of beauty, whether in things animate or in-
animate. People who have possessed that intangible
something which is known as beauty--that degree of
attraction made up of always varying proportions of
line, colour and intelligence have invariably done
something more than merely attract me; they have
filled me with a burning desire to be obviously in
their outlook, to move for a time within their
circumference, to feel that I had left an indelible im-
press on their memory, and it was my early apprecia-


ISRAEL RANK
19
tion of a capacity to do this that perhaps fostered
my egotism, till it had become an article of faith with
me that I must be someone. I looked upon the
possession of rank or renown as a useful weapon
for drawing attention to myself, of increasing the
number of individuals brought under my personal
influence.
I was greedy of importance, because of the beauty
it might bring into life. Naturally the beautiful
things in life vary according to temperament. Romance
was to me the chief thing. After all, it is the salt of
existence. Not that I believe romance to be neces-
sarily conditioned by rank and wealth. A real artist
may create it for himself out of very humble materials.
One of the most complete romanticists I ever met was
a coal-heaver, who had a list of experiences that
sounded in the telling like the Arabian Nights enter-
tainment. At the same time, rank and wealth fasci-
nate the Jew as much as precious stones. They glitter,
and they have value. The Israelite is probably less
of a snob in these matters than the average English-
man, but as an Oriental he appreciates their decorative
effect. Nevertheless, I doubt very much whether he
is ever so far dazzled by them as to forget his own
interests. I most certainly was not. I should have
liked to be Earl Gascoyne. It would have meant
grasping the lever to so many things, and this fact
dawned on me more and more as I grew up.
My distant relationship to the Gascoynes was the
cause of some humiliation to me at school. There
was a boy whose father had just been made an Alder-
man of the City of London, and he was rather boastful
of the fact.
“ Bah! what's an Alderman ?" I asked.
2-2


20
ISRAEL RANK
Instinctively the other boys felt that it was not right
that one of Hebraic extraction should make such a
remark. They had the intuition of their race that
a Jew is after all a Jew.
Shut up, Sheeny,” said one.
“Now then, old clo”,” said another.
I was not the possessor of Jewish blood for nothing.
Where an English boy would have struck out I re-
mained Orientally contemptuous of insult. I merely
wondered if the time would ever come when I should
be able to remind Lionel Holland—the last boy who
had spoken-of his insult.
If six people were to die I should be Earl Gascoyne,"
I said grandly.
There arose a shout of laughter.
Pigs might fly,” said Lionel Holland.
I flushed. The only impression produced by my
grandiloquent speech was that I was a stupid liar.
Even my bosom friend Billy Statham shrank away
from me. Such a useless lie offended his sense of
propriety.
I was only twelve and had some difficulty in keeping
back my tears.
“It's true," I asserted.
“ How can it be true ?" demanded Holland. “ You
are a Jew and your name is not Gascoyne.'
“It is—my name is Israel Gascoyne Rank. My
mother's name was Gascoyne.”
But whatever I said they declined to believe in the
possibility of such a thing. The incident taught me,
however, to hold my tongue on the subject of my
noble extraction, and that was a point gained.
I don't think I was unpopular at school, but I suffered
the penalty of all marked personalities ; that is to say,


ISRAEL RANK
21
I was
I was very much liked or very much detested.
not in one sense of great importance in the school life.
I should have been untrue to myself if I had been.
There is perhaps nothing more remarkable than the
false estimate held by boys of character. Their giants
are as often as not the pigmies of after life. Our school
captain at the time I am speaking of was a boy called
Jim Morton. He had a pleasant face bordering on
good looks, and the body, so we thought, of a young
Hercules. The basis of his popularity was a sense of
justice and a reticence in the display of his physical
strength. He was most certainly worshipped by the
entire school, including myself, although I was by no
means prone to idealise those in authority. For
Jim Morton I had a veritable respect, although in any
case my Jewish blood would have taught me to simulate
deference until I was in a position to betray my true
estimate without danger to my own interests. To my
imagination as a small boy he seemed to possess some-
thing Titanic, to tower above everybody else in the
school immeasurably. I met him in after years, an
insignificant looking man with a ragged moustache
and a slouch. It was quite a shock, and I waited for
him to open his mouth, sure that his power over my
juvenile imagination must have been a question of
intellect. I talked to him for a long time, hoping for
some echo at least of a lost magic. I can safely say I
never met anyone more destitute of ideas, and it
seemed impossible that he could ever have had any.
Perhaps had he lived among savages the primitive
virtues which had made him supreme among boys-
and boyish communities are psychologically similar to
savage races—would have developed, and he would
have remainod a force. It may be so ; I give him the


22
ISRAEL RANK
I am
benefit of the doubt. I am inclined to think, however,
that there never had been any personality in the true
sense of the word.
Billy Statham, a boy a year older than myself, I
loved. Where my affections are roused—and I have
very strong affections, however much people may feel
inclined to doubt it-I cling like a leech.
supremely indifferent to defects in those I love, even
when they affect myself. The only thing I ask is
marked characteristics ; I am incapable of concen-
trating myself on the colourless.
Billy Statham was certainly not colourless. He
was gay, emotional, and beautiful as morning. He
was brilliant and indolent. In many ways he seemed
to be the most backward boy in the school, but to
accuse him of being ignorant would have been pre-
posterous. I never knew him tell a lie, and I never
knew him do a dishonest thing ; and yet once when
a boy in the school who had been discovered in a
flagrant piece of dishonesty was by general agreement
sent to Coventry, Billy Statham was the one person
who treated him as if nothing had happened. I really
think his was the most Christ-like nature I have over
met. He always seemed to hold on to the intangible
something in people which is above earthly stains.
Evil had at times a bewildering effect on him. I have
seen him look quite blank—when a curious look of
wonder did not come into his face—as other boys
were discussing matters which properly belonged to
a more adult stage. The impending complexities of
sex into which the other lads were always taking
surreptitious peeps attracted him not at all. It
seemed as if he must have possessed some inward
consciousness that his body would never be called upon


ISRAEL RANK
23
to take part in the sterner struggle. When he was
fourteen he contracted rheumatic fever, and was
returned to us after a few months with the roses
blanched from his cheeks and the consciousness of a
weak heart. One day he told me that he had heard
the doctor say to his parents that if he had rheumatic
fever again he would die. On a damp afternoon in
late autumn we were caught in a heavy downpour and
I left him at his front door shivering. I did not see
him alive again, and I have never known boys so
profoundly moved by the death of one of their
number. It seemed as if they realised that some-
thing spiritual and valuable had gone from them in
their corporate capacity. He left behind him the
cecollection of a nature entirely unspoilt.
To me his death was a profound grief. I have never
experienced so great a friendship for anyone since.
At the time, I was unable to understand why he chose
me as his Jonathan, excepting that, as I have already
said, he had the instinct of great minds for grasping the
essentials in human nature and allowing a man's
actions to remain a matter of opinion. He seldom
argued with me. He was content to influence, and in
this he displayed another trait of great natures, which
let fall here and there a truth, but are not prone to dis-
cussion. I have often thought that he might have been
the remnant of a great consciousness, having some-
what, but not a great deal, to expiate in human form.
His goodness seemed to stretch out, invisible, beyond
himself.
When he died I was fourteen, and the firmest of
friendships are not at that age sufficiently strong to
leave an inconsolable grief. My next great friend
was a boy of very different character. Grahame


24
ISRAEL RANK
for me.
Hallward was the son of a fairly well-to-do City man.
They lived in comfortable style, albeit they were a
somewhat uncomfortable family. Wherein their un-
comfortableness lay it would have been difficult to
say. They all had a more than usual share of good
looks, and this possibly was their first attraction
Indeed, two of them, Grahame and Sibella,
were quite beautiful to look upon. The family con-
stituted a very aristocracy of physical gifts, and,
despite their peculiar natures, I was always at my ease
among them. It is true that they were inclined to
patronise me, but the qualities of my race enabled me
to endure this without resentment, and even with
dignity. It was, however, only natural ; for although
I was always neatly dressed, the position of my mother
was well known, and had it been otherwise, the house
and street in which we lived would sufficiently have
revealed the truth. In matters of this sort I was not a
snob; besides, I had too quick an instinct for things well-
bred not to realise that my mother was gentlewoman
enough to hold her own with the very best.
One day I took Grahame Hallward home to tea.
I think he felt a little nervous, wondering if tea in
the house of such poor people would be a very un-
comfortable affair. I realised from the way in which
he accepted that he was a little surprised at the
invitation. He always had beautiful manners, and he
said that of course he would be delighted to come.
The two words of course!" were a mistake, however,
and I resented them, although I was secretly amused.
He came one day after school, and when we reached
the house my mother was already seated before the
There were flowers on the table, and the linen
was spotless. There was a silver teapot and sugar-
urn.


ISRAEL RANK
25
room.
basin given to my mother by our lodger on the occasion
of his having completed two years' residence in the
house. His ingenuity in finding occasions whereon it
might be considered suitable to make my mother and
myself presents was quite remarkable. I was entrusted
with the task of calling him in the morning. Hence
it became necessary for me to have a watch, entirely,
as he explained, to suit his convenience. In the
same way a piano arrived one day-our own had been
sold at my father's death-and our lodger explained
that it had been left to him by a distant relation. I
gazed at it longingly as it disappeared into his sitting-
After a day or two he said that he believed it
would be spoilt unless it were played upon, and asked
me as a favour to do so. Then, having come home
once or twice as I was practising hard, he declared
almost irritably that it was inconvenient and that he
really thought considering the time he had been with
us we might oblige him by having it in our sitting-
room, but that of course if my mother objected there
was nothing more to be said. He would have sold it
had it not been in his cousin's house for so many years.
Needless to chronicle that the piano stood hence-
forward in our sitting-room. Our suspicions were
somewhat aroused when the man who came to tune it
gave as his opinion that the instrument could not be
more than two years old, if that; in fact, he should
have said it was brand-new.
My mother was pleased for my sake that she was
able to greet my friend from behind a silver teapot
and sugar-basin. I was secretly conscious of the
effect she produced on Grahame. He had, I am sure,
believed—despite all my assurances to the contrary-
that my mother was a Jewess, and he was not a little sur-


26
ISRAEL RANK
prised to find a well-bred Englishwoman with a reserved
and quite distinguished manner. Tea being over my
mother kept us seated, whilst, almost unobserved, she
placed every article from the table on the tray. She was
full of manoeuvres for minimising the bustle consequent
on the want of a servant. I was rather nervous of the
moment when she would rise and bear forth the tray.
I had set her on such a pinnacle before my friend that
I could not bear that he should see her otherwise than
enthroned. I was painfully conscious that there is no
snob like a boy. My mother, however, had foreseen
everything.
Israel dear, Mr. Johnson has brought home a
beautiful old Chinese cabinet. I am sure Mr. Hallward
would like to see it."
Mr. Hallward—barely fifteen and a half and very
flattered at being referred to as Mr. Hallward-ex-
pressed himself as most anxious, and we adjourned to
the front room.
Short as was the time we were gone, on our return
all signs of a meal had disappeared, and my mother
was seated before the fire as if she possessed ten servants
instead of her own ten fingers.
Then I played. This was not entirely a novelty ; I
had often been shown off at the Hallwards' house.
Indeed, my musical abilities were, I fancied, often
made an excuse when the Hallwards felt that the
presence of my humble self in their mansion occasioned
surprise. In Clapham, residence was everything, and
the leading families were a little suspicious of anyone
who lived in a house as small as our own.
Had they
been generally aware of the lodger they would have
considered themselves entirely justified in deciding that
I was not socially eligible !


ISRAEL RANK
27
>>
I walked part of the way home with Grahame
Hallward.
“I say,” he burst out, “ your mother is rippin'.”
If Grahame Hallward said so I knew he meant it.
His chief enemy in life was his tongue. He always
had an uncontrollable habit of speaking his mind.
Sibella Hallward exercised an irresistible fascination
over me from the first moment I saw her. She was
undeniably lovely even at an age when most girls are
at their worst. Her hair was deliciously silky and
golden. Her eyes were large and blue, with dark-
brown brows and lashes. Her cheeks were the petals
of a blush rose. Her mouth was perfect and petulant,
and the one imperfection with which Nature invariably
salts the cream of the correct was her nose ; it was a
little tip-tilted, and seemed to have been made to
match her voice, which was curiously childish and
treble, with an acerb complaint in it that was indescrib-
ably delightful. She allowed me to play at sweet-
hearting with her, and then one day when we quarrelled
called me a horrid little Jew. I was possessed by my
love for her from that day. My obsession has never
been defensible. She was no excuse for any man's
love excepting that she was beautiful, and I loved her
because such beauty would confer distinction on the
man who won her.
She was vain and shallow, but with a will of her
own which was somewhat remarkable, combined with
her other characteristics.
I was constantly at the Hallwards' house. I was
always quarrelling with Sibella and declaring that I
would never visit them any more, but she invariably
managed to lure me back without in any way apologis-
ing or admitting herself to be in the wrong


28
ISRAEL RANK
were
At this time she was a shameless little flirt and per-
mitted me to make love to her, which I did with all
the precocity of my semi-oriental nature. Her parents
a good-natured, indulgent couple, and they
usually alluded to me as Sibella's sweetheart.
It was not a household where principles counted for
much, and most of the inmates possessing, like Sibella,
very strong wills the result was chaotic. At the same
time, they were sympathetic in an egotistical way. To
anybody who like myself was able to hold his own, and
also to put up with them, the household was tolerable
and enjoyable. Woe, however, to any luckless person
who found them too fascinating to avoid and too strong-
minded to be battled with! Such an one was ground
to powder by the sheer weight of their egotism.
I suppose it was this egotism that made Grahame
Hallward somewhat unpopular at school. He always
bore himself with an extraordinary pride ; not aggres-
sive, but the sort of innate aloofness and condescension
which might have been expected from the member of
a reigning house. It was natural to the family, and
even shallow Sibella possessed it. At times it gave
one the impression that she had dignity, when in
reality it was only an aspect of her vanity.
Amongst other things which Grahame Hallward and
I had in common was a dislike of Lionel Holland. We
had both suffered from his superior physical strength,
and with Grahame even more than with me this was
an unpardonable offence. Lionel Holland was not
deficient in head; he had great intelligence of a certain
kind, and almost a genius for displaying his mental
wares to the best advantage. It was commonly re-
ported that his father had begun life as a newspaper
boy, and certainly his son's wit and repartee were of


ISRAEL RANK
29
the gutter order notwithstanding their veneer of
middle-class suburbanism.
suburbanism. He was slightly older
than either of us and of an altogether stronger type.
We found a means, however, of putting an end to his
tyranny. We engaged in a defensive league, not
verbally agreed upon-Grahame would have been
much too proud to admit that such a thing was neces-
sary--but we got into the way of standing by one
another when he commenced to annoy us.
Candour
compels me to admit that he was almost a match for
both of us, but we managed to inflict sufficient punish-
ment to make him consider that the entertainment of
baiting us had its risks, and finally he left us alone.
It was Lionel Holland's ambition to be captain of
the school. He considered that his brilliance at
certain sports entitled him to it, but somehow he never
reached the position he aimed at. The boys did not
trust him. He was deficient in those very qualities
that make a boy's hero, and they were not to be de-
ceived by the easy insolence of his manner.
I never
knew success in the cricket and football field carry a
boy such a little way into his comrades' hearts. He
was a handsome lad enough, embryon of the flashy,
brilliant brute he afterwards became. I think, but for
Grahame and myself, he might have been elected to
the post he coveted. He had more money than any
other boy in the school and spent it freely where he
had an object in view. My friend and I, however, were
determined that so unsuitable an election should not
take place. The captain of the school had large
powers, and we had no mind to see ourselves in Lionel
Holland's hands. Our brains were more astute than
his when it came to a real tussle of intellect. We dis-
credited him in every way possible, and he endured


ISRAEL RANK
31
ficially hardly suspected, sensitive to an extraordinary
degree. His impassivity deceived them. He had a
horror of death, and Billy Statham's end affected
him more as a practical example of the inevitability
and ruthlessness of bodily extinction than with regret
at the loss of a schoolmate whom like all of us he had
really loved.
He did not believe that my fear of death was not
equal to his own, and concluded that my indifference
was affected and mere bravado. In after years when I
explained to him that without having any particular
religious opinions, I regarded this body as a more or
less useful vessel in which to perform part of the
voyage of mental evolution, I found him quite unable
to follow me and still possessed by just the same dread
of death. The mere idea terrified him. The sight
of all dead things, even when they happened to be the
corpses of quite low forms of life, filled him with re-
pulsion, and the idea of making him a doctor, which
his father had entertained during his childhood, was
abandoned.
I used to find a certain satisfaction in raising the
question of death in order to see the colour fade
out of his cheek. He was too proud to say that it
frightened him, but it did. Fear was so little in his
character that I came to the conclusion that it lay
partly in the extraordinary value he and his family
placed on personal appearance, and that in addition
his terror might have its roots in some such cause as
made Catherine de Medici faint when she saw an
apple, even if it were a painted one in a picture.
As a boy I forbore to make him a confidant of my
passion for his sister. Perhaps I realised that he would
resent it. I think he believed that his sisters were


32
ISRAEL RANK
66
fit matches for the most exalted, and was secretly
astonished and disgusted when the eldest married
a struggling young solicitor.
Once, when Sibella had taunted me and teased me
past bearing, I threw the Gascoyne pedigree in her
face. I shall never forget the silvery and maddening
laugh of disbelief with which she received the announce-
ment. She did not even ask me for proof but went on
laughing till I could have struck her. At the moment
I hated her. It was on a half-holiday. I had been
asked to tea, and was making love to her in the school-
room, waiting for Grahame and his brother to come
in from football.
“When you laugh at me like that,” I said tersely,
“I feel as if I could kill you."
“And when you tell stories like that,” she said,
mimicking my intonation in her childish treble, you
are simply ridiculous.” She took another chocolate
from the bag of sweets I had brought her. I used to
save up my pocket-money for two or three weeks
until I had sufficient to buy sweets worthy of her
acceptance. It is very certain that had she con-
sidered them other than the best she would have told
me so.
“Yes," she continued, you are simply ridiculous.
Just as if you could ever be a lord. I don't believe
it! If six people died !" she concluded, with a laugh
which made me feel what I was capable of. I could
have killed her where she stood but for the conse-
quences.
If I held human life cheap I was still possessed of
the caution of my race, and even at that age I loved
her. Even at that age indeed! Looking back at my
boyhood I am astonished at the insanity of passion of


ISRAEL RANK
33
which I was capable. There is nothing more narrow
than the scepticism with which older people treat the
love-sickness of the young Boys love even better
perhaps than men ever can. Romeo was, I am con-
vinced, not more than seventeen or eighteen that
is to say, as Shakespeare conceived him.
I felt humiliated by her disbelief. I had been
anxious to give myself some importance in her eyes,
and instead she treated the whole thing with absolute
derision. That day was to be in every way one of
bitterness. She was standing at the schoolroom
window drumming on the glass, when suddenly she
gave a little shrill cry of surprise.
“Oh what fun! Grahame is bringing someone in
to tea, and father is with them."
I looked out and saw to my annoyance Lionel
Holland accompanying Grahame and his father up
the drive. What was the meaning of it? Surely
Lionel Holland had not succeeded in winning Grahame
to friendship! It was hardly likely.
“ And I do believe it's that good-looking boy who
won all the prizes at last year's sports," continued
Sibella. “Yes, it is !"
I had, even at the age of sixteen, a very genius for
the analysis of character—although analysis is hardly
the word. Characters have always had a way of dis-
playing themselves before me at a bird's-eye view.
From the first I mistrusted the effect of a handsome
and confident piece of physical splendour on a nature
like Sibella's.
In the hall I could hear Lionel Holland apologising
for his mudstained appearance, and Mr. Hallward's
breezy voice laughing away his scruples.
“Nonsense, my boy, nonsense, I like to see it. It
3


34
ISRAEL RANK
>>
shows you have been enjoying yourself in a fine, manly
way. Grahame, take your friend upstairs and let
him wash his face and hands."
Mr. Hallward always took pleasure in the display
of jovial hospitality. In reality he was a somewhat
bad-tempered man, but when he was in the mood
for a little display of amateur histrionics there was no
one more genial or hearty.
Sibella was flushed with excitement and I was
inwardly fuming.
“What is his name ?" she demanded, turning to me
as Lionel Holland's voice died away upstairs.
“Lionel Holland,” I answered, as cheerfully as I
could, determined that, if possible, I would not betray
my annoyance.
Do
you
like him ?”
“Oh, he is all right.” I might just as well have said
plainly that I disliked him, for Sibella was not
deceived. She had a Jezebel's gift for detecting
antagonisms between those of the opposite sex and
playing upon them. I believe this characteristic
invariably differentiates the woman who uses her
sex power for evil from the woman who uses it for good.
“You don't like him," she answered at once.
are jealous of him.”
“ Jealous! Why ?”
“Because he plays games better than you do.”
I laughed. It was the last thing that was ever
likely to make me jealous. She saw that the taunt
had failed and tried another.
“And also because he is so much better looking than
5. You
you are.'
I laughed again. From Sibella the absolutely
untrue was not convincing.



ISRAEL RANK
35
But Sibella had a way of thrusting till she thrust
home.
“ You needn't laugh-because it's quite true, and
you are also jealous because he is so much more manly
than you are.”
I knew what she meant. Lionel Holland's flam-
boyant animalism and sex assurance stood in her
eyes for prime qualities. She was superficially feminine
and loved a brute. The woman of delicate upbringing,
who astonishes her friends by her inexplicable in-
fatuation for a boaster who is obviously a cad and a
bully despite his physical advantages, is twin sister
to the lady of the slums who worships the brute who
blackens her eyes and kicks her as an amusing con-
clusion to the week's work. The poor slut flatters
herself that it is evidence of a strength which he would
not fail to use in her defence, forgetting that a bully is
only occasionally a brave man.
I saw what was coming and grew sick at heart. One
thing comforted me; Sibella was a snob, and despite
his riches she would never be able to taunt me with his
superior caste.
“I shouldn't show my jealousy if I were you,” she
concluded.
I looked at her quietly.
“You ought to be killed.”
I said the thing I knew would bludgeon her into
silence. She shared Grahame's fear of death, but in
her case it was more ignoble. I believe if Grahame
had been condemned to death his pride would have
overcome his fear. I could imagine Sibella whining
and fawning at the executioner's feet.
She looked at me with distinct apprehension, and
at that moment Grahame entered the room accom-
3-2


36
ISRAEL RANK
panied by Lionel Holland. Sibella immediately began
to exercise her fascinations and to concentrate the
attention of the visitor on herself. I have often
thought since that Lionel Holland must have man-
cuvred his invitation to the house, for he seemed
already to have made up his mind how to proceed
with Sibella. He flattered her vanity, said that he
remembered her perfectly on the day of the sports,
and declared that he should certainly not have tried
so hard had she not been there.
The younger members of the Hallward household
had tea in the dining-room, and on Saturdays were
privileged to bring in their friends, so that there
was generally a large gathering. The tea itself was a
sumptuous affair, and as the elders were seldom present
it was as a rule very enjoyable. Cynthia Hallward, one
year older than Sibella, poured out.
Lionel Holland seemed supremely unconscious that
Grahame was not very pleased at his presence.
I was of course unable to express my displeasure until
I was given a lead. Grahame lingered a minute or
two in the school-room with me.
“I wish the Guv'nor would mind his own business,
he said sulkily.
“Didn't you ask him ?”
Is it likely? He insisted on walking home with me,
and just as I was saying good-bye to him the Guy'nor
met us and said ' Bring your friend in to tea.' Friend
indeed !" And Grahame snorted.
When we reached the dining-room Sibella had
arranged so that Lionel was on her right and a girl
friend of her sister's on her left. I verily believe she
wanted me to sit opposite to her in order that she
might enjoy the spectacle of my chagrin. She should


ISRAEL RANK
37
have known me better. I betrayed not the least sign
of the hatred and wounded vanity that were surging
within me. I was measuring my chances against
Lionel Holland. I was better looking than he was,
but not in the way likely to appeal to Sibella. He was
rich ; I was far cleverer. It appears to me on looking
back that I quite understood, even at that early stage,
that the incident was the prologue to a drama which
would develop itself in after years. Most boy and girl
romances might be ephemeral, but ours had the
promise of permanence. This was the more curious
in that two out of the three, Sibella and Lionel, were
entirely superficial.
I joined in the conversation and laughter with
very fair success, but Sibella was in her most aggra-
vating mood. Cynthia Hallward asked Lionel Holland
what he wanted to be. Apparently he did not quite
know, but some cross-questioning from Sibella elicited
the fact that his only definite ambition was for riches.
“My father wasn't always rich,” he announced ;
and, to do him justice, his pride in the fact that his
father was self-made was the pleasantest trait in his
character. “He began without a shilling, and he says
that money is nine-tenths of everything, and he ought
to know. I wouldn't give twopence to be anything
which didn't bring in money."
“Wouldn't you like to be a lord ?” said Sibella,
looking at me mischievously.
It's quite easy to be a lord if you're rich enough,"
said Lionel.
“Oh, but Israel is going to be a lord. That is to say,
when six people die,” laughed Sibella. And there was
that peculiar quality in her laugh which when it was
turned against myself made me feel cruel towards her.
66


38
ISRAEL RANK
Lionel Holland laughed too, delighted to assist
Sibella in teasing me.
“Israel is always telling us that at school,” he said.
“ I've only said so once," I answered, keeping my
temper by a violent effort of self-control, “and it's
perfectly true.” I think there must have been some-
thing in my voice that warned them to desist, for the
subject was allowed to drop.
After tea we adjourned to the school-room. Sibella's
appetite for sweets was insatiable, and she took the
most comfortable seat by the fire and proceeded to
finish the box of chocolates I had brought her.
“ Do you like sweets ?” I heard Lionel ask. He was
sitting by her side.
She handed him the box and he helped himself.
Awfully.” Sibella's English was extremely slipshod.
“I'll send you some. What kind do you like best?"
“ Chocolate nougat.
Very well. I'll send you a much bigger box than
that."
Sibella laughed appreciatively.
“That will be jolly
of you,” she said, perfectly aware that I could hear.
She was evidently entirely dazzled by her new
admirer, but was too much a born flirt to let me go
even if I had had the least intention of retiring from
the contest.
Just before I left the house she sidled up to me.
“You're not angry, are you, Israel ?”
I made a faint attempt at a smile as I answered :
“Angry? Of course not. Why should I be ?"
Finding me inclined to fence, she assumed her most
childish treble.
“I don't know, I'm sure, only you have been looking
80 dreadfully cross.'


ISRAEL RANK
39
I'very nearly shook her.
Lionel Holland left the house a few minutes before
I did. Grahame walked with me as far as the gate.
“I say, Israel, what's that about your being a lord
some day ?!?
“Nothing. I don't want to go into the matter.
Everybody is so beastly rude about it."
“ Is it true ?"
“Of course it is. I'll show you the papers if you like."
“I don't want that. If you say it's true, of course I
believe you."
But I was secretly determined that Grahame should
see the papers, and I took the earliest opportunity of
showing them to him, for I knew that though he liked
me too much to say that he disbelieved me, he felt
that there must be a mistake somewhere.
I explained the whole thing to him and showed him
our genealogical tree.
I fancy he was more surprised than he appeared to
be, for although he had always been very kind to me
there had been just the faintest suspicion of patronage
in his manner.
It was perhaps only natural. A semi-
Hebrew lad, in humble circumstances, with no prospects
to speak of, was not in the ordinary course of things
the most natural companion for the son of a successful
city merchant.
I knew he told Sibella, for she condescendingly
informed me that I was not such a story-teller as she
had thought, adding, however, that it wasn't very
much to boast of, as the six lives between me and
the peerage would probably be sixty-six before very
long, and it was quite evident that the Gascoynes did
not even know of my existence. She became quite
friendly again, but when I tried to kiss her she refused


10
ISRAEL RANK
to allow me to do so; or rather, she attempted to
prevent it and was really furious when I did so by force.
I detected in her resistance that I no longer occupied
her thoughts. Indeed, I was soon made aware that I
was expected to be content with the place of an
ordinary friend. Lionel Holland managed to be con-
stantly at the house. Grahame had expressed his
disinclination to bring him, but Sibella and her sister
evidently had an understanding by which they were
to meet him by appointment on Saturday afternoons
and bring him back to tea. Mr. and Mrs. Hallward
were too easy-going to notice these manoeuvres, and
would have treated them quite good-naturedly even
had they done so
The Hallward children were allowed to do pretty
well as they liked, with the result that careful mothers
of the neighbourhood, resentful of their extreme good
looks, made Cynthia and Sibella the subject of much
spiteful gossip and whispered inuendoes which I verily
believe had little truth in them. Compelled to stand
by and watch Lionel Holland's triumph, I suffered
terribly, and my mother grew quite anxious at my
appearance, but attributed it to overwork.
Once, and once only, did I implore Sibella to have
pity on me. She laughed in the most silvery manner,
and frankly said she was tired of me.
abjectness with humiliation. Lionel Holland's was a
nature quite devoid of sympathy for his own sex, and
where another lad might have decently veiled his
triumph from his rival, he displayed it on every
possible occasion. His manner was insufferably self-
complacent. He had the natural contempt of all
Westerns for anything Jewish, and he had not the
breeding to disguise the fact. He told a mutual friend
I recall my


ISRAEL RANK
41
that “it was just like a beastly little Jew to make up
to a girl like Sibella.'
I affected indifference because I knew the remark had
been repeated to me with the object of goading me
into fighting him ; and that was a matter which required
thinking out. At the same time I planned the first
attempt of my life to deal a secret blow at an enemy.
It was crude, but youth and inexperience must be my
;
excuse.
Lionel Holland was training for a mile handicap,
and I knew that in the evening he used to go to the
school sports ground, with a friend to time him, and
train till after dusk.
The track, half a mile in circumference, ran round the
entire ground, skirting the backs of houses, and
bounded at one part for the length of about a hundred
yards by a hedge. I conceived the idea of throwing
him as he was running. The track was hard, and he
might hurt himself seriously or not at all. There was
at any rate the chance of a full retaliation.
I chose a spot about midway along the hedge
opposite, where on the inner side of the track, just upon
the grass, and facing the cricket pitch, was an iron
seat firmly fixed to the ground.
One evening I followed Holland and his friend to the
sports ground and, having seen them go in, reached the
back of the hedge by a circuitous way. There was an
aperture just large enough for me to crawl through.
I waited. In about ten minutes I heard his measured
stride on the hard asphalt. He passed me going at a
good pace. As he disappeared in the dusk I crept
swiftly through the hedge, passed a cord I had with
me round the upper part of one of the legs of the iron
seat, and, holding both ends in my hand, crept back.


42
ISRAEL RANK
cause.
In a few moments he came round again. I pulled the
cord as tight as I could. He tripped, fell full length
and lay still. I hauled in the cord and stole away.
My sensations are worth analysing. At first I felt
a certain elation at having thrown an enemy. Then
I experienced disappointment. What I had done was
somewhat pointless. Unless I had spoilt his looks-
which was hardly likely—I could not be said to have
scored any advantage, unless — I stopped, and my
breath came quickly. Was it possible I had killed
him? I had heard of people dying from as slight a
I felt terribly uncomfortable. I grew afraid
of having the cord in my pocket. I went swiftly
home and burnt it, a small piece at a time, lest my
mother should come in and find it being destroyed.
Afterwards I was ashamed of my want of nerve. Even
if he were dead nobody on earth could connect me with
the accident. I had always heard that murder will
out, but I was strong-minded enough, considering the
circumstances, to doubt whether it was possible in
this case.
Anxious as I was to know the upshot of the affair I
slept quite well and started for school not a minute
earlier than usual. I was in the same class as Holland.
When school began he had not arrived and neither
had the boy who was his time-keeper. Five minutes
late the latter walked in with a note in his hand.
“Holland has had an accident, sir.” He handed the
note to the master.
“Indeed ? I am sorry to hear that.” He opened the
note and began to read, his face growing more serious
as he read on. “Concussion of the brain ! Mr. Holland
does not quite seem to know how it happened.”
“ It was on the cricket ground, sir. It had just


ISRAEL RANK
43
got dusk and I was timing Holland for the mile. The
second time he did not come round, so I went to see what
had happened and found him lying on the path insen-
sible. I had to leave him there whilst I went for
help.”
" Has he recovered consciousness ?”
Yes, sir.”
9
“Quite so.
Yes,
“How did it happen ?"
“I can't think. He must have tripped. The doctor
says he is not to be asked any questions and that he
is to be kept quite quiet for the next few days.”
I suppose you will be going round there,
so you can let us know how he is getting on."
sir.”
The boy went back to his seat. The class had been
listening intently. The master looked up and caught
sight of my face.
Why, Rank, you have turned quite pale.”
Everybody looked at me in surprise. The lack of
friendliness between Lionel Holland and myself was
generally known, and it certainly astonished them that
I should have turned pale out of sympathy for him.
He came back to school in about a fortnight looking
none the worse for his accident. He was as confident
as before and as irritating to me as over.
I heard him explaining the incident in the playground
afterwards.
“I'll swear,” he was saying, “ that something caught
me just above the ankle. I don't see how I could
possibly have tripped otherwise.'
“What could it have been ?” asked Grainger, the
boy who had been timing him.
“I can't think, I am sure, but I'm certain something
tripped me up all the same.'


44
ISRAEL RANK
“I expect you turned giddy,” said a member of the
Lower Fourth.
“Giddy? Never was less giddy in my life ;” and
Holland turned a withering glance upon the small boy
that made him retire into the background.
He had a way of twisting the arms of small boys, and
holding their elbows while he brought his knee sharply
into contact with a soft but sensitive part of their
bodies, besides many other little devices for making
them wish it were possible to grow up suddenly into a
strong man with a strong fist.
I have always resented cruelty for cruelty's sake,
and petty tormenting with no object in view has
invariably impressed me as being supremely silly. It
is quite another matter when one is obliged to take a
strong step in support of a logical line of action. The
end must justify the means. The Jesuits are quite
right. All around, Nature teaches us the lesson. An
infinite amount of apparent evil is being done that
good may come, and even if the end be not a particu-
larly elevated one that surely is a man's own affair ;
especially if he be prepared to pay the penalty of sup-
porting his own opinion with action which is against
the moral sense of society in general.
Sibella's solicitude during Lionel Holland's illness
was an ample revenge for the latter had he known it.
It tortured me. At one time I calculated my chances
in a stand-up fight with him supposing I should train
for the event. I decided after careful thought that
the odds would be against me, and I had no intention
of fighting for honour's sake with the prospect of leaving
him more triumphant and complacent than ever.


CHAPTER III
a
I was now sixteen and a half, and my mother had kept
me at school much longer than her means had war-
ranted. I think that at one time she had some idea
that I might gain a scholarship and go to Oxford or
Cambridge, but my progress, though respectable, never
suggested that I might achieve honours. I think, as
a matter of fact, that I could have done so had I cared
to, but I had no ambition to spend the best years of
early manhood in a torture chamber, and it is obvious
that to a youth of imagination, who has no means of
joining in the recreations of his fellows, and is expected
to justify himself by brilliant scholastic success,
career at the 'Varsity can be little else.
The question of my future was a very serious one.
It was not possible for my mother to pay anything
towards giving me a profession, and without influence
the outlook was not hopeful.
Unknown to her I conceived the idea of writing to
Gascoyne Gascoyne, a distant cousin who was at the
head of a large stockbroking firm. I pointed out our
relationship and asked if he could possibly find room for
me in his office. He replied in a type-written letter
saying that he had no knowledge of the relationship.
He did not deny it, it might be so, but at any rate
he had no vacancies nor was he likely to have any.
45


46
ISRAEL RANK
I was
It would therefore be of no use for Mr. Rank to trouble
him again.
I kept his letter, but I did not run the risk of a second
rebuff from any other member of the family.
Mr. Johnson came to the rescue. He had, it
appeared, a great friend in the City who employed
two or three clerks and who had a vacancy.
interviewed, approved of, and engaged at the salary
of fifteen shillings a week. From circumstances which
afterwards came to my knowledge I believe that
Mr. Johnson paid something in the way of a premium.
My mother was delighted. It was a start in life, and
in her eyes a good start was everything. Personally,
I thought it a deplorable beginning, and only took it
because nothing better offered. I was determined,
however, not to stay longer than I could help.
With the best intentions in the world Mr. Johnson
was quite incapable of grasping my character. He
talked to me of a youth of application, a middle age of
strenuous endeavour for a living wage, and an old age
of decent competence. The prospect appalled me. It
sounded inexpressibly gray. I gravitated towards
wealth and luxury as the needle to a magnet. I
remember his saying :
“By the time you are thirty, Israel, you should be
able to keep your mother in this house and have it to
yourselves.'
I had much ado to restrain a scornful laugh. By
the time I was thirty I was determined to have
established my mother in a house fully ten times the
size.
I soon realised that the office I was in did not even
afford a starting point for a career, and could not be a
recommendation to anything better. I had no friends


ISRAEL RANK
47
а
in the City of my own age. I instinctively avoided
those youths whom in the natural course of events a
person in my position would have associated with.
The school my mother had sent me to had put me out
of sympathy with them, and—what was more to the
point—they could not be of any possible use to me.
I was bitterly envious of those boys who entered
their relations' houses of business on advantageous
terms, with sufficient allowances and smart clothes.
My poverty appeared to me extreme. I was not
in the first few months ever sufficiently in pocket
to be able to go to theatres and places of amuse-
ment as other young men did, and yet I found myself
with tastes equally expensive and with an abnormal
love of pleasure. Of my fifteen shillings a week I gave
my mother eight, and out of the remainder I was obliged
to find my lunches and fares to town and back,
condition of things that reduced me to chronic dis-
content. I saw that the great point was to have rich
friends and make use of them. I also grasped the
cardinal maxim that for success in life it is essential
to avoid the unlucky and the necessitous, and above
all not to be led away by the fact that in themselves
the latter are probably the most entertaining sections
of society If a man wishes to be rich he must live
among the rich, and how to do this on fifteen shillings
a week was the problem.
A Semitic appearance, however superior, is not the
best recommendation to society. In the Western it
rouses instinctive antagonism. At the same time, and
because the laws of compensation are inevitable, it is
this antagonism that makes the Jew what he is. His
powers of resistance are automatically developed by
it, and it encourages his virility. The greater the odds


48
ISRAEL RANK
a man has to fight the greater his ultimate skill of fence.
That man is fortunate who has the world against him.
At sixteen and a half, however, my philosophy was
not equal to the annoyances of the situation. I wasted
a great deal of valuable energy in useless complaining.
Sibella seemed lost to me for ever. Even had she
promised herself to me I should have placed no faith
in her staying power. I was quite sure that my humble
start in life must have brought home to her the differ-
ence in our positions as nothing in our boy and girl
relations had
had ever done.
done. To Sibella, luxurious,
pleasure-loving and flippant, the junior clerk in a
third-rate business house was an altogether inferior
and impossible person. The shabbier I seemed, the
smarter Lionel Holland must have appeared. He was
blossoming into a complete dandy, and had all the
means at hand to gratify his taste for fine clothes. I
had spent a year under these depressing conditions
when I made a friend.
Godfrey Twyneham was the son of a rich man with
whom our firm did a certain amount of business. He
was about eighteen months older than myself, and
there was nothing very remarkable about his personal
appearance except a pervading air of gentlemanliness.
He had been coming in and out of our office for twelve
months before I realised that he was inclined to take
special notice of me. One morning as I was on the
way to my contemptible lunch he joined me. We
walked a few yards together, I painfully sure that he
must be very anxious to be rid of so shabby a com-
panion. To my surprise, however, he asked me to
lunch with him. I was on the point of refusing, but
he linked his arm in mine in an altogether friendly
and unpatronising manner, and I yielded.


ISRAEL RANK
49
any return.
He had evidently taken a great fancy to me and
insisted on my lunching with him first about once a
week, then twice a week, and finally every day. He
also insisted on my going to theatres with him, and
grew quite offended if we did not spend our Saturday
evenings together. In vain I protested—not very
vehemently perhaps—that I could in no way make
He laughed the idea to scorn. Why
should I? We liked each other. He was well off, I
was not.
That was a mere accident, and we should be
small-minded indeed if we allowed it to interfere with
our intimacy. He insisted on lending me money,
declaring that I was sure to make a fortune, and
when that day came I could pay him back. He
was certainly the most generous person I have ever
met, and, though I have not paid him back, he has
never mentioned the matter to me. I don't think he
allowed the question of money to
come between
himself and his friends. At the present moment he is
in South America, and just before the trial I received
quite a heartbroken letter from him, declaring his
belief in my innocence, and in case I should need it,
placing a large sum of money at my disposal. Poor
Godfrey ! I suppose he forgot that Earl Gascoyne is
a rich man.
Before I met him I had all the inclination for pleasure
and indulgence, and his generosity had the effect of
making me feel that I could never again endure life
unaccompanied by a certain amount of excitement.
I was hopelessly unfitted by temperament for the
dreary, sordid life of shabby suburbanism that lay
before me.
I dwell upon these facts because I think
they may serve to show that I was impelled by all the
forces of my nature to make some attempt to rescue
4


50
ISRAEL RANK
my life.
myself by decisive action from the mire in which it
seemed only too probable I was destined to wade all
Godfrey Twyneham, with the best inten-
tions in the world, and from motives of purest friend-
.ship, succeeded in making our house at Clapham
appear ten degrees more shabby and my position in
the City infinitely more humiliating. He introduced
me to his tailor, bootmaker, and hosier, and lo! I
found myself well dressed. I dined at his father's
house in a decent dress suit, and was introduced to a
circle of his friends who gave me a very good time
indeed. The Twynehams lived at Highgate, and I
constantly spent Saturday to Monday with them. I
think my mother missed me, but she never complained
and seemed only too glad that I was enjoying myself.
I was compelled to invent some plausible excuse for
being able to afford clothes so very superior to anything
I had been accustomed to. I explained that Godfrey
Twyneham had been able to put me in the way of some
private business and that he had introduced me to his
tailor, it being necessary that I should be well dressed
in order to follow up my opportunity. Godfrey was
one of those good-natured souls with no such strict
principles as prevented his telling a small fib to oblige
a friend. My mother and he took to each other at once,
and it flattered my vanity not a little that he seemed
to like coming to us and sharing my humble tenement
bedroom apparently as much as I liked visiting their
luxurious house at Highgate.
I think the only occasion on which I was tactless
enough to cause him to disapprove of me was when I
began to apologise for the poorness of our household.
I think I detected the faintest suspicion of a scornful
surprise in his face as he said :


ISRAEL RANK
51
“I don't think those things matter, do you, except
to snobs ?”
The rebuke was severe, but it did me good and I
avoided such mistakes afterwards.
Even now I recall with pleasure the look of astonish-
ment on Sibella's face the Sunday afternoon I called at
the Hallwards' in my new finery. I felt that I had
reason to be satisfied with myself. I knew that I
could do justice to my clothes and that I need not fear
comparison even with Lionel Holland. In fact, his
smartness invariably had something of the dressed up
shop boy about it, while I had reason to believe that
in spite of my half Semitic origin I conveyed an impres-
sion of distinction. At least, Godfrey told me so, and
I knew he was to be relied on in such matters. The
drawing-room was full of people when I entered, and
Sibella said in a confidential tone of approval :
You do look smart, Israel. You will make Lionel
quite jealous."
Lionel Holland was also taken by surprise when he
came in a few minutes afterwards. Sibella, true to her
character, and feeling that Lionel had perhaps received
enough encouragement of late, ostentatiously permitted
me to be her favoured cavalier for the afternoon. She
was unable to control her desire to set men at each
other's throats. Had it been anyone else I should have
managed her properly and not permitted myself to be
played fast and loose with. Sibella, however, was the
exception in my life, and she was always drawing the
unexpected from my character.
I heard her say to Lionel in a voice intended for me
to hear :
Doesn't Israel look nice, Lionel ?”
“He's been robbing the till, I suppose."
4-2


52
ISRAEL RANK
Sibella laughed a high, silvery laugh. The reply
was sufficiently spiteful and showed that she had
succeeded in deepening an animosity already bitter
enough.
The sneer had truth, in that it suggested the dis-
parity between my apparel and my income, and conse-
quently I hated Lionel Holland the more.
Mr. Johnson might have proved a most awkward
inquirer as to the sources of my apparent prosperity,
but just about this time he died. He was found one
morning sitting in his armchair, in front of a fire
which had burnt out hours before, dead, and clasped
in his stiffening fingers was a portrait of my mother
in a little leather case. He had evidently had it secretly
copied, for she had not given it to him. He had no
relations, and the only person who appeared on the
scene to take charge of things was a local solicitor, who
informed my mother that she had inherited through
her late lodger the sum of one thousand pounds and
all his personal effects. I think she was glad for my
sake as much as for her own.
“ You see, Israel, with the house, which is our own,
and a thousand pounds properly invested in addition
to what I have got, we can never come absolutely to
want, and if I can only get another lodger who will pay
well we should be quite comfortably off.”
The prospect failed to dazzle me. My ideas of what
constituted comfort grew daily. We discussed the
manner of investing the thousand pounds endlessly.
My mother would not hear of anything but gilt-edged
securities, and would have been quite content with a
miserable three and a half per cent., whereas I declared
it was a matter of no difficulty to obtain a safe five
or even six per cent. Before the matter was decided


ISRAEL RANK
53
my mother died and I found myself alone in the
world.
The event plunged me into the deepest dejection, for
I had loved her dearly. I took stock of my position
and decided that whatever happened I would resign
my clerkship. My resignation was promptly followed
by the offer of a rise in salary, so potent a lever is
independence to progress in life. They were unable,
however, to make me any such proposal as tempted
me to remain.
At first I made all sorts of good resolutions, which I
might have kept had not Godfrey Twyneham, whose
advice was always practical, been called away at this
moment to South America. His father had a branch
of his business at Buenos Ayres and Godfrey was
destined to manage it, the control of the London house
being reserved for the eldest son. He was anxious for
me to accompany him and even went to considerable
trouble in finding a post for me. I could not, how-
ever, bring myself to give up Sibella and at the last
moment declined to go. Poor Godfrey! I don't
think he ever quite forgave me, and since then we have
not seen much of each other.
My fifteen hundred pounds soon began to dwindle.
From day to day I salved my conscience by assuring
myself that, though I was spending my capital, I was
making friends who could not fail to be useful to me.
Inwardly I knew perfectly well that the class of young
men I was mixing with could nover help me to a
livelihood. I shut up the house at Clapham and took
rooms near Piccadilly, and eighteen months of my
life were wasted in unprofitable lounging. I seldom
rose till late, and when I was dressed strolled round to
a luxurious bar near Bond Street to meet several boon


54
ISRAEL RANK
companions and spend the afternoon in tippling. In
the evening I frequented those theatres at which the
more frivolous pieces were played, and afterwards hung
about the stage doors. I soon found myself led into
extravagances in the way of little suppers and small
presents of jewellery, which made my capital disappear
at an alarming rate. Like countless other young men
before me, and no doubt since, I was unable to pull up,
although I could feel my financial bark throbbing with
impending disaster and could hear the roar of the
rapids growing nearer and nearer. I shut my eyes
and went ahead, hoping for a miracle. Somehow I
obtained a reputation for riches for which there were
no reasonable grounds. I managed to hold on for a
year at high pressure, then for another six months
with difficulty, living on the credit that twelve months'
ostentatious solvency had secured me. Then ensued
a few months of decline, and on the morning of my
twenty-third birthday I found myself heavily in debt
and penniless. A few borrowed fivers kept me afloat
for a short time and then Lionel Holland put a spoke
in my wheel and sent me headlong. I had been asked
to a supper given by a friend of mine who had just
come of age. He had partaken frequently of my
hospitality in my prosperous days, and, having some
sense of gratitude, had not omitted me on this im-
portant occasion.
To my annoyance, I found that Lionel Holland,
with whom I did not know my friend was acquainted,
was of the party. We welcomed each other with
outward civility, but I saw danger in his eye.
The supper passed off pleasantly enough, and after-
wards we took hansoms and drove to my friend's
rooms. I escorted a chorus-girl from the Frivolity,


ISRAEL RANK
55
a particular friend of mine, with whom I was making
desperate attempts to keep on terms of intimacy. Our
hansom broke down, and my little friend, nervous and
hysterical, fainted. I carried her into the vestibule
of a well-known club, where, with the aid of brandy,
she was brought round, and after ten minutes or so
declared that she had no intention of going home, but
asked me to take her on to join the others. We found
them wondering what had happened to us, and in the
excitement of detailing the scene I did not notice that
the manner of the others had perceptibly changed
towards me.
As soon as I detected a certain coolness
I realised that Lionel Holland had been saying some-
thing to my detriment. The women were especially
distant, and I know no class who can make a man feel
so unpleasantly that he is not wanted as the sort of
female whom my host was entertaining. They have
a genius for being cruel to anyone who is going under,
and after all, it is not to be wondered at. They them-
selves have risked too much to care about increasing
the odds. In such a mood, however, they are
dangerous, for no considerations of breeding restrain
them. My own particular friend was taken out of
the room by one of the other women, and on her return
I could see at once that she had had repeated to her
whatever Lionel Holland had said. Her manner
became suddenly insolent and aggressive, as if she
felt that it was she who had been wronged. Inwardly
I quaked, for I know what she was capable of.
She had taken more wine than was good for her,
and was by no means mistress of herself.
As usual, I was in charge of the piano, playing
accompaniments for anyone who would contribute a
song and filling in myself with snatches of music hall


56
ISRAEL RANK
ditties, or florid pianoforte arrangements of the most
popular tunes of the day.
I had even successfully accompanied Lionel Holland,
who had rather a nice voice, and had managed with
great skill and tact to put him in high good humour
with his performance. I was nervously conscious that
it was necessary for my own dignity to make the
evening pass off smoothly.
My little friend was then pressed to sing, and I
hastened to join in the request. Though she had an
exceedingly pretty voice she was one of those people
who become vocally helpless if in any way under the
influence of alcohol. Her voice sounded weak and
tremulous ; she was unable to keep to the right key,
and, feeling that she was making an exhibition of
herself, lost her temper more and more at every bar.
In an absolute panic I did everything I could in order
that her song should pass off successfully, but to no
purpose. She forgot her words, and I ventured to
prompt her, which seemed to irritate her the more.
To make matters worse the others laughed.
Suddenly she stopped and laughed too, an unpleasant
laugh with little mirth in it.
He's a nice pianist, isn't he ? He'd be more at
home blacking the lodger's boots, instead of pretending
to be a gentleman on his mother's hard earned savings.
She herself was a plumber's daughter, but in her
case that was not to the point.
With commendable presence of mind I pretended
not to hear, and commenced to play something loudly
on the piano.
She was, however, transported with rage at her own
failure and determined to make somebody pay.
She shut the lid of the piano down violently, and I


ISRAEL RANK
57
“What
only just managed to save my hands from being
crushed. To such a female, in such a condition, it is
not a long way to hysterics.
“Get back to the lodgers !" she screamed.
do you mean by coming here and pretending to be a
gentleman ? You ought to be horsewhipped. You
Here followed a string of epithets intensely
humiliating to have to listen to under the circum-
stances. The other ladies present proceeded to take
her part and to treat her as a highly injured female.
They crowded round her as she lay sobbing and
gurgling and swearing on the sofa, and deluged her
with sympathy.
“I really don't wonder at her being upset," said one.
Such a thing to find out. Enough to make her feel
small,” protested another.
“It is indeed,” said a third, and turning to me added
with a comic attempt at hauteur,“ You cad !”
I felt terribly uncomfortable. I quite saw the sort
of character Lionel Holland had been kind enough to
give me. I felt like breaking a champagne bottle over
his head, only it would have done no good, and ven-
geance should always bide its time if it is to be effective.
He too looked uncomfortable, as if he had not
expected the mean part he had played to be brought
home to him so obviously and so soon.
As my presence seemed to make the lady grow worse
every moment I suggested that I should go. My host,
a youth with every instinct of good breeding, would not
hear of it, but several of the other men were growing
a little tired of the scene. They had only met me in
such society as we were now in and it did not matter
to them what my origin was. They would not be
called upon to recognise me in a legitimate social way.


