1 BERKELEY 
 JBRARY 
 JNIVEKSITY Of 
 CAIIPORNIA 
 
SIB CHAELES DANYEKS 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 'THE DANVERS JEWELS' 
 
 'Es ist eine alte Geschichte ' 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1902 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
Appeared serially in " The Temple Bar Magazine" in 1889, 
 
 First Edition (2 vols. Crown %vo, 2is.), October 22, 1889 
 
 Second Edition (i vol. Crown &vo, 6s.), June 20, 1890. 
 
 Reprinted January 1895. 
 
 Transferred to Macmillan &> Co., August 1898. 
 Reprinted September 1902. 
 
TO 
 
 MY FATHER 
 
 814 
 
SIE CHAELES DANVEES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 'DEAR heart, Miss Ruth, my dear, now don't ye be 
 a-going yet, and me that hasn't set eyes on ye this 
 month and more, and as hardly hears a body speak 
 from morning till night/ 
 
 ' Come, come, Mrs. Eccles, I am always finding 
 people sitting here. I expect to see the latch go 
 every minute.' 
 
 ' Well, and if they do, and some folks are always 
 a-dropping in, and a-setting theirselves down, and a- 
 clack-clacking till a body can't get a bit of peace ! 
 And the things they say ! Eh ! Miss Ruth, the 
 things I have heard folks say, a-setting as it 
 might be there, in poor Eccles his old chair by the 
 chimley, as the Lord took him in.' 
 
 To the uninitiated Mrs. Eccles's allusion might 
 have seemed to refer to photography. But Ruth 
 knew better; a visitation from the Lord being 
 synonymous in Slumberleigh parish with a fall 
 from a ladder, a stroke of paralysis, or the mid- 
 night cart-wheel that disabled Brown when re- 
 
 1 
 
2 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 turning late from the Blue Dragon 'not quite 
 hisself.' 
 
 ' Lor ! ' resumed Mrs. Eccles, with an extensive 
 sigh, 'there's a deal of talk in the village now/ 
 glancing inquisitively at her visitor, ' about him as 
 succeeds to old Mr. Dare; but I never listen to 
 their tales.' 
 
 They made a pleasant contrast to each other, 
 the neat old woman, with her shrewd spectacled 
 eyes and active hard-worked fingers, and the young 
 girl, tranquil, graceful, sitting in the shadow, with 
 her slender ungloved hands in her lap. 
 
 They were not sitting in the front parlour, 
 because Ruth was an old acquaintance; but Mrs. 
 Eccles had a front parlour a front parlour with 
 the bottled-up smell in it peculiar to front parlours ; 
 a parlour with a real mahogany table, on which 
 photograph albums and a few select volumes were 
 symmetrically arranged round an inkstand, nestling 
 in a very choice woolwork mat; a parlour with 
 wax flowers under glass shades on the mantelpiece, 
 and an avalanche of paper roses and mixed paper 
 herbs in the fireplace. 
 
 Ruth knew that sacred apartment well. She 
 knew the name of each of the books; she had 
 expressed a proper admiration for the wax flowers ; 
 she had heard, though she might have forgotten, for 
 she was but young, the price of the ' real Brussels ' 
 carpet, and so she might safely be permitted to sit 
 in the kitchen, and watch Mrs. Eccles darning her 
 son's socks. 
 
 I am almost afraid Ruth liked the kitchen best, 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 8 
 
 with its tiled floor and patch of afternoon sun ; 
 with its tall clock in the corner, its line of straining 
 geraniums in the low window-shelf, and its high 
 mantelpiece crowned by two china dogs with red 
 lozenges on them, holding baskets in their mouths. 
 
 ' Yes, a deal of talk there is, but nobody rightly 
 seems to know anything for certain,' continued Mrs. 
 Eccles, spreading out her hand in the heel of a 
 fresh sock, and pouncing on a modest hole. 'Ye 
 see, we never gave a thought to him, with that 
 great hearty Mr. George, his eldest brother, to 
 succeed when the old gentleman went. And such 
 a fine figure of a man in his clothes as poor Mr. 
 George used to be, and such a favourite with his 
 old uncle ! And then to be took like that, horse- 
 back riding at polar, only six weeks after the old 
 gentleman ! But I can't hear as anybody's set eyes 
 on his half-brother as comes in for the property 
 now. He never came to Vandon in his uncle's 
 lifetime. They say old Mr. Dare couldn't bide the 
 French madam as his brother took when his first 
 wife died a foreigner, with black curls ; it wasn't 
 likely. He was always partial to Mr. George, and 
 he took him up when his father died ; but he never 
 would have anything to say to this younger one, 
 bein' nothin' in the world, so folks say, but half a 
 French, and black, like his mother. I wonder 
 
 now ' began Mrs. Eccles tentatively, with her 
 
 usual love of information. 
 
 ' I wonder now,' interposed Ruth quietly, ' how 
 the rheumatism is getting on ? I saw you were in 
 church on Sunday evening.' 
 
4 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 'Yes, my dear/ began Mrs. Eccles, readily 
 diverted to a subject of such interest as herself. 
 'Yes, I always come to the evening service now, 
 though I won't deny as the rheumatics are very 
 pinching at times. But, dear Lord ! I never come 
 up to the stalls near the chancel, so you ain't likely 
 to see me. To see them Harrises always a-goin' up 
 to the very top, it does go agen me. I don't say 
 as it's everybody as ought to take the lowest place. 
 The Lord knows I'm not proud, but I won't go into 
 them chairs down by the font myself; but to see 
 them Harrises that to my certain knowledge hasn't 
 a bite of butcher's meat in their heads but onst a 
 week, a-settin' theirselves up ' 
 
 ' Now, Mrs. Eccles, you know perfectly well all 
 the seats are free in the evening.' 
 
 ' And so they may be, Miss Kuth, my dear and 
 don't ye be a-getting up yet and good Christians, 
 I'm sure, the quality are to abide it. And it did 
 my heart good to hear the Honourable John 
 preaching as he did in his new surplice (as Widder 
 Pegg always puts too much blue in the surplices, 
 to my thinking), all about rich and poor, and one 
 with another. A beautiful sermon it was. But 
 I wouldn't come up like they Harrises. There's 
 things as is suitable, and there's things as is not. 
 No, I keep to my own place ; and I had to turn 
 out old Bessie Pugh this very last Sunday night, as 
 I found a-cocked up there, tho' I was not a matter 
 of five minutes late. Bessie Pugh always was one 
 to take upon herself, and, as I often says to her, 
 when I hear her a-goin' on about free grace 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 5 
 
 and the like, " Bessie," I says, " if I was a widder on 
 the parish, and not so much as a pig to fat up for 
 Christmas, and coming to church reg'lar on Loaf 
 Sunday, which it's not that I ain't sorry for ye, but 
 / wouldn't take upon myself, if I was you, to talk 
 of things as I'd better leave to them as is beholden 
 to nobody and pays their rent reg'lar." I've no 
 
 patience But eh, dear Miss Euth ! look at that 
 
 gentleman going down the road, and the dog too. 
 Why, ye haven't so much as got up. He's gone. 
 He was a foreigner, and no mistake. Why, good 
 Lord ! there he is coming back again. He's seen 
 me through the winder. Mercy on us ! he's opening 
 the gate ; he's coming to the door.' 
 
 As she spoke, a shadow passed before the window, 
 and some one knocked. 
 
 Mrs. Eccles hastily thrust her darning-needle 
 into the front of her bodice, the general rendezvous 
 of the pins and needles of the establishment, and 
 proceeded to open the door and plant herself in 
 front of it. 
 
 Euth caught a glimpse of an erect light-gray 
 figure in the sunshine, surmounted by a brown face, 
 and the lightest of light-gray hats. Close behind 
 stood a black poodle of a dignified and self-engrossed 
 deportment, wearing its body half - shaved, but 
 breaking out in ruffles round its paws, and a tuft at 
 the end of a stiffly undemonstrative tail. 
 
 ' The key of the church is kep' at Joneses by the 
 pump,' said Mrs. Eccles, in the brusque manner 
 peculiar to the freeborn Briton when brought in 
 contact with a foreigner. 
 
6 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Thank you, madam,' was the reply, in the most 
 courteous of tones, and the gray hat was off in 
 a moment, showing a very dark, cropped head, ' but 
 I do not look for the church. I only ask for the 
 way to the house of the pastor, Mr. Alwynn/ 
 
 Mrs. Eccles gave full and comprehensive direc- 
 tions in a very high key, accompanied by much gestic- 
 ulation, and then the gray hat was replaced, and 
 the gray figure, followed by the black poodle, marched 
 down the little garden path again, and disappeared 
 from view. 
 
 Mrs. Eccles drew a long breath, and turned to 
 her visitor again. 
 
 ' Well, my dear, and did ye ever see the like of 
 that ? And his head, Miss Euth ! Did ye take 
 note of his head ? Not so much as a shadder of 
 a parting. All the same all the way over; and 
 asking the way to the Eectory. Why, you ain't 
 never going yet ? Well, good-bye, my dear, and 
 God bless ye ! And now,' soliloquised Mrs. Eccles, 
 as Euth finally escaped, ' I may as well run across 
 to Joneses, and see if they know anything about the 
 gentleman, and if he's put up at the inn/ 
 
 It was a glorious July afternoon, but it was hot. 
 The roads were white, and the tall hedgerows gray 
 with dust. A waggon-load of late hay, with a 
 swarm of children just out from school careering round 
 it, was coming up the road in a dim cloud of dust. 
 Euth, who had been undecided which way to take, 
 beat a hasty retreat towards the churchyard, deciding 
 that, if she must hesitate, to do so among cool tomb- 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 7 
 
 stones in the shade. She glanced up at the church 
 clock, as she selected her tombstone under one of 
 the many yew-trees in the old churchyard. Half-past 
 four, and already an inner voice was suggesting tea ! 
 To miss five o'clock tea on a thirsty afternoon like 
 this was not to be thought of for a moment. 
 She had no intention of going back to tea at 
 Atherstone, where she was staying with her cousins, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Danvers. Two alternatives remained. 
 Should she go to Slumberleigh Hall close by, and 
 see the Thursbys, who she knew had all returned 
 from London yesterday, or should she go across the 
 fields to Slumberleigh Kectory, and have tea with 
 Uncle John and Aunt Fanny ? 
 
 She knew that Sir Charles Danvers, Ealph 
 Danvers's eldest brother, was expected at Ather- 
 stone that afternoon. His aunt, Lady Mary 
 Cunningham, was also staying there, partly with 
 a view of meeting him. Ealph Danvers had not 
 seen his brother, nor Lady Mary her nephew for 
 some time, and, judging by the interest they seemed 
 to feel in his visit, Kuth had determined not to 
 interrupt a family meeting, in which she imagined 
 she might be de trop. 
 
 ( My fine tact,' she thought, ' will enable them 
 to have a quiet talk among themselves till nearly 
 dinner-time. But I must not neglect myself any 
 longer. The Hall is the nearest, and the drive is 
 shady; but, to put against that, Mabel will insist 
 on showing me her new gowns, and Mrs. Thursby 
 will make her usual remarks about Aunt Fanny. 
 No; in spite of that burning expanse of glebe, I 
 
8 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 will go to tea at the Kectory. I have not seen 
 Uncle John for a week, and who knows ? perhaps 
 Aunt Fanny may be out.' 
 
 So the gloves were put on, the crisp white dress 
 shaken out, the parasol put up, and Euth took the 
 narrow church path across the fields up to Slumber- 
 leigh Kectory. 
 
 For many years since the death of her parents, 
 Euth Deyncourt had lived with her grandmother, a 
 wealthy, witty, and wise old lady, whose house had 
 been considered one of the pleasantest in London 
 by those to whom pleasant houses are open. 
 
 Lady Deyncourt, a beauty in her youth, a beauty 
 in middle life, a beauty in her old age, had seen and 
 known all the marked men of the last two genera- 
 tions, and had reminiscences to tell which increased 
 in point and flavour, like old wine, the longer they 
 were kept. She had frequented as a girl the Miss 
 Berrys' drawing-room, and people were wont to say 
 that hers was the nearest approach to a salon which 
 remained after the Miss Berrys disappeared. She 
 had married a grave politician, a rising man, whom 
 she had pushed into a knighthood, and at one time 
 into the Ministry. If he had died before he could 
 make her the wife of a premier, the disappointment 
 had not been without its alleviations. She had 
 never possessed much talent for domestic life, and, 
 the yoke once removed, she had not felt the least 
 inclination to take it upon herself again. As a 
 widow, her way through life was one long triumphal 
 procession. She had daughters, dull, tall, serious 
 girls, with whom she had nothing in common, whom 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 9 
 
 she educated well, brought out, laced in, and then 
 married, one after another, relinquishing the last 
 with the utmost cheerfulness, and refusing the con- 
 dolences of friends on her lonely position with her 
 usual frankness. 
 
 But her son, her only son, she had loved. He 
 was like her, and understood her, and was at ease 
 with her, as her daughters had never been. The 
 trouble of her life was the death of her son. She 
 got over it, as she got over everything ; but when 
 several years afterwards his widow, with whom, it is 
 hardly necessary to say, she was not on speaking 
 terms, suddenly died (being a faint-hearted, feeble 
 creature), Lady Deyncourt immediately took pos- 
 session of her grandchildren a boy and two girls 
 and proceeded as far as in her lay to ruin the boy 
 for life. 
 
 ' A woman/ she was apt to remark in after years, 
 'is not intended by nature to manage any man 
 except her husband. I am a warning to the mothers, 
 aunts, and grandmothers, particularly the grand- 
 mothers, of the future. A husband is a sufficient 
 field for the employment of a woman's whole 
 energies. I went beyond my sphere, and I am 
 punished.' 
 
 And when Eaymond Deyncourt finally dis- 
 appeared in America for the last time, having been 
 fished up therefrom on several occasions, each time 
 in worse case than the last, she excommunicated 
 him, and cheerfully altered her will, dividing the 
 sixty thousand pounds she had it in her power to 
 leave between her two granddaughters, and letting 
 
10 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 the fact become known, with the result that Anna 
 was married by the end of her second season ; and 
 if at the end of five seasons Kuth was still un- 
 married, she had, as Lady Deyncourt took care to 
 inform people, no one to thank for it but herself. 
 
 But in reality, now that Anna was provided for, 
 Lady Deyncourt was in no hurry to part with Ruth. 
 She liked her as much as it was possible for her to 
 like any one indeed, I think she even loved her 
 in a way. She had taken but small notice of her 
 while she was in the schoolroom, for she cared little 
 about girls as a rule ; but as she grew up tall, erect, 
 with the pale, stately beauty of a lily, Lady 
 Deyncourt's heart went out to her. None of her 
 own daughters had been so distinguished-looking, so 
 ornamental Ruth's clothes always looked well on 
 her, and she had a knack of entertaining people, 
 and much taste in the arrangement of flowers. 
 Though she had inherited the Deyncourt earnest- 
 ness of character, together with their dark serious 
 eyes and a certain annoying rigidity as to right and 
 wrong, these defects were counterbalanced by flashes 
 of brightness and humour which reminded Lady 
 Deyncourt of herself in her own brilliant youth, 
 and inclined her to be lenient, when in her daughters' 
 cases she would have been sarcastic. The old 
 woman and the young one had been great friends, 
 and not the less so perhaps because of a tacit 
 understanding which existed between them that 
 certain subjects should be avoided upon which, each 
 instinctively felt, they were not likely to agree. 
 And if the shrewd old woman of the world ever 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 11 
 
 suspected the existence of a strength of will and 
 depth of character in Euth such as had in her own 
 early life been a source of annoyance and perplexity 
 to herself in her dealings with her husband, she 
 was skilful enough to ignore any traces of it that 
 showed themselves in her granddaughter, and thus 
 avoided those collisions of will, the result of which 
 she felt might have been doubtful. 
 
 And so Ruth had lived a life full of varied 
 interests, and among interesting people, and had 
 been waked up suddenly in a gray and frosted dawn 
 to find that chapter of her life closed. Lady 
 Deyncourt, who never thought of travelling without 
 her maid and footman, suddenly went on a long 
 journey alone one wild January morning, starting 
 without any previous preparation for a land in 
 which she had never professed much interest 
 heretofore. It seemed a pity that she should have 
 to die when she had so thoroughly acquired the art 
 of living, with little trouble to herself, and much 
 pleasure to others ; but so it was. 
 
 And then in Euth's confused remembrance of 
 what followed, all the world seemed to have turned 
 to black and gray. There was no colour anywhere, 
 where all had been colour before. Miles of black 
 cloth and crape seemed to extend before her ; black 
 horses came and stamped black hoof-marks in the 
 snow before the door. Endless arrangements had 
 to be made, endless letters to be written. Some- 
 thing was carried heavily downstairs all in black, 
 scoring the wall at the turn on the stairs in a way 
 which would have annoyed Lady Deyncourt ex- 
 
12 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ceedingly if she had been there to see it, but she 
 had left several days before it happened. The last 
 pale shadow of the kind, gay little grandmother 
 was gone from the great front bedroom upstairs. 
 Mr. Alwynn, one of Kuth's uncles, came up from 
 the country and went to the funeral, and took 
 Ruth away afterwards. Her own sister Anna was 
 abroad with her husband ; her brother Raymond had 
 not been heard of for years. As she drove away 
 from the house, and looked up at the windows with 
 wide tearless eyes, she suddenly realised that this 
 departure was final, that there would be no coming 
 back, no home left for her in the familiar rooms 
 where she and another had lived so long together. 
 
 Mr. Alwynn was by her side in the carriage, 
 patting her cold hands and telling her not to cry, 
 which she felt no inclination to do; and then, 
 seeing the blank pallor in her face, he suddenly 
 found himself fumbling for his own pocket-hand- 
 kerchief 
 
CHAPTEK II 
 
 ON this particular July afternoon, Mr. Alwynn, or, 
 as his parishioners called him,' The Honourable John/ 
 was sitting in his arm-chair in the little drawing- 
 room of Slumberleigh Eectory. Mrs. Honourable 
 John was pouring out tea ; and here, once and for 
 all, let it be known that meals, particularly five 
 o'clock tea, will occupy a large place in this 
 chronicle, not because of any importance especially 
 attaching to them, but because in the country, at 
 least in Slumberleigh, the day is not divided by 
 hours but by the meals that take place therein, and 
 to write of Slumberleigh and its inhabitants with 
 disregard to their divisions of time is 'impossible, 
 and cannot be done/ 
 
 So I repeat boldly, Mr. and Mrs. Alwynn were at 
 tea. They were alone together, for they had no 
 children, and Euth Deyncourt, who had been living 
 with them since her grandmother's death in the 
 winter, was now staying with her cousin, Mrs. 
 Ealph Danvers, at Atherstone, a couple of miles 
 away. 
 
 If it had occasionally crossed Mr. Alwynn's 
 
14 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 mind during the last few months that he would 
 have liked to have a daughter like Kuth, he had 
 kept the sentiment to himself, as he did most senti- 
 ments in the company of his wife, who, while she 
 complained of his habit of silence, made up for it 
 nobly herself at all times and in all places. It had 
 often been the subject of vague wonder among his 
 friends, and even at times to Mr. Alwynn himself, 
 how he had come to marry ' Fanny, my love.' Mr. 
 Alwynn dearly loved peace and quiet, but these 
 dwelt not under the same roof with Mrs. Alwynn. 
 Nay, I even believe, if the truth were known, he 
 liked order and tidiness, judging by the exact 
 arrangement of his own study, and the rueful 
 glances he sometimes cast at the litter of wools and 
 letters on the newspaper table, and the gay garden 
 hats and goloshes, hidden but not concealed, under 
 the drawing-room sofa. Conversation about the 
 dearness of butchers' meat and the enormities of 
 servants palled upon him, I think, after a time, but 
 he had taken his wife's style of conversation for 
 better for worse when he took her gaily-dressed self 
 under those ominous conditions, and he never 
 showed impatience. He loved his wife, but I 
 think it grieved him when smart -coloured glass 
 vases were strewn among the cherished bits of old 
 china and enamel which his soul loved. He did 
 not like chromo-lithographs or the framed photo- 
 graphs, which Mrs. Alwynn called her c momentums 
 of travel,' among his rare old prints either. He 
 bore them, but after their arrival in company with 
 .large and inappropriate nails, and especially after 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 15 
 
 the cut-glass candlesticks appeared on the drawing- 
 room chimney-piece, he ceased to make his little 
 occasional purchases of old china and old silver. 
 The curiosity shops knew him no more, or if he 
 still at times brought home some treasure in his 
 hat -box on his return from Convocation, it was 
 unpacked and examined in private, and a little 
 place was made for it among the old Chelsea 
 figures on the bookcase in his study, which had 
 stood ever since he had inherited them from his 
 father on the drawing-room mantelpiece, but had 
 been silently removed when a pair of comic china 
 elephants playing on violins had appeared in their 
 midst. 
 
 Mr. Alwynn sighed a little when he looked at 
 them this afternoon, and shook his head ; for had 
 he not brought back in his empty soup-tin an old 
 earthenware cow of Dutch extraction which he had 
 long coveted on the shelf of a parishioner? He 
 had bought it very dear, for when in all his life had 
 he ever bought anything cheap ? And now, as he 
 was tenderly wiping a suspicion of beef-tea off it, 
 he wondered, as he looked round his study, where 
 he could put it. Not among the old Oriental china, 
 where bits of Wedgwood had already elbowed in 
 for want of room elsewhere. Among his Lowestoft 
 cups and saucers ? Never. He would rather not 
 have it than see it there. He had a vision of a 
 certain bracket, discarded from the hall, and put aside 
 by his careful hands in the lowest drawer of the 
 cupboard by the window, in which he kept little 
 stores of nails and string and brown paper, among 
 
16 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 which ' Fanny, my love ' performed fearful ravages 
 when minded to tie up a parcel. 
 
 Mr. Alwynn nailed up the bracket under an 
 old etching, and placed the cow thereon, and after 
 contemplating it over his spectacles, went into the 
 drawing-room to tea with his wife. 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn was a stout, florid, good-humoured- 
 looking woman, with a battered fringe, considerably 
 younger than her husband in appearance, and with 
 a tendency to bright colours in dress. 
 
 'Barnes is very poorly, my dear,' said Mr. 
 Alwynn, patiently fishing out one of the lumps of 
 sugar which his wife had put in his tea. He took one 
 lump, but she took two herself, and consequently 
 always gave him two. ' I should say a little strong 
 soup would ' 
 
 At this juncture the front-door bell rang and a 
 moment afterwards ' Mr. Dare ' was announced. 
 
 The erect light-gray figure which had awakened 
 the curiosity of Mrs. Eccles came in close behind 
 the servant. Mrs. Alwynn received a deep bow in 
 return for her look of astonishment ; and then, with 
 an eager exclamation, the visitor had seized both 
 Mr. Alwynn's hands, regardless of the neatly folded 
 slice of bread-and-butter in one of them, and was 
 shaking them cordially/ 
 
 Mr. Alwynn looked for a moment as astonished 
 as his wife, and the blank, deprecating glance 
 he cast at his visitor showed that he was at a 
 loss. 
 
 The latter let go his hands and spread his own 
 out with a sudden gesture. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 17 
 
 ' Ah ! you do not know me/ he said, speaking 
 rapidly; 'it is twenty years ago, and you have 
 forgotten. You do not remember Alfred Dare, the 
 little boy whom you saw last in sailing costume, the 
 little boy for whom you cut the whistles, the son of 
 your old friend, Henry Dare ? ' 
 
 ' Good gracious ! ' ejaculated Mr. Alwynn, with a 
 sudden flash of memory. ' Henry's other son. I 
 remember now. It is Alfred, and I remember the 
 whistles too. You have your mother's eyes. And, 
 of course, you have come to Vandon now that your 
 
 poor brother We have all been wondering 
 
 when you would turn up. My dear boy, I re- 
 member you perfectly now; but it is a long 
 time ago, and you have changed very much/ 
 
 ' Between eight years and twenty-eight there is 
 a great step/ replied Dare, with a brilliant smile. 
 ' How could I expect that you should remember all 
 at once ? But you are not changed. I knew you 
 the first moment. It is the same kind, good face 
 which I remember well/ 
 
 Mr. Alwynn blushed a faint blush, which any word 
 of praise could always call up ; and then, reminded 
 of the presence of Mrs. Alwynn by a short cough, 
 which that lady always had in readiness wherewith 
 to recall him to a sense of duty, he turned to her 
 and introduced Dare. 
 
 Dare made another beautiful bow; and while 
 he accepted a cup of tea from Mrs. Alwynn, Mr. 
 Alwynn had time to look attentively at him with 
 his mild gray eyes. He was a slight, active-looking 
 young man of middle height, decidedly un-English 
 
 2 
 
18 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 in appearance and manner, with dark, roving eyes, 
 moustaches very much twirled up, and a lean 
 brown face that was exceedingly handsome in a 
 style to which Mr. Alwynn was not accustomed. 
 
 And this was Henry Dare's second son, the 
 son by his French wife, who had been brought up 
 abroad, of whom no one had ever heard or cared to 
 hear, who had now succeeded, by his half-brother's 
 sudden death, to Vandon, a property adjoining 
 Slumberleigh. 
 
 The eager foreign face was becoming familiar 
 to Mr. Alwynn. Dare was like his mother; but 
 he sat exactly as Mr. Alwynn had seen his father sit 
 many a time in that very chair. The attitude was 
 the same. Ah ! but that flourish of the brown hands ! 
 How unlike anything Henry would have done! 
 And those sudden movements ! He was roused by 
 Dare turning quickly to him again. 
 
 ' I am telling Mrs. Alwynn of my journey here/ 
 he began ; ' of how I miss my train ; of how I miss 
 my carriage, sent to meet me from the inn ; of how 
 I walk on foot up the long hills ; and when I get 
 there, they think I am no longer coming. I arrived 
 only last night at Vandon. To-day I walk over to 
 see my old friend at Slumberleigh.' 
 
 Dare leant forward, laying the tips of his fingers 
 lightly against his breast. 
 
 ' You seem to have had a good deal of walking,' 
 said Mr. Alwynn, rather taken aback, but anxious 
 to be cordial ; ' but, at any rate, you will not walk 
 back. You must stay the night now you are here, 
 mustn't he, Fanny ? ' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 19 
 
 Dare was delighted beaming. Then his face 
 became overcast. His eyebrows went up. He 
 shook his head. Mr. and Mrs. Alwynn were most 
 kind but he became more and more dejected 
 a bag, a simple valise 
 
 It could be sent for. 
 
 Ah ! Mr. Alwynn was too good. He revived 
 again. He showed his even white teeth. He was 
 about to resume his tea, when suddenly a tall white 
 figure came lightly in through the open French 
 window, and a clear voice began 
 
 ' Oh, Uncle John, there is such a heathen of a 
 black poodle making excavations in the flower-beds ! 
 Do ' 
 
 Kuth stopped suddenly as her eyes fell upon 
 the stranger. Dare rose instinctively. 
 
 'This is Mr. Dare, Kuth,' said Mr. Alwynn. 
 ' He has just arrived at Vandon.' 
 
 Euth bowed. Dare surpassed himself, and was 
 silent. All his smiles and flow of small talk had 
 suddenly deserted him. He began patting his dog, 
 which had followed Euth indoors, and a moment of 
 constraint fell upon the little party. 
 
 ' She is shy,' said Dare to himself. 'She is 
 adorably shy.' 
 
 Euth's quiet, self-possessed voice dispelled that 
 pleasing illusion. 
 
 ' I have had a very exhausting afternoon with 
 Mrs. Eccles, Aunt Fanny, and I have come to you 
 for a cup of tea before I go back to Atherstone.' 
 
 ' Why did you walk so far this hot afternoon, my 
 dear ; and how are Mrs. Danvers and Lady Mary ; 
 
20 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 and is any one else staying there ; and, my dear, 
 are the dolls finished ? ' 
 
 'They are/ said Euth. 'They are all out- 
 rageously fashionable. Even Molly is satisfied. 
 There is to be a school-feast here to-morrow/ she 
 added, turning to Dare, who appeared bewildered 
 at the turn the conversation was taking. ' All our 
 energies for the last fortnight have been brought to 
 bear on dolls. We have been dressing dolls, morn- 
 ing, noon, and night/ 
 
 ' When is it to be, this school-feast ? ' said Dare 
 eagerly. ' I will buy one, three dolls/ 
 
 After a lengthy explanation from Mrs. Alwynn as 
 to the nature of a school-feast as distinct from a 
 bazaar, Ruth rose to go, and Mr. Alwynn offered to 
 accompany her part of the way. . 
 
 ' And so that is the new Mr. Dare about whom 
 we have all been speculating/ she said, as they 
 strolled across the fields together. 'He is not like 
 his half-brother/ 
 
 'No; he seems to be entirely a Frenchman. 
 You see, he was educated abroad, and that makes 
 a great difference. He was a very nice little boy 
 twenty years ago. I hope he will turn out well, 
 and do his duty by the place/ 
 
 The neighbouring property of Vandon, with its 
 tumbledown cottages, its neglected people, and hard 
 agent, were often in Mr. Alwynn's thoughts. 
 
 ' Oh, Uncle John, he will, he must ! You must 
 help him and advise/ said Ruth eagerly. ' He ought 
 to stay and live on the place, and look into things 
 for himself/ 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 21 
 
 ' I am afraid he will be poor/ said Mr. Alwynn 
 meditatively. 
 
 ' Anyhow, he will be richer than he was before,' 
 urged Euth, ' and it is his duty to do something 
 for his own people.' 
 
 When Kuth had said it was a duty, she imagined, 
 like many another young soul before her, that 
 nothing remained to be said, having yet to learn 
 how much beside often remained to be done. 
 
 ' We shall see,' said Mr. Alwynn, who had seen 
 something of his fellow-creatures ; and they walked 
 on together in silence. 
 
 The person whose duty Kuth had been discussing 
 so freely, looked after the two retreating figures till 
 they disappeared, and then turned to Mrs. Alwynn. 
 
 'You and Mr. Alwynn also go to the school- 
 feast to-morrow ? ' 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn, a little nettled, explained that of 
 course she went, that it was her own school-feast, 
 that Mrs. Thursby at the Hall had nothing to do 
 with it. (Dare did not know who Mrs. Thursby 
 was, but he listened with great attention.) She, 
 Mrs. Alwynn, gave it herself. Her own cook, who 
 had been with her five years, made the cakes, and 
 her own donkey-cart conveyed the same to the field 
 where the repast was held. 
 
 ' Miss Deyncourt, will she be there ? ' asked 
 Dare. 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn explained that all the neighbour- 
 hood, including the Thursbys, would be there ; that 
 she made a point of asking the Thursbys. 
 
 ' I also will come,' said Dare gravely. 
 
CHAPTEE III 
 
 ATHERSTONE was a rambling, old-fashioned, black- 
 and-white house, half -covered with ivy, standing 
 in a rambling, old-fashioned garden a charming 
 garden, with clipped yews, and grass paths, and 
 straggling flowers and herbs growing up in un- 
 expected places. In front of the house, facing the 
 drawing-room windows, was a bowling-green, across 
 which, at this time of the afternoon, the house had 
 laid a cool green shadow. 
 
 Two ladies were sitting under its shelter, each 
 with her work. 
 
 It was hot still, but the shadows were deepen- 
 ing and lengthening. Away in the sun, hay was 
 being made and carried, with crackings of whips 
 and distant voices. Beyond the hayfields lay the 
 silver band of the river, and beyond again the spire 
 of Slumberleigh Church and a glimpse among the 
 trees of Slumberleigh Hall. 
 
 'Kalph has started in the dogcart to meet 
 Charles. They ought to be here in half an hour, if 
 the train is punctual/ said Mrs. Ealph. 
 
 She was a graceful woman, with a placid, gentle 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 23 
 
 face. She might be thirty, but she looked younger. 
 With her pleasant home and her pleasant husband, 
 and her child to be mildly anxious about, she might 
 well look young. She looked particularly so now 
 as she sat in her fresh cotton draperies, winding 
 wool with cool white hands. 
 
 The handiwork of some women has a hard, 
 masculine look. If they sew, it is with thick cotton 
 in some coarse material; if they knit, it is with 
 cricket-balls of wool which they manipulate into 
 wiry stockings and comforters. Evelyn's wools, on 
 the contrary, were always soft, fleecy, liable to weak- 
 minded tangles, and to turning after long periods of 
 time into little feminine futilities for which it was 
 difficult to divine any possible use. 
 
