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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. D 32 X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE' NATIONAL I lOlil COMPANY. M. E. BRADDON. A f^ X e, / c. <• / ^. ^■■'^t.^ c ■/< w ,^^ r THE W0RI2D, THE FLESH, AND TRE DEVIL. BY MTSS M. E. BRAl)D01^, AUTHOBOP "LADY AUDLEY'S 8ECBBT," "AURORA FLOYD," " WKAVBB8 AMD WJiiT, "THB PAXAL 'i'HBKB," " THB DAT WILL OOMK," KTO. THE NATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. » r f 690101 THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL. CHAPTER I. THE FATE READER. " I look clown to his feet, but that's a fal)lc. " HERE were low brooding clouds and a feelincr olu Z^^A '? *^^ .^'' ^' ^^'"^^d Hillersdon-: cab rattled along the King's Road, pa.st all the o? ctr^V^'^y gentility of theWe-scene^ o^J^helsea, towards quiet rural Parson's Green Only a few years ago Pa- ->n's Green had still some pretensions to rusticity, w where now the specT latjng builders' streete and terraces stretch right andleft m hollow squares and close battalions, there were fine old Georgian and ^re-Georgian mansions, and stately sweeps of lawn and sLrubbery. and elms of old world ffrlwth shutting out the hum and hubbub of the groat citr To one of thase old respectable mansions, that one which wa^ second only to Peterborough House in the exteSd dignity of Its surroundings. Gerard Hillersdon was driv mg under the heavy sky of a July afternoon, the WW close of a. sunless and oppressive dav. Never not tvpf m mid-winter- harl the -moko -',r^t=- y ,' °°* ®^®° T 1 iL .', , " '^ '"lOKe -cuuaiu liuiig lower over London than it hung to-day, and if the idea of fo. seemed impossible in July there at least i>revailed that myZioun 10 TJui World, Tlie FUsh, and The DevU. condition of the atmosphere, commonly known as • blight' a thick yellow haze, unpierced by a single 8un-ray. ' To Gerard Hillersdon, ordinarily the most seniitive of d^ffi^'rinL w P^? """l ^Y'' particular afternoon made no d.tference. He had got beyond that point in which at- mosphere can raise a man's spirits or depress them. He ad made up his mind upon a solemn question of life or a^.y other, since he meant it to be his last day upon earth. ?on .w^' r^ ^''' r""'^ ^^''''^^'^' ^»d he must part com^ pany ; that tor him at least life was not worth living ; thus the grey and yellow of the atmosphere, and thellarkly «r i;' u^ * l"""''^!; 'I'i"^'' *^ windward suited his temper far better than the blue sky and west wind which Lady Fridoline would have desired for her garden party Incongruous as the thing may seem the young man was goiijg to spend his last earthly afternoon at Lady BVHo- ines garden j ,artv ; but for a man utterly without re- exir.n.' "^' 'i' ^"f" '"^ ^^^ ^'''^^^'"^ «"ch a finish to existence seemed as good as any other. He oould not devote his last hours ia preparing for the world that was to come after death as he had no belief in any such world To him the deed that was to be done before midnight meant swift, sudden extinction, the end of all things for him, Gerard Hillersdon. The curtain which was to faU upon the tragedy of his life to-night would rise upon no afterpiece. The only question which he had taken in°o serious consideration was the mode and manner of his death. He had made up his mind about that. His re- volver was lying in its case in his lodirincr-house bedroom under the shadow of St. James' Chur?h,^eady loaded-a ?If; rv'-^ ^"' ^^^ "'^^^ "^ ^^'1' ^or he had nothing to leave behind h.m. except a heavy burden of debt. He hjul not yet made up his mind whel her to write an ex- planatory letter to the father he had sorely tried, and a bn.t farewoU .o the mother v.dio iVn.lly ioved hhn, and whom he loved almost as fondly ; or whether it were not better to leave only silence. i I i as 'blight,' -ray. sensitive of )on made no 1 which at- them. He >n of life or 1 to him as upon earth. it part com- Lving ; thus the darkly his temper ^hich Lady irty. ig man was ady Frido- vithout re- a finish to could not d that was luch world. I midnight things for was to fall se upon no taken into ner of his '>. His re- 3 bedroom, loaded — a nothing to debt. He 'ite an ex- iled, and a i Jiiui, and t were not The World, m Flesh and The Devil. U Fridoline IW tl . ".^sh^to^"; rul"] •''] ^""V^ ^'^ square, that she n cant to be at t^^^L'"' .^''•^•'^^V'^^'' gatherum. -^ ncJohne s omnium tio^tsoi;;;'''^ ■^'? ^'"7[ ^''^^'' '^'' ^^^^' ^'th the regula- gi^a/wio^ fvirlds'^^ '"'^^ '^'^^ Fridolino'sZSoIo- to:tif:a'i:::..'f:::::^ir^ '^i ^^''r^ ;"'^^^ ^- ---^^^ well enough to kno J 1 "' '^•'""'^^^- ^^"' '^""^'^ ^^^ l.reech„K, "'" Sk tU n': ™T,r*^' ^''^'^ ™lv?t Clevola„;, ba;,t„:„^t ?fh tr^„ \^ ^'^'"^ van. ya witli enoMcrh bree.linp- fn? ho V ^"^U'r ^?f''«"^ ^fir 1! 