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ISRAEL RANK
Good-night, your lordship,” said one of the women
mockingly, as I left the room.
It was no haphazard gibe. Obviously Holland, in
order to heap further discredit upon me, had revived the
boast of my schoolboy days. I went up to him before
I left the house and said quite quietly, so that no one
else could hear :
“You will be very sorry for this, and I want to
assure you of the fact."
I cannot describe the intense conviction I managed
to throw into the words. I felt they would come true.
He tried to laugh scornfully but the failure died upon
his lips. He was frightened in spite of himself.
-


CHAPTER IV
rooms.
The next morning I had a stormy interview with my
landlord. He would wait no longer for the arrears of
rent. He gave me three days to pay or to find other
In the meantime he would detain my things.
My little skiff had decidedly reached the rocks.
I went down to the house at Clapham, which I had
failed to let. The blinds were drawn and a weather-
beaten notice board leant in an intoxicated manner
over the shabby railings. I had not been near it for
months, and as I opened the front door the place smelt
damp and reminded me with a shiver of the deaths
that had taken place there. I almost heard the
whisper of my mother's voice in my ear.
Curiously enough, I had made no attempt to sell the
furniture. I seemed to have had a premonition that
the house would yet be a home for me. I went over
it, drawing up the blinds and letting in the dreary
February light. Every now and then I paused and
listened. I seemed to hear someone moving about
the house. The garden, which had been my mother's
hobby, was in a most desolate condition, and a dead
and decomposing cat lay across the threshold of the
back door. The atmosphere of the whole place
seemed tuned to the key of my own depression, and I
must admit to sitting down in the forlorn parlour and
59


60
ISRAEL RANK
shedding tears. Even the most self-reliant character
must resent being absolutely alone in the world, and
I felt terribly alone. I suppose those who have
listened amazed to the story of what they are pleased
to call my crimes would scarcely believe that I have a
craving for sympathy. True, it must be sympathy
on my own terms, but I crave for it. Personally I do
not at present ask for pity, but were the comfortable
classes given to psychological analysis—which they
are not-it might astonish them to discover in how
little they differ from the practised enemy of society,
the criminal. Many a highly respected member of
society whom prosperity has provented from feeling
the incentive of crime is a criminal in embryo. For
myself, I have achieved my object; I shall die Earl
Gascoyne, and my child will bear the title after me.
My descendants will belong to the ruling classes, and
I shall be handed down to posterity as an interesting
study. The British snob never wholly deserts a lord,
and will consider the scaffold to be not a little honoured
by my patronage. I am sure that there are thousands
of worthy people who would sooner the whole matter
had been hushed up; I for one am of their opinion. I
could have dispensed with a niche in history between
Gille de Rais and Madame de Brinvilliers. The fame
of posterity always asks too heavy a penalty in this life.
I realised that I should have to do the work of the
house at Clapham myself, so I decided to lock up all
the rooms except the sitting-room, a bedroom, and
the kitchen.
I engaged a woman to come in for the first few days
and light fires and clean up. Then, handing her the
key, I returned to town.
I owed over sixty pounds at my lodgings which I


ISRAEL RANK
61
had not the least prospect of paying. I had my land-
lord's word for it that he would not allow a thing of
mine to be moved out until my debt was discharged.
I had no mind to lose my stock of wearing apparel,
which constituted a very valuable asset. Removing
my things during the night would be a very difficult
business, and the slightest noise would rouse the
people of the house and prevent my ever getting them
out at all. I walked about the whole afternoon think-
ing the matter over and evolving one scheme after
another, only to throw them all aside as impracticable.
My chambers were on the second floor, which increased
the difficulty. The only possible thing was to bring
my clothes down loose and put them in a four-wheeled
cab and then to remove my travelling bags empty.
To carry down heavy luggage would have been im-
possible. I secured a four-wheeler and conceived the
idea of telling the driver exactly what I was about to
do, promising him a sovereign if he would help me.
Never was money better spent.
I told my landlord to call me early as I had a cer-
tainty of obtaining a hundred pounds in the morning.
So cheerful and optimistic was my manner that I am
sure he was deceived, for he executed my order for
a chop with alacrity. At about eleven I went to bed
and, ringing my bell, asked for some whisky and hot
water. This was in order that the servant might
report that I had retired for the night. Three o'clock
was the time my cabman was to make his appearance,
and at half-past two I rose, dressed, and looked out
of the window. There he was, and the street was
clear of policemen.
I put on my fur coat and, carrying as many things
as possible, crept downstairs. In an incredibly short


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ISRAEL RANK
space of time I had placed my first instalment in the
cab. Half a dozen times I crept upstairs and down
again, with my heart in my mouth, till my belongings
were bursting from both windows of the cab. To
my infinite delight, I rescued everything, down to my
boot-trees. There was hardly room for me in the
cab, but I managed to squeeze in and we drove away.
Robinson Crusoe returning to the island with his raft
covered with useful articles from the wreck was not
half so elated. We trundled away to Clapham, and
at about four in the morning I had my belongings
safe and sound in my own house. Their loss would
have been a terrible blow, and as I retired to rest I
breathed a sigh of gratitude. My landlord would, I
suppose, declare that he is revenged, now that he has
had the felicity of reading how an unfeeling judge
gave me certain details as to the way in which the law
proposed to deal with me. The death sentence has
always sounded to me a most undignified and vin-
dictive snarl. I have most certainly never been im-
pressed by it, and never less so than when I was
directly interested in its pronouncement.
It was very clear that I was now called
upon
to earn
my own living. I did not doubt my ability to earn
enough to keep me, but I shuddered at the prospect
of days of hopeless drudgery in the City that other
men might grow rich. For eighteen months I had lived
in comparative luxury. I was spoilt for playing the
part of a slave. Five times the salary I was ever
likely to obtain seemed to me mere poverty. I strolled
about the City day after day for some weeks without
any definite result, and the very few pounds I had
managed to scrape together were disappearing fast.
Grahame Hallward was now in the City and as


ISRAEL RANK
63
friendly to me as ever. He would, I was sure, lend
me money if I asked him, but a very natural feeling
prevented my exposing my parlous condition to
Sibella's brother. In fact, I did everything possible
to give him the impression that I was prosperous.
Sometimes he would come in during the evening and
smoke with me, and I invariably kept from him the
truth that I did the housework myself, complaining
bitterly of the incompetence of the imaginary female
who came in to cook and put things straight for me.
There was only one person from whom I could borrow
money, and I felt a very natural diffidence in writing
to Godfrey after the way I had treated him. Ship-
wreck, however, was too imminent for such scruples
to prevail, and in reply to my request the kind-hearted
fellow sent me twenty-five pounds, saying that I was
on no account to allow pride to stand in the way of
asking for more. As to my not having fallen in
with his views, surely I had a right to manage my
affairs my own way.
When alone in the evenings I used to draw out the
genealogical tree of the Gascoynes and study it.
Whilst living in London I had made a good many
inquiries and had found out exactly where I stood.
That is to say, I had collected a great deal of informa-
tion as to the habits, health, and chances of longevity
of the members of the different branches that stood
between me and the succession. The table I have
already given had not altered materially. The Earl
at that time was twenty-three years of age, holding
a commission in the Guards, and had been married
some months before to an American heiress. They
might have any number of children, so that it was
strange that, though I was in no way lacking in com-


64
ISRAEL RANK
mon sense, I should persist in dreaming of myself as
finally attaining the rank of Earl Gascoyne.
It was at this time I came across a book which
interested me exceedingly. It was a record of most of
the celebrated poisoning cases in history, but the author
had the gift of vivifying whatever he touched with rare
qualities of imagination. He was able to fill in the bare
outlines left by mere chroniclers with an atmosphere
which carried singular conviction, and he could weave a
tale of interest from the most meagre details. Given the
crime and the historical characters, he followed them
all through the different emotions which led up to the
catastrophe with faultless instinct. He possessed a
breadth of mind in dealing with assassins which was
unusual, and pointed out that great criminals are as
a rule so far removed from other men that it is pre-
sumption to measure them by the same standard.
The courage and fortitude with which they almost
invariably face death, he cited as a proof that prob-
ably most of them had reached a philosophic elevation
of which they themselves were perhaps unconscious,
and from which death hardly seemed so terrible an
event. He was not interested in the commonplace
criminal. The Borgias, Madame de Brinvilliers, the
Earl of Somerset, and Thomas Henry Wainwright,
were the aristocrats in crime who roused his curiosity
and seemed to him worthy of psychological analysis. A
criminal in his eyes might be great, just as any other
man might be great who lifted his profession out of
the common rut by the magic of personality. He
deprecated, for instance, the unreflective execration
which historians pour out on those who have removed
Kings and Emperors. Most of them, he held, were
men who had everything to lose and nothing to gain


ISRAEL RANK
65
by their act. They could look for no immunity.
Ravaillac, torn to pieces by horses, Gerard, tortured
to death for having done what he considered his duty
in removing William the Silent, seemed to him to have
missed their share of commendation. More dignified
a hundredfold they seemed to him than the egotistical
apes who sat in a mockery of the judicial mind in
judgment on Charles I. For the latter at least there
was every chance of escape and no personal courage
was required.
Not that he had anything to say in actual defence
of secret poisoners. If they chose such a line of con-
duct, they must not grumble when the day of reckoning
came. At the same time, he paid all deference to their
courage, for the risks of murder are always enormous.
I cannot say when first the book began to exercise an
influence over me, and to turn my mind in a certain
direction, but as I grew more and more depressed with
my failure to obtain a means of livelihood, an idea
gradually formed itself which, though I dismissed it
with a laugh at first, returned again and again, assum-
ing more and more of a permanent character each
time.
The loneliness of my life, for with the exception of
visits from Grahame Hallward my days were solitary,
encouraged morbid reflections. At first I entertained
the idea as an abstraction. I clothed the Gascoyne
family and myself in fifteenth-century garb, and
placed the scene in a medieval Italian city. I wove
plot and counterplot. One by one I removed them
all from my path, and till the end walked unsuspected,
doing my work with caution and precision.
Each day I had a new set of subsidiary characters
whom I moved hither and thither according to the
5


66
ISRAEL RANK
exigencies of my mimic conspiracy. The game became
a mania with me. I read every book I could discover
that had to do with secret crimes.
For a while I walked with the grim shadows of the
past and would have no companion but the shades of
murderers. Cæsar Borgia whispered in my ear as we
paced the gardens of the Vatican, and the scarlet
bow of his mouth twisted sardonically when he told
me in a low, musical voice of how Giuseppe died.
Lucrezia intoned as in a trance her secret deeds,
telling me how she had killed her boy husband and
taken her brother for a lover.
I bore Nero's cup of poison to his victims and watched
their vain efforts to grapple with unconquerable agony,
or their final look of terror as the growing paralysis
of death crept over them. There was in the long list
of poisoners, ancient and modern, a French abbé
who in particular interested me. His crimes had been
uniformly successful, for he had discovered a drug
which left no trace, but a gradual terror took possession
of him and, though unsuspected, he confessed his guilt.
Recorded poisoners have necessarily been the
clumsiest. To be detected is to confess oneself un-
skilled. Pretty, dainty Madeline Smith, sitting im-
perturbable and charming through the long days of
her trial, must have reflected that the thing could have
been better done and that eighteen is a little young
to begin.
Madame de Brinvilliers and the French poisoners
in the reign of Louis XIV. were fascinating. The crime
drew a meretricious charm from the daintiness of the
period, even if the punishments were barbaric. It
was certainly unlike the porcelain manners of the time
to break a lady, an aristocrat, on the wheel.


CHAPTER V
ONE day it struck me that I had never seen Hammer-
ton, the magnificent Hampshire home of the Gascoynes.
It was the most important of the half-dozen places
that went with the title, and I wondered that so far
curiosity had not impelled me to visit any of them.
I made up my mind to see them all, beginning with
Hammerton; and so, one exquisite day in June, I got
on my bicycle early in the morning and rode out of
London. The bicycle probably strikes a jarring note
in the telling, but I have no doubt that their em-
blazoned chariots, caparisoned horses, and luxurious
barges, were to my great prototypes as little romantic.
As I rode along the level Roman road, the only
figure in sight, I felt a great exhilaration. I was the
adventurer setting forth, the hero of the story going
to claim his own. The towers of Hammerton rose
ever like a mirage on the horizon, and once or twice I
was obliged to check myself, so far had my fancy
roamed. I reflected seriously that my plans, if
romantic in the after telling, should be practical in
execution, and that it must be left to the poet and
dramatist to mould them to poetic fancy. I doubted
not that I should at least achieve a name worthy of
their notice. Romance, however, was my master, as
it must ever be of the imaginative. She is the mistress
67
5-2


68
ISRAEL RANK
of the secret ways, and the touch of her finger-tips is
superior to the very lips of my Lady Commonplace.
I breakfasted at a wayside inn, my table set in a
garden which was a melody of roses, while beyond, on
fields and pasture-land, the growing sun drank up the
morning mists. By the time I was on the road again
the day had become tropical and I was fain to ride
easily.
I had chosen, for an excellent reason, apart from a
human weakness for fair weather, a fine day and a
Saturday. Hammerton was a noted show place and
on such a day there was likely to be a considerable
number of visitors, and I should most probably not
be noticed by the person whose duty it was to take
the visiting parties round.
Hammerton lay some way from the main road and
some thirty-five miles from London. I struck off into
narrow lanes where the trees arched overhead and the
sun streaming through their branches made lacework
of the shadows beneath. An intense stillness lay
about these bypaths, and it was but rarely I passed
anyone. Here and there I saw little patches of red,
violet, or white in front of me which when I overtook
them turned out to be cottagers' children, and in-
variably there was a thatched dwelling near nestling
by the road. I was too entirely town bred to be able
to identify the countless species of birds that piped
and warbled as I rode among them.
At last, after having descended a steep lane where
the ground was so broken as to make riding impossible,
I began to ascend, and finally emerged on the brow of a
hill and on to another high road. Some three miles
off, crowning another hill which was a mixture of
rock and grass land, stood Hammerton Castle, lordly



ISRAEL RANK
69
and feudal. At the foot of the hill on which it was
built a river wound its way through the pasture-land,
and, about its base, nestling beneath its shadow as
if for protection, clustered the little township of
Hammerton, red-roofed and mellow. I looked at my
watch. It was barely twelve o'clock, so I went into
an adjacent field and lay down in the grass, amidst
buttercups and daisies, and from the shadow of a
great elm surveyed the home of my ancestors at leisure.
It was indeed a noble dwelling. The glamour of a
great past was about it. Its majestic proportions and
lordly turrets told of traditions which were little less
than royal.
It was from these walls that a Gascoyne had flung
defiance at King John, following it by so stout a defence
that that amiable monarch had been compelled to
pass on gnashing his teeth, only to meet his rebellious
Barons at Runnymede.
A Gascoyne had held Hammerton for Edward of
York. It had been a favourite with Queen Elizabeth,
whose condescension had impoverished a couple of
generations. Later, it had stood a siege from one of
Cromwell's generals, and so stubborn had been the
defence that the only military tyrant England has
ever known hastened to its reduction, and was after
all compelled to grant an honourable capitulation.
Even now as I lay and dreamed in the morning sunlight
I could see the shattered garrison emerging from those
gates, drums beating, colours flying, while the Puritans,
who never had a chivalrous word for their foes, looked
sourly on.
I lay gazing over the intervening landscape at the
castle till well on into the afternoon. I wove it and
its surroundings into one day dream after another.


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ISRAEL RANK
It was four o'clock when I arrived at the main
entrance and stood with a small group of excursionists
waiting for a guide. The great gates opened on to
level lawns, and, large as the castle looked from with-
out, I was amazed at the space of ground its circular
and battlemented walls enclosed, even though it was
broken up by buildings, some of them quite modern.
I stepped after the guide with a distinct feeling of
pride in the knowledge that even if far removed I was in
the line of succession to all this magnificence. There
was among us the usual historical authority who kept
on stopping the guide to ask him some irrelevant
question. The latter, however, had a very effectual
manner of dealing with such tactics, and always
began the particular description he was engaged on all
over again. We were shown the spot where Lord
Gascoyne, hero of the memorable defence against
Cromwell, fell mortally wounded. In the banqueting
hall there was a superb collection of armour, which
included a coat of mail worn by Richard, the Lion
Heart, and the sword used by Henry at Agincourt.
It was the picture gallery, however, which interested
me most, and I had barely scanned half a dozen Lelys,
Reynolds and Gainsboroughs, before I saw how entirely
my mother had been a Gascoyne.
She might have sat for the portrait of the celebrated
Anne, Countess of Gascoyne, whose picture occupied
the post of honour. My mother had possessed the
same curiously deep blue eyes. The nose, just a little
too large, was identical, as were the oval of the face
and the turn of the head. I lingered behind the others
to look at this picture more closely, and when finally
I tore myself away I found the guide droning over the de-
scription of the most remarkable portrait in the gallery.


ISRAEL RANK
71
It was true that most of the Gascoynes were dark,
but Ethel, the sixth Earl, was more like a Southern
Italian than an Englishman. The name sounded
curious as belonging to a man. He must have had
singularly fine eyes, and yet the painter, with rare
perception, had painted them half closed. To have
done otherwise would have been obviously wrong.
There was not a feature or a point in the portrait which
did not suggest subtlety. Since that day I have often
sat and gazed at the picture. It has a fascination for
me which never palls. I intended to have had my own
hung by the side of it. Indeed, I have left orders for
a portrait to be done.
In common with most people who walk their way
in sncret he had apparently a love of green, for though
the picture is slightly disturbed by a note of scarlet, in
this again the artist showed rare judgment. He had
rightly felt that the composition, to be characteristic,
required it. The figure in the picture wears emerald
earrings, and his sword, belt, and boots are embroidered
with jewels. The guide book tells us that he secured
the title by treachery. He was more than suspected
of poisoning his eldest brother, and was known to have
killed in a duel another brother who stood between
himself and the earldom. He spent, so the guide told
us, a great deal of his life in Italy, where his doings
were reported to have been of unfathomable infamy.
Late in life, long after the period of the emerald
earrings, he returned to Hammerton, and if his youth
had been prodigal he compensated for it by a penurious
old age. He shut himself up in a tower and left the
remainder of the castle to go to rack and ruin. He had
one companion, reputed to be an Italian magician.
The countryside told awful tales of the secret rites and


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ISRAEL RANK
horrors practised by these two, and the guide-book
mentioned a village maiden spirited away by super-
natural means and compelled to bear them company
against her will. True, another chronicler of the time
confidently asserted that the self-same maiden was
afterwards seen in a neighbouring town in very un-
desirable company, but this latter historian was a
Gascoyne and obviously biassed.
I was in dread lest a most extraordinary coincidence
should strike the guide or the excursionists. I at
once noted the great likeness between the portrait and
myself. The features were Jewish and so were mine.
This was the more curious because in this respect we
had no common ancestor. He must have been about
my build and height, and the eyes seemed to meet mine
with a slightly mocking smile of recognition and a
subtle under-glance of sympathy.
I do not know whether the picture is all I fancy it
to be, or whether my imagination, fired by its likeness
to myself, gives it its atmosphere, but to me it is
extraordinarily suggestive. Whenever I look upon
it the life of this exquisite passes through my brain
like a painted procession. He was obviously one of
those born to the worship of beautiful apparitions, and
his life had been passed at the extremes of joy and
bitterness which that apparently exoteric, but in reality
deeply esoteric, cult involves. It was a face that could
never have known the lethargy of mediocrity. When
his spirit slumbered it must have been the sleep of
satiety. I am glad I never saw a picture of him in old
age. That face, stained with the vices of an intoxicating
youth and torn by the humiliation and agonies of
middle and old age, could not have been pleasant. I
am convinced that there were no looking-glasses in that


ISRAEL RANK
73
solitary tower where he and his mysterious friend died
and were only found when the rats had half eaten them.
But to me the great point was that he was impatient
of dullness, and had stretched out his hand to take
what he wanted. The guide-book said he was without
natural affection. How little the world understands
men! As if an egotist of character might not slay the
mother he loved for a dear purpose.
Morally, Ethel, Earl Gascoyne, was a matricide, the
family chronicles deponing that his mother had died
of grief at his crimes. He could not have been entirely
destitute of natural affection, for he was apparently
overwhelmed with sorrow at her death, as the inscrip-
tion on the stately tomb which he erected to her
memory in Hammerton chapel indicated.
I wandered after the gaping, chattering group hardly
hearing what was said. How was it that I was so like
this Gascoyne who was so singularly unlike his kinsmen,
and who had put into practice the dreams I had
dreamt ? He had been right. Hammerton had been
worth risking something for.
We visited the lonely tower where he was supposed
to have spent the haunted evening of his days in
searching for the elixir of life, and where the rats had
left him a hideous, obscene corpse. The trippers
seemed infected by the gloom of the story, for in silence
they tramped through the spacious, echoing, upper
chamber, where he was reputed to have studied the
stars, and to have sold himself to the Evil One.
This old man who found it so difficult to die-he was
nearly a hundred when the end came-spent his last
years in a debauch of mystical speculation, remaining
interesting to the end.
As we crossed the grassy lawn on our way out a


74
ISRAEL RANK
carriage and pair drove in through the great gates.
It in were seated a young man and woman of a sur-
prising distinction of appearance. The young man was
dark, but not as Ethel, Earl Gascoyne, had been dark.
The hair, eyes and moustache were dark brown. The
face itself was almost feminine in its delicacy of colour-
ing. The flush of the cheeks and the redness of the lips
might have been envied by a young girl. The suggestion
of effeminacy, however, was negatived by the iron deter-
mination of the mouth. I don't think I have ever seen
so firm a face which did not suggest obstinacy. The
eyes were keen, and looked out from beneath the finely
pencilled eyebrows with a winning expression of kindli-
ness. The face, however, was too sensitive to be desig-
nated by so stodgy an expression as good-natured.
The guide touched his cap, and turning to the group
who stood waiting, said impressively : “ That is his
lordship.”
The excursionists gaped after the carriage as if my
lord and my lady were a show.
I rode back to London in the cool of a perfect summer
evening thinking deeply. I had seen enough of the
world to be quite sure that luck or capital were the only
two things which could bring wealth while a man was
still young enough to enjoy it. The first could in the
nature of things only come to one man in a thousand,
and the chances of a stroke of luck really worth having
were even more remote. As for capital, I had none,
nor was there the least probability of my obtaining any.
Therefore, unless I was content to work hard to make
some other man rich I must step out of the conventional
path.
I was unknown to all my aristocratic relatives.
Should mine be the unseen hand which was to remove


ISRAEL RANK
75
them from my path ? And if so, was such a thing
possible without risks disproportionate to the gain ?
It was a stupendous enterprise. The career of a
murderer was not to be undertaken lightly and without
reflection. The more I thought about it, however, the
more convinced I became that I should decide on
making a struggle for the Gascoyne title and the
Gascoyne millions.
After all, the family was nothing to me. The
member of it to whom I had appealed for assistance
had refused even to see me, and should I persist in my
design this would have been as well.
From the study of poisoners I proceeded to the study
of poisons, and in this way I spent the remainder of the
summer.


CHAPTER VI
WITH the help of Grahame Hallward and a strict
economy of the money which Godfrey Twyneham had
sent me I managed to get through the summer fairly
comfortably. I visited the West End but rarely, and
was spared the indignity of being cut by my former
acquaintances.
I gathered from what Grahame Hallward let fall that
Lionel Holland had given him an idea of the humiliation
I had undergone in his presence. Grahame was much
too chivalrous and sweet-natured to wound my feelings
by any direct allusion to it; I doubt, indeed, if he realised
that he had ever given me a hint of his knowledge.
Sibella had no chivalry, and when I called could not
forbear to make pointed allusion to people who passed
themselves off for being what they were not. Again
I left the house hating her, and still my dreams were
tormented by thoughts of her.
By the autumn I had quite made up my mind that
I would try and clear my path to the Gascoyne earldom.
I tabulated the lives it would be necessary to remove.
They were as follows :
Simeon, Earl Gascoyne, aged 25
Ughtred Gascoyne,
55
Henry Gascoyne,
Gascoyne Gascoyne,
Gascoyne Gascoyne,
27
Henry Gascoyne,
22
Edith Gascoyne,
23
Henry Gascoyne,
89
99
62
68
76


ISRAEL RANK
77
It was strange that there were not more women,
and it was somewhat of a relief. The killing of women
is not a pleasant task, believe me. I have learnt so
much from experience. The great question was,
where to begin. The old gentleman of eighty-nine
might be left out of the reckoning. It was highly
probable that by the time I brought my operations to
a conclusion, he would be beyond the need for
attention.
I debated with myself the alternatives of beginning
near the head of the house, or with those members who
were furthest removed. After much reflection I
decided that it would be better to begin where there
was likely to be the least suspicion of foul play.
Gascoyne Gascoyne was the son of the man who
had snubbed me so unmercifully when I applied to him
for introductions. He was twenty-seven years of age,
and I had absolutely no knowledge of him beyond that
fact. I knew that his father was on the Stock Ex-
change, and the Red Book told me that he lived in a
house at South Kensington. I wandered about in its
vicinity for several evenings and gathered that young
Gascoyne lived at home with his father and mother.
It was hardly likely that the young man who came
home every evening at the same time and only went
out again at irregular intervals would be other than
the son of the house, and I was assured that he was
the man I was looking for by his entering a carriage
one evening with the master and mistress of the house
and being addressed by them as Gascoyne. The time
had come to formulate a plan of campaign, and I went
home and shut myself up with French cigarettes to
think.
My study of poisons had been profoundly unpro-


78
ISRAEL RANK
ductive of suggestion. The vast majority of them
were thrown aside as ridiculous. To use them would
have been suicidal. Corrosives, for instance, with
their obvious evidences, could never be employed
except by the most thoughtless and ignorant. I even
disliked reading about their symptoms. I would cer-
tainly as soon have dashed out the brains of my
victim with a sledge-hammer.
True, there are, I believe, on record cases where
poisoning by arsenic had passed undetected, but it
was far too slow a medium ; I might not always have
sufficient time at my command. I studied the irritants
with an equal feeling of dissatisfaction, and the neurotics
filled me with a sense of the hopelessness of the task I
had undertaken. I was firmly convinced that there
must be a poison somewhere in which the chances of
detection were infinitesimal. Copper, and the pos-
sibility of its being administered so that its presence
in food might appear accidental, detained me some
time and cost me a great deal of thought, but how to
manage it was not very apparent. At any rate, I
mentally registered the idea ; I was determined that
on no account would I commit anything to paper. I
have at all times considered the carelessness of criminals
in this respect most curious. I reflected that it would
be an excellent thing to devote so much time every
evening to a retrospect of the day's work and if pos-
sible to destroy all evidences as I went along.
My sinister resolution had been taken so imper-
ceptibly that I found myself engrossed with the
details before I was quite aware of how far I had
travelled in the matter.
About this time I picked up a book on reincarna-
tion, and I began to wonder if after all I might not be


ISRAEL RANK
79
Ethel, Lord Gascoyne, come again. In default of being
able to prove the contrary I came to the conclusion
that I was. The fancy pleased me and I would
indulge it.
In my search for a good medium I was confronted
with the fact that the secrets of the best poisoners
have died with them. Confession does not recommend
itself to the strongest intellects even when in extremis.
Now and then of course the vanity of a great artist
has led to inconvenient death-bed boasting, as in the
case of Philippe Darville, who, imagining himself
about to die, gave an exhaustive and circumstantial
account of his crimes, and recovering, was brought
to the block, only his sense of humour supporting him
through the trying development.
I continued my search for the medium I wanted,
and in the meanwhile made myself thoroughly ac-
quainted with the habits of young Gascoyne Gascoyne.
In appearance he was tall and athletic, and his
character seemed to be that of most young men about
town with natural instincts and without too much
imagination. He patronised the lighter forms of
theatrical entertainment, and I recognised him as
having been one of the habitués of the Frivolity Theatre.
Further inquiry elicited the fact that he was being
assisted to sow his wild oats by a young lady of the
chorus with a snub nose and with that in her which
can only be described as “devil.” She appeared to be
genuinely in love with him and had proved it by de-
clining to allow him to marry her-an offer he had
made in the first days of their acquaintance. He was
busily employed in the City all day, and, being an
only son, his parents seemed to expect more attention
from him than would otherwise have been the case.


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The house they lived in had gardens at the back which
opened on to a quiet road. Having no very clear con-
ception as to how I was going to act I derived a certain
satisfaction from hanging about this road, and was
surprised one night by almost running up against young
Gascoyne Gascoyne as he emerged from a private
gate which he locked behind him with a pass-key. I
watched him walk swiftly into the thoroughfare, hail
a cab and drive away. It was barely eleven o'clock,
and when I returned and looked at the house all the
lights in the lower windows were out. That, how-
ever, in what I had by observation gathered to be his
bedroom was alight. Evidently he was not sufficiently
emancipated from parental control to go his own
way openly, or his secrecy was due to consideration
for his parents' feelings.
I ascertained that as a rule when he spent the even-
ing at home he left the house as soon as his parents
were in bed, and if in time called at the theatre and
drove his infatuation home. Sometimes he did not
return to South Kensington till daybreak. It seemed
such a daring proceeding that at times I wondered if his
father might not be cognisant of it. The girl's name
was Kate Falconer. I don't suppose it was her real
name, but as such she figured with a couple of dozen
others at the bottom of the play bill.
Since her attachment to young Gascoyne she had
dispensed with the attentions of all her other admirers.
I was sorry for her, as it meant that she was wasting
time. She lived in a flat in Bloomsbury, three floors
up, and once her front door was shut she was as secure
from any observation as if she had been living in the
moon.
The problem was a difficult one.
It was essential


ISRAEL RANK
81
that I should not be acquainted with either of them.
Put brutally, the task I had set myself was how to
poison a man to whom I was a perfect stranger, and to
whose food-supply I had absolutely no means of access.
Whichever way I looked at the matter I was forced
to the conclusion that there could be no success
without a certain amount of risk, and I had not yet
accustomed myself to the idea of risk. It seemed
inevitable that I must make myself acquainted with
young Gascoyne somehow or other, but I left this as
a last resource, and I am glad I did so, for fate assisted
me in a most remarkable manner.
One Sunday afternoon I found myself wandering in
the neighbourhood of the Bloomsbury flats where Kate
Falconer lived. I had become so tenacious of my
purpose that whilst thinking out some definite scheme
I enjoyed feeling that I was in the vicinity of my
intended victim. I knew that as a rule he spent Sun-
day afternoon at the flat. A sudden curiosity impelled
me to enter the building, and, passing the hall-porter
as if I had business, I climbed to the top. It seemed
likely to have been an aimless proceeding, but as I
was descending I heard Miss Falconer's door open
on the landing just above me, and recognised her
voice in conversation with young Gascoyne.
“I shan't see you till next Saturday then ?”
“I'm afraid not; my father and mother will want
me every day till they go away. I shall call for you
on Saturday at eleven. Our train leaves Waterloo
at eleven-thirty.”
“Just fancy a whole week at the seaside together!
It will be perfect, won't it ?”
There was a silence eloquent of an embrace. I
waited, anxious to know where they were going.
>>
6


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ISRAEL RANK
“You don't mind a quiet place ?"
“I should have minded it a year ago. I like it
now.'
Well, Lowhaven is quite quiet, and at this time of
year we shall probably have the hotel to ourselves."
There was another embrace, and, conscious that
the interview might draw to a close any moment, I
stole downstairs.
I would go to Lowhaven and stay at the same
hotel. It might lead to something. In thinking the
matter over I had arrived at the conclusion that I,
having apparently no motive in young Gascoyne's
death, could use means which would be unwise on the
part of people upon whom suspicion would fall as a
natural consequence of their crime.
Supposing unseen I dropped aconite, or some such
poison, into a whisky-and-soda, how could suspicion
possibly fall on me? At any rate, it was worth while
going to Lowhaven. I could not quite make up my
mind whether to travel by the same train, or to
precede them, or to follow them. Even such minor
details required careful consideration. It was im-
possible to say which method of procedure might not
leave a clue to the acute mind of Scotland Yard.
Discovering that there was only one hotel at Low-
haven, I decided to go down on the previous day.
Lowhaven turned out to be a mere village, at which
I was somewhat sorry, as every new arrival became
at once an object of attention. The hotel was situ-
ated at the extreme end of the tiny parade. Such
walks as I took were all in the direction that led away
from the town.
Whether I should write my own name in the hotel
book or not was a question. I was undecided about


ISRAEL RANK
83
it up to the last moment. I reflected that it was
quite possible that a smart detective might take the
trouble to find out all about the only visitor to the
hotel if anything should occur. As a matter of fact,
there were three other visitors in the hotel, a mother
and two daughters, who as a rule kept to their rooms,
only emerging to go for walks or drives.
Gascoyne and his companion did not come by the
train they had settled on, and I began to wonder
whether after all they had changed their minds and
gone somewhere else, or whether circumstances had
prevented their coming at all. I was far too cautious
to ask or seek information even in the most round-
about way.
I studied the time table in the privacy of my own
room. There was another train which would bring
them down about five o'clock.
I established myself in the vestibule with some after-
noon tea in front of me, and a little after five they drove
up looking deliciously happy.
I grew quite sentimental over them, and was com-
pelled to take a long walk to cure myself.
I had, before I left town, decided that aconite
would be the best thing I could use if I chose to run
the risk of a poison which left evidences. Aconite
essentially knows its own mind, and the struggle is
not a long one.
After tea I went for a long tramp, and on my way
back met them walking along the edge of the cliff.
They were entirely engrossed in each other and barely
noticed me as I passed, although there was not another
soul in sight. The day had been perfect, but a gale
sprang up as soon as the sun went down, and the
rioting wind shook the little hotel as if it had been
6--2


84
ISRAEL RANK
matchwood. There were six of us in the hotel dining-
room at dinner, and with true British aloofness we
had placed ourselves as far apart as possible. The
lady and her two daughters dined in silence, as if it
were a solemnity too deep for words. I sat alone and
surveyed the reflection of young Gascoyne and Kate
Falconer in the mirror in front of me. A bottle of
champagne decorated their table, and between the
courses they gazed into each other's eyes in an ecstasy
of happiness. After dinner the widow and her two
daughters disappeared. Young Gascoyne smoked a
cigar and took coffee and liqueurs in the vestibule
with his chair pushed close to Kate Falconer. By
half-past ten everybody in the hotel had gone to bed,
and I lay smoking innumerable cigarettes and think-
ing deeply, while the storm howled and raved without.
In the morning when I awoke there lay before me a
panorama of foam-crowned waves, driving furiously
to the shore or tossing tumultuously and flinging their
spray into the air.
It was Sunday, and despite the terrific wind the
widow and her daughters went off to church, disappear-
ing up the winding path of the cliff with superhuman
struggles against the wind. I was late, and watched
them from my bedroom window.
As I passed down the corridor on my way to the
dining-room I met a servant carrying a breakfast tray.
It could only be for Gascoyne and his friend, and I
would have given a great deal to have had five seconds
with that teapot undetected.
It disappeared into bedroom No. 10, and I went
downstairs to a solitary breakfast in the dining-room.
The day passed quite uneventfully. The two lovers
appeared to a late lunch and spent the afternoon


ISRAEL RANK
85
in a bow window in the hall. Young Gascoyne smoked
cigarettes which Kate Falconer lit for him, a proceed-
ing contemplated by the elder of the widow's two
daughters--who, apparently a little wearied by the
company of her relatives, had descended to read a
book in an armchair-with a tightening of the upper
lip. Kate Falconer's bringing-up, however, had trained
her to the disapproval of the more respectable members
of her own sex.
I suppose the day would have been very dull but
for the state of suppressed excitement I was in. Once
I almost thought my chance had come.
After tea the lovers parted for the first time since
they had arrived. She went upstairs and he went to
the reading-room. I strolled out into the garden and
glanced in at the window. He was seated at a table
writing letters. After a few minutes I returned to
the hotel. As I entered the door a waiter was carrying
a whisky-and-soda to the reading-room. I sat down
in the hall and waited, not imagining that I should be
able to reach the whisky-and-soda but determined not
to lose a chance. In a minute or so the waiter returned
to the servants' quarters, and in a few minutes more
Gascoyne came hurriedly out of the reading-room and
ran lightly upstairs. I walked slowly into the room.
The whisky-and-soda, untouched, stood on the writing-
table by a half-finished letter. Unfortunately there
was a glass door between the reading-room and the
hall, and it caused me to hesitate. The next moment
Gascoyne was back again in the room and the oppor-
tunity was gone.
He and Miss Falconer, who seemed to have recog-
nised me, had evidently more than once made me the
subject of conversation, but had been too wrapped up


86
ISRAEL RANK
in each other to take any further notice. Finding
ourselves alone, however, he became quite companion-
able. He had charming manners and a singularly
pleasant voice. I took a fancy to him from the first,
and keenly regretted that our acquaintanceship must
be so short.
I was compelled by the exigencies of the situation
to avoid anything like actual friendliness, which I could
see young Gascoyne was perfectly ready to display.
I had five days in which to do my work.
Monday passed uneventfully. It was a glorious
day, and Gascoyne and Miss Falconer went out early
in the morning and did not return till dinner-time.
There was nothing to be gained by impatience. The
only thing was to watch, and to seize the opportunity
should one occur. Tuesday and Wednesday went by,
and on Thursday I heard Gascoyne tell the manageress
that they would be leaving the next day. It seemed
my visit were to be in vain.
I had ascertained that Gascoyne and Miss Falconer
had two rooms on the same landing as myself, Nos. 10
and 11. On Friday morning, the day of their depar-
ture, as I was on my way downstairs I saw a breakfast
tray for two on a chair on the landing outside their
room. The breakfast was untasted. It was obviously
theirs, and the waiter had most probably gone back
for something.
There was not a soul in sight. I looked over the
staircase. There was no one to be seen in the hall
below. In a second my resolution was taken. Swiftly
I took the tiny phial containing the aconite from my
pocket and dropped a few grains into the teapot.
As I descended the stairs I met the waiter returning,
breathless. He held a sugar basin in his hands, which
as if
-


ISRAEL RANK
87
he had evidently forgotten. I went on to the dining-
room. To me the hotel was already full of the ghosts
of pain. I was haunted even in that moment of stress
by the one weak spot in my scheme. Aconitine is
not instantaneous, neither does it rob the victims of
their intelligence, which remains clear and undis-
turbed till the end. Should either of them be asked
if it had been suicide the reply would of course be in
the negative, and that would be an awkward factor at
the inquest.
In a few minutes the hotel was in a state of excite-
ment. This was what I had expected. The doctor
was telephoned for from the village. Before he
arrived, however, all was over and an awful gloom
descended on the place. I felt soverely the dis-
advantage of not knowing all that had passed in the
death chamber. It appeared that the widow lady
thoroughly understood nursing, and had at once ordered
anyone who could not be of use out of the room. I
was certainly not likely to pretend to any medical
knowledge, so I remained in the hall asking eagerly
for news from anyone who ca ne down from the sick
room, the widow's two daughters, all their reserve
banished, keeping me company.
It was their mother who brought us word of the
tragic ending.
In a few minutes everybody in the hotel was gathered
in the hall discussing the affair in hushed voices, and
it was at this moment that the doctor bustled in.
“I was not at home when you telephoned,” he said.
The manageress explained that the people he had
come to attend on were dead.
“Surely not, my dear Miss Worcester. Let me see
them at once.”


88
ISRAEL RANK
The widow stepped forward.
“I have been a hospital matron, doctor, and I have
no doubt about it.” She commenced to lead the way
upstairs, the doctor and the manageress following her.
In a few minutes the manageress reappeared.
Telephone to the village and tell them that some-
one is to come from the police-station at once.'
This was unpleasant, and I must confess to a dis-
mally nervous feeling, but I was somewhat reassured
by hearing the manageress say in conversation with
the widow :
“I think it must have been suicide."
“They seemed very happy," said the widow.
Lately married, I suppose.” And the manageress
raised her eyebrows and looked at the widow interro-
gatively.
One must not judge, but I fancy-” the widow
stopped. She did not look the sort of woman who
would take the least pleasure in scandal.
The doctor sent down again in a few minutes
instructions to send a messenger for another medical
man. The driver of the hotel fly mounted a horse and
rode off in hot haste. We wondered whether it was
possible that after all they were not dead. I scarcely
knew which I hoped for. I was not sufficiently
hardened to be without a vague desire that they should
be alive. At the same time, it would be a terrible
nuisance to have to do the work all over again.
Our doubts were soon set at rest. When the doctor
came down he announced that there was no longer
the least doubt that life was extinct. Gascoyne's
card-case and his town address had been discovered,
and his father had been wired for, who replied that he
would be down by the next train. At the time he was


ISRAEL RANK
89
He was
expected I went out. A nameless horror came over
me at the idea of seeing the father's face in its first
grief and despair.
When I returned to the hotel the coroner had
arrived. The post-mortem took place that afternoon ;
the inquest was held the next morning, and I attended.
Mr. Gascoyne first gave evidence, formally identi-
fying the body of the man as that of his son.
marvellously self-controlled, but his face was ashy.
So far it had been impossible to communicate with
any of Kate Falconer's relatives, but in the course of
the inquest a telegram was received by the coroner
from a sister, who stated, however, that she had not
seen her for two years.
The evidence of the waiter who carried up their
breakfast followed. He deposed to leaving the
breakfast tray in the room, when they appeared well
and cheerful. It must have been about ten minutes
later that the bell was rung violently and he hurried
upstairs. He found the young man in an armchair
and the young woman lying on the bed, both of them
evidently in great pain. He immediately went for
the manageress. The young woman kept on crying
out that she had been poisoned, and the young man's
distress at her suffering was such that it was impossible
to get anything out of him.
The evidence of the widow and the manageress
followed. Then came the doctor, and the court grew
tense with interest.
It was undoubted, he said, that death was due to
aconite, taken apparently in a cup of tea. When he
arrived at the hotel they were both dead. Death
had been singularly rapid. The other medical man
corroborated.


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ISRAEL RANK
The case had a distinct element of mystery, but in
the absence of evidence of motive it seemed that a
verdict of suicide was inevitable.
The inspector strengthened this presumption by
the intangible insinuation which he managed to convey
in his evidence. The jury obviously thought it curious
that in reply to a question from the foreman he ex-
plained that nothing which could be shown to have
contained the aconite was to be found.
Still, the coroner summed up distinctly in favour of
suicide, and such was the decision of the jury, a verdict
which caused Mr. Gascoyne the greatest distress.
Immediately after the verdict he took his son's
body back to town, leaving instructions, as I dis-
covered, that the girl's funeral was to be at his expense
unless the relatives wished otherwise, and that he
personally would attend, a display of feeling I had
hardly thought him capable of.
I returned to town late that night and reached my
house at Clapham in the early hours of the morning.
As I opened the door it was as if the voice of an
unseen presence pervaded the emptiness of the house,
whispering : “Murderer !" and when I awoke the next
morning it seemed as if the heavy gray light of dawn
wove itself into haunting, opaque shapes. With a
shudder I realised that never again should I be alone
and at peace.


CHAPTER VII
AFTER such a brilliant success I felt that I required
rest. It would not do to set to work again until my
nerves were thoroughly restored, and the period of
excitement I had passed through had left them a little
unstrung. It took me nearly a month after Gascoyne
Gascoyne's funeral to recover from the haunting
terror that I had left a clue, and that sooner or later
someone would come across it. I had scoffed at the
maxim “Murder will out.' I found myself living in
company with it. It had a way of springing into my
head when I woke in the morning, and the letters
danced in front of me like devillings. It repeated itself
in my brain rhythmically for days, and it required
the strongest effort of will on my part to silence it.
It must be remembered that I was very young, and
that what I had done was irrevocable ; further, I am
not naturally callous. I remained indoors smoking
a great many French cigarettes, and accustoming my-
self to the consciousness of guilt. Grahame Hallward
called one evening and, declaring that I looked too ill
to be left, offered to spend the night with me.
about to accept, but refused hastily on recollecting
that in my sleep I might fill the house with confessions.
No man can be answerable for himself in the silent
watches of the night. It gave me a distinctly weird
I was
91


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ISRAEL RANK
feeling when I reflected that till my dying day I must
lie alone o'nights with locked doors.
Grahame Hallward, unaware that I had chosen my
profession, threw himself with all the loyalty of his
nature into the question of my future. He could not
understand my indifference, and, considering that I
had borrowed a fairly large sum from him, it probably
appeared a little unfair. He loved me too well, how-
ever, to give the least indication that he considered I
was not behaving quite straightforwardly.
He suggested that I should go to South Africa, but
I pointed out that without capital I could not hope to
obtain work that was not mere drudgery. I ex-
plained also that I had some plans which I would tell
him of later, but that at present they were not de-
pendent on myself, which was perfectly true. I
was fully aware of how important it was that I should
secure some means of obtaining a regular supply of
money, and at the moment I had not the least idea as
to how this was to be done. It must obviously be
something which would not occupy my whole time. I
regretted my wasted capital every day. I might have
made a small income out of racing. It would not
have been very difficult provided I contented myself
with small profits.
Whatever happened it was imperative that I should
not sell my house. An insignificant, semi-detached
villa in Clapham was an ideal lair. I thought at one
time of seeing if I could obtain a footing on the stage
—that refuge of the vain and derelict—but I decided
that it might bring me into such prominence as might
even cause the Gascoyne family to take notice of me,
the last thing to be desired.
Day after day I racked my brains for a solution of


94
ISRAEL RANK
blow my hand had dealt him his nature would have
remained hard as before. I was on the borderland
of remorse, and it was the aim of my life to keep out of
that ghostly territory. I had from the first made up
my mind to regard the whole matter of the Gascoyne
family from a purely business-like point of view, and
so I turned to the practical side of his letter, which
required consideration.
Was it possible to make use of him in any way ?
That was the essential consideration. The first thing
to decide was whether it was likely he would recognise
me as having been at Lowhaven. As far as the
inquest was concerned I had no fear. I had kept well
out of his sight. On the other hand, even supposing
he had not seen me, was it good policy to conceal the
fact that I had been there--always supposing that I
decided to make use of him ? At any moment some-
one might turn up and betray the fact, and a reason
for the concealment would not be easy to find. Per-
haps some idea of putting me in his dead son's place
had entered his mind, and thus the question of finance
would be settled. I pondered over the pros and cons
for nearly a week. One day the pros carried all
before them and the cons were in full retreat. The
next day the retreating objections had entrenched
themselves, impossible to dislodge. The cons had
behind them the full force of a nervous objection to
facing Mr. Gascoyne, an objection well to be under-
stood. Still, the solving of the financial difficulty
was all important. I was near my last sovereign. I
could always refuse any offer he made me should it
threaten to clip my claws too completely, or smother
my freedom of action in a London office. I waited
till the sovereign was broken into before I made up


ISRAEL RANK
95
my mind. In fact, I waited till my last half-sovereign
was eighteenpence to the bad, and all my boots showed
signs of wear. Then I decided to risk it, and I wrote
saying I would call on Mr. Gascoyne at his City address
at noon the next day. I received a telegram saying
that he would prefer it should be one o'clock, from
which I deduced that he proposed to give me his
luncheon hour, and would possibly ask me to share
that meal should I be presentable. I have always
had a rare instinct for deducing correct conclusions
from the faintest suggestions, and it has been in-
valuable in acquainting me with the peculiarities of
fields on which imminent battles were to be fought.
Evidently Mr. Gascoyne was inclined to be friendly,
therefore modesty and frankness were the weapons
with which to make the victory decisive. He was a
business man, and, considering my circumstances,
nothing was to be gained by outward display. Indeed,
a plain dressing for the occasion—blue serge, blue
foulard tie with white spots, and a bowler-was abso-
lutely right, and did not necessarily suggest a Bond
Street wardrobe in reserve, rendered temporarily
useless for lack of good boots.
I was as nervous as I have ever been when I mounted
in the lift to the second floor of the tall block of build-
ings in the City where Mr. Gascoyne's offices were
situated. I could not help reflecting that young
Gascoyne must have ascended in the same lift times
without number.
It was not for me, however, to indulge in such re-
flections, and I shook off any morbid cobwebs from my
thoughts and stepped into the outer office with a subtle
and affected consciousness of innocence which I was by
constant practice enabling myself to assume at will.


96
ISRAEL RANK
66
The clerk took my card and noted the name with a
look of intelligence.
Oh yes, Mr. Gascoyne is expecting you, but there
are two gentlemen with him now. Please take a seat.
I will tell him you are here."
He went to a speaking-tube and informed some one
at the other end that Mr. Rank was in the office.
“Mr. Gascoyne will see you in one minute.” And he
returned to his papers. .
In a moment Mr. Gascoyne opened the door of his
inner office, showing out two elderly men. Whilst
listening to their last words he motioned me to enter
with a grave smile.
In a minute he joined me and closed the door of the
office behind him.
Please sit down, Mr. Rank.” He seated himself
on the chair behind his desk and motioned me to the
one opposite. I could not help noticing how much
he had aged in the two or three months that had elapsed
since I had seen him last.
“You are not like the Gascoynes," he said, with a
smile," and yet there is a something."
“My father was a Jew, and I think I am like
him.”
To be frank with you, I have taken the trouble to
find out exactly the relationship in which we stand."
I felt alarmed. It was distinctly unpleasant to hear
that he had been making inquiries about me.
This is my mother's photograph," I said, handing
him a small likeness of her. He looked at it with
interest.
“It is a very sweet face. She is dead, I believe ?”
“Yes, I have no nearer relative than Henry Gas-
coyne.'


ISRAEL RANK
97
women.
66
“Ah, poor old man, I am afraid he does not know
anyone. He is quite childish.”
“So I understand."
Have you ever seen the family portraits at Ham-
merton ?"
“Never.” I was determined to deny any particular
knowledge of the family.
“Your mother is extraordinarily like some of the
I do not know the present Earl, but I have
visited Hammerton as an excursionist.'
“I have never been there."
And now will you come and have some lunch?
I am a busy man and cannot afford to waste time.”
Either he was wonderfully softened, or the letter
he had written me when I first applied to him
was utterly unlike himself. I was unable to make
out which was correct, but I inclined to the former
conclusion.
“I have been wondering,” he said, when we were
seated over some cutlets and a very good bottle of wine,
“why you were so long in answering my letter.”
I replied, with every appearance of frankness, that
it had taken some amount of thought before I could
decide to put my pride in my pocket and swallow his
former snub.
“I thought it was that,” he answered. "I must
frankly admit that my reply to your application was
very
uncalled for, but when I wrote it I was smarting
somewhat under the ingratitude of a young man I
had taken into my office a short time before."
“ It is forgotten,” I said. “ After all, men in your
position must receive a host of requests for favours
that you are unable to comply with.”
That is true,” he said, “ quite true; but still, from
7


98
ISRAEL RANK
one claiming relationship-however, let us forget it.
Tell me about yourself.”
I was perfectly candid, and told him the story of
my life. It was all inexpressibly strange; this man
bending forward with every appearance of interest and
sympathy listening to the life story of his son's mur-
derer. I was amazed at the way I could pose, even to
myself, as a perfectly innocent person, and was secretly
vain of a great artistic success. I found myself filling
in the picture which I was painting for him with
numerous little touches, all deliberately designed to
heighten a carefully considered effect. I told no lies,
however ; indeed, it was quite unnecessary.
Without
that part dealing with his own son the simple story
was very effective. I did not hesitate to hint that there
was the memory of a woman troubling me.
He was
sympathetic at once but did not urge further con-
fidences at the moment.
Perhaps one of the other reasons why I was not
particularly drawn by your being a member of the
Gascoyne family," he said, when I had finished, was
that I am not on friendly terms with any of them.
My wife was of humble origin, and such of them as I
know were very uncivil to her, and, to tell you the
truth, the name of Gascoyne had become somewhat
distasteful to me.'
We were strolling back to the office and he had laid
his hand loosely in my arm. He had evidently taken
a fancy to me. So much for the voice of Nature.
Indeed, all my life I have noticed that the voice of
Nature is a somewhat misleading guide ; very apt to
call the listener to follow over all kinds of dangerous
and quaking bogs. People have a way, too, of labelling
the shrill scream and tuneless croaking of their own


ISRAEL RANK
99
pet conventions and prejudices as
the voice of
Nature, if the occasion suit them, and their shallow
consciences do not imperatively demand correct
definitions.
Before I make you the offer that is in my mind,'
he said, when we again reached his office and I was
once more seated opposite to him, “I wish to ask you
whether you heard that I lost my only son a few
months ago under somewhat tragic-circumstances.”
“I was at Lowhaven,” I said gently.
He looked at me in unfeigned surprise.
“ You were at Lowhaven ?”
“I did not mention it before, but I was staying in
the same hotel.”
“I don't remember you.
I kept out of your way. I was naturally unwilling
to intrude at such a time.”
He buried his face in his hands, and something
between a groan and a sigh escaped him.
evident that the memory of his bereavement was
inexpressibly poignant.
“I am glad you knew him, if only by sight. Did
you ever speak to him ?"
“A few words in the hotel smoking-room, that is
all. He was a splendid looking fellow.'
• He was.
It has broken his mother's heart. It
was strange that you should have been there."
“I did not even know his name, till —” I paused.
He uncovered a haggard face.
Well, it is over; the past cannot be recalled.
Would
you care to come into my firm ?”
He made the offer hurriedly, as if anxious to escape
from painful thoughts.
He then laid his plan before me. I was to come
It was
7-2


100
ISRAEL RANK
into the firm and learn the business of stockbroking.
Further than that he was not prepared to go, and he
made no promises.
He looked at me steadily as he said this, and
I gathered that if I were satisfactory I might hope
for all things. A glance at his face convinced
me that he was not the man to recede from any
promise, no matter how much his sympathy with me
became a diminishing quantity, providing my abilities
were sufficient. I accepted his offer. It might be
possible to use the situation as a lever. It certainly
put an end to the obscurity which I had considered
so strong an asset. I have often wondered before and
since the trial whether my original plans might not
have been more successful. I believe that they would
have furnished more adventure and excitement. At
the same time, the difficulties would have been almost
insurmountable, and-well, I chose my methods and I
failed, although I have consolation in the brilliance of
the failure.
I was to have two hundred and fifty pounds a year
to begin with. It was decidedly a princely offer,
considering that he would be paying for the trouble
of teaching me.
“Later on, Mr. Rank, it would give me pleasure to
present you to my wife. At present I am afraid that
you, in the plenitude of your youth and manhood,
might rouse sad thoughts."
He drew me a cheque for twenty pounds, and,
taking me into the outer office, introduced me to his
manager, chief clerk, and the staff generally, and,
asking me to be at the office at ten o'clock the next
morning, dismissed me.
I walked all the way back to Clapham thinking


ISRAEL RANK
101
deeply. Financially I was evidently out of danger
for life, and I had good warrant for dreaming of myself
at the head of Mr. Gascoyne’s firm. It was proof of
how entirely the Gascoyne coronet had become an
obsession with me, that the prospect of a permanent
income, with wealth, even, in the perspective of middle
life, did not in any way suggest that I should relinquish
the glittering prize on which I had set my heart.
Perhaps if Mr. Gascoyne's offer had come before my
first success I might have abandoned my purpose,
but it would have been obviously absurd to burden
I had almost said my conscience—so strong is the
habit of conventional thought—with a murder abor-
tively. I could not help smiling ironically on recalling
Mr. Gascoyne's evident liking for me. According to
all rules of accepted psychology I should have had
something unpleasant in my personality which he
should at once have detected. It was extraordinarily
remiss on the part of instinct that it should not have
been so.
Grahame Hallward came in to see me that evening
and was overjoyed at my news. He was evidently
impressed when he learned that it was my relation-
ship to the Gascoyne family which had secured me
such an advantageous situation.
“So after all, Israel, what you used to tell me was
true."
>>
'Did you ever doubt it ?"
“Not since the day you gave me your word of
honour that it was so.
It may appear strange, but I have always been
singularly fastidious about my word of honour.
Grahame then broke to me some news which came as a
staggering blow. Sibella was engaged to Lionel Holland.


102
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“ The one thing I really like about Holland,” he
concluded, " is the way he has stuck to Sibella.”
I could not simulate indifference, and Grahame
saw that his announcement had been a shock to
me.
I stood looking out on the little garden with its
soot-begrimed walls which the sunset had drenched in
scarlet, trying to control the tempest of feeling which
surged within me.
Grahame understood, and came over, putting his
arm round my neck.
“I am so sorry, Israel. I quite understand. Really,
I'd sooner it were you."
I smiled somewhat bitterly.
Grahame's preference for me was hardly a consola-
tion, fond as I was of him.
“I'll come over on Sunday,” I said.
“Do." He understood my anxiety to impress
Sibella with the idea that I did not care. I wondered
whether things would have been different had Sibella
known of my altered prospects. I was convinced that
I held at least an equal place with Lionel Holland
in such affection as Sibella was capable of. It was
Thursday; by Sunday I might possibly have conquered
the first sting of chagrin sufficiently to conceal my
feelings. The excitement of my new venture in life
was entirely lost in the night of despair I passed.
Equally with the Gascoyne earldom, Sibella was my
ambition. She was the kind of girl to whom the
position of Countess Gascoyne would have come quite
naturally. In common with her brothers and sisters
she had that which would have enabled her to carry
off any dignity, frivolous and superficial as her real
nature was. I had dreamed of the joy of placing her


ISRAEL RANK
103
in a position so very much above anything she could
have expected.
Still, the battle was not over.
I believed in my
power to conquer her in competition with Lionel
Holland, if I were given equal worldly advantages, and
it seemed as if such advantages were coming my way.
The fact that I was unable to idealise Sibella never
cooled my love. I burned for her, and frankly con-
fessed it. For the rest, she had spirits and special
magnetism enough to make her a delightful com-
panion. A great many of her faults matched my own
weaknesses. I sympathised with her desire for beau-
tiful clothes at any cost, as well as with her yearning
for the right of entry to that society which the middle
classes exalt by envying and imitating.
I made up my mind to fight, and went for the first
time to Mr. Gascoyne's office somewhat comforted by
the mere determination to give battle to my rival.
I discovered very speedily that the work suited me
admirably. The rest of the clerks evidently gathered
that my being taken into the firm had been made a
special feature of, for they treated me almost with
deference.
I had by this time fixed on the next member of the
Gascoyne family whom I intended to remove.
Henry Gascoyne, the orphan son of Patrick Gascoyne.
He had a sister, but all intervening females yielded pre-
cedence to my mother, as heiress to her father. It was
therefore not necessary to consider her. Her brother
was about twenty-two years of age, and by a little
inquiry I learned that he was at Oxford, where he had
already gained a reputation as one of those who might
do wonderful things if he chose to apply himself, but
who preferred to be content with the reputation of his
It was


104
ISRAEL RANK
potentialities and the cultivation of as much muscle
as was consistent with nights spent in hard drinking.
I inspected his father's will at Somerset House, and
learned that he and his sister had been left some
fifteen thousand pounds apiece, which capital, however,
they could not touch till Henry Gascoyne was twenty-
five. His sister was entirely devoted to him, and
spent her own income in keeping up a small house in
the New Forest which he had inherited from his
father. He would have been content to let the whole
place go to rack and ruin, but devotion to her father's
memory, and a desire to have a place which her brother
might look upon as home, induced her to support the
establishment entirely out of her own resources. So
much I had learned from two or three visits paid at
irregular intervals to the neighbourhood.


CHAPTER VIII
THE Sunday after Grahame had brought me the
nows of Sibella's engagement I visited the Hallwards.
I managed to get through a conventional speech of
congratulation, stung to self-possession by a certain
radiance and exhilaration in Sibella's bearing. Gra-
hame had told them of my good fortune, and there
was a distinct change of manner towards me on the
part of the other members of the family. They had
never wholly believed that I was related to the Gas-
coynes, or had thought that if it were true I was making
the most of a very remote connection. To them I
had been the object for as much patronage as they
dared display towards one not prone to endure con-
descension. I could see that Sibella looked at me with a
new interest.
She was growing into a truly beautiful
woman, and all trace of the slightly suburban minx
was becoming rapidly obliterated by a crescendo of
style and distinction. It was quite evident that she
would have the manners and self-possession of a
thoroughly well-bred beauty, and she had acquired
a facility for putting on her clothes with an altogether
overpowering effect of distinction. It seemed to me
a little curious that a character which I knew to be
somewhat small should have achieved a certain im-
pression of breadth and ease in her personality. Prob-
105


106
ISRAEL RANK
ably it was the result of the unquestionable fact of her
extreme beauty. At any rate, she was rapidly learning
the secret of predominance, and she showed, captivating
and delicious, in distinct relief to her surroundings.
Mr. Gascoyne's twenty pounds had enabled me,
through the purchase of decent boots, gloves, etc.,
to bring my wardrobe into play again. I had
dressed as rakishly as possible, determined that
Sibella should have no satisfaction in the dejection
of an unsuccessful lover. I knew her character and
the pleasure she would have derived from it. I simu-
lated the best of spirits, and Grahame loyally helped
me to sustain the illusion. I was inwardly con-
sumed with jealousy whenever my hungry eyes fell
upon her, but I roused myself for a tour de force in
acting and succeeded. Lionel Holland came in
later. I saw him through the large drawing-room
windows coming up the path, supremely confident and
jaunty. He was evidently surprised to see me. We
had not met since the evening of my humiliation. I
greeted him cordially, however, and he was obliged
to be civil, but I had the satisfaction of feeling that he
was by no means at his ease. He was so perfectly
assured that, being poor, I was an interloper in a
well-to-do house, that he would have liked, I am
sure, to ask me what the devil I meant by intrud-
ing. I on my part was galled by the attitude of
superior intimacy he assumed in a house where I had
been intimate when he was a stranger to it. I was
perfectly determined that he should not dislodge me,
and that nothing he said or did should interfere with
my visits to the Hallward establishment. He was
staying to supper as a matter of course, and I detected
a shade of annoyance on his face when Mrs. Hall-


ISRAEL RANK
107
ward, in consequence of an aside from Grahame,
extended an invitation to me to do likewise. I
accepted, although I was compelled to submit to the
disappearance of the lovers to the schoolroom for fully
an hour previous to the meal. I sang and played
to the others as I had been in the habit of doing, and
worked hard to make myself agreeable. I was so
far successful that Mrs. Hallward asked me why I
came so seldom, and discussed the Gascoyne family
in a corner of the drawing-room with me after supper.
She was herself the great-grand-daughter of a Nova
Scotian baronet and never forgot it, although she had
saving perception enough not to allude to it directly.
As a rule she brought it in with some such remark as-
There is I believe a baronetcy knocking about in
our own family somewhere—where exactly I don't
know-but it is there," a remark subtly framed, so
as to convey the impression that, being no snob, she
forbore to mention how very near the said baronetoy
was, in fact, that it was knocking about so very near
that it was quite possible a collision might occur at
any moment.
She was most decidedly a snob, but not of an objec-
tionable kind. As a matter of fact, I have always
considered well-bred snobs rather pleasant people, and
have often wondered whether they would have been
as well bred if they had not been snobs. People
who love the pleasantly decorative in life have at least
taste, and the preference for titles, fine surroundings
and social paraphernalia may be a form of art.
“Do you and Lionel ever see each other in the
City ?" asked Sibella, who, I had already remarked,
was not so much in love that she could refrain from
teasing her lover.