 Lady Mary Cunningham, her husband's aunt, 
 made no immediate reply to her small remark. 
 Evelyn Danvers was not a little afraid of that lady, 
 and, in truth, Lady Mary, with her thin face and 
 commanding manner, was a very imposing person. 
 Though past seventy, she sat erect in her chair, her 
 stick by her side, some elaborate embroidery in her 
 delicate old ringed hands. Her pale colourless eyes 
 were as keen as ever. Her white hair was covered 
 by a wonderful lace cap, which no one had ever 
 succeeded in imitating, that fell in soft lappets and 
 graceful folds round the severe, dignified face. 
 Molly, Evelyn's little daughter, stood in great awe 
 of Lady Mary, who had such a splendid stick with 
 a silver crook of her very own, and who made 
 remarks in French in Molly's presence which that 
 young lady could not understand, and felt that it 
 
24 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 was not intended she should. She even regarded 
 with a certain veneration the cap itself, which she 
 had once met in equivocal circumstances, journeying 
 with a plait of white hair towards Lady Mary's 
 rooms. 
 
 It was the first time since their marriage, of which 
 she had not approved, that Lady Mary had paid a 
 visit to Ralph and Evelyn at Atherstone. Lady 
 Mary had tried to marry Ealph in days gone by to 
 a woman who but it was an old story and better 
 forgotten. Ralph had married his first cousin when 
 he had married Evelyn, and Lady Mary had strenu- 
 ously objected to the match, and had even gone so 
 far as to threaten to alter certain clauses in her will, 
 which she had made in favour of Ralph, her younger 
 nephew, at a time when she was at daggers drawn 
 with her eldest nephew, Charles, now Sir Charles 
 Danvers. But that was an old story too, and better 
 forgotten. 
 
 When Charles succeeded his father some three 
 years ago, and when after eight years Molly had still 
 remained an only child, and one of the wrong kind, of 
 no intrinsic value to the family, Lady Mary decided 
 that bygones should be bygones, and became formally 
 reconciled to Charles, with whom she had already 
 found it exceedingly inconvenient, and consequently 
 unchristian, not to be on speaking terms. As long 
 as he was the scapegrace son of Sir George Danvers, 
 her Christian principles remained in abeyance ; but 
 when he suddenly succeeded to the baronetcy and 
 Stoke Moreton, the air of which suited her so well, 
 and, moreover, to that convenient pied d, terre, the 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 25 
 
 house in Belgrave Square, she allowed feelings, 
 which she said she had hitherto repressed with 
 difficulty, their full scope, expressed a Christian 
 hope that now that he had come to his estate 
 Charles would put away Bohemian things, and 
 instantly set to work to find a suitable wife for 
 him, 
 
 At first Lady Mary felt that the task which she 
 had imposed upon herself would (D.V.) be light 
 indeed. Charles received her overtures with the 
 same courteous demeanour which had been the chief 
 sting of their former warfare. He paid his creditors 
 no one knew how, for his father had left nothing to 
 him unentailed ; and once out of money difficulties, 
 he seemed in no hurry to plunge into them again. 
 If he had not as yet thoroughly taken up the life 
 of an English country gentleman for want of that 
 necessary adjunct which Lady Mary was so anxious 
 to supply, at least he lived in England and in good 
 society. In short, Lady Mary was fond of telling 
 her friends, Charles had entirely reformed, hinting 
 at the same time that she had been the humble 
 instrument in the hands of an all- wise Providence 
 which had turned him back into the way in which 
 the English aristocracy should walk, and from 
 which he had deviated so long. But one thing 
 remained to marry him. Every one said Charles 
 must marry. Lady Mary did not say it, but with 
 her whole soul she meant it. What she intended 
 to do, she, as a rule, performed ; occasionally at the 
 expense of those who were little able to afford it, 
 but still the thing was (always, of course, by the 
 
26 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 co-operation of Providence) done. Ealph certainly 
 had proved an exception to the rule. He had 
 married Evelyn against Lady Mary's will, and 
 consequently without the blessing of Providence. 
 After that, of course, she had never expected there 
 would be a son, and with each year her anxiety to 
 see Charles safely married had increased. He had 
 seemed so amenable that at first she could hardly 
 believe that the steed which she had led to waters 
 of such divers merit would refuse to drink from any 
 of them. If rank had no charm for him, which 
 apparently it had not, she would try beauty. When 
 beauty failed, even beauty with money in its hand, 
 Lady Mary hesitated, and then fell back on goodness. 
 But either the goodness was not good enough, or, as 
 Lady Mary feared, it was not sufficiently High 
 Church to be really genuine even goodness failed. 
 For three years she had strained every nerve, and at 
 the end of them she was no nearer the object in 
 view than when she began. 
 
 An inconvenient death of a sister, with whom 
 she had long since quarrelled about church matters 
 (and who had now gone where her folly in differing 
 from Lady Mary would be fully, if painfully, brought 
 home to her), had prevented Lady Mary continuing 
 her designs this year in London. But if thwarted in 
 one direction, she knew how to throw her energies 
 into another. The first words she uttered indicated 
 what that direction was. 
 
 Evelyn's little remark about the dogcart, which 
 had gone to meet Charles, had so long remained 
 without any response, that she was about to coin 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 27 
 
 another of the same stamp, when Lady Mary 
 suddenly said, with a decision that was intended to 
 carry conviction to the heart of her companion 
 
 ' It is an exceedingly suitable thing/ 
 
 Evelyn evidently understood what it was that 
 was so suitable, but she made no reply. 
 
 'A few years ago,' continued Lady Mary, 'I 
 should have looked higher. I should have thought 
 Charles might have done better, but ' 
 
 'He never could do better than than,' said 
 Evelyn, with a little mild flutter. ' There is no one 
 in the world more ' 
 
 ' Yes, yes, my dear, of course, we all know that/ 
 returned the elder lady. ' She is much too good for 
 him, and all the rest of it. A few years ago, I was 
 saying, I might not have regarded it quite in the 
 light I do now. Charles, with his distinguished 
 appearance and his position, might have married 
 anybody. But time passes, and I am becoming 
 seriously anxious about him ; I am, indeed. He is 
 eight-and-thirty. In two years he will be forty, and 
 at forty, you never know what a man may not do. 
 It is a critical age even when they are married. 
 Until he is forty, a man may be led under Provi- 
 dence into forming a connection with a woman of 
 suitable age and family. After that age he will 
 never look at any girl out of her teens, and either 
 perpetrates a folly, or does not marry at all. If the 
 Danvers family is not to become extinct, or to be 
 dragged down by a mesalliance, measures must be, 
 taken at once/ 
 
 Evelyn winced at the allusion to the extinction 
 
28 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 of the Danvers family, of which Charles and Ealph 
 were the only representatives. She felt keenly 
 having failed to give Kalph a son, and the sudden 
 smart of the old hurt added a touch of sharpness to 
 her usually gentle voice as she said 
 
 ' I cannot see what has been left undone.' 
 
 ' No, my dear/ said Lady Mary more suavely, 
 ' you have fallen in with my views most sensibly. 
 I only hope Ealph ' 
 
 ' Ealph knows nothing about it/ 
 
 ' Quite right. It is very much better he should 
 not. Men never can be made to look at things in 
 their proper light. They have no power of seeing 
 an inch in front of them. Even Charles, who is less 
 dense than most men, has never been allowed to 
 form an idea of the plans which from time to time 
 I have made for him. Nothing sets a man more 
 against a marriage than the idea that it has been 
 put in his way. They like to think it is all their 
 own doing, and that the whole universe will be takec 
 by surprise when the engagement is given out. 
 Charles is no exception to the rule. Our duty is to 
 provide a wife for him, and then allow him to think his 
 own extraordinary cleverness found her for himself. 
 How old is this cousin of yours, Miss Deyncourt ? ' 
 
 ' About three-and-twenty.' 
 
 'Exceedingly suitable. Young, and yet not too 
 young. She is not beautiful, but she is decidedly 
 handsome, and very high-bred looking, which is 
 better than beauty. I know all about her family ; 
 good blood on both sides ; no worsted thread. I 
 forget if there is any money/ 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 29 
 
 This was a pious fraud on Lady Mary's part, as 
 she was, of course, aware of the exact sum. 
 
 'Lady Deyncourt left her thirty thousand 
 pounds,' said Evelyn unwillingly. She hated her- 
 self for the part she was taking in her aunt's plans, 
 although she had been so unable to support her 
 feeble opposition by any show of reason that it had 
 long since melted away before the consuming fire of 
 Lady Mary's determined authority. 
 
 'Twelve hundred a year,' said that lady. 'I 
 fear Lady Deyncourt was far, very far, from the 
 truth, but she seems to have made an equitable will. 
 I am glad Miss Deyncourt is not entirely without 
 means ; and she has probably something of her own 
 as well. The more I see of that girl, the more con- 
 vinced I am that she is the very wife for Charles. 
 There is no objection to the match in any way, 
 unless it lies in that disreputable brother, who seems 
 to have entirely disappeared. Now, Evelyn, mark 
 my words. You invited her here at my wish, after 
 I saw her with that dreadful Alwynn woman at 
 the flower show. You will never regret it. I am 
 seventy-five years of age, and I have seen something 
 of men and women. Those two will suit.' 
 
 ' Here comes the dogcart,' said Evelyn, with 
 evident relief. 
 
 ' Where is Miss Deyncourt ? ' 
 
 ' She went off to Slumberleigh some time 
 ago. She said she was going to the Eectory, I 
 believe.' 
 
 ' It is just as well. Ah ! here is Charles.' 
 
 A tall, distinguished-looking man in a light over- 
 
30 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 coat came slowly round the corner of the house as 
 she spoke, and joined them on the lawn. Evelyn 
 went to meet him with evident affection, which met 
 with as evident a return, and he then exchanged a 
 more formal greeting with his aunt. 
 
 ' Come and sit down here,' said Evelyn, pulling 
 forward a garden-chair. ' How hot and tired you 
 look!' 
 
 ' I am tired to death, Evelyn. I went to London 
 in May a comparatively young man. Aunt Mary 
 said I ought to go, and so, of course, I went. I 
 have come back not only sadder and wiser that I 
 would try to bear but visibly aged.' 
 
 He took off his hat as he spoke, and wearily 
 pushed back the hair from his forehead. Lady 
 Mary looked at him over her spectacles with grave 
 scrutiny. She had not seen her nephew for many 
 months, and she was not pleased with what she 
 saw. His face looked thin and worn, and she even 
 feared she could detect a gray hair or two in the light 
 hair and moustache. His tired, sarcastic eyes met 
 hers. 
 
 ' I was afraid you would think I had gone offl he 
 said, half shutting his eyes in the manner habitual 
 to him. ' I fear I took your exhortations too 
 much to heart, and overworked myself in the good 
 cause.' 
 
 ' A season is always an exhausting thing,' said 
 Lady Mary; 'and I daresay London is very hot 
 now.' 
 
 ' Hot ! It's more than hot. It is a solemn 
 warning to evildoers ; a foretaste of a future state.' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 81 
 
 ' I suppose everybody has left town by this 
 time ? ' continued Lady Mary, who often found it 
 necessary even now to ignore parts of her nephew's 
 conversation. 
 
 1 By everybody I know you mean one family. 
 Yes, they are gone. Left London to-day. Con- 
 sequently, I also conveyed my remains out of town, 
 feeling that I had done my duty.' 
 
 ' Where is Ealph ? ' asked Evelyn, rising, dimly 
 conscious that Charles and his aunt were conversing 
 in an unknown tongue, and feeling herself de trop. 
 
 ' I left him in the shrubbery. A stoat crossed 
 the road before the horse's nose as we drove up, and 
 Ralph, who seems to have been specially invented 
 by Providence for the destruction of small vermin, 
 was in attendance on it in a moment. I had seen 
 something of the kind before, so I came on.' 
 
 Evelyn laid down her work, and went across the 
 lawn, and round the corner of the house in the 
 direction of the shrubbery, from which the voice of 
 her lord and master 'rose in snatches/ as he 
 plunged in and out among the laurels. 
 
 ' And how is Lord Hope-Acton ? ' continued Lady 
 Mary, with an air of elaborate unconcern. ' I used 
 to know him in old days as one of the best waltzers 
 in London. I remember him very slim and elegant- 
 looking ; but I suppose he is quite elderly now, and 
 has lost his figure, or so some one was saying ? ' 
 
 ' Not lost, but gone before, I should say, to judge 
 by appearances/ said Charles meditatively, gazing up 
 into the blue of the summer sky. 
 
 The mixed impiety and indelicacy of her nephew's 
 
32 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 remark caused a sudden twitch to the High Church 
 embroidery in Lady Mary's hand ; but she went on 
 a moment later in her usual tone. 
 
 ' And Lady Hope- Acton ? Is she in stronger 
 health?' 
 
 ' I believe she was fairly well ; not robust, you 
 know, but, like other fond mothers with daughters 
 out, " faint yet pursuing." ' 
 
 Lady Mary bit her lip ; but long experience had 
 taught her that it was wiser to refrain from reproof, 
 even when it was so urgently needed. 
 
 ' And their daughter, Lady Grace ? How 
 beautiful she is ! Was she looking as lovely as 
 usual ? ' 
 
 ' More so,' replied Charles with conviction. 
 'Her nose is even straighter, her eyelashes even 
 longer than they were last summer. I do not 
 hesitate to say that her complexion is all that her 
 fancy paints it.' 
 
 ' You are so fond of joking, Charles, that I don't 
 know when you are serious. And you saw a good 
 deal of her ? ' 
 
 ' Of course I did. I leant on the railings in the 
 Eow, and watched her riding with Lord Hope- Acton, 
 whose personal appearance you feel such an interest 
 in. At the meeting of the four-in-hands, was not 
 she on the box-seat beside me ? At Henley, were 
 we not in the same boat ? At Hurlingham, did we 
 not watch polo together, and together drink our tea? 
 At Lord's, did not I tear her new muslin garment 
 in helping her up one of those poultry ladders on 
 the Torringtons' drag ? Have I not taken her in to 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 83 
 
 dinner five several times ? Have I not danced with 
 her at balls innumerable ? Have I not, in fact, seen 
 as much of her as of several others ? ' 
 ' Oh, Charles ! ' said Lady Mary, ' I wish you 
 would talk seriously for one moment, and not in 
 that light way. Have you spoken ? ' 
 
 'In a light way, I should say I had spoken a 
 good deal; but, seriously No. I have never 
 ventured to be serious/ 
 
 ' But you will be. After all this, you will ask her ? ' 
 
 ' Aunt Mary/ replied Charles, with gentle reproach, 
 ' a certain delicacy should be observed in probing the 
 exact state of a man's young affections. At five- 
 and- thirty (I know I am five -and -thirty, because 
 you have told people so for the last three years) 
 there exists a certain reticence in the youthful heart 
 which declines to lay bare its inmost feelings even 
 for an aunt to we won't say peck at, but specu- 
 late upon. I have told you all I know. I have 
 done what I was bidden to do, up to a certain point. 
 I am now here to recruit, and restore my wasted 
 energies, and possibly to heal (observe, I say possibly) 
 my wounded affections in the intimacy of my family 
 circle. That reminds me that little ungrateful imp 
 Molly has not yet made the slightest demonstration 
 of joy at my arrival Where is she ? ' and without 
 waiting for an answer, which he was well aware 
 would not be forthcoming, Charles rose and strolled 
 towards the house with his hands behind his back. 
 
 ' Molly ! ' he called, ' Molly ! ' standing bareheaded 
 in the sunshine, under a certain latticed window, 
 the iron bars of which suggested a nursery within. 
 
 3 
 
34 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 There was a sudden answering cackle of delight, 
 and a little brown head was thrust out amid the 
 ivy. 
 
 ' Come down this very moment, you little hard- 
 hearted person, and embrace your old uncle.' 
 
 ' I'm comin', Uncle Charles, I'm comin' ; ' and 
 the brown head disappeared, and a few seconds later 
 a white frock and two slim black legs rushed round 
 the corner, and Molly precipitated herself against 
 the waistcoat of ' Uncle Charles.' 
 
 'What do you mean by not coming down and 
 paying your respects sooner ? ' he said, when the 
 first enthusiasm of his reception was over, looking 
 down at Molly with a great kindness in the keen 
 light eyes which had looked so apathetic and sarcastic 
 a moment before. 
 
 As he spoke, Kalph Danvers, a square, ruddy 
 man in gray knickerbockers, came triumphantly 
 round from the shrubbery, holding by its tail a 
 minute corpse, with outstretched arms and legs. 
 
 ' Got him ! ' he said, smiling, and wiping his brow 
 with honest pride. 'See, Charles? See, Molly? 
 Got him ! ' 
 
 'Don't bring it here, Ealph, please. We are 
 going to have tea,' came Evelyn's gentle voice from 
 the lawn ; and Kalph and the terrier Vic retired to 
 hang the body of the slain upon a fir-tree on the 
 back premises, the recognised long home of stoats 
 and weasels at Atherstone. 
 
 Molly, in the presence of Lady Mary and the 
 stick with the silver crook, was always more or less 
 depressed and shy. She felt the pale cold eye of 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 35 
 
 that lady was upon her, as indeed it generally was, if 
 she moved or spoke. She did not therefore join in 
 the conversation as freely as was her wont in the 
 family circle, but sat on the grass by her uncle, 
 watching him with adoring eyes, trying to work the 
 signet ring off his big little finger, which in the 
 memory of man of Molly, I mean had never been 
 known to work off, while she gave him the benefit 
 of small pieces of local and personal news in a half 
 whisper from time to time as they occurred to her. 
 
 ' Cousin Ruth is staying here, Uncle Charles.' 
 
 'Indeed/ said Charles absently. 
 
 His eyes had wandered to Evelyn taking Ealph 
 his cup of tea, and giving him a look with it which 
 he returned the quiet grave look of mutual confid- 
 ence which sometimes passes between married people, 
 and which for the moment makes the single state 
 seem very single indeed. 
 
 Molly saw that he had not heard, and that she 
 must try some more exciting topic in order to rivet 
 his attention. 
 
 'There was a mouse at prayers yesterday, Uncle 
 Charles/ 
 
 ' There wasn't ? ' 
 
 Uncle Charles was attending again now, 
 
 Molly gave an exact account of the great event, 
 and of how ' Nanny ' had gathered her skirts round 
 her, and how James had laughed, only father did 
 
 not see him, and how There was a great deal 
 
 more, and the story ended tragically for the mouse, 
 whose final demise under a shovel when prayers 
 were over Molly described in graphic detail. 
 
3 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' And how are the guinea pigs ? ' asked Charles, 
 putting down his cup. 
 
 ' Come and see them/ whispered Molly, insinuat- 
 ing her small hand delightedly into his big one ; and 
 they went off together, each happy in the society of 
 the other. Charles was introduced to the guinea 
 pigs which had multiplied exceedingly since he had 
 presented them, the one named after him being even 
 then engaged in rearing a large family. 
 
 Then, after Molly had copiously watered her 
 garden, and Charles's unsuspecting boots at the 
 same time, objects of interest still remained to be 
 seen and admired ; confidences had to be exchanged ; 
 inner pockets in Charles's waistcoat to be ex- 
 plored ; and it was not till the dressing-bell and 
 the shrill voice of ' Nanny ' from an upper window 
 recalled them, that the friends returned towards the 
 house. 
 
 As they turned to go indoors, Charles saw a tall 
 white figure skimming across the stretches of low 
 sunshine and long shadow in the field beyond the 
 garden, and making swiftly for the garden gate. 
 
 1 Oh, Molly, Molly ! ' he said, in a tone of sudden 
 consternation, squeezing the little brown hand in 
 his. 'Who is that?' 
 
 Molly looked at him astonished. A moment 
 ago Uncle Charles had been talking merrily, and 
 now he looked quite sad. 
 
 ' It's only Ruth/ she said reassuringly. 
 
 1 Who is Ruth ? ' 
 
 ' Cousin Ruth/ replied Molly. ' I told you she 
 was here.' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 87 
 
 ' She's not staying here ? ' 
 
 'Yes, she is. She is rather nice, only she says 
 the guinea pigs smell nasty, which isn't true. She 
 will be late' with evident concern 'if she is 
 going to be laced up ; and I know she is, because 
 I saw it on her bed. She doesn't see us yet. Let 
 us go and meet her.' 
 
 'Kun along then/ said Charles, in a tone of 
 deep dejection, loosing Molly's hand. ' J think I'll 
 go indoors.' 
 
CHAPTEE IV 
 
 1 I'VE done Uncle Charles a button-hole, and put 
 it in his water-bottle/ said Molly, in an important 
 affairt whisper, as she came into Buth's room a few 
 minutes before dinner, where Euth and her maid 
 were struggling with a black lace dress. 'Mrs. 
 Jones, you must be very quick. Why do you have 
 pins in your mouth, Mrs. Jones ? James has got 
 his coat on, and he is going to ring the bell in one 
 minute. I told him you had only just got your 
 hair done ; but he said he could not help that. 
 Uncle Charles,' peeping through the door, ' is going 
 down now, and he's got on a beautiful white waistcoat. 
 He's brought that nice Mr. Brown with him that 
 unpacks his things and plays on the concertina. 
 Ah ! there's the bell ; ' and Molly hurried down to 
 give a description of the exact stage at which Buth's 
 toilet had arrived, which Buth cut short by appearing 
 hard upon her heels. 
 
 ' It is a shame to come indoors now, isn't it ? ' 
 said Charles, as he was introduced and took her in 
 to dinner in the wake of Lady Mary and Balph. 
 ' Just the first cool time of the day.' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 38 
 
 'Is it ? ' said Euth, still rather pink with her 
 late exertions. ' When I heard the dressing-bell ring 
 across the fields, and the last gate would not open, 
 and I found the railings through which I precipi- 
 tated myself had been newly painted, I own I thought 
 it had never been so hot all day/ 
 
 ' How trying it is to be forgotten ! ' said Charles, 
 after a pause. ' We have met before, Miss Deyn- 
 court ; but I see you don't remember me. I gave 
 you time to recollect me by throwing out that 
 little remark about the weather ; but it was no 
 good.' 
 
 Euth glanced at him and looked puzzled. 
 
 ' I am afraid I don't/ she said at last. ' I have 
 seen you playing polo once or twice, and driving 
 your four-in-hand ; but I thought I only knew you 
 by sight. When did we meet before ? ' 
 
 ' You have no recollection of a certain ball after 
 some theatricals at Stoke Moreton which you and 
 your sister came to, as little girls in pigtails ? ' 
 
 'Of course, I remember that. And were you 
 there ? ' 
 
 ' Was I there ? Oh, the ingratitude of woman ! 
 Did not I dance three times with each of you, and 
 suggest chicken at supper instead of lobster salad ? 
 Does not the lobster salad awaken memories ? 
 Surely you have not forgotten that ? ' 
 
 Euth began to smile. 
 
 ' I remember now. So you were the kind man, 
 name unknown, who took such care of Anna and 
 me ? How good-natured you were ! ' 
 
 ' Thanks ! You evidently do remember now, 
 
40 SIB CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 if you say that. I recognised you at once when I 
 saw you again, by your likeness to your brother 
 Kaymond. You were very like him then, but much 
 more so now. How is he ? ' 
 
 Euth's dark gray eyes shot a sudden surprised 
 glance at him. People had seldom of late inquired 
 after Eaymond. 
 
 ' I believe he is quite well,' she replied in a 
 constrained tone. ' I have not heard from him for 
 some time.' 
 
 ' It is some years since I met him/ said Charles, 
 noting but ignoring her change of tone. ' I used to 
 see a good deal of him before he went to was it 
 America ? I heard from him about three years ago. 
 He was prospecting, I think, at that time.' 
 
 Euth remembered that Charles had succeeded 
 his father about three years ago. She remembered 
 also Eaymond's capacities for borrowing. A sudden 
 instinct told her what the drift of that letter had 
 been. The blood rushed into her face. 
 
 1 Oh ! he didn't did he ? ' 
 
 The other three people were talking together; 
 Lady Mary, opposite, was joining with a bland 
 smile of inward satisfaction in the discussion 
 between Ealph and Evelyn as to the rival merits of 
 1 Cochin Chinas ' and ' Plymouth Eocks.' 
 
 ' If he did,' said Charles quietly, ' it was only 
 what we had often done for each other before. 
 There was a time, Miss Deyncourt, when your 
 brother and I both rowed in the same boat; and 
 both, I fancy, split on the same rock. It is not 
 so long ago since ' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 41 
 
 There was a sudden silence. The chicken ques- 
 tion was exhausted. It dropped dead. Charles left 
 his sentence unfinished, and, turning to his brother, 
 the conversation became general. 
 
 In the evening, when the others had said good- 
 night, Charles and Ealph went out into the cool 
 half-darkness to smoke, and paced up and down on 
 the lawn in the soft summer night. The two 
 brothers had not met for some time, and in an un- 
 demonstrative way they had a genuine affection for 
 each other, which showed itself on this occasion 
 in walking about together without exchanging a 
 word. 
 
 At last Charles broke the silence. 'I thought, 
 when I settled to come down here, you said you 
 would be alone ? ' There was a shade of annoyance 
 in his tone. 
 
 ' Well, now, that is just what I said at the time/ 
 said Ealph sleepily, with a yawn that would have 
 accommodated a Jonah, ' only I was told I did not 
 understand. They always say I don't understand, 
 if they're set on anything. I thought you wanted 
 a little peace and quietness. I said so ; but Aunt 
 Mary settled we must have some one. I say, 
 Charles,' with a chuckle of deep masculine cunning, 
 ' you just look out. There's some mystery up about 
 Euth. I believe Aunt Mary got Evelyn to ask her 
 here with an eye to business.' 
 
 'I would not do Aunt Mary the injustice to 
 doubt that for a moment,' replied Charles rather 
 bitterly ; and they relapsed into silence and smoke. 
 
42 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Presently Kalph, who had been out all day, 
 yawned himself into the house, and left Charles to 
 pace up and down by himself. 
 
 If Lady Mary, who was at that moment com- 
 posing herself to slumber in the best spare bed- 
 room, had heard the gist of Kalph's remarks to his 
 brother, I think she would have risen up and con- 
 fronted him then and there on the stairs. As it 
 was, she meditated on her couch with much satis- 
 faction, until the sleep of the just came upon her, 
 little recking that the clumsy hand of brutal man 
 had even then torn the veil from her carefully con- 
 cealed and deeply laid feminine plans. 
 
 Charles, meanwhile, remained on the lawn till 
 late into the night. After two months of London 
 smuts, and London smoke, and London nights, the 
 calm scented darkness had a peculiar charm for him. 
 The few lights in the windows were going out one 
 by one, and thousands and thousands were coming 
 out in the quiet sky. Through the still air came 
 the sound of a corncrake perpetually winding up its 
 watch at regular intervals in a field hard by. A 
 little desultory breeze hovered near, and just roused 
 the sleepy trees to whisper a good -night. And 
 Charles paced and paced, and thought of many 
 things. 
 
 Only last night ! His mind went back to the 
 picture-gallery where he and Lady Grace had sat, 
 amid a grove of palms and flowers. Through the 
 open archway at a little distance came a flood of 
 light, and a surging echo of plaintive, appealing 
 music. It was late, or rather early, for morning 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 43 
 
 was looking in with cold, dispassionate eyes through 
 the long windows. The gallery was comparatively 
 empty for a London gathering, for the balconies and 
 hall were crowded, and the rooms were thinning. 
 To all intents and purposes they were alone. How 
 nearly how nearly he had asked for what he knew 
 would not have been refused ! How nearly he had 
 decided to do at once what might still be put off till 
 to-morrow ! And he must marry. He often told 
 himself so. She was there beside him on the yellow 
 brocade ottoman. She was much too good for him; 
 but she liked him. Should he do it ? Now ? he 
 asked himself, as he watched the slender gloved 
 hand swaying the feather fan with monotonous 
 languor. 
 
 But when he took her back to the ballroom, 
 back to an expectant, tired mother, he had not done 
 it. He should be at their house in Scotland later. 
 He thought he would wait till then. He breathed 
 a long sigh of relief in the quiet darkness now, at 
 the thought that he had not done it. He had a 
 haunting presentiment, that neither in the purple 
 heather, any more than in a London ballroom, 
 would he be able to pass beyond that ' certain point/ 
 to which in divers companionship, with or without 
 assistance, he had so often attained. 
 
 For Charles was genuinely anxious to marry. 
 He regarded with the greatest interest every eligible 
 and ineligible young woman whom he came across. 
 If Lady Mary had been aware of the very serious light 
 in which he had considered Miss Louisa Smith, 
 youngest daughter of a certain curate Smith, who in 
 
44 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 his youth had been originally extracted from a 
 refreshment room at Liverpool to become an orna- 
 ment of the Church, that lady would have swooned 
 with horror. But neither Miss Louisa Smith, with 
 her bun and sandwich ancestry, nor the eighth Lord 
 Breakwater's young and lovely sister, though both 
 willing to undertake the situation, were either of 
 them finally offered it. Charles remained free as 
 air, and a dreadful stigma gradually attached to 
 him as a heartless flirt and a perverter of young 
 girls' minds from men of more solid worth. A man 
 who pleases easily and is hard to please soon gets 
 a bad name among mothers. I don't think Lady 
 Hope- Acton thought very kindly of him, as she 
 sped up to Scotland in the night mail. 
 
 Perhaps he was not so much to blame as she 
 thought. Long ago, ten long years ago, in the 
 reckless days of which Lady Mary had then made so 
 much and now made so little, poor Charles had been 
 deeply in love with a good woman, a gentle, quiet 
 girl, who after a time had married his brother Kalph. 
 No one had suspected his attachment, Kalph and 
 Evelyn least of all, but several years elapsed before 
 he found tune to visit them at Atherstone ; and I 
 think his fondness for Molly had its origin in his 
 feeling for her mother. Even now it sometimes 
 gave him a momentary pang to meet the adoration 
 in Molly's eyes, which, with their dark lashes, she had 
 copied so exactly from Evelyn's. 
 
 And now that he could come with ease on what 
 had been forbidden ground, he had seen of late 
 clearly, with the insight that comes of dispassionate 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 45 
 
 consideration, that Evelyn, the only woman whom 
 he had ever earnestly loved, whom he would have 
 turned heaven and earth to have been able to marry, 
 had not been in the least suited to him, and that to 
 have married her would have entailed a far more 
 bitter disappointment than the loss of her had been. 
 
 Evelyn made Ealph an admirable wife. She 
 was so placid, so gentle, and with the exception of 
 muddy boots in the drawing-room so unexacting. 
 It was sweet to see her read to Molly, but did she 
 never take up a book or a paper ? What she said 
 was always gracefully put forth ; but oh ! in old 
 days, used she in that same gentle voice to utter 
 such platitudes, such little stereotyped remarks ? 
 Used she in the palmy days that were no more 
 (when she was not Ealph's wife), so mildly but so 
 firmly to adhere to a preconceived opinion ? Had 
 she formerly such fixed opinions on every subject in 
 general, and on new-laid eggs and the propriety of 
 chicken-hutches on the lawn in particular ? Dis- 
 illusion may be for our good, like other disagreeable 
 things, but it is seldom pleasant at the time, and is 
 apt to leave in all except the most conceited natures 
 (whose lifelong mistakes are committed for our 
 learning) a self - distrustful caution behind, which 
 is mortally afraid of making a second mistake of 
 the same kind. 
 
 Charles suddenly checked his pacing. 
 
 And yet surely, surely, he said to himself, there 
 were in the world somewhere, good women of 
 another stamp, who might be found for diligent 
 seeking. 
 
46 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 He turned impatiently to go indoors. 
 
 ' Oh, Molly, Molly ! ' he said half aloud, gazing 
 at the darkened windows behind which the body of 
 Molly was sleeping, while her little soul was frisking 
 away in fairyland, ' why did you complicate matters 
 by being a little girl ? ' With which reflection he 
 brought his meditations to a close for the night. 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 MOLLY awoke early on the following morning, and 
 early informed the rest of the household that the 
 weather was satisfactory. She flew into Ruth's 
 room with the hot water, to wake her and set her 
 mind at rest on a subject of such engrossing interest ; 
 she imparted it repeatedly to Charles through his 
 keyhole, until a low incoherent muttering convinced 
 her that he also was rejoicing in the good news. 
 She took all the dolls out of the baskets in which 
 Euth's careful hands had packed them the evening 
 before, in the recognised manner in which dolls 
 travel without detriment to their toilets, namely, 
 head downwards, with their orange top boots turned 
 upwards to the sky. In short, Molly busied herself 
 in the usual ways in which an only child finds 
 employment. 
 