12 The World, The Flesh, and The-Devil the record by which Lady Fridoline was able to find out 'how many strangers and outsiders had been imposed upon her hospitality in the shape of friends' friends. The crowd was tremendous; the house and grounds buzzed with voices, through which from the bosquet yonder cut the sharp twanging notes of a Tyrolese Volk- slied, accompanied on the Streich zither ; while from an inner drawing-room sounded the long-drawn chords of a violin attacking a sonata by De Beriot. On the left of the xrreat square hall was the dining-room filled with a gormandising crowd ; and on the lawn outside there was a subsidiary buffet under a pollarded Spanish chestnut which spread its rugged venerable limbs over a wide circle of turf, and made a low roofed tent of leaves that fluttered and shivered in the sultry atmosphere. Every class was represented at Lady Fridoline's garden- party ; or rather it might be said that everybody in Lon- don whom anyone could care to see was to be found on her Ladyship's lawn or v/as to be hunted for in her Lady- ship's extensive shrubberies. Literature and the Stage were not more conspicuous than Church and Bar — Church represented by its most famous preachers, Bar, by its most notorious advocates, to say nothing of a strong contingent of popular curates and clever stuff gowna. Every noteworthy arrival from the great world of English speaking people across the Atlantic was to be seen at Lady Fridoline s, from the scholar and enthusiast who had written seven octave volumes to prove that Don Juan was the joint work of Byron's vaiot Fletcher and the Countess Guiccioli, to the miniature soubrette, the idol of JNew York, who had come to be seen ;ind to conquer upon the boards of a London theatre. Everybody was ^'here, for the afternoon was late, and V\o throng was thickest just at this hour. Gerard Hillerddon went about from group to group, everywhere received with cordialitv and empressement, but lingering nowhere — not even when the tiny soubrette told him she was just dying for anothel vil. ! to find out iposed upon nd grounds he bosquet rolese Volk- lile from an chords of a a the left of illed with a e there was sh chestnut I wide circle lat fluttered ne'sgarden- ody in Lon- be found on n her Lady- l the Stage ar — Church by its most f contingent t world of 1,8 to be seen lusiast who t Don Juan er and the the idol of nquer upon was <:here, as thickest about from diality and n when the for anothei TU World, Th^ Flesh, and The Devil. 13 ice, and she reckoned he'd take her to the tree over there mS.\f'"J!~'^T^'l^. ^"^^^ ^^ ^^'^^ one somebody who Onf nf r'^^i'"'.''/'.^^^ ^° ""^ ^^« gauntlet of ever/bX One of his oldest friends seized upon him a man with whom he had been at Oxford seviL yeaS' before with whom he had maintained the friendship begun^n those days, and who was not to be nut off x^\ihihJ^J^' hand-shake which served for otlfer peopir ^''''°^' 'I want a talk with you, HillersHon. Why didn't vou k)ok me up last Tuesday. We w to have d ned and about It. By Jove, old fellow, you are looking dread- fully washed out. What have yo^u been doing wfthyTur: 'Nothing beyond the usual mill-round. A succession clmptxC'" "'^ '^"^ '"P^^"^ *^^ freshn:LTmy will^bTs^? f ^ " w' ""'^^ ^^- ^^^ ^« «ee, to-morrow '1 should adore it ; but it's impossible. I have an Pn n«ht and lea for that tall anTgtc:^ t™ "^S'h'g eye would have recognised even afar nff . o« J i. plungedintothe shrubLied laVintVhlh Uy^Xeen the iine, broad lawn and the high walls which secluS Lady Fndoline's domain from thS vulgar worid He passed a good many couples sauntering 'slowly in the leafy shade, and talking in those subdued accents which seem to mean verxr rp,,f>}, „„.3 _f. , '^^ accents liffia 4*1 i. • 'rr ,y "'ucn, anu uiten do mean verv f^olk.f "Ia '"^ *^' ^'«^^°««' he saw the one form aS face that could conjure heart and senses into sudden t^Si- 14 m World, m Flesh, and The Devil. pest—a taU, dark woman, with proudly poised head and Si!"?'^ ^^''' ^^^walked with leisurely yet firm step, and tossed her parasol to and fro as she walked with a move- ment eminently expressive of ennui. She was walking with a young man who was supposed to be a fast ascendmg star in the heaven of literature-a young man who was something of a journalist, and somc- tning ot a poet, who wrote short stories in the mai^azines was believed to contribute to Punch, and was said to have written a three volume novel. But however brilliantly this young gentleman may be talking, Edith Chauipiori had evidently had enough of him, for at sight of Hillers- don her face lighted up, and she held out her hand in eager welcome. They clasped hands, and he turned back and walked W 5f ""'^p '"^ 'n ^""^f ' ^^'^^ *^^ journalist prattled on her left. Presently they met another tiio of a mother ana daughters, and the journalist was absorbed and swept along with this female brood, leaving Mrs. Champion and Hillersdon tete-a-tete. i' » u .'i^j°"^^* you were not coming,' she said. T 1, ,/°" ^o"b*^^ should be here after you had told mo sibbto dr^''^°'' ■ ^ ^'"""^^ *° ^^® ^^ """"^ °^ y.°" ^"^ p<^«- I Why to-day more than all other days ? ' ' Because it is my last day in town.' ' What you are leaving so soon ? Before Goodwood ! ' 1 don t care two straws for Goodwood.' •Nor do I. But why bury oneself in the country or at some German ba.n too early in the year ? Autumn is always long enough. One need not anticipate it. Is your^doctor sending you away ? Are you going fur your ' Yes, I am going for my cure.' •Where?' ' Suss-Schlaf Bad; he answered, invonting a name on the instant, ■ fSHkx .\^