108
ISRAEL RANK
Never,” said Lionel shortly.
“For eighteen months I hardly went near the City,”
I answered.
“Doing other things?” asked Lionel, in an unpleasant
tone.
“Living on my capital,” I answered airily, giving him
a keen, steady glance of daring. “It was the most
beautiful time I have ever had, and I don't regret it.
It will never come again, and I might have spent it in
a dingy City office."
Earning your living,” put in Lionel.
“There was no necessity,” I laughed.
Grahame gazed at Lionel in haughty inquiry as if
desirous of knowing what he meant by being rude to
his guest.
In fact, Lionel's airs of intimacy and general at-
homeness obviously irritated Grahame not less than the
constant use of his Christian name.
I declined to be drawn into displaying the least sign
of annoyance, although Holland seized every oppor-
tunity to deliver innuendo or satire, the latter weapon
in his hands becoming more often than not mere clumsy
facetiousness. I made a point of being gay, and with-
out talking of my prospects in Mr. Gascoyne's firm
took very good care to leave the impression that it was
their promising nature that accounted for my good-
humour. I managed by judicious circumlocution and
tact to bring the conversation round to reminiscences,
throwing them far enough back to prevent his joining
in, and slyly flattering Sibella on the subject of her
childish achievements so that she revived memories
with zest, and became engrossed with the recapitula-
tion of events and bygone adventures in which I, and
not Lionel Holland, appeared as her cavalier.


ISRAEL RANK
109
“I believe Lionel is getting jealous,” she remarked
towards the end of supper, noticing her lover's sulky
taciturnity.
I had been secretly sure of that fact for the last twenty
minutes, and had been enjoying a discomfiture which
the rest of the company had not appreciated. He had
also, as I perceived, grasped that whenever I chose I
was quick and dexterous enough to leave him conver-
sationally a laggard every time.
Not that I relied on these qualities to pass him in the
race for Sibella's appreciation. My instinct in female
psychology was too sure. Certainly, if such superficial
qualities could have dazzled any woman, they would
have dazzled Sibella, whose mind was prone to skim
airily and gracefully the surface of things. Even the
most transparent of women, however—if there be such
things as transparent women-elude analysis when the
exact qualities which attract them in their lovers
come under consideration.
Sibella was hardly the character one would have
imagined overlooking the pinchbeck in Lionel Holland,
and yet she had accepted it with a most surprising
Such a surrender seemed to negative all her
leanings, at any rate in surface matters, to the well-bred
and socially ascending scale. True, he would be rich,
but Sibella had other admirers who would be richer.
He had personality, and perhaps this wins with women
more than anything. With all his faults he was not
insignificant, and he was undeniably a very beautiful
young man, notwithstanding his obvious veneer.
I had taken my courage in my hands and stayed and
smoked with Grahame in the library, knowing full well
that Lionel and Sibella were in each other's arms in
the schoolroom. It is strange how we manage to
ease.


110
ISRAEL RANK
endure the things which in anticipation were to slay us
with their mere agony.
Mr. and Mrs. Hallward were lax in their supervision
of the engaged couple, as they had been about every-
thing else in connection with their children. Sibella and
her lover remained undisturbed when her father and
mother retired for the night, and it was passably late for
a young woman of respectable family to be letting her
lover out when the front door closed behind him. She
evidently heard our voices, for she came into the library.
“ You two still here?”
She seated herself on the club-fender. She was wide
awake, and I remembered that as a child she had never
betrayed sleepiness at children's parties—she always
expressed her capacity to stay up to any hour. Her
family complained that she never could be induced to
rise in proper time in the morning.
“ Isn't it lovely, Israel, for you to have had such a
piece of luck !"
“Oh, I shall always fall on my feet," I answered,
easily. “You see, I was born lucky, and that is better
than being born rich."
“How do you know you were born lucky ?" she asked
with interest.
I was not to be questioned out of my pose.
“ It's
like genius. An instinct teaches the genius to know
himself, and something of the same thought instructs
the lucky man.
I spoke with such perfect good spirits and conviction
that I could see she found herself believing me. She
perched herself on the edge of the great desk which
occupied the centre of the library and asked for a
cigarette.
Don't smoke, Sibella," said Grahame. He was the


ISRAEL RANK
111
sort of man who would not have objected to the female
belongings of anyone else smoking, but who objected
to his own doing so, on the ground that it was his
business to see that they suffered no material damage
in the eyes of the world.
What nonsense, Grahame! Of course I shall
smoke as much as I like-well no, not quite as much
as I like because that would spoil my teeth, and I
don't intend to do anything that would injure my
personal appearance.”
“That is a very patriotic resolve," I laughed. “There
is some beauty so striking that it becomes a national
property.
Sibella made a face.
“Thank you. I'm nothing of the kind.”
“For goodness' sake don't flatter Sibella," said
Grahame. She is vain enough already."
So long as she is vain and not conceited it does not
matter."
“ The difference ?"
"Well, vanity is a determination to make the best
of our superiorities whilst frankly admitting them ;
conceit is a morbid desire to enforce the fact on other
people.”
“Subtle," murmured Grahame, who never spoke
above his middle tones, “but I am not convinced.
Sibella thinks a great deal too much of herself."
“It is better than thinking too little of one's self,"
said Sibella, blowing rings of smoke and pursing up her
lips deliciously, till I could have cried out on her for
heartlessness.
“Very much better," I assented. “ People who
think too little of themselves generally end by a mock
humility which is a form of conceit infinitely tedious.


112
ISRAEL RANK
66
No, believe me, the vanity you decry has in it some-
thing of virtue.”
Grahame turned to Sibella.
“ Haven't you noticed, Sibella, how much older
Israel has grown of late ?"
“Not in looks,” cried Sibella. “To-night he looks
like a boy."
This idea pleased me. The author of the secret that
lay in young Gascoyne's grave looking almost a boy
savoured of the incongruous, for which I had developed
an appetite.
“I didn't mean in appearance," said Grahame.
Israel looks as if he had never had a trouble."
The idea pleased me even more. Grahame's criti-
cism showed that I was playing my game with the right
effect, and that the weeks of prostration following on
the successful coup at Lowhaven had left no effect.
Sibella, from her very nature, could not forbear giving
me one or two glances with just enough of feeling in
them to fill the atmosphere with a vague suggestion of
sentimentality, but I behaved as if the very air she
breathed was not to me love's own narcotic. I fought
fiercely against myself lest I should give the least sign
that her power over me was supreme as ever.
What lovely chocolates you used to bring me,
Israel !"
I laughed buoyantly.
'Ah, but you remember the first Lionel brought
you. They cost more."
“As if I cared for that!"
Grahame laughed in his turn.
“ As if, Sibella dear, you ever cared for anything else.”
Grahame had the most incomparable way of pointing
out people's faults to their faces without offence.


ISRAEL RANK
113
Sibella, however, looked angry.
No one can say that I am mercenary.”
I was at some pains not to join Grahame in the
roar of laughter provoked by this remark. Sibella
knew of old how impossible it was for her to cope
with Grahame, so she turned the batteries of her anger
on me.
>
For one
“I believe you quite agree with Grahame."
What about ?"
“About my being mercenary.'
“I am sure I don't."
“ Then why did you laugh ?”
“I didn't."
“ Well, I'm not mercenary, am I ?"
Of course not." I smiled.
She detected the irony.
“Lionel never says such things to me.'
instant I felt the lash and smarted. I was half inclined
to retort “Lionel is the prince of good manners,” but
that would have given her the satisfaction she was
waiting for, and most likely she would have gone to bed.
Grahame at heart was very proud of Sibella, but he,
like myself, was under no delusions about her. His
special fondness was also partly a result of their having
been so much together as children. Mr. and Mrs.
Hallward's other children were much older, and with
the exception of Miss Hallward, an unmarried spinster
verging on forty, were either married or out in the
world. Miss Hallward, who must have been singularly
handsome in her youth, and who as a matter of fact was
so still, had devoted her whole life to her brothers and
sisters, and was particularly fond of Sibella, who made
use of her in every possible way. Miss Hallward had
always been singularly kind to me, and I liked her.
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I could well remember an incident which occurred
on the occasion of one of my first visits to the house.
Sibella had been asked to do something by Miss Hal-
ward and had refused, and, working herself into a rage,
had told her sister, who at that time could not have been
more than thirty, that she was a disappointed old maid
and that nobody had wanted to marry her because she
was so unattractive. Miss Hallward had grown very
white, and had turned on Sibella with a fierceness I
never saw her display before or after. The occurrence
was unimportant, except that it served to frame her,
as it were, in the past of an unhappy love story, and
she was always the more interesting to me because
of it.
When I said good-bye to Sibella I felt sure that she
was more interested in me than she had been since
as a boy of sixteen I had declared my passion and
had been granted the privilege of kissing her when
opportunity offered, little love passages of which
Grahame had remained in entire ignorance. I also
saw that I had succeeded in giving her the impression
I was aiming at—that I was wholly freed from her
spell. To a girl of Sibella's temperament this is at
all times amazing, and so far from being glad at her
rejected lover being in spirits she was at pains to detect
the unhealed wound. Still, she was in her way really
in love with Lionel Holland, and was not prepared to
invest more than the smallest superfluity of coquetry
and fascination in bringing me again into her net.
I
verily believe it would have given her some pleasure
to see Holland and myself at each other's throats.
Then she would probably have been content to leave
me to some other woman. Had she known how near
I was at times to seizing her in my arms and kissing her,


ISRAEL RANK
115
with or without her will, she would have been satisfied
more, I think she would have been frightened.
She had a peculiar and unexpected effect on me.
I found myself wavering in my purpose, and returning
once more to the question which I had thought decided
as to whether the risk I ran was worth the prize. I
even found myself troubled with scruples as to the
taking of life, and for some weeks was in serious danger
of abandoning my undertaking.
And yet I cannot say that Sibella had any direct
influence for good upon me, and it would have been
hard to define why she should have exercised a restrain-
ing influence upon me at all.
I continued my visits to the Hallwards and saw that
her pique at my apparent indifference to her engage-
ment grow.
She might have been content with the number of
admirers to whom it had obviously been a matter
of some moment, but Sibella wanted the one admirer
to care who was apparently indifferent.
I evidently pleased Mr. Gascovne at the office, for
his cordiality towards me increased daily. I threw
into my manner towards him just as much of the filial
attitude as I could without suggesting the least desire
to usurp the place of his dead son.
After a few weeks he asked me to come and dine and
meet his wife.
By the way, Rank, my wife does not know that
you are a relative of mine, and for certain reasons I
would sooner you did not mention it—at least yet.”
He was evidently nervous lest his wife might think
he had been quick to fill their dead son's place.
‘I have my reasons, and I am asking you to oblige
me,” he added cordially, noting the faint look of
8-2


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ISRAEL RANK
surprise I thought it policy to assume ; it would never
have done to let him think I could be treated un-
ceremoniously.
I dined at the house in South Kensington, outside
which I had so often watched. It seemed a quiet and
sad household. Mrs. Gascoyne possessed the feminine
capacity for filling the house with the presence of her
dead, and turning a home into a tomb. Mr. Gascoyne
was pleased that I managed to make her smile once or
twice, and said as much as we sat over our wine.
“I am afraid there is very little to amuse you here,
but I should be glad if you would dine with us now
and then. I think my wife likes you. You have
dignity, and she always likes people with dignity.”
I laughed.
"You have been very good to me, sir,” I said.
“I see in you excellent qualities, Israel.” It was the
first time he had ever called me by my Christian name.
I was obviously progressing in his esteem.
He was right. I had excellent qualities. I always
had. I am affectionate, naturally truthful and kind-
hearted. My secret deeds have been an abstraction,
in no way in tune with the middle tones of my character.
Mr. Gascoyne was essentially a business man, and
it was my business qualities which appealed to him
most. I had a natural gift for order and method, and
although he was not given to praise, I detected a look
of pleased surprise when I displayed some unusual
perception of what was wanted in a particular situation.
Lionel Holland, who at least seemed to have imbibed
a wholesome fear of irritating me when we were to-
gether, could not witness my progress in the scale of
prosperity without making an attempt to injure me
in the eyes of my employer.


ISRAEL RANK
117
It appeared that he know a fellow-clerk of mine, a
youth who considered that I had ousted him from the
place which should in time have been his. I had not
been in the office a couple of hours before I grasped
this fact. He was a pleasant fellow enough in an
ordinary way, but his disappointment had brought out
-as far as his relations towards me were concerned-
his worst points. He had a slight acquaintance with
Lionel Holland. This acquaintance the latter im-
proved upon, and I was not a little surprised to find
Harry Cust one Sunday afternoon sitting in the
Hallwards' drawing-room. He was staying with
Lionel from Saturday till Monday, and I think it gave
his host infinite pleasure to introduce him where I had
been known from childhood—though what partitular
satisfaction it was to him I could not quite see.
I soon realised that my life's history was in the
possession of my fellow-clerks. I was too much in
favour with Mr. Gascoyne for them to venture to show
the contempt they felt because my mother had let
lodgings. I would have been glad if one of them had
had the temerity to throw it in my teeth, for an insult
to my dead mother would have found me a perfectly
normal person with an absolutely primal sense of
loyalty.


CHAPTER IX
I MISSED no opportunity of finding out every detail of
young Henry Gascoyne's college career. From all
accounts he must have been surprisingly lazy, for no
one ever spoke of him without giving him credit for
great abilities. He was at Magdalen, had just scraped
through his Mods at the end of his second year, and
had then apparently given up any idea of serious work,
for in a few months his devotion to pleasure and his
defiance of college rules became so acute that he was
ignominiously sent down. A few days after this
auspicious ending to his career as a student, I met him
riding in the neighbourhood of his New Forest home
with a most cheerful countenance, and humming a tune.
I was on my bicycle, and later I came across him again
in a by-lane down which I had turned with the object
of smoking a pipe. My appearance was quite un-
expected and a little awkward. His horse was tethered
to a gate, and folded in his arms was a remarkably
pretty girl of the cottager class. I wondered if all the
human obstacles between myself and the Gascoyne
earldom were engaged in surreptitious love affairs.
The girl drew back hastily and hid her face, but not
before I detected that she had been crying. I was
walking my bicycle, and was a little annoyed that
Henry Gascoyne had had such a good opportunity of
118


ISRAEL RANK
119
seeing me. He was evidently thoroughly wasting his
time from the worldly point of view, though I should
probably have agreed-had he put the matter to me-
that he was making the best of his youth.
He was not exactly handsome, but he had a colouring
which, despite his dissipated life, gave assurance of
clean blood. He was well made, and had hair the
colour of ripe corn. Notwithstanding, however, his
eminently healthy appearance his self-indulgence had
absolutely no limitations except such as were pre-
scribed by good form, and he was prepared to leap
even this boundary if he could do so without danger of
being seen.
He had the misfortune to be cursed until seventy
times seven with the forgiveness of his friends ; Harry
Gascoyne was not a person they could be angry with
for long. He had been known to steal a man's mistress
and yet retain his friendship, and as I saw him that
summer morning, booted and spurred, playing with
the little cottage maiden as a cat might have done with
a mouse, the indulgence he managed to secure for
himself from his fellow-men was not difficult to
understand.
I knew that his next move would be London. A
young man with means and no one to control his
actions is as sure to gravitate towards London as the
lizard is to seek the sun. His sister, who should have
been the man, urged a profession, suggesting the army,
but Harry Gascoyne kicked at the mere idea of a life
of routine and discipline. This much I had gathered
at the tiny little inn half a mile from the Gascoynes'
house, which was much frequented by the old man
who combined for them the office of indoor and outdoor
factotum. The keeper of the public-house itself had


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been placed in his present position by Harry Gascoyne's
father, so that the establishment quite partook of the
character of a feudal outpost. In addition, the land-
lady had been cook at the Grange.
“ 'E'll never do no work, won't Mr. ’Arry,” said the
old factotum, as he smoked his pipe on the wooden
seat by the doorway and surveyed the pines etched
black against the crimson flush of the setting sun.
“Not 'e, not 'e," agreed the landlord, taking in the
prospect with as little poetical refreshment as his com-
panion.
They were very proud of being able to converse
with intimate knowledge of the gentlefolk living hard
by, and conducted their conversation like inferior
actors, casting side glances at their audience to watch
the effect of the performance. Their audience was
myself, seated on the wooden bench on the other side
of the doorway and regaling myself with cold beef and
pickles. Vanity has always kept me from drinking
alcohol in any form, otherwise I verily believe I might
have been a drunkard. I think, perhaps, that being
unaccustomed to spirits, a glass of strong brandy on
a certain grim morning that draws nearer and nearer
will not be amiss.
But for this great matter of vanity, how many more
drunkards would there not be ! Not many with a
weakness for the bottle are restrained by the immor-
ality of voluntarily surrendering the gift of reason, or
the prospect of declining in the scale of prosperity.
The first objection appeals to them not at all, and the
second is not sufficiently apparent in its immediate
effects for it to act as a deterrent. An immediate
coarsening of the features and a general degradation of
appearance are different matters. Few people care


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121
about being repulsive, and to the real drunkard this
fact soon becomes apparent.
The two old men found the Gascoyne topic most
absorbing, and talked incessantly, till the crimson
light behind the pines changed to a faint opal, and
the stars were alight in the heavens.
’Is feyther, 'e never done no work," said the land-
lord.
“That be true," said the other, as if he were bearing
witness to some virtue of the late Mr. Gascoyne.
“'E spent a deal of money too,” said the landlord.
''E wur generous with 'is money," answered the
other.
And none 'ave cause to know that better'n we.”
That's true enough.”
Miss Edith be more like 'er mother. A nice lady
but a bit close."
It was as well one of 'em wur close or there wouldn't
'ave been much left."
“ True.'
There was a whole family history in these few
remarks. A man born rich, but a rake, and possibly a
profligate-a long-suffering wife enduring the slur of
meanness in her efforts to save something from the
wreck. Indeed, it appeared a wonder that she should
have saved so much.
Evidently young Gascoyne took after his father. I
gathered afterwards that the reason there was any-
thing in the nature of estate left was because the money
and house had been largely the property of Mr.
Gascoyne's wife, and it was through her forethought
that the boy and girl had been left equally well off.
“A girl's natural protector is her brother,” her
husband had said when he and his wife were discussing


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the matter. “It is natural the boy should be better
off than his sister. If it is otherwise it puts the lad
in a humiliating position.” Mrs. Gascoyne, however,
did not think so. She had absolute confidence in the
girl's affection for her brother, whilst from early boy-
hood she had detected a singular likeness between the
lad and his father. Yet although she trusted the girl,
it was possible that she loved the boy more. Indeed,
it was her very love that caused her to make provision
for him in his sister's affection and rectitude.
All this I learned by degrees.
I learned also that the girl I had seen in his arms
was something better than a cottager. She was the
daughter of a blacksmith who was fairly well-to-do,
and it was a tribute to young Gascoyne's courage that
she possessed not only a father, but half a dozen
stalwart brothers, who would most probably have
killed him at sight could they have witnessed the
embrace that summer morning in the lane. As I sat
smoking my pipe in the perfect summer night, with
the fragrant perfume of pine and tobacco mingling, I
heard someone coming along the narrow strip of white
road bordered with grass, whistling.
It was young Gascoyne on his way home. ,
It was evident that so far satiety had not begun to
knock at the doors of conscience, for a more careless,
happy creature it would have been impossible to
imagine.
He paused outside the inn in the middle of the
road, hesitating. I think I gathered what was in his
mind. He was trying to decide whether he should go
straight home to his sister, who was probably waiting
for him, or stay and drink more beer than he would
have cared for her to know of. Already the rose of his


ISRAEL RANK
123
youth was coarsening slightly through the habit he
had inherited from his father.
He came to the opposite seat and sat down. He
was the incarnation of the born lounger. There was a
careless ease in his carriage, and a just perceptible
touch of exaggerated fashion in his clothes, which
betrayed a pleasure in personal appearance, something
beyond that merely incidental to youth.
At first he barely noticed my presence on the other
seat, mistaking me in the gloom--for I was sitting in
the shadow of the house for some village yokel having
his fill before going on his way home to a scolding
wife. Gradually, however, it dawned upon him that
the occupant of the other bench was not one of the
stray labourers who patronised the place. As for
myself, I was wondering whether I should retire before
he entered into conversation with me, or run the risk,
and see if matters turned out to my advantage.
Quiet place, this,” he said, tentatively.
“I'm glad to say it is," I answered, lazily.
Always answer lazily when a well-bred Englishman
addresses you for the first time. It impresses him.
Young Gascoyne gathered from my voice that he was
presumably talking to an equal. He became friendly.
“I suppose you mean,” he said, laughing, “ that you
came here for quiet, and that you mean to get it.”
No, I don't quite mean that. So long as I can
sleep where it is quiet, I don't care very much about
absolute silence."
“Then I may talk to you? The evenings are so
beastly dull down here." I made a very shrewd wuess
at the way he had been spending the earlier part of
that evening. The possibility of six brothers to fight
must have been exciting enough, but then Harry
66


124
ISRAEL RANK
>
Gascoyne belonged to the class that wants amusing all
the time.
“The stillness of the nights here is awful—especially
depressing if you've been used to keep it up till the
small hours of the morning.”
“I should have thought that it would have been a
welcome relief."
“ I don't find it so."
“I suppose you're too young to feel the need of
rest."
He laughed. Evidently he thought it a good joke.
Oh, I say, you're not much older than I am, if at
all. Of course I can't quite make out in this light,
but
I've seen a good deal,” I interrupted.
“You've come from town, haven't you ?”
“How did you guess ?"
Oh, one can always tell."
Sorry I look such a cockney.”
“Everybody who comes from town isn't a cockney.
It would be rather awful if it were so.
“ Then how could you tell ?”
“Oh, the best of people get a bit careless in the
country. It's something in the way town men put
on their clothes. Fellows who live in the country will
tell you that it isn't quite good form to wear your
clothes too well, but that's all rot. They're jealous
because they know they're slovenly."
I liked the way he talked, and, finding me companion-
able, he showed not the least desire to move.
friend always interested me, so I put away any un-
pleasant reflections as to our future relations, and
abandoned myself to the pleasure of a novel and
pleasant companionship. My cousin chattered on, and
A new


ISRAEL RANK
125
gradually, as will almost invariably happen when two
young men are talking together--the more especially
over the bowl-the eternal feminine dominated.
was obviously neurotic, for all his healthy skin and
philistine view of life in general.
He talked of women incessantly, but without any
reference to their share in the higher things of life.
He hinted vaguely of the existence of the cottage
maiden, but declined to be drawn when I encouraged
him to take me into his confidence.
“It's a ripping thing to be in love ; in fact, it's the
only thing that reconciles me to stopping in this beastly
hole."
“Romance is life," I murmured, lilting agreeably to
the rhythm he desired. “I don't understand how
people get on without it.”
I suppose there comes a time when everyone wants
to settle down,” he said, echoing the usual concessions
of profligate youth to the demands of a period so very
far ahead that there appears to be little inconveni-
ence in confiding all promises of reformation to its
keeping.
When we are tired,” I assented. “Perhaps that is
the truest definition of virtue, not to run any race with
excesses we are not equal to.”
“I say, that means a pretty long rope for young
people, doesn't it ?”
“Yes, the rope will give out with youth, and then
they can conveniently hang themselves.”
“I say, for goodness sake don't talk like that. I
shan't dare to walk home.”
Are you afraid of the dark ?"!!
“Yes, I believe everybody is more or less."
“You are frank, at any rate. What a time primeval
66


126
ISRAEL RANK
man must have had of it! I should say that when
night fell these woods were alive with ghosts. I
suppose the man with muscle was the only possible
romanticist in those days. It was romance under its
most healthy aspect.”
“You mean that men had to fight for their women ?"
Exactly ; so much muscle, so many women.”
“The women must have feasted on the sight they
love best-men at each other's throats."
“On the other hand, the woman must now and then
have lost the weakling on whom she had set her heart.”
From primeval woman we wandered by easy stages
to woman, beflounced, befrilled and perfumed-woman
on the path to supremacy.
“I don't know," said young Gascoyne—the glamour
of his cottage romance upon him, “but I don't think
I care about the sophisticated sort. You never know
when they are telling the truth. There was a girl at
Oxford
Then followed a long story of a rather stupid romance
of his college days, ending with, “And that put the
finishing touch, and I got sent down.”
Sent down ?" I murmured casually, as if it were
news.
“Yes, frightfully unfair. The other chap got off
scot free on the ground that he was a hard worker
and that there was nothing against him. Said he
loved the girl and intended to marry her. Silly ass !”
Young Gascoyne asked me to lunch the next day.
I refused, but he announced his intention of walking
over in the morning to fetch me.
It'll be quite a relief to have someone to talk to.
I've got one or two fellows coming down next week,
but at present it's deadly.'


ISRAEL RANK
127
He bade me good-night again and again but each time
sat down and commenced a new conversation.
“ I'm coming up to town in the autumn to read for
the Bar. Then I shall have as good time as is possible
for a man with no money.”
“What do you call no money ?" I asked.
I knew the amount of his income to a penny.
“Eight hundred a year. A fellow can't do much on
that."
I laughed outright. Eight hundred a year is a
fortune to a man with no encumbrances, especially in
town.”
“Well, I can't exactly say I haven't got any
encumbrances. There is this place to be looked after.
Not that I do much towards it, I'm bound to say. I
should like to sell it, but my sister likes it and as she
lives here she does most of the keeping-up.
I strolled down the road with him. He was rather
the worse for the amount he had drunk, and hiccoughed
slightly as he affectionately bade me good-night and
assured me that he would be round the first thing in
the morning.
Leaning out of the little inn bedroom I considered
the question of accepting his invitation to lunch.
So far I had withheld my identity. If I went to
the house on the morrow I could no longer conceal the
fact that I was a relation.
When they knew who I was, it might or it might not
make my task more difficult, and by this my action
must be guided entirely.
I finally came to the decision that I could not expect
to gain any access to young Gascoyne unless I followed
up the acquaintance.
It was quite possible that when he discovered who


128
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I was he might drop me at once. I was a relation,
certainly, but my comparatively humble origin on
my father's side would not, I imagined, make me very
acceptable. Besides, I had gathered that Miss
Gascoyne was very proud. She was of good family on
both sides, and the villagers spoke of her as being
cold and haughty. She hardly sounded like the kind
of woman who would forgive a Gascoyne a mésalliance.
It was obvious that I must make her brother thoroughly
understand who I was before I accepted his invitation.
There was another point to be considered. Mr. Gascoyne
was their uncle, and I knew that his brother had not
been on good terms with him because he had married
a tradesman's daughter, although from what I had seen
of Mrs. Gascoyne, she had seemed to be quite fit to
take her place in any family. Mr. Gascoyne might be
offended if I became acquainted with his nephew and
niece. I knew from one or two chance remarks which
he had let fall that he bitterly resented the fact that
they had never made any sign of wishing to become
reconciled. I was a little astonished at this, because,
after all, Mr. Gascoyne had money to leave, and I
should not have thought that Harry Gascoyne was the
sort of youth to allow scruples born of family pride to
stand in the way of a possible access of riches. Perhaps
I should discover more in the morning, that is, if my
very distant cousin did not forget all about his
invitation, given at a moment when he was not quite
sober.
By twelve o'clock he had not put in an appearance,
and I concluded that he had forgotten me. I waited
till one, and was just about to ask for my bill and
ride away when he appeared.
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ISRAEL RANK
129
the favourable opinion he had formed of me the even-
ing before was correct. Apparently the verdict was
favourable, for he insisted on my going with him.
I pleaded my attire ; but he would hear of no excuse.
Well, perhaps you ought to know who I am.”
You're not a criminal, I suppose ?”
Not exactly, but I'm a cousin of yours.'
He looked at me blankly.
" A cousin ?”
Yes, we had a mutual great-great-grandfather-
George Gascoyne. My name is Israel Gascoyne Rank.
My mother was a Gascoyne. My father was a com-
mercial traveller."
“Oh, I say, that doesn't matter."
“I didn't suppose it would, but all the same it's just
as well you should know.”
He talked gaily enough as we went along. I watched
him keenly, and every now and then I noticed a shadow
cross his face. I could make a fair guess at the cause
of it. He was wondering how he should tell his sister
that the offspring of a mésalliance in the family was
her guest. He would no doubt have liked to ask me
to say nothing about it, but was too well bred to do
His chance came, however, when I informed him
that I was in his uncle's office.
He turned and looked at me in amazement.
“I say, there's plenty of time-let's go down this
path. It's a longer way round, but I want to talk to
you. It's all a bit sudden and interesting, isn't it?"
We turned down a side path where the white loose
sand was strewn with pine needles.
You know,” said young Gascoyne,“ my father and
my uncle Gascoyne were not on speaking terms."
“I gathered as much," I remarked.
so.
9


130
ISRAEL RANK
“When my cousin committed suicide I wanted to
write and say how sorry I was, but my sister said she
thought that it would look as if we were after his
money, so I didn't."
I began to wonder if perhaps the desire to throw a
very poor relation in the teeth of this independent
young couple might not have had something to do
with the action of Mr. Gascoyne in taking me into his
business.
“My sister has curious ideas. She thinks that if a
Gascoyne went into business he should have changed
his name.'
“There are heaps of stockbrokers of first-rate
family."
Oh, I don't agree with her in the least. I think it's
all rot, and I should rather have liked to be taken up
by Uncle Gascoyne, but once my sister gets an idea
into her head you can't move her.”
“ Perhaps she may not care about entertaining me.”
“Oh, she'll be civil."
“I'll go back if you like,” I said. “I shan't be
offended. You could not know who I was.”
He stood still and thought deeply.
“No,” he said, shortly, "come on, you'll oblige me
by doing so. It's beastly rude of me to have hesitated.
I like you, cousin Israel. You are quite different from
anyone I have ever met.”
I laughed. “You forget. There is my point of
view. Mr. Gascoyne may not at all like my having
struck up an acquaintance with you."
“Well, you can always say you didn't know.”
What, and drop you ?"
“Not that, old chap." He linked his arm affec-
66


ISRAEL RANK
131
tionately in mine. “We'll be great friends when
I come to town, and damn it all, I'll be friends
with Uncle Gascoyne whether my sister likes it or
not."
I was not particularly pleased at the idea of this
attractive and well-bred nephew getting into his
uncle's good books ; at any rate, not until Mr. Gas-
coyne had made me a definite promise as to my future.
I was very curious to see Miss Gascoyne. It was
obvious that she was a strong character. After all,
if she were distant it could not do me much harm,
and I could leave soon after lunch.
We came upon the house suddenly. It was an old-
fashioned place which had evidently been added to
by degrees. Unexpected gables arose at every turn,
and the red brick and ivy, clinging creeper, and
gorgeous trails of passion flower and purple clematis
were exquisitely mellow.
The place looked fairly well kept considering the
limited means of the owners, and that very little of
Harry Gascoyne's eight hundred a year went towards
its upkeep.
We haven't any horses since the guy'nor died-
at least, that is, I've got a hack.”
“You were riding the first day I saw you."
When was that ?”
I laughed. “I hope you won't think my excellent
memory bad taste, but I think I saw your horse
tethered to a gate one morning while you were other-
wise engaged.”
By Jove! Was that you ? I thought I had seen
your face somewhere before."
“I wonder you did not recognise me.”
92


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ISRAEL RANK
“I say, don't breathe a word. It might get about.
I can't keep away from her, she's so awfully pretty.”
Who is she ?''
Her father's a blacksmith. You'd never think it
to hear her speak, though. I've often thought of
taking her to town, but I should never be able to show
my face down here again."
“It would be very awkward for your sister."
“It would be awkward altogether."
A figure in white appeared on the veranda. It was
Edith Gascoyne, tall, fair, quite beautiful.
She greeted me courteously, her brother looking on
nervously the while. He then hurried me off to get
a brush down, and left me in his bedroom murmuring
that he would be back in a minute. I was perfectly
aware that he had gone to tell his sister who I was.
In a few minutes he returned and I saw at a glance
that his short interview had not been altogether
pleasant. There was a determined look round his
jaw that was somewhat unusual, and I guessed that
he had been putting his foot down. If, however, he
had been compelled to insist on his sister welcoming
me, she certainly showed none of the chagrin of defeat
in the perfect courtesy and queenliness with which
she advanced to me when I came down into the
drawing-room.
“My brother says we are cousins, Mr. Rank."
Yes, it is strange my coming across him in this
way, isn't it?"
Very. I do not know my Uncle Gascoyne, but
we were extremely sorry to hear of his son's tragic
death. You knew him ?”
Barely. I had spoken to him once.”


ISRAEL RANK
133
She waited as if expecting me to talk about young
Gascoyne, but I held my tongue.
“Was my uncle very much affected ?”
Terribly. I don't think he or his wife will ever
get over it.”
“I am afraid he must have thought me very heart-
less.” She evidently felt somewhat guilty at their
neglect.
We went in to lunch. Everything was wonderfully
well done, and I could see that she was determined to
make the Grange as attractive as possible to her
brother, and to give him no reason for keeping away
from it. I recall that quiet Sunday lunch most vividly.
The long, low dining-room with its panelled walls hung
with pictures of dead and departed ancestors, the
stretch of green lawn with the blue depth of the pine-
wood beyond. From somewhere came the scream of
a peacock, that perfect discord which only nature could
have attempted. On my left at the head of the table
sat Miss Gascoyne, beautiful and white, in a condition
of stately and armed truce.
She managed most perfectly to import into her ex-
pression every now and then something which might
remotely have laid claim to being called a smile. For
the rest, she listened to me during the greater part of
the meal with every appearance of attention, answer-
ing me with no vulgar or obvious intention of a desire
to snub me, although her disapproval of my presence
was patent.
I made her laugh, however, as soon as I had dis-
covered the vulnerable point in her armour of gravity.
Finally, I ventured an appeal to her snobbery; for I
could see that she was a snob, although in her it was
;


134
ISRAEL RANK
a vice trained and cultivated by breeding into what
might have passed before the world as a virtue.
I thought that I might venture to mention Ham-
merton, and did so, a little fearful that she might give
me to understand that it was high presumption in me
to consider myself in any way interested in the feudal
home of the Gascoynes.
She was, on the contrary, frankly interested.
“I have never been there,” she said. “I have only
met the present Lord Gascoyne once, when I was a
child. My brother and I were invited to his coming-
of-age, but my mother had died .only very shortly
before, and we did not care to go.”
I shrewdly guessed that had the decision been left
to her brother he might not have found his sincere
grief at his mother's loss an insuperable bar to his
enjoying himself at Hammerton.
I continued, watching her carefully, prepared to
beat a hasty retreat should she show the least sign of
disapproval at the channel into which I had directed
the conversation.
“ Directly I saw you to-day I noticed how very like
you are to some of the portraits at Hammerton. I
was only there once, but I remember one distinctly."
“I should like to see the family pictures. Do you
know Lord Gascoyne ?”
Oh, dear no, not at all. I went there quite as an
excursionist. It was rather quaint going round as a
tripper. The remarks of the people I was with were
most amusing.”
The suspicion of a shadow crossed her face. She
was not pleased to think of the mob tramping through
those ancestral halls for which she had an almost
>>


ISRAEL RANK
135
Chinese reverence. I detected her disapproval, and
hastened to add :
“ They were in no way irreverent; far from it, I
think they were most impressed."
“I suppose,” she said, “it is good for that sort
of people to be put in mind of those who have
been chiefly responsible for making England what
she is.”
I had considerable trouble to forbear smiling as I
recalled the career of some of the Gascoynes.
“That sort of people had something to do with the
making of England. It was not the aristocracy who
used the bow and arrow at Crecy."
We both turned with some surprise to young Gas-
coyne. It was a deeper remark than he usually gave
vent to.
“The people are nothing without their natural
leaders,” Miss Gascoyne replied.
“You think the aristocracy are the natural leaders
of the people ?"
Surely."
“It seems to me," I answered, for I saw that it did
not flatter her to agree too readily, “ that the people
got very little done for them till they chose leaders of
their own.”
Perhaps I ought to have said that the aristocracy
are the natural leaders of the nation, and not of the
people. There is a difference, is there not ?"
I appreciated the concession in civility implied in
the appeal. I was evidently gaining ground.
I quite see the distinction, and it is a true paradox.'
Young Gascoyne, who had seemed anxious and
fearful during the first part of the meal, feeling that I


136
ISRAEL RANK
>>
had conquered and entered the outer works of at least
acquaintanceship, grew happier, and said :
“Rank is afraid that Uncle Gascoyne will hardly
be pleased to find that he has made friends with us."
“I am not afraid,” I interposed hastily, for I saw
that Miss Gascoyne had stiffened perceptibly.
“You said he was sure to be annoyed.”
“That is quite a different thing. He has been very
kind to me, but he can hardly expect to veto my
acquaintances.” I was about to say
I was about to say “ friends,” but
checked myself in time and added : “Besides, I don't
think he would wish to do so."
“He seems rather a jolly old chap from what you
say."
“He is everything that is generous."
I made a point of always speaking enthusiastically
of Mr. Gascoyne. Someone was sure sooner or later
to repeat what I said.
“We should be sorry to do anything to injure your
prospects, Mr. Rank.” Miss Gascoyne spoke with just
the faintest suspicion of stiffness.
“I don't think that is likely," I laughed.
After lunch she left us alone to smoke. Young
Gascoyne wheeled two armchairs to the window,
which was delightfully shaded, and, giving me
excellent cigar, seated himself opposite with a pipe,
and began to talk of his love affair. Since he had
discovered that I knew of the secret meetings he had
been only too anxious to make a confidant of me.
She absolutely prevents my thinking of anything
else. I ought to be working, you know, but I can't.
Every time I settle down to do anything I think of
her—she's in my head and she stops there. The whole
>>
an
66


ISRAEL RANK
137
>>
day long I wonder what she's doing. She's an absolute
servant to those great big lubberly brothers of hers.
Of course, they are kind to her in a way, but they
want her to marry some lout out of the village. I
don't know how it will end, I am sure."
“Oh, these things have a way of deciding them-
selves.”
“Yes, but not always satisfactorily.”
Why, you don't think?"
“No, I don't mean that, at least I hope to goodness
not."
“You had better make up your mind to forget her
and come to town.”
“ I couldn't do it. It isn't in me. It would take a
will of iron. If my sister were a man she would do it,
but then Edith couldn't have fallen in love with any-
body beneath her."
This was so obviously true that it required no com-
ment.
I was busy thinking while young Gascoyne babbled
on, quite happy that he had a listener. I reflected
what a very useless person he was in the world. He
was quite right when he accused himself of a lack of
will. The probability was that at forty he would be
a confirmed toper. He was a pleasant companion
enough, but had evidently as little capacity for true
friendship as for anything else.
His sudden affection for me was purely fictitious. I
was the nearest thing to hand, and an ordinarily
amusing companion was a godsend amid his present
dullness. In town he would have seen nothing of
me at all, unless I could contribute to the gaiety of his
life ; in which case he would no doubt give me a pro-
i


138
ISRAEL RANK
portionate amount of his attention. The poor girl
whom he had honoured with his affection was
likely to have a very bad time of it should any
mischief accrue. He was lovable enough in his way,
but he was of no particular value to mankind in
general.
He was living in danger of at least a very sound
thrashing from the girl's brothers if not from her
village suitor, and it was most probable that should
matters become acute he would
although not de-
ficient in courage—leave the situation to settle itself
without him, and the girl to take care of herself.
Perhaps the brothers might not find out; young Gas-
coyne might ride away; the girl might dry her eyes
and in time wed her village admirer, who would remain
in ignorance of the guilty little episode in her life. If
the brothers found out, were they the sort of men
likely to take a violent revenge, and if they were not
was the lover such a man? It was worth ascertaining.
I decided to spend the next week-end at the village
where the girl and her relations lived.
Later, young Gascoyne showed me over the Grange.
There was not very much to see. It was a fairly roomy
house, commenced in the Tudor style, and completed,
or rather building operations had ceased, in the early
Victorian. The latter age was marked by a hideous
oblong, stucco wing devoted to servants and kitchen
premises. Every other age had given the building
something fairly picturesque, but the early Victorian
era had given something worthy of itself. The semi-
circular porch with its white columns, unmistakably
Carolian in character ; the Elizabethan red brick and
mullioned panes, the Georgian drawing-room, and low-


ISRAEL RANK
139
ceilinged hall, all made a delightful jumble, and hardly
deserved young Gascoyne's contemptuous remark that
it was a 'ramshackle old place,' true in actual fact as
such description was.
The room which had been his father's sanctum was
now his ; a delightful room with a south aspect and
the only view which was not to a certain extent im-
peded by trees. Through the half open door of Miss
Gascoyne's bedroom I caught a glimpse of a prie Dieu
and a large crucifix above it. Evidently Miss Gas-
coyne was High Church and devotional.
We joined her in the garden for tea. The sun was
yellowing through the pines, with here and there a
faint suggestion of evening crimson, ere I rose and said
good-bye. She evidently liked me, for she asked me
to come again, and seconded her brother when he
pressed me to run down from Saturday till Monday
whenever I liked. For a Hebrew youth to have
travelled so far in Miss Gascoyne's estimation in so
short a time was an achievement.
Young Gascoyne walked back as far as the inn with
me, talking volubly of when we should meet again
and of what a lot we were to see of each other in town.
I rode back thinking a good deal of Miss Gascoyne.
I hold—what to the female mind is a heresy—that a
man may be in love with half a dozen women at
once.
Miss Gascoyne occupied my thoughts a great deal
after I returned to town, and for the first few days I
even thought that Sibella had been superseded. This
I found not to be the case after a visit paid to the Hall-
wards, in the course of which Lionel Holland succeeded
in rousing my jealousy to a high pitch by his osten-


140
ISRAEL RANK
tatious airs of proprietorship. I was in love with two
women : with Sibella ecstatically as always, and with
Miss Gascoyne. I was vain enough to think that the
rapid change in the latter's demeanour towards me
had been in spite of herself. There was between us a
decided sympathy. She stood for all that, socially,
I most admired.
My taste was always catholic, and her coldness and
reserve attracted me immeasurably, although I was
also a slave to Sibella's triviality and butterfly gaiety.
The picture in each case was complete, the composi-
tion harmonious; and from the point of view of charm
that is everything. Dull people may derive credit from
their very dullness if they be consistent and hold their
tongues; consistency achieves character and interest,
but an ignoble desire to imitate some garrulous ac-
quaintance will inevitably lead to disaster. In fact,
social prominence can only be achieved by the expres-
sion of the self in its own peculiar way.
Miss Gascoyne's stately, lily-like personality had
also a peculiar attraction for my Jewish blood. Her
curiously vivid auburn hair, the almost marble pallor
of her skin, the enormous dark blue eyes, full of a
peaceful queenliness, were so alien to my own type as
to subjugate the opposite in me. In my polygamous
scheme I could see her nowhere except on the throne
itself. Sibella might have the jewels, Edith Gascoyne
would inevitably demand a share of real power. Miss
Gascoyne made me proud to have a half right to the
name she bore. She inspired me with the same feeling
of pride in relationship as the turrets and battlements
of Hammerton had done. For some days I indulged
in dreams in which she and I walked hand in hand


142
ISRAEL RANK
His daughter was his joy and delight. He was proud
of her looks, which like those of all of his children were
out of the common. When he stood on Sunday even-
ing in church surrounded by his family, a more moving
spectacle of physical health and primal beauty it would
have been difficult to imagine.
He was also proud of his daughter's housekeeping
capabilities, and not only he, but his wife and sons,
looked forward with dismay to the time when some
stalwart lover would claim her. Mrs. Gray almost
hoped that her sons would marry and settle down
first in order to avoid the desecration of her house-
hold arrangements by the unheard-of innovation of a
servant.
Mrs. Gray had a sister, a spinster some years older
than herself, who, having entered the service of the
Gascoynes many years before, had never left it, but
had become an institution in the family. The two
sisters were devoted, and it had long been their habit
to see each other at least once a week. Sometimes
Janet accompanied her mother, and when Mrs. Gray
was unable to go, for she suffered somewhat from
rheumatism, her daughter went alone.
It was on one of these expeditions that she had met
young Gascoyne. He had related the circumstances
to me a dozen times.
She was coming back to the station through the
pine-trees, and I was struck all of a heap, bowled over
first time. I don't know how it all came about, but
we talked about her aunt. It was something to go
on with.
It took me a long time to persuade her to
meet me, though."
Judging by the character and determination in the


ISRAEL RANK
143
faces of old Gray and his sons, it did not appear that
the man who trifled with their womankind would
have a very pleasant time of it. It was the identity
of her rustic suitor, however, that I was anxious to
discover. I was not long in doing so, for he haunted
the Gray threshold. Personally, had I been in Janet's
place, I should not have hesitated a moment between
the magnificent specimen of manhood who was anxious
to make her his wife, and the spoilt and vicious youth,
who, if her ruin could have been accomplished with
safety, would have regarded it as a mere pleasurable
and excusable incident in his life.
Nat Holway was in every way a splendid fellow.
His occasional violence of temper was a part of the
general strenuousness of his character. He was slowly
conquering this failing, however, and was likely to
make the same sort of man as Janet's father. He
had never known any other sweetheart. It had, at
least as he thought, been an understood thing between
them since they were children. He delayed speaking
just a little too long, and it was after young Gascoyne
had appeared on the scene that he asked her to be
his wife. To his amazement and the no little surprise
of her friends she refused him. Ignorant of the exist-
ence of Harry Gascoyne in his relation to Janet, they
looked around vainly for a cause.
Was there anybody else in the village ? True, young
Tom Applin had come round with an obviously serious
intent, but Janet had very soon shown him that she
did not care for him. There were others, but, as she
had never encouraged them in any way whatever,
they did not suggest themselves as a reason for her
refusal of Nat Holway. The only excuse she would


144
ISRAEL RANK
give was that she did not care sufficiently about Nat
to marry him.
“ But, Janet, you've always given us to under-
stand" commenced Mrs. Gray.
Oh, but that was when we were children.”
“No, Janet, that is not quite true. It's not so long
ago that I was talking of you both settling down, and
it didn't seem but what you favoured the idea.”
Janet did not answer, but shut herself in her room
and, unlocking a drawer, took out of it a little jewelled
trinket which young Gascoyne had given her, and
kissing it passionately, burst into a flood of tears. The
poor girl vaguely realised, if she refused to confess as
much to herself, that her romance was doomed to a
dismal ending. Though she loved Harry Gascoyne
she had some dim perception that the glitter of his
charm was largely pinchbeck. She also realised with
true feminine instinct that she had thrown away the
only weapon with which she might have won her
battle, and induced him to raise her to his position
by marriage. She was already terrified of what might
happen, and lay awake at nights possessed by the
fear of an approaching presence. She was haunted
by the singing of the wind in the pine-wood where
they had first kissed, and stronger and stronger
through the sad, sweet music came the wailing of an
infant.
Young Gascoyne was almost as frightened as she
at what he had done, and his true character asserted
itself. He positively throbbed with selfishness. He
poured out his woes to me at length. He would begin
with some stereotyped recognition of the girl's position,
thrown in for the sake of mere decency, but after that


ISRAEL RANK
145
it was all about the awkwardness of the affair as it
would affect himself.
“ I'm not a coward, old chap, and I don't mind a
good stand-up fight. I can take a licking as well as
any other man, and bear no grudge.”
This I doubted, and set it down as merely the boast-
ful jargon learnt at a public school.
But I don't quite soe having to fight the whole lot
of them.'
They look awkward customers.'
“Why, have you seen them ?”
I had made a slip. I had not informed him of my
visit to Copsley.
“I was passing through on my bicycle, and I just
thought I would have a look in at the blacksmith's
shop."
My sister will never forgive me. You see, Janet is
old nurse's niece. By Jove, it is a muddle."
He spoke as if the whole affair were not of his doing
and as if he were the victim of a conspiracy.
It was the occasion of my spending a week-end at
the Grange.
Ho discussed many ways of solving the difficulty.
“I shall take her away. There's nothing else to be
done."
“You will be followed.”
“Not if we go abroad. That'll be the thing. Edith
will come round in time. I shouldn't wonder, once
Janet were away from that common lot, if she didn't
improve till one wouldn't mind taking her any-
where."
I was surprised to find that he was in earnest about
eloping, but his was not a nature to look very far ahead,
10


146
ISRAEL RANK
and he talked of being able to get along at some
quiet foreign town as if he were not the sort of person
in whom such an existence would bring out all the
worst qualities. At any rate, I was determined to run
no risks. I had made too many inquiries about Nat
Holway not to be able to predict with some certainty
what he would do if he discovered the truth.
I posted an anonymous letter from the next village
to Copsley written in an illiterate scrawl. It informed
him of Janet's stolen meetings, and hinted the worst.


CHAPTER X
I HAD by this time informed Mr. Gascoyne of my ac-
quaintance with his nephew and niece. At first he
looked hurt.
“They are very heartless, I am afraid, Israel, very
heartless ; when my poor boy died neither of them
wrote a line."
“I am afraid, sir, that young Gascoyne has not much
depth, but his sister seems to me a fine character."
What is she like ?"
“ Beautiful.”
Perhaps something in my voice betrayed what I felt,
for he looked at me keenly.
“She is a little cold. Difficult, I should say, to rouse
to enthusiasm, and she appears to have a will of
iron."
“She hardly sounds alluring."
“ She has charm.”
“Ah! Then everything else falls into line. I should
like to see them, but I can hardly make the advances.
You see, my poor brother chose to quarrel with me for
two reasons ; first, because I went on the Stock Ex-
change ; secondly, because my wife's father happened
to have made his money in trade. It was all very
foolish, but year after year reconciliation grew more
difficult, and what had been a breach which I thought
147
10-2


148
ISRAEL RANK
could easily be bridged any moment widened imper-
ceptibly, until it was impossible to make advances.
If Miss Gascoyne would write to my wife the thing
would be done."
Inwardly I thought it would have been just as easy
for Mrs. Gascoyne to write to her.
“ What is Harry like ? His father was good-looking.”
“He is handsome enough.
“Fair ?"
“Very."
“So was his father. Dear me, it seems only the other
day that we were boys together. It is all very sad,
very sad indood. It is incredible that people should
drift apart so.”
“ I've never had anyone to drift apart from.”
“You have your friends. There is
There is young Hallward.
He seems to be very devoted to you, and, do you know,
I have sometimes wondered whether you appreciate
his devotion."
“Oh, I'm very fond of Grahame.”
“We must see if something can't be done to bring
my nephew and niece and my wife together. You say
you are going down there this week ?"
“I thought of doing so."
“Then you might spy out the land and see how my
niece would be likely to receive advances.”
“I think Miss Gascoyne would welcome them," I
said, with simulated warmth.
I now felt not the least hesitation in praising the
young Gascoynes. I had complete confidence in my
position with their uncle. He was not the sort of man
to commit an injustice, and what he had made up his
mind to do for me he would do; perhaps more, certainly
not less.


ISRAEL RANK
149
It may perhaps be wondered why, having a comfort-
able position and fairly assured prospects, I did not
rest content. That I did not do so was due to a con-
sistency of aim which has always been my chief char-
acteristic. In removing young Gascoyne from my
path I had burnt my boats, and there did not appear
to be any particular reason, except that of cowardice,
to prevent my pursuing my original purpose. A
middle-class position with moderate wealth in no way
represented my ideal. I had dreamed from early
childhood of a brilliant position, and if possible I
intended to achieve one.
I found also that I was a person of a multiplying
ambition. I had begun to meet certain people in a
very good set. My musical accomplishments here
stood me in very good stead—as they have done many
another idle young adventurer. Lady Pebworth, who
was an amateur vocalist who would not have been
tolerated at a tenth-rate pier pavilion without her title,
was singing at a charity concert at which I was assist-
ing. Her accompanist failing her, I took his place.
She declared that no one had ever accompanied her
so sympathetically, and asked me to call. I was not
of the order of modern youth who gives some great
lady the use of his inferior baritone voice and other
services in return for social protection, but Lady
Pebworth had the tact to treat me with dignity, and
I found her extremely useful. I paid my respects one
Sunday afternoon. The drawing-room of her house in
Bryanston Square was crowded, and I at once realised
that I was in the society of people of quite a different
tone from anything I had hitherto come into contact
with. Fortunately her invitation had not been merely
formal. She had evidently been anxious to see me,


150
ISRAEL RANK
C
for she welcomed me with a swift glance of pleasure
and came from the extreme end of the long room to
meet me.
How good of you
to come so soon !"
It was good of you to ask me.”
Then she introduced me to a pretty, dark-eyed
woman, whose beauty was just giving signs of approach-
ing wane.
“Mrs. Hetherington, Mr. Rank.” And she left
us.
Mrs. Hetherington talked incessantly, but I replied
in monosyllables. I realised that Lady Pebworth was
interested, and my vanity was flattered that a woman,
so evidently admired and courted in a first-rate sot,
should be attracted by me. I could see that she was
very much aware of my presence whilst seeming to be
engrossed by the conversation of a man of distin-
guished appearance suggesting diplomacy. A feeble-
looking young man with rather a pleasant laugh
joined in the conversation between Mrs. Hetherington
and myself. He was evidently, inquisitive as to who
I might be, and throw out one or two baits which I
avoided.
Mrs. Hetherington droned on about Lord this and
Lady that—if she mentioned commoners at all they
possessed double-barrelled names—until there was a
general movement to go. I rose with the others, but
Lady Pebworth with the greatest cleverness managed
to avoid saying good-bye to me till everyone else had
gone and we were left alone. Mrs. Hetherington, who
was the last to leave, looked at me with the insolent
curiosity of good breeding as she was making her fare-
wells, evidently fully conscious of her hostess's
manoeuvring.