 It really was a glorious day. Except in Molly's 
 eyes it was almost too good a day for a school-feast ; 
 too good a day, Ruth thought, as she looked out, to 
 be spent entirely in playing at endless games of 
 ' Sally Water ' and ' Oranges and Lemons,' and in 
 pouring out sweet tea in a tent. She remembered a 
 
48 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 certain sketch at Arleigh, an old deserted house in the 
 neighbourhood, which she had long wished to make. 
 What a day for a sketch ! But she shut her eyes 
 to the temptation of the evil one, and went out into 
 the garden, where Molly's little brown hands were 
 devastating the beds for the approaching festival, 
 and Molly's shrill voice was piping through the fresh 
 morning air. 
 
 There had been rain in the night, and to-day the 
 earth had all her diamonds on, just sent down reset 
 from heaven. The trees came out resplendent, 
 unable to keep their leaves still for very vanity, and 
 dropping gems out of their settings at every rustle. 
 No one had been forgotten. Every tiniest shrub 
 and plant had its little tiara to show ; rare jewels 
 cut by a Master Hand, which at man's rude touch, 
 or, for that matter, Molly's either, slid away to 
 tears. 
 
 'You don't mean to say, Molly/ said Charles, 
 later in the day, when all the dolls had been passed 
 in review before him, and he had criticised each, 
 ' that you are going to leave me all day by myself ? 
 What shall I do between luncheon and tea-time, 
 when I have fed the guinea pigs and watered the 
 " blue-belia," as you call it ? Where has that imp 
 disappeared to now ? I think,' with a glance at 
 Ruth, who was replacing the cotton -wool on the 
 dolls' faces, ' I really think, though I own I fancied 
 I had a previous engagement, that I shall be obliged 
 to come to the school-feast too/ 
 
 'Don't,' said Ruth, looking up suddenly from 
 her work with gray serious eyes. ' Be advised. "No 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 49 
 
 man who respects himself makes himself common 
 by attending village school-feasts and attempting to 
 pour out tea, which he is never allowed to do in 
 private life.' 
 
 1 1 could hand buns/ suggested Charles. ' You 
 take a gloomy view of your fellow-creatures, Miss 
 Deyncourt. I see you underrate my powers with 
 plates of buns/ 
 
 ' Far from it. I only wished to keep you from 
 quitting your proper sphere/ 
 
 ' What, may I ask, is my proper sphere ? ' 
 
 ' Not to come to school-feasts at all ; or, if you 
 feel that is beyond you, only to arrive when you are 
 too late to be of any use ; to stand about with a 
 hunting-crop in your hand for, of course, you will 
 come on horseback and then, after refreshing all of 
 us workers by a few well-chosen remarks, to go away 
 again at an easy canter/ 
 
 ' I think I could do that, if it would give pleasure ; 
 and I am most grateful to you for pointing out my 
 proper course to me. I have observed it is the 
 prerogative of woman in general not only to be 
 absolutely convinced as to her own line of action, 
 but also to be able to point out that of man to his 
 obtuser perceptions/ 
 
 'I believe you are perfectly right/ said Kuth, 
 becoming serious. 'If men, especially prime 
 ministers, were to apply to almost any woman I 
 know (except, of course, myself) for advice as to the 
 administration of the realm or their own family 
 affairs, I have not the slightest doubt that not one 
 of them would be sent empty away, but would be 
 
 4 
 
50 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 furnished instantly with a complete guide-book as 
 to his future movements on this side the grave/ 
 
 ' Oh, some people don't stop there/ said Charles. 
 'Aunt Mary, in my young days, used to think 
 nothing of the grave if I had displeased her. She 
 still revels in a future court of justice, and an eternal 
 cat-o'-nine tails beyond the tomb. Well, Molly, so 
 here you are, back again ! What's the last news ? ' 
 
 The news was the extraordinary arrival of five 
 new kittens, which, according to Molly, the old 
 stable cat had just discovered in a loft, and took 
 the keenest personal interest in. Charles was 
 dragged away only half acquiescent, to help in 
 a decision that must instantly be come to, as 
 to which of the two spotted or the three plain ones 
 should be kept. 
 
 It was a day of delight to Molly. She had the 
 responsibility and honour of driving Euth and the 
 dolls in her own donkey-cart to the scene of action, 
 where the school children, and some of the idlest or 
 most good-natured of Mrs. Alwynn's friends, were even 
 then assembling, and where Mrs. Alwynn herself 
 was already dashing from point to point, buzzing 
 like a large ' bumble ' bee. 
 
 As the donkey-cart crawled up, a gray figure 
 darted out of the tent, and flew to meet them from 
 afar. Dare, who had been on the look-out for them 
 for some time, offered to lift out Molly, helped out 
 Euth, held the baskets, wished to unharness the 
 donkey, let the wheel go over his patent leather 
 shoe, and in short made himself excessively agree- 
 able, if not in Euth's, at least in Molly's eyes, who 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 61 
 
 straightway entered into conversation with him, and 
 invited him to call upon herself and the guinea pigs 
 at Atherstone at an early date. 
 
 Then ensued the usual scene at festivities of 
 this description. Tea was poured out like water 
 (very like warm water), buns, cakes, and bread and 
 butter were eaten, were crumbled, were put in 
 pockets, were stamped underfoot. Large open tarts, 
 covered with thin sticks of pastry, called by the 
 boys ' the tarts with the grubs on 'em,' disappeared 
 apace, being constantly replaced by others made in 
 the same image, from which the protecting but 
 adhesive newspaper had to be judiciously peeled. 
 When the last limit of the last child had been 
 reached, the real work of the day began the games. 
 Under a blazing sun for the space of two hours 
 ' Sally Water ' or ' Nuts in May ' must be played, 
 with an occasional change to 'Oranges and 
 Lemons.' 
 
 Kuth, who had before been staying with the 
 Alwynns at the tune of their school-feast, hardened 
 her heart and began that immoral but popular game 
 of 'Sally Water.' 
 
 ' Sally, Sally Water, come sprinkle your pan ; 
 Rise up a husband, a handsome young man. 
 Rise, Sally, rise, and don't look sad, 
 You shall nave a husband, good or bad.' 
 
 The last line showing how closely the state of 
 feeling of village society as regards the wedded 
 state resembles the view taken of it in the highest 
 circles. 
 
 Other games were already in full swing. Mrs. 
 
52 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Alwynn, flushed and shrill, was organising an infant 
 troop. A good-natured curate was laying up for 
 himself treasure elsewhere, by a present expenditure 
 of halfpence secreted in a tub of bran. Dare, not 
 to be behindhand, took to swinging little girls with 
 desperate and heated good-nature. His bright smile 
 and genial brown face soon gained the confidence of 
 the children ; and then he swung them as they had 
 never been swung before. It was positively the 
 first time that some of the girls had ever seen their 
 heels above their heads. And his powers of endur- 
 ance were so great. First his coat and then his 
 waistcoat were cast aside as he warmed to his work, 
 until at last he dragged the sleeve of his shirt out 
 of the socket, and had to retire into private life 
 behind a tree, in company with Mrs. Eccles and a 
 needle and thread. But he reappeared again, and 
 was soon swept into a game of cricket that was 
 being got up among the elder boys ; bowled the 
 schoolmaster; batted brilliantly and with consider- 
 able flourish for a few moments, only to knock his 
 own wickets down with what seemed singular want 
 of care ; and then fielded with cat-like activity and 
 an entire oblivion of the game, receiving a swift ball 
 on his own person, only to choke, coil himself up, and 
 recover his equanimity and the ball in a moment. 
 
 All things come to an end, and at last the 
 Slumberleigh church clock struck four, and Ruth 
 could sink giddily on to a bench, and push back 
 the few remaining hairpins that were left to her, 
 and feebly endeavour, with a pin eagerly extracted 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 53 
 
 by Dare from the back of his neck, to join the 
 gaping ruin of torn gathers in her dress, so daintily 
 fresh two hours ago, so dilapidated now. 
 
 'There they come/ said Mrs. Alwynn indig- 
 nantly, who was fanning herself with her pocket- 
 handkerchief, which stout women ought to be- for- 
 bidden by law to do. 'There are Mrs. Thursby 
 and Mabel. Just like them, arriving when the 
 games are all over ! And, dear me ! who is that 
 with them ? Why, it is Sir Charles Danvers. I 
 had no idea he was staying with them. Brown 
 particularly told me they had not brought back any 
 friend with them yesterday. Dear me ! How odd ! 
 And Brown ' 
 
 I Sir Charles Danvers is staying at Atherstone/ 
 said Euth. 
 
 ' At Atherstone, is he ? Well, my dear, this is 
 the first I have heard of it, if he is. I don't see 
 what there is to make a secret of in that. Most 
 natural he should be staying there, I should have 
 thought. And, if that's one of Mabel's new gowns, 
 all I can say is that yours is quite as nice, Ruth, 
 though I know it is from last year, and those full 
 fronts as fashionable as ever/ 
 
 As Mr. and Mrs. Alwynn went forward to meet 
 the Thursbys, - Charles strolled up to Ruth, and 
 planted himself deliberately in front of her. 
 
 ' You observe that I am here ? ' he said. 
 
 I 1 do/ 
 
 ' At the proper time ? ' 
 
 ' At the proper time/ 
 
 ' And in my sphere ? I have tampered with 
 
54 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 no buns, you will remark, and teapots have been far 
 from me.' 
 
 ' I am rejoiced my little word in season has been 
 of such use.' 
 
 'It has, Miss Deyncourt. The remark you 
 made this morning I considered honest, though 
 poor ; and I laid it to heart accordingly. But,' with a 
 change of tone, ' you look tired to death. You have 
 been out in the sun too long. I am going off now. 
 I only came because I met the Thursbys, and they 
 dragged me here. Come home with me through the 
 woods. You have no idea how agreeable I am in 
 the open air. It will be shady all the way, and 
 not half so fatiguing as being shaken in Molly's 
 donkey-cart.' 
 
 ' In the donkey-cart I must return, however, if I 
 die on the way,' said Kuth, with a tired smile. ' I 
 can't leave Molly. Besides, all is not over yet. 
 The races and prizes take time ; and, when at last 
 they are dismissed, a slice of ' 
 
 ' No, Miss Deyncourt, no ! Not more food ! ' 
 
 ' A slice of cake will be applied externally to each 
 of the children, which rite brings the festivities to 
 a close. There ! I see the dolls are being carried out. 
 I must go ; ' and a moment later Kuth and Molly 
 and Dare, who had been hovering near, were busily 
 unpacking and shaking out the dolls ; and Charles, 
 after a little desultory conversation with Mabel 
 Thursby, strolled away, with his hands behind his 
 back and his nose in the air in the manner habitual 
 to him. 
 
 And so the day wore itself out at last ; and after 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 55 
 
 a hymn had been shrieked the children were dis- 
 missed, and Euth and Molly at length drove away. 
 
 ' Hasn't it been delicious ? ' said Molly. ' And 
 my doll was chosen first. Lucy Bigg, with the rash 
 on her face, got it. I wish little Sarah had had it. 
 I do love Sarah so very much ; but Sarah had yours, 
 Kuth, with the real pocket and the handkerchief in 
 it. That will be a surprise for her when she gets 
 home. And that new gentleman was so kind about 
 the teapots, wasn't he ? He always filled mine first. 
 He's coming to see me very soon, and to bring 
 a curious black dog that he has of his very own, 
 called ' 
 
 ' Stop, Molly/ said Euth, as the donkey's head 
 was being sawed round towards the blazing high- 
 road ; ' let us go home through the woods. I know 
 it is longer, but I can't stand any more sun and dust 
 to-day.' 
 
 ' You do look tired/ said Mplly, ' and your lips 
 are quite white. My lips turned white once, before 
 I had the measles, and I felt very curious in- 
 side, and then spots came all over. You don't 
 feel like spots, do you, Cousin Euth ? We will go 
 back by the woods, and I'll open the gates, and you 
 shall hold the reins. I daresay Balaam will like it 
 better too/ 
 
 Molly had called her donkey Balaam partly 
 owing to a misapprehension of Scripture narrative, 
 and partly owing to the assurance of Charles, when 
 in sudden misgiving she had consulted him on the 
 point, that Balaam had been an ass. 
 
 Balaam's reluctant imder-jaw was accordingly 
 
56 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 turned in the direction of the woods, and, little 
 thinking the drive might prove an eventful one, 
 Ruth and Molly set off at that easy amble which 
 a well-fed pampered donkey will occasionally in- 
 dulge in. 
 
CHAPTEE VI 
 
 AFTER the glare and the noise, the shrill blasts of 
 penny trumpets, and the sustained beating of penny 
 drums, the silence of the Slumberleigh woods was 
 delightful to Euth ; the comparative silence, that is 
 to say, for, where Molly was, absolute silence need 
 never be feared. 
 
 Long before the first gate had been reached 
 Balaam had, of course, returned to the mode of pro- 
 cedure which suited him and his race best, and it 
 was only when the road inclined to be downhill that 
 he could be urged into anything like a trot. 
 
 'Never mind/ said Molly consolingly to Euth, 
 as he finally settled into a slow lounge, gracefully 
 waving his ears and tail at the army of flies which 
 accompanied him, ' when we get to the place where 
 the firs are, and the road goes between the rocks, it's 
 downhill all the way, and we'll gallop down.' 
 
 But it was a long way to the firs, and Euth was 
 in no hurry. It was an ideal afternoon, verging 
 towards evening ; an afternoon of golden lights and 
 broken shadows, of vivid greens in shady places. It 
 must have been on such a day as this, Euth thought, 
 
58 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 that the Almighty walked in the garden of Eden 
 when the sun was low, while as yet the tree of 
 knowledge was but in blossom, while as yet autumn 
 and its apples were far off, long before fig-leaves and 
 millinery were thought of. 
 
 On either side the bracken and the lady-fern 
 grew thick and high, almost overlapping the broad 
 moss-grown path, across which the young rabbits 
 popped away in their new brown coats, showing 
 their little white linings in their lazy haste. A 
 dog-rose had hung out a whole constellation of pale 
 stars for Molly to catch at as they passed. A family 
 of honeysuckle clung, faint and sweet, just beyond 
 the reach of the little hand that stretched after them 
 in turn. 
 
 They had reached the top of an ascent that 
 would have been a level to anything but the mean 
 spirit of a donkey, when Molly gave a start. 
 
 ' Cousin Euth ! there's something creeping among 
 the trees. Don't you hear it ? Oh-h-h ! ' 
 
 There really was a movement in the bracken, 
 which grew too thick and high to allow of anything 
 being easily seen at a little distance. 
 
 ' If it's a lion,' said Molly in a faint whisper, 
 ' and I feel in my heart it is, he must have Balaam.' 
 
 Balaam at this moment pricked his large ears, 
 and Molly and Euth both heard the snapping of a 
 twig, and saw a figure slip behind a tree. Molly's 
 spirits rose, and Euth's went down in proportion. 
 The woods were lonely, and they were nearing the 
 most lonely part. 
 
 ' It's only a man/ said Euth rather sharply. ' I 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 59 
 
 expect it is one of the keepers/ (Oh, Ruth !) 
 ' Come, Molly, we shall never get home at this rate. 
 Whip up Balaam, and let us trot down the hill/ 
 
 Much relieved about Balaam's immediate future, 
 Molly incited him to a really noble trot, and did 
 not allow him to relapse even on the flat which 
 followed. Through the rattling and the jolting, 
 however, Euth could still hear a stealthy rustle in 
 the fern and underwood. The man was following 
 them. 
 
 'He's coming after us/ whispered Molly, with 
 round frightened eyes, ' and Balaam will stop in a 
 minute, I know. Oh, Cousin Ruth, what shall we 
 do?' 
 
 Ruth hesitated. They were nearing the steep 
 pitch where the firs overhung the road, which was 
 cut out between huge boulders of rock and sand- 
 stone. The ground rose rough and precipitous on 
 their right, and fell away to their left. Just over 
 the brow of the hill, out of sight, was, as she well 
 knew, the second gate. The noise in the brushwood 
 had ceased. Turning suddenly, her quick eye just 
 caught sight of a figure disappearing behind the 
 slope of the falling ground to the left. He was a 
 lame man, and he was running. In a moment she 
 saw that he was making a short cut, with the in- 
 tention of waylaying them at the gate. He would 
 get there long before they would, and even then 
 Balaam was beginning the ascent, which really was 
 an ascent this time, at his slowest walk. 
 
 Molly's teeth were chattering in her little head. 
 
 ' Now, Molly,' said Ruth sharply, ' listen to me, 
 
60 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 and don't be a baby. He'll wait for us at the gate, 
 so he can't see us here. Get out this moment, and 
 we will both run up the hill to the keeper's cottage 
 at the top of the bank. We shall get there first, 
 because he is lame.' 
 
 They had passed the bracken now, and were 
 among the moss and sandstone beneath the firs. 
 Euth hastily dragged Molly out of the cart without 
 stopping Balaam, who proceeded, twirling his ears, 
 leisurely without them. 
 
 ' Oh, my poor Balaam ! ' sobbed Molly, with a 
 backward glance at that unconscious favourite march- 
 ing towards its doom. 
 
 ' There is no time to think of poor Balaam now,' 
 replied Kuth. ' Eun on in front of me, and don't 
 step on anything crackly.' 
 
 'Never in this world,' thought Euth, 'will I 
 come alone here with Molly again. Never again 
 will I ' 
 
 But it was stiff climbing, and the remainder of 
 the resolution was lost. 
 
 They are high to the right above the white gate 
 now. The keeper's cottage is in sight, built against a 
 ledge of rock, up to which wide rough steps have been 
 cut in the sandstone. Euth looks down at the gate 
 below. He is waiting the dreadful man is waiting 
 there, as she expected ; and Balaam, toying with a 
 fern, is at that moment coming round the corner. 
 She sees that he takes in the situation instantly. 
 There is but one way in which they can have fled, 
 and he knows it. In a moment he comes halting 
 and pounding up the slope. He sees their white 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 61 
 
 dresses among the firs. Eun, Molly ! run, Euth ' 
 Spare no expense. If your new black sash catches 
 in the briars, let it catch ; heed it not, for he is 
 making wonderful play with that lame leg up the 
 hill. It is an even race. Now for the stone steps ! 
 How many more there are than there ever were 
 before ! Quick through the wicket, and up through 
 the little kitchen garden. Molly is at the door first, 
 beating upon it, and calling wildly on the name 
 of Brown. 
 
 And then Euth's heart turns sick within her. 
 The door is locked. Through the window, which 
 usually blossoms with geraniums, she can see the 
 black fireplace and the bare walls. No Brown 
 within answers to Molly's cries. Brown has been 
 turned away for drinking. Mrs. Brown, who hung 
 a slender ' wash ' on the hedge only last week, has 
 departed with her lord. Brown's cottage is tenant- 
 less. The pursuer must have known it when he 
 breasted the hill. A mixed sound as of swearing 
 and stumbling comes from the direction of the stone 
 steps. The pursuer is evidently intoxicated, probably 
 lunatic ! 
 
 ' Quick, Molly ! ' gasps Euth, ' round by the back, 
 and then cut down towards the young plantation, 
 and make for the road again. Don't stop for me. 1 
 
 The little yard, the pigstye, the waterbutt, fly 
 past. Past fly the empty kennels. Past does not 
 fly the other gate. Locked ; padlocked. It is like 
 a bad dream. Molly, with a windmill-like exhibition 
 of black legs, gives Euth a lead over. Now for it, 
 Euth ! The bars are close together and the gate is 
 
62 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 high. It is not a time to stick at trifles. What 
 does it matter if you can get over best by assuming 
 a masculine equestrian attitude for a moment on the 
 top bar ? There ! And now, down the hill again, 
 away to your left. Take to your heels, and be 
 thankful they are not high ones. Never mind if 
 your hair is coming down. You have a thousand 
 good qualities, Euth, high principles, and a tender 
 conscience, but you are not a swift runner, and you 
 have not played ' Sally Water ' all day for nothing, 
 Molly is far in front now. A heavy trampling is 
 not far behind ; nay, it is closer than you thought. 
 And your eyes are becoming misty, Ruth, and armies 
 of drums are beating every other sound out of your 
 ears that shouting behind you, for instance. The 
 intoxicated, murderous lunatic is close behind. One 
 minute ! Two minutes ! How many more seconds 
 can you keep it up ? Through the young plantation, 
 down the hill, into the sandy road again, the sandy, 
 uphill road. How much longer can you keep it up ? 
 
 Charles strolled quietly homewards, enjoying the 
 beauties of nature, and reflecting on the quantity of 
 rabbit shooting that Mr. Thursby must enjoy. He 
 may also have mused on Lady Grace, for anything 
 that can be known to the contrary, and have possibly 
 made a mental note that if it had been she whom 
 he had asked to walk home with him, instead of 
 Ruth, he would not have been alone at that moment. 
 Be that how it may, he leisurely pursued his path 
 until a fallen tree beside the bank looked so inviting, 
 that (Evelyn and Ralph having gone out to friends 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 63 
 
 af a distance) Charles, who was in no hurry to 
 return to Lady Mary, seated himself thereon, with a 
 cigarette to bear him company. 
 
 To him, with rent garments and dust upon her 
 head, and indeed all over her, suddenly appeared 
 Molly ; Molly, white with panic, breathless, unable 
 to articulate, pointing in the direction from which 
 she had come. In a moment Charles was tearing 
 down the road at full speed. A tall, swaying figure 
 almost ran against him at the first turn, and Euth 
 only avoided him to collapse suddenly in the dry 
 ditch, her face in the bank, and a yard of sash biting 
 the dust along the road behind her. 
 
 Her pursuer stopped short. Charles made a step 
 towards him, and stopped short also. The two men 
 stood and looked at each other without speaking. 
 
 When Euth found herself in a position to make 
 observations, she discovered that she was sitting by 
 the roadside, with her head resting against was it 
 a tweed arm or the bank ? She moved a little, and 
 found that first impressions are apt to prove mis- 
 leading. It was the bank. She opened her eyes to 
 see a brown, red-lined hat on the ground beside her, 
 half full of water, through which she could dimly 
 discern the golden submerged name of the maker. 
 She seemed to have been contemplating it with 
 vague interest for about an hour, when she became 
 aware that some one was dabbing her forehead with 
 a wet silk handkerchief. 
 
 ' Better ? ' asked Charles's voice. 
 
 ' Oh ! ' gasped Euth, suddenly trying to sit up, 
 
<J4 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 but finding the attempt resulted only in the partial 
 movement of a finger somewhere in the distance. 
 ' Have I really surely, surely, I was not so abject 
 as to faint?' 
 
 1 Truth/ said Charles, with a reassured look in 
 his quick, anxious eyes, ' obliges me to say you did/ 
 
 ' I thought better of myself than that/ 
 
 ' Pride goes before a fall or a faint.' 
 
 1 Oh, dear ! ' turning paler than ever. ' Where is 
 Molly? 1 
 
 ' She is all right/ said Charles hastily, applying 
 the pocket-handkerchief again. ' Don't alarm your- 
 self, and pray don't try to get up. You can see 
 just as much of the view sitting down. Molly has 
 gone for the donkey-cart.' 
 
 ' And that dreadful man ? * 
 
 ' That dreadful man has also departed. By the 
 way, did you see his face ? Would you know him 
 again if the policeman succeeds in finding him ? ' 
 
 ' No ; I never looked round. I only saw, when 
 he began to run to cut us off at the gate, that he 
 was lame/ 
 
 ' H'm ! ' said Charles reflectively. Then more 
 briskly, with a new access of dabbing, ' How is the 
 faintness going on ? ' 
 
 ' Capitally/ replied Ruth, with a faint, amused 
 smile ; ' but if it does not seem ungrateful I 
 should be very thankful if I might be spared the 
 rest of the water in the hat, or if it might be poured 
 over me at once, if you don't wish it to be wasted/ 
 
 * Have I done too much ? I imagined my ser- 
 vices were invaluable. Let me help you to find 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 65 
 
 your own handkerchief, if you would like a dry one 
 for a change. Ah ! what a good shot into that 
 labyrinth of drapery. You have found it for your- 
 self. You are certainly better.' 
 
 ' But my self-respect/ replied Euth, drying her 
 face, ' is gone for ever/ 
 
 'I lost mine years ago/ said Charles, carefully 
 dusting Euth's hat with his sleeve, ' but I got over 
 it. I had no idea those bows were supported by 
 a wire inside. One lives and learns/ 
 
 'I never did such a thing before/ continued 
 Euth ruefully. ' I have always felt a sort of 
 contempt for girls who scream or faint just when 
 they ought not/ 
 
 ' For my part, I am glad to perceive you have 
 some little feminine weakness. Your growing 
 solicitude also as to the state of your back hair 
 is pleasing in the extreme/ 
 
 ' I am too confused and shaken to retaliate just 
 now. You are quite right to make hay while the 
 sun shines ; but, when I am myself again, beware ! ' 
 
 ' And your gown/ continued Charles. ' What 
 yawning gulfs, what chasms appear; and what a 
 quantity of extraneous matter you have brought 
 away with you. Eeminiscences of travel burrs, 
 very perfect specimens of burrs, thistledown, chips 
 of fir, several complete spiders' webs; and your 
 sash, which seems to have a particularly adhesive 
 fringe, is a museum in itself. Ah, here comes that 
 coward of little cowards, Molly, with Balaam and 
 the donkey-cart ! ' 
 
 Molly, who had left Euth for dead, greeted her 
 5 
 
66 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 cousin with a transport of affection, and then pro- 
 ceeded to recount the fearful risks that Balaam had 
 encountered by being deserted, and the stoic calm 
 with which he had waited for them at the gate. 
 
 'He's not a common donkey/ she said with 
 pride. ' Get in, Euth. Are you coming in, Uncle 
 Charles ? There's just room for you to squeeze in 
 between Euth and me isn't there, Euth ? Oh, 
 you're not going to walk beside, are you ? ' 
 
 But Charles was determined not to let them out 
 of his sight again, and he walked beside them the 
 remainder of the way to Atherstone. He remained 
 silent and preoccupied during the evening which 
 followed, pored over a newspaper, and went off" 
 to his room early, leaving Ealph dozing in the 
 smoking-room. 
 
 It was a fine moonlight night, still and clear. 
 He stood at the open window looking out for a few 
 minutes, and then began fumbling in a dilapidated 
 old travelling-bag such as only rich men use. 
 
 ' Not much/ he said to himself, spreading out a 
 few sovereigns and some silver on the table ; * but 
 it will do.' 
 
 He put the money and a cheque-book into his 
 pocket, took off his gold hunting-watch, and then 
 went back to the smoking-room. 
 
 'I am going out again, Ealph, as I did last 
 night. If I come in late, you need not take me 
 for a burglar.' 
 
 Ealph murmured something unintelligible, and 
 Charles ran downstairs, and let himself out of the 
 drawing-room French window, that long French 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 67 
 
 window to the ground, which Evelyn had taken a 
 fancy to in a neighbour's drawing-room, and which 
 she could never he made to see was not in keeping 
 with the character of her old black-and-white house. 
 He put the shutter back after he had passed through, 
 and carefully drawing the window to behind him, 
 without actually closing it, he took a turn or two 
 upon the bowling-green, and then walked off in the 
 direction of the Slumberleigh woods. 
 
 After the lapse of an hour or more he returned, 
 as quietly as he had gone, let himself in, made all 
 secure, and stole up to his room. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 VANDON was considered by many people to be the 
 most beautiful house in shire. 
 
 In these days of great brand-new imitation of 
 intensely old houses, where the amount of ground 
 covered measures the purse of the builder, it is 
 pleasant to come upon a place like Vandon, a quiet 
 old manor house, neither large nor small, built of 
 ancient bricks, blent to a dim purple and a dim 
 red by that subtle craftsman Time. 
 
 Whoever in the years that were no more had 
 chosen the place whereon to build had chosen well. 
 Vandon stood on the slope of a gentle hill, looking 
 across a sweep of green valley to the rising woods 
 beyond, which in days gone by had been a Eoman 
 camp, and where the curious might still trace 
 the wide ledges cut among the regular lines of the 
 trees. 
 
 Some careful hand had planned the hanging 
 gardens in front of the house, which fell away to the 
 stream below. Flights of wide stone steps led down 
 from terrace to terrace, each built up by its south 
 wall covered with a wealth of jasmine and ivy and 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVEHS 69 
 
 climbing roses. But all was wild and deserted now. 
 Weeds had started up between the stone slabs of 
 the steps, and the roses blossomed out sweet and 
 profuse, for it was the time of roses, amid convolvulus 
 and campion. The quaint old dovecote near the 
 house had almost disappeared behind the trees that 
 had crowded up round it, and held aloft its weather- 
 cock in silent protest at their encroachment. The 
 stables close at hand, with their worn-out clock and 
 silent bell, were tenantless. The coach-houses were 
 full of useless old chariots and carriages. Into one 
 splendid court coach the pigeons had found their 
 way through an open window, and had made nests, 
 somewhat to the detriment of the green-and-white 
 satin fittings. 
 
 Great cedars, bent beneath the weight of years, 
 grew round the house. The patriarch among them 
 had let fall one of his gnarled supplicating arms 
 in the winter, and there it still lay where it had 
 fallen. 
 
 Anything more out of keeping with the dignified 
 old place than its owner could hardly be imagined, 
 as he stood in his eternal light-gray suit (with a 
 badge of affliction lightly borne on his left arm) 
 looking at his heritage, with his cropped head a little 
 on one side. 
 
 The sun was shining, but, like a smile on a 
 serious face, Vandon caught the light on all its 
 shuttered windows, and remained grave, looking out 
 across its terraces to the forest 
 
 ' If it were but a villa on the Mediterranean, 
 or a house in London,' he said to himself ; ' but I 
 
70 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 have no chance.' And he shrugged his shoulders, 
 and wandered back into the house again. But, if 
 the outside oppressed him, the interior was not cal- 
 culated to raise his spirits. 
 
 Dare had an elegant taste, which he had never 
 hitherto been able to gratify, for blue satin furniture 
 and gilding ; for large mirrors and painted ceilings 
 of lovers and cupids, and similar small deer. The 
 old square hall at Vandon, with its great painted- 
 glass windows, representing the various quarterings 
 of the Dare arms, about which he knew nothing 
 and cared less, oppressed him. So did the black 
 polished oak floor, and the walls with their white 
 bas-reliefs of twisting wreaths and scrolls, with busts 
 at intervals of Cicero and Dante, and other severe 
 and melancholy personages. The rapiers upon the 
 high white chimney-piece were more to his taste. 
 He had taken them down the first day after his 
 arrival, and had stamped and cut and thrust in the 
 most approved style, in the presence of Faust, the 
 black poodle. 
 
 Dare was not the kind of man to be touched by 
 it ; but to many minds there would have been some- 
 thing pathetic in seeing a house, which had evidently 
 been an object of the tender love and care of a by- 
 gone generation, going to rack and ruin from neglect. 
 Careful hands had embroidered in the fine exquisite 
 work of former days marvellous coverlets and 
 hangings, which still adorned the long suites of 
 empty bedrooms. Some one had taken an elaborate 
 pleasure in fitting up those rooms, had put pot- 
 pourri in tall Oriental jars in the passages, had 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 71 
 
 covered the old inlaid Dutch chairs with dim 
 needlework. 
 
 The Dare who had lived at court, whose chariot 
 was now the refuge of pigeons, whose court suits, 
 with the tissue paper still in the sleeves, yet 
 remained in one of the old oak chests, and whose 
 jewelled swords still hung in the hall, had filled one 
 of the rooms with engravings of the royal family and 
 ministers of his day. The Dare who had been an 
 admiral had left his miniature surrounded by prints 
 of the naval engagements he had taken part in, and 
 on the oak staircase a tattered flag still hung, a 
 trophy of unremembered victory. 
 
 But they were past and forgotten. The hands 
 which had arranged their memorials with such pride 
 and love had long since gone down to idleness, and 
 forgetfulness also. Who cared for the family legends 
 now? They, too, had gone down into silence. 
 There was no one to tell Dare that the old blue 
 enamel bowl in the hall, in which he gave Faust 
 refreshment, had been brought back from the loot of 
 the Winter Palace of Pekin ; or that the drawer in 
 the Eeisener table in the drawing-room was full 
 of treasured medals and miniatures, and that the 
 key thereof was rusting in a silver patch-box on the 
 writing-table. 
 
 The iron-clamped boxes in the lumber-room kept 
 the history to themselves of all the silver plate that 
 had lived in them once upon a time, although the 
 few odd pieces remaining hinted at the splendour of 
 what had been. In one corner of the dining-room 
 the mahogany tomb still stood of a great gold racing 
 
72 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 cup, under the portrait of the horse that had won it ; 
 but the cup had followed the silver dinner service, 
 had followed the diamonds, had followed in the wake 
 of a handsome fortune, leaving the after generations 
 impoverished. If their money is taken from them, 
 some families are left poor indeed, and to this class 
 the Dares belonged. It is curious to notice the 
 occasional real equality underlying the apparent 
 inequality of different conditions of life. The 
 unconscious poverty, and even bankruptcy, of some 
 rich people in every kind of wealth except money 
 affords an interesting study; and it seems doubly 
 hard when those who have nothing to live upon, and 
 be loved and respected for except their money, have 
 even that taken from them. As Dare wandered 
 through the deserted rooms, the want of money of 
 his predecessors, and consequently of himself, was 
 borne in upon him. It fell like a shadow across 
 his light pleasure-loving soul. He had expected so 
 much from this unlooked-for inheritance, and all he 
 had found was a melancholy house with a past. 
 
 He went aimlessly through the hall into the 
 library. It was there that his uncle had lived; 
 there that he had been found when death came to 
 look for him ; among the books which he had been 
 unable to carry away with him at his departure ; 
 rare old tomes and first editions, long shelves of 
 dead authors, who, it is to be hoped, continue to 
 write in other worlds for those who read their lives 
 away in this. Old Mr. Dare's interests and affections 
 had all been bound in morocco and vellum. A 
 volume lay open on the table, where the old man 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 73 
 
 had put it down beside the leather armchair where 
 he had sat, with his back to the light, summer and 
 winter, winter and summer, for so many years. 
 
 No one had moved it since. A wavering pencil- 
 mark had scored the page here and there. Dare 
 shut it up, and replaced it among its brethren. 
 How triste and silent the house seemed ! He 
 wondered what the old uncle had been like, and 
 sauntered into the staircase hall, where the Dares 
 that had gone before him lived, much in need of 
 varnish. But these were too ancient to have his 
 predecessor among them. He went into the long 
 oak -panelled dining-room, where above the high 
 carved dado were more Dares. Perhaps that man 
 with the book was his namesake, the departed Alfred 
 Dare. He wondered vaguely how he should look 
 when he also took his place among his relations. 
 Nature had favoured him with a better moustache 
 than most men, but he had a premonitory feeling 
 that the very moustache itself, though undeniable in 
 real life, would look out of keeping among these 
 bluff, frank, light-haired people, of whom it seemed 
 he he who had never been near them before was 
 the living representative. 
 
 A sudden access of pleasurable dignity came 
 over him as he sat on the great mahogany dining- 
 table, which still showed vestiges of a bygone 
 polish, and was heavily dinted by long years 
 of hammered applause. These ancestors of his ! 
 He would not disgrace them. A few minutes 
 ago he had been wondering whether Vandon might 
 not be let. Now, with one of the rapid transitions 
 
74 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 habitual to him, he resolved that he would live at 
 Vandon, that in all things he would be as they had 
 been. He would become that vague, indefinable, 
 to him mythical personage a ' country squire.' 
 Fortunately, he had a neat leg for a stocking. It 
 was lost, so to speak, in his present mode of dress ; 
 but he felt that it would appear to advantage in the 
 perpetual knickerbockers which he supposed it would 
 be his lot to wear. It would also become his duty 
 and his pleasure to marry. For those who tread in 
 safety the slippery heights of married life he felt a 
 true esteem. It would be a strain, no doubt, a great 
 effort ; but at this moment he was capable of any- 
 thing. The finger of duty was plain. And with that 
 
 adorable Miss Euth, with or without a fortune 
 
 Alas ! he trusted she had a fortune, for, as he 
 came to think thereon, he remembered that he 
 was desperately poor. As far as he could make out 
 from his agent, a grim silent man, who had taken 
 an evident dislike to him from the first, there was 
 no money anywhere. The rents would come in at 
 Michaelmas ; but the interest of heavy mortgages 
 had to be paid, the estate had to be kept up. 
 There was succession duty ; there were debts long 
 outstanding debts, which came pouring in now, which 
 Waters spread before him with an iron smile, and 
 which poor Dare contemplated with his head on one 
 side and solemn, arched eyebrows. When Dare 
 was not smiling, he was always preternaturally 
 solemn. There was no happy medium in his face, 
 or consequently in his mind, which was generally 
 gay, but, if not, was involved in a tragic gloom. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 75 
 
 'These bills, my friend/ he would say at last, 
 tapping them in deep dejection, and raising his 
 eyebrows into his hair, ' how do we pay them ? ' 
 
 But Waters did not know. How should he, 
 Waters, know ? Waters only knew that the farmers 
 would want a reduction in these bad times Mr. 
 Dare might be sure of that. And what with arrears, 
 and one thing and another, he need not expect 
 more than two-thirds of his rents when they did 
 arrive. Mr. Dare might lay his account for that. 
 
 The only money which Dare received to carry on 
 with, on his accession to the great honour and 
 dignity of proprietor of Vandon, was brought to him 
 by the old dairywoman of the house, a faithful 
 creature, who produced out of an old stocking the 
 actual coins which she had received for the butter 
 and cheese she had sold, of which she showed Dare 
 an account, chalked up in some dead language on 
 the dairy door. 
 
 She was a little doubled-up woman, who had 
 served the family all her life. Dare's ready smile 
 and handsome face had won her heart before he had 
 been many days at Vandon, in spite of ' his foreign 
 ways,' and he found himself constantly meeting her 
 unexpectedly round corners, where she had been 
 lying in wait for him, each time with a secret 
 revelation to whisper respecting what she called the 
 ' goin's on/ 
 
 ' You'll not tell on me, sir, but it's only right you 
 should know as Mrs. Smith' (the housekeeper, of 
 whom Dare stood in mortal terror) ' has them fine 
 damask tablecloths out for the housekeeper's room. 
 
76 SIR CHARLES BANTERS 
 
 I see 'em myself; and everything going to rag and 
 ruin in the linen closet ! ' Or, ' Joseph has took in 
 another flitch this very day, sir, as Mrs. Smith sent 
 for, and the old flitch all cut to waste. Do 'e go and 
 look at the flitches, sir, and the hams. They're in 
 the room over the stables. And it's always butter, 
 butter, butter, in the kitchen ! Not a bit o' dripping 
 used. There's not a pot of dripping in the larder, 
 or so much as a skin of lard. Where does it all go 
 to? You ask Mrs. Smith, and how she sleeps in 
 her bed at night, I don't know ! ' 
 
 Dare listened, nodded, made his escape, and did 
 nothing. In the village it was as bad. Time, 
 which had dealt so kindly with Yandon itself, had 
 taken the straggling village in hand too. Nothing 
 could be more picturesque than the crazy black-and- 
 white houses, with lichen on their broken-in thatch, 
 and the plaster peeling off from between the irreg- 
 ular beams of black wood ; nothing more picturesque 
 and nothing more miserable. 
 
 When Time puts in his burnt umbers and brown 
 madders with a lavish hand, and introduces his 
 beautiful irregularities of outline, and his artistic 
 disrepair, he does not look to the drainage, and 
 takes no thought for holes in the roof. 
 
 Dare could not go out without eager women 
 sallying out of cottages as he passed, begging him 
 just to come in and walk upstairs. They would 
 say no more but would the new squire walk 
 upstairs ? And Dare would stumble up and see 
 
 enough to promise Alas ! how much he promised 
 
 in those early days. And in the gloaming, heavy 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 77 
 
 dull-eyed men met him in the lanes coming back 
 from their work, and followed him to ' beg pardon, 
 sir, and' lay before the new squire things that 
 would never reach him through Waters bitter 
 things, small injustices, too trivial to seem worthy 
 of mention, which serve to widen the gulf between 
 class and class. They looked to Dare to help them, 
 to make the crooked straight, to begin a new regime. 
 They looked to the new king to administer his little 
 realm, the new king, who, alas ! cared for none of 
 these things. And Dare promised that he would 
 do what he could, and looked anxious and in- 
 terested, and held out his brown hand, and raised 
 hope^. But he had no money no money. 
 
 He spoke to Waters at first ; but he soon found 
 that it was no good. The houses were bad ? Of 
 course they were bad. Cottage property did not 
 pay ; and would Mr. Dare kindly tell him where the 
 money for repairing them was to come from ? Per- 
 haps Mr. Dare might like to put a little of his 
 private fortune into the cottages, and the drains, 
 and the new pumps. Dare winced. His fortune 
 had not gone the time-honoured way of the fortunes 
 of spirited young men of narrow means with souls 
 above a sordid economy, but still it had gone all 
 the same, and in a manner he did not care to 
 think of. 
 
 It was after one of these depressing interviews 
 with Waters, that Kalph and Evelyn found the 
 new owner of Vandon when they rode over together 
 to call, a day or two after the school-feast. Poor 
 Dare was sitting on the low ivy-covered wall of 
 
78 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 the topmost terrace, a prey to the deepest dejection. 
 If he had lived in Spartan days, when it was 
 possible to conceal gnawing foxes under wearing 
 apparel, he would have made no use of the advan- 
 tages of Grecian dress for such a purpose. Capti- 
 vated by Evelyn's gentleness and sympathetic 
 manner (strangers always thought Evelyn sym- 
 pathetic), and impressed by Ealph's kindly, honest 
 face, he soon found himself telling them something 
 of his difficulties, of the maze in which he found 
 himself, of the snubs which Waters had ad- 
 ministered. 
 
 Ralph slapped himself with his whip, whistled, 
 and gave other masculine signs of interest and 
 sympathy. Evelyn looked from one to the other, 
 amiably distressed in her well-fitting habit. After 
 a long conversation, in which Evelyn disclosed that 
 Ralph was possessed of the most extraordinary 
 knowledge and experience in such matters, the two 
 good-natured young people, seeing he was depressed 
 and lonely, begged him to come and stay with them 
 at Atherstone the very next day, when he might 
 discuss his affairs with Ralph, if so disposed, and 
 take counsel with him. Dare accepted with the 
 most genuine pleasure, and his speaking countenance 
 was in a moment radiant with smiles. Was not 
 the little Molly of the school-feast their child ? and 
 was not Miss Deyncourt likewise staying with 
 them? 
 
 When his visitors departed, Dare took a turn at 
 the rapiers ; then opened the piano with the internal 
 derangement, and sang to his own accompaniment a 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 79 
 
 series of little confidential French songs, which 
 would have made the hair of his ancestors stand on 
 end, if painted hair could do such a thing. And 
 the ' new squire/ as he was already called, shrugged 
 his shoulders, and lowered his voice, and spread 
 out his expressive rapid hands, and introduced to 
 Vandon, one after another, some of those choice 
 little ditties, French and English, which had made 
 him such a favourite companion in Paris, so popular 
 in a certain society in America. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 ' SIR CHARLES ? ' 
 
 ' Miss Deyncourt ! ' 
 
 ' I fear/ with a glance at the yellow -back 
 in his hand, 'I am interrupting a studious hour, 
 
 'Not in the least, I assure you/ said Charles, 
 shutting his novel. ' What is regarded as study by 
 the feminine intellect, is to the masculine merely 
 relaxation. I was " unbending over a book," that 
 was all/ 
 
 The process of ' unbending ' was being performed 
 in the summer-house, whither he had retired after 
 Evelyn and Kalph had started on their afternoon's 
 ride to Vandon, in which he had refused to join. 
 
 ' I thought I should find you here/ continued 
 Kuth frankly. ' I have been wishing to speak to 
 you for several days, but you are as a rule so sur- 
 rounded and encompassed on every side by Molly, 
 that I have not had an opportunity/ 
 
 It had occurred to Charles once or twice during 
 the last few days that Molly was occasionally rather 
 in the way. Now he was sure of it. As Euth 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 81 
 
 appeared to hesitate, he pulled forward a rustic con- 
 torted chair for her. 
 
 'No, thanks/ she said. 'I shall not long in- 
 terrupt the unbending process. I only came to 
 ask ' 
 
 ' To ask ? ' repeated Charles, who had got up as 
 she was standing, and came and stood near her. 
 
 'You remember the first evening you were 
 here?' 
 
 'I do.' 
 
 ' And what we spoke of at dinner ? ' 
 
 ' Perfectly/ 
 
 ' I came to ask you how much you lent Ray- 
 mond ? ' Ruth's clear, earnest eyes were fixed full 
 upon him. 
 
 At this moment Charles perceived Lady Mary at 
 a little distance, propelling herself gently over the 
 grass in the direction of the summer-house. In 
 another second she had perceived Charles and Ruth, 
 and had turned precipitately, and hobbled away 
 round the corner with surprising agility. 
 
 ' Confound her ! ' inwardly ejaculated Charles. 
 
 ' I wish to know how much you lent him ? ' 
 said Ruth again, as he did not answer, happily 
 unconscious of what had been going on behind her 
 back. 
 
 ' Only what I was well able to afford/ 
 
 ' And has he paid it back since ? ' 
 
 ' I am sure he understood I should not expect 
 him to pay it back at once.' 
 
 ' But he has had it three years/ 
 
 Charles did not answer. 
 6 
 
82 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' I feel sure he is not able to pay it. Will you 
 kindly tell me how much it was ? ' 
 
 'No, Miss Deyncourt; I think not.' 
 
 ' Why not ? ' 
 
 1 Because excuse me, but I perceive that if I 
 do you will instantly wish to pay it.' 
 
 ' I do wish to pay it.' 
 
 ' I thought so/ 
 
 There was a short silence. 
 
 * I still wish it/ said Euth at last. 
 
 Charles was silent. Her pertinacity annoyed 
 and yet piqued him. Being unmarried, he was not 
 accustomed to opposition from a woman. He had 
 no intention of allowing her to pay her brother's 
 debt, and he wished she would drop the subject 
 gracefully, now that he had made that fact evident. 
 
 ' Perhaps you don't know,' continued Euth, ' that 
 I am very well off.' (As if he did not know it. As 
 if Lady Mary had not casually mentioned Euth's 
 fortune several times in his hearing !) ' Lady Deyn- 
 court left me twelve hundred a year, and I have a 
 little of my own besides. You may not be aware 
 that I have fourteen hundred and sixty-two pounds 
 per annum/ 
 
 ' I am very glad to hear it/ 
 
 'That is a large sum, you will observe/ 
 
 ' It is riches/ assented Charles, ' if your expendi- 
 ture happens to be less/ 
 
 'It does happen to be considerably less in my 
 case/ 
 
 ' You are to be congratulated. And yet I have 
 always understood that society exacts great sacrifices 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 83 
 
 from women in the sums they feel obliged to devote 
 to dress.' 
 
 ' Dress is an interesting subject, and I should be 
 delighted to hear your views on it another time ; 
 but we are talking of something else just at this 
 moment/ 
 
 ' I beg your pardon/ said Charles quickly, who 
 did not quite like being brought back to the case in 
 point. ' I the truth was, I wished to turn your 
 mind from what we were speaking of. I don't want 
 you to count sovereigns into my hand. I really 
 should dislike it very much/ 
 
 ' You intend me to think from that remark that 
 it was a small sum/ said Euth, with unexpected 
 shrewdness. ' I now feel sure it was a large one. 
 It ought to be paid, and there is no one to do it but 
 me. I know that what is firmness in a man is 
 obstinacy in a woman, so do not on your side be 
 too firm, or, who knows ? you may arouse some of 
 that obstinacy in me to which I should like to think 
 myself superior/ 
 
 ' If/ said Charles, with sudden eagerness, as if 
 an idea had just struck him, ' if I let you pay me 
 this debt, will you on your side allow me to make 
 a condition ? ' 
 
 ' I should like to know the condition first/ 
 
 ' Of course. If I agree ' Charles's light-gray 
 eyes had become keen and intent ' if I agree to 
 receive payment of what I lent Deyncourt three 
 years ago, will you promise not to pay any other 
 debt of his, or ever to lend him money without the 
 knowledge and approval of your relations ? ' 
 
84 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Euth considered for a few minutes. 
 
 'I have so few relations/ she said at length, 
 with rather a sad smile, ' and they are all prejudiced 
 against poor Eaymond. I think I am the only 
 friend he has left in the world. I am afraid I 
 could not promise that.' 
 
 ' Well/ said Charles eagerly, ' I won't insist on 
 relations. I know enough of those thorns in the 
 flesh myself. I will say instead " natural advisers." 
 Come, Miss Deyncourt, you can't accuse me of firm- 
 ness now ! ' 
 
 'My natural advisers/ repeated Euth slowly. 
 ' I feel as if I ought to have natural advisers some- 
 where ; but who are they ? Where are they ? I 
 could not ask my sister or her husband for advice. 
 I mean, I could not take it, if I did. I should 
 think I knew better myself . Uncle John? Evelyn? 
 Lord Polesworth ? Sir Charles, I am afraid the 
 truth is I have never asked for advice in my life. 
 I have always tried to do what seemed best, without 
 troubling to know what other people thought about 
 it. But as I am anxious to yield gracefully, will 
 you substitute the word " friends " for " natural 
 advisers " ? I hope and think I have friends whom 
 I could trust.' 
 
 ' Friends, then, let it be/ said Charles. ' Now/ 
 holding out his hand, ' do you promise never, et 
 cetera, et cetera, without first consulting your 
 friends ? ' 
 
 Euth put her hand into his. 
 
 C I do.' 
 
 'That is right. How amiable we are both 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 85 
 
 becoming ! I suppose I must now inform you that 
 two hundred pounds is the exact sum I lent your 
 brother ? ' 
 
 Ruth went back to the house, and in a few 
 minutes returned with a cheque in her hand. She 
 held it towards Charles, who took it, and put it in 
 his pocket-book. 
 
 ' Thank you,' she said, with gratitude in her eyes 
 and voice. 
 
 'We have had a pitched battle/ said Charles, 
 relapsing into his old indifferent manner. ' Neither 
 of us has been actually defeated, for we never called 
 out our reserves, which I felt would have been 
 hardly fair on you ; but we do not come forth with 
 flying colours. I fear, from your air of elation, you 
 actually believe you have been victorious.' 
 
 ' I agree with you that there has been no defeat,' 
 replied Ruth ; ' but I won't keep you any longer 
 from your studies. I am just going out driving with 
 Lady Mary to have tea with the Thursbys.' 
 
 ( Miss Deyncourt, don't allow a natural and most 
 pardonable vanity to delude you to such an extent. 
 Don't go out driving the victim of a false impres- 
 sion. If you will consider one moment ' 
 
 ' Not another moment,' replied Ruth ; ' our bugles 
 have sung truce, and I am not going to put on my 
 war-paint again for any consideration. There comes 
 the carriage,' as a distant rumbling was heard. ' I 
 must not keep Lady Mary waiting ; ' and she was 
 gone. 
 
 Charles heard the carriage roll away again, and 
 when half an hour later he sauntered back towards 
 
86 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 the house, he was surprised to see Lady Mary sit- 
 ting in the drawing-room window. 
 
 ' What ! Not gone, after all ! ' he exclaimed, in 
 a voice in which surprise was more predominant than 
 pleasure. 
 
 'No, Charles/ returned Lady Mary, in her 
 measured tones, looking slowly up at him over her 
 gold-rimmed spectacles. ' I felt a slight return of 
 my old enemy, and Miss Deyncourt kindly under- 
 took to make my excuses to Mrs. Thursby.' 
 
 No one knew what the old enemy was, or in 
 what manner his mysterious assaults on Lady Mary 
 were conducted ; but it was an understood thing 
 that she had private dealings with him, in which he 
 could make himself very disagreeable. 
 
 ' Has Molly gone with her ? ' 
 
 ' No ; Molly is making jam in the kitchen, I 
 believe. Miss Deyncourt most good-naturedly 
 offered to take her with her ; but ' (with a shake of 
 the head) 'the poor child's totally unrestrained 
 appetites and lamentable self-will made her prefer 
 to remain where she was.' 
 
 ' I am afraid,' said Charles meditatively, as if the 
 idea were entirely a novel one, ' Molly is getting a 
 little spoilt amongst us. It is natural in you, of 
 course; but there is no excuse for me. There 
 never is. There are, I confess, moments when I 
 don't regard the child's immortal welfare sufficiently 
 to make her present existence less enjoyable. What 
 a round of gaiety Molly's life is ! She flits from 
 flower to flower, so to speak; from me to cook and 
 the jam-pots; from the jam-pots to some fresh 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 87 
 
 delight in the loft or in your society. Life 
 is one long feast to Molly. Whatever that old 
 impostor the Future may have in store for her, 
 at any rate she is having a good time of it now/ 
 
 There was a shade of regretful sadness in Charles's 
 voice that ruffled his aunt. 
 
 'The child is being ruined/ she said with re- 
 signed bitterness. 
 
 ' Not a bit of it. I was spoiled as a child, and 
 look at me ! ' 
 
 * You are spoilt. I don't spoil you ; but other 
 people do. Society does. And the result is that 
 you are so hard to please that I don't believe you 
 will ever marry. You look for a perfection in 
 others which is not to be found in yourself.' 
 
 ' I don't fancy I should appear to advantage side 
 by side with perfection,' said Charles in his most 
 careless manner ; and he rose and wandered away 
 into the garden. 
 
 He was irritated with Lady Mary, with her 
 pleased looks during the last few days, with her 
 annoying celerity that afternoon in the garden. It 
 was all the more annoying because he was conscious 
 that Ruth amused and interested him in no slight 
 degree. She had the rare quality of being genuine. 
 She stood for what she was without effort or self- 
 consciousness. Whether playful or serious, she was 
 always real. Beneath a reserved and rather quiet 
 manner there lurked a piquant unconventionality. 
 The mixture of earnestness and humour, which were 
 so closely interwoven in her nature that he could 
 never tell which would come uppermost, had a 
 
88 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 strange attraction for him. He had grown accus- 
 tomed to watch for and try to provoke the sudden 
 gleam of fun in the serious eyes, which always pre- 
 ceded a retort given with an air of the sweetest 
 feminine meekness, which would make Ealph rub 
 himself all over with glee, and tell Charles, chuck- 
 ling, he 'would not get much change out of 
 Euth.' 
 
 If only she had not been asked to Atherstone on 
 purpose to meet him ! If only Lady Mary had not 
 arranged it ; if only Evelyn did not know it ; if 
 only Ealph had not guessed it ; if only he himself 
 had not seen it from the first instant ! Euth and 
 Molly were the only two unconscious persons in 
 the house. 
 
 ' I wonder,' said Charles to himself, ' why people 
 can't allow me to manage my own affairs? Oh, 
 what a world it is for unmarried men with money ! 
 Why did I not marry fifteen years ago, when every 
 woman with a straight nose was an angel of light ; 
 when I felt a noble disregard for such minor details 
 as character, mind, sympathy, if the hair and the 
 eyes were the right shade ? Why did I not marry 
 when I was out of favour with my father, when I 
 was head over ears in debt, and when at least I 
 could feel sure no one would marry me for my 
 money ? Molly,' as that young lady came running 
 towards him with lingering traces of jam upon her 
 flushed countenance, ' you have arrived just in time. 
 Uncle Charles was getting so dull without you. 
 What have you been after all this time ? ' 
 
 ' Cook and me have made thirty- one pots and a 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 89 
 
 little one/ said Molly, inserting a very sticky hand 
 into Charles's. 'And your Mr. Brown helped. 
 Cook told him to go along at first which wasn't 
 kind, was it ? but he stayed all the same ; and I 
 skimmed with a big spoon, and she poured it in the 
 pots. Only they aren't covered up with paper yet, 
 if you want to see them. And oh ! Uncle Charles, 
 what do you think ? Father and mother have come 
 back from their ride, and that nice funny man who 
 was at the school-feast is coming here to-morrow, 
 and I shall show him my guinea pigs. He said he 
 wanted to see them very much/ 
 
 ' Oh, he did, did he ? When was that ? ' 
 ' At the school-feast. Oh ! ' with enthusiasm, 
 'he was so nice, Uncle Charles, so attentive, and 
 getting things when you want them ; and the wheel 
 went over his foot when he was shaking hands, and 
 he did not mind a bit ; and he filled our teapots for 
 us, Euth's big one, you know, that holds such a lot/ 
 ' Oh ! He filled the big teapot, did he ? ' 
 ' Yes, and mine too ; and then he helped us to 
 unpack the dolls. He was so kind to me and 
 Cousin Kuth/ 
 
 ' Kind to Miss Deyncourt, was he ? ' 
 ' Yes ; and when we went away he ran and 
 opened the gate for us. Oh, there comes Cousin 
 Euth back again in the carriage. I'll run and tell 
 her he's coming. She will be glad.' 
 
 'Aunt Mary is right/ said Charles, watching hia 
 niece disappear. ' Molly has formed a habit of ex- 
 pressing herself with unnecessary freedom. Decid- 
 edly she is a little spoilt.' 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 DARE arrived at Atherstone the following afternoon. 
 Evelyn and Ralph, who had enlarged on the state of 
 morbid depression of the lonely inhabitant of Vandon, 
 were rather taken aback by the jaunty appearance 
 of the sufferer, when he appeared, overflowing with 
 evident satisfaction and small talk, his face wreathed 
 with smiles. 
 
 ' He bears up wonderfully,' said Charles aside to 
 Ruth later in the evening, as Dare warbled a very 
 discreet selection of his best songs after dinner. 
 ' No one knows better than myself that many a 
 breaking heart beats beneath a smiling waistcoat, 
 but unless we had been told beforehand we should 
 never have guessed it in his case/ 
 
 Dare, who was looking at Ruth, and saw Charles 
 go and sit down by her, brought his song to an 
 abrupt conclusion, and made his way to her also. 
 
 ' You also sing, Miss Deyncourt ? ' he asked. 
 ' I am sure, from your face, you sing.' 
 
 'I do.' 
 
 ' Thank Heaven ! ' said Charles fervently. ' I did 
 you an injustice. I thought you were going to 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 91 
 
 say " a little." Every singing young lady I ever 
 met, when asked that question, invariably replied " a 
 little." ' 
 
 'I leave my friends to say that for me/ said 
 Euth. 
 
 ' Perhaps you yourself sing a little ? ' asked Dare, 
 wishing Charles would leave Euth's ball of wool 
 alone. 
 
 ' No/ said Charles ; ' I have no tricks.' And he 
 rose and went off to the newspaper table. Dare's 
 songs were all very well, but really his voice was 
 nothing so very wonderful, and he was not much of 
 an acquisition in other ways. 
 
 Then Dare took his opportunity. He dropped 
 into Charles's vacant chair; he wound wool; he 
 wished to learn to knit ; his inquiring mind craved 
 for information respecting shooting stockings. He 
 talked of music; of songs, Italian, French, and 
 English ; of American nigger melodies. Would 
 Miss Deyncourt sing ? Might he accompany her ? 
 Ah ! she preferred the simple old English ballads. 
 He loved the simple English ballad. 
 
 And Ruth, nothing loth, sang in her fresh, clear 
 voice one song after another, Dare accompanying 
 her with rapid sympathy and ease. 
 
 Charles put down his paper, and moved slightly, 
 so that he had a better view of the piano. Evelyn 
 laid down her work and looked affectionately at 
 Euth. 
 
 ' Exquisite/ said Lady Mary from time to time, 
 who had said the same of Lady Grace's wavering 
 little soprano. 
 
02 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' You also sing duets ? You sing duets ? ' 
 eagerly inquired Dare, the music-stool creaking 
 with his suppressed excitement; and, without 
 waiting for an answer, he began playing the opening 
 chords of ' Greeting.' 
 
 The two voices rose and fell together, now soft, 
 now triumphant, harmonising as if they sang together 
 for years. Dare's second was low, pathetic, and it 
 blended at once with Euth's clear young contralto. 
 Charles wondered that the others should applaud 
 when the duet was finished. Euth's voice went 
 best alone in his opinion. 
 
 ' And the " Cold Blast "?' asked Dare immediately 
 afterwards. ' The " Cold Blast" was here a moment 
 ago ' turning the leaves over rapidly. ' You are 
 not tired, Miss Deyncourt ? ' 
 
 ' Tired ! ' replied Euth, her eyes sparkling. ' It 
 never tires me to sing. It rests me.' 
 
 ' Ah ! so it is with me. That is just how I 
 feel,' said Dare. ' To sing, or to listen to the voice 
 ofof ' 
 
 ' Of what ? Confound him ! ' wondered Charles. 
 
 'Of another,' said Dare. 'Ah! here he is!' 
 and he pounced on another song, and lightly touched 
 the opening chords. 
 
 * " Oh ! wert them in the cold blast/' ' 
 sang Euth, fresh and sweet. 
 
 '" I'd shelter thee,"' 
 
 Dare assured her with manly fervour. He went on 
 to say what he would do if he were monarch of the 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 93 
 
 realm, affirming that the brightest jewel of his 
 crown would be his queen. 
 
 ('Anyhow, he can't pronounce Scotch,' Charles 
 thought.) 
 
 'Would be his queen,' Dare repeated, with 
 subdued emotion and an upward glance at Euth, 
 which she was too much absorbed in the song to 
 see, but which did not escape Charles. Dare's dark 
 sentimental eyes spoke volumes of not sermons 
 at that moment. 
 
 ' Oh, Uncle Charles ! ' whispered Molly, who had 
 been allowed to sit up about two hours beyond her 
 nominal bedtime, at which hour she rarely felt 
 disposed to retire ; ' oh, Uncle Charles ! " The 
 brightest jewel in his crown ! " Don't you wish you 
 and me could sing together like that ? ' 
 
 Charles moved impatiently, and took up his paper 
 again. 
 
 The evening passed all too quickly for Dare, who 
 loved music and the sound of his own voice, and 
 he had almost forgotten, until Charles left him 
 and Ealph alone together in the smoking-room, 
 that he had come to discuss his affairs with the 
 latter. 
 
 ' Dear me,' said Evelyn, who had followed her 
 cousin to her room after they had dispersed for the 
 night, and was looking out of Euth's window, 'that 
 must be Charles walking up and down on the lawn. 
 Well now, how thoughtful he is to leave Mr. Dare 
 and Ealph together. You know, Euth, poor Mr. 
 Dare's affairs are in a very bad way, and he has 
 come to talk things over with my Ealph.' 
 
94 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' I hope Ealph will make him put his cottages in 
 order/ said Euth, with sudden interest, shaking back 
 her hair from her shoulders. 'Do you think he 
 will?' 
 
 1 Whatever Ealph advises will he sure to be right/ 
 replied Evelyn, with the soft conviction of his 
 infallibility which caused her to be considered by 
 most of Ealph's masculine friends an ideal wife. It 
 is women without reasoning powers of any kind 
 whom the nobler sex should be careful to marry if 
 they wish to be regarded through life in this delight- 
 ful way by their wives. Men not particularly heroic 
 in themselves, who yet are anxious to pose as heroes 
 in their domestic circle, should remember that the 
 smallest modicum of common sense on the part of 
 the worshipper will inevitably mar a happiness, the 
 very existence of which depends entirely on a blind, 
 unreasoning devotion. In middle life the absence 
 of reason begins perhaps to be felt; but why in 
 youth take thought for such a far-off morrow ! 
 
 'I hope he will/ said Euth, half to herself. 
 ' What an opportunity that man has if he only sees 
 it. There is so much to be done, and it is all in his 
 hands/ 
 
 ' Yes, it's not entailed ; but I don't think there 
 is so very much/ said Evelyn. ' But then, so long 
 as people are nice, I never care whether they are 
 rich or poor. That is the first question I ask when 
 people come into the neighbourhood. Are they 
 really nice ? Dear me, Euth, what beautiful hair 
 you have ; and mine coming off so ! And, talking 
 of hair, did you ever see anything like Mr. Dare's? 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 95 
 
 Somebody must really speak to him about it. If he 
 would keep his hands still, and not talk so quick, 
 and let his hair grow a little, I really think he 
 would not look so like a foreigner.' 
 
 ' I don't suppose he minds looking like one/ 
 
 ' My dear! 3 
 
 1 His mother was a Frenchwoman, wasn't she ? 
 I am sure I have heard so fifty times since his uncle 
 died.' 
 
 'And if she was/ said Evelyn reprovingly, 'is 
 not that an extra reason for his giving up anything 
 that will remind people of it ? And we ought to 
 try and forget it, Euth, and behave just the same to 
 him as if she had been an Englishwoman. I wonder 
 if he is a Eoman Catholic ? ' 
 
 ' Ask him.' 
 