ISRAEL RANK
151
“Are you in a great hurry?” asked Lady Pebworth,
as the door closed behind Mrs. Hetherington.
“Oh, no."
" Then sit down and let us talk. I must have some
fresh tea, and you will have something stronger.”
I explained that I seldom drank anything stronger
than tea.
She looked at me curiously.
“Dear me! You don't look a puritan.”
I laughed. The expression as applied to myself
sounded quite comic.
“I am afraid my virtue has its origin in vanity. I
confine myself to champagne, and that only occasion-
ally.”
“You are quite right. It is dreadful the objects
young men make of themselves with drink-and
women, too, when they cease to attract.'
“Do they ever realise when that time has come ?”!
“Yes, most women are philosophical enough for
that."
Women with charm need never cease to attract.”
That is very true, but you are young to have found
it out. It is usually a discovery of the middle-
aged.”
Age is not altogether a question of years.”
I found Lady Pebworth a mental tonic. She made
me talk as I had never talked before, indeed, as I had
never known myself capable of talking.
I realised that I had made a distinct impression, and
found myself calculating how far she might be useful
to me.
She evidently knew everyone worth knowing. She
could undoubtedly launch me in the great world if
she cared to do so, and I was quite confident of my
CC


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ISRAEL RANK
ability to keep afloat providing I had a really good
introduction. I could not help smiling as I reflected
how envious Lionel Holland would have been could he
have witnessed my tête-à-tête with Lady Pebworth.
Later Lord Pebworth came in. He was the personi-
fication of the elderly well-bred. It was not probable
that he had ever possessed many brains, but he had
the amount of conscience which causes a man highly
placed to do the right thing at the right moment.
He was devoid of enthusiasm, and being eminently
safe had even achieved a second-rate position as a
politician, which he was quite persuaded was a first-
rate one. He treated his wife's young men friends-
and I discovered afterwards that they had been a
numerous procession—with kindly toleration, and even
went out of his way to give them a good time when it
lay in his power.
He seconded his wife's invitation to dinner with great
cordiality, and accompanied me as far as the front
door, an attention which was so unexpected that I
began to wonder whether he regarded me as a sus-
picious character. He gave me an excellent cigar, and I
walked down Park Lane in the red light of a Sunday
evening in summer, feeling that socially, I had moved on.
Lady Pebworth took me up feverishly, and intro-
duced me to a great many people who seemed quite
pleased to know me. Nevertheless, I realised that I
should have to make hay whilst the sun shone, for
unless I persuaded my new acquaintances to accept me
as an intimate I should very soon be dropped. Great
ladies have a way of carrying young men into the vortex
of society to which they have not been accustomed,
and then, when weary, leaving them to be slowly
slain by general indifference, till they are only too


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153
glad to find themselves back again in their proper
middle-class element.
I did not consider the middle-class my element, and
I was determined that Lady Pebworth should keep me
afloat as long as I chose and not as long as she chose.
As I was engaged in snaring young Gascoyne, I was
only able to give her a divided attention. This turned
out to be as well, for she concluded that there was
another woman, and her interest in me was fanned by
jealousy. She tried all manner of arts in order to
discover who claimed my attention, arts which she
imagined were undetected, but at which I was secretly
amused.
Mr. Gascoyne used to chaff me good-naturedly about
my smart acquaintances. Some employers in his posi-
tion might have resented one of his clerks spending
his spare time among people who would most probably
lead him into extravagance; but Mr. Gascoyne, well
born himself, hardly saw the incongruity of it to the
extent that an ordinary middle-class commercial man
would have done.
At the time I met Gascoyne my affair with Lady
Pebworth was in full swing. That is to say, I was
getting tired of her, for she had never really meant
anything to me. She was beginning to reproach me
with neglect, and to take exception to my Saturdays
and Sundays being occupied.
I knew how far Lady Pebworth could be useful to
me, and I was certainly not going to drop the solid
substance of a position in my own right for the
shadow of her social introductions.
It was quite extraordinary how ready people were
to accept and make use of a young man who carried
no other credentials than the good word of a pretty


154
ISRAEL RANK
Countess with a reputation for being rapid. I found
myself dancing every evening with the peerage. I
cannot honestly say that I received many invitations
to dinner, or to those more select entertainments which
argue any great degree of intimacy. My keen instinct
warned me of the unreality of my position and of how
necessary it was to make ties of some kind to enable
me to retain my hold on society. The men were civil
enough, but I had little in common with those who
talked nothing but the jargon they had learned at a
public school or at one of the 'Varsities.
I had the extreme satisfaction of being seen in a
box at the Gaiety by Lionel Holland and Sibella while
I was with Lord and Lady Pebworth and Sir Anthony
Cross, a ſiend of theirs.
What a very beautiful girl," said Lady Pebworth,
as I bowed to Sibella.
Quite lovely,” said Lord Pebworth.
Sir Anthony Cross said nothing, but I repeatedly
caught him looking at Sibella when Lady Pebworth
was not using his opera glasses.
Who is the man with her ?” asked Lady Pebworth.
“Lionel Holland."
“Is he q friend of yours ?”
I know him. I went to school with him."
“I see you don't like him. He looks a bounder.”
Lady Peloworth had in her conversation just that
amount of
which may be permitted to an
obviously well-bored woman without its giving offence.
As we were going out I found myself by the side of
Sibella for a moment.
“You hardly ever come and see us now,” she mur-
mured.
Sibella never lost her charm for me, and the sound
>>


ISRAEL RANK
155
of her voice-always a little sharp and unmusical,
even when she made an attempt at modulating it,
which was seldom-played upon my temperament in
the most subtle manner.
I promised to visit them quite soon.
“Next Sunday ?" she asked.
I am going out of town next Sunday.”
Lady Pebworth’s carriage drew up, and, murmuring
something about the Sunday after, I left her.
“Your friend, Mr. Rank,” said Lady Pebworth,“ is
decidedly pretty.”
One of the prettiest girls I have ever set eyes on,"
said Lord Pebworth.
Sir Anthony Cross still said nothing, but I had a
shrewd conviction that he was more impressed than
either.
On Saturday I bicycled down to stay with the Gas-
coynes till Monday, having promised my employer to
do all which tactful diplomacy might accomplish to
find out how they would take an effort at a reconcilia-
tion.
I went a certain part of the way by train, and sent
my bag on. I had written to say that I should not
be at the Grange for dinner, and found myself riding
through a crimson summer evening with a sensuous
enjoyment in the perfect peace of the rural scenery
through which I was passing. According to the re-
ceived notion of a man with a murder on his con-
science, external objects, however beautiful, should
have been unable to convey any sensation of peace
to my inner bei
inner being. So far from this being the case
I was immensely soothed, and rode leisurely on with
as much moral quiet as is enjoyed by most folk. After
all, the degree of power of the conscience is entirely a


156
ISRAEL RANK
matter of individuality and force of character. A weak
man, hypersensitive to received social obligation, may
fret himself into a fever over the merest trifle of a
moral lapse. I do not believe the aged Cenci slept
the less well for—in the world's opinion-his awful
crimes. I have no doubt his affectionate family found
him in a comfortable doze when they came to bring
him a deeper sleep. The rate at which one great crime
will develop a man's intelligence is curious. It is a
wonderful grindstone on which to sharpen the intelleot.
New values, hitherto unsuspected, develop themselves
on all sides. An acute and sardonic appreciation of
society's laws presents itself, together with an exhila-
rating sensation of being outside them, which assists
in forming an unbiassed and comprehensive view. I
could never have belonged to the anarchical type of
man, because I never had any comprehension of or
sympathy with those who starve in a land of plenty.
I could not understand the intellect which could live
in a dream of a society regenerated by revolution in
the future, and which was yet unable to help itself
to a crust of bread in the present. My abilities were
essentially practical, so I removed those who were im-
mediately in my way and left the dreamers to remove
those whom they esteemed to be in the way of society.
I was indulging in such reflections as these when I
passed the lane down which I had turned the day I
had discovered young Gascoyne's love affair. The sun
had almost set. Already the greater part of the land-
scape was in shadow. The song of the birds was
silenced by the chill of coming night, and they slept.
On the horizon the crimson blaze had sunk, and an
expiring streak of amber marked where the day had
passed. The evening star shone solitary, a little pale


ISRAEL RANK
157
for the moment, a faint flame set in a ghastly pallor.
I turned down the lane of the romantic memory ; why,
I could not have said, unless, perhaps, some occult
informing power gave me a premonition of what I
should find there. The actual road track was quite
narrow, there being a wide
a wide expanse of grass on each
side. I had not gone very far before I saw a figure
lying in a curiously huddled heap close to the hedge.
I knew it was young Gascoyne at a glance. The ex-
pected had happened. My heart almost leapt into my
mouth. How seldom schemes carried as well as mine
had done! I got off my bicycle and looked stealthily
around. There was not a soul in sight. The growing
dusk of the lane gave birth to one or two shadows
which somewhat startled me as I went towards the
body. As I turned him over to look at his face a low
groan escaped him.
He was not dead. This was awkward. His face
was covered with blood, and there was a terrible wound
in the side of his head, while his jaw hung loose as if
it were broken. An idea struck me. I lifted his head.
I almost fancied that I saw his eyes open, and that
even in the gloom he recognised me. I hastened to
put my idea into execution. I pressed my fingers
gently to the veins behind his neck. I knew that
this would produce an absolute insensibility which
must inevitably end in death unless succour arrived
within quite a short space of time.
After a few minutes I laid him back an inert mass
on the turf, and, mounting my bicycle, reached the
main road without meeting anyone.
I could not help regretting as I rode leisurely on to
the Grange that it was Miss Gascoyne's brother whom
I had been compelled to dispose of, but I agreed with


158
ISRAEL RANK
the writer who warned the ambitious that they must
subordinate their affections to their aims in life if they
wished to succeed. It is curious how affection can be
subdued. For instance, I loved Sibella, but I was able
to subdue my infatuation and keep it out of sight when
necessary.
It was quite dark when I reached the Grange, and
riding through the fir plantation I was entirely depen-
dent on the light thrown from my bicycle lamp.
Suddenly I received a weird reminder of the figure I
had left behind me lying half concealed in the fern and
bracken by the roadside. Perhaps I was a little more
affected by what had happened than I imagined, for I
am not superstitious, and only by reason of having
young Gascoyne's image vividly in my mind can I
account for what happened.
Half-way through the plantation the light of my
lamp fell full on a white, human face dabbled in blood.
It was young Gascoyne's face, and the blue eyes were
wide open and glazed in death. I saw the head and
trunk to the waist. The rest of the body appeared to
be beneath the ground. So strong was the illusion
that I swerved aside in order not to ride over it, and
in doing so fell from my machine. When I picked
myself up my lamp was out and I was in total dark-
I was about to hurry forward with a mad haste
to get out of the wood when I pulled myself up short.
Deliberately I remained where I was, picked up my
bicycle, lit my lamp and mounting leisurely rode
slowly out of the plantation. With such a career
as I had planned it would never do to give way to
fancies.
There was a light in the drawing-room as I wheeled
my bicycle up the drive of the Grange. I could see
ness.


ISRAEL RANK
159
Miss Gascoyne sitting by a small table with a lamp
on it. At first I thought she was reading, but as I
drew near I could see that the book was lying in her
lap, whilst her eyes were fixed on the ground in deep
reflection. She came out into the hall when she heard
my voice. I thought there was an unusual animation
in her appearance as she welcomed me.
“Have you dined ?”
Well, not exactly, but I had an enormous tea at a
wayside inn."
“ You look very tired.”
Evidently I still looked somewhat agitated by my
adventure in the pine wood. No doubt for want of
another explanation it must have struck her as
fatigue.
“I have had rather a busy week.”
We moved towards the dining-room chatting freely
and pleasantly, and I could not help contrasting her
present friendliness with the hauteur and strictly formal
manner she had displayed at our first meeting.
We sat and talked while I ate sandwiches.
Harry said he was going to meet you.”
“I rather thought he might do so, and I looked out
for him."
rude of him not to have done so, or not
to have been at home when you came. I shall scold
him severely.”
She began to talk of her brother and his future.
She wanted him to read for the law. Did I not think
it would be the best thing ?
“Do you really want my candid opinion ?”
Of course. You know I say what I mean."
“I think it is about the very worst profession he
could follow.”
>
“ It is very
>>


160
ISRAEL RANK
“But why ?”
Well, apart from the difficulty of the examinations,
which in our days is no small matter, it is a profession
in which patience is the most important factor. There
is no other profession like it for encouraging a naturally
lazy man with a small income to idle.”
“I should have thought application was altogether
necessary.”
“ Absolutely, but it is optional. He cannot get on
without it, but there will be no one to see that he uses
his time well. Besides, men in the law are as a rule
strenuous, earnest people with all kinds of ambitions,
and Harry will hardly meet sympathetics.”
Then what is he to do ?”
“I know you will think it rather a curious suggestion,
coming from me, but I give my vote for the Army."
“The Army? But Harry is poor.'
I inwardly smiled at Miss Gascoyne's notion of
poverty. I knew what she thought the Army should
mean for a Gascoyne :-a crack cavalry regiment and
unlimited private means.
“ An inexpensive line regiment."
Oh dear !"
I laughed. “It's the thing, depend upon it. He
will be in a profession he likes, among men who take
their profession seriously. After all, he will have a
better average of gentlemen than he would have in a
crack regiment, even if he does not have the high
nobility of exceptions.
“I see what you mean, but I don't think Harry
would ever consent.'
“I believe you could make him do anything."
I was inwardly congratulating myself on the perfect
conviction with which I was discussing the future of


ISRAEL RANK
161
> >
one who by this time was most probably solving
problems in theology.
We talked on till Miss Gascoyne grew anxious.
“I really wish Harry would come home."
“Shall I go and look for him ?"
She knew what was in my mind. His late home-
coming meant as a rule that he was to be found at
the inn.
“ Was he at home to dinner ?"
No. He has some friends living a few miles off
whom I don't know, and he rode over in the afternoon
and proposed to stay to dinner. There he is.”
We both listened. Along the hard road came the
sound of a horse's hoofs.
Miss Gascoyne rose in alarm. Either the horse was
riderless or it was no longer under control. It was not
necessary to listen for more than a few seconds to be
convinced of that.
We both went out on to the lawn. A figure came
round the corner of the house and hastened on to the
road. It was the groom.
“Oh, Mr. Rank, what can have happened ?"
“I will go and see.”
But she went with me to the gate. The mare had
evidently come to a full stop just outside, and was now
held by the groom. She was steaming with sweat and
gave every evidence of the greatest distress.
Inwardly I was wondering how it was the animal
had been so long in reaching the Grange. It must have
wandered on slowly feeding by the wayside till it had
taken fright at some passing object and started at full
gallop for home.
Miss Gascoyne looked around in dismay for her
brother.
11


162
ISRAEL RANK
“She wur alone, Miss,” said the groom, blankly.
“It doesn't at all follow that your brother was on her
back when she bolted," I ventured.
She looked at me, grateful for the suggestion. She
was very white, but her character asserted itself. She
turned to the groom.
· Baker, take Jenny round to the stables and make
her comfortable as soon as possible. Mr. Rank and I
will walk as far as the inn and you can follow us.'
“Very good, Miss." The man did as he was directed.
“I will go as I am," she said, “though after all I may
be alarming myself unnecessarily.” She was not the
woman to treat the situation hysterically if it could
possibly be avoided. I was genuinely sorry for the
grief that was coming upon her. I would have spared
her if possible, but I either had to abandon the object
of my life or to put up with such unpleasantnesses
as were involved with the course I had laid out for
myself.
We started to walk rapidly towards the inn.
“I dare say Harry missed his stirrup and Jenny
bolted.”
On the way her spirits rose. The fact that we met
no one seemed to her a proof that nothing much was
the matter. Sounds of drunken revelry reached us
long before the inn came in sight.
“I will wait here,” she said, as we reached the
broadening of the road. I left her and went on.
6. We'll all be merry,
Drinking whisky, wine, and sherry,
If he can't come, we'll ask his son."
The chorus was trolled forth in disjointed snatches,
showing the singers to be very far gone indeed. The


ISRAEL RANK
163
door stood ajar and I went in. So convinced was I
of the necessity of playing my part thoroughly that I
looked carefully round to see if Harry Gascoyne were
present. The half-dozen or so roysterers looked up
stupidly with open mouths. As a matter of fact, they
were none of them drinking whisky, wine or sherry,
but had very substantial mugs of ale before them.
The atmosphere was thick with tobacco smoke and
heavy with the reek from peasant limbs. The land-
lord, with a figure that threatened apoplexy, surveyed
them from the other side of the bar with an approving
smile as if he were presiding over an assemblage of
highly well-behaved infants. To me he suggested a
genial but relentless ghoul, callous to the feelings of
the mothers and children who were to welcome home
these repulsive sots as governors and lords of their
lives and welfare.
They sat waiting for me to speak.
“Has Mr. Gascoyne been here to-night ?" I asked.
The landlord looked round the room, and, having as
it were satisfied himself that none of the others knew
of the young man being concealed unknown to himself,
answered slowly :
'I ain't seen ’im.”
No more ain't 'I,” came in phlegmatic chorus.
“Are you quite sure ?"
Quite.'
“Thank you." I withdrew.
Miss Gascoyne came forward out of the dusk into
the light which streamed from the front door.
He's not there," I said gravely.
She looked at me in dismay.
“Shall I tell them ?" I asked.
She reflected for a moment.
66
11--2


164
ISRAEL RANK
'Yes. He may have fallen from his horse. We
must look for him at once.”
I turned towards the inn.
“I will come with you,” she said, and we passed
through the low door.
The song had not been resumed. Evidently my
errand had given food for conversation. The landlord
paused in the middle of something he was saying and
got down off his stool.
" Mr. Gascoyne's horse has returned home without
him, and we are afraid he may have been thrown and
hurt.” I spoke in a loud tone.
At the sight of Miss Gascoyne the whole assemblage
had risen. She was looked upon by the cottagers
around with not a little awe.
“Will some of you oblige me by helping to look for
him ?"
The landlord, who had had more than one passage of
arms with the justices of the peace as to the way in
which his house was conducted, became officiousness
itself. Anything to prove to the gentry what an
estimable and respectable character he was.
“ It ain't like Mr. Gascoyne to get into trouble on
horseback,” he said, with a laudatory shake of his
head, as if to conciliate Miss Gascoyne by conveying
to her what a very high sense he had of her brother's
horsemanship.
He evidently had an idea of offering her some re-
freshment, for he looked from her to the bottles of
spirit and coloured cordials on the shelf, and from
them back again to her, but apparently without being
able to make up his mind to so hazardous a proceeding.
As we were all standing outside the inn debating how
to conduct the search, a dog-cart drove up.


ISRAEL RANK
165
Let me see, I am right for the Grange, am I not ?"
asked a voice.
“Yes,” I answered, “ but whom do you want at the
Grange ?"
“Miss Gascoyne."
“I am Miss Gascoyne."
There was a silence. The man in the dog-cart was
evidently somewhat taken aback. He was saved from
further awkwardness by the character of the woman he
had to deal with.
I am afraid something has happened. What is it ?"
" Your brother has had an accident."
" Is he hurt ?"
I am afraid so."
The answer was inconclusive, and it was obviously
intended that it should be.
“Seriously ?"
'I am afraid so."
The answer was still lacking in finality, and Miss
Gascoyne guessed the worst.
We all stood round, the men looking stupid but
concerned.
“Will you take me to him, please ?”
“I came to fetch you."
Will
you come too, Mr. Rank ?"
Of course. I turned to the landlord's wife, who
had now joined us. "Can you find a shawl for Miss
Gascoyne? She has no hat."
The landlady disappeared, and returned with a white
woollen shawl, which she was taking out of tissue paper.
“When was he found ?” asked Miss Gascoyne, as we
drove rapidly away, leaving the little group outside
the public-house to discuss the matter.
About two hours and a half ago.”
66


166
ISRAEL RANK
" Where ?"
The doctor explained, throwing into his account as
much insinuation as he could of the worst. I don't
know at what particular moment Miss Gascoyne grasped
that her brother was dead, but it was apparent before
we reached our destination that she had realised the
truth.
He had been carried to a farmhouse, from whence
they had sent for the doctor.
“I am afraid he was kicked by his horse. I cannot
for the life of me imagine how it could have happened
to so fine a horseman."
The doctor ended a little lamely. Young Gascoyne's
propensities were too well known for miles round his
home for anyone to be ignorant of them.
I felt somewhat uncomfortable as we turned down
the lane where I had left Harry Gascoyne. The
doctor made no remark as we passed the spot where I
knew he had been found.
I was full of curiosity as to how his sister would
behave.
As we descended from the dog-cart, the doctor turned
to her.
I hope I have made myself clear.”
Miss Gascoyne stood silent for a few seconds,
struggling for self-control. Then she answered quietly:
“Quite. You mean that my brother is dead ?”
The doctor nodded his head gravely.
It was curious evidence of the apartness of Miss
Gascoyne's character that the woman of the house, a
buxom, garrulous body, made no attempt at comfort.
She at once realised that it would have been an
intrusion.
Miss Gascoyne went upstairs with the doctor. She
CG


ISRAEL RANK
167
ensue.
was not away long, and when she returned I saw that
she must give way soon, or a mental catastrophe would
Her features were rigid.
I went upstairs at her request.
All signs of violence had already been removed, and
he lay as if asleep. Any indications of vice and in-
temperance had disappeared, and he looked very
boyish and beautiful. The doctor was in the room.
“I don't quite soe,” he said, in a low voice,“ how a
mere kick or two could have inflicted such injuries. I
don't mean, of course, that kicks could not have caused
his death, but the blows seem as if they had been struck
by a blunt instrument, directed with less velocity than
would have been the case with a horse's hoof. I am
waiting for a colleague, and then we must make a
serious examination."
I murmured that I was no authority. I could not
help reflecting how much Harry Gascoyne had been the
gainer by dying when he did. Instead of growing into
a debauched, worn-out old man, his physical casket lay
before us in all the freshness of its youth and beauty.
He would leave beautiful instead of ugly memories.
Yes, it was well he had died. His sister might con-
tinue to worship him and to preserve her illusions.
She returned to the Grange, and I, having left her
to the care of the old housekeeper, went to the inn,
though it struck me as being somewhat ridiculous to
observe the conventions at such a time.
I did not believe for one moment that the blows which
had struck young Gascoyne were from the horse's hoofs.
Before leaving the house, however, I went round to the
stables. There was no one about, and the mare was
by this time as quiet as a lamb.
I examined her hoofs carefully. There was not the


168
ISRAEL RANK
least trace of blood—at any rate, not observable to
myself. If there were any traces, they must be micro-
scopic.
I sat down on an upturned pail and reflected. I
should like to save Nat Holway—that is to say, if
he had not already given himself up, which with a
nature such as his was quite possible.
Would it help him to smear the horse's hind hoofs
with blood ? It was wor: trying. Where was I to
get the blood from? There was only one source, and
that was myself.
I am not brave about blood, but the occasion de-
manded urgent measures. I took out my pocket-knife,
and deliberately drew the blade across the little finger
of
my
left hand. I then smeared the hoofs of the horse
and, binding my finger, left the stable. The dawn was
just beginning to lay ghostly hands on the garment of
night. The stars trembled and burned pale in the
growing light.
Through the firs the coming day gave almost the
effect of an expanse of water beyond. In the cheer-
less air there was a touch of clamminess which sug-
gested rain, whilst heavy, sulky-looking clouds were
driven slowly towards the east.
I walked with a melancholy step along the sandy
path that led through the plantation. What would
poor Janet Gray do? I made a point of letting
my sympathies have as much play as was compatible
with my own interest. As a matter of fact, her situa-
tion was slightly bettered, excepting that her lover
was dead—than which no greater grief can come to
any human being. But at the same time she would
receive a much larger meed of pity than would other-
wise have been her lot.


ISRAEL RANK
169
If Nat Holway were fool enough to give himself
up it would be unpleasant, although I could not
forget that even if he had not actually accomplished
his purpose, it had been his full intention to murder
Harry Gascoyne. Still, he was a fine fellow, and it was
not nice to think of lives unnecessarily wasted. The
next afternoon I would go over to Copsley and recon-
noitre. I must confess that I found the whole thing
very exciting, especially as I myself stood in absolutely
no danger.
On returning to the inn I found the landlord wait-
ing up for me, a great feat for a man who was usually
somewhat heavy with alcohol. He plied me with
questions, and appeared terribly shocked at the sad
catastrophe.
“Such an open-handed young gentleman, sir, and his
sister doting on him as she did. Well, there, you never
know. The Lord has His own way of doing things."
He sighed and looked as if to say that were it not for
this undeniable fact he might be prevailed upon to
take a hand in the management of the universe.
I lay open-eyed, tossing from side to side. Miss
Gascoyne stood between myself and sleep. Although
I could put an irrevocable fact like death out of my
mind I could not dismiss a living grief so easily. I
knew that she was capable of terrible suffering. Her
brother had been her all. At the same time, while
feeling acutely for her I could not help reflecting
what a much better match she would now be. Sixteen
hundred a year was not great wealth, but when
combined with a woman like Miss Gascoyne it was a
prize worth having.
I believe there is not the character, however ele-
vated, which does not at a moment of supreme grief


170
ISRAEL RANK
calculate the particular degree of benefit or dis-
advantage it will obtain from it.
It was noon when I walked over to the Grange to ask
how Miss Gascoyne was. The servant said her mistress
particularly desired to be informed of my arrival, and
I went into the inner hall and waited. She came down
almost immediately. I was shocked at the change
in her appearance. She had evidently been weep-
ing bitterly, and for a moment I would have given
anything to restore her brother to her. The weak-
ness was only momentary, however, and after all it
would have been doing her a very bad turn.
She appeared to derive a certain degree of comfort
and help from my presence.
“It seems a little sad, Mr. Rank, that although
we have so many relations there is hardly one to
whom I could write at this emergency."
This was a great opportunity to please Mr. Gas-
coyne by obtaining her consent to send for him.
There were also other schemes in my head, nebulous
as yet, which such a reconciliation would assist
materially.
"I should have thought,” I said gently, “ that your
father's brother would be the proper person to send
for under the circumstances."
She looked at me in surprise. The idea had evi-
dently not struck her, and she became thoughtful.
“I am afraid he would not come.”
“I think he would. I know it hurt his feelings
somewhat that when his son died neither you nor
your brother wrote to him."
“He told you so ?”
“ Yes."
“I will send a telegram."


ISRAEL RANK
171
Let me take it."
She went to her desk and wrote several.
“ The groom can take them," she said, as I rose. .
“No, let me. I shall be quicker on my bicycle,
and it will be something to do."
“It is very poor entertainment for you.'
Anything I can do to serve you. Your brother
and I were great friends."
Most of the telegrams were conventional intimations
of the news to relatives and friends. That to Mr.
Gascoyne ran :
My brother has been killed by an accident. I am
in great trouble ; would you come to me ?”
My plan was that Miss Gascoyne should make
friends with her uncle and aunt and that we four
should form a harmonious quartet, and that finally
I should marry her, and Mr. Gascoyne should leave us
his money.
I fully realised all my own disabilities in Miss
Gascoyne's eyes.
The Semitic taint in my appear-
ance could not possibly be a recommendation, and
my parentage would certainly be a bar. There was
no disguising the fact that my father was not, to the
world's way of thinking, a gentleman, and from
what I could remember I was inclined in strict honesty
to agree with the world.
I was not so far even the adopted heir of Mr. Gas-
coyne, and I was running a grave risk in introducing a
considerably nearer blood relation bearing his own
name into the house. I did not fear that Mr. Gas-
coyne would do anything less for me than he had
intended, but he might do considerably less than I
had intended. He was just the sort of man to admire
Miss Gascoyne. Still, should I fail in my scheme, she


172
ISRAEL RANK
already had an ample fortune, and was no claimant
for relief. I sent off the telegram, but did not return
to the house. I gathered that Miss Gascoyne would
wish to be alone, and contented myself with sending
over a message that I was at the inn should she want
me, and that I should remain there till Mr. Gascoyne
arrived. She sent back a grateful note thanking me,
and asking me to come over in the evening.
In the afternoon I mounted my bicycle and rode to
Copsley.
The little village lay still as death in the burning
sun.
The boys and young men were probably loung-
ing about the adjacent lanes and fields, whilst the older
people were taking their Sunday afternoon rest.
The blacksmith's shop was shut, the great worm-
eaten doors barred with a massive piece of iron. The
house next door, with its trim garden and green
shutters, which evidenced the prosperity of the Grays,
was in silence.
Or was I mistaken ?
I was wheeling my machine, and I paused with my
back to the house and bent down, ostensibly to set
something defective right. There was the sound of
faint sobbing in the house behind me. At the same
time I heard footsteps coming along the street. I
looked up. It was Nat Holway. His face was im-
passive, but his features were set. Almost at the
same moment the door of the house opened, and Mr.
Gray came out.
Apparently he was expecting Nat Holway. They
went into the forge together. Old Gray's face was
white and stern.
I guessed that they had an appointment, and were
keeping it there in order that they might talk undis-


ISRAEL RANK
173
turbed. I wondered if by any chance Nat Holway
was offering to take Janet's shame upon his shoulders.
He was the sort of man to do it. Really, if such a
thing did happen, and the murderer were not sus-
pected, what a convenient settlement it would be. I
should have obtained what I wanted, Janet Gray
would in time be happy, and Miss Gascoyne would
remain in ignorance of her brother's peccadillo. It
is certainly rare that matters move so easily along the
ways of common-sense.
I rode back to the inn to find a telegram from Mr.
Gascoyne to his niece which she had sent over for me
to see. . It was to say that he would come by the
evening train. There were only four trains to Copsley
Station on Sunday-two each way—and the London
train did not arrive till ten o'clock. I saw her in the
early evening. She seemed worn out with grief, and
there was, I thought, a quite tragic loneliness in her
appearance.
It pleased her to talk of her dead brother, and,
sitting there saying all the nice things I could about
him, and full of a real and genuine sympathy for her,
I could hardly realise that it was I who had knelt in the
dusky lane with my fingers on the dying youth's throat.
He had a great admiration for you,” she said, with
a faint smile. “He thought you the cleverest person
he had ever met."
His was one of the sunniest natures ; no one could
help loving him.”
He was spoilt, of course. My father spoilt him
terribly. It was not to be wondered at if he was a
little wild."
I allowed her to talk on till I rose to go and meet
Mr. Gascoyne.
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174
ISRAEL RANK
“I don't know why,” she said, as she came out into
the lane with me, “but I have always imagined my
uncle to be a very hard man. I read Nicholas
Nickleby' when I was a little girl, and I could not
help drawing a comparison between my father, who was
like Nicholas's father, and lived in the country, and
my uncle, who, of course, represented Ralph Nickleby.”
I smiled. “ You will find Mr. Gascoyne very
different from that. He is much softened of late, but
I don't think that he has ever been a miser, even if
at times he has carried the principle of justice to the
verge of hardness."
I was thinking of the circumstances of my first
appeal to him.
When I left her I went at once to the station, and,
as the train was late, had some time to wait.
There were one or two yokels in the tiny waiting-
room, and the station-master addressed one of them
as he passed through from his little ivy-covered cottage
to the ticket-office.
“Sad thing, this, about Mr. Gascoyne, Edward.”
The young man in question answered slowly :
“Yes. They say as 'is 'orse kicked him to death."
“That's strange-very strange. Was the horse bad-
tempered ?"
“Not that I know of, and I've shod the mare often
enough."
They say as Miss Gascoyne is powerful cut up."
“That's very likely ; yer see, she doted on him.”
I scrutinised young Gray, the last speaker, nar-
rowly. His manner betrayed no indication that he
was in any way aware of his sister's condition.
As Mr. Gascoyne descended from the train he pressed
my hand warmly.


ISRAEL RANK
175
>>
If my niece
This is very terrible,” I said—“
very terrible."
“Tell me, how did it happen ?"
As we drove towards the Grange I detailed the event
as well as I could.
"You think the horse kicked him to death-a
horse that was fond of him? That is somewhat
strange.”
“I don't
say
it is so, sir. That is what has been sur-
mised.”
“ When do they hold the inquest ?"
To-morrow."
“My wife is shocked beyond measure.
had expressed the least wish for her to do so, she
would have come too."
I did not answer. I could not say how Miss Gas-
coyne would welcome the idea of her aunt assuming
the role of a near relation.
“I am very touched at her sending for me-very
touched indeed. Is the body at the Grange ?”
No; it is at a farmhouse some miles off. It will
be brought home after the inquest."
Quite so.”
We reached the Grange.
“If you don't mind, sir, I will get back to town.
would sooner. I don't think I can be of any further
use.'
He did not press me to remain, and I went back to
town carrying messages for his managing clerk. I did
not witness the meeting between Miss Gascoyne and
himself, but it must have been quite satisfactory, for
he stayed away over a week, and I learnt that Mrs.
Gascoyne had joined them.
I fancied that Miss Gascoyne would be rather sur-
prised at the dignity and well-bred restraint of the
66


176
ISRAEL RANK
tradesman's daughter, and would find it a little
difficult to account for her father's prejudice ; in fact,
his objection could not fail to strike her as having
something in it of unreasoning snobbery.
I would have given a great deal to be at the inquest,
but although there was no particular reason why I
should not be, I thought Mr. Gascoyne might deem
it a little officious. Neither did I go down to the
funeral, but wrote a sympathetic note and sent a
wreath. I let it fully appear that my reason for not
going was diffidence, and a desire not to assume too
intimate an attitude.
The morning of Mr. Gascoyne's return he called
me into his office.
“Close the door, Israel.”
He motioned me to a chair.
“Did you see any account of the inquest ?”
"No, sir ; I have been waiting for you to tell me."
As a matter of fact, I had followed the case most care-
fully in the papers.
“It appeared that there was a serious doubt as to
how my nephew received his injuries."
Really ?"
"Yes. In the first place, both doctors were a little
surprised that they should have caused death at all.
The whole case became quite complicated. There were
distinct traces of blood on the horse's hoof, and yet
one of the doctors absolutely refused to admit that the
injuries could have been inflicted by the horse at
all."
How very extraordinary !"
“Did you at any time exchange confidences with my
nephew on love affairs ?”
I swiftly reflected. Had he the least proof of our


ISRAEL RANK
177
having done so ? It would not do to give a direct
answer.
“I dare say we did, sir, but I cannot remember any-
thing definite."
“Some letters were found in his pocket.”
I almost started. How was it that it had never
occurred to me to search young Gascoyne's pockets ?
Were they love-letters ?”
56 Yes.”
“It is not very unusual for a young fellow of his
age."
No, and I am afraid that what they contained is
also not unusual. It appears that he had accomplished
the ruin of a girl in a neighbouring village.”
I looked thoughtful. “Do you mean to suggest that
there is a mystery ?"
I am afraid there is. I cannot help thinking that
the doctor who refused to accept the theory of his
having been killed by the horse was right.'
Why did they not call in a third doctor ?"
“They did, and he was evidently under the influence
of the man who believed in the horse theory.”
What was the verdict ?"
I had forborne to satisfy myself on this point in
order to be able to ask the question with easy uncon-
cern.
“ Accidental death."
I was astonished, but the country bumpkins on the
jury had, I imagined, made up their minds before the
inquest that he had been kicked by his horse.
Were the letters read in court ?”
“ No. They were considered unnecessary, and no
one thought they bore on the issue."
“Do you think they did ?"
12


178
ISRAEL RANK
name.
“Decidedly I do,” answered Mr. Gascoyne. “Depend
upon it, there was foul play. I talked to the doctor
who would not admit the horse theory, after the case
was over, and he was quite positive the injuries could
not have been inflicted by a horse's hoof.”
“Who was the girl ?" I asked.
Well, I do not think it is quite right to disclose her
I had a talk with her father, who was very
distant and said the matter would be best settled by
saying nothing more about it. I don't know what he
meant."
Was the girl's name by any chance Janet Gray ?''
Mr. Gascoyne looked at me in surprise.
“That was her name, but how did you know ?"
“Harry Gascoyne spoke to me once or twice about
her, and I wondered at the time from something he
said whether he had not made rather a mess of
things."
“Yes, I am afraid we men are very selfish, that is,
until we have wives and daughters of our own.
The
possession of sisters does not seem to instil the same
sense of responsibility to woman-kind.”
“Does Miss Gascoyne know of this ?”
“No; unless the matter develops further I do not
think it necessary to inform her.”
“What did the police think of the affair ?”
“I fancy they are quite prepared to accept the horse
theory.”
Then the matter is settled ?"
“Except for the trouble of the poor girl. It appears
that he actually promised to marry her.”
He was generous-hearted enough for anything,” I
answered, with calculated impulsiveness.
“ Her father asked me to give my word that the


ISRAEL RANK
179
matter would not go any further, so you will remember
that you hold a secret that affects three human beings
at least."
“I shall of course be as silent as the grave.'
He began to open his correspondence, and I rose to
leave the room.
“Oh, by the way, my wife and my niece have struck
up quite a friendship. My wife remains at the Grange,
and I shall go down there again for a few days next
week."
I looked pleased.
“I believe,” he added, smiling, “you have been in-
dulging in some diplomacy at our expense. Don't you
think
my
niece is a beautiful woman ?"
“I think everyone would admit that."
“I expect she will make a very brilliant match.'
I went out. I knew quite well why this last remark
had been made, and smiled inwardly. Mr. Gascoyne
had thought gently to dissuade me from indulging in
hopes which were improbable of fulfilment. He could
not know how carefully I had calculated all the ob-
stacles that stood in the
way my success.
As I returned to my desk I found myself mur-
muring the word two. I had the most difficult part
of my task still before me, but so far the two opening
campaigns had been brilliant successes. I wondered
if the Gascoyne family in general realised how much
nearer I was to the succession. Probably with the
exception of Mr. Gascoyne and his niece they had no
idea of my existence.
I took out the genealogical tree and studied it care-
fully, although there was little need of this, as I could
have passed an examination in the entire history of
the Gascoynes up to date at any moment.
of
12-2


180
ISRAEL RANK
There were now four lives between me and the
object of my ambition.
My great-uncle Henry, who was now very nearly
ninety years of age, lived somewhere in the North of
England. It was not necessary to consider him in
any way. He was a widower without children. There
was Ughtred, the uncle of the present peer, still a
man in the prime of life. He might yet marry and
have a family. He was devoted to good living and
had a reputation as a dilettante. I had never seen
him, but he had held office at Court, and was altogether
rather an important person.
My difficulties would come when I arrived at the
main branch of the family, and I reserved them for
the final stroke. I should then be obviously near the
succession and might be suspected of motives. A
great many eyes would be upon me, and there would
probably be a young baby and his perfectly healthy
father to deal with. I began to realise that so far I
had merely nibbled at my task.
It was advisable to give myself rest for a few
months, as I discovered that after each campaign my
nerve was apt to be slightly affected. I had proved
to my own satisfaction that the dictum, .murder will
out,' was invented to frighten mankind, had in fact
been set up as a perpetual bogey. Nat Holway's guilt
might be discovered, but the tracing of my anonymous
letter would be an almost impossible task.
I was very anxious to know how Janet Gray's affair
was progressing, and rather hoped I might be asked
to stay at the Grange for a day or two. I gathered
as time went on that the friendship between Miss Gas-
coyne and her aunt had grown stronger and stronger.
Mr. Gascoyne told me that their attachment was a


ISRAEL RANK
181
great relief to him, that the companionship of her
niece had to a great extent dissipated his wife's melan-
choly, and that having a common sorrow they were
very much in sympathy.
They admire each other, and it is the dignified and
warm friendship of two women to whom respect is
essential. By the way, Israel, the girl Janet Gray is
married."
Indeed ?”
Yes, to a young miller called Nat Holway. He
is very steady and very well-to-do. I almost won-
dered He pulled himself up abruptly.
“Yes, sir ?” I queried.
Nothing, nothing.
I knew what he had intended to say, and forvently
wished that he would get rid of his vague suspicions.
I was glad, therefore, when he continued: “I have
often wondered whether my nephew may not have
had a fight with some admirer of Janet Gray, a fight
that ended unexpectedly in a tragedy."
you
intend to
pursue
the matter ?"
“No,” he answered, energetically. “I think when a
man undertakes the seduction of a girl he must look
for violence from those whose feelings he outrages or
from those whose hearths he pollutes. I could not if
it were my own son bring the avenger to so-called
justice. I may be wrong, but I believe that if my
niece were asked, she would agree with me."
I breathed a sigh of relief, for they were not precisely
the sentiments I had expected from him.
66 Do
22


CHAPTER XI
I HAD reached quite a new phase of my career.
The boy who had set out in life from the little house
at Clapham with a distinctly suburban appearance was
now hardly recognisable. I was twenty-three years of
age. I knew that I had a certain romantic distinction
of appearance, for I had been constantly reminded of
the fact by women of society who made it their business
to secure as good-looking cavaliers as possible. Some-
one had once said in my hearing that I was like the
young Disraeli. Poor Lady Pebworth, in beginning
what she conceived to be the patronage of an obscure
youth, had been caught in her own trap, and had
thrown modesty and virtue to the winds in an over-
mastering infatuation ; she would likewise have dis-
carded prudence had I been in the mind to allow her
to do so. I am quite aware of the charge of cox-
combry which will be made against me for writing in
such a way about my conquests, but when a man sets
forth to tell the history of his life he must make up
his mind to be impervious to two accusations which
are sure to be thrown at the head of the truthful
memorist, namely, those of vanity and exaggeration.
When we reflect that no novelist or diarist has ever
yet dared to paint a truly analytical picture of a
human career it is evident bow amazingly difficult
182


ISRAEL RANK
183
such a performance must be, and there are few who
would be willing to risk the fury of mankind by giving
an accurate description of their lives and actions.
Jean Jacques Rousseau certainly made a pretence of
doing so, but we read his incomplete memorials with a
solemn wink and our tongue in our cheek. His dissipa-
tions and weaknesses, which he parades with such an
ostentation of candour, he knows are not such as to
bring down any great obloquý. Perhaps there is
philosophy at the foundation of such an attitude on
the part of society at large. An absolute ingenuous-
ness on the subject of our failings might breed too
broad a tolerance to suit the present views of humanity.
I myself have no intention of admitting the public
into the inner sanctuary where dwell my most esoteric
emotions. The philosopher wisely avoids the company
of those who, indifferent to the opportunities of learn-
ing, are ready to practise the habits of street urchins
at a sight foreign to the daily life of the streets. Jean
Jacques' drama was always legitimate.
Lady Pebworth undoubtedly was the victim of a
great passion. Fortunately, she was possessed of a
lord and master who was of an unsuspicious nature,
otherwise I am afraid that in spite of all my discretion
she would have landed me in the Divorce Court. The
Peeress and the stockbroker's clerk would have made
a meal for many a prurient appetite.
My income was three hundred pounds a year, more
or less, and with the instincts of my race I had begun
to speculate in a safe, quiet sort of way.
I made no boast of the nearness of my relation to
the Gascoyne family in such society as I obtained
entrance to. I was anxious for the matter to remain
unknown.


184
ISRAEL RANK
I woke one morning to read in the social intelligence
that Lady Gascoyne had been safely delivered of a son.
The news was not the shock it might have been, as I
had known for some time that she was in an interest-
ing condition. The child would have to be removed
as well as his father.
It was a task that might well tax the ingenuity of
any man.
I thought the matter over carefully, day
after day. I knew their house, which overlooked the
Green Park, and sat for hours gazing at the windows
as if they might be expected to furnish inspiration.
Lord Gascoyne was now twenty-six years of age.
Without being in any way a prig-in fact, he was a
man of some gallantry-he had a great sense of his
responsibilities, and was leaving the Guards in order to
manage his huge estates the better. He and his wife
were little heard of. Despite the fact of her American
birth, she was the genuine great lady as opposed to
the pinchbeck imposition. Her happiness was not
measured by the amount of social noise she could
make. Everything about her and her husband was
correct, and with the exception of the extreme good
looks of both probably somewhat dull.
They belonged to the inner sanctuary of English
aristocracy, and I could not at the moment see how
I was to scale the fortress of their exclusiveness. I
knew that they had been perfectly ready to entertain
and make much of the young Gascoynes. Harry Gas-
coyne had told me as much, but this was a very
different thing from welcoming the son of the Hebrew
commercial traveller. They might not be so easy to
conciliate as Miss Gascoyne.
Lord and Lady Gascoyne's entertainments were
not made a feature of in the newspapers. It was a


CHAPTER XII
ALTHOUGH I had from motives of policy given up the
idea of making Sibella my wife, I was none the less
somewhat overcome at receiving an invitation to her
wedding Grahame Hallward and I had lunch to-
gether in the City the day I received it.
What do you think, Israel ? Lionel has asked me
to be his best man," he said.
“Are you going to ?"
“Well, I told him that I thought it was rather silly
for the bride's brother to be best man, and I asked
him whether there was not someone else. He got
quite annoyed, and so did Sibella. He was angry, I
believe, chiefly because he could not think of a friend
as a substitute. As a matter of fact, I don't think he
has many friends."
“I don't understand him," I said. He goes
about
a great deal, and knows some very decent people, and
yet the men don't like him.”
“Women do, though, don't they ?”
“I suppose so."
“I'm sorry for Sibella, Israel—I am really. Of
course, she won't suffer so much as other women might
when she finds him out, because she has no heart."
“Do you really think that, Grahame ?"
Sorry to say I do. Of course, I would not say
11
186


ISRAEL RANK
187
such a thing to anybody else, but you're almost like
one of us."
I gave him an affectionate glance. I was certainly
very fond of Grahame.
" You should ask him if he would not like me to be
his best man," I said.
We both laughed.
“I should think he rather objects to my coming to
the wedding at all. I'm coming, all the same.”
Grahame said nothing, and I guessed that there had
been some discussion on the subject. I knew that
Lionel Holland was not by any means above the
vulgarity of showing temper should I be asked against
his wish.
“Come and see us on Sunday. Lionel won't be there,
and Sibella particularly told me to ask you."
“I'll come,” I said. I wondered why Sibella was
anxious to see me. You'll be awfully dull at home
without her," I added.
“Yes ; she may not have much heart, but at the
same time she's jolly good company."
“Yes, that's exactly the expression. Even when
we were children she always kept things going.”
We both grew a little quiet and thoughtful. I had
had delightful times in the Hallward schoolroom with
Grahame and Sibella, but I had travelled far since
then. I was fighting also against a great and torturing
jealousy. I was by practice enabled to keep this
feeling well under control, but it had a habit of having
a hasty nibble at my heart-strings when I was not on
the alert.
Sibella received me with more subdued sweetness
than I had ever known her display.
“You are getting on, Israel, aren't you ?"
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188
ISRAEL RANK
“Oh, I don't know ; I'm just making a living, that
is all."
Why, you know that you are quite an important
person now."
I was surprised to find that no one else came in, and
more surprised when she proposed that we three should
spend the evening round the schoolroom fire, as we
used to do. I began to gather from Sibella's manner
that she was not looking forward to her marriage
without misgivings. That she was in love with Lionel
in a sort of way I had no doubt, but the price that was
to be paid for a few months of ecstasy had begun to
dawn upon her. Woman-like, she could not forbear to
count the cost. She had never been ignorant of my
feelings towards her, and from the day Lionel first
entered the house there had been a constraint whenever
we were left alone. Such a constraint fell upon us
when Grahame, having remembered that he had a
message for a friend who lived a little way off, left us
for half an hour.
I believe it was at that moment that Sibella began to
develop a vague feeling that from every point of view
she had made a mistake. In fact, the unexpected
happened, as it always does. The absolutely-from
the worldly point of view_immoral and incongruous
came about as if swiftly driven forward by some occult
forces, and she was in my arms sobbing hysterically
and erotically, without either of us quite knowing how
it had happened.
I had thirsted for her lithe, sweet figure and the
caressing of her golden hair so long that I was swept
away and found myself murmuring :
“I have not given you up, Sibella.”
She hardly gathered what I meant, and I put her


ISRAEL RANK
189
arms round my neck. Her mouth had always been to
my mind her chief charm, and when I found my lips
pressed against its large, sweet lines—which should
have ciphered a broad, generous nature—I lost my
head—that is, if I had had any desire to keep it.
Old Mr. and Mrs. Hallward dozed away in their arm-
chairs by the drawing-room fire. Miss Hallward was
writing her interminable Sunday letters in the library.
I have no doubt the house outside looked just as respec-
table and unemotional to Grahame when he returned
to it as when he went out of it, but, all the same, I
was wondering when he rejoined us if Sibella would
think it necessary to break off her marriage at the last
moment rather than marry a man she had betrayed.
She might do so, although in my wildest delirium I had
kept some vague powers of caution and calculation,
and had concluded that morality with Sibella meant
self-interest.
I drove home to my rooms in St. James's laughing
with triumph. Poor Lionel Holland would have all
the appearance of victory with none of its reality.
Had Sibella been a woman of ordinary suscepti-
bilities, I might have received a letter from her the
next morning imploring me to bury the incident,
accusing herself wildly, and vowing to make a model
wife ; but the elusive one—as I had named her to
myself—was too clever to commit herself to paper,
and if her marriage took place she would have it con-
ducted without risks.
The marriage did take place, and I went as a guest.
If it was bad taste on my part, it was entirely a question
between Sibella and myself. She certainly betrayed
no resentment. She had the grace to be very pale and
subdued, which gave indications that there might be


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ISRAEL RANK
a certain leaven of conscience somewhere. Holland
took my congratulations civilly enough. I think he
was feeling really happy, so much are human beings
capable of being imposed on, and so little can we make
sure of appearances.
They evidently both looked forward to emerging
from suburban society, for they were to return from
their honeymoon to a flat in Mount Street, although
Mr. and Mrs. Holland had wished them to settle down
close to their house at Clapham.
“I was not going to agree to that,” Sibella had said.
“I want to say good-bye to Clapham for good and for
all. If it had been Hampstead, I should not have
minded so much, but Clapham-ugh ! it gets more and
more sordid every year."
I did not suppose I should have the entrée to their
establishment if Lionel could help it, but I meant to
make an attempt, all the same.
Sibella was necessary
to me.
I suffered a good deal from jealousy the first few days
of her married life, but there is a merciful dispensation
of Providence which blunts the keenest pangs of
wounded love very rapidly when the inevitable has
taken place, however sharp they may remain when
sustained by hope.


CHAPTER XIII
Will you
“My niece is staying with us, Israel,” said Mr. Gascoyne
one afternoon as he was leaving the office.
dine with us on Friday evening ?”
I said I should be delighted. Mr. Gascoyne and his
wife had stayed at the Grange till the summer was
almost over, and I knew that Miss Gascoyne was going
to shut the house up for the winter, and that there was
a possibility of her selling it in the spring.
She looked very stately and beautiful in her deep
mourning, and was evidently glad to see me.
We were
together for fully a quarter of an hour before Mr. and
Mrs. Gascoyne came down, and she talked quite freely
and unconstrainedly of her brother.
The more I saw of her, the more I was struck by her
absolute lack of pose in any small acceptation of the
word. It positively gave me a sense of personal
dignity to be with her.
I am thinking of selling the Grange," she said. “So
long as there was my brother it seemed to me a certain
sort of duty that the offshoots of a great family should
keep up an appearance and have a fair country resi-
dence.” Then she smiled. "I am afraid, however, that
my views are changing. I don't look upon the Gascoynes
as quite such great people as I used to do, though I still
think that if one bears a great name one owes it a duty."
191


192
ISRAEL RANK
“I am half a Jew,” I said, boldly, “and as an Oriental
I have a great respect for caste and authority.”
“Do you think that is why the Jews succeed so well ?”
“Yes ; their chief aim is to remain at peace with
the powers that be, and as Orientals they are satisfied
that authority in this country abuses its privileges very
little. They have no craving for more liberty."
They are a curious race.
'I am not a Jew by religion, you know. I was bap-
tised a Christian.”
She smiled.
“I don't wish to be rude, but is that as far as your
Christianity has reached ?”
“My mother was a very religious woman. That is,
she tested everything by her conscience, and always
held that that was an unfailing standard."
It was really quite wonderful on what a high plat-
form I could conduct a conversation.
Mr. and Mrs. Gascoyne came in, and we went to
dinner. The affection that had arisen between these
two women was quite extraordinary, and it was sur-
prising to see Miss Gascoyne yielding to her aunt some-
thing of the deference of a daughter, although I am
certain she would have rejected the insinuation that
she could ever put anyone in the place of the mother
she had idolised.
The conversation turned on the Gascoyne family.
“Do you know," said Mr. Gascoyne, “I was quite
astonished to find how near our friend Israel is to the
succession.'
It was an awkward remark, and Mr. Gascoyne
evidently felt it to be so as soon as he had made it.
The subject was allowed to drop at the moment, but
Mr. Gascoyne revived it when we were alone.


ISRAEL RANK
193
“ I can't think how I came to make such a foolish
remark, Israel. It cannot have failed to remind them
both of what you have gained by their loss."
This was exactly what I feared.
“I cannot be said to have gained much. Lord
Gascoyne has a son and heir."
“Let us consider. If Lord Gascoyne and his son
were to die, you succeed as heir to your mother ; that
is, of course, when the two Henry Gascoynes, Ughtred,
and myself, are out of the way—and none of us count
for much. You see, the succession does not reach the
female heir till it has been carried down to the last male
heir. Rather hard on the women of the female lines,
but so it is.”
“I am afraid, sir, it will be my lot to drudge along
in the City all my life.”
You are not the sort of person who ends as a
drudge, Israel. Besides, go on as you are doing, and
who knows what may happen.'
I guessed by the intonation of his voice that he was
considering whether he should tell me more of his
intentions.
When we returned to the drawing-room I played and
sang to them till late, and left the house high in the
good graces of both women. From that moment my
position in the house at South Kensington became a
much more intimate one. Even two women as inde-
pendent by nature as Mrs. Gascoyne and her niece
found it pleasant and convenient to have a young
man about who was ready to take so much trouble off
their hands. This was, of course, not so apparent till
the first months of mourning were over, but when Miss
Gascoyne, who was devoted to music and art, began to
go to concerts and picture-galleries I was very useful.
13


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ISRAEL RANK
I learned that Lord and Lady Gascoyne had called on
Mrs. Gascoyne and her niece, and that the three were
going to dine with them.
I sincerely hoped that my name would not be men-
tioned, as I had no wish for the head of the family to
know of my existence till I had decided on my plan of
action.
I had been inquiring cautiously about Ughtred Gas-
coyne, and had made a point of coming across him
several times in the districts he haunted. He was a
very good-looking man, with apparently no such
mentality as provoked restlessness. He enjoyed his
life thoroughly, for all I could see. He had been in
the Guards. He had also sat in the House of Commons
for a limited period, and had utterly declined to repeat
the experiment. In fact, the two ventures, together
with a short period of Court life, had in his own eyes
been activity enough, and he had settled down to a
life of ease. Having a good income of his own, and
being welcome at Hammerton as often as he chose to
go there, existence was altogether a pleasant affair.
Still, fifty-five is young for a man nowadays, and he
might very well marry and have a whole family of
children. Selfish and apparently confirmed bachelors
do very often in middle age perform a complete right-
about-face, and end up as the benignant fathers of a
whole troop of boys and girls. Ughtred Gascoyne
had now arrived at that age when a man may by some
such shock as hearing himself described as "that old
bore " be driven into matrimony.
At present there did not seem to be much chance
of it. There was a woman in his life, however. She
was an actress, Catherine Goodsall, a woman of birth,
who moved in very good society, and who, being


ISRAEL RANK
195
neither a great tragedienne nor a great comedienne,
managed to earn a salary larger than could be achieved
by cleverer and more legitimate artistes on account of
the extraordinary chic and distinction she could
import into the delineation of smart society women.
She was so much the real thing, so entirely free from
the metallic artificiality of the usual impersonator
of such characters, that managers sought her con-
tinually.
She had a husband somewhere, poor soul, a man
who had been in the Navy, a blackguard who had been
untrue to the dearest traditions of the British tar by
laying his hand on a female otherwise than in the way
of kindness ; in fact, he had beaten her, and Ughtred
Gascoyne had thrashed him, and, strange to relate,
the wife had been grateful.
The husband had then disappeared. She had been
unable to obtain a divorce, but society, recognising the
plucky way in which she had managed to earn her own
living, accepted her intimate friendship with Ughtred
Gascoyne for the innocent affair it pretended to be.
Her position, perhaps, had also something to do
with the fact that she had a keen tongue and a ready
wit. Her tongue would have been a weapon to be
dreaded had it not been that she had the superlatively
rare quality of using it with discretion. Her some-
what unique social position earned her the envy of her
fellow artistes, the majority of whom retain such
footing as they have in society on sufferance, their
insecurity by no means being caused by their pro-
fession ; for, were it not for their calling, the majority
of the theatrical sisterhood, even of the higher ranks,
would still be moving in their own proper slatternly
or suburban circles.
13--2


196
ISRAEL RANK
а.
Perhaps it would be possible to reach the Honourable
Ughtred through her. She was not above the weak-
ness common to most women of fashion of possessing
a craving for new male friends. I chose an oppor-
tunity when Ughtred Gascoyne was out of town to
obtain an introduction to her. This was not
difficult matter. I kept my eyes on the advertise-
ments of charitable performances and bazaars to
which she was very generous in contributing her
services. A bazaar would be the thing, being the sort
of entertainment at which it was fairly easy to force
an introduction.
I had not long to wait. She was announced to hold
a stall at a fashionable bazaar. The particular object
of it I forget, but I remember that it was at a
town-hall a mile or two from Piccadilly Circus.
She had charge of a photographic stall, and I had
my photograph taken in such a variety of positions
that long before the operation was over, and aided
by the mention of one or two mutual friends, we
had become sufficiently acquainted for me to remain
and help her. Nothing, as I had calculated, could
have been more likely to bring about a rapid in-
timacy, and before I left I had been asked to go and
see her.
She had a small house on the north side of the
Park, and I made up my mind to call on Sunday after-,
noon, but before that day I received a note asking me
to come to lunch.
“ A great many people drop in on Sunday after-
noon in the winter," she said when I arrived. “I
should probably see nothing of you, and new friends
always interest me. People think that a bad trait,
don't they, whereas it is nothing of the kind."


ISRAEL RANK
197
course.
>>
It certainly is not. It shows a progressive mind
—that is, if there is no premature protestation."
“Exactly. New friends should have just as many
fresh points of interest as, say, a picture-gallery. I
love to watch new temperaments ; they blaze and
change like sunsets."
“You are quite right; but I hope this does not
infer that you tire of your friends easily.”
“Not of the residuum. The majority pass, of
One would miss an immense amount of
good comradeship if everything which cannot be
lasting is to be avoided.”
“ You are not fickle ?”
“Not in the least. We all have our inner sanctuary,
and consequently we have our esoteric and exoteric
friendships, and the lookers-on make mistakes as to
which is which."
“ That is very true. There is nothing in which
people are so much deceived about each other as in
their emotions. Human nature is so much more
many-sided than the world is willing to admit."
“You believe that the good are not as good as they
would have us believe, nor the bad as bad ?”
“Exactly."
She was a woman worth talking to, and I roused
myself.
“It can be demonstrated. Goodness is largely a
question of having aptitude for the latest conventions.'
“ Demonstrate," she challenged, and then added :
Personally, I feel it, but have not the proof to hand."
I took up the challenge easily.
“For instance, in ancient Sparta, thieving was a
virtue and cowardice a crime. Nowadays, a coward
may get along very well, but a thief would probably


198
ISRAEL RANK
97
come to grief very soon. So it is with many other
things."
“ You think that a criminal may make a charming
member of society, a good husband and father ?”
I winced. The conversation was extracting opinions
from me which were just as well concealed, but I
answered frankly :
“I am sure of it."
“ So am I.”
I continued whimsically :
“Don't you think society would be much happier
if, instead of these horrible punishments and immur-
ings, people who had been convicted of a crime should
be compelled to wear some outward sign that they were
not to be trusted in that particular direction ? It
should be treated as a disease, not as a disgrace.”
“A little difficult to enforce, eh ?”
“ Not at all. We should all be up in arms if Brown
came to lunch without the governmental mark that
he was not to be trusted with forks and spoons, and
without the least acrimony we should call in a police-
man who would correct the matter."
“It might be carried still further, and people might
be obliged to wear the evidence of their particular
moral failing."
“Everybody would lie, and which do you think
would be the most popular hypocrisy ?"
“ In England, drink; because in the eyes of the
average citizen of this country it would carry with it
the least shame.'
“ Well said ; but to my mind there is no vice
which is not preferable, and yet people will shake a
drunkard by the hand when they would shrink from a
criminal of the emotions."