 ' I hope he is not/ continued Evelyn, taking up 
 her candle to go. ' We never had one to stay in 
 the house before. I don't mean/ catching a glimpse 
 of Kuth's face, 'that Catholics are well I don't 
 mean that. But still, you know, one would not like 
 to make great friends with a Catholic, would one, 
 Kuth ? And he is so nice and so amusing that I do 
 hope, as he is going to be a neighbour, he is a 
 Protestant/ And after a few more remarks of about 
 the same calibre from Evelyn, the two cousins kissed 
 and parted for the night. 
 
 ' Will he do it ? ' said Euth to herself, when she 
 was alone. ' Has he character enough, and per- 
 severance enough, and money enough ? Oh ! I wish 
 Uncle John would talk to him/ 
 
 Euth was not aware that one word from herself 
 
96 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 would have more weight with a man like Dare than 
 any number from an angel of heaven, if that angel 
 were of the masculine gender. If at the other side 
 of the house Dare could have known how earnestly 
 Ruth was thinking about him, he would not have 
 been surprised (for he was not without experience), 
 but he would have felt immensely flattered. 
 
 Vandon lay in a distant part of Mr. Alwynn's 
 parish, and a perpetual curate had charge of the 
 district. Mr. Alwynn consequently seldom went 
 there, but on the few occasions on which Euth had 
 accompanied him in his periodical visits, she had 
 seen enough. Who cares for a recital of what she 
 saw ? Misery and want are so common. We can 
 see them for ourselves any day. In Ruth's heart a 
 great indignation had kindled against old Mr. Dare, 
 of Vandon, who was inaccessible as a ghost in his 
 own house, haunting the same rooms, but never to 
 be found when Mr. Alwynn called upon him to ' put 
 things before him in their true light.' And when 
 Mr. Dare descended to the Vandon vault, all Mr. 
 Alwynn's interest, and consequently a good deal of 
 Ruth's, had centred in the new heir, who was so 
 difficult to find, and who ultimately turned up from 
 the other end of nowhere just when people were 
 beginning to despair of his ever turning up at all. 
 
 And now that he had come, would he make the 
 crooked straight ? Would the new broom sweep 
 clean ? Ruth recalled the new broom's brown hand- 
 some face, with the eager eyes and raised eyebrows, 
 and involuntarily shook her head. It is difficult to 
 be an impartial judge of any one with a feeling for 
 
SIE CHARLES DANVERS 97 
 
 music, and a pathetic tenor voice ; but the face she 
 had called to mind did not inspire her with con- 
 fidence. It was kindly, amiable, pleasant ; but 
 was it strong ? In other words, was it not a trifle 
 weak ? 
 
 She found herself comparing it with another, a 
 thin, reserved face, with keen light eyes and a firm 
 mouth ; a mouth with a cigar in it at that moment on 
 the lawn. The comparison, however, did not help 
 her meditations much, being decidedly prejudicial to 
 the ' new broom ; ' and the faint chime of the clock 
 on the dressing-table breaking in on them at the 
 same moment, she dismissed them for the night, and 
 proceeded to busy herself in putting to bed her 
 various little articles of jewellery before betaking 
 herself there also. 
 
 Any doubts entertained by Evelyn about Dare's 
 religious views were completely set at rest the 
 following morning, which happened to be a Sunday. 
 He appeared at breakfast in a black frock-coat, the 
 splendour of which quite threw Ealph's ancient 
 Sunday garment into the shade. He wore also a 
 chastened, decorous aspect, which seemed unfamiliar 
 to his mobile face, and rather ill suited to it. After 
 breakfast he inquired when service would be, and 
 expressed a wish to attend it. He brought down a 
 high hat and an enormous prayer-book, and figured 
 with them in the garden. 
 
 ' Who is going to Greenacre, and who is going to 
 Slumberleigh ? ' called out Kalph from the smoking- 
 room window. ' Because, if any of you are going to 
 
 7 
 
98 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 foot it to Slumberleigh, you had better be starting. 
 Which are you going to, Charles ? ' 
 
 ' I am going where Molly goes. Which is it to 
 be, Molly ? ' 
 
 ' Slumberleigh/ said Molly with decision, ' be- 
 cause it's the shortest sermon, and I want to see the 
 little foal in Brown's field.' 
 
 ' Slumberleigh be it/ said Charles. ' Now, Miss 
 Deyncourt/ as Euth appeared, ' which church are 
 you going to support Greenacre, which is close in 
 more senses than one, where they never open the 
 windows, and the clergyman preaches for an hour; 
 or Slumberleigh, shady, airy, cool, lying past a 
 meadow with a foal in it ? If I may offer that as 
 any inducement, Molly and I intend to patronise 
 Slumberleigh.' 
 
 Euth said she would do the same. 
 
 ' Now, Dare, you will be able to decide whether 
 Greenacre, with a little fat tower, or Slumberleigh, 
 with a beautiful tall steeple, suits your religious 
 views best.' 
 
 ' I will also go to Slumberleigh/ said Dare, with- 
 out a moment's hesitation. 
 
 'I thought so. I suppose' to Ealph and 
 Evelyn 'you are going to Greenacre with Aunt 
 Mary ? Tell her I have gone to church, will you ? 
 It will cheer her up. Sunday is a very depressing 
 day with her, I know. She thinks of all she has 
 done in the week, preparatory to doing a little more 
 on Monday. Good-bye. Now then, Molly, have 
 you got your prayer-book? Miss Deyncourt, I 
 don't see yours anywhere. Oh, there it is ! No, 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 99 
 
 don't let Dare carry it for you. Give it me. He 
 will have enough to do, poor fellow, to travel with 
 his own. Come, Molly ! Is Vic chained up ? Yes, 
 I can hear him howling. The craving for church 
 privileges of that dumb animal, Miss Deyncourt, is 
 an example to us Christians. Molly, have you got 
 your penny ? Miss Deyncourt, can I accommodate 
 you with a threepenny bit ? Now, are we all ready 
 to start ? ' 
 
 'When this outburst of eloquence has subsided/ 
 said Kuth, ' the audience will be happy to move 
 on/ 
 
 And so they started across the fields, where the 
 grass was already springing faint and green after the 
 haymaking. There was a fresh wandering air, 
 which fluttered the ribbons in Molly's hat, as she 
 danced on ahead, frisking in her short white skirt 
 beside her uncle, her hand in his. Charles was the 
 essence of wit to Molly, with his grave face that so 
 seldom smiled, and the twinkle in the kind eyes, 
 that always went before those wonderful delightful 
 jokes which he alone could make. Sometimes, as 
 she laughed, she looked back at Ruth and Dare, 
 half a field behind, in pity at what they were 
 missing. 
 
 ' Shall we wait and tell them that story, Uncle 
 Charles ? ' 
 
 'No, Molly. I daresay he is telling her 
 another which is just as good.' 
 
 ' I don't think he knows any like yours.' 
 
 ' Some people like the old, old story best.' 
 
 'Do I know the old, old one, Uncle Charles ?' 
 
100 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 'No, Molly/ 
 
 ' Can you teU it ? ' 
 
 ' No. I have never been able to tell that par- 
 ticular story.' 
 
 'And do you really think he is telling it to her 
 now ? ' with a backward glance. 
 
 'Not at this moment. It's no good running 
 back. He's only thinking about it now. He will 
 tell it her in about a month or six weeks' time.' 
 
 'I hope I shall be there when he tells it.' 
 
 * I hope you may ; but I don't think it is likely. 
 And now, Molly, set your hat straight, and leave off 
 jumping. I never jump when I go to church with 
 Aunt Mary. Quietly now, for there's the church, 
 and Mr. Alwynn's looking out of the window/ 
 
 Dare, meanwhile, walking with Kuth, caught 
 sight of the church and lych-gate with heartfelt 
 regret. The stretches of sunny meadow land, the 
 faint clamour of church bells, the pale, refined face 
 beside him, had each individually and all three to- 
 gether appealed to his imagination, always vivid 
 when he himself was concerned. He suddenly felt 
 as if a great gulf had fixed itself, without any will 
 of his own, between his old easy-going life and the 
 new existence that was opening out before him. 
 
 He had crossed from the old to the new without 
 any perception of such a gulf, and now, as he looked 
 back, it seemed to yawn between him and all that 
 hitherto he had been. He did not care to look 
 back, so he looked forward. He felt as if he were 
 the central figure (when was he not a central figure ?) 
 in a new drama. He was fond of acting, on and 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 101 
 
 off the stage, and now he seemed to be playing a 
 new part, in which he was not yet thoroughly at 
 ease, but which he rather suspected would become 
 him exceedingly well. It amused him to see him- 
 self going to church to church ! to hear himself 
 conversing on flowers and music with a young 
 English girl. The idea that he was rapidly falling 
 in love was specially delightful. He called himself 
 a vieux scdtrat, and watched the progress of feelings 
 which he felt did him credit with extreme satisfac- 
 tion. He and Euth arrived at the church porch all 
 too soon for Dare ; and though he had the pleasure 
 of sitting on one side of her during the service, he 
 would have preferred that Charles, of whom he felt 
 a vague distrust, had not happened to be on the 
 other. 
 
CHAPTEK X 
 
 ' MY dear/ said Mrs. Alwynn to her husband that 
 morning, as they started for church across the glebe, 
 ' if any of the Atherstone party are in church, as 
 they ought to be, for I hear from Mrs. Smith that 
 they are not at all regular at Greenacre only went 
 once last Sunday, and then late I shall just tell 
 Kuth that she is to come back to me to-morrow. 
 A few days won't make any difference to her, and 
 it will fit in so nicely her coming back the day you 
 go to the palace. After all I've done for Kuth, new 
 curtains to her room, and the piano tuned and every- 
 thing, I don't think she would like to stay there 
 with friends, and me all by myself, without a 
 creature to speak to. Kuth may be only a niece by 
 
 marriage, but she will see in a moment ' 
 
 And in fact she did. When Mrs. Alwynn took 
 her aside after church, and explained the case in 
 the all-pervading whisper for which she had appar- 
 ently taken out a patent, Kuth could not grasp any 
 reason why she should return to Slumberleigh three 
 days before the time, but she saw at once that 
 return she must if Mrs. Alwynn chose to demand 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 103 
 
 it; and so she yielded with a good grace, and sent 
 Mrs. Alwynn back smiling to the lych-gate, where 
 Mr. Alwynn and Mabel Thursby were talking with 
 Dare and Molly, while Charles interviewed the 
 village policeman at a little distance. 
 
 ' No news of the tramp/ said Charles, meeting 
 Euth at the gate ; and they started homewards in 
 different order to that in which they had come, in 
 spite of a great effort at the last moment on the 
 part of Dare, who thought the old way was better. 
 'The policeman has seen nothing of him. He has 
 gone off to pastures new, I expect/ 
 
 ' I hope he has.' 
 
 ' Mrs. Alwynn does not want you to leave 
 Atherstone to-morrow, does she ? ' 
 
 ' I am sorry to say she does.' 
 
 ' But you won't go ? ' 
 
 * I must not only go, but I must do it as if I 
 liked if 
 
 ' I hope Evelyn won't allow it.' 
 
 ' While I am living with Mrs. Alwynn, I am 
 bound to do what she likes in small things/ 
 
 'H'm!' 
 
 ' I should have thought, Sir Charles, that this 
 particularly feminine and submissive sentiment 
 would have met with your approval/ 
 
 ' It does ; it does,' said Charles hastily. ' Only, 
 after the stubborn rigidity of your shall I say your 
 week-day character, especially as regards money, 
 this softened Sabbath mood took me by surprise for 
 a moment/ ; 9 - ; 
 
 ' You should see me at Slumberleigh,' said Kuth, 
 
104 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 with a smile half-sad, half-humorous. ' You should 
 see me tying up Uncle John's flowers, or holding 
 Aunt Fanny's wools. Nothing more entirely fem- 
 inine and young-ladylike can be imagined.' 
 
 ' It must be a great change, after living with a 
 woman like Lady Deyncourt to whose house I 
 often went years ago, when her son was living to 
 come to a place like Slumberleigh.' 
 
 'It is a great change. I am ashamed to say 
 how much I felt it at first. I don't know how to 
 express it ; but everything down here seems so 
 small and local, and hard and fast.' 
 
 ' I know,' said Charles gently ; and they walked 
 on in silence. ' And yet,' he said at last, ' it seems 
 to me, and I should have thought you would have 
 felt the same, that life is very small, very narrow 
 and circumscribed everywhere; though perhaps 
 more obviously so in Cranfords and Slumberleighs. 
 I have seen a good deal during the last fifteen years. 
 I have mixed with many sorts and conditions of 
 men, but in no class or grade of society have I 
 yet found independent men and women. The groove 
 is as narrow in one class as in another, though in 
 some it is better concealed. I sometimes feel as if 
 I were walking in a ballroom full of people all 
 dancing the lancers. There are different sets 
 of course fashionable, political, artistic but the 
 people in them are all crossing over, all advancing 
 and retiring, with the same apparent aimlessness, 
 or setting to partners.' 
 
 ' There is occasionally an aim in that.' 
 
 Charles smiled grimly. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 105 
 
 ' They follow the music in that as in everything 
 else. You go away for ten years, and still find them 
 on your return, going through the same figures to 
 new tunes. I wonder if there are any people any- 
 where in the world who stand on their own feet, 
 and think and act for themselves; who don't set 
 their watches by other people's ; who don't live and 
 marry and die by rote, expecting to go straight up 
 to heaven by rote afterwards ! ' 
 
 ' I believe there are such people/ said Euth earn- 
 estly ; ' I have had glimpses of them, but the real 
 ones look like the shadows, and the shadows like 
 the real ones, and we miss them in the crowd.' 
 
 'Or one thinks one finds them, and they turn 
 out only clever imitations after all. In these days 
 there is a mania for shamming originality of some 
 kind. I am always imagining people I meet are 
 real, and not shadows, until one day I unintention- 
 ally put my hand through them, and find out my 
 mistake. I am getting tired of being taken in.' 
 
 'And some day you will get tired of being 
 cynical/ 
 
 ' I am very much obliged to you for your hope- 
 ful view of my future. You evidently imagine that 
 I have gone in for the fashionable creed of the 
 young man of the present day. I am not young 
 enough to take pleasure in high collars and cheap 
 cynicism, Miss Deyncourt. Cynical people are 
 never disappointed in others, as I so often am, 
 because they expect the worst. In theory I respect 
 and admire my fellow-creatures, but they continually 
 exasperate me because they won't allow me to do so 
 
108 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 in real life. I have still I blush to own it a 
 lingering respect for women, though they have taken 
 pains to show me, time after time, what a fool I am 
 for such a weakness.' 
 
 Charles looked intently at Euth. Women are so 
 terribly apt in handling any subject to make it 
 personal. Would she fire up, or would she, like so 
 many women, join in abuse of her own sex ? She 
 did neither. She was looking straight in front of 
 her, absently watching the figures of Dare and Molly 
 in the next field. Then she turned her grave, 
 thoughtful glance towards him. 
 
 ' I think respect is never weakness,' she said. 
 ' It is a sign of strength, even when it is misplaced. 
 There is not much to admire in cunning people who 
 are never taken in. The best people I have known, 
 the people whom it did me good to be with, have 
 been those who respected others and themselves. 
 Do not be in too great a hurry to get rid of any little 
 fragment that still remains. You may want it when 
 it is gone/ 
 
 Charles's apathetic face had become strangely 
 earnest. There was a keen, searching look in his tired, 
 restless eyes. He was about to make some answer, 
 when he suddenly became aware of Dare and Molly 
 sitting perched on a gate close at hand waiting for 
 them. Never had he perceived Molly's little brown 
 face with less pleasure than at that moment. She 
 scrambled down with a noble disregard of appear- 
 ances, and tried to take his hand. But it was coolly 
 withdrawn. Charles fell behind on some pretence 
 of fastening the gate, and Molly had to content 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 107 
 
 herself with Ruth's and Dare's society for the re- 
 mainder of the walk. 
 
 Ruth had almost forgotten, until Molly suggested 
 at luncheon a picnic for the following day, that she 
 was returning to Slumberleigh on Monday morning ; 
 and when she made the fact known, Ralph had to 
 be ' hushed * several times by Evelyn for muttering 
 opinions behind the sirloin respecting Mrs. Alwynn, 
 which Evelyn seemed to have heard before, and to 
 consider unsuited to the ears of that lady's niece. 
 
 'But if you go away, Cousin Ruth, we can't 
 have the picnic ? Can we, Uncle Charles ? ' 
 
 ' Impossible, Molly. Rather bread-and-butter at 
 home, than a mixed biscuit in the open air without 
 Miss Deyncourt.' 
 
 ' Is Mrs. Alwynn suffering ? ' asked Lady Mary 
 politely down the table. 
 
 Ruth explained that she was not in ill-health, 
 but that she did not wish to be left alone ; and 
 Ralph was ' hushed ' again. 
 
 Lady Mary was annoyed, or more properly 
 speaking, she was 'moved in the spirit/ which in a 
 Churchwoman seems to be the same thing as annoy- 
 ance in the unregenerate or unorthodox mind. She 
 regretted Ruth's departure more than any one, 
 except perhaps Ruth herself. She had watched 
 the girl very narrowly, and she had seen nothing 
 to make her alter the opinion she had formed of 
 her ; indeed, she was inclined to advance beyond it. 
 Even she could not suspect that Ruth had ' played 
 her cards well;' although she would have aided 
 and abetted her in any way in her power, if Ruth 
 
108 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 had shown the slightest consciousness of holding 
 cards at all, or being desirous of playing them. 
 Her frank yet reserved manner, her distinguished 
 appearance, her sense of humour (which Lady Mary 
 did not understand, but which she perceived others 
 did), and the quiet savoir faire of her treatment of 
 Dare's advances, all enhanced her greatly in the 
 eyes of her would-be aunt. She bade her good-bye 
 with genuine regret; the only person who bore her 
 departure without a shade of compunction being 
 Dare, who stood by the carriage till the last moment, 
 assuring Kuth that he hoped to come over to the 
 Eectory very shortly ; while Charles and Molly 
 held the gate open meanwhile, at the end of the 
 short drive. 
 
 ' I know that Frenchman means business,' said 
 Lady Mary wrathfully to herself, as she watched 
 the scene from the garden. Her mind, from the 
 very severity of its tension, was liable to occasional 
 lapses of this painful kind from the spiritual and 
 ecclesiastical to the mundane and transitory. 'I 
 saw it directly he came into the house ; and with 
 kis opportunities, and living within a stone's throw, 
 I should not wonder if he were to succeed. Any 
 man would fetch a fancy price at Slumberleigh ; 
 and the most fastidious woman in the world ceases 
 to be critical if she is reduced to the proper state 
 of dulness. He is handsome, too, in his foreign 
 way. But she does not like him now. She is 
 inclined to like Charles, though she does not know 
 it. There is an attraction between the two. I 
 knew there would be. And he likes her. Oh, 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 109 
 
 what fools men are ! He will go away ; and Dare, 
 on the contrary, will ride over to Slumberleigh 
 every day, and by the time he is engaged to her 
 Charles will see her again, and find out that he is 
 in love with her himself. Oh, the folly, the density, 
 of unmarried men ! and, indeed ' (with a sudden 
 recollection of the deceased Mr. Cunningham), 'of 
 the whole race of them ! But of all men I have 
 ever known, I really think the most provoking is 
 Charles/ 
 
 ' Musing ? ' inquired her nephew, sauntering up 
 to her. 
 
 'I was thinking that we had just lost the 
 pleasantest person of our little party/ said Lady 
 Mary, viciously seizing up her work 
 
 ' I am still here/ suggested Charles, by way of 
 consolation. ' I don't start for Norway in Wynd- 
 ham's yacht for three days to come/ 
 
 'Do you mean to say you are going to 
 Norway ? ' 
 
 ' I forget whether it was to be Norway ; but 
 I know I'm booked to go yachting somewhere. 
 It's Wyndham's new toy. He paid through the 
 parental nose for it, and he made me promise in 
 London to go with him on his first cruise. I 
 believe a very charming Miss Wyndham is to be of 
 the party/ 
 
 'And how long, pray, are you going to yacht 
 with Miss Wyndham ? ' 
 
 ' It is with her brother I propose to go. I 
 thought I had explained that before. I shall 
 probably cruise about, let me see, for three weeks 
 
110 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 or so, till the grouse-shooting begins. Then I am 
 due in Scotland, at the Hope-Actons, and several 
 other places.' 
 
 Lady Mary laid down her work, and rose to 
 her feet, her thin hand closing tightly over the 
 silver crook of her stick. 
 
 1 Charles/ she said, in a voice trembling with 
 anger, looking him full in the face, ' you are a fool ! ' 
 and she passed him without another word, and 
 hobbled away rapidly into the house. 
 
 ' Am I ? ' said Charles, half aloud to himself, 
 when the last fold of her garment had been twitched 
 out of sight through the window. 
 
 ' Am I ? Molly/ with great gravity, as Molly 
 appeared, 'yes, you may sit on my knee; but don't 
 wriggle. Molly, what is a fool ? ' 
 
 'I think it's Eaca, only worse/ said Molly. 
 'Uncle Charles, Mr. Dare is going away too. His 
 dogcart has just come into the yard/ 
 
 ' Has it ? I hope he won't keep it waiting.' 
 
 ' You are not going away, are you ? ' 
 
 ' Not for three days more/ 
 
 'Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Why, they 
 will be gone in a moment/ 
 
 But to Charles they seemed three very long days 
 indeed. He was annoyed with himself for having 
 made so many engagements before he left London. 
 At the time there did not seem anything better to 
 be done, and he supposed he must go somewhere ; 
 but now he thought he would have liked to stay on at 
 Atherstone, though he would not have said so to 
 Lady Mary for worlds. He was tired of rushing up 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 111 
 
 and down. He was not so fond of yachting, after 
 all; and he remembered that he had been many 
 times to Norway. 
 
 ' I would get out of it, if I could,' he said to Lady 
 Mary on the last morning ; ' and of this blue serge 
 suit too (you should see Miss Wyndham in blue 
 serge !) ; but it is not a question of pleasure, but of 
 principle. I don't like to throw over Wyndham at 
 the last moment, after what you said when I failed 
 the Hope- Actons last year. Twins could not feel 
 more exactly together than you and I do where a 
 principle is involved. I see you are about to advise 
 me to keep my engagement. Do not trouble to do 
 so. I am going to Portsmouth by the midday train. 
 Brown is at this moment packing my telescope and 
 life-belt/ 
 
CHAPTEE XI 
 
 IT was the end of August. The little lawn at 
 Slumberleigh Kectory was parched and brown. The 
 glebe beyond was brown. So was the field beyond 
 that. The thirsty road was ash white between its 
 gray hedgerows. It was hotter in the open air than 
 in the house, but Kuth had brought her books out 
 into the garden all the same, and had made a con- 
 scientious effort to read under the chestnut-tree. 
 
 For under the same roof with Mrs. Alwynn she 
 had soon learned that application or study of any 
 kind was an impossibility. Mrs. Alwynn had 
 several maxims as to the conduct of herself, and 
 consequently of every one else, and one of those to 
 which she most frequently gave utterance was that 
 ' young people should always be cheery and soci- 
 able, and should not be left too much to them- 
 selves.' 
 
 When in the winter Mr. Alwynn had brought 
 home Euth, quite overwhelmed for the time by the 
 shock of the first real trouble she had known, Mrs. 
 Alwynn was kindness itself in the way of sweet- 
 breads and warm rooms ; but the only thing Euth 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 113 
 
 craved for, to be left alone, she would not allow for a 
 moment. No ! Mrs. Alwynn was cheerful, brisk, and 
 pious at intervals. If she found her niece was sitting 
 in her own room, she bustled upstairs, poked the fire, 
 gave her a kiss, and finally brought her down to the 
 drawing-room, where she told her she would be as 
 quiet as in her own room. She need not be afraid 
 her uncle would come in ; and she must not allow 
 herself to get moped. What would she, Mrs. 
 Alwynn, have done, she would like to know, if, when 
 she was in trouble and she knew what trouble 
 meant, if any one did she had allowed herself to 
 get moped ? Kuth must try and bear up. And at 
 Lady Deyncourt's age it was quite to be expected. 
 And Euth must remember she still had a sister, and 
 that there was a happy home above. And now, if 
 she would get that green wool out of the red plush 
 iron (which really was a work-box such a droll 
 idea, wasn't it?), Ruth should hold the wool, and 
 they would have a cosy little chat till luncheon 
 time. 
 
 And so Mrs. Alwynn did her duty by her niece ; 
 and Ruth, in the dark days that followed her 
 grandmother's death, took all the little kindnesses in 
 the spirit in which they were meant, and did her 
 duty by her aunt. 
 
 But after a time Mrs. Alwynn became more 
 exacting. Ruth was visibly recovering from what 
 Mrs. Alwynn called 'her bereavement.' She could 
 smile again without an effort ; she took long walks 
 with Mr. Alwynn, and later in the spring paid a 
 visit to her uncle, Lord Polesworth. It was after 
 
 8 
 
114 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 this visit that Mrs. Alwynn became more exacting. 
 She had borne with half - attention and a lack 
 of interest in crewel-work while Euth was still 
 ' fretting/ as she termed it. But when a person 
 lays aside crape, and goes into half-mourning, the 
 time has come when she may nay, when she ought 
 to be 'chatty.' This time had come with Euth, 
 but she was not 'chatty.' Like Mrs. Dombey, she 
 did not make an effort, and as the months passed on, 
 and when even the gamboge canary with which 
 Mrs. Alwynn presented Euth, failed to permanently 
 enliven her niece's spirits, Mrs. Alwynn began to 
 shake her head, and to fear that ' there was some 
 officer or something on her mind.' Mrs. Alwynn 
 always called soldiers officers, and doctors physi- 
 cians. 
 
 Euth on her side was vaguely aware that she did 
 not give satisfaction. The small talk, the perpetual 
 demand on her attention, the constant interruptions, 
 seemed to benumb what faculties she had. Her 
 mind became like a machine out of work rusty, 
 creaking, difficult to set going. If she had half an 
 hour of leisure she could not fix her attention to 
 anything. She, who in her grandmother's time had 
 been so keen and alert, seemed to have drifted, in 
 Mrs. Alwynn's society, into a torpid state, from 
 which she made vain attempts to emerge, only to 
 sink the deeper. 
 
 When she stood once more, fresh from a fort- 
 night of pleasant intercourse with pleasant people, in 
 the little ornate drawing-room at Slumberleigh, on 
 her return from Atherstone, the remembrance of the 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 115 
 
 dulled, confused state in which she had been living 
 with her aunt returned forcibly to her mind. The 
 various articles of furniture, the red silk handker- 
 chiefs dabbed behind pendent plates, the musical 
 elephants on the mantelpiece, the imitation Eastern 
 antimacassars, the shocking fate in the way of nailed 
 and glued pictorial ornamentation that had over- 
 taken the back of the cottage piano indeed all the 
 various objects of luxury and vertu with which. Mrs. 
 Alwynn had surrounded herself seemed to recall to 
 Euth, as the apparatus of the sickroom recalls the 
 illness to the patient, the stupor into which she had 
 fallen in their company. With her eyes fixed upon 
 the new brass pig (that was at heart a pen-wiper) 
 which Mrs. Alwynn had pointed out, as a gift of 
 Mabel Thursby, who always brought her back some 
 little ' tasty thing from London ' with her eyes on 
 the brass pig, Euth resolved that, come what would, 
 she would not allow herself to sink into such a state 
 of mental paralysis again. 
 
 To read a book of any description was out of the 
 question in the society of Mrs. Alwynn. But Euth, 
 with the connivance of Mr. Alwynn, devised a 
 means of eluding her aunt. At certain hours in the 
 day she was lost regularly, and not to be found. 
 It was summer, and the world, or at least the 
 neighbourhood of Slumberleigh Eectory, which was 
 the same thing, was all before her where to choose. 
 In after years she used to say that some books had 
 always remained associated with certain places in 
 her mind. With Emerson she learned to associate 
 the scent of hay, the desultory remarks of hens, 
 
116 SIB CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 and the sudden choruses of ducks. Carlyle's Sartor 
 Resartus, which she read for the first time this year, 
 always recalled to her afterwards the leathern odour 
 of the boxroom, with an occasional soupcon of damp 
 flapping linen in the orchard, which spot was not 
 visible from the Eectory windows. 
 
 Gradually Mrs. Alwynn became aware of the fact 
 that Ruth was never to be seen with a book in her 
 hand, and she expressed fears that the latter was 
 not keeping up her reading. 
 
 'And if you don't like to read to yourself, my 
 dear, you can read to me while I work. German, 
 now. I like the sound of German very well It 
 brings back the time when your Uncle John and I 
 went up the Rhine on our honeymoon. And then, 
 for English reading there's a very nice book Uncle 
 John has somewhere on natural history, called 
 Animals of a Quiet Life, by a Mr. Hare, too so 
 comical, I always think If s good for you to be 
 reading something. It is what your poor dear 
 granny would have wished if she had been alive. 
 Only it must not be poetry, Ruth, not poetry.' 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn did not approve of poetry. She 
 was wont to say that for her part she liked only 
 what was perfectly true, by which it is believed she 
 meant prose. 
 
 She had no books of her own. In times of 
 illness she borrowed from Mrs. Thursby (who had 
 all Miss Young's works, and selections from the 
 publications of the S.P.C.K.) On Sundays, when 
 she could not work, she read, half aloud, of course, 
 with sighs at intervals, a little manual called Gold 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 117 
 
 Dust, or a smaller one still, called Pearls of Great 
 Price, which she had once recommended to Charles, 
 whom she knew slightly, and about whom she affected 
 to know a great deal, which nothing (except pressing) 
 would induce her to repeat; which rendered the 
 application of the ' Pearls/ to be followed by the 
 'Dust,' most essential to his future welfare. 
 
 On this particular morning in August, Euth had 
 slipped out as far as the chestnut -tree, the lower 
 part of which was hidden from the Eectory windows 
 by a blessed yew hedge. It was too hot to walk, it 
 was too hot to draw, it was even too hot to read. It 
 did not seem, however, to be too hot to ride, for pre- 
 sently she heard a horse's hoofs clattering across the 
 stones of the stable-yard, and she knew, from the 
 familiarity of the sound at that hour of the day, that 
 Dare had probably ridden over, and, more probably 
 still, would stay to luncheon. 
 
 The foreign gentleman, as all the village people 
 called him, had by this time become quite an institu- 
 tion in the neighbourhood of Vandon. Every one 
 liked him, and he liked every one. Like the sun, 
 he shone upon the just and the unjust. He went 
 to every tennis party to which he was invited. He 
 was pleased if people were at home when he called. 
 He became in many houses a privileged person, and 
 he never abused his privileges. Women especially 
 liked him. He had what Mrs. Eccles defined as 
 ' such a way with him ; ' his way being to make 
 every woman he met think that she was particularly 
 interesting in his eyes for the time being. Men 
 did not, of course, care for him so much. When he 
 
118 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 stayed anywhere, it was vaguely felt by the sterner sex 
 of the party that he stole a march upon them. While 
 they were smoking, after their kind, in clusters on 
 the lawn, it would suddenly be observed that he was 
 sitting in the drawing-room, giving a lesson in 
 netting, or trying over a new song encircled by 
 young ladyhood. It was felt that he took an unfair 
 advantage. What business had he to come down to 
 tea in that absurd amber plush smoking suit, just 
 because the elder ladies had begged to see it ? It 
 was all the more annoying, because he looked so 
 handsome in it. Like most men who are admired 
 by women, he was not much liked by men. 
 
 But the house to which he came the oftenest was 
 Slumberleigh Eectory. He was faithful to his early 
 admiration of Euth; and the only obstacle to his 
 making her (in his opinion) happy among women, 
 namely, her possible want of fortune, had long since 
 been removed by the confidential remarks of Mrs. 
 Alwynn. To his foreign habits and ideas, four- 
 teen or fifteen hundred a year represented a very 
 large sum. In his eyes Euth was an heiress, and 
 in all good earnest he set himself to win her. Mr. 
 Alwynn had now become the proper person to 
 consult regarding his property; and at first, to 
 Euth's undisguised satisfaction, he consulted him 
 nearly every other day, his horse at last taking 
 the turn for Slumberleigh as a matter of course. 
 Many a time in these August days might Mrs. 
 Eccles and all the other inhabitants of Slum- 
 berleigh have seen Dare ride up the little street, 
 taking as much active exercise as his horse, only 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 119 
 
 skyward ; the saddle being to him merely a point of 
 rebound. 
 
 But if the object of his frequent visits was mis- 
 understood by Euth at first, Dare did not allow it 
 to remain so long. And not only Euth herself, but 
 Mr. and Mrs. Alwynn, and the Eectory servants, 
 and half the parish were soon made aware of the 
 state of his affections. What was the good of being 
 in love, of having in view a social aim of such a 
 praiseworthy nature, if no one were aware of the 
 same ? Dare was not the man to hide even a night- 
 light under a bushel ; how much less a burning and 
 a shining hymeneal torch such as this. His sen- 
 timents were strictly honourable. If he raised 
 expectations, he was also quite prepared to fulfil 
 them. Miss Deyncourt was quite right to treat him 
 with her adorable, placid assumption of indifference, 
 until his attentions were more avowed. In the 
 meanwhile, she was an angel, a lily, a pearl, a star, 
 and several other things, animal, vegetable, and 
 mineral, which his vivid imagination chose to 
 picture her. But whatever Dare's faults may have 
 been and Euth was not blind to them he was at 
 least head over ears in love with her, fortune or 
 none ; and as his attachment deepened, it burned 
 up like fire all the little follies with which it had 
 begun. 
 
 A clergyman has been said to have made love to 
 the helpmeet of his choice out of the Epistle to the 
 Galatians. Dare made his out of material hardly 
 more promising plans for cottages, and estimates 
 of repairs. He had quickly seen how to interest 
 
120 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Kuth, though the reason for such an eccentric interest 
 puzzled him. However, he turned it to his advan- 
 tage. Kuth encouraged, suggested, sympathised in 
 all the little he was already doing, and the much 
 that he proposed to do. 
 
 Of late, however, a certain not ungrounded 
 suspicion had gradually forced itself upon her which 
 had led her to withdraw as much as she could from 
 her former intercourse with Dare; but her change 
 of manner had not quite the effect she had intended. 
 
 ' She thinks I am not serious,' Dare had said to 
 himself; 'she thinks that I play with her feelings. 
 She does not know me. To-morrow I ride over; I 
 set her mind at rest. To-morrow I propose ; I 
 make an offer; I claim that adored hand; I 
 become engaged.' 
 
 Accordingly, not long after the clatter of horse's 
 hoofs in the stable-yard, Dare himself appeared in 
 the garden, and perceiving Kuth, for whom he was 
 evidently looking, informed her that he had ridden 
 over to ask Mr. Alwynn to support him at a dinner 
 his tenants were giving in his honour a custom of 
 the Vandon tenantry from time immemorial, on the 
 accession of a new landlord. He spoke absently ; 
 and Euth, looking at him more closely as he stood 
 before her, wondered at his altered manner. He 
 had a rose in his button-hole. He always had a 
 rose in his button-hole ; but somehow this was more 
 of a rose than usual. His moustaches were twirled 
 up with unusual grace. 
 
 'You will find Mr. Alwynn in the study,' said 
 Euth hurriedly. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 121 
 
 His only answer was to cast aside his whip and 
 gloves, as possible impedimenta later on, and to settle 
 himself, with an elegant arrangement of the choicest 
 gaiters, on the grass at her feet. 
 
 It is probably very disagreeable to repeat in any 
 form, however discreetly worded, the old phrase 
 
 ' The reason why I cannot tell, 
 But I don't like you, Doctor Fell.' 
 
 But it must be especially disagreeable, if a refusal is 
 at first not taken seriously, to be obliged to repeat 
 it, still more plainly, a second time. It was Euth's 
 fate to be obliged to do this, and to do it hurriedly, 
 or she foresaw complications might arise. 
 
 At last Dare understood, and the sudden utter 
 blankness of his expression smote Euth to the heart. 
 He had loved her in his way after all. It is a 
 bitter thing to be refused. She felt that she had 
 been almost brutal in her direct explicitness, called 
 forth at the moment by an instinct that he would 
 proceed to extreme measures unless peremptorily 
 checked. 
 
 ' I am so sorry/ she said involuntarily. 
 
 Poor Dare, who had recovered a certain amount 
 of self-possession now that he was on his feet again, 
 took up his gloves and riding-whip in silence. All 
 his jaunty self-assurance had left him. He seemed 
 quite stunned. His face under his brown skin was 
 very pale. 
 
 ' I am so sorry,' said Euth again, feeling horribly 
 guilty. 
 
 ' It is I who am sorry,' he said humbly. ' I 
 have made a great mistake, for which I ask pardon;' 
 
122 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 and, after looking at her for a moment, in blank 
 incertitude as to whether she could really be the 
 same person whom he had come to seek in such 
 happy confidence half an hour before, he raised his 
 hat, his new light-gray hat, and was gone. 
 
 Kuth watched him go, and when he had dis- 
 appeared, she sat down again mechanically in the 
 chair from which she had risen a few moments 
 before, and pressed her hands tightly together. 
 She ought not to have allowed such a thing to 
 happen, she said to herself. Somehow it had never 
 presented itself to her in its serious aspect before. 
 It is difficult to take a vain man seriously. Poor 
 Mr. Dare ! She had not known he was capable of 
 caring so much about anything. He had never 
 appeared to such advantage in her eyes as he had 
 done when he had left her the moment before, grave 
 and silent. She felt she had misjudged him. He 
 was not so frivolous, after all. And now that her 
 influence was at an end, who would keep him up to 
 the mark about the various duties which she knew 
 now he had begun to fulfil only to please her ? 
 Oh, who would help and encourage him in that 
 most difficult of positions, a landowner without 
 means sufficient for doing the best by land and 
 tenantry ? She instinctively felt that he could not 
 be relied upon for continuous exertion by himself. 
 
 ' I wish I could have liked him/ said Kuth to 
 herself. ' I wish, I wish I could ! ' 
 
CHAPTEE XII 
 
 DURING the whole of the following week Dare 
 appeared no more at Slumberleigh. Mrs. Alwynn, 
 whose time was much occupied as a rule in com- 
 menting on the smallest doings of her neighbours, 
 and in wondering why they left undone certain 
 actions which she herself would have performed in 
 their place, Mrs. Alwynn would infallibly have 
 remarked upon his absence many times during 
 every hour of the day, had not her attention been 
 distracted for the time being by a one-horse fly 
 which she had seen go up the road on the after- 
 noon of the day of Dare's last visit, the destination 
 of which had filled her soul with anxious conjecture. 
 
 She did not ascertain till the following day that 
 it had been ordered for Mrs. Smith of Greenacre ; 
 though, as she told Euth, she might have known 
 that, as Mr. Smith was going for a holiday with 
 Mrs. Smith, and their pony lame in its feet, that 
 they would have to have a fly, and with that hill up to 
 Greenacre she was surprised one horse was enough. 
 
 When the question of the fly had been thus 
 satisfactorily settled, and Mrs. Alwynn had ceased 
 
124 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 wondering whether the Smiths had gone to Tenby 
 or to Ehyl (she always imagined people went to one 
 or other of these two places), her whole attention 
 reverted to a screen which she was making, the 
 elegance and novelty of which supplied her with a 
 congenial subject of conversation for many days. 
 
 'There is something so new in a screen, an 
 entire screen of Christmas cards,' Mrs. Alwynn 
 would remark. 'Now, Mrs. Thursby's new screen 
 is all pictures out of the Graphic, and those coloured 
 Christmas numbers. She has put all her cards in a 
 book. There is something rather passy about those 
 albums, I think. Now I fancy this screen will look 
 quite out of the common, Euth ; and when it is done, 
 I shall get some of those Japanese cranes, and stand 
 them on the top. Their claws are made to twist 
 round, you know, and I shall put some monkeys 
 you know those droll chenille monkeys, Euth 
 creeping up the sides to meet the cranes. I don't 
 honestly think, my dear' with complacency 
 ' that many people will have anything like it.' 
 
 Euth did not hesitate to say that she felt certain 
 very few would. 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn was delighted at the interest she 
 took in her new work. Euth was coming out at 
 last, she told her husband; and she passed many 
 happy hours entirely absorbed in the arrangement 
 of the cards upon the panels. Euth, thankful 
 that her attention had been providentially dis- 
 tracted from the matter that rilled her own 
 thoughts in a way that surprised and annoyed 
 her, sorted, and snipped, and pasted, and decided 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 125 
 
 weighty questions as to whether a goitred robin on 
 a twig should be placed next to a smiling plum- 
 pudding, dancing a polka with a turkey, or whether 
 a congealed cross with ' Christian greeting ' in icicles 
 on it, should separate the two. 
 
 To her uncle Euth told what had happened ; 
 and as he slowly wended his way to Vandon on the 
 day fixed for the tenants' dinner, Mr. Alwynn 
 mused thereon, and I believe, if the truth were 
 known, he was sorry that Dare had been refused. 
 He was a little before his time, and he stopped 
 on the bridge, and looked at the river, as it came 
 churning and sweeping below, fretted out of its 
 usual calm by the mill above. I think that as 
 he leaned over the low stone parapet he made 
 many quiet little reflections besides the involuntary 
 one of himself in the water below. He would have 
 liked (he was conscious that it was selfish, but yet 
 he would have liked) to have Euth near him always. 
 He would have liked to see this strange son of his 
 old friend in good hands, that would lead him as 
 it is popularly supposed a woman's hand sometimes 
 can in the way of all others, in which Mr. 
 Alwynn was anxious that he should walk ; a way in 
 which he sometimes feared that Dare had not made 
 any great progress as yet. Mr. Alwynn felt at times, 
 when conversing with him, that Dare's life could 
 not have been one in which the nobler feelings 
 of his nature had been much brought into play, 
 so crude and unformed were his ideas of principle 
 and responsibility, so slack and easy-going his views 
 of life. 
 
126 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 But if Mr. Alwynn felt an occasional twinge of 
 anxiety and misgiving about Ms young friend, it 
 speedily turned to self-upbraiding for indulging in a 
 cynical, unworthy spirit, which was ever ready to 
 seek out the evil and overlook the good ; and he 
 gradually convinced himself that only favourable 
 circumstances were required for the blossoming forth 
 of those noble attributes, of which the faintest 
 indications on Dare's part were speedily magnified 
 by the powerful lens of Mr. Alwynn's charity to an 
 extent which would have filled Dare with satisfac- 
 tion, and would have overwhelmed a more humble 
 nature with shame. 
 
 And Ruth would not have him ! Mr. Alwynn 
 remembered a certain passage in his own youth, 
 a long time ago, when somebody (a very foolish 
 somebody, I think) would not have him either ; and 
 it was with that remembrance still in his mind that 
 he met Dare, who had come as far as the lodge 
 gates to meet him, and whose forlorn appearance 
 touched Mr. Alwynn's heart the moment he saw 
 him. 
 
 There was not time for much conversation. To 
 his astonishment, Mr. Alwynn found Dare actually 
 nervous about the coming ordeal; and on the way 
 to the Green Dragon, where the dinner was to be 
 given, he reassured him as best he could, and 
 suggested the kind of answer he should make when 
 his health was drunk. 
 
 When, a couple of hours later, all was satisfac- 
 torily over, when the last health had been drunk, 
 the last song sung, and Dare was driving Mr. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVEBS 127 
 
 Alwynn home in the shabby old Vandon dogcart, 
 both men were at first too much overcome by the 
 fumes of tobacco, in which they had been hidden, to 
 say a word to each other. At last, however, Mr. 
 Alwynn drew a long breath, and said faintly 
 
 ' I trust I may never be so hot again. Drive 
 slowly under these trees, Dare. It is cooling to 
 look at them, after sitting behind that streaming 
 volcano of a turkey. How is your head getting on ? 
 I saw you went in for punch.' 
 
 ' Was that punch ? ' said Dare. ' Then I take no 
 more punch in the future.' 
 
 'You spoke capitally, and brought in the right 
 sentiment, that there is no place like home, in 
 first-rate style. You see, you need not have been 
 nervous.' 
 
 ' Ah ! but it was you who spoke really well/ 
 said Dare, with something of his old eager manner. 
 ' You know these people. You know their heart. 
 You understand them. Now, for me, I said what 
 you tell me, and they were pleased, but I can 
 never be with them like you. I understand the 
 words they speak, but themselves I do not under- 
 stand.' 
 
 ' It will come.' 
 
 ' No,' with a rare accession of humility. ' I have 
 cared for none of these things till till I came to 
 hear them spoken of at Slumberleigh by you and 
 and now at first it is smooth because I say I will 
 do what I can, but soon they will find out I can- 
 not do much, and then ' He shrugged his 
 
 shoulders. 
 
128 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 They drove on in silence. 
 
 'But these things are nothing nothing,' burst 
 out Dare at last in a tremulous voice, ' to the one 
 thing I think of all night, all day how I love 
 Miss Deyncourt, and how/ with a simplicity which 
 touched Mr. Alwynn, ' she does not love me at all/ 
 
 There is something pathetic in seeing any cheer- 
 ful, light-hearted animal reduced to silence and 
 depression. To watch a barking, worrying, jovial 
 puppy suddenly desist from parachute expeditions on 
 unsteady legs, and from shaking imaginary rats, and 
 creep, tail close at home, overcome by affliction, into 
 obscurity, is a sad sight. Mr. Alwynn felt much 
 the same kind of pity for Dare, as he glanced at 
 him, resignedly blighted, handsomely forlorn, who 
 but a short time ago had taken life as gaily and 
 easily as a boy home for the holidays. 
 
 ' Sometimes/ said Mr. Alwynn, addressing himself 
 to the mill, and the bridge, and the world in general, 
 ' young people change their minds. I have known 
 such things happen/ 
 
 ' I shall never change mine/ 
 
 ' Perhaps not ; but others might/ 
 
 ' Ah ! ' and Dare turned sharply towards Mr. 
 Alwynn, scanning his face with sudden eagerness. 
 * You think you think possibly ' 
 
 'I don't think anything at all/ interposed Mr. 
 Alwynn, rather taken aback at the evident impres- 
 sion his vague words had made, and anxious to 
 qualify them. ' I was only speaking generally ; 
 but ahem ! there is one point, as we are on the 
 subject, that ' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 129 
 
 ' Yes, yes ? ' 
 
 ' Whether you consider any decision as final or 
 not/ Mr. Alwynn addressed the clouds in the sky ; 
 ' I think, if you do not wish it to be known that 
 anything has taken place, you had better come and 
 see me occasionally at Slumberleigh. I have missed 
 your visits for the past week. The fact is, Mrs. 
 Alwynn has a way of interesting herself in all her 
 friends. She has a kind heart, and you understand 
 any little difference in their behaviour might 
 be observed by her, and might possibly might 
 possibly ' Mr. Alwynn was at a loss for a word 
 'be, in short, commented on to others. Suppose 
 now you were to come back with me to tea to- 
 day?' 
 
 And Dare went, nothing loth, and arrived at a 
 critical moment in the manufacture of the screen, 
 when all the thickest Christmas cards threatened to 
 resist the influence of paste, and to curl up, to the 
 great anxiety of Mrs. Alwynn. 
 
 One of the principal reasons of Dare's popularity 
 was the way in which he threw his whole heart into 
 whatever he was doing, for the time ; never for a 
 long time, certainly, for he rarely bored himself or 
 others by adherence to one set of ideas after its 
 novelty had worn off. 
 
 And now, as if nothing else existed in the world, 
 and with a grave manner suggesting repressed 
 suffering and manly resignation, he concentrated his 
 whole mind on Mrs. Alwynn's recalcitrant cards, and 
 made Kuth grateful to him by his tact in devoting 
 himself to her aunt and the screen. 
 
 9 
 
130 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Well, I never ! ' said Mrs. Alwynn, after he was 
 gone. ' I never did see any one like Mr. Dare. I 
 declare he has made the church stick, Euth, and 
 " Blessings on my friend," which turned up at the 
 corners twice when you put it on, and the big middle 
 one of the kittens skating too ! Dear me ! I am 
 pleased. I hope Mrs. Thursby won't call till it's 
 finished. But he did not look well, Ruth, did he ? 
 Rather pale now, I thought/ 
 
 ' He has had a tiring day,' said Ruth. 
 
CHAPTEK XIII 
 
 AT Slumberleigh you have time to notice the change 
 of the seasons. There is no hurry at Slumberleigh. 
 Spring, summer, autumn, and winter, each in their 
 turn, take quite a year to come and go. Three 
 months ago it was August; now September had 
 arrived. It was actually the time of damsons. 
 Those damsons which Euth had seen dangling for 
 at least three years in the cottage orchards were 
 ripe at last. It seemed ages ago since April, when 
 the village was a foaming mass of damson blossom, 
 and the ' plum winter ' had set in just when spring 
 really seemed to have arrived for good. It was a 
 well-known thing in Slumberleigh, though Ruth 
 till last April had not been aware of it, that God 
 Almighty always sent cold weather when the 
 Slumberleigh damsons were in bloom, to harden the 
 fruit. And now, the lame, the halt, and the aged of 
 Slumberleigh all with one consent mounted on totter- 
 ing ladders to pick their damsons, or that mysterious 
 fruit, closely akin to the same, called ' black Lamas 
 ploums.' 
 
 There were plum accidents, of course, in plenty, 
 
132 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 The Lord took Mrs. Eccles's own uncle from his half- 
 filled basket to another world, for which, as a ' tea 
 and coffee totaller,' he was, no doubt, well prepared. 
 The too receptive organisms of unsuspecting infancy 
 suffered in their turn. In short, it was a busy 
 season for Mr. and Mrs. Alwynn. 
 
 Kuth had plenty of opportunities now for making 
 her long -projected sketch of the ruined house of 
 Arleigh, for the old woman who lived in the lodge 
 close by, and had charge of the place, had ' ricked ' 
 her back in a damson -tree, and Kuth often went 
 to see her. She had been Euth's nurse in her 
 childhood, and having originally come from Slumber- 
 leigh, returned there when the Deyncourt children 
 grew up, and lived happily ever after, with the very 
 blind and entirely deaf old husband of her choice, in 
 the gray stone lodge at Arleigh. 
 
 It was on her return from one of these almost 
 daily visits that Mrs. Eccles pounced on Euth as she 
 passed her gate, and under pretence of inquiring 
 after Mrs. Cotton, informed her that she herself was 
 suffering in no slight degree. Euth, who suddenly 
 remembered that she had been remiss in ' dropping 
 in ' on Mrs. Eccles of late, dropped in then and there 
 to make up for past delinquencies. 
 
 ' Is it rheumatism again ? ' she asked, as Mrs. 
 Eccles seemed inclined to run off at once into a 
 report of the goings-on of Widow Jones's Sally. 
 
 ' Not that, my dear, so much as a sinking/ said 
 Mrs. Eccles, passing her hand slowly over what 
 seemed more like a rising than a depression in her 
 ample figure. ' But there ! I've not been myself 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 133 
 
 since the Lord took old Samiwell Price, and that's 
 the truth.' 
 
 Samuel Price was the relation who had entered 
 into rest off a ladder, and Euth looked duly serious. 
 
 ' I have no doubt it upset you very much/ she said. 
 
 ' Well, miss/ returned Mrs. Eccles with dignity, 
 ' it's not as if I'd had my 'ealth before. I've had 
 something wrong in the cistern' (Kuth wondered 
 whether she meant system) ' these many years. 
 From a gell I suffered in my inside. But lor ! I 
 was born to trouble, baptized in a bucket, and taken 
 with collects at a week old. And how did you say 
 Mrs. Cotton of the lodge might be, miss, as I hear is 
 but poorly too ? ' 
 
 Kuth replied that she was better. 
 
 ' She's no size to keep her in 'ealth/ said Mrs. 
 Eccles, 'and so bent as she does grow, to be sure. 
 Eh, dear, but it's a good thing to be tall. I always 
 think little folks they're like them little watches, 
 they've no room for their insides. And I wonder 
 now' Mrs. Eccles was coming to the point that 
 had made her entrap Euth on her way past ' I 
 wonder now ' 
 
 Euth did not help her. She knew too well the 
 universal desire for knowledge of good and evil 
 peculiar to her sex, to doubt for a moment that 
 Mrs. Eccles had begged her to ' step in ' only to 
 obtain some piece of information, about which her 
 curiosity had been aroused. 
 
 * I wonder, now, if Cotton at the lodge has heard 
 anything of the poachers again this year, round 
 Arleigh way ? ' 
 
134 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Not that I know of/ said Euth, surprised at the 
 simplicity of the question. 
 
 ' Dear sakes ! and to think of 'em at Vandon 
 last night, and Mr. Dare and the keepers out all 
 night after 'em.' 
 
 Kuth was interested in spite of herself. 
 
 ' And the doctor sent for in the middle of the 
 night/ continued Mrs. Eccles, covertly eyeing Euth. 
 ' Poor young gentleman ! For all his forrin ways, 
 there's a many in Vandon as sets store by him.' 
 
 'I don't think you need he uneasy about Mr. 
 Dare/ said Euth coldly, conscious that Mrs. Eccles 
 was dying to see her change colour. ' If anything 
 had happened to him, Mr. Alwynn would have 
 heard of it. And now/ rising, ' I must be going ; 
 and if I were you, Mrs. Eccles, I should not listen 
 to all the gossip of the village.' 
 
 ' Me listen ! ' said Mrs. Eccles, much offended. 
 ' Me, as is too poorly so much as to put my foot 
 out of the door ! But, dear heart ! ' with her usual 
 quickness of vision, ' if there isn't Mr. Alwynn and 
 Dr. Brown riding up the street now in Dr. Brown's 
 gig! Well, I never! and Mr. Alwynn a-getting 
 out, and a-talking as grave as can be to Dr. Brown. 
 Poor Mr. Dare ! Poor dear young gentleman ! ' 
 
 Euth was conscious that she beat rather a 
 hurried retreat from Mrs. Eccles's cottage, and that 
 her voice was not quite so steady as usual when 
 she asked the doctor if it were true that Mr. Dare 
 had been hurt. 
 
 ' All the village will have it that he is killed ; 
 but he is all right, I assure you, Miss Deyncourt/ 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 135 
 
 said the kind old doctor, so soothingly and re- 
 assuringly that Euth grew pink with annoyance at 
 the tone. ' Not a scratch. He was out with his 
 keepers last night, and they had a brush with 
 poachers ; and Martin, the head keeper, was shot in 
 the leg. Bled a good deal, so they sent for me; 
 but no danger. I picked up your uncle here on 
 his way to see him, and so I gave him a lift there 
 and back. That is all, I assure you/ 
 
 And Dr. Brown and Mrs. Eccles, straining over 
 her geraniums, both came to the same conclusion, 
 namely, that, as Mrs. Eccles elegantly expressed it, 
 'Miss Euth wanted Mr. Dare/ 
 
 ' And he'll have her, too, I'm thinking, one of 
 these days,' Mrs. Eccles would remark to the circle 
 of her acquaintance. 
 
 Indeed, the match was discussed on numerous 
 ladders, with almost as much interest as the un- 
 failing theme of the damsons themselves. 
 
 And Dare rode over to the Eectory as often as 
 he used to do before a certain day in August, when 
 he had found Euth under the chestnut -tree ; the 
 very day before Mrs. Alwynn started on her screen, 
 now the completed glory of the drawing-room. 
 
 And was Euth beginning to like him ? 
 
 As it had not occurred to her to ask herself 
 that question, I suppose she was not. 
 
 Dare had grown very quiet and silent of late, 
 and showed a growing tendency to dark hats. His 
 refusal had been so unexpected, that the blow, 
 when it came, fell with all the more crushing 
 force. His self-love and self-esteem had been 
 
136 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 wounded; but so had something else. Under the 
 velvet corduroy waistcoat, which he wore in imita- 
 tion of Ealph, he had a heart. Whether it was 
 one of the very best of its kind or warranted to 
 wear well is not for us to judge ; but, at any rate, 
 it was large enough to take in a very real affection, 
 and to feel a very sharp pang. Dare's manner to 
 Euth was now as diffident as it had formerly been 
 assured. To some minds there is nothing more 
 touching than a sudden access of humility on the 
 part of a vain man. 
 
 Whether Euth's mind was one of this class 01 
 not we do not pretend to know. 
 
CHAPTEE XIV 
 
 IT was Sunday morning at Atherstone. In the 
 dining-room, breakfasting alone, for he had come 
 down late, was Sir Charles Danvers. His sudden 
 arrival on the previous Saturday was easily 
 accounted for. When he had casually walked into 
 the drawing-room late in the evening, he had 
 immediately and thoroughly explained the reasons 
 of his unexpected arrival. It seemed odd that he 
 should have come to Atherstone, in the midland 
 counties, ' on his way ' between two shooting visits 
 in the north, but so it was. It might have been 
 thought that one of his friends would have been 
 willing to keep him two days longer, or receive him 
 two days earlier; but no doubt every one knows 
 his own affairs best, and Charles might certainly, 
 ' at his age,' as he was so fond of saying, be 
 expected to know his. 
 
 Anyhow, there he was, leaning against the open 
 window, coffee-cup in hand, lazily watching the 
 dwindling figures of Kalph and Evelyn, with Molly 
 between them, disappearing in the direction of 
 Greenacre church hard by. 
 
138 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 The morning mist still lingered on the land, and 
 veiled the distance with a tender blue. And up 
 across the silver fields, and across the standing 
 armies of the yellowing corn, the sound of church 
 bells came from Slumberleigh, beyond the river; 
 bringing back to Charles, as to us all, old memories, 
 old hopes, old visions of early youth, long cherished, 
 long forgotten. 
 
 The single bell of Greenacre was giving forth a 
 slow, persistent, cracked invitation to true believers, 
 as an appropriate prelude to Mr. Smith's eloquence ; 
 but Charles did not hear its testimony. 
 
 He was listening to the Slumberleigh bells. Was 
 that the first chime or the second ? 
 
 Suddenly a thought crossed his mind. Should 
 he go to church ? 
 
 He smiled at the idea. It was a little late to 
 think of that. Besides, he had let the others start, 
 and he disliked that refuge of mildew and dust, 
 Greenacre. 
 
 There was Slumberleigh ! 
 
 There went the bells again ! 
 
 Slumberleigh ! Absurd ! Why, he should posi- 
 tively have to run to get there before the First 
 Lesson ; and that mist meant heat, or he was much 
 mistaken. 
 
 Charles contemplated the mist for a few 
 seconds. 
 
 Tang, teng, ting, tong, tung ! 
 
 He certainly always made a point of going to 
 church at his own home. A good example is, after 
 all, just as important in one place as another. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 139 
 
 Tang, tong, teng, tung, ting ! went the bells. 
 
 ' Why not run ? ' suggested an inner voice. 
 ' Put down your cup. There ! Now ! Your hat's 
 in the hall, with your gloves beside it. Never mind 
 about your prayer-book. Dear me ! Don't waste 
 time looking for your own stick. Take any. 
 Quick ! out through the garden gate ! No one can 
 see you. The servants have all gone to church 
 except the cook, and the kitchen looks out on the 
 yew hedge.' 
 
 ' Over the first stile,' said Charles to himself. 
 ' I am out of sight of the house now. Let us be 
 thankful for small mercies. I shall do it yet. Oh, 
 what a fool I am ! I'm worse than Kaca, as Molly 
 said. I shall be rushing precipitately down a steep 
 place into the sea next. Confound this gate ! Why 
 can't people leave them open ? At any rate, it will 
 remain open now. I am not going to have my 
 devotions curtailed by a gate. I fancied it would 
 be hot, but never anything half as hot as this. I 
 hope I shan't meet Brown taking a morning stroll. 
 I value Brown ; but I should have to dismiss him if 
 he saw me now. I could never meet his eye again. 
 What on earth shall I say to Ralph and Evelyn 
 when I get back ? What a merciful Providence it 
 is that Aunt Mary is at this moment intoning a 
 response in the highest church in Scarborough ! ' 
 
 Ting, ting, ting ! 
 
 ' Mr. Alwynn is getting on his surplice, is he ? 
 Well, and if he is, I can make a final rush through 
 the corn, can't I ? there's not a creature in sight. 
 The bell's down? What of that? There is the 
 
140 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 voluntary. Easy over the last fields. There are 
 houses in sight, and there may be wicked Sabbath- 
 breakers looking out of windows. Brown's foal has 
 grown since July. Here we are ! I am not the 
 only Christian hurrying among the tombs. I shall 
 get in with " the wicked man " after all/ 
 
 Some people do not look round in church ; 
 others do. Mrs. Alwynn always did, partly because 
 she wished to see what was going on behind her, 
 and partly because, in turning back again, she could 
 take a stealthy survey of Mrs. Thursby's bonnet, 
 in which she always felt a burning interest, which 
 she would not for worlds have allowed that lady to 
 suspect. 
 
 If the turning round had been all, it would 
 have mattered little ; but Mrs. Alwynn suffered so 
 intensely from keeping silence, that she was obliged 
 to relieve herself at intervals by short whispered 
 comments to Kuth. 
 
 On this particular morning it seemed as if the 
 comments would never end. 
 
 'I am so glad we asked Mr. Dare into our 
 pew, Euth. The Thursbys are full. That's Mrs. 
 Thursby's sister in the red bonnet/ 
 
 Kuth made no reply. She was following the 
 responses in the psalms with a marked attention, 
 purposely marked to check conversation, and suffi- 
 cient to have daunted anybody but her aunt. 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn took a spasmodic interest in the 
 psalm, but it did not last. 
 
 ' Only two basses in the choir, and the new Te 
 Deum, Kuth. How vexed Mr. Alwynn will be ! ' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 141 
 
 No response from Euth. Mrs. Alwynn took 
 another turn at her prayer-book, and then at the 
 congregation. 
 
 ' " I am become as it were a monster unto " 
 
 Euth ! Euth ! ' 
 
 Euth at last turned her head a quarter of an inch. 
 
 ' Sir Charles Danvers is sitting in the free seats 
 ly the font! 
 
 Euth nailed her eyes to her book, and would 
 vouchsafe no further sign of attention during the 
 rest of the service; and Dare, on the other side, 
 anxious to copy Euth in everything, being equally 
 obdurate, Mrs. Alwynn had no resource left but to 
 follow the service half aloud to herself, at the times 
 when the congregation were not supposed to join in, 
 putting great emphasis on certain words which she 
 felt applicable to herself, in a manner that effectu- 
 ally prevented any one near her from attending to 
 the service at all. 
 
 It was with a sudden pang that Dare, following 
 Euth out into the sunshine after service, perceived 
 for the first time Charles, standing, tall and dis- 
 tinguished-looking, beside the rather insignificant 
 heir of all the Thursbys, who regarded him with the 
 mixed admiration and gnawing envy of a very young 
 man for a man no longer young. 
 
 And then Charles never quite knew how it 
 happened, but with the full intention of walking 
 back to the Eectory with the Alwynns, and staying 
 to luncheon, he actually found himself in Euth's 
 very presence accepting a cordial invitation to 
 luncheon at Slumberleigh Hall. For the first time 
 
142 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 during the last ten years he had done a thing he had 
 no intention of doing. A temporary long-lost feeling 
 of shyness had seized upon him as he saw Ruth 
 coming out, tall and pale and graceful, from the 
 shadow of the church porch into the blaze of the 
 midday sunshine. He had not calculated either for 
 that sudden disconcerting leap of the heart as her 
 eyes met his. He had an idiotic feeling that she 
 must be aware that he had run most of the way to 
 church, and that he had contemplated the burnished 
 circles of her back hair for two hours, without a 
 glance at the fashionably scraped-up head-dress of 
 Mabel Thursby, with its hogged mane of little 
 wire curls in the nape of the neck. He felt 
 he still looked hot and dusty, though he had 
 imagined he was quite cool the moment before. To 
 his own astonishment, he actually found his self- 
 possession leaving him ; and though its desertion 
 proved only momentary, in that moment he found 
 himself walking away with the Thursbys in the 
 direction of the HalL He was provoked, angry with 
 himself, with the Thursbys, and, most of all, with 
 Mr. Alwynn, who had come up a second later, and 
 asked him to luncheon as a matter of course, also 
 Dare, who accepted with evident gratitude. Charles 
 felt that he had not gone steeple-chasing over 
 the country only to talk to Mrs. Thursby, and to 
 see Ruth stroll away over the fields with Dare 
 towards the Rectory. 
 