ISRAEL RANK
199
We both agreed that this was ridiculous. I had not
been in the house an hour before I realised that she
was a very charming woman, and that she was sin-
cerely in love with Ughtred Gascoyne.
She harped a good deal on friendship, as if to ex-
aggerate her sense of its value, and send the hearer
away with the notion that a pure friendship between
man and woman was her ideal.
I have, however, always had a keen instinct for the
subtleties of female deception, and I was fully alive
to the trend of her dissertations on friendship. They
were the weapons she kept constantly in use for the
defence of her character. She need not have been
So careful, for the attacks and insinuations on her
reputation were far fewer than she imagined. She
was one of the chartered exceptions to the general
demands of propriety. These exceptions exist to a
certain degree, even in the most straight-laced society.
She made some witty remark about the suburbs,
that never-failing topic for the jests of those who
consider themselves the elect of the social citadel of
Mayfair.
“I am a suburban,” I answered. “I was brought up
in Clapham.”
“You hardly suggest the suburbs,” she answered, un-
abashed.
“Oh, believe me, there are people of distinction in
the suburbs.”
“Of course ; only, one must have one's little joke
about them. Personally, I always tell my friends
that they must not be too sure that they are free from
the parochial because they dwell within hail of Picca-
dilly Circus."
“Still, I think that, after all, the Londoner has a


200
ISRAEL RANK
quickness and intelligence denied to the provincial,
don't you ?”
“Yes, to the provincial, but not necessarily to the
inhabitants of greater London. The guttersnipe of
Manchester is a very stupid creature after your Cockney
urchin."
We went upstairs and talked until her regular coterie
dropped in.
Sir Anthony Cross, whom I had met at Lady Peb-
worth's, was one of the first to arrive. He did not
like me, but, to my surprise, drew me into a corner.
“ Do you remember, Rank, that evening the Peb-
worths and ourselves went to the Gaiety ?”
“Perfectly.”
“You bowed to an awfully pretty woman in the
stalls. She was with a good-looking bounder.”
I knew perfectly well whom he meant, of course;
but, as he paused for me to refresh my memory, I
looked puzzled.
“ You must remember-an extraordinarily pretty
woman.
I still looked blank.
Surely you must remember. A fair woman with
fluffy hair and enormous blue eyes, but not a bit dolly,
like most fair women. Rather a large mouth."
Oh
yes ;
I think I remember."
“Well, I fancy she's married to that man."
“If it's the girl I think you mean, she is married to
him. Her name is Sibella Holland.” It was not very
well-bred to call Lionel Holland a bounder without
first finding out if he was a friend of mine.
“What a ripping name! They've got a flat below
mine. I should very much like to know them.”
“ Do
you want me to introduce
you
?"


ISRAEL RANK
201
Considering that Sir Anthony had gone out of his
way on more than one occasion to be rude to me, I
could not help thinking that there was a certain inso-
lence in his obvious readiness to make use of me. If
he intended doing so, however, I should certainly
return the compliment.
“I am obliged to hurry away now, but that's my
address. I am usually at home between six and
seven."
I gave him a card and said good-bye.
I had promised to spend the evening with the Gas-
coynes. I was making immense strides with their
niece, and I fancy that both Mr. and Mrs. Gascoyne
were a little surprised at our having so much in common.


CHAPTER XIV
If I was to have access to Sibella at all, it was neces-
sary to make friends with her husband, and the only
way to make friends with him was to be useful to him.
I knew quite well that my continued success-and
success in his eyes was a question of moving in a higher
grade of society–had annoyed him beyond measure.
He believed that money ought to be able to buy any-
thing. Money is a thing the power of which the
vulgar are always overrating and the cultured are
always underrating. He and Sibella had a large
income, with the prospect of a very much larger one,
therefore the doors of good society should fly open.
They knew people who had been her friends before
marriage, and who moved in what a celebrated English
lady novelist would have called “genteel circles,” but
her husband, having neither the atmosphere of good
breeding nor the tact which might have taken its
place, was ambitious of forcing the most select
assemblies.
If I could be of use to him in this way I was sure
that he would be content to waive his dislike for the
present, especially as he imagined himself to be in
sole possession of the prize we had contended for.
It was, of course, just possible that Sibella herself
might now object to my coming to the house. She
202


ISRAEL RANK
203
might have fallen passionately in love with her hus-
band, as wives often do after marriage. Lady Peb-
worth was still ready to do anything for me, and if
Sibella was still ready to receive me, I must persuade
her ladyship to call.
I met Lionel on his way home from the City one
evening, and somewhat to his surprise stopped to speak
to him. He was a little cool at first, but I was careful to
start a conversation about himself, and he warmed to
the subject at once.
He talked of being sick of the City. His father was
very ill, and he expressed his intention of selling out
and giving up the business should anything happen to
the old gentleman.
“I shall go and live in the country, and get as much
hunting and shooting as I can manage.”
Still, a man ought to do something," I suggested.
“Oh, cut that ; don't preach.”
“I wasn't thinking of it from a moral point of view.
You're a rich man. You ought to furnish the powers
that be with sufficient excuse for giving you something
later on.”
What do you mean ?”
"A man with twenty thousand a year may aspire to
anything."
What am I to do ?”
“Go in for politics. The losing side, of course,
They'll be having their spell of office in a few years.'
* I don't know anything about politics.”
No, but you've got intelligence; you'll soon
learn."
He looked flattered. Inwardly I smiled at the idea
of his being in the House of Commons.
“How does one begin ?"
66


204
ISRAEL RANK
It was strange that Lionel, who was heir to a couple
of newspapers, should know so little.
“Oh, you get to know all the right people. Let
them know that you are ready to drop a certain amount
of money. Lady Pebworth was saying only the other
day that their people want money. She's rather a
power in the political world, you know."
He looked vacant, and had the frankness to ask :
“Who's Lady Pebworth ?”
“Well, her husband was in the last Cabinet. Your
wife ought to know her. Lady Pebworth admired her
immensely the only time she saw her.”
“Have they met ?"
“No, but do you remember one evening when you
and Sibella were in the stalls at the Gaiety, and I was
in a box with some people ?"
66 Yes."
“ That was Lady Pebworth. She has been very
civil to me.
I don't suppose I should have had such
a good time if it had not been for her.”
This admission of my own indebtedness to someone
else for the entrée to certain houses that he had envied
me made him quite genial, and broke down the barrier
between us, while a little more flattery judiciously
laid on accomplished what I desired.
“You haven't been to see us yet," he said, quite
graciously.
“I haven't been asked," I laughed.
“I'll get Sibella to write and ask you to one of our
Sunday lunches.'
We parted quite amicably, and I think I left him
under the impression that I was most anxious to be
friendly with him.
Sir Anthony Cross delayed coming to see me, as I


ISRAEL RANK
205
thought he would, but evidently he could think of no
other way of making Sibella's acquaintance, and one
evening when I was drinking tea-a habit to which I
am addicted-he was shown in.
“No thanks, I never drink tea. I don't know what
people see in it."
There was a perceptible patronage in his manner.
He assumed the usual attitude of an Englishman of
birth when brought into familiar intercourse with a
man of whose caste he is not sure. There was no
superficial fault to be found with his manner, but it was
obvious to a keen perception that he presumed a gulf.
“Not tea as they make it in this country,” I answered
languidly. Tea drinking is an art. It is one of the
most extraordinary facts of the latter part of the
nineteenth century how readily the country exchanged
China for Indian tea, and yet it is like preferring cider
to champagne.” I pushed the cigars towards him.
Most men cannot appreciate tea because their palates
are ruined by alcohol.”
The cigar put him in a good temper ; I knew that it
was something exceptional.
He was not interested in the subject of tea, but at
the same time, being a gentleman, he hardly liked to
make it too patent that he had come about an intro-
duction to a woman, and that further than obtaining
that introduction he was not prepared to consider our
acquaintance.
“You've got a jolly little place here,” he said, looking
round. I knew that in his heart he considered it
somewhat overdone.
“I am a Jew, and as an Oriental I defy the canons of
Western good taste in order to get the amount of
colour necessary to my appetite."


206
ISRAEL RANK
He did not quite follow, and I did not intend that he
should. It was of no account. There were limits even
to my adaptability, and I am afraid I never could have
adapted myself to the idiosyncrasies of Sir Anthony
Cross. I don't think he had a single delicate sentiment
in him.
After a time, and when I considered he had listened
to me long enough to be sufficiently subdued, I said :
“Oh, by the way, I met Holland, Mrs. Holland's
husband, you know, a few days ago.”
“ Yes ?" He made a valiant effort to conceal his
interest.
“They are only just married, and of course very
much in love."
" What is he ?”
Well, as far as I know, he is something in his father's
business. His father is enormously wealthy—owns a
couple of newspapers. I don't think he'll hold out
much longer though, and then the young people will
come into everything."
Riches did not mean much to Sir Anthony Cross.
He had eighty thousand a year, so report said.
He was evidently too obsessed with the idea of
Sibella to be turned aside by a husband.
Of course,” I continued, “her brother is my greatest
friend; we were at school together. She and I used
to be sweethearts when we were children, but when
Lionel Holland came on the scene he cut me out."
“She looks a charming woman, and I should very
much to know her."
“I can introduce you to Holland if you like. I'll
ask them both to dine and meet you."
Sir Anthony hardly disguised his joy.
“I shall be delighted,” he said.


ISRAEL RANK
207
Then I'll let you know when I've fixed things up.”
I gave him the opportunity of departing, but he
stayed on, talking incessantly of Sibella. He was so
infatuated as to be unable to appreciate how obvious
he was making it that he was seeking an introduction
to a married woman because he was in love with her.
I knew that Sir Anthony was a friend of Ughtred
Gascoyne's, and it might so happen that he would be
useful to me in that direction.
“Have you known Mrs. Goodsall long ?” he asked.
A few weeks."
“Don't know Gascoyne, do you ?”
“Who is he ?"
Ughtred Gascoyne ; I thought everybody knew
him. He's a great pal of hers. People do say things,
but I don't believe it myself. I mention him because
I've heard a rumour that her husband is dead, and that
she and Gascoyne are going to be married.”
" Indeed ?"
“Of course they've always been thick, but it isn't
often the man does the right thing."
I laughed.
“No, there's all the difference in being able to go and
see a woman when you want to and being obliged to
see her when you don't want to. Such a prospect
immediately subjects her to a new test. I know a great
many women who are delightful companions, but I
should not care to live with them.”
He went away at last, after making me promise
again that I would arrange the dinner and let him know.
I was determined, if possible, to persuade Lady
Pebworth to be of the party, and called on her a day
or two after. She had just returned to town, and
received me rather coldly. She had been away for


208
ISRAEL RANK
three months, and she protested that I had written
to her but twice during her absence. I pointed out
that she was blaming me for a too zealous care of her
reputation, and that it was one thing for her to write
to me when the chance of her letters being seen by
anyone else was practically non-existent, and quite
another thing for me to write to her, and that I had
only done so when I was certain that Lord Pebworth
was out of the way. It took me some time to soothe
her, inasmuch as she informed me that she thought
our friendship had better cease, and I really believe
she was in the mood to take a great resolution. This
roused me to an effort. It was not convenient to
quarrel with her at the moment. I regret to say
that in the course of our interview her ladyship so far
forgot what was due to good taste as to throw my
obscurity in my face, and to make a scarcely veiled
insinuation that had it not been for her I should not
have been acquainted with anyone of consequence.
At this I dignifiedly rose, and, telling her that I had
no wish to intrude where I was considered an
adventurer, moved towards the door. Then she begged
my pardon, said she could not understand how she came
to be so rude, and professed her undying readiness to
do anything for me. A weaker diplomatist might have
seized the opportunity to mention the dinner-party,
but I cautiously paid court to her for some days before
I asked her if she would come and meet Sibella and her
husband. I explained that Lionel was quite ready to
be of financial use to her political organisation, putting
it in such a way that it was impossible for her to take
offence. Finally, she said she would be very glad,
so I made up my dinner-party, which was quite a little
social triumph.


210
ISRAEL RANK
it is to generalise about character. I was perfectly
sure of my power over Sibella, and enjoyed seeing her
admired and sweeping everything before her.
They could not get away from the fact—and I don't
think Sibella had any wish to—that it was I who had
launched them. Of course, people tried to shatter
Sibella's reputation by way of putting a speedy stop
to her upward climb, but nothing could be said which
was in any way susceptible of proof.
I had not since her marriage treated her with any-
thing except the most ordinary friendliness. I was
certainly not going to risk a snub. I was convinced of
one thing, that had I made a more strenuous effort
to win her from Lionel Holland I might have done so
Perhaps some intuitive feeling warned me to suffer,
and not to risk my own ultimate profit.
Whilst engaged in trifles I was not neglecting the
main business of my life. I had not been able to
avoid an introduction to Ughtred Gascoyne, who some-
what inopportunely took a fancy to me.
rather awkward, as it would have been far more
convenient to have remained unknown.
By degrees it leaked out that Catherine Goodsall's
husband was dead, and that she and Ughtred Gascoyne
were going to be married. She told me the news her-
self, with tears in her eyes. I am sure I should have
been glad if the words of congratulation I spoke could
have been sincere, and I really hoped that things could
at least be so arranged that they might have some time
of married happiness before Ughtred Gascoyne was
removed. But this was not my business; and, further,
it might result in another human obstacle being placed
in my path.
Their wedding was fixed for a day in Christmas
It was


ISRAEL RANK
211
week. It was now October. I had therefore not much
time to lose. Of course, neither of them was young,
and it was improbable that they would have any
children, but it was possible. I had so managed to
make everything in my mind subservient to my main
object that the prospect of Catherine Goodsall’s dis-
appointment only raised a momentary pang.
I racked my brains by day and night, trying to
devise some new and entirely original way of starting
Ughtred Gascoyne on his way to a happier world.
Being known as a friend of his, it would not do to
use poison. Pistols and daggers, although they have
their uses, both in melodrama and out of it, did not
commend themselves. They suggested danger, blood,
and noise. I had early grasped the cardinal principles
of
my undertaking ; firstly, that I must be absolutely
relentless ; and, secondly, that the word horror must
be eliminated from my vocabulary.
As I lay awake one night in my room in St. James's
thinking the matter over, I heard the cry of fire, the
galloping of horses, and the jingle of the engine as it
swayed along Piccadilly. I have always been fond of
fires : even as a small boy they possessed a weird fasci-
nation for me.
I lay debating whether I should not get up and see
the fun. It was evidently not far off, for I could hear
the hiss of the water as it shot through the air, and the
shouts of men. Suddenly an idea came into my head.
Fire was apparently used as a rule in the clumsiest way
by murderers. How often may it not have been used
successfully and with complete secrecy ?
It was important to keep in mind that successful
crimes do not as a rule come to light.
Arson to the average mind always conveys a sensa-
142


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ISRAEL RANK
tion of horror that is perhaps wanting in all other crimes.
Suffocation or burning were neither of them pleasant
methods, but I was not to be deterred by a sentiment.
The idea, once in my brain, became fixed. I found it
impossible to dislodge it. I should have liked to go
to the British Museum and read up all the details I
could obtain of crime by arson, but this would have
been a risky proceeding, and might in the never-to-be-
forgotten contingency of my falling under suspicion
be exceedingly damning.
1 should have to trust to my own invention. Ughtred
Gascoyne had asked me to call on him, and early one
Sunday morning I did so. He occupied an upper part
in Albemarle Street. There was a side door and a
flight of stairs leading to his rooms. I immediately
grasped the importance of the fact that there was no
porter or lift. He had a manservant who slept on the
floor above his own, and a woman who came in in the
daytime. The establishment was thus conveniently
miniature. On the first floor he had a sitting-room
that led into his bedroom, with a bathroom beyond.
Above this was his dining-room, which was seldom
used ; also a kitchen and a very small bedroom for his
servant. The place was old, curiously so for such a
smart quarter of the town, and, I imagined, highly
combustible.
The rooms were too solidly furnished for my pur-
pose, but they had muslin curtains and a fair number
of knick-knacks. I quite realised that it was an off
chance, but at the same time I believed it could be
carried out with little or no personal risk. What I
particularly wished to do was to enter his rooms with
him at night without anybody being aware of it, and
to leave them unnoticed.


ISRAEL RANK
213
The Sunday morning I called on him he was, I fancy,
a little surprised to see me, but evidently quite
pleased.
“I am very fond of young people, and I like to have
them about me. Mrs. Goodsall and I agree on that.
I cannot understand old people who are content to
vegetate with their faded contemporaries."
“It isn't everybody who gets on with young
people."
It is merely a question of mood. You must feel
young, and you will get on with them well enough."
“To feel young. Therein lies the difficulty for most
people.”
“Yes, most people eat and drink and sedenterate
themselves--if I may coin a verb-into premature old
2
ago."
66
Whilst he talked I was wondering how long it would
take to suffocate a human being, and what density of
smoke was necessary, and whether he was a heavy
sleeper, a fact he was good enough to enlighten me on.
Youth is merely a question of spirits, and spirits
are largely if not entirely a question of sleep. No, I
have never missed a night's sleep in my life that I can
remember, not even ”-he lowered his voice-“when
my mother died.”
“You are lucky. I wish I could say as much.”
Directly my head touches the pillow I am asleep,
and I don't wake till I am called.'
This was indeed good news, that is, if it could be
relied upon. It is amazing how people will lie about
their own habits. They are a matter of personal
delusion to a great extent, and people talking about
themselves will, in good faith, deny idiosyncrasies of
which their intimates are fully aware.


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ISRAEL RANK
For aught I could be sure of, Ughtred Gascoyne was
a martyr to insomnia, although he certainly did not
suggest it.
His bedroom was a light, airy room with very little
furniture, and a severe, narrow bed such as is affected
by the average English gentleman, and is to me an
abomination.
At any rate, this was the room it was my business
to set on fire with such completeness as might ensure
the passing of Ughtred Gascoyne.
It is the usual habit for those with a weakness for
arson to empty paraffin oil over a quantity of furni-
ture, and then set a light to it, a method of procedure
that nearly always leads to detection. I remembered
when thinking over my plans that Ughtred Gascoyne's
rooms were lighted by lamps and not by electric light.
Would this help me in any way? It might. I already
foresaw that my nerve and courage would be called
into play in this enterprise far more than had hitherto
been the case.
October passed and some part of November, and
nothing had been done, except that I had grown more
and more friendly with Ughtred Gascoyne. He was
very musical, and liked to hear me sing and play.
Sometimes I made a point of meeting him late at
night on his way home from the club, and went in
and smoked a cigar with him. I could not help re-
flecting how very much those whom it was my unfor-
tunate duty to remove seemed to like me. Perhaps
it was a premonition that I was about to do them a
good turn or what might prove to be so.
His servant was usually in bed when I returned to
his rooms with him at night.
Both Catherine Goodsall and he were always talking


216
ISRAEL RANK
“Now, this is comfortable. By the way, I met a
cousin of mine to-day. He says you are in his office.”
I told you I was in stockbroker's office."
Yes, but you never told me he was my cousin, and
that you are also a cousin.”
“I always leave the Gascoynes to find me out them-
selves. You see, my mother was a Gascoyne, and she
was left to keep lodgings in Clapham.
He looked at me kindly.
" You don't feel bitter ?”
“Oh dear no, only it isn't a great encouragement to
push myself forward, is it ?”
“ He tells me that there is another cousin of mine
staying with him and his wife. He describes her as
beautiful. What do you think ?"
“I agree. I knew her brother."
“Poor Harry Gascoyne. Killed by a fall from his
horse, wasn't he ?”
“Horse kicked him."
“Strange, must have been a brute.”
I talked to him as he undressed. He was inquisi-
tive about the South Kensington household.
Hardly know Gascoyne Gascoyne myself. Always
heard he married badly."
“He married very well, only her father happened
to be a linen-draper."
“Good heavens, that's nothing in our days. Lord
Southwick’s father-in-law was a grocer, and a very
distinguished old gentleman, too. A damned sight
better bred than ever the Southwicks were. They
all look like stable-boys. Sort of family in which
you'd think the women had been going wrong with
the grooms for generations. Southwick married
groceries and manners at the same time.”


ISRAEL RANK
217
“ Mrs. Gascoyne is a very charming woman.
My dear fellow, I can quite believe it. A man like
Gascoyne Gascoyne does not retain his polish un-
dimmed if he has been living for years with a woman
who isn't a lady at heart."
"I don't think Miss Gascoyne would be devoted to
anyone who was capable of offending the canons of
good taste.”
They are great friends ?”
“ I should think so."
Well, when I am married we must have a nice
family party. Don't mind my getting into bed. You
can let yourself out, can't you
?”
“Easily."
I stood and talked to him while I put on my coat,
and then I said good-night.
“Oh, do you mind shutting my bedroom door, the
woman makes such a beastly row doing it if it's left
till the morning."
“Good-night."
Good-night. Mind you come to my wedding."
I shut the bedroom door. I was in the outer
room alone. I went to the door, and going outside
shut it. Then I ran downstairs, opened the front
door and banged it, leaving myself inside. I sat
down on the stairs and waited. After a while I stole
upstairs again. The darkened room with the firelight
playing over it looked very comfortable. I gently
took the glass off the reading-lamp, and, unscrewing
the burner, poured the contents over the foot of the
curtains near which was the only wicker chair in the
room.
I had to close the old-fashioned shutters so as to
screen the room from any policeman on his beat as


218
ISRAEL RANK
long as possible. One of my original ideas had been
to put a large piece of coal on the fire and lower the
register, leaving the room to fill with smoke.
The lowering of the register, however, would make
noise. Things were better as they were. While I was
completing all these arrangements I was on the alert
for the least sound from the other room. Again and
again I paused, ready to make for the door and be out
of the house before he could reach me. I had placed a
chair in such a position in front of his door that he
would be bound to trip over it if he came out in a hurry.
Lastly came the most difficult part of my task. I
had to remove the chair and open his bedroom door
slightly. I listened long and carefully till a snore
assured me that it was safe. I leant across the chair
and opened the door a little way. The heavy breath-
ing in the bed stopped. For one moment I felt terror;
the next moment he had snored again. I removed the
chair.
The striking of a match might have betrayed me.
I lit a piece of paper at the fire and held it to the
soaked curtains. Then I was out of the room like a
shot and downstairs. As I glanced back the room was
already full of flame.
When I emerged into the streets I looked carefully
up and down. There was not a policeman to be seen.
I reached my rooms and went to bed. I wish I could
boast of such a nerve as would have allowed me to
sleep through the night.
The next morning I started for the City at the usual
time. I scanned the morning paper, but there was
nothing about a fire in Albemarle Street. At lunch-
time the first thing that met my gaze as I left the
office was a placard issued by one of the earlier and


ISRAEL RANK
219
cheaper evening papers - Gentleman suffocated in
Albemarle Street.'
With an extraordinary calm I read that about three
a.m. a fire occurred at the chambers of the Hon.
Ughtred Gascoyne, resulting in the death of that
gentleman, who was well known in social and sporting
circles. His servant, who slept on the floor above, was
awakened by the smell of smoke, and getting out of bed
and hurrying to the top of the stairs to arouse his master
was driven back by the flames and smoke. He was
subsequently rescued by a fire escape from the top
storey.
On the fire being extinguished the unfortunate
gentleman was discovered in his bed. He must have
been suffocated in his sleep.
I put down the paper with satisfaction and ate a
good lunch. I had at any rate not inflicted any great
physical suffering.
Mr. Gascoyne came back from his lunch looking
very white.
“It's a most awful thing, Israel. There seems to be
a curse on our family.”
Why, sir, what is the matter now?"
'You know my cousin Ughtred ?"
66 Yes.”
“The poor fellow has been suffocated in his bed."
I appeared horrified. You don't mean to say at
his rooms in Albemarle Street ?”
Yes."
I looked terribly concerned.
“He was to have been married quite soon."
“So I understood. Mrs. Goodsall, the actress,
wasn't it?"
“ Yes.”


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ISRAEL RANK
Curiously enough, I met him yesterday at the club
of a friend of mine. I hadn't seen him for years."
I called a hansom directly I left the office and drove
to Albemarle Street. A small group was watching
the house from the other side of the road. The
windows were boarded up and the stonework round
them blackened with smoke. I knocked at the door,
and it was opened by Ughtred Gascoyne's servant.
He had reason to remember me with gratitude, for I
knew that servants are the adventurer's staunchest
allies or greatest enemies.
“Will you step inside, sir ? Lord Gascoyne has
been here most of the day. He's just gone."
I did not wish to meet his lordship.
“When do you expect him to return ?”
Not till to-morrow, sir.”
I went in. There was a gruesome smell of charred
wood and stuffs. I followed Mason upstairs.
“This it where it must have begun, sir.” He pointed
to where the wicker work chair had stood.
What I can't understand, sir, is how the shutters
came to be closed. I never knew Mr. Gascoyne to
shut them, and he gave me particular instructions to
the contrary. There was no need for them, you see.”
I looked towards the bedroom.
They took him away to the mortuary, sir, to await
the inquest. No man could have been a better master."
“ He was a splendid chap, Mason. You know how I
looked up to him.” I spoke in my most ingenuous
tones.
“And very fond he was of
fond he was of you, sir. He was always
at home to you.”
I pressed half a sovereign into his hand.
Did he come home alone, Mason ?”


ISRAEL RANK
221
No, sir—at least, I fancy I heard voices. Oh yes,
and I heard the door bang. I don't know who it was,
sir, I'm sure."
The front room was quite burnt out, and there
could be absolutely no trace of the oil with which I
had started the conflagration.
I had apparently succeeded in a very risky under-
taking.
I left a card at Mrs. Goodsall's with my deepest
sympathy. The servant informed me she was quite
prostrated, and I was made somewhat uncomfortable
by hearing sounds of sobbing from the second storey
of the tiny house.
At the Gascoynes', where I was to dine, I found the
household in the deepest gloom. The tragedy seemed
to have brought back something of the bitterness of
their own grief. It was too similar in its horror to
the death of the two young Gascoynes to be much
discussed. We avoided gloomy topics with an almost
hysterical earnestness, but it is extraordinary how
matters of that kind will obtrude themselves when
they are desired not to do so. Left alone with Mr.
Gascoyne, however, the constraint passed and we
talked freely.
“Just one of those things that are quite inexplicable.
The fire brigade authorities do not agree with the
theory that a live coal must have dropped out of the
grate. They think the fire originated at the other
end of the room, and that it must have been a
cigarette or something of the kind."
It doesn't matter much what it was, does it ?”
Of course not; only one cannot help travelling
round a case like that and looking at it from every
point of view. I called there this afternoon."


222
ISRAEL RANK
“And I was there this evening."
Did you see Lord Gascoyne ?”
No."
“He was there when I called, and seemed terribly
upset. He kept on saying, “Poor Uncle Ughtred !'
and 'He was the life and soul of everything.'
I could not see that these remarks of Lord Gas-
coyne's were very illuminating or helpful, but it is
curious how little people trouble to be sensible when
they are talking of the dead.
Miss Gascoyne pressed my hand as I said good-
night.
“What a friend you are! You are always cheering
us. You knew him, too, which makes it all the nicer
of you to be so cheerful.”
“Good-night,” I said, and then threw into my glance
a confession of admiration for which I had been months
preparing the way. I was sure that had I ventured
on such a thing a year before she would have felt
anger, born of injured pride, but now her eyes fell,
and I knew that I was on the road to success. She
had taken me at my own valuation, as I had intended
she should.


CHAPTER XV
I was glad to discover that Ughtred Gascoyne had
left all his little fortune, excepting such as did not
return to the Gascoyne coffers, to Catherine Goodsall,
and that she would be quite well off. She looked very
woebegone when I saw her again, but she was not a
pessimist, and soon pulled herself together ; not that
I believe she ever forgot him. She gave me a tie-pin
that had belonged to him, because he had been very
fond of me, and had often talked of me to her.
A Sunday or two afterwards I lunched with Sibella
and her husband. The old hunger for her was beginning
to grow on me, and impel me towards her.
They were for a wonder alone, and Lionel looked
discontented. He had evidently reached the frame
of mind peculiar to vulgar folk, who think that unless
they are living at high pressure and constantly enter-
taining or being entertained by those they consider
great they are dropping out of it. Great folk can
afford their holidays, but such social climbers as
Lionel Holland can have no respite from the treadmill
of entertainment.
I think he was verily too stupid to see that it was
his wife's beauty and charm, lacking in depth though
they were, to which they owed their improved position.
Sir Anthony Cross—who I knew was with them con-
223


224
ISRAEL RANK
stantly—must have played a very clever game, a
much cleverer game than I had imagined him capable
of. To do Lionel justice, he was not the sort of man
to play the complaisant husband for the sake of any
position, and he had evidently not grasped that Sir
Anthony's presence at their house was solely and
entirely due to admiration of his wife.
I was certain that so far Sir Anthony had not even
been permitted to declare himself. Sibella was vain
enough of his attention to keep him dangling after
her, but she had no notion of making herself cheap
to the men of a society the women of which she was
anxious to propitiate.
I suppose Lionel thought that an old lover like
myself, who had been discarded for years, was no pos-
sible danger. Possibly-for the minx was clever-he
had absolute confidence in Sibella.
At any rate, after lunch he left us together. It was
the first time we had been alone since her marriage.
It was a little awkward, but I exerted myself to
free the situation from constraint.
Things have changed,” I said, lighting another
cigarette with a languid feeling of enjoyment at being
alone with her, and conscious that the ménage I had
contemplated had begun.
You are wonderful, Israel. It is quite extra-
ordinary how people talk about you, and quote what
you say, and yet She paused, and I laughed.
And yet I began life in a third-rate Clapham
lodging-house, and am still only a clerk in a stock-
broker's office.”
“ As far as that goes, I can't quite see why people
make such a fuss of us.
“ Can't you? Then look in the glass.'
66


226
ISRAEL RANK
situation. Of course, Sibella would not have been a
woman had she not declared that she would never
forget that she was now Lionel's wife, and that on a
former occasion she must have been mad. She re-
peated that she always knew I was wicked, and that I
had gained an ascendancy over her. She then pro-
ceeded to tell me that I was in love with Lady Peb-
worth, with whom she had lately had a coolness.
That lady evidently thought that she had purchased
by her introductions a perpetual right to the sub-
servience of Sibella and her husband. She was now
experiencing the utter callousness of Sibella's dis-
position towards her own sex, a callousness she was
exceedingly clever at masking till she had obtained
what she wanted.
It was difficult to say where the weak point in
Sibella's armour came in. She was, of course, vain,
but as a rule her vanity was not allowed to interfere
with her interests. She was dominated to a great
extent by looks. It was this passion for beautiful
people that had made it a perfectly safe proceeding to
introduce Sir Anthony Cross to her. I was sure that
no man so destitute of pretensions to physical charm
could ever win her suffrages. In fact, I was pleased
to know that he was always to be seen near her, for
his case was hopeless.
“Perhaps it is a very good thing we did not marry,
Sibella. A strict barrier should always be preserved
between the official and the sentimental roles.”
“ My dear Israel, Lionel is much more sentimental
than you are."
Women are amazingly quick. Perhaps sentiment
is the wrong word; I should have said romantic."
What is the difference ?"
>>


ISRAEL RANK
227
There is all the difference. The sentimentalist has
no sense of humour. The romanticist generally has
too much. A romanticist may possess the salt of
cynicism ; a sentimentalist seldom.”
Sibella had something of an intellect, and I think,
perhaps, that was also a weak point, for inasmuch as
it was a poorly developed sort of affair it was easily
dazzled, and she would at the merest flicker from an
opposing mind credit it with much that it did not
possess.
I had led the conversation away from Lady Pebworth,
but she brought it back again, and flattered me by
insisting on learning from my own lips that I had no
affection for the lady.
Fortunately she only knew of Miss Gascoyne's
existence in a vague sort of way.
“What would you do, Sibella, if I married ?"
- Forbid it.”
“You think that would be effective ?"
“If it were not I should never speak to you again."
“Ah, unfortunately it is forbidden to a discretion
like yours to take such extreme measures.”
Why ?”
“Lionel would want to know why we had quarrelled.”
How she would act when it came to telling her that
I was engaged to Miss Gascoyne—which I hoped would
shortly be the case—I could not say. Miss Gascoyne's
extreme beauty and distinction would not help the
matter.
I had my hands quite full, for I was working very
hard at the office, and making myself as indispensable
as possible to Mr. Gascoyne. The rest of the staff
had ceased being jealous when they saw that I was
determined to get what I wanted. Such remarks as
15—2


228
ISRAEL RANK
“one of those damned Jews again,” unintentionally
overheard by me, I ignored with the sublime cynicism
of my race. Nothing was to be gained by being aware
of them, less was to be gained by cherishing resent-
ment. Jews are not good at revenge ; it is not
business. Shylock's case was exceptional, and, given
time, his common sense would have reasserted itself.
I was even treated as the natural heir to the business,
for I had wisely thrown out veiled hints of a partner-
ship to the managing clerk.
I was about this time somewhat scared by a suitor
appearing for Miss Gascoyne's hand, and such a suitor
as must have made any mere business man tremble for
his own chance.
I knew that Miss Gascoyne was constantly receiving
the very best invitations, which she seldom accepted.
I also knew that she and her uncle and aunt had dined
with the Gascoynes, and I had heard mentioned, not,
however, as a matter of any great consequence, that
they had met there a Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie. I was there-
fore a little astonished on calling one Sunday afternoon
to find Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie, a young man undeniably
handsome and well-bred, in the drawing-room. I
could not stay long, but even in the short time I was
there it was obvious that the object of his visit was
Miss Gascoyne. He was evidently rich, for outside
the door was an exceedingly luxurious motor. I looked
him up in the landed gentry, and found that he was one
of the untitled nobility. He had a huge estate, and
was related to half the peerage. His sisters were a
duchess and two countesses, and his younger brother
was already a distinguished member of Parliament.
He was Lord-Lieutenant of his county, and altogether
a notable person. It seemed as if, granting any


ISRAEL RANK
229
inclination on Miss Gascoyne's part, my fate was
sealed.
The next time I called Mrs. Gascoyne said to me
when we were alone :
“I am afraid my niece will not be with us much
longer.”
“ Indeed ?"
I think she must have had some notion that I had
dreamed of Miss Gascoyne as my wife, for there was an
accent of kindliness in her voice.
“ You have met Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie ?"
"Oh, yes.” I almost gasped. Surely she was not
going to tell me that Miss Gascoyne was engaged to
him already.
“It will be a splendid match. She is quite the
woman to take her place at the head of county
society."
“They are engaged ?”
“Oh dear no, but anyone can see that there is a
mutual attraction, and it is altogether so exactly
suitable that we hope it will take place.”
I had never before considered Mrs. Gascoyne a fool.
Mr. Gascoyne came in soon after, and she began
again. I think she believed it the kindest thing
to do.
“I have just been talking to Israel about Edith and
Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie.”
Mr. Gascoyne looked astonished, and gave me a
side-long glance.
'Indeed? Don't you think, my dear, we are a little
premature ?"
“There is no harm in discussing it."
In a few minutes Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie and Miss
Gascoyne came in.


230
ISRAEL RANK
a
I had never met Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie anywhere except
at the Gascoynes'. He had all the unfailing and
general courtesy of the absolutely exclusive. He was
not a man who, as far as I could gather, went out
much, but he entertained Royalty a good deal, having
some of the finest shooting in England.
Of his manner to me I had certainly no reason to
complain, but I think he was a little astonished when
Mr. Gascoyne very pointedly introduced me as
cousin. I suppose my Semitic appearance had hardly
prepared him for the news. Since, however, I was a
relation he could not doubt my general authenticity.
Personally I would much sooner Mr. Gascoyne had
not been so ready to insist on my being of Gascoyne
blood.
I walked home wondering whether after all Mrs.
Gascoyne was not mistaken.
I had studied Miss Gascoyne very carefully, and I
could not detect any indications that she was likely to
capitulate to Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie. At the same time,
she was outwardly an impassive woman, and appear-
ances might be deceptive.
I admired and desired her even beyond Sibella, cer-
tainly beyond Sibella now that I was sure of the latter.
I was not in the least conscious of any absurdity
in arranging my affections so as to dovetail with
my love for two women. Even theoretical polygamy
comes quite naturally to me, for all Jews are poly-
gamists at heart, even if as a nation they find it con-
venient to disown it. King Solomon, with his enor-
mous female collection, remains their typical domestic
character.
I desired Miss Gascoyne, and was determined to
run the risk of asking her to marry me, though I was


ISRAEL RANK
231
perfectly aware that it was after marriage that the
battle would begin. She was not a woman to endure
tamely any insult to the conventions, and she was not
likely to agree with Dr. Johnson's dictum : 'Why,
sir, a wise woman does not trouble herself about her
husband's infidelities.' Domestic life would be a
different matter if this were a recognised rule, which
woman was brought up to regard as a principle of
life. It is a fact, however, which a wise woman learns
early, that a man's infidelities need not in any way
affect his supreme devotion to a particular female.
The objection that in that case a woman should have
the same privilege is childish, and can of course be
refuted on the most elementary utilitarian grounds.
If she desired such liberty, a fact which I doubt in the
case of the normal woman, I think matters would have
been differently arranged, and a more elastic scheme
of rearing the young in civilised communities estab-
lished. I certainly was prepared to sustain my
passion for both women, and if society made it difficult,
why, I must meet society with its own weapons.
I
was not going to agree to forego one woman because
to a slightly greater degree I desired the other.
I might find out when matters settled down, as I
hoped one day they would, that I loved Sibella the
better. At present she was at a disadvantage, as the
woman possessed always must be, by the side of the
woman unpossessed. It was not perhaps brains that
lifted Miss Gascoyne above Sibella ; it was character.
Miss Gascoyne would have sacrificed everything for
principle. I could not imagine Sibella sacrificing much,
even for prejudice.
I lived for the next few weeks in the greatest suspense.
Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie was constantly at the Gascoynes',


232
ISRAEL RANK
you?”
and I was startled by a false report that the engagement
was arranged and about to be announced. I heard it
at Lady Pebworth's. Her ladyship was a sort of
cousin of Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie's. It turned out to be a
false rumour, but I spent a sleepless night. I spoke to
Mr. Gascoyne about it the next day at the office.
“I hear that Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie and Miss Gascoyne
are engaged.”
“Good gracious, I've heard nothing about it."
In my relief I laughed gaily. “Then there can't be
any truth in it.”
" Who told
“I heard it at Lady Pebworth’s.”
Then it is evidently expected. If it takes place
it is a match of my wife's making, but I shouldn't
wonder if after all she were disappointed.”
“It would be a splendid match," I said, hypo-
critically.
He looked at me keenly.
“You are very clever at disguising your feelings,
Israel. I had no idea you were so subtle."
I had made a mistake, and appeared before him for
one moment in my true character.
Where
is concerned
discover
unexpected attributes.'
That is true.” He was too tactful to pursue the
subject of my admiration for Miss Gascoyne further,
and continued : “No one has a greater respect for
rank and its obligations than my niece. At the same
· time, I don't think a throne would tempt her to lie
about her feelings.”
I was lunching with Grahame that day. We had
not seen each other for some time, but his steady blue
eyes met mine with no diminution of friendship. He
a woman
men


ISRAEL RANK
233
was at the moment slave to a romance of a most
inconvenient type. He had fallen in love with quite
a common girl, and was unhappy when she was out of
his sight. Luckily there was no question of his marry-
ing her. Had it been necessary I verily believe he
would have done so, for his heart compelled all
sacrifices.
“We never see each other now, Israel."
I knew how to appeal to Grahame.
Does that matter with a friendship as strong as
ours ?"
“Of course it does not affect our friendship, but still
one likes to see one's friends now and then.”
Has it been altogether my fault ?”
“Well, I suppose not,” admitted Grahame.
“I'll put you to the test. Let us go out of town
from Saturday till Monday. I know a ripping little
seaside hotel, and I love the sea in winter." He
coloured and looked confused, and I added quickly :
You can't come ?”
Well, I"
“Don't prevaricate, Grahame. Of course you can't
In the first place, you have promised to take
her to a theatre on Saturday evening. You are
lunching with her on Sunday. You are driving her to
the Star and Garter at Richmond to tea in the after-
noon, and you are coming back to dine somewhere
very luxurious with her in the evening.'
He laughed. “That's very near it.”
And in two years' time, or even sooner, her face
won't stir a passing emotion in you."
“Don't, Israel, you hurt."
“I'm sorry, but if you did come away you would be
thinking of nothing but her the whole time."
come.
66


234
ISRAEL RANK
“I am afraid you are right.”
“You are a sentimentalist, Grahame, only, thank
goodness, not a maudlin one, and sentimentalists are
only possible during the entr'actes."
“ Thanks.”
My liking and friendship for Grahame were a proof
of how sincere I could be if people did not stand in
the way of my great design. I suppose I ought to have
felt some remorse, considering that Sibella was his
sister, but after all such relationships are purely
accidental. The fact remains that Grahame might
have asked for almost any sacrifice that did not
interfere with my slow subterranean tunnelling to the
Gascoyne peerage.


CHAPTER XVI
Miss GASCOYNE refused Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie. I was
first made aware of this fact by the announcement in
the Morning Post that he had left London, and pro-
posed to go for a six weeks' yachting cruise in the
Mediterranean.
I hastened to call on Mrs. Gascoyne when I knew
she would be alone.
“So very extraordinary, Israel,” she said.
"I had
almost looked upon the thing as settled, but she
refused him point-blank. It's my first and last attempt
at match-making. I think Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie in his
inmost heart was a little surprised. He took it very
well, poor fellow, although I believe he felt quite
broken-hearted. It's very strange, for it's not like
Edith to lead a man on and then throw him over."
“Did she lead him on ?" I asked.
Surely you must have seen that ?"
Well, I can't exactly say that I did.”
“But they went everywhere together, picture-
galleries, concerts, theatres, lectures."
“Who asked him ?” I interjected, slily.
Mrs. Gascoyne was one of those straight-dealing folk
to whom it was perfectly possible to point out a mis-
take in judgment without creating an unfriendly
atmosphere.
235


236
ISRAEL RANK
“Do you mean to suggest that the mischief has been
of my doing, Israel ?”
“Dear lady, I mean to say that in your unselfish
anxiety to marry your niece brilliantly you imagined
a state of things which did not exist."
“Exactly; you mean that I'm a dreadful old
mischief-maker.”
“You know I don't mean that.”
I always adopted in my attitude towards Mrs. Gas-
coyne a touch of ingenuousness which I found eminently
effective. It impressed her, with a strong belief in my
sincerity ; in fact, talking to her I have known myself
believe in my own sincerity, so free from guile was her
manner of thought and speech.
A conviction, the result of some reflection, had
forced itself upon me that with my secret inevitably
striving to write itself on my face and manner it would
be well to cultivate as much as possible the society of
the simple-minded, in order to borrow something of
their mood. Mood is everything in influencing sur-
roundings. I am still unable to see why a murderer
should not go through life with a perfect inward peace,
providing his associates are the right people. Apart
from a certain love of secret romances, I prefer the
society of the simple-minded and the good ; just as in
order to preserve a proper balance of mind so much
time should be spent in the country and so much time
in town :-a constant going from the artificial to
nature and back again from nature to the artificial.
A right proportion of light and shade is a great
factor in human happiness.
“I trust Edith means to marry,” continued Mrs.
Gascoyne. “It would be a crime if so much charm
and character were wasted.”


ISRAEL RANK
237
66
“Do you think it is necessarily wasted because a
woman does not marry ?"
“I am old-fashioned, Israel, and I think a woman's
vocation is marriage."
“A great many women must be without a vocation,"
I laughed.
That is no reason why as many as have the oppor-
tunity should not fulfil it. Now, when you marry,
Israel
At that moment Miss Gascoyne entered the room.
She was a little embarrassed, as if she were aware that
I know all about Wyllie's proposal and her refusal.
She was not the woman to dismiss a lover lightly
and with a mere sensation of triumph at her own
conquest. She had, I was sure, suffered in a way
which most women would not have done.
With most women the dismissal of a lover brings
with it a certain feeling of power. It is the one moment
at which their sex can be truly said to rule.
Miss Gascoyne's manner had in it a trace of sadness,
probably, I thought, expressive of regret that she had
been unable to accept as a husband a man whom she
thoroughly respected and who perhaps she even felt
was in many ways her natural mate. Perhaps the
event had led to a certain amount of retrospection
and analysis of her own feelings. Lovers are modest,
yet at the same time I fancy a favoured lover has as a
rule a very fair impression that he is not distasteful,
however fluttered he may be before he has made sure
of his prize. So by some curious undercurrent flowing
between us I gathered that Miss Gascoyne was more
interested in my visits than she had ever been before.
I had nothing very tangible to go on.
There was no
sudden development of coquetry, such as a smaller-


238
ISRAEL RANK
minded woman would have displayed. She showed
towards me the same even friendship, and we did not
see more of each other. Perhaps I gathered the in-
creasing warmth of her feelings from a certain relief
and gladness at my arrival which even she could not
conceal, or it might have been from a certain deference
to my opinion.
To the ordinary observer it would have appeared
almost incredible that this queenly, beautiful creature
of good birth should prefer a stockbroker's clerk to
Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie, one of the richest men in England,
and connected with half the peerage. Busybodies
would have argued that her pride, her sense of family,
had always been stronger than her affections; which
would have shown how very wrong busybodies, who
are necessarily limited to a judgment based on the
superficial, can be.
I had taken Grahame Hallward to see the Gascoynes,
at Mr. Gascoyne's special invitation. The latter had
met him with me in the City, and had conceived a
great liking for him.
“You can always tell a man by his friends, Israel,"
he had said to me, and
young
Hallward seems an
altogether delightful fellow."
I could not forbear smiling. As a rule, it may be
true that birds of a feather flock together, and that a
man can be judged by the company he keeps, but at
the same time it is curious what a man will put up
with in the friend of his heart. The friendship of
Grahame Hallward and myself was not dependent
on any strong community of tastes and interests. It
was the outcome of his own loyal nature, which, having
made a friend, held to him. Mrs. and Miss Gascoyne
liked him from the first.


ISRAEL RANK
239
He grasped the situation between Miss Gascoyne
and myself at once, and he was the one person with
whom I permitted myself to discuss it. He was
enthusiastic in his admiration.
“She is a queenly woman, Israel. Have you known
her long ?"
“ About a year.”
“Well, you're a lucky chap.”
What do you mean ?”
“ Mustn't I discuss the matter? Tell me to shut
up, and I will."
“You know I will discuss anything with you."
He gave me an affectionate look.
“Are you struck, Israel ?”
All of a heap.” I always adopted a fresh, breezy
way of talking with Grahame. I think that is why
he believes in my innocence to this day, and also why
he is suffering so much. He never saw the corners of
my character, although he had known me so many
years. I always appeared to him frank and affec-
tionate.
“She'll suit you better than Sibella would have done."
Had I been without the ambitions I was possessed
of, Miss Gascoyne would have done nothing of the
kind. Sibella's decadent temperament would have
furnished me with far more entertainment. But
Edith Gascoyne was on the road to my objective.
She was the most natural mistress in the world for
Hammerton Castle.
“It's all rot my thinking of such a thing," I said,
true to the character in which I instinctively appeared
before Grahame. “She's got money of her own, and
I'm a beggarly stockbroker's clerk with three hundred
and fifty a year.”


240
ISRAEL RANK
Judging by Mr. Gascoyne's manner, I should say
he meant you to be a little more than that one of these
days."
“Oh, I'm not such a hypocrite as to pretend that it
doesn't look as if he meant to do something for me,
but I may have ever so long to wait till then."
“Don't
you
make
any money on your own account?”
“Oh, a bit—nothing to speak of.”
Grahame must have mentioned Miss Gascoyne to
Sibella, because the next time I called she asked me
why I had never spoken of her.
“I don't know, I'm sure,” I answered, carelessly.
I was glad that Grahame had saved me the trouble
of breaking the fact of her existence to Sibella. I was
on perfectly good terms with the latter now, and she
had quite overcome any scruples about deceiving “poor
Lionel.” She had in fact not known her own decadence
till I had exploited it for her. She was revenged by
my becoming intensely jealous of her. After all
, she
was meeting daily a great number of men who were
willing to dance attendance on her till further notice,
and it was impossible and unnatural that she should
not find some of them attractive, and having been
taught infidelity she might profit only too well by the
instruction. I behaved with the greatest discretion.
I had no mind to have all my plans upset by a
divorce case. Mr. Gascoyne would inevitably have
shown me the door, whilst my chances with Miss
Gascoyne would have disappeared entirely. No, if I
could not give up so delirious a vice as Sibella it
behoved me to be very careful, and I think I can
flatter myself that Lionel never had the least sus-
picion. I suppose a guilty wife must always be in
dread of disclosing her secret in the hours of sleep,


ISRAEL RANK
241
like the lady in the opera, but I don't think Sibella
was sufficiently disturbed by the consciousness of sin
to have her very sound slumbers interrupted.
I was jealous of her, and however much I might
upbraid myself for such a weakness I was unable to
control it. Woman-like, she very soon discovered the
fact, and I was somewhat at her mercy.
Sooner or later, she must inevitably learn all about
Miss Gascoyne’s existence, and I was glad that Grahame
had broken the ice.
“She is very beautiful, is she not ?"
“I believe she is considered lovely.”
Then I can't understand your not having men-
tioned her.”
There was a touch of asperity in Sibella's voice.
Why should I mention her ?"
Because as far as I can make out you are there
constantly."
“It is to my advantage to make myself agreeable
to Mr. and Mrs. Gascoyne, and," I added hastily,
for I never appeared as acting from interested
motives more than I could help, “I am very fond
of them.”
“And very fond of Miss Gascoyne.”
Sibella's was not the nature to exercise much control
over rising jealousy.
What nonsense! As far as that goes, you would
not have much to complain of if I were to marry Miss
Gascoyne.
She looked at me with frightened eyes.
If I thought you meant that
” she faltered.
Well, you must remember that you and I might
have fulfilled our natural destiny and married.”
Sibella laughed in a not altogether nice way.
16


242
ISRAEL RANK
“That would have been a very pleasant arrangement.
We should have been so comfortably off, shouldn't
we ?"
It gave me an advantage to pretend that it was a
cause of eternal grief to me that we were not married,
so I answered:
“Well, I've no doubt we could have scraped along."
Scraped along !” And she laughed again, but she
was not nearly so amused as I was at hearing myself
use such an expression. “I can't imagine either of us,
Israel, scraping along. We should have hated each
other in a week.”
“We should never have done that, Sibella. We
have a sub-consciousness of each other's weaknesses,
and we know each other's good points better than
anyone else could. We should always love each other."
“I think, Israel, if I had not been so sure that you
loved me, I should not have risked marrying Lionel.
I could never have believed that good looks could bore
one so soon.”
I believe that good-looking people who are stupid
get on one's nerves sooner than plain people who are
stupid. The latter do feel that they must make an
effort. The former are supremely well contented, and
seldom take the trouble to make themselves agreeable.”
“ Lionel is not only stupid, he is a little vulgar."
Sibella's frank recognition of the faults of her be-
longings had always been in striking contrast to
Grahame's loyalty, which would allow no disparage-
ment of anyone he was allied to.
“I suppose we shall settle down one of these fine
days," continued Sibella. “We shall get tired of
scheming for interviews, and plotting and planning
our lives so as to make them fit with a secret."


ISRAEL RANK
243
66
• My dear Sibella, I had no idea you were such a
philosopher. I thought your reflections never carried
you further than the moment."
Oh, I didn't think it out myself. I read it in a
book, but I feel it to be true, all the same.
“ You mean we shall tire of each other ?"
Yes.”
" Then we shall be tired of each other, and in that
condition of affairs there is no pain.”
Sibella's two blue lakes-in which to those who could
read there swam any amount of moral fishiness-
brimmed over.
“Don't talk like that, Israel. I do love you, although
you may not believe it. If I had known all I know
now about my feelings before I got married I do not
think I could have been induced to marry Lionel.”
And she wept.
I took her in my arms and kissed the moist rose of
her lips and caressed her yellow hair. Most men
dislike seeing a woman in tears ; to the artist in romance
it has its value if he keep his real sympathies well in
the background.
“I should like to know the Gascoynes, Israel.”
This had been inevitable. I had not the least wish
for Sibella and Edith to be made known to each other.
Not that in the case of such diverse characters there
was likely to be the least exchange of confidences, but
they were certainly better apart. I could not imagine
Miss Gascoyne approving of Sibella ; I could not con-
ceive Sibella understanding Miss Gascoyne, or thinking
her other than somewhat of a prig.
I betrayed not the least perturbation at her request,
however.
“Of course you must meet," I said, “but you
know
16-2


244
ISRAEL RANK
how I hate premeditated introductions. They are
never a success.”
Sibella, woman-like, looked unconscious of any
reticence on my part on the subject, but I felt that she
suspected it. Well, she had been made aware of
Miss Gascoyne's existence in as tactful a manner as
possible.
“What would you do if I were to marry, Sibella ?”
This was a question I was very fond of asking her.
“I don't know; it all depends on whom you married,
and whether you married for love, or--"
“Or interest, you mean. I could not do the former
very well, as I am in love with you, but you must admit
it would be foolish not to do the latter."
“I suppose there is something in marrying for love,"
said Sibella, a little gloomily.
“In the poorer classes I should think it meant every-
thing. In the case of the well-to-do it is nothing like
so important.
“I thought I was in love with Lionel.”
“Yes, Sibella, to do you justice I believe you did.”
“ And when I discovered that I was not it was too
late to draw back."
Like all people in love we derived a never-ending
pleasure from going backwards and forwards over the
whole psychological battle-ground of our romance.
Lionel was often out of the way. He aspired to
lead the life of a very smart young man indeed. He
confided to me that it was somewhat of a mystery
to him that in all the years he had been about town
he had only lately succeeded in getting into the par-
ticular set he desired to mix with. He was a member of
one or two extremely select clubs, although the absolute
holy of holies he could not enter, despite the fact that


ISRAEL RANK
245
Sir Anthony was still as far off Sibella as he had ever
been—at least, such was my impression. The in-
fatuated baronet was prepared to thrust Lionel down
the throats of his most intimate circle.
Sir Anthony might have a curious pronunciation of
the Queen's English, which dispensed with final “g's,'
and clipped the majority of words in an altogether
surprising manner ; he might wear checks which to a
chess enthusiast would at once have suggested a
problem ; he might have a partiality for spats and
white bowlers ; he might even swear occasionally in the
presence of women, but in spite of all these things he
remained undeniably a gentleman; for being a gentle-
man has nothing to do with grammar or morals. In
time a street urchin may acquire the one, and a Non-
conformist parson may have the other, but the fact
of being a gentleman resides in the individual's con-
sciousness. Therefore it is useless for those to whom
public companies and cheeses and cheap teas have
stood for the goose with the golden eggs to watch my
lord's peculiarities or the characteristics of even plain
John Brown, gentleman. They never can be gentle-
men. Their sons may. Their sons' sons surely will
be, but they themselves will feel conscious that they
are not the right article till their dying day. They
may be the best of fellows, the most upright of
men, the most polished of speakers, but they will
hear it whispered behind their backs every now and
then that “ Hang it all, the man's not a gentleman,
you know !"
And I am convinced that had I, Israel Rank, been
completely a gentleman on both sides I could never
have penned the above snobbish paragraph. It is the
reticence of gentlemen, and their lack of statement


CHAPTER XVII
My affairs stood thus. I proposed to marry Miss
Gascoyne if I could, but I had no notion of breaking
with Sibella.
All this time I was closely debating which of the
obstacles in my way I should remove next.
There had been three Henry Gascoynes. The
youngest was gone. There remained two, and one of
them, nearly ninety, was scarcely worth considering.
He was hardly likely to marry, and if he did so
children were almost out of the question, although
I had not made myself acquainted with his physical
condition and method of life. He lived the existence
of a recluse on a miniature estate somewhere in
the lake district. None of the Gascoynes that I was
acquainted with had ever met him.
The remaining Henry Gascoyne was a parson and
a childless widower. He was sixty-two years of age.
His cure was in Lincolnshire, and one of the very
few livings still worth having. The eminently spiritual
method of selection practised by the Established
Church was testified to by the fact that the living
had been the gift of his wife's father, and the claims
of a curate who had done the work of the parish
for thirty years, representing the valetudinarian and
octogenarian vicar, had been passed over. Country
247


248
ISRAEL RANK
livings are an appanage of family, not of church. Even
that good old-fashioned custom, however, is going
with the diminution in the value of tithes. It is no use
struggling to retain what is not worth having.
Henry Gascoyne must be my next victim if I were
not to play the coward and draw back, wasting so much
good work already done. The very“ if” that entered
into my mind warned me that my nerve could not
endure for ever. I had thought the preservation of
nerve merely a question of self-control, but as I grew
older I realised that there were many and complex
human emotional developments in perpetual siege of
that valuable attribute.
One thing at a time, and as it would not be advisable
to try my luck with Miss Gascoyne just yet, I decided
to devote myself to inquiring into the affairs of the
Reverend Henry Gascoyne.
Each undertaking of the kind became more and more
difficult to manage.
An introduction to the Reverend
Henry Gascoyne would tie my hands. My presence
on the occasion of a third Gascoyne dying a tragic
death might become the subject of remark, and once
the hue and cry was raised evidence might accumulate
rapidly enough, and, as is often the case, most unex-
pectedly. Even Ughtred Gascoyne's death might
become a support to suspicion, though there might
never be any direct proof that I had had a hand in it.
Indeed, it was prolonged reflection on this matter that
made me realise that my nerve was not an impregnable
fortress.
Still, I could not draw back. What duty is to many
people my ambition was to me.
It had to be gone
through, though hell fire waited for me when it was
attained. It was not that I was incapable of rehearsing


250
ISRAEL RANK
on it.
a poor lad at Clapham, and had now gone to live in
the country. To avoid committing myself I wrote
down every particular about them which I might be
questioned on, and learned them off by heart.
introduced their name casually into the conversation
at dinner at the Gascoynes'.
Yes, I told them, in replying to questioning, there
was Mrs. Parsons and her son and a daughter. Mr.
Parsons was dead. His son had always loved the
country, and having inherited a small farm from an
uncle, he and his mother and sister had gone to live
Was the daughter pretty? I did not know.
I had not seen her for some years, and girls change so.
The son was the same age as I was. No, we had not
gone to the same school, and he did not know Grahame
Hallward. Our acquaintance had come of our living
near each other.
I changed the subject as soon as possible.
Soon after I found occasion to say that I had met
young Parsons in London, and that he had asked me
to go down and spend a few days at their farm near
Norwich. I felt the whole thing to be lamentably
clumsy. It would have been better to get to know
someone near Mr. Gascoyne's rectory, but it was done,
and as soon as I had finished with the Parsons family
I intended to ship them all off to Canada, where
there are as many farms as the imagination can
desire.
When I declared that I must accept their invitation,
or Mrs. Parsons and her children would be hurt, I fancy
Miss Gascoyne's face lighted. I was sure that she had
endowed me with all sorts of good qualities to which
I could lay no claim. She was touched at my con-
sideration for the Parsons' feelings. She was a woman


ISRAEL RANK
251
incapable of giving love where she could not give
respect.
The world only knowing me through the medium of
a trial for murder has no doubt made up its mind that
anyone who could respect me must have been a very
bad judge of character. The world, however, is not
itself a very good judge of character. To man, his
fellow-creatures are as a rule divided into two classes,
viz. : the penny plain and twopence coloured. If Mr.
Brown has been found with Mr. Jones's wife, Mr.
Brown is a complete and wholly irreclaimable black-
guard. That he has been an honest citizen, an atten-
tive husband, and an irreproachable father hitherto
counts for nothing. These virtues only aggravate the
offence, inasmuch as they are show.. by the nature of
his guilt to have been mere hypocrisies. Public ex-
posure is the real guilt in his fellow-men's eyes. The
old, old crime of being found out is the unforgivable
offence. They know in their hearts that he is rather
a fine fellow, that his slip is what might have happened
to any of them. They have probably some such little
liability still unpaid standing to their own account, but
this does not make them one whit the less severe in
judging their foolish fellow who has been discovered.
It is thus. A man who has been in the dock and has
been convicted loses the right to claim any virtues.
As for a man who has been convicted of murder !
What can be said for him ? Just as he has been found
guilty of the crime the law holds most wicked, so must
he be capable of committing all those crimes which
murder is supposed to take precedence of.
Yet Miss Gascoyne was right, and the world was
wrong. She had seen the best side of me, and at the
risk of appearing egotistical and conceited—there was


ISRAEL RANK
253
I had, however, seen the Reverend Henry Gascoyne,
and had even heard him preach. The village of Lye lay
right out in the midst of the fens of Lincolnshire. In
the autumn—the time at which I visited it-it looked
well enough, but in the winter I should think it must
have been dreary beyond description. The village
itself clustered round the church, a fine old building
dating from about the year twelve hundred. It was
partly in ruin ; indeed, it was a question whether it
had ever really been completed. The interior depended
for its beauty on the design, for it had all the coldness
and inhospitable aspect of the average English country
church where the incumbent has been untouched by
the High Church movement. There was a Communion
Table which might have been anything, but for its
position, and a dusty Litany lay on the desk. The
walls were covered with memorials to the Hutchins,
the family of Mr. Gascoyne's wife, from whom he had
received the living.
There was a brand-new bronze tablet--somewhat of
a relief after the black-edged marble mementoes of the
rest of the Hutchins family—to the memory of Mary
Gascoyne, the beloved wife of Henry Gascoyne, in-
cumbent of the parish, with a space for the name of
the Reverend Henry when he should be carried, by
a power stronger than his own, from the comforts
of Lye Rectory to that land, the glories and happi-
nesses of which he expatiated upon every Sunday,
but which he was in no hurry to set out for.
The Reverend Henry was none of your new-fangled
parsons who carry the teachings of the New Testament
uncomfortably into private life. As for testing social
conditions from the Book of Books, it had never
entered his head. Christianity was an ideal, and you


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ISRAEL RANK
were to get as near to it as possible. As parson, the
only difference between himself and his parishioners
lay in the fact that it was incumbent upon him to
preserve a greater staidness of demeanour than the
neighbouring gentry. Not that he was nearly as staid
and solemn as his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Hutchins,
who sat in the family pew on Sunday mornings and
evenings, a monument of respectability and conven-
tion.
Neither, judging by the somewhat florid colour-
ing of his face, did the Reverend Henry hold with
temperance doctrines. Indeed, I heard that this
matter caused some dispute between him and Sir
Robert Hutchins, and that the brothers-in-law were
not on the best of terms. It pleased Sir Robert
Hutchins to hold a sort of informal service in the
village schoolroom every Sunday afternoon, when
those who were of a Methodistical turn of mind could
hold 'forth and give addresses and so work off their
schismatic steam. Sir Robert was of opinion that the
Reverend Henry should have fallen into line with his
truly statesmanlike scheme, but the Reverend Henry
was in the habit of spending his Sunday afternoon with
his port, gazing sleepily from his long dining - room
windows across the pleasant Lincolnshire landscape,
and he informed his brother-in-law that he was not
sure that loyalty to the church would permit him to
sit and listen to the outpourings of Mr. Butt, the car-
penter, or Mr. Shingle, the village grocer; and that a
really well thought out and carefully delivered sermon
was a greater strain than his brother-in-law had any
conception of: He declared that it very often took
the whole afternoon before his nerves had fully re-
covered from the effort. At this Sir Robert murmured


ISRAEL RANK
255
something about clergymen being always so ready to
take care of those bodies which they taught other people
to despise. Then the Reverend Henry grew mightily
offended, and replied with cutting sarcasm that he
knew that Nonconformity usually had a contempt for
the appointed ministers of the church, but that if his
brother-in-law wished to show his contempt he had
better withdraw to West Lye on Sundays, where there
was enough irreverent and blasphemous Psalm-singing
and taking of the Lord's name in vain to satisfy the
most egotistical of schismatics. But even when he
expressed himself in this highly independent and manly
fashion he was so completely the slave of convention
as to feel that it was highly improper for an incumbent
to be speaking to his patron in such a way; the patron
of a living standing—in the sort of nebulous hierarchy
which he had constructed in his own head somewhere
between the parson and the Deity.
All of this information I obtained at the village inn
from general conversation. It appeared to have been
conveyed to the community from the servants at the
Rectory and the Hall, and had evidently lost nothing
in the telling.
I attended the service, and saw my reverend cousin
for the first time. I am bound to say I rather liked
him, in spite of the suggestion of good living in his
face. He looked frank and honest. He conducted
the service in a nice, gentlemanly way, and preached
an exceedingly good sermon on scandal and tale-
bearing. There appeared, from the knowing looks of
the parishioners, to have been some special scandal of
late in the village, for everyone glanced at his neigh-
bour as much as to say, “I hope this will be a lesson
to you for the term of your natural life.”