 However, he made himself extremely agreeable, 
 which was with him more a matter of habit than 
 those who occasionally profited by it would have 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 148 
 
 cared to know. He asked young Thursby his 
 opinion on E.C. cartridges ; he condoled with Mrs. 
 Thursby on the loss of her last butler, and recounted 
 some alarming anecdotes of his own French cook. 
 He admired a pallid water-colour drawing of Venice, 
 in an enormous frame on an enormous easel, which 
 he rightly supposed to be the manual labour of 
 Mabel Thursby. 
 
 When he rose to take his leave, young Thursby, 
 intensely flattered by having been asked for that 
 opinion on cartridges by so renowned a shot as 
 Charles, offered to walk part of the way back with 
 him. 
 
 'I am afraid I am not going home yet/ said 
 Charles lightly. c Duty points in the opposite 
 direction. I have to call at the Eectory. I want 
 Mr. Alwynn's opinion on a point of clerical eti- 
 quette, which is setting my young spiritual shepherd 
 at Stoke Moreton against his principal sheep, namely 
 myself/ 
 
 And Charles took his departure, leaving golden 
 opinions behind him, and a determination to invite 
 him once more to shoot, in spite of his many court- 
 eous refusals of the last few years. 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn always took a nap after luncheon, 
 in her smart Sunday gown, among the mustard- 
 coloured cushions of her high-art sofa. Mr. Alwynn, 
 also, was apt at the same time to sink into a subdued, 
 almost apologetic doze, in the old armchair which 
 alone had resisted the march of discomfort and so- 
 called ' taste ' which had invaded the rest of the 
 little drawing-room of Slumberleigh Eectory. Euth 
 
144 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 was sitting with her dark head leant against the 
 open window-frame. Dare had not stayed after 
 luncheon, being at times nervously afraid of giving 
 her too much of his society, and she was at liberty 
 to read over again, if she chose, the solitary letter 
 which the Sunday post had brought her. But she 
 did not do so ; she was thinking. 
 
 And so her sister Anna was actually returning to 
 England at last ! She and her husband had taken 
 a house in Eome, and had arranged that Kuth should 
 join them in London in November, and go abroad 
 with them after Christmas for the remainder of the 
 winter. She had pleasant recollections of previous 
 winters in Kome, or on the Kiviera with her grand- 
 mother, and she was surprised that she did not feel 
 more interested in the prospect. She supposed she 
 would like it when the time came, but she seemed 
 to care very little about it at the present moment 
 It had become very natural to live at Slumberleigh, 
 and although there were drawbacks here she glanced 
 involuntarily at her aunt, who was making her 
 slumbers vocal by a running commentary on them 
 through her nose still she would be sorry to go. 
 Mr. Alwynn gave the ghost of a miniature snore, 
 and, opening his eyes, found Euth's bent affectionately 
 upon him. Her mind went back to another point 
 in Anna's letter. After dilating on the extreme 
 admiration and regard entertained for herself by her 
 husband, his readiness with shawls, etc., she went 
 on to ask whether Euth had heard any news of 
 Eaymond. 
 
 Euth sighed. Would there ever be any news of 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 145 
 
 Kaymond ? The old nurse at Arleigh always asked 
 the same question. ' Any news of Master Eaymond ? ' 
 It was with a tired ache of the heart that Euth 
 heard that question, and always gave the same 
 answer. Once she had heard from him since Lady 
 Deyncourt's death, after she had written to tell him, 
 as gently as she could, that she and Anna had 
 inherited all their grandmother had to leave. A 
 couple of months later she had received a hurried 
 note in reply, inveighing against Lady Deyncourt's 
 injustice, saying (as usual) that he was hard up for 
 money, and that, when he knew where it might 
 safely be sent, he should expect her and her sister 
 to make up to him for his disappointment. And 
 since then, since April not a word. June, July, 
 August, September. Four months and no sign. 
 When he was in want of money his letters hereto- 
 fore had made but little delay. Had he fallen ill, 
 and died out there, or met his death suddenly 
 perhaps in some wild adventure under an assumed 
 name? Her lips tightened, and her white brows 
 contracted over her absent eyes. It was an old 
 anxiety, but none the less wearing because it was 
 old. Kuth put it wearily from her, and took up the 
 first book which came to her hand, to distract her 
 attention. 
 
 It was a manual out of which Mrs. Alwynn had 
 been reading extracts to her in the morning, while 
 Euth had been engaged in preparing herself to teach 
 in the Sunday school. She wondered vaguely how 
 pleasure could be derived, even by the most religious 
 persons, from seeing favourite texts twined in and 
 
 10 
 
146 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 out among forget-me-nots, or falling aslant in old 
 English letters off bunches of violets ; but she was 
 old enough and wise enough to know that one man's 
 religion is another man's occasion of stumbling. 
 Books are made to fit all minds, and small minds 
 lose themselves in large-minded books. The 
 thousands in which these little manuals are sold, 
 and the confidence with which their readers recom- 
 mend them to others, indicates the calibre of the 
 average mind, and shows that they meet a want 
 possibly ' unknown before/ but which they alone, 
 with their little gilt edges, can adequately fill. Ruth 
 was gazing in absent wonder at the volume which 
 supplied all her aunt's spiritual needs, when she 
 heard the wire of the front door bell squeak faintly. 
 It was a stiff-necked and obdurate bell, which for 
 several years Mr. Alwynn had determined to see about. 
 
 A few moments later James, the new and in- 
 experienced footman, opened the door about half 
 a foot, put in his head, murmured something in- 
 audible, and withdrew it again. 
 
 A tall figure appeared in the doorway, and ad- 
 vanced to meet her, then stopped midway. Euth 
 rose hastily, and stood where she had risen, her eyes 
 glancing first at Mr. and then at Mrs. Alwynn. 
 
 The alien presence of a visitor had not dis- 
 turbed them. Mrs. Alwynn, her head well 
 forward, and a succession of chins undulating in 
 perfect repose upon her chest, was sleeping as a 
 stout person only can all over. Mr. Alwynn, 
 opposite, his thin hands clasped listlessly over his 
 knee, was as unconscious of the two pairs of eyes 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 147 
 
 fixed upon him as Nelson himself, laid out in 
 Madame Tussaud's. 
 
 Charles's eyes, twinkling with suppressed amuse- 
 ment, met Euth's. He shook his head energetically, 
 as she made a slight movement as if to wake them, 
 and stepping forward, pointed with his hat towards 
 the open window, which reached to the ground. 
 Euth understood, but she hesitated. At this 
 moment Mrs. Alwynn began a variation on the 
 simple theme in which she had been indulging, 
 and in so much higher a key, that all hesitation 
 vanished. She stepped hastily out through the 
 window, and Charles followed. They stood to- 
 gether for a moment in the blazing sunshine, both 
 too much amused to speak. 
 
 'You are bareheaded/ he said suddenly; 'is 
 there any ' looking round ' any shade we could 
 take refuge imder ? ' 
 
 Euth led the way round the yew hedge to the 
 horse chestnut; that horse chestnut under which 
 Dare had once lost his self-esteem. 
 
 ' I am afraid/ said Charles, ' I arrived at an in- 
 opportune moment. As I was lunching with the 
 Thursbys, I came up in the hope of finding Mr. 
 Alwynn, whom I wanted to consult about a small 
 matter in my own parish.' 
 
 Charles was quite pleased with this sentence, 
 when he had airily given it out. It had a true 
 ring about it, he fancied, which he remembered 
 with gratitude was more than the door bell had. 
 Peace be with that door bell, and with the en- 
 gaging youth who answered it. 
 
148 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 'I wish you had let me wake Mr. Alwynn,' 
 said Euth. ' He will sleep on now till the bells 
 begin.' 
 
 ' On no account. I should have been shocked 
 if you had disturbed him. I assure you I can 
 easily wait until he naturally wakes up ; that is/ 
 with a glance at the book in her hand, 'if I am 
 not disturbing you if you are not engaged in 
 improving yourself at this moment.' 
 
 'No. I have improved myself for the day, 
 thanks. I can safely afford to relax a little now.' 
 
 ' So can I. I resemble Lady Mary in that. 
 On Sunday mornings she reflects on her own short- 
 comings ; on Sunday afternoons she finds an inno- 
 cent relaxation in pointing out mine.' 
 
 * Where is Lady Mary now ?' 
 
 ' I should say she was in her Bath- chair on the 
 Scarborough sands at this moment.' 
 
 ' I like her,' said Euth with decision. 
 
 ' Tastes differ. Some people feel drawn towards 
 wet blankets, and others have a leaning towards 
 pokers. Do you know why you like her ? ' 
 
 ' I never thought about it, but I suppose it was 
 because she seemed to like me! 
 
 1 Exactly. You admired her good taste. A 
 very natural vanity, most pardonable in the young, 
 was gratified at seeing marks of favour so well 
 bestowed.' 
 
 4 1 daresay you are right. At any rate, you 
 seem so familiar with the workings of vanity in 
 the human breast that it would be a pity to 
 contradict you.' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 149 
 
 ' By the way,' said Charles, speaking in the way 
 people do who have nothing to say, and are trying 
 to hit on any subject of conversation, ' have you 
 heard any more of your tramp ? There was no 
 news of him when I left. I asked the Slumber- 
 leigh policeman about him again on my way to the 
 station.' 
 
 ' I have heard no more of him, though I keep 
 his memory green. I have not forgotten the fright 
 he gave me. I had always imagined I was rather 
 a self-possessed person till that day.' 
 
 ' I am a coward myself when I am frightened,' 
 said Charles consolingly, 'though at other times as 
 bold as a lion.' 
 
 They were both sitting under the flickering 
 shadow of the already yellowing horse chestnut-tree, 
 the first of all the trees to set the gorgeous autumn 
 fashions. But as yet it was paling only at the 
 edges of its slender fans. The air was sweet and 
 soft, with a voiceless whisper of melancholy in it, 
 as if the summer knew, for all her smiles, her hour 
 had wellnigh come. 
 
 The Kectory cows, the mottled one, and the red 
 one, and the big white one that was always milked 
 first, came slowly past on their way to the pond, 
 blinking their white eye-lashes leisurely at Charles 
 and Euth. 
 
 ' It is almost as hot as that Sunday in July 
 when we walked over from Atherstone. Do you 
 remember ? ' said Charles suddenly. 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 She knew he was thinking of their last con- 
 
150 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 versation, and she felt a momentary surprise that 
 he had remembered it. 
 
 ' We never finished that conversation/ he said, 
 after a pause. 
 
 ' No ; but then, conversations never are finished, 
 are they ? They always seem to break off just 
 when they are coming to the beginning. A bell 
 rings, or there is an interruption, or one is told it is 
 bedtime.' 
 
 ' Or fools rush in with their word where you 
 and I should fear to tread, and spoil everything/ 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' And have you been holding the wool and tying 
 up the flowers, as you so graphically described, ever 
 since you left Atherstone in July ? ' 
 
 ' I hope I have ; I have tried.' 
 
 ' I am sure of that,' he said with sudden earnest- 
 ness ; then added more slowly, ' I have not wound 
 any wool ; I have only enjoyed myself.' 
 
 ( Perhaps,' said Euth, turning her clear frank 
 gaze upon him, ' that may have been the harder 
 work of the two ; it sometimes is.' 
 
 His light restless eyes, with the searching look 
 in them which she had seen before, met hers, and 
 then wandered away again to the level meadows, 
 and the woods, and the faint sky. 
 
 ' I think it was,' he said at last ; and both were 
 silent. He reflected that his conversations with 
 Euth had a way of beginning in fun, becoming more 
 serious, and ending in silence. 
 
 The bells rang out suddenly. 
 
 Charles thought they were full early. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 151 
 
 ' Mr. Alwynn will wake up now,' said Euth, ' I 
 will tell him you are here/ 
 
 But before she had time to do more than rise 
 from her chair, Mr. Alwynn came slowly round the 
 yew hedge, and stopped suddenly in front of the 
 chestnut- tree, amazed at what he saw beneath it. 
 His mild eyes gazed blankly at Charles through his 
 spectacles, gathering a pained expression as they 
 peered over the top of them, which did not lessen 
 when they fell on Euth. 
 
 Charles explained in a few words the purport of 
 his visit, which had already explained itself quite 
 sufficiently to Mr. Alwynn ; and mentioning that he 
 had waited in the hope of presently finding Mr. 
 Alwynn ' disengaged ' (at this Mr. Alwynn blushed 
 a little), asked leave to walk as far as the church 
 with him to consult him on a small matter, etc. 
 etc. It was a neat sentence, but it did not sound 
 quite so well the third time. It had lost by the 
 heathenish and vain repetitions to which it had 
 been subjected. 
 
 ' Certainly, certainly/ said Mr. Alwynn, mollified 
 but still discomposed. 'You should have waked 
 me, Euth,' turning reproachfully to his niece, whose 
 conduct had never in his eyes fallen short of per- 
 fection till this moment. ' Little nap after luncheon. 
 Hardly asleep. You should have waked me.' 
 
 'There was Aunt Fanny,' said Euth, feeling as 
 if she had committed some grave sin. 
 
 ' Ah-h ! ' said Mr. Alwynn, as if her reason were 
 a weighty one, his memory possibly recalling the 
 orchestral flourish which as a rule heralded his wife's 
 
152 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 return to consciousness. ' True, true, my dear. I 
 must be going,' as the chime ceased. ' Are you 
 coming to church this afternoon ? ' 
 
 Euth replied that she was not ; and Mr. Alwynn 
 and Charles departed together, Charles ruefully 
 remembering that he had still to ask advice on a 
 subject the triviality of which would hardly allow 
 of two opinions. 
 
 Kuth watched them walk away together, and 
 then went back noiselessly into the drawing-room. 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn was sitting bolt upright, her feet 
 upon the floor, her gown upon the sofa. Her 
 astonished eyes were fixed upon the dwindling 
 figures of Air. Alwynn and Charles. 
 
 1 Goodness, Ruth ! ' she exclaimed, ' who is that 
 white waistcoat walking with your uncle ? ' 
 
 Ruth explained. 
 
 ' Dear me ! And as likely as not he came to see 
 the new screen. I know Mrs. Thursby tells every- 
 body about it. And his own house so full of 
 beautiful things too. Was ever anything so 
 annoying ! We should have had so much in 
 common, for I hear his taste is quite well, really 
 quite out of the way. How contrairy things are, 
 Ruth ! You awake, and me asleep, when it might 
 just as well have been the other way. But it is 
 Sunday, my dear, so we must not complain. And 
 now, as we have missed church, I will lie down 
 again, and you shall read me that nice sermon, 
 which I always like to hear when I can't go 
 to church, the one in the green book, about Nabob's 
 vineyard.' 
 
CHAPTEE XV 
 
 GREAT philosophers and profound metaphysicians 
 should by rights have lived at Slumberleigh. Those 
 whose lines have fallen to them ' ten miles from a 
 lemon/ have time to think, if so inclined. 
 
 Only elementary natures complain of their sur- 
 roundings ; and though at first Kuth had been im- 
 patient and depressed, after a time she found that, 
 better than to live in an atmosphere of thought, was to 
 be thrown entirely on her own resources, and to do 
 her thinking for herself. 
 
 Some minds, of course, sink into inanition if an 
 outward supply of nutriment is withheld. Others 
 get up and begin to forage for themselves. Happy 
 are these when the transition period is over when, 
 after a time, the first and worst mistakes have been 
 made and suffered for, and the only teaching that 
 profits anything at all, the bitter teaching of experi- 
 ence, has been laid to heart. 
 
 Such a nature was Kuth's, upright, self-reliant, 
 without the impetuosity and impulsiveness that so 
 often accompanies an independent nature, but accus- 
 tomed to look at everything through her own eyes, 
 
154 SIR CHARLES DAN VERS 
 
 and to think, but not till now to act, for her- 
 self. 
 
 She had been brought up by her grandmother to 
 believe that before all things noblesse oblige; to 
 despise a dishonourable action, to have her feelings 
 entirely under control, to be intimate with few, to 
 be courteous to all. But to help others, to give up 
 anything for them, to love an unfashionable or 
 middle-class neighbour, or to feel a personal interest 
 in religion, except as a subject of conversation, had 
 never found a place in Lady Deyncourt's code, or 
 consequently in Euth's, though, as was natural with 
 a generous nature, the girl did many little kindnesses 
 to those about her, and was personally unselfish, as 
 those who live with self-centred people are bound 
 to be if there is to be any semblance of peace in the 
 house. 
 
 But now, new thoughts were stirring within her, 
 were leavening her whole mind. All through these 
 monotonous months she had watched the quiet 
 routine of patient effort that went to make up the 
 sum of Mr. Alwynn's life. He was a shy man. 
 He seldom spoke of religion out of the pulpit, but 
 all through these long months he preached it with- 
 out words to Euth, as she had never heard it preached 
 before, by 
 
 * The best portion of a good man's life 
 His little, nameless, unremembered acts 
 Of kindness and of love.' 
 
 It was the first time that she had come into close con- 
 tact with a life spent for others, and its beauty appealed 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 155 
 
 to her with a new force, and gradually but surely 
 changed the current of her thoughts, until, as "we 
 needs must love the highest when we see it,' she 
 unconsciously fell in love with self-sacrifice. 
 
 The opinions of most young persons, however 
 loudly and injudiciously proclaimed, rarely do the 
 possessors much harm, because they are not as a rule 
 acted upon ; but with some few people a change 
 of views means a change of life. Kuth was on the 
 edge of a greater change than she knew. 
 
 At first she had often regretted the chapter of 
 her life that had been closed by Lady Deyncourt's 
 death. Now, she felt she could not go back to it, 
 and find it all-sufficient as of old. It would need 
 an added element, without which she began to see 
 that any sort or condition of life is but a stony, 
 dusty concern after all an element which made 
 even Mr. Alwynn's colourless existence a contented 
 and happy one. 
 
 Kuth had been telling him one day, as they were 
 walking together, of her sister's plans for the winter, 
 and that she was sorry to think her time at 
 Slumberleigh was drawing to a close. 
 
 'I am afraid,' he said, 'in spite of all you say, 
 my dear, it has been very dull for you here. No 
 little gaieties or enjoyments such as it is right young 
 people should have. I wish we had had a picnic, 
 or a garden-party, or something. Mabel Thursby 
 cannot be happy without these things, and it is 
 natural at your age that you should wish for them. 
 Your aunt and I lead very quiet lives. It suits us, 
 but it is different for young people.' 
 
156 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Does it suit you ? ' asked Euth with sudden 
 earnestness. 'Do you really like it, or do you 
 sometimes get tired of it ? ' 
 
 Mr. Alwynn looked a little alarmed and discon- 
 certed. He never cared to talk about himself. 
 
 ' I used to get tired/ he said at last, with reluct- 
 ance, 'when I was younger. There were times 
 when I foolishly expected more from life than 
 than, in fact, I quite got, my dear ; and the result 
 was, I fear I had a very discontented spirit an 
 unthankful, discontented spirit/ he repeated with 
 sad retrospection. 
 
 Something in his tone touched Euth to the quick. 
 
 ' And now ? ' 
 
 ' I am content now.' 
 
 ' Uncle John, tell me. How did you grow to 
 feel content ? ' 
 
 He saw there were tears in her eyes. 
 
 ' It took a long time/ he said. ' Anything that 
 is worth knowing, Euth, takes a long time to learn. 
 I think I found in the end, my dear, that the only 
 way was to put my whole heart into what I was 
 doing ' (Mr. Alwynn's voice was simple and earnest, 
 as if he were imparting to Euth a great discovery). 
 ' I had tried before, from time to time, of course, but 
 never quite so hard as I might have done. That 
 was where I failed. When I put myself on one 
 side, and really settled down to do what I could for 
 others, life became much simpler and happier.' 
 
 He turned his grave, patient eyes to Euth's again. 
 Was something troubling her ? 
 
 'I have often thought since then/ he went on, 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 157 
 
 speaking more to himself than to her, 'that we 
 should consider well what we are keeping back our 
 strength for, if we find ourselves refusing to put the 
 whole of it into our work. When at last one does 
 start, one feels it is such a pity one did not do it 
 earlier in life. When I look at all the young faces 
 growing up around me, I often hope, Kuth, they 
 won't waste as much time as I did/ 
 
 How simple it seemed while she listened to him ; 
 how easy, how natural, this life for others ! 
 
 She could not answer. One sentence of Mr. 
 Alwynn's was knocking at the door of her heart for 
 admission ; was drowning with its loud beating the 
 sound of all the rest 
 
 ' We should consider well what we are keeping 
 back our strength for, if we refuse to 'put the whole, of 
 it into our work.' 
 
 She and Mr. Alwynn walked on in silence ; and 
 after a time, always afraid of speaking much on the 
 subject that was first in his own mind, he began to 
 talk again on trivial matters, to tell her how he had 
 met Dare that morning, and had promised on her 
 behalf that she would sing at a little local concert 
 which the Vandon schoolmaster was getting up that 
 week to defray the annual expense of the Vandon 
 cricket club, and in which Dare was taking a vivid 
 interest. 
 
 ' You won't mind singing, will you, Kuth ? ' 
 asked Mr. Alwynn, wishing she would show a little 
 more interest in Dare and his concert. 
 
 ' Oh no, of course not/ rather hurriedly. ' I 
 should be glad to help in any way/ 
 
158 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' And I thought, my dear, as it would be getting 
 late, we had better accept his offer of staying the 
 night at Vandon.' 
 
 Euth assented, but so absently that Mr. Alwynn 
 dropped the subject with a sigh, and walked on, 
 revolving weighty matters in his mind. They had 
 left the woods now, and were crossing the field 
 where, two months ago, the school-feast had been 
 held. Mr. Alwynn made some slight allusion to 
 it, and then coughed. Euth's attention, which had 
 been distracted, came back in a moment. She 
 knew her uncle had something which he did not 
 like, something which yet he felt it his duty to say, 
 when he gave that particular cough. 
 
 'That was when you were staying with the 
 Danvers, wasn't it, Euth ? ' in a would-be casual, 
 disengaged tone. 
 
 ' Yes ; I came over from Atherstone with Molly 
 Danvers/ 
 
 ' I remember/ said Mr. Alwynn, looking ex- 
 tremely uncomfortable ; ' and if I am not mistaken 
 ahem ! Sir Charles Danvers was staying there at 
 the same time ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly he was/ 
 
 'Yes, and I daresay, Euth I am not finding 
 fault, far from it I daresay he made himself very 
 agreeable for the time being ? ' 
 
 ' I don't think he made himself so. I should 
 have said he was naturally so, without any effort, 
 just as some people are naturally the reverse.' 
 
 ' Indeed ! Well, I have always heard he was 
 most agreeable ; but I am afraid I think perhaps 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 159 
 
 it is just as well you should know forewarned is 
 forearmed, you know that, in fact, he says a 
 great deal more than he means sometimes/ 
 
 ' Does he ? I daresay he does.' 
 
 'He has a habit of appearing to take a great 
 interest in people, which I am afraid means very 
 little. I daresay he is not fully aware of it, or I 
 am sure he would struggle against it, and we must 
 not judge him ; but still, his manner does a great 
 deal of harm. It is peculiarly open to miscon- 
 struction. For instance/ continued Mr. Alwynn, 
 making a rush as his courage began to fail him, ' it 
 struck me, Kuth, the other day Sunday, was it ? 
 Yes, I think it was Sunday that really he had not 
 much to ask me about his week-day services. I 
 ahem ! I thought he need not have called.* 
 
 ' I daresay not/ 
 
 ' But now, that is just the kind of thing he does 
 calls, and, er under chestnut-trees, and that sort of 
 thing and how are young people to know unless 
 their elders tell them that it is only his way, and 
 that he has done just the same ever so often 
 before ? ' 
 
 ' And will again/ said Euth, trying to keep down 
 a smile. ' Is it true (Mabel is full of it) that he is 
 engaged, or on the point of being so, to one of Lord 
 Hope- Acton's daughters ? ' 
 
 ' People are always saying he is engaged, to first 
 one person and then another/ said Mr. Alwynn, 
 breathing more freely now that his duty was dis- 
 charged. ' It often grieves me that your aunt 
 mentions his engagement so confidently to friends, 
 
160 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 because it gives people the impression that we know, 
 and we really don't. He is a great deal talked 
 about, because he is such a conspicuous man in the 
 county, on account of his wealth and his place, and 
 the odd things he says and does. There is some- 
 thing about him that is different from other people. 
 I am sure I don't know why it is, but I like him 
 very much myself. I have known him do such 
 kind things. Dear me ! What a pleasant week I 
 had at Stoke Moreton last year. It is beautiful, 
 Ruth ; and the collection of old papers and manu- 
 scripts unique ! Your aunt was in Devonshire with 
 friends at the time. I wish he would ask me again 
 this autumn, to see those charters of Edward IV's 
 reign that have been found in the secret drawer of 
 an old cabinet. I hear they are quite small, and 
 have green seals. I wish I had thought of asking him 
 about them on Sunday. If they are really small 
 but it was only Archdeacon Eldon who told me 
 about them, and he never sees anything any par- 
 ticular size if they should happen to be really 
 
 small ' And Mr. Alwynn turned eagerly to 
 
 the all -engrossing subject of the Stoke Moreton 
 charters, which furnished him with conversation till 
 they reached home. 
 
 ' We should consider well what we are keeping back 
 our strength for, if we refuse to put the whole of it 
 into our work.' 
 
 All through the afternoon and the quiet mono- 
 tonous evening these words followed Euth. She 
 read them between the lines of the book she took 
 up. She stitched them into her sewing. They 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 161 
 
 went upstairs with her at night, they followed her 
 into her room, and would not be denied. When 
 she had sent away her maid, she sat down by the 
 window, and, with the full harvest moon for com- 
 pany, faced them and asked them what they meant 
 But they only repeated themselves over and over 
 again. What had they to do with her? Her 
 mind tried to grapple with them in vain. As often 
 as she came to close quarters with them they 
 eluded her and disappeared, only to return with the 
 old formula. 
 
 Her thoughts drifted away at last to what Mr. 
 Alwynn had said of Charles, and all the disagree- 
 able things which Mabel had come up on Monday 
 morning, with a bunch of late roses, on purpose to 
 tell her respecting him. She had taken Mabel's 
 information at its true worth, which I fear was but 
 small ; but she felt annoyed that both Mabel and 
 Mr. Alwynn should have thought it necessary to 
 warn her. As if, she said to herself, she had not 
 known ! Really, she had not been born and bred 
 in Slumberleigh, nor had she lived there all her life. 
 She had met men of that kind before. She always 
 liked them. Charles especially amused her, and she 
 could see that she amused him ; and, now she came 
 to think of it, she supposed he had paid her a good 
 deal of attention at Atherstone, and perhaps he had 
 not come over to Slumberleigh expressly to see Mr. 
 Alwynn. It was as natural to men like Charles to 
 be always interested in some one, as it would be 
 unnatural in others ever to be so, except as the 
 result of long forethought, and with a wedding ring 
 
 11 
 
162 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 and a set of bridesmaids well in view. But to 
 attach any importance to the fact that Charles 
 liked to talk to her would have been absurd. 
 With another man it might have meant much ; but 
 she had heard of Charles and his misdoings long 
 before she had met him, and knew what to expect. 
 Lord Breakwater's sister had confided to her many 
 things respecting him, and had wept bitter tears on 
 her shoulder, when he suddenly went off to shoot 
 grizzlies in the Kocky Mountains. 
 
 ' He has not sufficient vanity to know that he 
 is exceedingly popular/ said Euth to herself. ' I 
 should think there are few men, handicapped as he 
 is, who have been liked more entirely for themselves, 
 and less for their belongings ; but all the time he 
 probably imagines people admire his name, or his 
 place, or his income, and not himself, and con- 
 sequently he does not care much what he says or 
 does. I am certain he does not mean to do any 
 harm. His manner never deceived me for a moment. 
 I can't see why it should others; but from all 
 accounts he seems to be frequently misunderstood. 
 That is just the right word for him. He is mis- 
 understood. At any rate I never misunderstood 
 him. That Sunday call might have made me sus- 
 picious of any ordinary mortal; but I knew no 
 common rule could apply to such an exception as he 
 is. I only wonder, when he really does find himself 
 in earnest, how he is to convey his meaning to the 
 future Lady Danvers. What words would be strong 
 enough ; what ink would be black enough to carry 
 conviction to her mind ? ' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 163 
 
 She smiled at the thought, and, as she smiled, 
 another face rose suddenly before her Dare's, pale 
 and serious, as it had been of late, with the wistful 
 anxious eyes. He, at least, had meant a great deal, 
 she thought with remorse. He had been in earnest, 
 sufficiently in earnest to make himself very unhappy, 
 and on her account. 
 
 Euth had known for some time that Dare loved 
 her ; but to-night that simple unobtrusive fact sud- 
 denly took larger proportions, came boldly out of the 
 shadow, and looked her in the face. 
 
 He loved her. Well, what then ? 
 
 She turned giddy, and leaned her head against 
 the open shutter. 
 
 In the silence the words that had haunted her 
 all the afternoon came back ; not loud as heretofore, 
 but in a whisper, speaking to her heart, which had 
 begun to beat fast and loud. 
 
 ' We should consider well what we are 'keeping 
 lack our strength for, if we refuse to put the whole of 
 it into our work' 
 
 What work was there for her to do ? 
 
 The giddiness and the whirl in her mind died 
 down suddenly, like a great gust on the surface 
 of a lake, and left it still and clear and cold. 
 
 The misery of the world and the inability to 
 meet it had so often confused and weighed her down, 
 that she had come back humbly of late to the only 
 possibility with which it was in her power to deal, 
 come back to the well-worn groove of earnest 
 determination to do as much as in her lay, close at 
 hand, when she could find a field to labour in. 
 
164 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 And now she suddenly saw, or thought she saw, that 
 she had found it. She had been very anxious as 
 to whether Dare would do his duty, but till this 
 moment it had never struck her that it might be 
 her duty to help him. 
 
 She liked him ; and he was poor too poor to do 
 much for the people who were dependent on him, 
 the poor struggling people of Yandon. Their sullen, 
 miserable faces rose up before her, and their crazy 
 houses. Fever had broken out again in the cottages 
 by the river. He needed help and encouragement, 
 for he had a difficult time before him. And she 
 had these to give, and money too. Could she do 
 better with them ? She knew Mr. Alwynn wished 
 it. And as to herself ? Was she never going to 
 put self on one side ? She had never liked any one 
 very much at least, not in that way but she 
 liked him. 
 
 The words came like a loud voice in the silence. 
 She liked him. Well, what then ? 
 
 She shut her eyes, but she only shut out the 
 moon's pale photographs of the fields and woods. 
 She could not shut out these stern besieging thoughts. 
 
 What was she holding back for ? For some 
 possible ideal romantic future ; for the prince of a 
 fairy story ? No ? Well, then, for what ? 
 
 The moon went behind a cloud, and took all her 
 photographs with her. The night had turned very 
 cold. 
 
 ' To-morrow,' said Euth to herself, rising slowly ; 
 1 1 am too tired to think now. To-morrow ! ' 
 
 And as she spoke the faint chime of the clock 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 165 
 
 upon her table warned her that already it was to- 
 morrow. 
 
 And soon, in a moment, as it seemed to her, 
 before she had had time to think, it was again 
 to-morrow, a wet, dim to-morrow, and she was at 
 Vandon, running up the wide stone steps in the 
 starlight, under Dare's protecting umbrella, and 
 allowing him to take her wraps from her before the 
 hall fire. 
 
 The concert had gone off well. Euth was pleased, 
 Mr. Alwynn was pleased. Dare was in a state of 
 repressed excitement, now flying into the drawing- 
 room to see if there were a good fire, as it was a 
 chilly evening ; now rushing thence to the dining- 
 room to satisfy himself that all the immense and 
 elaborate preparations which he had enjoined on the 
 cook had been made. Then, Euth must be shown 
 to her room. Who was to do it ? He flew to find 
 the housekeeper, and after repeated injunctions to 
 the housemaid, whom he met in the passage, not to 
 forget the hot water, took Mr. Alwynn off to his 
 apartment. 
 
 The concert had begun, as concerts always seem 
 to do, at the exact time at which it is usual to dine, 
 so that it was late before the principal performers 
 and Mr. Alwynn reached Vandon. It was later 
 still before supper came, but when it came it was 
 splendid. Dare looked with anxious satisfaction 
 over a soup tureen at the various spiced and glazed 
 forms of indigestion, sufficient for a dozen people, 
 which covered the table. It grieved him that Euth 
 
166 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 confronted by a spreading ham, and Mr. Alwynn, 
 half hidden by a boulder of turkey, should have 
 such moderate appetites. But at least she was there, 
 under his roof, at his table. It was not surprising 
 that he could eat nothing himself. 
 