256
ISRAEL RANK
I seated myself behind a pillar so that I could get a
good view of the parson when he was not looking, and
could disappear from sight when his gaze wandered
in my direction.
The service over, Mr. Gascoyne retired through the
Rectory garden in the company of a lady and a young
girl, who I afterwards learned were his sister and her
daughter. He was a great sportsman and an excellent
shot, but I suppose in deference to his cloth he drew
the line at eating the game he killed. From what I
could gather I should think he was quite alive to the
humour of this inconsistency.
I wandered about the churchyard and watched the
verger lock the great doors and shuffle out of the wicket
gate across the dusty road to his cottage. A silence
descended over the village. As I walked round and
round the church, pretending to be absorbed in the
gravestones, I was racking my brains for some means
of carrying out my design on the estimable cleric who
was at that moment sitting down to roast mutton and
claret as a preliminary to his afternoon port.
Two schemes arose in my brain simultaneously. At
the west end of the church there were some ruined
arches, which were no doubt the ruins of the unfinished
north and south transept. I looked at them with
interest. The stonework was crumbling woefully, and
it would not be a very difficult matter to detach a
brick. The decaying masonry also suggested that it
would be easy to climb to the top of the arch, where
there was a buttress, the shadow of which might at
night furnish absolute concealment to anyone bold
enough to scale it. A large stone thrown accurately
on the head of anyone passing beneath it would be
almost bound to kill. It was a risky proceeding.


ISRAEL RANK
257
Anyone coming from a certain part of the village
would inevitably use the short cut, and pass under
the arch on the way to the Rectory. How was I to
know, however, when the Reverend Henry was likely
to pass that way, especially as from all accounts he
very seldom went out at night? It seemed as if I
should have to give this idea up. I had to consider
also that the arch would be by no means a very
pleasant thing to climb, and that it might come to
the ground under my weight. The risks of the stone
not falling on the right spot were also great. On the
other hand, it would be sure to look like an accident.
The other method was suggested by my seeing the
vestry window open. Looking in, the first thing that
struck my eye was a table by the window, on which
were a bottle and glass. They had stood at the
preacher's right hand during the sermon, and the
Reverend Henry had more than once had recourse to
them. Was it possible to doctor the water ? The
Rector would at least have a dramatic death in the
pulpit. I could not help smiling at the idea of his
tumbling down the pulpit steps in the midst of one of
his most eloquent periods. It was worth thinking out.
There was no more to be done at the moment, and
as I did not wish to become well known in the village
I returned to London.
The next time I went into the district I intended
to stay at a small place some distance off, and use my
bicycle.
On my arrival in town I was compelled, as I have
said, to give a minute account of the establishment of
the imaginary Parsons.
Sibella was also anxious to know why she had not
seen me for three whole days, but I evaded her ques-
17


ISRAEL RANK
259
see her. At this Mrs. Gascoyne's eyes filled with tears,
thinking of her own boy, and I suppose I ought to
have felt uncomfortable.
We were all sitting peacefully one Sunday afternoon
not making the least effort to entertain one another, the
surest sign of a perfect community of feeling. Mr. and
Mrs. Gascoyne were dozing on each side of the fire. I
was reading a book, and Miss Gascoyne was writing
letters, when Lord and Lady Gascoyne were announced.
And I've brought Simmy,” said Lady Gascoyne,
placing a bundle of lace in Mrs. Gascoyne's arms. “Our
engagements for the afternoon fell through, so we
thought we would run over and see if you were in.
Very rude, isn't it?"
Mrs. Gascoyne was holding Simeon, Viscount
Hammerton, to her bosom. She was a woman who
had been destined by nature to be the mother of many
children. There is no mistaking the woman who is
above all things a mother when she has a child in her
She cannot assume anything in the way of
attitude which is not protective.
Mr. Gascoyne introduced me, and with characteristic
good taste made no mention of my being a distant
cousin. I fancy when Mrs. Gascoyne said, “ Israel,
come and admire the baby,” Lord Gascoyne looked
a little perplexed, as if it were a surprise to hear the
name out of Petticoat Lane. I went over,
presented to Lady Gascoyne.
She gave me a little bow, very courteous, very
distant, full of that exaggerated reserve assumed by
American women who have matched themselves with
a great position.
“I do not suppose you are interested in children,”
she said.
arms.
and was
1742


260
ISRAEL RANK
“On the contrary, I love them, don't I, Mrs.
Gascoyne ?"
“Mr. Rank adores them, Lady Gascoyne. He
positively rains coppers on poor children.”
This was perfectly true. How far my interest went
beyond delight in their beauty I cannot say. I some-
times wonder how anyone can love anything but
children. Their delicacy and sweetness are so exquisite
compared to the faded or grosser beauty of their
elders.
I held out my arms, and to Lady Gascoyne's great
surprise took the child with perfect confidence from
Mrs. Gascoyne. I fancy Lady Gascoyne was somewhat
alarmed, but, mother-like, could not help feeling
flattered. As for Simeon, Lord Hammerton, he held
out a little fat hand, and clutched a piece of my cheek
cooing wildly. I walked up and down the room whilst
the ladies laughed.
“By Jove," said Lord Gascoyne,“ that is more than
I care to do, Marietta. I am afraid he has marked
your cheek, Mr. Rank.”
“Oh, that is nothing."
“We shall never get to the end of your abilities,”
smiled Miss Gascoyne.
What a splendid father you will make," laughed
Lady Gascoyne, and she held out her arms to the
child, but as I placed him in them his infant lordship
set up a shrill cry, which was immediately subdued
when I took him again and resumed my promenade
with him.
There was a chorus of astonishment.
“Really,” said Lady Gascoyne, “I shall have to
engage you as nurse, or are you mesmerising Simeon ?
Is he mesmerising you then, darling ?"


ISRAEL RANK
261
do so.
His lordship did not condescend to answer, but lay
in my arms gazing at her placidly. He dozed off, and I
returned him to his mother. He woke up, however,
as they left, and held out his arms to me to be
taken.
“I shall always believe that you are a mesmerist,"
laughed Lady Gascoyne, as she said good-bye.
And thus it came about that I was introduced to
Lord Gascoyne, and had to make my plans accordingly.
I began to think it very hard that none of the family
would die off naturally. It was really surprising how
many people there were to get rid of, and on paper
they had seemed so few.
I had by this time made up my mind that if oppor-
tunity occurred to propose to Miss Gascoyne I would
I had received so many proofs of her liking
for me that I had come to the conclusion that I might
just as well try my luck now as wait. The evening of
Lord and Lady Gascoyne's visit furnished the oppor-
tunity. It was after dinner, and Mr. and Mrs.
Gascoyne were dozing over the fire. Miss Gascoyne
and I had retreated to the billiard-room, where I sat
and smoked cigarettes, while she worked and talked
to me.
I was always very much at ease in her
company. The dignified repose which she emanated
was eminently to my liking. It was certainly a great
contrast to the electrically charged atmosphere of
Sibella's society.
“I am afraid I shall not know how to leave my aunt
and uncle,” she said. They grow nervous at the
mere idea.'
“Is there any need why you should leave them ?" I
asked.
Well, of course I am very devoted to them, but


262
ISRAEL RANK
at the same time I think I am of rather an inde-
pendent nature.'
“You mean that you would prefer an establishment
of your own ?”
Well, yes, you see I have been spoilt. I have
tasted freedom. Of course it will be difficult to
explain to my aunt and uncle that I am quite devoted
to them, that I am perfectly happy here, and yet that
I want to set up my own house.
I laughed.
“Yes, it will be rather difficult, although at the same
time I perfectly understand what you mean.
I suppose it seems unnatural for a single woman to
want a place of her own; at any rate, until she's thirty.”
" It doesn't run in the blood. A bachelor takes a
private apartment, a spinster goes and lives in a
boarding house."
“I am afraid it is quite true,"she answered, laughing,
and then, with that perfect frankness about her sex
which was one of her characteristics, she added, “ But
we spinsters—at least, that is, the poor ones—have to
get ourselves husbands. It is potential matrimony
that fills the boarding house."
“You consider matrimony a woman's vocation ?” I
asked.
“I do." And she looked grave.
My heart beat a little faster. I had made up my
mind to put the question. I continued : “ And do you
think marriages are happier if based on a community
of interests or on a passionate attachment ?”
She looked at me honestly.
“I think,” she answered, “it is as impossible to
generalise about marriage as about other things. It
only leads to false conclusions. Of this, however, I
>>


ISRAEL RANK
263
am sure—if, when the flush of passion is past the
interests of husband and wife lie apart, their chance of
happiness cannot be very great. Don't you agree ?”
I did agree, and embroidered her conclusions with
even stronger argument. I was never cynical if I
could help it with Miss Gascoyne ; it made her un-
comfortable, and she had once told me that she believed
all cynics were rogues with a white feather. At least,
she had read so somewhere, and it had struck her as
being true.
I went on to the discussion of romance. I talked
vaguely of men who had loved women infinitely above
them.
' Even," I ended, as I love you, have always loved
you, shall always love you. I suppose I ought to have
kept silence, but I believe you are generous enough not
to be angry with me for wishing you to know how much
I value you above all other women.”
I turned away apparently overcome, and watched
the effect of my speech in a looking-glass.
She was very moved, and her eyes filled with tears.
“Why should you not tell me ?” she murmured, after
a pause. From my point of vantage I could see in her
face that my cause was a winning one.
“I ought not to have told you. I have hardly a
shilling in the world. I owe everything to Mr. Gas-
coyne, whilst you" I broke off.
Do you think women only value love when it is
accompanied by worldly advantage ? Surely you are
doing us an injustice. Won't you believe ?"
I turned on her eagerly. Really, now I come to
think over the whole scene, I must confess I played
it uncommonly well. I was of course in love with her.
She did not rouse fire and passion in me as Sibella did,
66


264
ISRAEL RANK
but I was certainly in love. At the same time, I had
none of the modest views about myself to which I had
pretended, and it is decidedly difficult to play a half
genuine love affair with the tongue in the cheek.
I was somewhat afraid to take her in my arms ; she
had always been so very stately, but I was surprised
at the abandon with which she gave herself to me. It
was only for a moment, however ; the natural dignity
of the woman reasserted itself.
“What on earth will they say ?"
“I don't think they will mind ; they will only be
surprised."
I did not think Mr. Gascoyne would be at all annoyed,
but I had a sort of idea that Mrs. Gascoyne would not
be pleased.
Shall we tell them ?"
I knew that she was a woman who would demand
courage from the man she loved even in little things.
Why not?” I said.
So we walked into the drawing-room, and I said
boldly : “Edith has promised to be my wife.”
Mr. and Mrs. Gascoyne, awaked from their after-
dinner slumber, gazed at us in astonishment.
Mrs. Gascoyne's face said as plainly as words could
have done, What, refuse Mr. Hibbert-Wyllie, and
accept Israel Rank ; why, what are you thinking of ?'
Mr. Gascoyne looked from one to the other several
times before he spoke, saying finally, as he took her
hands in his : “My dear, if I had thought of it at all I
should have thought that you were the woman to
prefer love and the approval of your own conscience
to rank and wealth."
Mrs. Gascoyne, woman-like, could not forgive an
event of the heart which she had not foreseen.


ISRAEL RANK
265
"Of course you
know your own affairs best, but-
She paused, evidently changing her mind, and, being
one of the sweetest women in the world, rose, and
kissing Edith, said : “My dear, I hope you will both
be very happy, and, after all, as Mr. Gascoyne says,
position and wealth are not everything."
I think the dear lady derived a certain satisfaction
from the idea that our quartet would not be broken up.
Certain it was that her rancour, if it could be called by
such a harsh name, was short lived, and she entered
into our schemes very heartily.
The next morning at the office Mr. Gascoyne called
me into his private room.
“My wife and I have been talking things over, and
we think it just as well that you should be told our
intentions towards you. I hope this business will be
yours one day, and I am sure there is no one we should
wish to benefit more by what we have to leave than
Edith's and your
children.”
I stammered out my thanks, for I was really moved,
and for a moment could not help thinking of the son
he had hoped would succeed him.


ISRAEL RANK
267
I explained with almost brutal frankness—for the
sooner she knew the longer time I should have in which
to conciliate her—that I proposed to marry money in
the person of Miss Gascoyne.
I was quite right ; Sibella could be violent. At first
she did not believe me; then with white, quivering
lips she implored me to tell her it was not true. She
was sorry she had been angry. She would retract
everything she had said if I would only tell her that
it was not true. It was intensely flattering to me to
see how acutely she suffered. Most certainly the days
of misery I had endured for her sake were amply
avenged. I explained as gently as I could that it
was necessary for my welfare that I should marry.
It was such a chance as might not come again, and
after all it need not make the least difference to us
-although on this point I was in my own mind by
I saw looming up on the far distant
horizon a very unpleasant and nerve-testing state of
things.
Poor Sibella realised with feminine quickness that
the woman who has the man in her house, and who,
figuratively speaking, washes, cooks, and cleans up for
him, stands the best chance of securing his heart-
that part of a man's body being inextricably bound up
with other and less romantic organs. Indeed, there
is a community of dependence on the same flow of
blood, and an identity of relation to the same scheme of
physical machinery, which renders the fact inevitable.
She realised the possibilities involved in my having
children, and in the mutual interests which were sure
to draw us together more and more as time went on,
As a consequence of these deductions, she wept dismally.
She was not philosophic enough to reckon with my
no means sure.


268
ISRAEL RANK
plurality of disposition. As a woman, she might be
forgiven for not being able to do so. Neither was she
philosophical enough to reckon with the time when
she would look back with amazement on that period
when my presence meant a certain ecstasy, a solution
which nearly always comes about if two people do not
bind their lives together by a material interest, or that
more iron bond, usage. It is profitable to the man
who wishes to live by reason and not by mere feeling
to reflect how many millions of the couples who think
themselves indispensable the one to the other would
have got on perfectly well with somebody else. If
Mrs. Brown had married Mr. Jones, would she not
say in later years, if she met Mr. Brown in the street :
—“Fancy that old frump having made love to me !"
The sentimentalist fancies she would still look at Mr.
Brown with romantic eyes ; not a bit of it. She would
entirely have forgotten how very slim his waist had
been, how very bright his eye. Believe me, we are
not the individuals we think ourselves to be, but are
fish swimming in a sea of condition and circumstance
of which we all partake necessarily as we do of the air,
the food, the ground beneath our feet, the whole world
around us. Brown, Jones, and Robinson are much the
same people, and the differentiation is largely illusory.
Poor Sibella passed from pleading to violence. If I
did not at once break off my engagement she would
know how to act. Lionel should know all, and if he
turned her out she would insist on coming to me.
The idea of Sibella's worldly soul playing ducks and
drakes with her prosperity in that way out of mere
revenge made me smile. Very well, I could smile, but
we should see. Miss Gascoyne should know how I
had betrayed my friend's wife. I looked at her in


270
ISRAEL RANK
see.
“This is the end of everything between us, you will
I shall never be happy again.”
She was softening ; the danger was over. I pointed
out that she had made the marriage she wanted to ;
she might at least allow me the same privilege.
“I did not know that I was in love with you," she
whimpered.
I reasoned with her in the most winning way. I
would send her a little French novel, one of the most
philosophical works I had ever read, although pre-
sented as the lightest of fiction, a pill coated like a
sugar-plum. In it there were two people who had
loved each other all their lives, and kept their romance
evergreen because they did not marry. Marriage
spoilt so many things. It was the microscope turned
on to the apparently limpid waters of romance. It
showed a mass of horrid, swirling, swimming, ugly
things that there was no need to see. Why use a
microscope ? She must have learned the evil of the
matrimonial microscope from Lionel. Delusions were
as good as realities if one were consistent. If we had
been rich we might have married each other. There-
fore, poverty know what was best for us, and had been
our most sincere friend.
I think I left her pacified ; at least, to the extent
of not being dangerous. Lionel came in, and I was
obliged to go.
I was compelled of course to spend a great deal of
time at South Kensington. Edith was radiantly
happy, and her romance had brought something into
her face which it had hitherto lacked. I was very
proud of her. Poor Sibella, who had seen her at some
public function, had evidently not expected anything
so beautiful, for she declared that I must surely love


ISRAEL RANK
271
so exquisite a creature better than herself. As a matter
of fact, Miss Gascoyne's beauty, although of a higher
type, was not so dazzling as Sibella's, and I could
honestly say, “One admires Miss Gascoyne, but one does
not love her," which had a very good effect on Sibella.
It was put authoritatively, and it convinced her.
I was now the son of the house at the Gascoynes',
and there was Satanic humour in the situation.
moved among all these good people as in some measure
a substitute for the dead young man. Where ignor-
ance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise, is true sometimes,
and what did it matter to them if I were responsible
for the son's death ? How could it affect my filia
attitude, providing they remained in ignorance ?
Mr. Gascoyne doubled my salary, and introduced
me to the employés of the firm as his successor.
He began by degrees to leave the management of
affairs to me, and he did well, for he had grown just a
little old-fashioned, and the business certainly im-
proved under my care ; in fact, it regained ground
which it had lost.
About this time I had another piece of good fortune.
It was not much, but such as it was it was encouraging.
Old Henry Gascoyne died, leaving only the parson
between me and the main branch of course, with the
exception of my benefactor, Mr. Gascoyne.
Lord and Lady Gascoyne called in person to con-
gratulate us on our engagement. They welcomed
me as cousin, and asked us all to Hammerton for
Christmas. Lady Gascoyne wanted to revive the good
old-fashioned Yule-tide. As she justly observed, “What
is the use of having an old-fashioned hall if you don't
use it as such ?”


CHAPTER XIX
on me.
Miss GASCOYNE and I were to be married the follow-
ing spring. Why people who want to get married and
are in a position to get married don't do so at once I
cannot understand. I fancy Mr. and Mrs. Gascoyne
would have liked us to live with them, but we reso-
lutely declined to accept any hints on the subject, and
they were quite generous-minded enough to see the
justice of our objection. At the same time, they re-
garded the departure of Edith from under their roof
with no little gloom.
Miss Gascoyne insisted on settling half her income
“I might,” she said, laughing, “ become weak-
minded, or go off with some one else, and it is only fair
that you should not run the chance of being worse off.”
I protested, but on this point she was firm. If she
had not done this of her own accord, I think I should
have found some means to suggest that she should ;
for if a man marries money he lives in greater style
than he would otherwise have done, and it is not fair
that he should be left at the mercy of his wife in the
event of their parting, or should his own capacity for
earning a living be impaired.
With Hammerton mine by right of descent, and
Edith, beautiful and stately, my wife and Countess, I
should be on equal terms with the great people of the
272


ISRAEL RANK
273
land. It would obviously be stupid, therefore, to stay
my hand, and remain as I was. Lady Gascoyne might
have more children, and my task might grow more
and more difficult as years went on. At present I was
devoting myself entirely to the removal of the Reverend
Henry. He, poor gentleman, continued to imbibe his
Sunday afternoon port and eat game he had not shot
himself, all unconscious of the kind friend who was
bent on hastening his reunion with the wife whose loss
he so deplored. Indeed, I had justification for what
I contemplated, inasmuch as the bronze tablet to her
memory declared that his chief joy and hope lay in
the prospect of their meeting, though he no doubt
philosophically reflected that the union was not likely
to be less joyful for being delayed a few years.
I had decided to give up the idea of launching decay-
ing masonry at the poor old gentleman's head. A few
experiments in this direction taught me that I could
not trust to my accuracy of aim. I abandoned the
project with a good deal of reluctance, because if suc-
cessful it would have been quite free from any danger
of detection.
There remained the poisoning of his glass of water.
How to get at it was the question.
My plans were largely facilitated by the departure
of Mr. and Mrs. Gascoyne for Italy, taking Edith with
them. They had long wished to make a habit of
evading the English winter, which agreed with neither
of them. They had intended to do so the following
year, leaving the business entirely in my hands, but
the doctor suddenly ordered Mrs. Gascoyne south.
She and her husband wished to leave Miss Gascoyne
behind, but I declined to hear of such a thing. I
was only too glad to have her out of London for the
18


ISRAEL RANK
275
was not my intention to stay there, however, and I
passed Lye Station and alighted some three or four
miles further on at a place called Cumber. Here
there was a very comfortable little inn, almost an
hotel.
After dark I walked over to Lye, and hung round
the comfortable Rectory. Once I ventured a few
paces on to the lawn, whence I could see the Rector
at dinner with his sister and niece. They appeared
to live prodigiously well, and it was very diverting to
watch their gestures and the process of mastication as
they devoured something they particularly liked, or
to observe the Rector say something over his shoulder
to the butler, who immediately hurried forward to fill
his master's glass.
I could not help reflecting that the silver candle-
sticks, the gilt-framed pictures on the walls, the
elaborate dishes, the obsequious servants, were the
appanage of one who had given a special undertaking
to imitate Christ and do His work by example. I was
even led into some no doubt highly foolish and
irreverent reflections as to which of us was the greater
criminal—I, who at any rate told no lies to myself, or
this polished, good-natured hypocrite who had never
tested a single action by His teaching.
The meal over, the ladies left the room. Apparently
no social convention was omitted in this house of
spiritual direction. When the butler had placed a box
of cigars on the table, and filled his master's glass, he
also withdrew, and the Reverend Henry lit a cigar,
and, leaning back in his chair, half closed his eyes in
ecstatic enjoyment. At this point a step scrunched on
the gravel path, and then there was a ring at the front-
door bell. In another minute or two a gentlemanly-
18-2


276
ISRAEL RANK
He was
looking curate was shown into the room.
evidently an embryo Reverend Henry, and he was
cordially waved to a seat. From the way he filled his
glass and accepted the proffered cigar he was none of
your blue-ribboned, fasting weeds. Indeed, it is not to
be supposed that the comfortable Rector would have
tolerated such an one in his parish. On reflection, I
think, perhaps, that I must admit to being the greater
criminal of the two, for he had the merit of being
unconscious.
Later, the Rector and his curate left the dining-room
and passed into the drawing-room, from which there
had already proceeded the sounds of a piano. A
nocturne by Chopin came to an abrupt ending as the
two men entered. Tea was then brought in—the
taking of tea instead of coffee after dinner always seems
to vouch for the respectability and antiquity of a
family, recalling the traditions of piquet and spadille.
The curate then warbled "The Message' in a by
means unfinished way. Mr. Gascoyne's niece
played his accompaniments, and the two older people
slept right through half a dozen of his performances,
only awaked by the percussion of a sudden silence.
This was all very entertaining, but was not helping
me much, though it was no doubt convenient to be
acquainted with details of life at the Rectory.
The next morning I again walked over to Lye, and
wandered about the churchyard during the service.
This proceeding did not help me more than my prowl
of the previous evening had done.
Through a window I could see the interior of the
church, the preacher in the pulpit, and the glass at his
right hand. I was coming to the conclusion that
poisoning the glass would be the only way, and the idea
no


ISRAEL RANK
277
received an unexpected impetus. Years before, when
my great idea had first taken possession of me, I had
provided myself with digitalis in powder form. Anxious
to discover whether its effects remained, and nervous
of seeking the requisite information, I had bought a
small dog from a man in Piccadilly. It was a dog of no
particular breed, with a blue ribbon tied round its
neck to suggest how eminently suited it was to a
boudoir existence. I had taken the little thing to
Clapham-the proceeding cost me a pang, for I am
very fond of animals, and its eyes were like Sibella's-
and had experimented, with the result that the little
creature was at this moment lying buried in the back
garden. If I could smear some of the powder on the
glass before the Reverend Henry mounted the pulpit
I might accomplish my design.
I returned to town to think it over.
The next week I went down, and put up at a different
village, so that my aimless visits might not attract
attention.
I arrived on Saturday, and early on Sunday morning
strolled into Lye Church. It was empty. The October
sun shone through the uncoloured panes, flooding the
building with a cheerful light, while here and there the
one or two stained-glass windows threw variegated
patches of colour across the worn stone and worm-
eaten pews. I sat down, and listened intently to make
sure whether anyone was about. After a few minutes
of utter silence I went up to the chancel, and glanced
casually towards the vestry. The door was open, and
I peeped in. It was empty, and on the table stood
the bottle and glass. In a few seconds I had sprinkled
the glass with fine powder from a small phial.
I regained the churchyard without meeting a soul.


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ISRAEL RANK
Of course, the plan might very possibly miscarry.
The verger might wash the glass. The Rector might
not use it. The curate might preach and not the
Rector. I considered, however, that my luck had
been so good that there might be a special dispensation
of fortunate events in my favour. I met the verger
as I passed through the churchyard, a fussy little man
with side whiskers and an abnormal nose, which looked
as if it had been specially designed for being poked into
other people's business. His air of importance was
quite grotesque, and he was a byword in the village for
curiosity. Even as I passed he stopped a small boy
on his way through the churchyard with a covered
dish.
What have you got there, Freddy Barling ?”
“Mutton, Mester Voller."
With taters ?”
“Yus, Mr. Voller."
Having obtained his information with some degree
of tact and suavity he became stern.
“And for why are yer carryin' roast mutton through
God's acre, Freddy Barling ?”
At the change of tone Freddy Barling gazed at the
belligerent whiskers in speechless terror, seized with
an awful fear that the family roast mutton and taters
were about to be confiscated.
Go round by the road, Freddy Barling, and don't
blaspheme against God's acre with profane food.”
Freddy Barling hurried away, only too thankful at
having rescued the Sunday dinner. The conscientious
Mr. Voller pursued his way into the church, pausing
at the door to take a view of the graveyard flooded with
sunlight. He was no doubt reflecting on the pleasant
spot in which he had been permitted to live, and


ISRAEL RANK
279
the good seed he had planted in Freddy Barling's
conscience.
I lingered about the churchyard. Mr. Voller was
probably dusting the litany and the Rector's Bible,
and setting such things as he had not arranged over
night in order. Presently the villagers began to pass
across the churchyard path. There was not much
greeting interchanged beyond a 'good-morning' or
two. The gossiping came after the service. I went
into the church, and sat down in a secluded corner and
waited for the service to begin. Time went on, and
there was no sign of the Rector or curate. Presently
the curate with a very white face emerged from the
vestry, and going up to a stout, comfortable woman
in a front pew spoke to her in a whisper, and they passed
out of the west door into the churchyard.
Suddenly a piercing shriek came through the window.
The congregation sprang to their feet. What on earth
was the matter? Old Mr. Crabbs, the solicitor, after
gazing around hesitatingly for a few moments, hurried
out, followed at short intervals by the whole congre-
gation. I was one of the last, and was in time to see
Mrs. Voller being led through the wicket-gate at the
end of the churchyard by the curate and the Rector.
I quite saw what had happened. Most probably,
from the mere instinct of meddling, Mr. Voller had
drunk out of the glass, and had as a consequence
departed on this pleasant Sunday morning for a better
land. By degrees the whole congregation, with many
Sabbath-breakers from the village street corners, were
crowded round the vestry door.
Annie, take your little brother and sister for a
walk,” said one lady, who was evidently bent on seeing
as much of the fun as possible herself.


280
ISRAEL RANK
99
“What has happened ?" I asked of a bystander.
“They do say as Mr. Voller 'ave 'ad a fit and died,
and the doctor be examinin' 'im now."
In a few minutes an individual whom I took to be
the doctor appeared at the vestry door.
“Will some of you run and fetch a stretcher and help
to carry him home ?”
“'e's dead, then, doctor ?”
“I am afraid so."
''ave'e 'ad a fit?”
“Heart disease, I think,' answered the doctor,
gravely.
Full of importance, several young men hastened off
for the stretcher, and in their hurry to oblige became
jammed at the wicket-gate.
The whole thing was a very serious annoyance to
me, and I walked off across the fields in a high state of
indignation with the departed Mr. Voller.
That such a nobody should have been allowed to
obstruct the workings of a great policy was irritating. I
only hoped that it would be a lesson to Mr. Voller in
his progress through the underworld to be less
inquisitive.
I grew more and more indignant with the shade of
that estimable gentleman as the day went on.
I walked over to Lye again in the evening, when the
Rector preached a sermon on the instability of human
hopes. He alluded to the late Mr. Voller with much
feeling. From the gossip in the churchyard after
service I gathered that the doctor had quite made up
his mind that death was due to heart disease.
This was fortunate, but Mr. Voller had spoilt my
plans.
I returned to London disconsolate. If there should


282
ISRAEL RANK
the vicinity of Lye. Armed with my small phial of
digitalis I spent one or two week-ends in the district
without other results than a little more private infor-
mation about Mr. Gascoyne's home life. It was the
most difficult case I had yet attempted. Nothing gave
me any assistance.
One day I was chatting with the landlord of the inn
when the Reverend Gascoyne passed the window. It
was about half-past four in the afternoon, and I had
presumably come over to the village to fish. As a
matter of fact, my nature is too fastidious for so
brutal a sport. I cannot bear to inflict suffering for
mere pleasure, and I am quite unable to understand
the brutality and grossness of a nature that delights
in it.
I had been careful, however, to master its jargon,
and there were two or three shining specimens at the
bottom of my basket to give evidence of my prowess.
“There goes the parson,” I said, carelessly.
“Ah! 'e be going to take tea with old Mrs. Finucane."
Indeed ?”
Wet or fine, twice a week, 'e goes over and drinks
a cup of tea with 'er, and reads to 'er for an hour or
two. 'e be a good man, be the parson.”
" Who's old Mrs. Finucane ?”
“ 'Er husband were organist, and when 'e died-
though, by the way, 'e were younger than Mrs. Finu-
cane, and they do say were at college with the parson
-well, when 'e died it were found that Mrs. Finucane
were a pauper, and wur as like as not to ’ave to go
to the workus, but the parson, 'e says to the Squire,
'If you'll put down a pound a week for life, I'll put
down a pound a week for life also,' and so 'twas done.
Sir Robert couldn't for shame's sake refuse, seeing
>>
6


ISRAEL RANK
285
maid brought in candles, and, drawing the curtains,
shut the pleasant interior from my sight.
I was afraid there was no chance of making Mrs.
Finucane's hospitable teapot or genial muffins and cake
useful to my scheme, for although such luxuries are
poison, it is a slow process.
Occupied with these thoughts, I strolled down the
village street. I could reach the road back to the inn
where I was staying more quickly by passing through
the churchyard, and as I reached the church door a
sudden impulse urged me to enter. The gloom was
rendered more profound by the faint suggestion of
fading daylight lingering about the building. I was
not at all disturbed by thoughts of Mr. Voller's ghost,
but made my way without trepidation into the vestry.
There stood the glass of water and the bottle, and I
was about to repeat the experiment which had been
so successful in the case of Mr. Voller when something
shining lying on the floor attracted my attention. I
went towards it and picked up a fluted silver cigar-
I carried it out of the church, and, opening it,
found it full. I went back to my quarters for the
night before I made a thorough examination of my
find. As I had hoped, it proved to be Mr. Gas-
coyne's. His monogram was on the outside. I turned
it over and over in deep thought. I remembered read-
ing, when I was studying poisons in my house in Clap-
ham, of one used by the Red Indians, who, soaking
the end of a cigar in it, were in the habit of asking an
acquaintance who had offended them to take a friendly
weed, with—from their point of view—very desirable
consequences.
I had the strongest objections to using the medium
of the glass of water again. It might strike someone
case.


286
ISRAEL RANK
that it had played a part in the death of the
verger
On arriving in town I consulted the book in which
I remembered to have seen the information as to the
Indian poison. It was as I thought; the end of a
cigar dipped in a decoction of the Grobi root was
sufficient to induce stupor ending in death if immediate
measures were not taken to rouse the patient. I knew
where to obtain the Grobi root, which is also used
medicinally by the Red Indians.
Down by the docks there is a narrow street full of
shops devoted to the sale of curios from foreign parts.
I had gone there during the days when I was racketing
about town to purchase a monkey for a chorus girl
who demanded its immediate production as a pledge
of affection. It was whilst I was in the shop that I
had heard the aged proprietor explaining the properties
of a small dried bundle of herbs which hung from one
of the low rafters. At the first mention of the word
poison I had listened intently, whilst apparently
interested in the other articles scattered about the
shop.
It was possible that the plant was no longer in its
old place. At the same time it was not the sort of
thing which was likely to be largely in demand, and
it might hang there through a generation without being
disturbed. I knew that the proprietor was a great
dealer in Chinese cabinets and curiosities of all kinds.
I decided to buy Miss Gascoyne something very rare,
and took my way to the East End in a state of sus-
pense as to whether the business had been moved.
As I entered the street, however, I saw the cages and
bird-stands outside the door as of yore. So little had
changed that it seemed to give me assurance that the


ISRAEL RANK
287
magic root was hanging in the old place. As soon as
I entered the shop I looked anxiously at the place
where it had been, and gave almost a sigh of relief as
it caught my eye.
The wizened little old proprietor hastened forward
from the back of the shop where he was inspecting
some articles which were being displayed for his ap-
proval by a sailor. The latter, in no way disconcerted
or offended at being left with such scant ceremony,
took up a newspaper which lay on his patron's desk
and settled himself to read till such time as the pro-
prietor should be free again. I explained that I wanted
a Chinese cabinet ; something quite new and original.
The old man looked around puzzled.
“They're very much of a muchness,” he said, “especi-
ally in our days, when we dealers have got to be as
careful as the public that we are not cheated. There
was a sailor as used to do the China trip twice a year,
and he brought back some of the quaintest looking
cabinets as ever I saw, but it turned out that he
bought 'em all in this country, and that's the way
we're took in."
It did not strike the old gentleman that if the articles
were genuine it could not matter very much whether
they were bought in England or not.
I objected to everything which was shown to me,
and made every effort to get him to go to his store-
rooms upstairs, suggesting that he might have some-
thing put away. He denied this, and continued to
grope about amongst his treasures, while the bunches
of Grobi root dangled temptingly above our heads.
While he was meandering I examined them very
carefully, and studied how I could detach one of the
bundles in the shortest space of time. Finally, the


288
ISRAEL RANK
old man remembered that he had something which
might tempt me in his back premises, and he went
shuffling away to look for it.
As soon as his back was turned I took my penknife,
which I had already opened in my pocket, and, glancing
swiftly at the sailor occupied with his paper in the
corner, reached up my hand and cut the string by
which the bundle of dried root was attached to the
ceiling. I thrust it into my great-coat pocket and
looked again at the sailor. He appeared to have been
quite ignorant of my proceeding. It was some minutes
before the old gentleman shambled back into the shop,
bearing in his hands a box of some scented wood, from
which, where it had lain buried in cotton-wool, he
lifted out a miniature cabinet of exquisite workman-
ship.
“I had forgotten all about this. I've had it by me
for years."
I shrewdly suspected that it was one of those things
which had been brought to the old man by someone
of whose honesty he was doubtful.
I haggled with him a good deal over the price, but
finally took it away, having paid a very reasonable
sum, and having in my great-coat pocket the Grobi
root.
It was a drawback that it was impossible to test the
efficacy of the poison taken in the particular way in
which I intended.
I made my decoction, and, steeping the end of one
of the cigars in it, dried it and returned it with the
others to the case. I then went to the village of Lye,
and, entering the church one evening, stole into the
vestry. Unperceived, I placed the cigar-case on the
table behind a pile of books.


CHAPTER XX
The rest of the winter I was able to devote myself to
Sibella, who grew more beautiful in my eyes every
day. She was bewitchingly decadent, and her deca-
dence was independent of extraneous aids to beauty.
I was careful not to be seen too frequently with her
in public, and permitted Sir Anthony Cross to do all
the drudgery. Lionel was quite unsuspecting, and in-
asmuch as I never omitted an opportunity of obliging
him I verily believe that the poor fool believed me to
be attached to him.
I well remember how one evening, when Grahame
was present, Lionel became quite sentimental over our
school days, and talked as if we had all three been the
greatest of chums. A smile played round Grahame's
dignified mouth as his brother-in-law meandered on
about" those dear old days."
“Do you remember when I was training for the mile,
and had that accident ?” Lionel asked.
We both of us nodded.
That was a very mysterious affair,” he went on.
“I could have sworn as I went down that I tripped
over something which struck me across the leg.”
“Imagination," suggested Grahame.
“I don't know, but it has always seemed to me most
mysterious.”
290


ISRAEL RANK
291
“I don't think it's possible to account for sensations
at such a moment as that,” I said, indifferently.
Lionel went on with his reminiscences. He recalled
the first day he had ever been to the Hallwards’,
which, considering that he must have remembered
how badly he and Sibella behaved to me on that day,
was not a brilliant exhibition of tact. At last he
concluded :
“And now Sibella and I are married, and we are
all jolly together.'
Coming from anyone else the remark might have
sounded jovial; coming from Lionel it sounded foolish.
“Yes,” I said drily, “we are all jolly together.”
For one moment Grahame looked at me curiously,
but shrewdly suspecting that my liking for Lionel
had not grown much with years, put down the emphasis
in
my
voice to that fact.
I was angry with myself for having made such a slip.
Lionel was soon in the throes of an election struggle,
a sudden death having removed a well-known party
hack to a greater majority than it had ever been his
lot to be numbered with on earth.
As much to his own astonishment as to that of the
wire-pullers of his party Lionel was elected. It was a
political surprise, for the seat was hardly likely to
have been wasted on a nonentity had a victory been
probable. Lionel took all credit to himself, and the
cheers of approval as he was introduced to the House
made him quite delirious with vanity. His old father,
who was dying by inches, was so delighted that he
immediately handed to his son a large slice of the
wealth for which he was greedily waiting. The in-
fatuated young man was somewhat sobered by the
reception of his maiden speech, which was such as not
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ISRAEL RANK
even the most self-satisfied of beings could have
assured himself was flattering. Sibella somewhat
annoyed me. She was for the time quite impressed
by her husband's meretricious triumph. I believe
she thought that she had underestimated him, and
that he really was a person of great intellectual attain-
ments. She began to talk to me of conscience, of
remembering her duty, and indulged in all the usual
female preliminaries to a retreat ; but long before
she was ready to make an effort, and show me the
door, I had managed to demonstrate to her that her
husband had gone as far as he was likely to go. In
fact, Lionel himself was incapable of playing a serious
part for long, and associated himself with the heir
to a dukedom whose election to the House of Commons
had been an insult, and who was prepared to hobnob
with a stable-boy in default of the society from which
he had become somewhat of an outcast. His friends
had hoped that a political career might whitewash him,
and were now only too anxious for him to lose his
seat before some irretrievable scandal occurred. Lionel
was quite content with his friend's exalted position,
and imagined that he was the companion of the very
cream of the popular House, a delusion in which I
encouraged him on every possible occasion.
Familiarity with political life likewise disillusioned
Sibella, and she was too acute not to learn very
speedily that to be the wife of a Member of Parliament
need not necessarily carry with it social advantages
of any kind.
I fancy Lord Gascoyne had been a little surprised at
Miss Gascoyne engaging herself to me, for to his
aristocratic prejudices a Jew was a Jew, however
charming he might be. He was perfectly prepared to


ISRAEL RANK
293
be quite civil to the race, and would have denied it
nothing but an entrance into the blood circle. I was,
however, indirectly a member of his family, and when
it dawned upon him that should he and his heir die
I was, after Mr. Gascoyne, the heir, he was compelled
to change his attitude. I think he determined, if
possible, to bar me out by a family of stalwart sons
and daughters. Luckily, so far, Lady Gascoyne
showed no signs of increasing the obstacles in my
path.
I spent the remainder of the winter thinking out
the completion of my design. Of course, the Earl
would have to go first. It would leave me several
years to deal with his heir, and in the vicissitudes of
a boy's life there must be innumerable occasions
when death may accidentally step in and claim him.
There was at this time a talk of sending Lord Gas-
coyne to
a large dependency as Governor. The
rumour threw me into a state of the greatest anxiety.
If he betook himself and his family to the other end
of the world he might have half a dozen children
round him before I could interfere.
Luckily the project fell through for the time being,
but his abilities and personal dignity marked him out as
a man to whom the offer was certain to be made again.
Lionel Holland had a great ambition to know Lord
and Lady Gascoyne. Lord Gascoyne, at all events,
was born a freeman of that inner ring which, for all
his fine acquaintances, had so far held Lionel at bay.
Some of them had been civil to Sibella, for she, like
Grahame, had a natural distinction which people
were impelled to admit. When, however, it became
a question of accepting Lionel also—and he was by
no means the person to stand aloof-they drow off.


294
ISRAEL RANK
His vanity refused to admit that he had been snubbed,
but inwardly he was conscious that there was some-
thing wrong.
He had therefore fixed on the Gascoynes as people
who would be able to secure him an introduction to
the highest circle of the social heaven. It was in
vain that I assured him quite frankly that I was not
on terms of intimacy with them or any of their friends,
that, so far, I was not married to Miss Gascoyne, and
that my Jewish blood made me more or less of an
outsider in the family. He looked upon this as
affectation.
“Why, you might be Lord Gascoyne! You're as
good as any of them."
“I shall be when I am Lord Gascoyne, but so far
I am only plain Israel Rank. No, I won't call myself
plain, for that would indeed be affectation."
“You've been to their house."
Once or twice."
“You've dined there."
“Once only."
· People of that kind don't ask a man to dinner
unless they look upon him as one of themselves."
“Except for political motives,” I murmured.
He was too dense to see the point, and persisted.
"An acquaintance like that wants nursing,” he said
patronisingly, much as an old hand might have done
to a young man just starting in business.
As a matter of fact, he was exactly suggesting what
I was doing, but my methods were superior to his, and
I should never have thought of describing them with
such a lack of taste. His inability to see this was the
secret of his non-success with the particular class he
was anxious to cultivate.


ISRAEL RANK
295
I heard from Miss Gascoyne constantly, and my
letters in reply to her high-souled, dignified, yet tender
epistles were masterpieces in diplomacy-an unkind
critic might have said in hypocrisy.
I cannot help wondering as I sit here writing these
memoirs what her feelings are at the present moment.
I am afraid that she is one of those extraordinary
characters who literally cannot love where they do
not respect. She will have the pleasure, however,
of glancing over her letters written to me at this time,
for I have left her the task of examining my papers
and destroying such as I thought fit to keep. Sibella's
letters I always destroyed. This is an act of justice
to any woman with whom one is conducting an
intrigue which should not be neglected. Not that
Sibella had written many letters. As I have pointed
out, there was a curious vein of caution in the Hallward
family. In fact, much as I know she must be suffer-
ing, she has not made the least sign since the law
took charge of my affairs. I believe that she still
has faith that I shall extricate myself somehow.
Poor child! Jack Sheppard himself could not do
much inside the condemned cell of a modern prison,
I have given the matter of escape thought, but con-
sidering how easy it is to cage a human being, it is
somewhat surprising that there should ever have been
an age in which the escape of criminals was com-
paratively frequent. I have also wondered whether,
if a murderer were to display signs of madness between
conviction and execution, the law would carry out
the penalty. It might be worth the while of a smaller
criminal to make the attempt. In my case I cannot
help thinking it would be somewhat undignified to
linger in the public mind as an individual who was


296
ISRAEL RANK
mouthing through the remainder of his existence with
straws in his hair. Besides, it would be a satisfaction
for the public—who have been made uncomfortable
by such wholesale murdering—to be able to say,
“Poor creature ! he was mad.” On the whole, I
would sooner live as the wicked Lord Gascoyne than
with a reputation for insanity. Moreover, my simu-
lation might not be effective, and if a report got
abroad that I had made myself ridiculous by feigning
madness it would be intolerable.


CHAPTER XXI
LIONEL HOLLAND was, of course, mistaken in accepting
as genuine my indifference as to whether the Gascoynes
were civil to me or no. Since they had asked me to
their house it was necessary I should become as inti-
mate as possible, and Lionel could not know how I
had schemed and intrigued to make myself acceptable
in their sight. I had nibbled all round their circle,
80 to speak, unobtrusively attempting to identify
myself as much as possible with the people they knew.
This was a matter of no little difficulty. I was com-
pelled to make it known how near I stood to the suc-
cession. This gave me a certain sort of position, and
at least tolerance, as more or less one of themselves
by the exclusive set in which the Gascoynes moved.
They still, however, showed no sign of great friendli-
Of course, the important person to conciliate
was Lady Gascoyne. She did not belong to the
difficult set by birth, and was naturally nervous of
doing anything which might show her as a novice in
the art of social selection. Not that she was in any
way a snob ; indeed, far from it.
She evidently liked me. I was the sort of personality
that the heiress of enterprising American ancestors
-the wrong word ; her forbears could hardly be
described as ancestors would like. I had, however,
ness.
297


ISRAEL RANK
299
removing him than I had had about any of the others.
He was so entirely impersonal in his relations with
the outer world.
I think his wife was in love with him. He was the
sort of man women love desperately where they love
at all ; for the simple reason that they are never per-
mitted to become really familiar. They are always in
the presence of their reigning sovereign. A very
wholesome thing for most women, and especially cor-
rective for an American woman. It had been, I
fancy, a great change for her, inasmuch as before
marriage she had ruled her father absolutely. It was
a little surprising that Lord Gascoyne should have
condescended to mingle his blood with what was, after
all, quite a plebeian strain. It was the more sur-
prising as he was in no need of money, and I dis-
covered afterwards that at his request her enormous
dowry was settled absolutely on her children. I
wondered very much if the dowry would revert to
the American relations should she die childless ; also
if, in the case of Lord Hammerton outliving his parents,
but dying a minor, the money would pass to the Gas-
coyne family. It would certainly be amusing were I
to inherit the American dollars.
The great thing, however, was to secure an invita-
tion to Hammerton. If I could only render Lord
Gascoyne some service, or place him under an obliga-
tion to me in any way, it would probably follow as a
matter of course.
An idea struck me. There was the portrait of
Lord George, the one thing saved from the wreck of
my uncle's home. I knew that Lord Gascoyne took
the greatest pride and interest in the portrait gallery
at Hammerton, and that there was no portrait of


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Lord George Gascoyne, my own immediate ancestor,
among the family pictures.
Finally, seeing no way of approaching the matter
as if by chance, I wrote and offered him the portrait
for the collection at Hammerton, and he replied
asking me to come and see him.
I went, and was shown into his private sanctum.
He was, considering his temperament, quite profuse
in his thanks, but would at first not hear of accepting
the portrait as a gift.
“ As you say, it is not by a great name,” he said ;
but at the same time it is a very good name, and is
worth money, and more than money, to me.”
I gave him to understand that if he declined it as
a gift it would hurt my feelings, as I should conclude
that he did not care about accepting anything at my
hands. This I conveyed to him in as tactful a way
as possible. He saw, however, what I meant, and
graciously accepted the picture.
“You must come down and see it hung."
He could not very well say less, but by the ex-
pression of his face I wondered whether a vague sus-
picion of my motive had not even as he spoke, entered
his mind.
However, the invitation was given, and I intended
to avail myself of it. I had no intention of allowing
the matter to slip his memory.
“It must be a week-end," I said smiling," for, you
know, I work hard all the week.”
“Lady Gascoyne shall write and ask you. She is
at Hammerton herself at present.”
It was quite unnecessary for his lordship to inform
me of Lady Gascoyne's whereabouts, for I followed the
movements of his household as closely as he did himself.
>>


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301
At Christmas I paid a flying visit to the Gascoynes
in the South of France, and was welcomed with a
curious quietness of passion by Miss Gascoyne, and
like a son by her aunt and uncle.
Miss Gascoyne always exalted me, mentally if not
morally, and even in the latter direction she led me
out of the limitations I had laid down for myself, and
beyond which it would be dangerous for me to venture.
I am quite capable of great moral enthusiasm, and it
has always been my habit to keep out of the way of
those likely to infect me with strenuousness.
She talked of ideals quite simply and earnestly, and
without the least suggestion of cant, and I was obliged
to find some aspirations suitable to these occasions.
Being a woman in love she was content to warm her
romance at a very small fire, and, further, to imagine
it a very big blaze.
I was terribly afraid of being found out by her in
any way. I know that once we were married she
would die rather than admit that she had made a
mistake. Her loyalty would amount to fanaticism,
but she was a woman who could take strong measures
before the irrevocable was accomplished. Her atti-
tude has been that of a medieval saint matched with
a Cenci. She has held her peace, and she has pro-
fessed to believe what she knew to be false ; whilst at
the same time she has suffered agonies of abasement.
Nearly all women, however, are deceived in love.
It is their pastime. Some never discover the fact,
and dream their lives away from their marriage-day
to the grave. If Miss Gascoyne hardly possessed the
phlegmatic instinct which would enable her to join
the comfortable ranks of the latter, she was none the
less dwelling in a fool's paradise during those winter


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days on the Riviera. Those who considered her cold
would have been astonished had they known all.
She was a concealed volcano.
I returned to town a little exhausted by the rarified
atmosphere of reverential romance in which I had
been living, and looking forward with a sense of relief
to the decadent fascination of Sibella.
Miss Gascoyne with her Utopian dreams about the
life of usefulness we were to lead required the natural
antidote, and, strangely enough, the first whiff of the
perfume Sibella used, wafted to me across the room
as she rose to greet me, banished all sensation of ever
having been bored by Edith, for I never admired
her so much as when I was in the company of Sibella.
In the same way I never longed for Sibella to such
an extent as when I was with Edith.
Amongst the letters which I found waiting when I
reached my rooms there was an invitation from Lady
Gascoyne asking me to give them the following Satur-
day to Monday at Hammerton.
From the tone of her letter it was obvious that she
had been only too anxious to second her husband's
invitation. To do her justice, she had no class pre-
judices, and such exclusiveness as she displayed arose
from her desire that her husband should think her in
every way fitted to her position.
In my daily letter to Miss Gascoyne I mentioned
casually that I had been invited to Hammerton. I
know that there were few things which would please
her so much.
It was a bitterly cold evening in January when I
reached Hammerton station, and it was snowing fast
when we drove across the stone bridge which spanned
the old moat and turned in at the gates.


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305
the sort of woman I always found it very easy to get
on with ; of the world, cynical and good-natured, very
strong-minded, and willing to live and let live. She
was at the same time most intolerant of people making
fools of themselves, and had no intention of allowing
those who were dependent on her to do so if she could
help it. Providing she was assured that I had no
intentions, she would be perfectly friendly, even when
she discovered that I was comparatively poor. In-
deed, I gathered in the course of a conversation with
her, that she had quite a weakness for adventurous
young men. Probably it was because she under-
stood them so well that she was such an expert in
keeping them at a distance. During dinner, however,
and pending inquiries which would no doubt be con-
ducted when the ladies were alone, she treated me as a
person rich enough to be conciliated. A very different
woman was Lady Briardale. However rich a man
might be, he was nothing to her unless he could show
a pedigree. She evidently thought very little of Mr.
Puttock, and less of Mr. Rank, who looked a Jew.
She probably regarded it as a slight that she should
have been asked to meet two such absolute nobodies.
She had never heard of anybody called Puttock, or
Rank. They were not names at all. They were
merely ciphers by which the lower classes were differ-
entiated one from the other. She would probably
have thought it more convenient if the lower classes
had been known by numbers like cabs and convicts ;
and, after all, they were not so interesting as convicts,
and not so useful as cabs in her eyes. She was evidently
somewhat annoyed that I should talk so well, a fact
she might have forgiven if others had not paid me the
compliment of listening. Indeed, she became quite
20


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ISRAEL RANK
civil to Puttock, who, she perhaps felt, showed himself
conscious of his inferiority by holding his tongue.
Sir Cheveley Drummond, whom I knew to be enter-
taining, but who was quite taken up with Lady Enid,
completed the party, which did not promise much
amusement.
After dinner we all sat in the picture-gallery. The
last time I had seen it was in company with the gang
of excursionists, and I laughingly recalled the fact to
Lady Gascoyne when she was showing me where the
picture of Lord George had been hung. Lady Briar-
dale was apparently a little astonished when she heard
that Lord George was my ancestor, and that I had
presented the picture to the collection. Lady Brank-
some had evidently recalled my name.
“I have been wondering, Mr. Rank, where I have
heard of you, and I remember now that it was from
my youngest boy. He met you at supper one evening.
I didn't ask where,” she said parenthetically, “ but he
talked of nobody else for days."
I remembered young Gavan Branksome, a nice,
fair-haired youth, who had attracted my notice by
being somewhat like Grahame Hallward.
“ I have not seen him since.”
“No; he is in India. Did you like India, Sir
Cheveley ?" she said quickly, stopping the love-sick
warrior as he was making his way across the room
to Lady Enid.
Poor Sir Cheveley was forced to pause, and whilst
Lady Branksome detained him, Mr. Puttock sank into
the seat which Lady Enid had left vacant for Sir
Cheveley.
Charming man, Sir Cheveley,” said Lady Brank-
some, with almost a laugh when he finally moved


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ISRAEL RANK
An instantaneous poison would be most con-
venient, as it was highly unlikely that I should have
sufficient access to Lord Gascoyne to deal with him
slowly.
I rose in the morning with one scheme after another
chasing itself through my brain. Dressing rapidly, I
went for a walk before breakfast round the ancient
battlements. These were quite a mile in circumfer-
ence, and the climbing of worn steps, hazardous scalings
of the walls from whence to get a better view, and a
careful examination of the various architectural designs
of which the building was constructed, occupied me
very pleasantly for a full hour, and it was half-past
nine, the time for breakfast, when I turned to re-enter
the castle. As I descended some steps which led down
to the quadrangle, I was astonished to come face to
face with a girl of about nineteen or twenty and a
child. She was obviously a lady, but she had not
been at the dinner-table the evening before, or in the
picture-gallery afterwards. I concluded that she was
the little boy's governess, but who the child might be
I could not imagine. I detected at once that the girl
was beautiful, and when I say I detected I use the
word advisedly, because it was not a beauty which
would be immediately appreciated. The gray eyes,
oval face, threaded gold hair, straight nose, and deli-
cately-cut mouth were almost too frail to impress the
casual observer. I saw at once, however, that she was
rarely perfect in such a type of beauty as I always
imagined Burns' Mary must have possessed. She wore
a quaint hood, almost like a child's, edged with some
inexpensive gray fur. The little boy looked at me
shyly, and I held out my arms.
A smile broke over
his face and he offered me his ball, inviting me to


ISRAEL RANK
309
play with him. In less than a minute we were all
three laughing like old friends.
After having made myself sufficiently agreeable, I
escaped from the child, who was clamouring to me to
continue the game, and ran down the steps. I found
Lady Gascoyne in sole possession of the breakfast-
table. “I am afraid we are the only early risers,
Mr. Rank,” she said.
As a matter of fact, I rather fancied I had caught a
glimpse of Lady Enid going along the road towards
Hammerton woods, and I think I was fairly correct
in guessing that she was not walking at such a rapid
pace for the pleasure of her own company. Indeed,
I would not have minded taking long odds that Sir
Cheveley was not very far away.
I, of course, said nothing of this to Lady Gascoyne,
but mentioned my meeting with the girl in the gray
hood.
Lady Gascoyne smiled.
“Now, isn't she pretty, Mr. Rank ?"
“Almost beautiful,” I hazarded. It is dangerous to
be enthusiastic about another woman, even to the
nicest of her sex.
“That shows your good taste. Some people cannot
see it."
“ It is the sort of beauty which is very rare, and not
exactly showy.”
“She is to my mind wonderful. It does one good
to look at her. I expect you are wondering who the
little boy is. It is a sad story. I had a great school
friend whose father was enormously rich. About a
year after her marriage he failed, and her husband's
fortune went in the same crash. Her husband shot
himself, and she died six months later, leaving her


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little boy in my care.
Oh !” she added quickly,
evidently afraid that my inward comment might be
a disparagement on her dead friend," she did so at
my express desire. We loved one another so, that it
was the most natural thing she could do."
He seems a dear little chap.”
"He is a darling, and devoted to Hammerton already.
Lord Gascoyne is so good about it, and lets me have
him here always. Miss Lane is his governess.'
Sir Cheveley Drummond, looking a little conscious,
came in at this moment.
How energetic everybody is this morning,” said
Lady Gascoyne.
Mr. Puttock, who appeared on the scene almost as
she spoke, looked anything but energetic. He looked
as effete as only a decadent young American can look.
Lady Enid, who followed, managed to convey with
great art the impression that she had just left her room.
Lady Briardale did not appear, but Lady Branksome,
unable to trust Lady Enid, arrived in good time,
although she confided to me later that she thought
breakfasting in public a barbarous practice.
After breakfast, the whole party, with the exception
of Sir Cheveley Drummond, went to church. Poor
Sir Cheveley hardly saw the point of going when he
knew perfectly well that he would not be permitted to
share Lady Enid's hymn-book.
I distinctly heard Lady Briardale say, as we were all
waiting in the hall :
“I should have thought, my dear, that he would
have preferred a synagogue.”
At church a thrill passed through me when I found
that I was seated next to Esther Lane. It was an
infinite pleasure to me to be sitting beside her through


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311
the long and stupid sermon. The yellow winter sun-
light fell across the recumbent effigies of dead and
gone Gascoynes, and made the painted window to the
east a blaze of colour.
Her presence and the surroundings filled me with a
sense of purity and peace, and I surrendered myself
to the primitive emotions. I suppose a less subtle
soul would have been oppressed with a sense of past
sins, and would in such a building have been filled
with despair at the consciousness of irrevocable guilt.
I fortunately had schooled myself to control. The
sensation of goodness can, like other things, be ac-
quired. When I had obtained the prize for which I
was striving I had not the least doubt that I should
find it easy to put away from me any unworthy
feeling of regret. Why should I not? The harm
was after all very questionable. It was not as if, so
far, I had made widows and orphans. The amount of
suffering I had inflicted was limited, and at any rate
I should not leave poverty, the greatest of all ills, in
my track. Indeed, under the influence of that Sunday
morning service I felt quite regenerated. When we
left the church Esther Lane and her pupil went through
the great gates of the castle into the woods beyond,
and I would have given worlds to follow her, but Lady
Branksome told me that she agreed with her son, and
that I was decidedly amusing. She insisted on my
going for a walk with her. At the same time she took
good care to see that Mr. Puttock and Lady Enid were
close behind.
In the afternoon I manouvred a meeting with
Esther Lane. I surmised that she and her pupil
would walk away from the castle, and so I kept watch
on the drawbridge. Everybody was more or less


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occupied. I was aware that Lady Branksome had,
before retiring for her afternoon nap, left Mr. Puttock
in possession of Lady Enid, who had got rid of him
with all the ease imaginable, and was now walking
with Sir Cheveley on the battlements.
Lord Gascoyne had pleaded letters, and I had
arranged to fetch him in an hour or so and go for a
tramp.
As Esther Lane and her pupil crossed the draw-
bridge I was leaning over the extreme end of the
parapet in the most natural manner in the world. I
pretended not to notice them, and only permitted
myself to be aroused from a contemplation of the
beautiful scenery which lay below by the child fling-
ing his arms with a scream of delight round my
legs.
She blushed as she apologised for her charge. She
was evidently a little nervous as to what her employers
might think if they saw her walking with one of their
guests, and, after a short interchange of commonplaces,
tried to get rid of me. I refused to be shaken off, and
a couple of hundred yards took us out of sight of the
castle.
We dropped at once into a style of conversation
which was almost intimate, and although I was with
her barely three quarters of an hour she confided a
great deal in me.
Not that there was much to confide. She was the
daughter of a solicitor who had left nothing but debts.
Her mother was dead, and she was absolutely alone in
the world. Her only relations were some very distant
cousins who were so poor that it had been impossible
for them to help her in any way.
“I was very lucky,” she said, gratefully, “to get such


ISRAEL RANK
313
>>
a good situation, and it came about in the quaintest
way. Lady Gascoyne had seen all sorts of people
with diplomas and recommendations which I had not
got, and she saw me sitting in the waiting-room as
she passed out. I don't think the agent quite liked
her engaging me, but Lady Gascoyne insisted that I
was just the person she wanted, and here I am.”
She smiled contentedly. She evidently considered
herself an extremely fortunate young woman.
She attracted me enormously without in any way
usurping the place of the two women who already
counted for so much in my life.
All too soon I was obliged to leave her and hurry
back to Lord Gascoyne, whom I found waiting for me.
It was the first opportunity I had had of really
impressing him, and I did not waste my time. I took
such an absorbing interest in everything about me
that I fancy he was surprised to find himself talking
so much and so intimately.
I was perfectly ready to enter into the subjects which
interested him most. He was evidently deeply imbued
with a belief in the divine right of aristocracy, and
with no superficial sense of its responsibilities. He
was above all things a serious man, with little sense
of humour. I imagined that Lady Gascoyne must
find him dull, but his qualities were essentially those
which command women's respect and hold them with
a certain kind of fear.
As is the case with his class-a class which the
popular organs are fond of describing as irresponsible
and brainless-his knowledge and grasp of life were
very extensive. His individual sympathies may not
have been very great, but he had a general sense of
justice which marked him out as an administrator,


ISRAEL RANK
315
picture-gallery. I like, even at this unpleasant crisis,
to linger over the memory of the picture-gallery at
Hammerton on that Sunday afternoon in midwinter.
The long, straight windows through which the frosty
sunset flushed the gilded frames and old tapestries,
the firelight playing on the silver of the tea-table
drawn up before Lady Gascoyne—for there were no
servants to desecrate the most convivial of all meals-
made up a delightful picture, whilst the child Walter
Chard, in his sailor clothes, ran from one group to the
other as happy and unconscious as if he had a pre-
scriptive right to the enchantment of the castle.
I was delighted on our assembling for dinner to
find that Esther Lane was of the party. She was
dressed simply in gray, with a couple of blush roses
at her bosom. Lady Enid was talking to her when I
came in.
It fell to my lot to take her in to dinner, and we
thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. She was quite un-
conscious amongst these great folk, and unaffectedly
joyous. I almost fancied that Lady Gascoyne
looked at me once or twice with the faintest sign
of surprise. I sincerely hoped she would not inform
Miss Lane of the fact that I was engaged, although
it was more than probable. Esther Lane was one of
those women who are, to a certain extent, lacking
in the natural defences of their sex as a result of
their own honesty and simplicity. That she was
prepared to be interested in me was obvious, and I
made the most of my time. After dinner she played
to us. It was not a brilliant performance, but she
was accurate and had feeling, and she touched the
keys wooingly and caressingly, making the piano sing,
a gift rare even among some so-called finished per-


316
ISRAEL, RANK
formers. If people cannot make instruments sing
they had better leave them alone. Afterwards I
played and sang, and she declared herself ashamed of
her own performance. Music had the advantage of
giving us an excuse for remaining at the piano together,
and later, when everybody else settled down to cards
some way off, we were left trying over one song after
the other. When I murmured that it seemed as if
we had known each other all our lives she blushed.
Later, in the smoking-room, Sir Cheveley said he
was quite astonished to find how pretty she was. It
was a fact which he declared had grown on him
gradually.
The next morning I returned to town, but I had
mado such good use of my time that I carried with me
an invitation to return in a fortnight, and it was Lord
Gascoyne who brought it me from his wife.
He had made quite a friend of me. It was not
probable that he had ever had a friend with anything
of the bizarre about him before.


CHAPTER XXII
The time passed slowly, but in a fortnight I found
myself again at Hammerton sleeping beneath the same
roof as Esther Lane. I met her again on the terrace
on Sunday morning, as I had expected. I could quite
follow the workings of her mind. Because she was
possessed of great self-respect, she had determined not
to be on the terrace that morning, but because she
was very much in love she was there after all. Before
many moments had passed I saw that she was aware
of my engagement. There was a look of suffering
in her eyes as she turned them on me. She had the
most wonderful way of suddenly subjecting the per-
son to whom she was speaking to their full glance.
If she could suffer because I was engaged to another
woman, she had enough sentimental interest in me to
excuse my going far. She was the character to appre-
ciate the simulation of agony born of a struggle between
duty and affection, and I was ready to ring up the
curtain on the comedy. She was fully conscious that
I loved her. Yes, I loved her quite passionately, and
yet it was not altogether passion. It is one of the
presumptuous platitudes of conventional moralists to
describe a man's love when it ceases to be concen-
trated on one individual as lust and base passion.
Side by side with this contention they will declare
317


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ISRAEL RANK
that the highest morality is to love your neighbour as
yourself, so little are they given to their own boasted
virtue of consistency.
I talked to her for some time about the most ordinary
matters, but I could see that she was trembling.
“I have thought of you a good deal,” I ventured.
She ignored the question, but without a show of
indifference.
“I think Walter and I ought to go in.” She moved
away a little awkwardly.
“I suppose I ought to go in too.” I went to break-
fast, leaving the impression I had intended.
In the afternoon I saw her again, and before I was
quite aware of it, I had told her I loved her beyond all
women in the world, and having done so was com-
pelled to anticipate the scene which I had been men-
tally preparing.
I assured her passionately that I was not the fickle
person I might seem to be, that directly I saw her I
knew that I had made a mistake, and that I could
never be happy with anyone but her.
She was too much in love to do more than make a
pretence of forbidding me to speak on the subject.
She walked straight into the carefully-hidden trap,
and found herself being made love to without the
question of my engagement being discussed, and once
she had thrown down the barriers of reserve, with
the enemy actually in her camp, it was impossible
to replace them. She accused herself vehemently,
however, of being unworthy of her trust. She would
resign her position. She could never, she asserted,
remain, and be guilty of duplicity. I beat down
her poor little attempts at self-defence at once. If
she threw up such a position I should never for-


ISRAEL RANK
319
give myself. I would go away and never see her
again. The threat appeared to terrify her. I per-
sisted that the view of such affairs taken by most
people was entirely wrong. I showed that, on the
contrary, it was wrong to lie and say you do not love
a person when you do, that it was quite possible to
talk of our love, to cherish it, and to welcome its
influences for good, without allowing it to get the
upper hand. All of which the poor fluttering little
morsel of sentiment drank in with greedy ears, because
it was just what she wanted to believe.
The child found us dull, and cried out that he
wanted to play, so I left her and returned to keep an
appointment with Lord Gascoyne. Esther Lane was
included in the dinner-party that evening, and I
again took her in. The arrangement was not so
pleasant as on the previous occasion, for there was a
distinct feeling of strain between us. I surmounted
it with ease ; but she was without experience, and
she suffered. I could see that she had been crying.
“You must not let yourself be wretched," I said, as
we stood a little apart from the others waiting for the
move towards the dining-room. “It hurts me.”
I had intended to remain in my room,” she mur-
mured.
“Why ?"
"I feel as if everyone must see that I am an impostor.”
I was about to reply lightly, but checked myself,
remembering that the heroine of the comedy was an
ingénue.
“If you were not so good you would not have a
sense of guilt where there is no guilt."
We went in to dinner.
I talked to her incessantly, and inasmuch as her
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ISRAEL RANK
happiness lay in being with me, she was prepared to
be charmed out of her misery for however brief a
period.
I was myself somewhat astonished at the hold I
had secured over her so soon. I suppose in her inmost
heart she was dreaming dreams in which all would come
right. But even if I were safely ensconced as Earl
Gascoyne I could not have made such a sacrifice as
to marry her. Besides, in the sense of a mate, to
take my name and reign with me, I would not have
changed Edith Gascoyne for anyone in the world, not
even for Sibella.
There is among modern English ballads one which
has always struck me as having a claim to live because
of its simplicity and the heart-throb in it. It is called
'For ever and for ever.' It possesses a perfect blend-
ing of music and idea, unpretentious, but full of
feeling
As before, we spent the evening at the piano, and
I
sang
this song to her almost under my breath :
“I would, alas ! it were not so
For ever and for ever.”
I could see that the tears were raining down her
cheeks as she listened. She held a fan so as to con-
ceal her face from the others in the room.
“We shall see each other again soon,” I murmured,
as I said good-night.
Lord Gascoyne and I were the last to leave the
smoking-room, and he parted from me at the foot
of the stairs that led to the bachelors' quarters.
bedroom was half-way down a long corridor, at the
end of which there was a solid door, which gave
on to the battlements. It was bolted inside, but


CHAPTER XXIII
I HAD still made no plans as regards Lord Gascoyne
and his heir. I must confess that I had qualms about
the child, which shows how illogical and unreasoning
sentiment is. It is surely a greater crime to kill a
grown individual who has a place in the practical work
of the world, and who would be missed by hundreds,
than to remove an infant whose loss could only affect
his parents. It was not easy for me to inflict pain on
a child, as my fondness for children is exceptional.
The means would have to be sudden and violent, and
they were difficult to think of. It might have been
made to appear that his death had been caused through
some apparent negligence of the nurse, had not the
latter been a careful old lady through whose hands
two former generations of the Hammertons had passed.
I had, unperceived, followed her in her walks with the
Gascoyne heir, and I was afraid it would be impossible
to find her careless.
I was prepared to make away with father or child
first; whichever event came most readily to hand
would have to take place. A novice might have been
impatient, but experience had taught me that one had
only to watch and wait, and the opportunity would
come at the most unexpected moment.
It was nearly time for Miss Gascoyne and her uncle
324


ISRAEL RANK
325
to me.
and aunt to return to town. I was wondering whether
they would be asked down with me to Hammerton.
It would be somewhat awkward, but I had infinite
belief in my own powers of dissimulation and tact.
In the meantime I concentrated my thoughts on
little Lord Hammerton. I had read of a child being
smothered by a cat going to sleep over its mouth. For
a time the somewhat impracticable idea possessed me
of obtaining a gutta-percha baby, which I would fill
with hot water and arrange so that it could breathe
mechanically, and then train a cat to lie upon it. The
weirdness and humour of the idea commended itself
The far-fetched nature of the scheme, how-
ever, became more apparent the more I considered it.
I thought I might become a proficient with the cata-
pult, and aim at the child unseen. In such a case the
blame would probably fall on a village boy. This, too,
seemed rather far-fetched.
I had seen Hammerton's nursery, or rather nurseries.
Even a child of his rank seldom has such a suite of
apartments :-a night and day nursery of lofty pro-
portions, with rooms for the head-nurse and her
assistant opening off. It was the size and loftiness
of the rooms that were exceptional. Lady Gascoyne
was a great enthusiast on hygiene, and declared that
fresh air was the best food a child could have. In fact,
I was not likely to be spared my unpleasant task
through any neglect of the little Viscount's health.
My objection to inflicting pain upon a child gradually
grew weaker. Something had to be done.
I was seriously considering the matter when Provi-
dence put a weapon into my hand.
I arrived one Saturday evening to find Lady Gas-
coyne somewhat uneasy. Walter Chard was not


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ISRAEL RANK
well. Something quite trifling, no doubt, but he was
feverish.
I asked if I might go and see him, but Lady Gas-
coyne said that she would rather I did not. It was
always difficult to say how these childish ailments
would develop. It might be something infectious, and
she had Hammerton to think of. If anything happened
to him Lord Gascoyne would be broken-hearted.
“Miss Lane is with him," went on Lady Gascoyne.
“She absolutely declines to allow anyone else to nurse
him.”
I wondered whether Esther Lane had known that
her undertaking to nurse the child would prevent her
from seeing me. For the moment I was a little
annoyed, as even the most supercilious man will be
when he imagines the woman he is thinking of very
much at the moment has found a duty which she places
above her love.
'I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honour more,'
is very trash in the case of both sexes. People who
say they cannot love where they cannot respect are
talking nonsense. Affection is independent of and
survives prejudice, which I should surmise is an added
terror in the lives of good people.
“You are not afraid of infection, are you ?" asked
Lady Gascoyne.
Oh dear no, but what makes you think it is some-
thing infectious ?”
“I don't know. I had a sort of instinct that it was
so directly I looked at Walter."
I thought nothing more of Walter Chard during my
visit except to ask how he was.


ISRAEL RANK
327
The doctor says he cannot decide for a few hours
what is the matter with him," replied Lady Gascoyne.
On Monday morning, however, the Castle was thrown
into a state of the greatest consternation. The doctor
pronounced him to be suffering from scarlet fover, and
Lord and Lady Gascoyne were filled with alarm for
the safety of their own child.
Walter Chard had been constantly with him, and
any moment little Lord Hammerton might develop
the complaint.
The sick child was immediately secluded at the
extreme end of the castle, and a trained nurse was
sent for. From the moment I heard that it was
scarlet fever my mind was at work. Supposing Ham-
merton did not develop the complaint, would it be
possible to convey the infection to him ?
If I could get near Walter Chard in the con-
valescent stage it would be easy enough.
Of course, it did not follow that even if Lord Ham-
merton took the infection he would die, but there was
the chance that he might.
Lady Gascoyne talked of removing him from the
castle at once, but the doctor decided that it was not
necessary.
“Our patient is too far away to do any mischief.
He is for practical purposes quite isolated, and if you
disinfect the rooms he has been living in you need not
be in the least alarmed.”
On my return to town I waited a week, and then
wrote to Lady Gascoyne, saying that I hoped Lord
Hammerton showed no signs of having caught the
infection.
I displayed so exactly the right amount
of solicitude that on meeting Lord Gascoyne in town
he greeted me, for him, almost effusively.


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ISRAEL RANK
>>
My wife was quite touched, Rank. Naturally, we
were alarmed, but I fancy it's all right. The other
little chap will soon be on the road to recovery. Come
down with me to-morrow if you are not afraid.”
It was exactly what I wanted. The chance might
not again offer itself to carry out my design. I met
Lord Gascoyne at Waterloo, and we travelled down
together. It was the sort of travelling that suited me
to perfection ; a saloon carriage had been reserved for
us, and all along the line we were treated like royalty.
I had been a little surprised that when he and Lady
Gascoyne attended anything in the shape of a function
in the neighbourhood of Hammerton they rode in a
chariot with outriders. The effect was singularly pic-
turesque, and appealed to my Jewish love of colour.
I determined that if ever I succeeded I would retain
the custom.
When we reached Hammerton we found Lady Gas-
coyne at the station, quite radiant. Notwithstanding
that the patient was at the most infectious stage, there
was very little danger, owing to the complete way in
which he had been isolated.
I was the only guest, and we retired early. I had,
of course, seen nothing of Esther Lane. As I walked
on the terrace and smoked my cigar I wondered if she
were thinking of me. I paused at a spot which was
at the extreme end of one of the horns of a semicircle.
At the end opposite to me were the rooms in which
she was nursing her invalid. I stood looking at them
thoughtfully. I was thinking of what Lady Gascoyne
had said as to the disease now being at its most in-
fectious stage. Contact, or the use of the same article,
such as a towel or a handkerchief, might convey the
infection. I might be doing something to advance my


ISRAEL RANK
329
cause instead of idly puffing at my cigar. The invalid's
rooms were several hundred feet away, and to reach
them I should have to scale a parapet some ten feet
in height, but it was no more than I could manage.
I walked slowly round the semicircle. The night was
strangely mild, and it was not improbable that the
windows would be open.
I knew the apartments. They had once been
occupied by a mad Earl Gascoyne, and had in his day
been securely barred.
These bars had, however, long since been removed,
and I remembered thinking the rooms almost the
pleasantest in the castle. They were some distance
from the rest of the living part. When I reached the
terrace I saw that there was a narrow stone staircase
which I had not before noticed. At the top of this
was an iron gate which would have to be climbed.
Just then I heard steps on the terrace above me, and
I had hardly time to draw into the shadow of a
buttress when Esther Lane appeared, leaning over
the low wall above my head. I threw down my cigar
and stamped on it, for it might have been its scent
borne on the night air which had attracted her.
She looked about her for a few seconds and went
back. I waited for an hour or so until the lights were
turned down for the night. I wondered which of the
two women was watching by the bedside of the invalid.
After a time I ascended the staircase and surveyed
the iron gate at the top. It looked rickety, and it
would be difficult to climb over it without making a
noise. If the trained nurse found me it would not be
easy to explain my presence.
I climbed over the gate and dropped on to the other
side. In the still night air it rattled horribly, but no


330
ISRAEL RANK
one seemed to have heard. I had on house-shoes, and
stole cautiously forward. I knew that the temporary
hospital was a large room with three windows open-
ing to the ground. Danger being almost out of
the question here, the windows had been left partly
open. I stolo cautiously forward and looked in. By
the dim light I saw the sick child lying on a bed well
out in the middle of the room. On a long, low chair
by the fire lay Esther Lane, in a white dressing-gown.
I thought she looked exceedingly beautiful, if a little
worn with watching. Crossing to the window furthest
from where she lay, and having quite assured myself
that she was asleep, I entered cautiously and looked
round. I went first to the door that I knew gave on
to the corridor. Luckily, the key was on the inside,
and I locked it. There was another door leading to
an inner room, which made me a little anxious, as I
concluded that it was occupied by the nurse. It had
no key, and I quietly placed a chair in front of it.
Noiselessly I stole towards the bed. The child's
flushed face was resting on his hand, in which was
clasped a handkerchief. This was the very thing I
wanted, and with infinite care I managed to unclasp
the little fingers and draw it forth without waking
him. Wrapping it in my own handkerchief, I thrust
them both into my pocket.
I had just finished and was turning away when I
became aware that Esther Lane's eyes were slowly
opening upon me.
Luckily she did not cry out, but rose quickly with
a half-smothered exclamation. As I went swiftly but
silently to her I heard the boy stir in the bed behind
me, and we both stood waiting in suspense to see
if he would wake. Luckily he only murmured once


ISRAEL RANK
331
or twice, and sank to sleep again. I was near the
light, however, and ready to extinguish it at once
should he show the least sign of waking. When his
regular breathing had reassured me I drew her on to
the terrace.
“I was obliged to come,”I murmured passionately.
“ I had to see you.”
“ You should not have done it,” she said helplessly.
you
should not have done it."
“I am very sorry.”
I took my cue and passed into the mood of the reck-
less, love-sick youth. I knew that to feel a passion is
the only way to be convincing.
“It is dangerous, and most dangerous now.” She
began to weep; she was evidently unstrung from
watching. I drew her away into a sheltered corner
of the battlements, where the moon made it almost
as light as day.
I told her that I was only happy when I was with
her, and that all my days in London were given up
to thinking of her. The poor child believed me. It
appeared that she had been attempting to make some
expiation for what she considered the betrayal of
Lady Gascoyne's confidence by her devotion to Walter
Chard during his illness.
I held her in my arms, and we remained perfectly
happy and in silence for a long time. She certainly
stirred my blood to an extraordinary degree.
She was terrified lest my visit should convey in-
fection to the rest of the household. I reassured her.
At the same time, her having seen me was very awk-
ward. Hers was a character which, impelled by con-
science, might be capable of all sorts of extraordinary
things, great renunciations and burning sacrifices. I


332
ISRAEL RANK
held out a vague promise of taking her to London
and allowing her to a certain extent to share in my
life. This filled her with a guilty delight, and she clung
to me with a sigh. Love in its fierce, personal aspect
meant more to her than to any woman I have ever met.
The poor little soul went back and procured some
strong stuff with which she instructed me to disinfect
my clothing
I returned to my room almost laughing with glee
at having the handkerchief from the sick boy's bed
with me.
When I reached my bedroom I packed the two
handkerchiefs carefully up in several layers of paper
and then went to bed. Of course, I had to reckon
with the fact that I might take the infection, but I will
do myself the justice to say that at no time during my
career have I been much affected by a consideration
for my own safety. It has always appeared to me
that an absolute disregard for my life was the only
method on which to proceed.
The next morning I excused myself from accompany-
ing Lord and Lady Gascoyne to church. Lady Gas-
coyne quite sympathised with me.
A gallop will do you much more good.”
I thanked her, but said I preferred a tramp.
As soon as they had walked over to the church I
made my way to Lord Hammerton's nursery. I was
no stranger to it, and was a favourite with the nurses.
The little viscount knew me quite well, and crowed
directly I appeared.
Old Mrs. Howick looked at me indulgently as I took
the child in my arms.
After a time she went into the
inner room, leaving me in possession for a few minutes.
I hastily took out of my pocket the handkerchief,


ISRAEL RANK
333
which was still wrapped in my own, and let it fall
across the child's face. He clutched it with two little
fat hands, and I allowed him to play with it, and then
thrust it in between his frock and his chest and left
it there. I had previously taken good care to ascer-
tain that it was unmarked, and was not likely to be
recognised.
When the nurse came back I was still playing with
the child, and she took him from me and dressed him
for his morning's outing without discovering the
presence of the handkerchief.
I then went for a long tramp through the woods,
laughing at myself for what I could not help feeling
to be a piece of absurdity. On my return to the house
I went again to the nursery. The little viscount
was asleep, and I managed to extract the handkerchief
and lay it where the air he was breathing must pass
over it.
Then I removed it, and congratulated myself
that I had left no foolish clue whereby my action
might be identified. Mrs. Howick was delighted at
my attentions, and told Lady Gascoyne that she
never had seen his lordship take to anyone as he had
taken to me. Inwardly I hoped that he might take
to the infection with even greater ardour.
There was still the question of Esther Lane to be
dealt with, if it were possible to deal with it at all. If
the child should fall ill she would be sure to think of
me and find out whether I had been to visit him. As
is always the case, my romantic susceptibilities had
landed me in a position of danger which all my other
intrigues had not done. If Esther Lane should tell
the truth, my entire house of cards would fall to the
ground. The telling of the truth would involve a
general exposure. It would mean farewell to Miss


334
ISRAEL RANK
Gascoyne, and also the shutting of the gates of Hammer-
ton Castle in my face, which would be a far more fatal
obstacle to my success.
I did not bless the day on which I had met Esther
Lane, and further cursed my own weakness. This
is a habit of men when they have obtained their
desire.
I should have remembered the dictum of a cele-
brated countryman of my own, which prophesies
material doom for those who are unable to control
their affections. He should perhaps have substituted
another word for affections.
There were no measures for self-protection to be
taken as far as I could see. My strongest card was
Esther's love for me, and if that were not strong enough
to prevent her betraying me, nothing would. I had
wit enough to see that it was likely to prove a still
stronger weapon if I kept away from her.
I waited some days, and read one morning in a half-
penny paper which deals in such tittle-tattle that
Lord and Lady Gascoyne were in the greatest anxiety
about their only child, the heir to the title, who was
suffering from a severe attack of scarlet fever.
I had had several false alarms as to whether I myself
had not caught the infection, and having gone to bed
one evening feeling very seedy and convinced that I
had, was not a little relieved on waking the next
morning to find myself perfectly well.
I wrote a note of sympathy to Lady Gascoyne, and
the same day received a wild letter of self-reproach
from Esther Lane. She accused herself of being a
murderess, and of having betrayed Lady Gascoyne's
confidence in the most despicable manner. There
was only one way out of her misery, she declared, and


336
ISRAEL RANK
I looked hurt.
My dear boy,” he continued good-humouredly, “I
should not have ventured to take so long a holiday if
I had not had you to depend on. Let us go to lunch
and talk things over."
I found that talking things over meant that he was
anxious to make matters easier for my marriage, and,
in fact, he made them so easy that Miss Gascoyne and
I were able to fix a date within two months of their
return.
Once we were married I did not mind so much what
Edith discovered. Nevertheless, I had to admit that
if I was frightened of anybody I was frightened of my
future wife. I had imagined at one time that it would
be possible to live with her on quite a dignified, un-
familiar footing, but I had now realised what I ought
to have guessed before, that Miss Gascoyne to the man
she loved was very different from the woman the world
knew. Perhaps that is a wrong way of putting it.
She was English, and a certain self-consciousness
towards the world at large was born of a morbid dread
of betraying the strength of her nature to the vulgar.


CHAPTER XXIV
nervous.
ALTHOUGH Sibella had more or less accustomed herself
to the idea of my marriage, the nearness of its approach
gave her somewhat of a shock. Woman-like, she
wanted to meet Miss Gascoyne, but on this point I
was firm.
After we had been married some time such
a thing might be possible, but not till then. Per-
sonally, I had no intention of bringing about the
introduction. The women with whom one has re-
lations are best kept apart. A chance word or look,
unsuspected even by ourselves, might give a clue to
the truth. The whole thing would make me too
She asked me whether if Lionel died I
would break off my engagement and marry her. I
replied that of course I would do so, and though I do
not suppose she believed it any more than I meant
it, the statement seemed to comfort her mightily.
Mr. Gascoyne and I went down to Lord Hammerton's
funeral.
We only saw Lady Gascoyne for a moment. She
was too overwhelmed to hold conversation with any-
one for long. Lord Gascoyne was wonderfully self-
controlled, but he looked very careworn.
I had begun
to understand him, and I could see that he was much
touched by Mr. Gascoyne's solicitude. He mentioned
Miss Lane in the course of the morning.
337
22


ISRAEL RANK
339
She was thirsting for some little display of love.
Her loneliness had been more than she could bear, and
her guilt had added to its terrors. Poor little soul !
my love meant so much to her that in a few minutes
she was smiling almost cheerfully.
She had told them at Hammerton that her nerves
were on the point of breaking down, and that she
must have change ; and she was now on her way to
spend a few weeks with some friends in the North.
I showed her how we might steal two days on her
return and spend them together at a small seaside
village that I knew of on the Yorkshire coast. It
would be very near my marriage-day, and it was the
sort of thing which always held vague possibilities of
discovery, but still I am glad I risked it.
Esther interested me enormously. I had never
come across quite her type before. That, with her
high moral stamina, she should so completely accept
any scheme of deception which I chose to propose
was extraordinary, but so it was. With me she seemed
to have no will but mine.
It was curious that she did not reproach me with
the death of Lord Hammerton, but hers was not the
nature to blame others for any guilt of which she had
to admit a share.
She must have concluded that my visiting Lord
Hammerton's nursery the morning after I had been in
Walter Chard's sick-room was responsible for the
tragedy.
I had expected a torrent of reproaches on this score,
and was very pleased that she said nothing. The
curious moral numbness from which she suffered when
with me seemed to have put the memory of it out of
her mind.
22-2


ISRAEL RANK
341
She might have answered, had she been clover
enough, that in a woman's eyes the fine animal will
stand for a great many virtues, and that the illusion
has a habit of lasting a very long while. The truth of
the matter was, however, that the thoroughly un-
healthy life which Lionel led had quite destroyed any
physical charm he had ever possessed. He developed
a capacity for middle age which was quite startling.
He might have possessed Jewish blood, judging by
the speed of his transition from slim boyishness to
stale maturity. Sibella, who was extraordinarily
fastidious on the subject of physical beauty, noticed
it very soon. Considering that she was married to him,
the discovery did her credit. I have known so many
people marry for beauty and afterwards show the
most extraordinary callousness to its decay. I sup-
pose the romantic resource of most people gives out
after one attack.
Sibella's was not the kind of organisation to become
phlegmatic. Robbed of her essential food-excite-
ment—she would have become querulous and irrit-
able, but she could never settle into the easy-going.
It was a proof of her opulent temperament that I
verily believe she had been somewhat in love with
Lionel and myself at the same time. Lionel now
grated on her in proportion to the fascination he had
once exercised.
I was only afraid that she might find my divided
attention all too insufficient. Sir Anthony Cross had
somewhat dropped off. The pertinacity of the most
fervid lover cannot withstand perpetual disappoint-
ment, and he was beginning to realise that he had
set his heart on the moon. I think he realised also
that I was laughing at him for the effusive civility


342
ISRAEL RANK
to me.
;
with which he had treated me whilst he thought I
was playing his game, a civility which had long since
given way to marked coolness. This I did not mind,
for the time had now passed when he could be useful
I should have attempted to conciliate him if
I had thought otherwise. I knew that in his heart of
hearts he had always disliked me, though at the same
time my Jewish blood taught me not to create one
more enemy than was necessary.
My marriage drew near, and a cloud of family con-
nections descended on Miss Gascoyne. People who
would some time before have denied that I was in any
way connected with the Gascoynes, thought it such a
nice thing that she was marrying one of the family,
and though it was improbable that dear Mr. Rank
would ever succeed, still, one never knew ; whilst any
reference to my Jewish blood was no doubt met with :
'Oh, I don't know ; perhaps a very slight strain ;'
which, considering my appearance, was ridiculous.
I went the length of presenting myself with a wedding-
gift from the imaginary Parsons family. It was the
sort of thing which I did not like doing. It is always
difficult to say how active deception in small things
will end, and no wise criminal encumbers himself with
a number of petty deceptions. They clog his foot-
steps, and, besides, the trifles of life should be used to
build up a reputation for veracity and good fellowship.
It is limiting to play for small stakes. An attention
to detail is imperative, but the detail must be essential
and not superfluous. Still, considering that I had
made so much of the Parsons' devotion to me, it
would have looked strange if they had not sent me
something, even from Canada.


CHAPTER XXVI
I CANNOT quite decide whether it was the prepara-
tions and natural excitement consequent on my
marriage, or whether much success had made me
careless, but certain it was that I conducted my cam-
paign against Lord Gascoyne, the most delicate affair
of all, with a lack of forethought which candour compels
me to admit has very justly brought me to this place.
I believe it would have been better if I had dealt
with him some time before. Now I come to think the
matter over, it would obviously have been better to
leave the Reverend Henry alive, and to have waited
my opportunity in the case of Lord Hammerton. I
should then have appeared so much further from the
succession that suspicion would not have been aroused.
In the first place, I was much too hasty in deciding
on the means by which I intended to remove Lord
Gascoyne. To have decided on vulgar, common-place
poison at such a crisis was an error in judgment for
which there is really no excuse.
Miss Gascoyne and I were to spend a few days at
Hammerton at the conclusion of our honeymoon, and
I chose that occasion for the completion of my task.
It would then be practically finished, for I had no
intention of getting rid of Mr. Gascoyne. A natural
feeling of gratitude towards so excellent a man was my
343


ISRAEL RANK
345
it was a risk I was obliged to take. If I had been in
love with my wife to a certain extent before marriage,
I cannot say that my passion lasted very long. I
fancy she brought to what I had always looked upon
as a delirious relaxation too strenuous an ideal. With
her it could not have been otherwise. I managed to
conceal the fact from her with considerable success,
but the truth was that she got on my nerves.
She
was a great creature, but she was on a different plane
from myself, and it made things very difficult. A good
woman, however, being without experience, is always
more easily deceived. If this were not so the artificial
arrangements which are supposed to safeguard society
would have disappeared long ago.
The life she was always sketching out for us, to
her so beautiful and noble, was to me excessively
dreary. Doing good appeared to be its chief enter-
tainment. We were apparently to spend our money-
all too little for the wants of a young couple who wished
to make a decent figure in society-on other people.
I foresaw a very speedy parting of our ways. I was
strong, and she was strong, and it was impossible that
either should impose views on the other.
She was
one of those women who are perfectly prepared to
follow love to heaven, but who have not the least
intention of being led in the contrary direction. Con-
science with her was supreme. I was determined,
however, that nothing should appear at all wrong
during Mr. Gascoyne's lifetime, or until I was in safe
possession of Hammerton and the title. Mr. Gascoyne's
fortune amounted to close on a hundred thousand
pounds. This would, I know, come to my wife and
myself, and if I suffered defeat, it would be a very
pleasant addition to our own capital; and though I did


346
ISRAEL RANK
not think that, except in extreme circumstances, Mr.
Gascoyne was likely to leave his money away from us,
it was possible that if he had an idea that I was not
making quite the husband he expected he might settle
it somewhat too exclusively on Edith.
I set myself, therefore, to study the art of con-
cealing from her that her ideals bored me, and that
her outlook on life was too serious. At the same
time I bantered her a little, and tried to bring her into
an atmosphere of gaiety. She was ready to attempt
a greater levity of manner to please me. The effort
was somewhat of a failure, for saints off their
pedestals never present an absolutely dignified appear-
ance.
Our honeymoon was a success, however.
A man
of taste and imagination can never be quite dull
when in possession of a beautiful woman, not, at
any rate, until the novelty has worn off. Serious
though Edith was, she did not exhaust herself in a
fortnight.
We arrived at Hammerton in due course, to find
Mr. and Mrs. Gascoyne of the party. The reception
that Lord and Lady Gascoyne gave us was quite
feudal and eminently flattering. I inwardly promised
his lordship that if it were in my power he should have
a magnificent funeral.
It was quite a family gathering. Naturally, we had
not expected many people to be asked to meet us, as
they were still in deep mourning. It had been very
nice of them to ask us at all, considering the circum-
stances. I had grown so accustomed to pose as one
of the mourners at a tragedy of my own making that
the situation had ceased even to possess weirdness.
It was a little awkward that my wife took an imme-


ISRAEL RANK
347
diate fancy to Esther Lane. It was surely against all
the laws of human nature that Esther Lane should
reciprocate the liking.
It seemed to me that from the moment she met my
wife her whole manner towards me changed.
I think she began instinctively to distrust a man
who could behave so badly—from her point of view-
to a woman like Edith. I don't think she entirely
believed all I had said about my marriage being one
of mere convenience. Before I had had an oppor-
tunity of seeing her alone, in the course of a few re-
marks which we hurriedly interchanged while we were
looking over some songs after dinner, she told me that
she could not understand any man not loving a woman
so beautiful and good. I could see that without
saying as much she was a little surprised that Edith
and I should have come together. She had a fine
instinct and perhaps realised how unsuited we must be.
I was anxious to have a private conversation with
her, but she declared that it was quite impossible,
that she was not so depraved as I imagined her
to be.
When I did manage to get a few words with her
alone I found that she was adamant. It was certain
that she had changed to an extraordinary degree,
and somehow she gave me an uncomfortable and some-
what sinister impression of being a possible danger.
She did not deny that she still loved me a great deal
too much for her own peace of mind, and I have no
doubt that if I had had a free hand as to the time I
could spend with her I might have had my own way,
but I was occupied with other things, and in particular
I was occupied with Lord Gascoyne.
I had decided that after dinner, whilst Lord Gas-


348
ISRAEL RANK
we
were
coyne and I were sitting over our wine I would try,
if possible, to carry out the finishing stroke of my
policy.
Evening after evening I sat within arm's length of
him without the desired opportunity occurring.
Lord Gascoyne was in the habit of drinking claret
after dinner. His cellar of this wine was quite re-
markable. He was, however, a moderate drinker,
and I do not think that beyond a couple of glasses
after dinner he ever took anything at all. Sometimes
he drank whisky-and-soda in the smoking-room, but
very rarely. Indeed, we were a most abstemious
couple.
It was towards the end of my visit when the
opportunity occurred. One evening as
sitting over our wine a servant came in and announced
that there was a fellow-magistrate in the justice-
room who wished to see him, if only for two minutes.
He left the room, saying that he would not be long,
and with the usual conventional admonition to help
myself. Now was my chance. My courage failed
me for a few minutes, and then I made the greatest
mistake I could have done. His glass was empty,
and so I poisoned what remained in the bottle. As
I had the bottle in my hand a servant entered in
search of Lord Gascoyne's eyeglasses. He saw me
with the bottle in my hand, and noticing that my
glass was empty, and knowing I drank port, filled it.
As I was wondering what I should do, Lord Gascoyne
re-entered and seated himself.
I gazed at the bottle before him, fascinated. I
would have given worlds to get rid of it. Just as I
was thinking of doing something to upset it, he poured
out a glass and began to drink it. I saw at once the


ISRAEL RANK
349
I had every
whole chain of mistakes. I was the only person in
the room.
I had been seen with the bottle in my
hand. It would be next to impossible to destroy the
bottle with its damning evidence. I had also obtained
the arsenic from a chemist in the ordinary way. I
had signed the wrong name, and if I were recognised
that would make the matter worse.
motive for the crime-a motive which would stand
out with startling clearness after Lord Gascoyne's
death. I had felt nervous before. Now I experi-
enced a sensation of acute terror. I must have shown
it to some extent, for I turned pale, and Lord Gascoyne
asked me whether I was ill. I declared I felt quite
well, although at the moment he was taking another
glass of claret.
I realised with an extraordinary feeling of depres-
sion that I was a clumsy murderer walking about like
any ordinary criminal with blood-red hands, and
trusting that nobody would notice their colour.
I watched Lord Gascoyne drinking his claret with
sinking spirits, and could only pray that he might be
one of those people who possess an inexplicable
immunity to the poison I had used. It was not our
custom to remain long over our wine, and in about a
quarter of an hour we joined the three women in a
small octagonal room off the picture-gallery. As Lord
Gascoyne and I walked along the dimly-lighted
picture-gallery towards the little room at the end I felt
as if I were in a dream. It seemed as if the presage
of a Nemesis, tardy but terrible, were upon me. The
dark figures on the canvas stared down upon him as
he passed, claiming him as one of their ghostly com-
pany; and I almost thought that his own picture,
high above the great mantelpiece carved in hundreds


ISRAEL RANK
351
tunity of destroying all chance of detection was over.
In reality it was here that I made the fatal mis-
take, for I should have obtained possession of the
decanter at all costs and destroyed it, or at least have
cleansed it. I should have invented some excuse,
seeing its paramount importance to me.
I was, how-
ever, too nervous of arousing suspicion. In fact, I
had lost my nerve for the time being without realising
it. It is certain that had I been as cool and self-
possessed as I am now I should not be here. I allowed
the golden opportunity to slip. There was some
excuse. Lord Gascoyne was momentarily growing
worse. Everyone in the castle was in a state of
alarm. I was seldom alone, for my wife hardly left
me except when she could be of use. I cursed
myself for my stupidity in not choosing a more rapid
poison. I might at least have given the foolish
doctors an opportunity of declaring death to be due
to natural causes. The learned fellows require so
little encouragement to commit blunders.
I remember well the electric shock I received when,
towards the morning, one of the doctors stopped me
in the corridor and said something about its looking
very much as if Lord Gascoyne had been poisoned.
Poisoned ?” I asked in surprise.
Yes; he must have eaten something which was
poisoned. One never knows in these days of food
adulteration. One is safe nowhere—not even at the
best tables.”
I felt almost inclined to say that doctors themselves
were curiously lax on the subject, but I was too much
alarmed at his having put his finger on the spot at
once to enter into an abstract discussion on the ethics
of the medical profession.


ISRAEL RANK
353
struck me that it might be possible to obtain the
decanter that evening at dinner. I supposed there
would be dinner. There usually is, even at moments
of the greatest stress. Curiously enough, the whole
thing once over, I began to recover my nerve rapidly,
and by the time Mr. Gascoyne had arrived I was quite
myself. I did not know that, even at that moment,
the junior doctor was conducting an examination into
what Lord Gascoyne had eaten and drunk the evening
before, and giving orders that everything which had
been left was to remain untouched.
I think such a knowledge would have tempted me
to buy some means of retiring from the scene on an
emergency. I had not even a loaded revolver. It
was evident I was not the clever person I had imagined
myself to be.
Mr. Gascoyne could hardly believe the news.
“ Israel, it is terrible. There seems to be a curse on
the family.” He was silent for a few moments, and
then continued thoughtfully : “Israel, has it struck you
what this means to you? Failing male heirs, the title
descends through a woman. Your grandfather would
have been the last male heir, therefore your mother
would have succeeded as his heiress, and then you."
We had talked this over before, but I pretended to
think of it deeply, as if it now presented itself to me
seriously for the first time.
Of course, it has struck me, but the possibilities
seemed so remote.”
“They are close enough now. It would seem as if
Fate had been on your side."
I certainly hoped that it was. He little knew that
that fate in its concrete form was sitting opposite to him.
What do you think was the cause of death, Israel ?”
23


354
ISRAEL RANK
>>
“Nobody seems quite to know."
“He looked just that sinewy, tough sort of man
who was likely to live for ever."
I was silent.
“There must have been something organically
wrong," Mr. Gascoyne continued.
I was still silent, meditating whether I should tell
him what the doctor had hinted at as regards poison.
I decided that it would be better to do so. It would
look very strange if he should discover that the doctor
had already suggested such a thing to me, and that I
had ignored the fact.
“Dr. Phillimore thinks that death must have been
caused by some violent poison.”
“Poison ? Impossible !"
“So I said. I don't suppose he meant for one
moment that anybody had poisoned him.”
I regretted this remark. It might rouse suspicions
in his brain. The nervous analysis of everything I
said was becoming automatic.
“He was taken ill directly after dinner, you say?"
“ When we left the dining-room.”
“If it had been anything he had eaten you would all
have been taken ill as well.”
It would seem so. At least, I don't know. There
may have been some dish which we others did not
touch."
“It is all very mysterious, but it is quite possible
that the doctors may be wrong.”
“Oh, quite," I said dryly.
The rest of the drive he spent in asking after Lady
Gascoyne, and for other details of the affair.
As we entered the great hall I saw the two doctors
at a distant window in earnest consultation.
>


ISRAEL RANK
355
66
ness.
They came forward and greeted Mr. Gascoyne as the
Earl.
They had evidently been waiting for him. Dr.
Phillimore, the younger of the two, who had been
called in in consultation, said at once :
Dr. Grange is anxious for a private interview with
you when you are at liberty.”
I had from the first felt nervous of Dr. Phillimore.
He was evidently a man of exceptional intellectual
power. He had a massive, square forehead, and a
strong resolute face with an expression of great alert-
Even now, although he had had no rest for
twenty-four hours, he showed fow traces of fatigue.
Dr. Grange, on the other hand, looked worn and jaded
to a degree, and would, I am sure, had he been left
to himself, have retired to rest before taking any
further steps in the matter. I did not know that,
whilst I had been out, Dr. Phillimore had been making
extensive inquiries, and that he had already placed
under lock and key everything which had been on
the table the night before.
It appeared that he had once before been concerned
in a poisoning case. Decidedly my good fortune had
been on the wane without my knowing it. I think
his previous experience had somewhat obsessed him
with the idea that poisoners were everywhere. Only
in this way can I account for the unerring ability with
which he followed up every clue.
I was beginning to feel more and more uncomfort-
able, and when Mr. Gascoyne and the two doctors dis-
appeared into the library-I had not been invited to
be present-I felt much like the criminal who in a
moment of panic betrays his guilt by flight.
My wife came to me once or twice ; but she was a
23--2


ISRAEL RANK
357
It was
and suffering had taken something of her bloom,
seemed to me made for suffering. I felt that Fate
had marked her out for some terrible experiment in
sorrow; that grief had chosen her for its own, and
that I ought to have foreseen it.
I had made the cardinal error of allying myself with
a soul that was moving in a cycle of sorrows.
curious that I should not have detected a fact now so
apparent. One should always seek the companion-
ship of the joyous. To walk with those who are
wedded by Fate to grief is to play with fire. It is to
step within influences that may destroy us. So much
of the mystical I can infer. There is hidden meaning
in the phrase, 'Let the dead bury their dead. She
seemed to be afraid of her own company, and I think
sought mine out of pure loneliness. I was too absorbed,
however, in my own danger to comfort her. What had
she to fear compared to me? She had lost something
which was of purely conventional value, whilst I might
be in danger of losing the essentials, life and liberty.
“I am very unhappy," she said, in her low, musical
voice, with the curious thrilling vibration that had
given it such an appeal for me. I feel as if somehow
I had meant nothing but sorrow and grief to this place,
as if I were of ill omen. Of course, it is presumptuous
of me to even think of myself as being of so much im-
portance.”
“ You seem to think very little of me now,
mured. It seemed unchivalrous not to render her
some comfort of the heart.
She was silent for a moment, and then pulled herself
together.
“I am afraid I think of you too much."
Even at that moment I was moved in my essential
" I mur-


ISRAEL RANK
359
“Phillimore has wired to London for a specialist in
poisons, and the post-mortem will take place directly
he arrives. It appears that Phillimore was mixed up
in the Greybridge poisoning case, and knows a good
deal about these things. Not,” he added hastily, that
there is the least suspicion of foul play.”
Phillimore was evidently a highly unpleasant fellow,
and I would willingly have pushed him over the battle-
ments if occasion had offered. I made myself very
civil to him, however. I was told that he had gone
into the kitchen and superintended the cooking of
everything which was sent upstairs. This had the
effect of frightening all the servants into fits, and half
of them were already complaining of imaginary internal
aches and pains.
I saw the humour of the situation, notwithstanding
my alarm, but the others did not. They sat round the
table with the conventional Christian look of gloom
which is considered suitable when a brother Christian
has, presumably, entered into a state of bliss.
After dinner I went and sat with my wife and Mrs.
Gascoyne. They informed me that Lady Gascoyne,
thoroughly worn out, had fallen asleep.
“I am afraid the most terrible moment of all for her
will be when she wakes up to find that it is not a
dream but a reality.”
Frankly, I thought worse sorrows might have be-
fallen a woman with three-quarters of a million of her
own, who still retained youth and beauty, not to
speak of being a dowager Countess. No, it was
impossible to feel very sorry for Lady Gascoyne.
Nobody realises the tragedies of love better than I
do, but at the same time one cannot forget that lovers
for the beautiful and rich are to be found every hour


ISRAEL RANK
361
meanour.
fact, he was rather officious and inclined to treat us
all like children. With my special knowledge I was,
of course, able to appreciate his real value, though,
even had I been a mere spectator, I think I should
have set him down at a glance as a man of first-class
brain-power.
The great specialist arrived whilst we were at dinner.
He was a man of opulent, indeed quite princely de-
Unlike Phillimore, whose exterior bore a
certain ruggedness, his power was concealed by an
outward courtliness that might have deceived the
unwary. Personally, I felt it at once.
He went into consultation with his brethren, and
I learned afterwards that he speedily came to the
opinion that Lord Gascoyne had died of a violent
irritant poison.
All these details were kept from Lady Gascoyne as
much as possible, and it was not till after the post-
mortem that she learned what had taken place. I
saw by the look of perplexity in the faces of the three
doctors that they were puzzled at what they had
found. I had already resigned myself to the fact that
the poison would be found in the bottle of claret.
The wretched thing, with other food which was to
be examined, was locked up in a strong room, of
which Dr. Grange held the key. Figuratively, I was
before that strong room every precious hour that
passed, wondering how it might be opened. How
wretchedly I had overreached myself! However, it
was done. It was of no use to whine. I must fight
until the whole thing was decided against me.
The doctors were quite secret over what they had
discovered, but I kept Dr. Phillimore well under
observation. He left the house soon after the post-


362
ISRAEL RANK
mortem, and drove off in the direction of Gaythorpe,
a town about five miles away. I knew what he had
done. He had written his telegram before leaving
the house, and I read it on the blotting-paper by
means of a looking-glass. It was as I thought. The
message was a telegram to Scotland Yard asking for
a detective. While he was doing this, the poison
expert was examining the food.
I tramped the battlements for one hour making up
my mind as to what I should do in case the charge
should be made against me.
I did not make the mistake of dwelling on those
points of the case which were in my favour. I kept
my attention fixed on those that seemed most damning.
My own guilt, viewing it as I did from the inside,
seemed easily susceptible of proof, but I had to re-
member that a detective, however expert, would
approach the matter from a totally different stand-
point. He was, after all, an outsider, and I must try
and put myself in his position if possible.
It took me a long time to decide my course of
action should suspicion fall upon me. I also began to
grow uneasy as to whether I had left anything in my
house at Clapham which might furnish a clue to my
movements during my former operations. I was
sorry
I had concealed the existence of the house.
If I were arrested the grief of Mr. Gascoyne and
my wife would be rather trying, but I had counted
the cost of discovery when I originally set out on my
adventures.
Mr. Gascoyne was busily occupied in arranging for
the funeral.
I was very anxious to discover whether there was
any likelihood of a posthumous heir.


CHAPTER XXVII
The inquest took place in the justice-room.
It was not deemed probable that it would be neces-
sary to summon Lady Gascoyne as witness. The
evidence of the others who had been in the room at
the time when Lord Gascoyne was taken ill was con-
sidered sufficient. The statement I had already made
to the coroner's officer was quite simple. I declared
that I had not noticed any signs of illness on the part
of Lord Gascoyne till we reached the room where the
ladies were
There had certainly been nothing to
arouse anxiety before we left the table.
The depositions of myself, Mrs. Gascoyne, my wife,
and Miss Lane were taken first, and they then passed
on to the medical evidence.
Dr. Grange was the first to be examined. He
stated that on reaching the castle he found Lord Gas-
coyne in such a serious state that he immediately sent
for the assistance of Dr. Phillimore. The latter seemed
to think that Lord Gascoyne was suffering from
poisoning, an opinion which he had not at first shared.
At the post-mortem, however, a sufficient amount of
arsenic was found in the body to have caused death.
Dr. Phillimore's evidence was identical, but it was
easy to see that it was he who had guided Dr. Grange's
opinion.
364


ISRAEL RANK
365
Finally, the expert was called, and the detective
glanced at me to see what effect his appearance would
have. I am glad to say that I gave him no satisfac-
tion. I do not believe that I changed colour or
moved a muscle. Indeed, I believe he has had the
fairness to say that he never came across a criminal
who had such complete self-control, and that it seemed
incredible that a criminal so self-possessed should
not have found means to get rid of the claret in the
decanter. He afterwards declared that he had at
one time hoped to trace more than one of the Gas-
coyne mysteries to me, but in that he failed.
The expert corroborated the evidence of the other
doctors, and then stated that he had made an ex-
amination of the food.
“I naturally selected the one thing which was most
particular to Lord Gascoyne,” he said, “ and I began,
principally for the sake of simplicity and so as to
clear the way, on the claret."
I found myself breathing hard. It was a moment
of supreme test. Many things convinced me that
there was at least some suspicion attaching to me.
The detective imagined that I was not looking at him,
whereas I was conscious of his least movement. It
is indeed a pity that what ought to be a particularly
brilliant profession is left to the lower middle classes.
It accounts for the comparative lack of scandal in the
higher ranks of life, for a gentleman does not find
it difficult to hide his crimes and vices from those
reared in perhaps the most obtuse section of society.
It was also easy to see that the servant Waters had
been questioned about me, for directly the bottle of
claret was mentioned he cast a furtive glance in my
direction.


366
ISRAEL RANK
“I found this bottle," continued the specialist,“ to
be full of arsenic-so full, that it would have been
impossible to drink any of the contents without
succumbing to its effects. To be brief, I found no
traces of arsenic in any other bottle of claret taken
from the same bin or in any of the other food.”
“ You are quite sure of that ?"
“Yes. The claret was a brand of which there was
barely a dozen left. I believe Lord Gascoyne had
been heard to regret that there was so little remaining.'
After the expert's evidence there was a pause.
Mr. Gascoyne looked terribly worried. He had
evidently not imagined that the matter was likely to
become so serious and complicated.
The next witness was Gorby, the butler. He deposed
to having fetched the wine from the cellar.
No one
had access to the wine-cellar but himself.
He kept
the keys. He had been in the family for forty years.
In reply to the coroner, he said that he himself
placed the wine on the sideboard, and that it was his
duty to pour out his lordship's first glass before with-
drawing.
No one drank claret after dinner but his lordship.
Mr. Rank usually drank one glass of port, sometimes
he drank nothing, but certainly never more than one
glass.
“And on this particular evening ?”
“Mr. Rank took port, sir."
The coroner leaned forward and put the next
question impressively.
“Was it possible for the arsenic to have been put
into the decanter between your placing it on the side-
board and the arrival of the company for dinner ?”
“I don't think so, sir. I was late with some of the


ISRAEL RANK
367
wine, and did not leave the dining-room at all till
the company arrived."
“ It was possible, however, for anyone to reach the
wine while you were out of the room ?" persisted the
coroner.
66
“It was possible ; but the servants were very
busy.”
“How many servants were there in the room besides
yourself ?”
"Two."
“You yourself poured out the claret which Lord
Gascoyne drank ?”
“Yes, sir.” "
“What did you do with the decanter ?”
As usual, I placed it in front of his lordship.”
And then you left the room ?”
66
“ Yes."
“ And the other servants also, I suppose ?”
“Yes, sir."
There was a pause. An unaccountable whimsi-
cality made me think of the game which children
play, and which consists in sending someone out of
the room and then hiding an article which the absent
one is to find on his return. I felt almost inclined to
cry hot and cold to the coroner as he hovered over
the evidence. Not that I felt callous as to what might
be going to occur. I had enjoyed life far too much.
On the other hand, I had always reckoned the cost,
and had never counted my chickens before they were
hatched.
Mr. Gascoyne crossed over to me in the interval,
and said in an undertone :
What does it all mean ?”
“I really do not know,” I saia.


370
ISRAEL RANK
>>
abnormally tense and keen ; in fact, the acuteness of
intelligence which I felt was in proportion to the
recession from realities which had just possessed me.
It had been an unconscious recoil, but my perception
advanced with greater force because of it.
“You came into the room when Lord Gascoyne
and Mr. Rank were alone, I believe, to tell his lord-
ship that Colonel Markham wished to see him in the
library ?"
Yes, sir.”
“ You then returned to the dining-room ?”
Yes, sir.”
“What for ?”
“His lordship told me to bring him his eye-glasses,
which he had left on the table."
What did you see ?”
“Mr. Rank had the decanter of claret in his hand."
“What did you do ?”
“I thought he had mistaken the decanter of claret
for port, and I took it from him and helped him to
port.
“ But you say that the claret and port were in two
totally different decanters. The claret was in a flagon ?”
“Yes, sir."
The port decanter and the flagon were here pro-
duced. No one could have imagined that the claret
flagon held port; at least, so I thought, but it may
have been my guilty conscience.
The coroner continued his examination.
“Please be very careful in your answers."
Yes, sir.”
“When you took the flagon from Mr. Rank, where
was the stopper ?"
* On the table."


372
ISRAEL RANK
the world, and had been brought up in a commercial
family, had her eyes fairly wide open. I could see
when we met at dinner that she was very uneasy.
It was a dismal meal. Lady Gascoyne did not, of
course, appear. My wife was sad and preoccupied.
Mrs. Gascoyne, with, I am sure, a full premonition of
impending disaster, strove to be cheerful, but to little
purpose. Mr. Gascoyne hardly spoke a word. When
we were left alone he drew his chair nearer to me,
evidently prepared for a long conversation.
It would have been amusing, had the subject not
possessed such grim significance for me, to notice how
very deprecatingly the servants offered us wine.
The castle cellar itself had, of course, been placed
under lock and key, and the detective seemed to have
disappeared from the premises.
“Israel," said Mr. Gascoyne seriously, “if poison was
found in that bottle, someone must have put it there."
That seems very obvious."
"I could have understood it had there only been
a very little arsenic in the bottle, but that it should
have contained the quantity it did is amazing."
Why Mr. Gascoyne should have understood it better
had there not been so much arsenic in the bottle was
not very apparent, but he was in the sort of mood in
which people are apt to talk nonsense.
“Have you the least suspicion as to ho might have
put the poison in the bottle, Israel ?"
He looked at me furtively.
“They might say that it was I, sir."
I fancy that he gave almost a sigh of relief. He
would never have dared to make such a suggestion
himself, and I could see that he was thankful to me
for giving him an opening.
>>


374
ISRAEL RANK
>>
66
>>
“Quite sure.”
But even as I spoke I remembered that I only had
my own deductions to guide me. No one had told
me he was a detective. I searched swiftly in my brain
for some excuse, but could think of none.
How did
you know he was a detective ?”
“I heard him questioning one of the servants."
Which
servant ?”
“Waters."
“What about ?"
“I did not quite catch what he said, but it was quite
easy to see what he was.'
“He may have been gathering evidence for the
inquest.”
" That is what I suggest.”
“Oh! I beg your pardon.”
He was evidently a little puzzled.
The next day Lord Gascoyne was buried. It was a
beautiful sunlit morning, and as we crossed the court-
yard following the coffin in procession I glanced up
towards the windows of Lady Gascoyne's apartment.
I could see a white hand slightly drawing apart the
closed curtains. I was sorry for her, but as matters
were going I was a good deal more sorry for myself.
The affair had already attained the dignity of a
first-class mystery in the London press, and as the
victim was a Lord the sensation was twice what it
would otherwise have been.
Most of them frankly admitted that as far as they
knew there was no clue. But one halfpenny daily
with an enormous circulation, whose consistent un-
veracity seemed a matter of supreme indifference to
its readers, declared that there was a clue, and stated
that someone had come forward to show that Lord


ISRAEL RANK
375
Gascoyne had been in the habit of purchasing arsenic,
that he was a confirmed arsenic eater, and that every-
thing he ate was impregnated with it.
It was very unpleasant to have the searchlight of
the entire press turned on the case so soon.
It would
put Scotland Yard on its mettle, and detective forces
are apt to strain matters somewhat when their credit
is publicly involved.
That evening I was walking up and down the terrace
smoking a cigar with no very comfortable feelings,
when I caught sight of the gleam of a white dress in
the shadow of the battlements some way off. I
guessed at once who it was. Esther Lane was watch-
ing me.
Why was she doing so? Was it possible that some
suspicion of the truth had entered her brain ? It
dawned on me that, creature of instinct as she was,
she might have arrived at the truth by the clear light
of intuition.
I went swiftly towards her.
There was no time for her to ovade me, but she
shrank back into the shadow as I approached her.
Why are you watching me ?” I said as gently as I
could, putting out my hands nervously.
She shrank back, thrusting me from her.
6 Don't touch me. Don't touch me.'
Her voice was low, tense with a latent hysteria,
which must have caused her an immense effort to
control.
Why are you watching me?" I asked again.
She looked at me silently, the terror in her eyes
growing.
She began to give me a strangely uneasy feeling.
“Oh, it's horrible, horrible," she murmured, and


ISRAEL RANK
377
tatives of the county police, the chief constable him-
self being present. I smiled grimly as I surveyed all
the materials for a very dramatic arrest.
The coroner then called me.
“ After the ladies had withdrawn from the dinner-
table on the evening in question you were left alone
with Lord Gascoyne ?”
That is so.”
“He was called out of the room and a servant entered
whilst he was away
?”
“ Yes.”
“Who declares that you had in your hand the claret
decanter from which Lord Gascoyne had been drinking.'
“I don't remember. The servant took the de-
canter from me and poured out some port.'
It was just as well I admitted this, for the servant's
statement received curious corroboration.
“ That will do."
The next two witnesses were disconcerting. They
were the chemist from whom I had bought the arsenic
and his assistant. I was confronted with every proof
of my folly.
I shall never forget the awful grayness which came
over Lord Gascoyne's face when these witnesses gave
their evidence. I noticed that when they had finished
everyone avoided looking at me. They seemed afraid.
The case appeared so simple that at first it also appeared
incredible. Those around hardly grasped it.
The coroner asked me if I would like to explain why
I had bought the arsenic.
Perhaps I made a mistake in saying that I used it
as a tonic.
“Had I been in the habit of doing so ?" was the next
question.


378
ISRAEL RANK
66
Yes, I had done so before.”
“Have you ever bought arsenic from that chemist
before ?"
“No."
Here the family lawyer interposed, advising me to
be very careful of my answers. I was not obliged to
reply to anything which might incriminate me.
There was nothing more to be done. Towards the end
of the inquest the chief constable crossed to my side,
and, sitting down in quite a friendly manner, asked me
to accompany him after the inquest into the next
room.
The jury, evidently taking into consideration the
fact that I was the next heir, that I had arsenic in
my possession, that there was every motive, and that
I was the only person who could have done it, re-
turned a verdict of Wilful murder ' against me. In
my own eyes I stood convicted as the veriest bungler
who ever danced at the end of a few yards of rope.
Lord Gascoyne was inexpressibly horrified, and
there was a something in his face which I had not
seen before. Was it suspicion ? Perhaps he was
thinking of the occasion when he learned that I was
in the Lowhaven hotel at the time of his son's death.
Truly I had made some inexcusable mistakes.
If nothing succeeds like success, it is also true that
nothing fails like failure.
I found it somewhat difficult to play a sentimental
rôle which should be convincing. I felt that I ought
to take a dramatic farewell of my wife. Scenes of
this sort, however, were distasteful to me. I asked
Lord Gascoyne to go and explain the situation to her,
and when she arrived I received her with a manner
which entirely forbade any outward expression of


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anguish. To do her justice, she was not the kind of
woman who was likely to make a scene. She dis-
played the most perfect self-control, although I could
see that she was suffering acutely. It came as a
terrible blow to her. No suspicion, I am sure, of
the possibility of such a thing had before entered her
mind. I don't think anybody really thought me
guilty, which was, to say the least of it, peculiar, for it
seemed to me as though the evidence were plain enough.
From his manner the chief constable might have been
driving me over to his place to stay for a day or two,
and the first intimation I received of the unpleasant
reality of the situation was the passing under the great
gates of the county prison and the knowledge that for
the future I was not free to go where I liked.


CHAPTER XXVIII
I SUPPOSE I must be thoroughly selfish, for at this
moment of extreme depression and misery I was
thinking chiefly of myself. Of course, I am curiously
constituted, quite artificial from the world's point of
view. I cannot say that I was a victim to the agony
and woe which I believed would have been the lot
of most people in my condition.
I, who had staked so much to win what I coveted,
might have been expected to suffer tortures at the
reflection of what I had lost. I had always thought
that the most terrible thing about shame and im-
prisonment must be the complete triumph of those
who have hated one—the triumph of the 'I told you
so.' This and the irrevocable loss of earthly pleasures
and the binding hand and foot as if one had no passions
or emotions, were the things I had always dreaded.
My consolation was that my failure could not be a
commonplace one. Ordinary criminals might wear out
their lives in captivity and lose their identity through
long years of vile slavery, but the law, stupid and sordid
as it is, had at least a due sense of the dignity of my
crime, and would meet a defiance like mine with the
dignified retort of death. Sordid crimes must meet
with sordid rewards. Death is never sordid, and it
shuts out the derision of a virtuous world.
380


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381
I was caged, and through my own folly. A little
patience and ordinary care would have saved me.
To have failed after such triumphs, and to have failed
where failure was irretrievable, was maddening. I
hated myself more than a converted sinner could have
done. It was all quite dreadful. A miserable fiasco,
with a tragedy as the result. I turned hot and cold
whenever I thought of it-I mean the fiasco, not the
tragedy. I felt like an actor who has mangled his
part and knows it. The only thing to do was to make
the end as flamboyant as possible. There was strong
temptation to proclaim my triumphs forthwith. I
was certain that for all hope there could be of re-
trieving the position I might do so. I had, however,
thrown away too many cards. One never knows how
time, even of the briefest, will deal with facts, so I
determined to be wary. I would fight every inch of
the ground. It would, at any rate, be an amusement
till the end, and my memoirs would keep my fame alive
after death. One does not sin greatly to be forgotten,
and, after all, the great sinners of history have had
their share of posterity, and without the aid of public
monuments. The world is always more curious to
hear about vice than virtue.
For the first few days after my arrest I was a prey
to savage rage, and found it difficult to reduce myself
to that condition of mind in which a fighter who wants
to make the best of things should be.
The first visit I received was from Lord Gascoyne. I
was sorry for him. He looked ghastly, and avoided
my eye. I was sure now that suspicion had done its
work. Yet I knew he was blaming himself for even
wondering how it came about that I was in the hotel
when his son was poisoned. He had believed in me


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а
would probably stand any test. Still, hers was
subtle mind, and might, its white light having once
been split, display a variety of tones and colours.
I do not think Lord Gascoyne had confided his sus-
picions to his wife, for I received from her nothing but
the kindest and most encouraging of letters.
So I lay in gaol and waited, and the day for my ex-
amination came. The police-court where I appeared
was packed. The county turned up in force ; they were
the same people who would have fawned on me had I
succeeded in my object. Perhaps it is unworthy of
an artist to suggest so much bitterness as lies in the
word fawn. I had been taken by Fate on my own
terms, and if I had failed, it was not for me to show a
bitter spirit; in fact, it was illogical and small. I
had played for their admiration and, having failed,
obtained instead their derision.
My wife was in court the first day, and spoke to
me in such a way as to impress upon the world her
absolute confidence. I had no wish, however, to add
to her sorrow, and I told her it would make me happier
if she remained away.
The case was gone into most exhaustively, and,
despite the fact that my lawyer declared that there
was absolutely nothing on which to go to a jury, I was
committed for trial.
I am pleased to say that the newspapers were
unanimous in noticing my absolute calm of demeanour.


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The fact that I was not to be tried with the farce of
a jury was a great comfort to me. If there is one
thing more ridiculous than another in our judicial
system, it is the fiction that when a gentleman has
been tried before a dozen petty tradesmen he has
been tried by his peers. If a peer were tried by a
dozen gentlemen of ordinarily good standing and
repute, he would be tried by his peers, but to try a
gentleman before a dozen men who can have no know-
ledge of the conditions under which he has lived is
simply absurd. Murder trials, the results of which
with our system of capital punishment are irrevocable,
should be tried by three judges whose verdict should
be unanimous, and the trial should always take place
in another part of the country from that in which
the crime has been committed.
My perceptions became abnormally keen on matters
of legal procedure. I sometimes found myself, when
reflecting on such matters, starting with the assump-
tion that I was innocent. It was amazing how com-
pletely I could follow a line of argument having my
innocence for its basis.
It was decided that I should be taken to the House
of Lords the night before the trial and lodged in the
precincts, under a strict guard, till its conclusion.
I was uncertain until the last moment whether I
should have the escort of military, or mounted police.
As a matter of fact, I was honoured with neither, but
was hemmed in by detectives.
I did not doubt but that I should have a perfectly
fair trial. I can imagine no tribunal where a man is
likely to receive more impartial treatment.
I read all the papers, and was disturbed to notice
that a suspicion gradually manifested itself as to the


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387
real truth. It began to be remembered how speedily
the members of the family which stood between me
and the title had disappeared, and under what tragic
circumstances.
I had always made a point of not having my photo-
graph taken. Unfortunately, the police did this for
me, and the proprietor of the hotel at which young
Gascoyne Gascoyne had stayed when he was supposed
to have poisoned himself recognised me at once.
It
was flattering as a tribute to my individuality, but
inconvenient. I was for at once admitting that I had
been at the hotel at the time, but my lawyers would
not hear of it. Every inch of the ground, they de-
clared, must be fought. They were a most able firm,
and, realising that I was an advertisement such as they
could never hope for again, they nursed the case-
which in the first place was strong and healthy enough
to have satisfied any lawyers-with tender solicitude.
I said that I had mentioned the fact to Mr. Gas-
coyne, as he then was, and that he might have told
his wife. I asked if this would be accepted in evi-
dence. They scouted the idea, however, of its being
used, so I forbore to press the question further. The
chances that Mr. Gascoyne had told his wife were
extremely remote.
Having tracked me to the hotel at Lowhaven, the
police were somewhat at a loss. They utterly failed
to establish the fact that I had any poison in my pos-
session at that time. They then threw themselves
with ardour into the details of Ughtred Gascoyne's
death. Here, again, although it was possible to show
that I was not infrequently at his flat late at night,
their most strenuous efforts could not prove
that I was
there on the night on which the fire had taken place.
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ISRAEL RANK
manner.
I was sure that suspicion about this began to creep
into my wife's mind. Perhaps she had learned that
the Parsons were fictitious individuals. It may also
have struck her that I must have passed the road
where her brother was found dead, earlier on the same
evening. These two facts, taken together with my
being in the same hotel with young Gascoyne when
he died, and as much evidence as could be raked up
against me in connection with Ughtred Gascoyne's
death, must have forged a chain of implication which
could not but shake the most serene confidence. Not
that I had the least fear of her acting in a hostile
She could not have done anything had she
wished to; besides, she belonged to that class of
woman who, possessing most of the virtues, would
never drag her husband's name in the dust. Her
conscience might-had she been questioned—have
triumphed, but that she would speak out of her own
free will I did not believe.
As the day of the trial drew nearer and nearer with-
out any now charge my confidence rose. I suppose
this optimism lies at the back of every prisoner's mind.
The possibility of an acquittal probably never dis-
appears till the foreman of the jury delivers the
terrible word guilty, a word which has a leaden sound
complementary to the deadliness of its meaning.
My wife came to see me the day before the trial, and
though she strove hard against the awful horror that
I could see was in her mind, the strain was at last
telling on her. She was taken away in a dead faint.
I was sorry for her. I knew it was the last thing she
would have wished should happen. My own danger
had driven all three women out of my mind, and it was
a psychological point which interested me extremely.


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peers' entrance to the House of Lords, for such was
my privilege, and in a few minutes I had full assur-
ance that I was receiving the hospitality of gentlemen.
I was ushered into two rooms which had been set apart
for me, and in one of which was laid a comfortable
and substantial breakfast. To this I did full justice.
Arrangements had been so made that I was practically
alone in the room, although, of course, I was being
very carefully watched. It was exceedingly comfort-
ing to feel that if they were going to hang me, they
were going to do it with tact and breeding.
Parliament being in session, my trial would not
take place before the Court of the Lord High Steward.
I was glad, for that would have been comparatively
a very small affair.
It may be as well to state that the House of Lords
is a Court of Justice, of which all Peers of Parliament
are judges, and the Lord High Steward the President.
It differs from an ordinary court of law, inasmuch as
all the peers taking part in the trial are judges both
of the law and of the facts.
At a very early hour I could hear a great deal of
bustling and passing to and fro. I lay down on my
bed, however, and had a most refreshing sleep. On
awaking I was told that my lawyers wished to see me.
I had an interview with them lasting about an hour.
They were both mightily important and very excited.
The atmosphere of the place had evidently given them
the idea that they were historical individuals, and I
fancy that they looked upon me as if I had been accused
of High Treason, and, in fact, treated me as quite a
great personage.
So intense had been the excitement aroused, and so
general was the interest displayed, that it had been


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391
decided to hold the trial in the roomier accommoda-
tion of Westminster Hall. I knew from what my
counsel had told me that the peers had begun to
assemble at ten o'clock. It was fully eleven, how-
ever, before I was summoned.
Although I was guarded to a certain extent by the
usual officers of the law, I was nominally in charge of
the yeoman usher of the Black Rod, and in his custody
I was brought to the Bar.
Just before I entered a note was put into my hands
which I was allowed to read. It was from Esther Lane,
and ran :
“Love is always difficult to bear, because of its mad-
ness, which overthrows, and its vision, which distorts.
Pleasant we deem the kisses of men, though they sting,
but the stings of suffering are the kisses of God, and
they burn like fire."
Womanlike, though she was thinking of me, she was
thinking somewhat more of herself.
It was a brilliant scene which I emerged upon, though
perhaps somewhat lacking in the magnificence that
would have attended it had it taken place a century
earlier.
The Lord High Steward, as President, was seated in
front of a throne, and on either side of him were the
peers, in their robes, and wearing their orders. In
front of the President was a raised daïs, on which was
placed an armchair, and by the side of which was a
table.
Near this daïs were tables at which were seated my
counsel and other legal advisers. There was a gallery
at one side, in which were seated the peeresses, and
another gallery at the other side, in which were a


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number of Ambassadors, foreign royalties and noble-
men, semi-resident in England. The difference between
such a trial conducted amid a feast of colour and variety
from what it must have been had it been conducted
at the Old Bailey with its gloom and almost squalid
lack of breadth was startling to think upon.
I had thoroughly studied the effect of my entrance.
I knew that the scarlet of my peer's robes formed an
absolute tone contrast to my Jewish appearance, and
I was conscious of making a marked effect on the women
present.
As an artist, I had suffered grievously in my own
estimation by the blunders I had made in removing
Lord Gascoyne, and I was determined that hencefor-
ward, whatever happened, I would not do anything
which could mar the beauty and interest of the situation.
I waited at the foot of the daïs while Norroy, King-
at-Arms, called 'Oyez, Oyez.' The letters patent con-
stituting a Lord High Steward were then read.
Norroy, and the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod,
then did their reverences kneeling, and presented the
White Staff jointly to the Lord High Steward, who,
receiving it, immediately delivered it to the Gentleman
Usher of the Black Rod on his right hand. The Purse-
Bearer, holding the purse, was on his left.
All these officials in their archaic costumes pro-
duced a most picturesque effect. The composition
was seen in a sort of half-light, mellowing its garish-
ness and the primary tones of official uniform. Through
the windows, which had been veiled to keep out the
glare of a brilliant summer sun, a golden light fell
here and there, just sufficient to edge the scene with
a gilded splendour.
The writ of certiorari for removing the indictment


ISRAEL RANK
393
before the King in Parliament was then read. I will
not reproduce this legal document, but it is sufficient
to say that it charged me with the sole offence of
poisoning Lord Gascoyne. I already saw in the faces
of those around me that they believed what the press
had daily insinuated, viz., that I was a wholesale
murderer. Herein lay a great peculiarity and paradox
of justice. It would not have been permissible to
even hint in a court of law that there was a breath of
suspicion attached to me in regard to the deaths of
the other Gascoynes ; it struck me, however, that it
would have been excellent proof as to my innocence
had it been argued that so clever a criminal as the
alleged murderer of these others had been, would
never have blundered so grossly over the murder of
Lord Gascoyne.
As I stood and listened to these preliminaries I was
being scrutinised by everyone in the Hall. The Lords
were freed from the discomfort of trying one who had
been born and bred among them. There were no
recollections of Eton and Oxford to spoil the abstract
drama of the occasion. I was to the great majority
a stranger, and to the rest a mere acquaintance. Of
course, I was connected with some of those present,
but in so distant a degree that it hardly amounted
to anything, and for all practical purposes I stood
there a stranger. This must undoubtedly have been
a relief to them, as curiosity could be given full play.
The clerk of the Parliaments then directed the Ser-
geant-at-Arms to make proclamation for Black Rod
to bring his prisoner within the Bar.
I was led to the chair on the daïs which was techni-
cally considered within the Bar. The daïs had been
provided so that I might have, as was only fair, a


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397
..
That means that most do.
Now, does anyone
believe in my innocence ?"
“Oh yes, my lord, of course, some.”
“I see; very few people believe in my innocence.
Who are those that do ?'
He smiled. “I think the women do, my lord.”
This was satisfactory. I could not have had more
practical support.
He told me further that there was a vast crowd
outside in Westminster Yard.
I advised him to make his way at once to a news-
paper office, and sell them a description of his inter-
view with me. I warned him, however, that he must
exaggerate if he wished to be believed, and I gave him
full permission to invent any details of the occurrence
which he might think useful.
The Hall was perhaps even more crowded than it
had been the day before. This showed a proper in-
crease of interest.
The cross-examinations were masterly, especially
when it was considered how simple the evidence of
the bare half-dozen witnesses was.
My counsel managed to throw doubt on the fact of
my having been the man who bought the poison.
This doubt, it is true, counsel for the prosecution soon
swept aside, but I could not help admiring the dex-
terity with which my counsel threw a veil of uncer-
tainty over what, when stated by the prosecution, had
seemed facts beyond dispute.
The contention of the prosecution was very simple.
It was to nobody's interest but mine and Mr. Gas-
coyne's that Lord Gascoyne should die, and whilst
Mr. Gascoyne was in London, the prisoner was con-
stantly in Lord Gascoyne's company. Further, it was


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ISRAEL RANK
pointed out that I was the only person left alone with
the bottle of claret, and that the moment I was so
left alone was the only one during which the wine
could have been poisoned. I was further proved to
have been in possession of arsenic for which I could
not account. It had been suggested that the poison
might have been in the cup of tea which Lord Gas-
coyne had drunk, but there was nothing to support
this view. It was regrettable that this cup had been
removed, and washed before it had been examined.
Lord Gascoyne, however, was taken ill almost immedi-
ately after he had drunk the tea. This made the
insinuation that it was poisoned unlikely, as arsenic
had, as far as could be proved, never acted instan-
taneously. My counsel, in the course of his address,
made an earnest appeal that everything alien to
the case which had been circulated, he could only
say in a most scandalous manner, in certain organs of
the press, should be put out of mind. He insinuated
that in this respect he felt a greater confidence in their
lordships than he would have done in an ordinary
jury.
He concluded by the usual passionate appeal for
the benefit of any doubt which might linger in their
minds.
The Lord High Steward summed up the evidence,
and a very brief summing-up it was. Then their
lordships retired, and after three hours' deliberation
I was brought back into court.
I knew directly I returned what the verdict was,
for in all faces there was the same look of intense
gravity. Over the entire assembly there lay an
almost oppressive silence. I noticed that people
avoided looking at me, as if it were an intrusion to


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399
witness the emotions of any human being at such a
moment.
After the verdict was given there passed across the
whole place a sort of sigh, followed by a terrible hush.
I stood up and heard the sentence, and then, with
the most profound reverence to the entire court,
withdrew, satisfied that I could not be accused of
having behaved otherwise than with a calmness and
dignity befitting the privilege of belonging to such an
assembly.


CHAPTER XXX
I SUPPOSE the feelings of a human being awaiting
extinction on a near date fixed by the law must vary
according to temperament. In this, as in most
things, ignorance has its advantages. A chaplain
working on a mind incapable of the intellectual effort
of scepticism might send a criminal to the scaffold
with a distinet feeling that in spite of its other dis-
advantages, murder plus hanging plus repentance
was a short cut to eternal bliss--a view of the question
which would no doubt shock the reverend gentleman
who had inadvertently been a most effective advocate
of murder.
Capital punishment is, of course, a profoundly un-
philosophical thing. Only a very ill-informed person
would uphold it as a deterrent, and if not a deterrent
its only excuse is the selfish one of putting someone
out of the way whom it cannot control without ex-
pense and trouble. This principle, however, is a
very awkward one, and would, stated in its crudest
form, astonish some people who mechanically support it.
As soon as I was back-I cannot say comfortably
back-in prison, and in the condemned cell, I made
up my mind to concentrate myself on a human docu-
ment which should be a record of my career a docu-
ment to be written with as little display of feeling
400


402
ISRAEL RANK
It is a pro-
reflection or sorrow, not to be able to render to the
soul the relief of despairing abandonment; to have
the slightest weakness witnessed by careful official eyes,
staring with a weird fascination through the long day
which is all too short ; to feel, in addition, the horror
of being caged and held like a wild beast in a trap till
the time comes to be led out to die. As I say, I am
a singular character, and these things were rather an
irritation than an agony. But I wonder that it does
not drive the ordinary criminal mad. The man who
has slain his wife in a moment of insane jealousy-
which is, after all, viewed logically, an evidence of his
love, a quality which might still have been turned to
good account—is tortured and killed.
ceeding which reason condemns as mere barbaric
vengeance. Not, as I was saying, that I suffered these
horrors. My view of life was too objective for that.
True, I had been given a body with which to express
myself, and I had done my best for that body, but
when that body was condemned to extinction I was
able, as it were, to remove myself from it, and view
men and their ways from a distance.
The chaplain called on me, sometimes three times
a day, and I enjoyed his conversation very much. I
led him from the crude vulgarities of attempted con-
version to discussions on minute questions of Christian
culture. I also dissected my sensations for his benefit.
I told him that the reality that the end was so near
now and then flashed upon me like an electric shock,
and that this sensation was exceedingly uncomfort-
able, which he said he could well believe. I was not,
I told him, afflicted with any very great terror of the
mere function itself. This he thought extraordinary,
as I was an agnostic. I told him that I thought it


ISRAEL RANK
403
highly probable there was a hereafter, but that it was
quite possible that it might be so different from any-
thing we could imagine as to confuse our view of
ethics, and that I might awake to find myself greeted
as a saint. He was a little shocked, and took the
joke as an admission of guilt, a point in which I was
obliged to correct him.
I think he was surprised when I involved him in a
long discussion on the moral aspect of capital punish-
ment. Perhaps he went away and said I was callous.
This is the orthodox designation of a man who has
strength of mind or courage enough to meet a humanly-
devised punishment with indifference. The same
quality used in a different field will earn a reputation
for valour. The dear chaplain was true to his cloth,
and evidently viewed the crime of an English peer
with something more of indulgence than he would
have felt for the guilt of a member of the lower classes.
Indeed, his reiterations of 'my lord' in his religious
discussions were so constant as to confuse me with
regard to the particular individual he was addressing.
I received a letter from Esther Lane in cryptic
language which I could not understand at the time,
but which was to be fully revealed afterwards.
I do not care to dwell upon the farewell interviews
with my wife. They were curiously and unexpectedly
unpleasant. The Dowager Lady Gascoyne—I allude,
of course, to the widow of my benefactor—who,
strangely enough, had never had the least doubt of
my innocence, also came to see me. I think that in
a sense the farewell that cost me most was that from
Grahame Hallward, the unobtrusive and consistent
friend. I do not think that the hopeless agony in his
face could have been more terrible had he been
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fully for several hours, but towards morning I ex-
perienced a curious sensation of semi-giddiness, as
if I were being rocked in mid-air. The sensation grew
more and more rapid, till, suddenly, it seemed as if
I were hurtling through space at a terrific speed, as
if worlds, stars, and atmosphere were revolving
round me at a rate indescribable to human intelligence.
It was as if I were in the engine-room of the universe,
and as if the ceaseless terror of its secrets whirled me
hither and thither, like a grain of sand. I was in the
unlimited, unable to grasp time or space. Then, by
degrees, there came a calm ; I lay still : and, almost
unconscious of having passed out of the sleeping state,
I was awake, with my eyes fixed on the Governor.
The cell was warm with sunlight, and it struck me
at the time that this was most unsuitable. As, half
awake, I looked at the Governor, a somewhat humorous
idea struck me. I thought I was late for the ceremony,
and that he had come to bid me make haste. I
sprang up with a start, and I may have turned a little
pale. It was excusable, I think. I then saw that
the room was full of people, and not the people whom
I had expected to see. The Governor seized my hand,
and Grahame Hallward sprang forward and grasped
the other.
“Lord Gascoyne, your innocence has been established
beyond question. The real culprit has confessed.'
It sounded like a speech out of a melodrama. Luckily,
I retained my self-possession sufficiently to say some-
thing expressive of my thanks to Providence. I
think it met the occasion.
Who the real culprit could be I failed to under-
stand.
“I have given instructions," said the Governor, “ for


ISRAEL RANK
407
you to be taken to a comfortable room till the actual
order for your release arrives.'
Then I recollected my manuscript on the table. No
one had seen it but myself, but if it were noticed it
would be awkward.
It was a terrible moment. I expected the Governor
as I picked it up to say : “Anything written in a prison
becomes the property of the Crown,” but I was allowed
to walk off with it.
Escorted by a congratulatory group, I was taken
to a room which was quite luxurious. Grahame Hall-
ward and myself breakfasted together.
Then he told me all about it.
“You remember the governess at Hammerton
Castle ?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Well, it is very sad for Lady Gascoyne, but it
appears that Lord Gascoyne had made love to her,
that she was about to become a mother, and that she
poisoned his tea that evening as she had already
poisoned the wine. The servants remember now that
she had been in the dining-room. She intended at
the time to kill herself as well, but she had not the
courage. Last night, however, she did so, having
written to your wife and to the Home Secretary, your
lawyer, and others, so as to make sure of the news
arriving in time."
I looked at him, striving to hide the sheer horror
which I felt for the first time in my life.
I was not surprised at the sacrifice, for it was the
sort of gigantic thing that a nature like Esther's
would have conceived and carried out. Neverthe-
less, the news filled me with a profound gloom.
It was better, however, to be sitting there finishing


408
ISRAEL RANK
my coffee and smoking a cigarette than meandering
out on to the unknown.
“ Sibella has been awfully ill, Israel."
“ Did people think me guilty ?” I asked.
He avoided my question, and said :
The revulsion of feeling has been tremendous.
Everybody will be delighted.”
And so it turned out. People had not at all liked
the idea of a real, live lord becoming an unreal, dead
lord by such means. The Home Secretary sent the
order for my release the same afternoon. The dead
Lord Gascoyne became a monster of iniquity, and I
was congratulated by everyone on the dénouement.
But to this day, there is a sadness in my wife's
manner, and although she tries to hide a shuddering
aversion for me when we are alone, it shows itself un-
expectedly in trifles. In some way she has grasped
the truth. Indeed, she must have done, for there can
be no other explanation of her conduct. We have
two children, and perhaps there is something pathetic
in the amount of moral training she gives them. I
am sure there is no need for Hammerton to turn out
other than well. I have done the work. He has
only to reap the benefit and the reward. The second
boy is a gentle little creature, Oriental in his nature,
and most devoted to his father, as they both are, but
the second boy especially so.
Sibella is still Sibella.
THE END
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD



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THE PICCADILLY (3/6) NOVELS—continued. By MORT. and FRANCES COLLINS.
Blacksmith 24d Scholar. You Play Me False.
By Rey. S. BARING-GOULD
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Dorothy Forster.
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To Call Her Mine.
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The Charm.
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Armorel of Lyonesse.
True Tales of Travel and Adventure.
The Orange Girl.
S, Katherine's by Tower. The Lady of Lynn,
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No Other Way.
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Myst. of Jamaica Terrace. Tyler Tatlock, Detective.
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| A Sower of Wheat,
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CONAN DOYLE.-The Firm of Girdlestone.
Dora Myrl
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By ANNIE EDWARDES.
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| A Plaster Saint.
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Running Amok.
Shadow of a Crime, Son of Hagar. | Deemster.
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By Hon. Mrs. W. FORBES.-Dumb.
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By R. E. FRANCILLON.
By Mrs. ARCHBR CLIVE.
One by One. 1 A Real Queen. A Dog and his Shadow.
Paul Ferroll. | Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wite. Ropes of Sand.
Jack Doyle's Daughter
By MACLAREN COBBAN.
By HAROLD FREDERIC.
The Red Sultan.
| The Burden of Isabel.
Seth's Brother's Wife. The Lawton Girl.
By PAUL GAULOT.-The Red Shirts.
By Y. LOYETT CAMEKON.
By DOROTHEA GERARD.
The Cruise of the " Black Prince."
A Queen of Curds and Cream.
By WILKIE COLLINS.
By CHARLES GIBBON.
Armadale, After Dark. The New Magdalen. Robin Gray.
The Braes of Yarrow.
No Name. Antonina The Frozen Deep. Of High Degree,
Queen of the Meadow.
Basil. | Hide and Seek. The Two Destinies. The Golden Shaft.
ſ he Flower of the Forest
The Dead Secret.
'I Say No.'
By E. GLĀNYILLE.
Queen of Hearts,
Little Novels,
The Lost Heiress.
| The Golden Rock,
My Miscellanies
The Fallen Leaves. Fair Colonist. Fossicker. Tales from the Veld.
The Woman in White. Jezebel's Daughter.
By E. J. GOODMAN.
The Law and the Lady. The Black Robe.
The Fate of Herbert Wayne.
The Haunted Hotel Heart and Science.
By ALFRED A, GRACE.
The Moonstone,
The Evil Genius.
Tales of a Dying Race.
Man and Wife.
The Legacy of Cain By CECIL GRIFFITH.-Corinthia Maradon
Poor Miss Finch.
A Rogue's Life.
BY A. CLAYERING GUNTI.
Miss or Mrs.
Blind Love.
A Florida Enchantment,


30
CHATTO & WINDUS, PUBLISHERS,
1
Two-SHILLING NOVELS—continued.
By M. J. COLQUHOUN.-Every Inch a Soldier.
By Rey. 8. BARING-GOULD,
By C. EGBERT CRADDOCK.
Red Spider.
| Eve.
The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains.
By FRANK BARRETT.
By H. N. CRELLIN.-Tales of the Caliph.
Fettered for Life. A Prodigal's Progress.
Little Lady Linton.
Found Guiloy.
MATT CRIM.-The Adventures of a Fair Rebe.
Between Life and Death. A Recoiling Vengeance
By B. M. CROKER.
Sin of Olga Zassoulich. For Love and Honour. Pretty Miss Nevilie. Village Tales and Jungle
Folly Morrison.
John Ford, &c.
Diana Barrington.
Tragedies. | Mr. Jervis,
Lieut. Barnabas,
Woman of Iron Bracelets. A Bird of Passage.
Two Masters.
Honest Davie.
The Harding Scandal. Proper Pride. To Let.' The Real Lady Hilda.
A Missing Witness.
A Family Likeness, Married or Single?
By Sir W. BESANT and J. RICE, A Third Person,
Interference.
Ready-Money Mortibuy. By Celia's Arbour.
By ALPHONSE DAUDET.
My Little Girl.
Chaplain of the Fleet.
The Evangelist; or, Port Salvation.
With Harp and Crown. The Seamy Side.
This Son of Vulcan. The Case of Mr. Lucralt. By JAMES DE MILLE.-A Strange Manuscript
The Golden Butterfly. In Trafalgar's Bay.
By DICK DONOVAN.
The Monks of Thelema. The Ten Years' fenant. The Man Hunter.
Michael Danevitch.
Tracked and Taken.
By Sir WALTER BESANT.
In the Grip of the Law.
All Sorts and Conditions. The Bell of St. Paul's.
Caught at Last !
From Information
Re
Who Poisoned
The Captains' Room. The Holy Rose.
Hetty ceived.
Duncan ?
All in a Garden Fair. Armorel of Lyonesse.
Wanted! | Tracked to Doom.
Dorothy Forster.
St. Katherine's by: Tower. Man from Manchester. Link by Link.
Uncle Jack. (Then. Verbena Camellia Stepha A Detective's Triumphs. Suspicion Aroused.
The World Went Very Well The Ivory Gate. (notis. Mystery Jamaica Terrace. Riddles Read.
Children of Gibeon,
The Rebel Queen.
By Mrs. ANNIE EDWARDES.
Herr Paulus.
Beyond Dreams Avarice. A Point of Honour. | Archie Lovell.
For Faith and Freedom. The Revolt of Man.
By EDWARD EGGLESTON.-Roxy.
To Call Her Mine.
In Deacon's Orders.
The Master Craftsman. The City of Refuge.
By G. MANYILLE FENN.
The New Mistress.
The Tiger Lily.
AMBROSE BIERCE.- In the Midst of Life.
Witness to the Deed. The White Virgin.
By FREDERICK BOYLE.
By PERCY FITZGERALD,
Camp Notes.
Chronicles of No-man's Bella Donna | Fatal Zero Seventy-five
Brooke
Savage Life,
Land.
Never Forgotten. Polly. Street.
Second Mrs. Tillotson. The Lady of Brantome.
By BRET HARTE.
Californian Stories. Flip. Maruja.
By PERCY FITZGERALD and others.
Gabriel Conroy.
A Phyllis of the Sierras.
Strange Secrets.
Luck of Roaring Camp. A Waif of the Plains.
By R. E, FRANCILLON.
An Heiress of Red Dog. Ward of Golden Gate.
Olympia.
King or Knave ?
By ROBERT BUCHANAN.
One by One.
Romances of the Law,
Shadow of the Sword, The Martyrdom o! Ma- A Real Queen.
Ropes of Sand.
A Child of Nature,
deline.
Queen Cophetua.
A Dog and his Shadow.
God and the Man.
The New Abelard.
By HAROLD FREDERIC.
Love Me for Ever.
The Heir of Linne.
Seth's Brother's Wife. | The Lawtori Girl.
Foxglove Manor.
Woman and the Man.
The Master of the Mine. Rachel Dene. | Matt.
Prefaced by Sir BARTLE FRERE.
Annan Water.
Lady Kilpatrick.
Pandurang Hari.
By CHARLES GIBBON.
BUCHANAN and MURRAY.-The Charlatan. Robin Gray.
In Honour Bound.
By HALL CAINE.
Fancy Free.
Flower of the Forest.
A Son of Hagar.
| The Deemster
For Lack of Gold.
The Braes of Yarrow,
The Shadow of a Crime.
What will the World Say? The Golden Shaft.
By Commander CAMERON,
In Love and War.
Of High Degree.
The Cruise of the Black Prince.'
For the King.
By Mead and Stream
In Pastures Green.
Loving a Dream.
By HAYDEN CARRUTH.
Queen of the Meadow. A Hard Knot.
The Adventures of Jones,
A Heart's Problem,
Heart's Delight.
By AUSTIN CLARE.-For the Lore of a Lass. The Dead Heart.
Blood-Money.
By Mrs. ARCHER CLIYE.
By WILLIAM GILBERT.-James Duke.
Paul Ferroll. 1 Why Paul Ferro!l Killed his Wife.
By ERNEST GLANYILLE.
By MACLAREN COBBAN.
The Lost Heiress.
| 1 he Fossicker,
The Cure of Souls. | The Red Sultan.
A Fair Colonist.
By C. ALLSTON COLLINS.- The Bar Sinister.
ANDREW HALLIDAY.-Every-day Papers
By MORT. and FRANCES COLLINS.
By THOMAS HARDY.
Sweet Anne Page.
Sweet and Twenty. Under the Greenwood Tree.
Transmigration
The Village Comedy.
From Midnight to Mid- You Play dle False.
By JULIAN HAWTHORNE.
night.
Blacksmith and Scholar.
Ellice Quentin. | Garth. Love-or a Name
Frances.
A Fight with Fortune.
Fortune's Fool.
David Poindexters Di
Miss Cadogna. | Dust. appearance, (Camer
By WILKIE COLLINS.
Beatrix Randolph.
The Spectre of ti
Armadale. After Dark. The Woman in White.
No Name. Antonina. The Moonstone.
By Sir ARTHUR HELPS.Ivan de Biron
Basil. | Hide and Seek. Man and Wife
By G. A. HENTY.-Rujub the Juggler.
The Dead Secret.
Poor Miss Finch.
Queen of Hearts.
The Fallen Leaves,
By HEADON HILL.-Zambra the Detective
Miss or Mrs.?
jezebel's Daughter,
By JOHN HILL.-Treason-Felony.
The New Magdalen. The Black Robe.
By Mrs. HUNGER FORD
The Frozen Deep.
Heart and Science.
A Maiden all Forlorn. Lady Vemer's Flight.
The Law and the Lady. I Say No!'
In Durance Vile.
The Red-House Myster
The Two Destinies.
The Evil Genius
Marvel. | Peter's Wife. The Three Graces.
The Haunted Hotel.
Little Novels.
A Mental Struggle. Unsatisfactory Lover.
A Rogue's Life.
Legacy of Cain
A Modern Circe.
Lady Patty. Nora Creli
My Miscellanles,
Blind Love.
April's Lady.
Professor's Experiment.
1



111 ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C.
31
Aha
Caliph
and lo
Mr. Jern
iglet
ar
Hitch
the La
ation 2
sed.
IS.
Rosy.
Brook
antome
hers
Law
Two-SHILLING NOVELS-continued.
By MARGARET AGNES PAUL.
By Mrs. CASHEL HOEY,-The Lover's Creed. Gentle and Simple.
Mrs. GEORGE HOOPER.-The House of Raby,
By JAMES PAYN.
By Mrs. ALFRED HUNT.
Bentinck's Tutor.
A Perfect Treasure.
That Other Person. 1 The Leaden Casket. Murphy's Master,
What He Cost Her.
Self-Condemned.
A County Family.
A Confidential Agent.
By MARK KERSHAW.
At Her Mercy. Kit. Glow-worm Tales.
Colonial Facts and Fictions.
Cecil's Tryst. | Halves. The Burnt Million.
The Clyffards of Clyffe.
By R. ASHE KING,
Sunny Stories.
The Foster Brothers. Lost Sir Massing berd.
A Drawn Game. [Green.' | Passion's Slave.
Found Dead.
A Woman's Vengeance.
• The Wearing of the Bell Barry.
The Best of Husbands, The Family Scapegrace.
By EDMOND LEPELLETIER. Walter's Word.
Gwendoline's Harvest.
Madame Sans-Gène.
Fallen Fortunes.
Like Father, Like Son.
By JOHN LEYS.--The Lindsays.
Humorous Stories.
Married Beneath Him.
£200 Reward.
By E. LYNN LINTON.
Not Wooed, but Won.
A Marine Residence.
Patricia Kemball.
The Atonement of Leam Mirk Abbey | High Spirits.
Less Black than We're
The World Well Lost.
Painted. | By Proxy.
Dundas.
Under One Roof.
Under which Lord! Rebel of the Family.
Some Private Views.
Carlyon's Year,
Paston Carew.
Sowing the Wind.
A Grape from a Thorn.
For Cash Only,
My Love!' | Ione. The One Too Many.
The Mystery of Mir.
The Canon's Ward,
With a Silken Thread. Dulcie Everton.
bridge. From Exile.
The Talk of the Town, The Word and the Will.
By HENRY W. LUCY.-Gideon Fleyce. Holiday Tasks.
A Prince of the Blood.
By JUSTIN MCCARTHY,
A Trying Patient
Dear Lady Disdain. Donna Quixote,
Waterdale Neighbours. Maid of Athens.
By Mrs. CAMPBELL PRAED,
My Enemy's Daughter. The Comet of a Season, The Romance of a Station Christina Chard,
A Fair Saxon. Camiola. The Dictator.
Outlaw and Lawmaker. | Mrs. Tregaskiss
Linley Rochford.
Red Diamonds.
The Soul of Countess Adrian.
Miss Misanthrope. The Riddle Ring.
By RICHARD PRYCE,
By HUGH MACCOLL.
Miss Maxwell's A fiections.
Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet.
GEORGE MACDONALD.--Heather and Snow.
By CHARLES READE.
It is Never Too Late to Foul Play. | Hard Cash,
By AGNES MACDONELL.- Quaker Cousins.
Mend. | The Jilt. The Wandering Heir.
By W. H. MALLOCK.-The New Republic. Christie Johnstone. Singleheart, Doubleface.
By BRANDER MATTHEWS. The Double Marriage. Good Stories of Man, &c.
A Secret of the Sea.
Put Yourself in His Place. Peg Woffington.
By L. T. MEADE.-A Soldier of Fortune.
Love Little, Love Long. Griffith Gaunt.
Cloister and the Hearth. A Perilous Secret.
By LEONARD MERRICK.
Course of True Love. A Simpleton.
The Man who was Good.
Autobiography of a Thief. Readiana.
By Mrs. MOLESWORTH,
A Terrible Temptation. A Woman-Hater,
Hathercourt Rectory.
By J. 1. MUDDOCK.
By Mrs. J H. RIDDELL.
Dead Man's Secret. | From Bosom of the Deep. Weird Stories.
The Uninhabited House.
Stories Weird and Wonderful.
Fairy Water.
The Mystery in Palace
Her Mother's Darling; Gardens.
By D. CHRISTIE MURRAY.
The Prince of Waless Idle Tales.
A Model Father.
A Bit of Human Nature.
Garden Party.
Joseph's Coat.
First Person Singular.
Coals of Fire.
Bob Martin's Little Girl.
By F. W. ROBINSON.
Val Strange. | Hearts. Time's Revenges.
Women are Strange. | The Woman in the Dark,
Old Blazer's Hero.
A Wasted Crime,
The Hands of Justice.
The Way of the World, In Direst Peril.
Cynic Fortune.
Mount Despair.
By W. CLARK RUSSELL.
A Life's Atonement. A Capful o' Nails.
Round the Galley Fire. My Shipmate Louise.
By the Gate of the Sea.
On the Fo'k'sle Head. Alone on Wide Wide Sea,
By MURRAY and HERMAN. In the Middle Watch. Good Ship Mohock,
One Traveller Returns. | The Bishops' Bible. A Voyage to the Cape. The Phantom Death,
Paul Jones's Alias.
Book for the Hammock. Is He the Man?
By HUME NISBET.
The Mystery of the Heart of Oak.
The Convict Ship.
Bail Up !"
Ocean Star'
| Dr. Bernard St. Vincent.
Romance Jenny Harlowe. The Tale of the Ten,
By W. E. NORRIS.
An Ocean Tragedy.
The Last Entry.
Saint Ann's.
| Billy Bellew.
By GEORGES OHNET.
By GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA,
Dr. Rameau.
A Weird Gift.
Gaslight and Daylight.
A Last Love.
By GEORGE R. SIMS.
By Mrs. OLIPHANT.
The Ring o' Bells.
Zeph. | My Two Wives.
Whiteladies.
The Greatest Heiress Mary Jane's Memoirs. Memoirs of a Landlady.
The Primrose Path.
England.
Mary Jane Married. Scenes from the Show
Tales of To-day.
Ten Commandments.
By QUIDA.
Dramas of Life.
Dagonet Abroad.
Held in Bondage.
Two Little Wooden Shoes Tinkletop's Crime. Rogues and Vagabonds.
Strathmore. | Chandos. Moths. | Bimbi,
Idalia.
Tricotrin. Pipistrello.
ARTHUR SKETCHLEY.-A Match in the Dark,
Under Two Flags.
A Village Commune.
Cecil Castlemaine's Gage. Wanda. Othmar. By R. A. STERNDALE.-The Afghan Knife.
Puck. | Pascarel. Frescoes. Guilderoy.
Folle-Farine.
In Maremma.
By T. W. SPEIGHT.
A Dog of Flanders, Ruflino. | Syrlin. The Mysteries of Heron | Back to Life.
Signa. | Ariadne. Santa Barbara.
Dyke.
The Loudwater Tragedy,
Princess Napraxine. Two Offenders.
The Golden Hoop. Burgo's Romance.
In a Winter City.
Ouida's Wisdom, Wit, Hoodwinked.
Quittance in Full
Friendship,
and Pathos
By Devious Ways.
A Husband from the Sea
hadot
rest.
FOW,
ake
pers
Dis
merz
the
ron
ive
eins


32
CHATTO
& WINDUS, PUBLISHERS.
Two-SHILLING Novels-continued.
By MARK TWAIN.
A Pleasure Trip.
Stolen White Elephant,
By ALAN ST. AUBYN.
The Gilded Age.
Life on the Mississippi.
A Fellow of Trinity.
Orchard Damerel.
Huckleberry Finn.
£1,000,000 Bank-Note.
The Junior Dean.
In the Face of the World. Tom Sawyer.
Sketches.
Master of St. Benedict's. The Tremlett Diamonds. By C. C. FRASER-TYTLER.-Mistress Judith.
To His Own Master.
By R. LOUIS STEYENSON.
By SARAH TYTLER,
New Arabian Nights.
Bride's Pass. | Lady Bell. The Huguenot Family.
Buried Diamonds.
The Blackball Ghosts.
By ROBERT SURTEES.-Handley Cross.
St. Mungo's City.
What She Came Through,
By WALTER THORNBURY.
Noblesse Oblige.
Beauty and the Beast.
Tales for the Marines.
Disappeared.
By T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE. By ALLEN UPWARD.-Queen against Owen.
Diamond Cut Diamond.
By WM. WESTALL.--Trust-Money.
By ANTHONY TROLLOPE.
By Mrs. WILLIAMSON.-A Child Widow
Frau Frohinann.
The Land-Leaguers.
Marion Fay.
The American Senator.
By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
Kept in the Dark.
Scarborough's Family. Cavalry Liſe,
| Regimental Legends.
The Way We Live Now. Golden Lion of Granpere.
By H. F. WOOD.
By F. ELEANOR TROLLOPE.
The Passenger from Scot- / The Englishman of the
land Yard.
Rue Cain.
Like Ships upon the Sea. | Anne Furness.
Mabel's Progress.
By MARG. WYNMAN.-My Flirtations.
THE NEW SERIES OF TWO-SHILLING NOVELS.
Bound in picture cloth, flat backs,
By EDWIN LESTER ARNOLD.
By BERTRAM MITFORD.
The Constable o St. Nicholas.
The Luck of Gerard Ridgeley. | The King's Assegal.
By Sir WALTER BESANT.
By J. E. MUDDOCK.
St. Katherine's by Tower. | The Rebel Queen.
Maid Marian and Robin Hood.
By H. BINDLOSS.-Ainslie's Ju-ju.
By CHRISTIE MURRAY.His Own Ghost
By McD. BODKIN, K.C.
By QUIDA.
Dora Myrl, the Lady Detective,
Syrlin.
| The Waters of Edera.
By DICK DONOVAN.
By JAS. PAYN.-Modern Dick Whittington,
Man from Manchester, The Man-Hunter.
Wanted !
The Mystery of Jamaica A Country Sweetheart.
By DORA RUSSELL.
| The Drift of Fate.
Dark Deeds.
Terrace.
Tales of Terror.
Vincent Trill, Detective.
By GEORGE R. SIMS.
In London's Heart. | Rogues and Vagabonds.
By G. M. FENN.-A Crimson Crime.
By PAUL GAULOT.-The Red Shirts.
By FRANK STOCKTON.
By Major ARTHUR GRIFFITHS.
The Young Master of Hyson Hall.
No. 97; and Blue Blood.
By SUNDOWNER.-Tale of the Serpent.
By OWEN HALL.-Track of a Storm.
By SARAH TYTLER.-Citoyenne Jacqueline,
By BRET HARTE.
Luck Roaring Camp, &c. Col. Starbottle's Client.
ALLEN UPWARD.--Queen against Owen,
In a Hollow of the Hills, Protegee of Jack Harulin's
By F. WARDEN. Joan, the Curate.
Sappho of Green Springs. Sally Dows.
By HEADON HILL.-Zambra, the Detective.
BYRON WEBBER.-Sport and Spangles.
By FERGUS HUME.-The Lady from Nowhere By JOHN STRANGE WINTER.
By EDMUND MITCHELL.
Cavalry Life ; and Regimental Legends.
Plotters of Paris.
| The Temple of Death,
By LOUIS ZANGWILL.
Towards the Eterual Snows.
A Nineteenth-Century Miracle.
SIXPENNY COPYRIGHT NOVELS.
By GRANT ALLEN.-The Tents of Shem, By D. CHRISTIE MURRAY.-Joseph's Coat.
By FRANK BARRETT.-Fettered for Life.
By HUME NISBET.-Bail Up!
By ARNOLD BENNETT.
By OUIDA.
The Grand Babylon Hotel.
Puck. Moths Strathmore. Tricotrin,
By WALTER BESANT.
Held in Bondage. Under Two Flags.' i Chandos.
Children of Gibeon
All Sorts and Conditions of The Massarenes. Friendship. Ariadne,
For Faith and Freedom. Men.
Dorothy Forster.
The Orange Girl.
By JAMES PAYN.
Walter's Word.
By BESANT and RICE.
| Lost Sir Massingberd.
The Golden Butterfly. Ready-Money Mortiboy
By CHARLES READE.
The Monks of Thelema. The Chaplain of the Fleet Griffith Gaunt.
Put Yourself in His Place.
By ROBERT BUCHANAN.
Foul Play. Hard Cash. The Cloister and the
The Shadow of the Sword. God and the Man,
Peg.
Woffington ; and
Hearth.
By 8. BARING-GOULD.
Christie Johnstone. Never Too Late to Mend.
Red Spider.
| Eve
A Terrible Temptation. The Double Marriage.
By HALL CAINE.
By W. CLARK RUSSELL.-The Convict Ship.
A Son of Hagar.
| The Deemster,
The Shadow of a Crime.
By GEORGE R. SIMS.-Mary Jane's Memoirs.
By WILKIE COLLIN8.
By ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
Armadale. No Name. Man and W.fe.
New Arabian Nights!
The Moonstone.
The Dead Secret.
By WILLIAM WESTALL.-The Old Factory,
The Woman in White, The New Magdalen.
By EMILE ZOLA.
By B. M. CROKER.
The Downfall,
| The Dram-Shop.
Diana Barrington.
Pretty Miss Neville,
Lourdes.
Rome.
Paris.
A Bird of Passage.
Beyond the Pale.
By E. LEPELLETIER.-Madame Sans-Gêne.
By JUSTIN MOCARTHY.
By E. LYNN LINTON.-Patricia Kemball.
A Short History of Our Own Times,
UNWIN BROTHERS, Ltd., Printers, 27, Pilgrim Street, Ludgate Hill, London, E.C,



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