 After supper, Mr. Alwynn, who combined the 
 wisdom of the worldly serpent with the harmlessness 
 of the clerical dove, fell not too suddenly asleep 
 by the fire in the drawing-room, and Euth and Dare 
 went into the hall, where the piano was. Dare 
 opened it and struck a few minor chords. Euth 
 sat down in a great carved armchair beside the fire. 
 
 The hall was only lighted by a few tall lamps 
 high on pedestals against the walls, which threw 
 great profiles of the various busts upon the dim bas- 
 reliefs of twining scroll-work; and Dare, with his 
 eyes fixed on Euth, began to play. 
 
 There is in some music a strange appeal beyond 
 the reach of words. Those mysterious sharps and 
 flats, and major and minor chords, are an alphabet 
 that in some occult combinations forms another 
 higher language than that of speech, a language 
 which, as we listen, thrills us to the heart. 
 
 It was an old piano, with an impediment in its 
 speech, out of the yellow notes of which Euth could 
 have made nothing ; but in Dare's hands it spoke 
 for him as he never could have spoken for himself. 
 
 His eyes never left her. He feared to look away, 
 lest he should find the presence of that quiet graceful 
 figure by his fireside had been a dream, and that he 
 was alone again with the dim lamps, alone with 
 Dante, and Cicero, and Seneca. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 167 
 
 The firelight dwelt ruddily upon her grave, clear- 
 cut face and level brows, and upon the folds of her 
 white gown. It touched the slender hands clasped 
 lightly together on her knee, and drew sudden 
 sparks and gleams out of the diamond pin at her 
 throat. 
 
 His hands trembled on the keys, and as he 
 looked his heart beat high and higher, loud and 
 louder, till it drowned the rhythm of the music. 
 And as he looked, her calm eyes met his. 
 
 In another moment he was on his knees beside 
 her, her hands caught in his trembling clasp, and 
 his head pressed down upon them. 
 
 * I know,' he gasped, ' it is no good. You have 
 told me so once. You will tell me so again. I 
 am not good enough. I am not worthy. But I 
 love you ; I love you ! ' 
 
 In moments of real feeling the old words hold 
 their own against all modern newcomers. Dare 
 repeated them over and over again in a paroxysm 
 of overwhelming emotion which shook him from 
 head to foot. 
 
 Something in his boyish attitude and in his 
 entire loss of self-control touched Kuth strangely. 
 She knew he was five or six years her senior, but 
 at the moment she felt as if she were much older 
 than he, and a sudden vague wish passed through 
 her mind that he had been nearer her in age ; not 
 quite so young. 
 
 * Well ? ' she said gently ; and he felt her cool, 
 passive hands tremble a little in his. Something 
 in the tone of her voice made him raise his head, 
 
168 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 and meet her eyes looking down at him, earnestly, 
 and with a great kindness in them. 
 
 A sudden eager light leapt into his face. 
 
 ' Will you ? ' he whispered breathlessly, his hands 
 tightening their hold of hers. ' Will you ? ' 
 
 There was a moment's pause, in which the 
 whole world seemed to stand quite still and wait 
 for her answer. 
 
 * Yes/ she said at last, ' I will/ 
 
 ' I am glad I did it/ she said to herself half 
 an hour later, as she leaned her tired head against 
 the carved oak chimney-piece in her bedroom, and 
 absently traced with her finger the Latin inscrip- 
 tion over the fireplace. 'I like him very much. 
 I am glad I did it.' 
 
CHAPTEE XVI 
 
 FOR many years nothing had given Mr. Alwynn 
 such heartfelt pleasure as the news Kuth had to 
 tell him, as he drove her back next morning to 
 Slumberleigh, behind Mrs. Alwynn's long -tailed 
 ponies. 
 
 It was a still September morning, with a faint 
 pearl sky and half-veiled silver sun. Pale gleams 
 of sunshine wandered across the busy harvest fields, 
 and burnished the steel of the river. 
 
 Decisions of any kind rarely look their best aftei 
 a sleepless night; but as Kuth saw the expression 
 of happiness and relief that came into her uncle's 
 face, when she told him what had happened, she 
 felt again that she was glad very glad. 
 
 ' Oh, my dear ! my dear ! ' Mr. Alwynn was 
 driving the ponies first against the bank, and then 
 into the opposite ditch 'how glad I am; how 
 thankful ! I had almost hoped, certainly ; I wished 
 so much to think it possible; but then, one can 
 never tell. Poor Dare ! poor fellow ! I used to be 
 so sorry for him. And how much you will be able 
 to do at Vandon among the people. It will be a 
 
170 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 different place. And it is such a relief to think 
 that the poor old house will be looked after. It 
 went to my heart to see the way it had been 
 neglected. I ventured this morning, as I was 
 down early, to move some of that dear old 
 Worcester farther back into the cabinet. They 
 really were so near the edge, I could not bear to 
 see them ; and I found a Sevres saucer, my dear, 
 in the library, that belonged to one of those 
 beautiful cups in the drawing-room. I hope it was 
 not very wrong, but I had to put it among its 
 relations. It was sitting with a Delf mug on it, 
 poor thing. Dear me ! I little thought then 
 Keally, I have never been so glad about anything 
 before.' 
 
 After a little more conversation, and after Mr. 
 Alwynn had been persuaded to give the reins to 
 his niece, who was far more composed than himself, 
 his mind reverted to his wife. 
 
 'I think, my dear, until your engagement is 
 more settled, till I have had a talk with Dare on 
 the subject (which will be necessary before you 
 write to your Uncle Francis), it would be as well 
 not to refer to it before in fact, not to mention 
 it to Mrs. Alwyim. Your dear aunt's warm heart 
 and conversational bent make it almost impossible 
 for her to refrain from speaking of anything that 
 interests her ; and indeed, even if she does not say 
 anything in so many words, I have observed that 
 opinions are sometimes formed by others as to the 
 subject on which she is silent, by her manner when 
 any chance allusion is made to it.' 
 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 171 
 
 Ruth heartily agreed. She had been dreading 
 the searching catechism through which Mrs. 
 Alwynn would certainly put her the minute 
 inquiries as to her dress, the hour, the place; 
 whether it had been ' standing up or sitting down ; ' 
 all her questions of course interwoven with personal 
 reminiscences of ' how John had done it/ and her 
 own emotion at the time. 
 
 It was with no small degree of relief at the 
 postponement of that evil hour that Ruth entered 
 the house. As she did so a faint sound reached 
 her ear. It was that of a musical-box. 
 
 ' Dear ! dear ! ' said Mr. Alwynn, as he followed 
 her. ' It is a fine day. Your aunt must be ill/ 
 
 For the moment Ruth did not understand the 
 connection of ideas in his mind, until she suddenly 
 remembered the musical-box, which, Mrs. Alwynn 
 had often told her, was ' so nice and cheery on a 
 wet day, or in time of illness.' 
 
 She hurriedly entered the drawing-room, followed 
 by Mr. Alwynn, where the first object that met 
 her view was Mrs. Alwynn extended on the sofa, 
 arrayed in what she called her tea-gown, a loose 
 robe of blue cretonne, with a large vine-leaf pattern 
 twining over it, which broke out into grapes at 
 intervals. Ruth knew that garment well. It came 
 on only when Mrs. Alwynn was suffering. She had 
 worn it last during a period of entire mental prostra- 
 tion, which had succeeded all too soon an exciting dis- 
 covery of mushrooms in the glebe. Mr. Alwynn's 
 heart and Ruth's sank as they caught sight of it 
 again. 
 
172 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 With a dignity befitting the occasion, Mrs. 
 Alwynn recounted in detail the various ways in 
 which she had employed herself after their departure 
 the previous evening, up to the exact moment when 
 she slipped going upstairs, and sprained her ankle, 
 in a blue and green manner that had quite alarmed 
 the doctor when he had seen it, and compared with 
 which Mrs. Thursby's gathered finger in the spring 
 was a mere bagatelle. 
 
 1 Mrs. Thursby stayed in bed when her finger 
 was bad/ said Mrs. Alwynn to Euth, when Mr. 
 Alwynn had condoled, and had made his escape to 
 his study. ' She always gives way so ; but I never 
 was like that. I was up all the same, my dear.' 
 
 ' I hope it does not hurt very much/ said Euth, 
 anxious to be sympathetic, but succeeding only in 
 being commonplace. 
 
 ' It's not only the pain/ said Mrs. Alwynn, in 
 the gentle resigned voice which she always used 
 when indisposed the voice of one at peace with 
 all the world, and ready to depart from a scene con- 
 sequently so devoid of interest ; ' but to a person of 
 my habits, Euth never a day without going into 
 the larder, and always seeing after the servants as 
 I do first one duty and then another and the 
 chickens and all. It seems a strange thing that I 
 should be laid aside/ 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn paused, as if she had not for the 
 nonce fathomed the ulterior reasons for this special 
 move on the part of Providence, which had crippled 
 her, while it left Euth and Mrs. Thursby with the 
 use of their limbs. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 173 
 
 ' However/ she continued, ' I am not one to 
 repine. Always cheery and busy, Euth : that is my 
 motto. And now, my dear, if you will wind up the 
 musical-box, and then read me a little bit out of 
 Texts with Tender Twinings ' (the new floral manual 
 which had lately superseded the Pearls) , ' after that 
 we will start on one of my scrap-books, and you 
 shall tell me all about your visit to Vandon/ 
 
 It was not the time Ruth would have chosen 
 for a ttte-h-t&te, with her aunt. She was longing to 
 be alone, to think quietly over what had happened, 
 and it was difficult to concentrate her attention on 
 pink and yellow calico, and cut out coloured royal 
 families, and foreign birds, with a good grace. 
 Happily Mrs. Alwynn, though always requiring 
 attention, was quite content with the half of 
 what she required ; and, with the ' Buffalo Girls ' 
 and the ' Danube Eiver ' tinkling on the table, con- 
 versation was somewhat superfluous. 
 
 In the afternoon Dare came, but he was waylaid 
 in the hall by Mr. Alwynn, and taken into the study 
 before he could commit himself in Mrs. Alwynn's 
 presence. Mrs. Thursby and Mabel also called to 
 condole, and a little later Mrs. Smith of Greenacre, 
 who had heard the news of the accident from the 
 doctor. Altogether it was a delightful afternoon for 
 Mrs. Alwynn, who assumed for the time an air of 
 superiority over Mrs. Thursby to which that lady's 
 well-known chronic ill-health seldom allowed her to 
 lay claim. 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn and Mrs. Thursby had remained 
 friends since they had both arrived together as brides 
 
174 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 at Slumberleigh, in spite of a difference of opinion 
 which had at one time strained friendly relations to 
 a painful degree, as to the propriety of wearing the 
 hair over the top of the ear. The hair question 
 settled, a temporary difficulty, extending over a 
 few years, had sprung up in its place, respecting 
 what Mrs. Thursby called ' family.' Mrs. Alwynn's 
 family was not her strong point, nor was its position 
 strengthened by her assertion (unsupported by Mrs. 
 Markham), that she was directly descended from 
 Queen Elizabeth. Consequently, it was trying to 
 Mrs. Thursby who, as every one knows, was one 
 of the brainless Copleys of Copley that Mrs. 
 Alwynn, who in the lottery of marriage had drawn 
 an honourable, should take precedence of herself. 
 To obviate this difficulty, Mrs. Thursby, with the 
 ingenuity of her sex, had at one time introduced 
 Mr. and Mrs. Alwynn as 'our Kector,' and 'our 
 Kector's wife/ thus denying them their name 
 altogether, for fear lest its connection with Lord 
 Polesworth should be remembered, and the fact that 
 Mr. Alwynn was his brother, and consequently an 
 honourable, should transpire. 
 
 This peculiarity of etiquette entirely escaped Mr. 
 Alwynn, but aroused feelings in the breast of his 
 wife which might have brought about one of those 
 deeply-rooted feuds which so often exist between the 
 squire's and clergyman's families, if it had not been 
 for the timely and serious illness in which Mrs. 
 Thursby lost her health, and the principal part of 
 the other subject of disagreement her hair. 
 
 Then Queen Elizabeth and the honourable were 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 175 
 
 alike forgotten. With her own hands Mrs. Alwynn 
 made a certain jelly, which Mrs. Thursby praised in 
 the highest manner, saying she only wished that it 
 had been the habit in her family to learn to do any- 
 thing so useful. Mrs. Thursby's new gowns were 
 no longer kept a secret from Mrs. Alwynn, to be 
 suddenly sprung upon her at a garden-party, 
 when, possibly in an old garment herself, she 
 was least able to bear the shock. Bygones were 
 bygones, and, greatly to the relief of the two 
 husbands, their respective wives made up their 
 differences. 
 
 1 Aud a very pleasant afternoon it has been/ said 
 Mrs. Alwynn, when the Thursbys and Dare, who 
 had been loth to go, had taken their departure. 
 ' Mrs. Thursby and Mabel, and Mrs. Smith and 
 Mr. Dare. Four to tea. Quite a little party, 
 wasn't it, Euth ? And so informal and nice ; and 
 the buns came in as naturally as possible, which no 
 one heard me whisper to James for. I think those 
 little citron buns are nicer than a great cake like 
 Mrs. Thursby's ; and hers are always so black and 
 overbaked. That is why the cook sifts such a lot 
 of sugar over them. I do think one should be real, 
 and not try to cover up things. And Mr. Dare so 
 pleasant. Quite sorry to go he seemed. I often 
 wonder whether it will be you or Mabel in the end. 
 He ought to be making up his mind. I expect I 
 shall have a little joke with him about it before long. 
 And such an interest he took in the scrap-book. 
 I asked him to come again to-morrow.' 
 
 ' I don't expect he will be able to do so/ said 
 
176 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Mr. Alwynn. ' I rather think he will have to go to 
 town on business.' 
 
 Later in the evening, Mr. Alwynn told Euth that 
 in the course of his interview he had found that 
 Dare had the very vaguest ideas as to the necessity 
 of settlements ; had evidently never given the subject 
 a thought, and did not even know what he actually 
 possessed. 
 
 Mr. Alwynn was secretly afraid of what Ruth's 
 trustee, his brother, Lord Polesworth (now absent 
 shooting in the Rocky Mountains), would say if, 
 during his absence, their niece was allowed to engage 
 herself without suitable provision ; and he begged 
 Ruth not 'to do anything rash' in the way of 
 speaking of her engagement, until Dare could, with 
 the help of his lawyer, see his way to making some 
 arrangement. 
 
 ' I know he has no money,' said Ruth quietly ; 
 ' that is one of the reasons why I am going to marry 
 him/ 
 
 Mr. Alwynn, to whom this seemed the most 
 natural reason in the world, was not sure whether it 
 would strike his brother with equal force. He had 
 a suspicion that when Lord Polesworth's attention 
 should be turned from white goats and brown bears 
 to the fact that his niece, who had means of her 
 own, had been allowed to engage herself to a poor 
 man, and that Mr. Alwynn had greatly encouraged 
 the match, unpleasaDt questions might be asked. 
 
 ' Francis will be back in November,' said Mr. 
 Alwynn. ' I think, Ruth, we had better wait till 
 his return before we do anything definite.' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 177 
 
 ' Anything more, definite, you mean/ said Ruth. 
 ' I have been very definite already, I think. I shall 
 be glad to wait till he comes back, if you wish it, 
 Uncle John. I shall try to do what you both 
 advise. But at the same time I am of age ; and if 
 my word is worth anything, you know I have given 
 that already/ 
 
 Dare felt no call to go to London by the early 
 train on the following morning, so he found himself 
 at liberty to spend an hour at Slumberleigh Rectory 
 on his way to the station, and by the advice of 
 Mr. Alwynn went into the garden, where the sound 
 of the musical-box reached the ear but in faint 
 echoes, and where Ruth presently joined him. 
 
 In his heart Dare was secretly afraid of Ruth ; 
 though, as he often told himself, it was more than 
 probable she was equally afraid of him. If that 
 was so, she controlled her feelings wonderfully, for, 
 as she came to meet him, nothing could have been 
 more frankly kind, more friendly, or more composed 
 than her manner towards him. He took her out- 
 stretched hand and kissed it. It was not quite the 
 way in which he had pictured to himself that they 
 would meet; but if his imagination had taken a 
 somewhat bolder flight in her absence, he felt now, 
 as she stood before him, that it had taken that flight 
 in vain. He kept her hand, and looked intently at 
 her. She did not change colour, nor did that dis- 
 appointing friendliness leave her steady eyes. 
 
 ' She does not love me/ he said to himself. ' It 
 is strange, but she does not. But the day will 
 come.' 
 
 12 
 
178 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' You are going to London, are you not ? ' asked 
 Ruth, withdrawing her hand at last; and after 
 hearing a detailed account of his difficulties and 
 anxieties about money matters, and after taking an 
 immense weight off his mind by telling him that 
 they would have no influence in causing her to alter 
 her decision, she sent him beaming and rejoicing on 
 his way, quite a different person to the victim of 
 anxiety and depression who had arrived at Slumber- 
 leigh an hour before. 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn was much annoyed at Dare's entire 
 want of heart in leaving the house without coming 
 to see her, and during the remainder of the morning 
 she did not cease to comment on the differences that 
 exist between what people really are and what they 
 seem to be, until, in her satisfaction at recounting 
 the accident to Evelyn Danvers, a new and sympa- 
 thetic listener, she fortunately forgot the slight put 
 upon her ankle earlier in the day. The complete 
 enjoyment of her sufferings was, however, destined to 
 sustain a severe shock the following morning. 
 
 She and Euth were reading their letters, Mrs. 
 Alwynn, of course, giving Ruth the benefit of the 
 various statements respecting the weather which her 
 correspondents had confided to her, when Mr. Alwynn 
 came in from the study, an open letter in his hand. 
 He was quite pink with pleasure. 
 
 'He has asked me to go and see them/ he said, ' and 
 they are small, and have green seals, all excepting 
 one ' referring to the letter * which has a big red 
 seal in a tin box, attached by a tape. Ruth, I am 
 perfectly convinced beforehand that those charters 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 179 
 
 are grants of land of the fourteenth or fifteenth 
 century. Sir Charles mentions that they ; are in 
 black letter, and only a few lines on each, but he 
 says he won't describe them in full, as I must come 
 and see them for myself. Dear me ! how I shall 
 enjoy arranging them for him, which he asked me 
 to do. I had really become so anxious about them, 
 that a few days ago I determined to set my mind 
 at rest, and I wrote to him to ask for particulars, 
 and that is his answer.' 
 
 Mr. Alwynn put Charles's letter into her hand, 
 and she glanced over it. 
 
 ' Why, Uncle John, he asks Aunt Fanny as well ; 
 and " if Miss Deyncourt is still with you, pleasure," 
 etc. and me, too ! ' 
 
 ' When is it for ? ' asked Mrs. Alwynn, suddenly 
 sitting bolt upright. 
 
 'Let me see. "Black letter size about" where is 
 it? Here. "Tuesday, the 25th, for three nights. 
 Leaving home following week for some time. 
 Excuse short notice," etc. It is next week, Aunt 
 Fanny.' 
 
 ' I shall not be able to go,' gasped Mrs. Alwynn, 
 sinking back on her sofa, while something very like 
 tears came into her eyes ; ' and I've never been 
 there, Kuth. The Thursbys went once, in old Sir 
 George's time, and Mrs. Thursby always says it is 
 the show place in the county, and that it is such a 
 pity I have not seen it. And last autumn, when 
 John went, I was in Devonshire, and never even 
 heard of his going till I got home, or I'd have come 
 back. Oh, Ruth ! Oh, dear ! ' 
 
180 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn let her letters fall into her lap, 
 and drew forth the coloured pocket-handkerchief 
 which she wore, in imitation of Mabel Thursby, 
 stuck into the bodice of her gown, and at the 
 ominous appearance of which Mr. Alwynn suddenly 
 recollected a duty in the study and retreated. 
 
 With an unerring instinct Kuth flew to the 
 musical-box and set it going, and then knelt down 
 by the prostrate figure of her aunt, and administered 
 what sympathy and consolation she could, to the 
 * cheery ' accompaniment of the ' Buffalo Girls/ 
 
 ' Never mind, dear Aunt Fanny. Perhaps he 
 will ask you again when you are better. There 
 will be other opportunities.' 
 
 ' I always was unlucky,' said Mrs. Alwynn 
 faintly. ' I had a swelled face up the Ehine on our 
 honeymoon. Things always happen like that with 
 me. At any rate/ after a pause 'there is one 
 thing. "We ought to try and look at the bright side. 
 It is not as if we had not been asked. We have 
 not been overlooked/ 
 
 ' No,' said Kuth promptly ; and in her own mind 
 she registered a vow that in her future home she 
 would never give the pain that being overlooked 
 by the larger house can cause to the smaller 
 house. 
 
 'And I will stay with you, Aunt Fanny,' she 
 went on cheerfully. ' Uncle John can go by him- 
 self, and we will do just what we like while he is 
 away, won't we ? ' 
 
 But at this Mrs. Alwynn demurred. She was 
 determined that if she played the role of a martyr 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 181 
 
 she would do it well. She insisted that Euth 
 should accompany Mr. Alwynn. She secretly 
 looked forward to telling Mabel that Euth was 
 going. She did not mind being left alone, she 
 said. She desired, with a sigh of self-sacrifice, that 
 Mr. Alwynn should accept for himself and his niece. 
 She had not been brought up to consider herself, 
 thank God. She had her faults, she knew. No 
 one was more fully aware of them than herself; but 
 she was not going to prevent others enjoying them- 
 selves because she herself was laid aside. 
 
 'And now, my dear/ she said, with a sudden 
 return to mundane interests that succeeded rather 
 unexpectedly to the celestial spirit of her previous 
 remarks, ' you must be thinking about your gowns. 
 If I had been going, I should have had my ruby 
 satin done up so beautiful by candlelight. What 
 have you to wear? That white lace tea -gown 
 with the silver -gray train is very nice; but you 
 ought not to be in half-mourning now. I like to 
 see young people in colours. And then there is that 
 gold-and-white brocade, Euth, that you wore at the 
 drawing-room last year. It is a beautiful dress, 
 but rather too quiet. Could not you brighten it up 
 with a few cherry-coloured bows about it, or a sash ? 
 I always think a sash is so becoming. If you were 
 to bring it down, I daresay I could suggest some- 
 thing. And you must be well dressed, for though 
 he only says " friends," you never can tell whom 
 you may not meet at a place like that.' 
 
CHAPTEK XVII 
 
 THE last week of September found Charles back at 
 Stoke Moreton to receive the ' friends ' of whom 
 Mrs. Alwynn spoke. People whose partridges he 
 had helped to kill were now to be gathered from 
 the east and from the west to help to kill his. 
 From the north also guests were coming, were 
 
 leaving their mountains to But the remainder 
 
 of the line is invidious. The Hope-Actons had 
 written to offer a visit at Stoke Moreton, on the 
 strength of an old promise to Charles, a promise so 
 old that he had forgotten it, until reminded, that 
 next time they were passing they would take his 
 house on their way. They had offered their visit 
 exactly at the same time for which he had just 
 invited the Alwynns and Kuth. Charles felt that 
 they were not quite the people whom he would 
 have arranged to meet each other, but, as Fate had 
 so decreed it, he acquiesced calmly enough. 
 
 But when Lady Mary also wrote tenderly from 
 Scarborough, to ask if she could be of any use in 
 helping to entertain his guests, he felt it imperative 
 to draw the line, and wrote a grateful effusion to his 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 183 
 
 aunt, saying that he could not think of asking her 
 to leave a place where he felt sure she was deriving 
 spiritual and temporal benefit, in order to assist at 
 so unprofitable a festivity as a shooting party. He 
 mentioned casually that Lady Grace Lawrence, Miss 
 Deyncourt, and Miss Wyndham were to be of the 
 party, which details he imagined might have an 
 interest for her amid her graver reflections. 
 
 The subject of Ruth's coming certainly had a 
 prominent place in his own graver reflections. For 
 the last fortnight, as he went from house to house, 
 he had been wondering how he could meet her 
 again, and, when Mr. Alywnn's letter concerning the 
 charters was forwarded to him, a sudden inspiration 
 made him then and there send the invitation which 
 had arrived at Slumberleigh Eectory a few days 
 before. He groaned in spirit as he wrote it, at the 
 thought of Mrs. Alwynn disporting herself, dressed 
 in the brightest colours, among his other guests ; and 
 it was with a feeling of thankfulness that he found 
 Ruth and Mr. Alwynn were coming without her. 
 
 He had felt very little interest so far in the 
 party, which, with the exception of the Hope- Actons, 
 had been long arranged, but now he found himself 
 looking forward to it with actual impatience, and he 
 returned home a day before the time, instead of an 
 hour or two before his guests were expected, as was 
 his wont. 
 
 The Wyndhams and Hope -Actons, with Lady 
 Grace in tow, were the first to appear upon the 
 scene. Mr. Alwynn and Ruth arrived a few hours 
 later, amid a dropping fire of young men and gun 
 
184 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 cases, who kept on turning up at intervals during 
 the afternoon, and, according to the mysterious 
 nocturnal habits of their kind, till late into the 
 night. 
 
 If ever a man appears to advantage it is on his 
 native hearth, and as Charles stood on his in the 
 long hall, where it was the habit of the house to 
 assemble before dinner, Ruth found that her attempts 
 at conversation were rather thrown away upon Lady 
 Grace, with whom she had been renewing an old 
 acquaintance, and whose interest, for the time being, 
 entirely centred in the carved coats of arms and 
 heraldic designs with which the towering white 
 stone chimney-piece was covered. 
 
 Lady Grace was one of those pretty, delicate 
 creatures who remind one of a very elaborate rose- 
 bud. There was an appearance of ultra refinement 
 about her, a look of that refinement which is 
 in itself a weakness, a poverty of blood, so to speak, 
 the opposite and more pleasing but equally un- 
 healthy extreme of coarseness. She looked very 
 pretty as, having left Ruth, she stood by Charles, 
 passing her little pink hand over the lowest carvings, 
 dim and worn with the heat of many generations of 
 fires, and listened with rapt attention to his answers 
 to her questions. 
 
 ' And the hall is so beautiful,' she said, looking 
 round with childlike curiosity at the walls covered 
 with weapons, and with a long array of armour, and 
 at the massive pillars of carved white stone which 
 rose out of the polished floor to meet the raftered 
 ceiling. ' It is so so uncommon.' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 185 
 
 Whatever Charles's other failings may have been, 
 he was an admirable host. The weather was fine. 
 What can be finer than September when she is in a 
 good humour ? The two first days of Kuth's visit 
 were unalloyed enjoyment. It seemed like a sudden 
 return to the old life with Lady Deyncourt, when 
 the round of country visits regularly succeeded the 
 season in London. Of Mr. Alwynn she saw little 
 or nothing. He was buried in the newly discovered 
 charters. Of Charles she saw a good deal, more than 
 at the time she was quite aware of, for he seemed to 
 see a great deal of everybody, from Lady Grace to the 
 shy man of the party, who at Stoke Moreton first 
 conceived the idea that he was an acquisition to 
 society. But, whether Charles made the oppor- 
 tunities or not which came so ready to his hand, 
 still he found time, amid the pressure of his shoot- 
 ing arrangements and his duties as host, to talk to 
 Euth. 
 
 One day there was cub hunting in the gray of 
 the early morning, to which she and Miss Wyndham 
 went with Charles and others of the party who 
 could bear to get up betimes. Losing sight of the 
 others after a time, Euth and Charles rode back 
 alone together when the sun was high, walking 
 their tired horses along the black-berried lanes, and 
 down the long green rides cut in the yellowing 
 bracken of the park. 
 
 ' And so you are going to winter in Eome ? ' 
 said Charles, who had the previous day, contrary 
 to his wont, accepted an invitation to Slumberleigh 
 Hall for the middle of October. ' I sometimes go 
 
186 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 to Eome for a few weeks when the shooting is over. 
 And are you glad or sorry at the prospect of leaving 
 your Cranford ? ' 
 
 ' Very sorry.' 
 
 'Why?' 
 
 ' I have seen an entirely new phase of life at 
 Slumberleigh.' 
 
 'I think I can guess what you mean/ said 
 Charles gravely. 'One does not often meet any 
 one like Mr. Alwynn.' 
 
 ' No. I was thinking of him. Until I came to 
 Slumberleigh the lines had not fallen to me in very 
 clerical places, so my experience is limited ; but he 
 seems to me to be the only clergyman I have known 
 who does not force on one a form of religion that 
 has been dead and buried for years.' 
 
 'The clergy have much to answer for on that 
 head,' said Charles with bitterness. ' I sometimes 
 like and respect them as individuals, but I do not 
 love them as a class. One ought to make allowance 
 for the fact that they are tied and bound by the 
 chain of their Thirty-nine Articles ; that at three- 
 and-twenty they shut the doors deliberately on any 
 new and possibly unorthodox idea; and it is con- 
 sequently unreasonable to expect from them any 
 genuine freedom or originality of thought. I can 
 forgive them their assumption of superiority, their 
 inability to meet honest scepticism with anything 
 like fairness, their continual bickering among them- 
 selves ; but I cannot forgive them the harm they 
 are doing to religion, the discredit they are bringing 
 upon it by their bigoted views and obsolete ideas. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 187 
 
 They busy themselves doing good that is the 
 worst of it; they mean well, but they do not see 
 that in the meanwhile their Church is being left 
 unto them desolate ; though perhaps, after all, the 
 Church, having come to be what it is, that is the 
 best thing that can happen.' 
 
 ' There are men among the clergy who will not 
 come under that sweeping accusation/ said Euth. 
 ' Look at some of the London churches. Are they 
 desolate ? Goodness and earnestness will be a 
 power to the end of time, however narrow the 
 accompanying creed may be/ 
 
 'That is true, but we have heads as well as 
 hearts. Goodness and earnestness appeal to the 
 heart alone. The intellect is left out in the cold. 
 However good, and earnest, and eloquent one of 
 these great preachers may be, the reason we go to 
 hear him is not only because of that, but because 
 he appears to be thinking in a straight line, because 
 he seems to recognise the long-resisted claim of the 
 intellect, and we hope he will have a word to say 
 to us. He promises well, but listen to him a little 
 longer, follow his thought, and you will begin to 
 see that he will only look for truth within a certain 
 area, that his steps are describing an arc, that he is 
 tethered. Give him time enough, and you will see 
 him tread out the complete circle in which he and 
 his brethren are equally bound to walk/ 
 
 ' You forget/ said Kuth, ' that you are regarding 
 the Church from the standpoint of the cultivated 
 and intellectual class, for whom the Church has 
 ceased to represent religion. But there are lots of 
 
188 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 people neither cultivated nor intellectual women 
 even of our own class are not so as a rule to 
 whom the Church, with its ritual and dogma, is a 
 real help and comfort. If it does not suit the more 
 highly educated and the more thoughtful, I think 
 you have no right to demand that it should suit 
 what is, after all, a very small minority. It would 
 be most unfair if it did/ 
 
 Charles did not answer. He had been looking 
 at her, and thinking how few women could have 
 disagreed with him as quietly and resolutely as this 
 young girl riding at his side, carefully avoiding 
 chance rabbit holes as she spoke. 
 
 ' There is, and there always will be, a certain 
 number of people, not only among the clergy/ she 
 went on, ' who, as somebody says, " put the church 
 clock back," and are unable to see that they cannot 
 alter the time of day for all that ; only they can 
 and do prevent many well-intentioned people from 
 trusting to it any longer. But there are others 
 here and there whom a dogmatic form of religion 
 has been quite unable to spoil, whose more simple 
 turn of mind draws out of the very system that 
 appears to you so lifeless and effete, a real faith, 
 a personal possession which no one can take from 
 them/ 
 
 Her eyes sparkled as she spoke, and Charles saw 
 that she was thinking of Mr. Alwynn. 
 
 ' He has got it/ he said slowly, ' this something 
 which we all want, and for the greater part never 
 find. He has got it. To see and recognise it early 
 is a great thing/ he continued earnestly. ' To dis- 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 189 
 
 believe in it in early life, and cavil at all the cari- 
 catures and imitations, and only come to find out 
 its reality comparatively later on is a great mis- 
 fortune a great misfortune/ 
 
 She felt that he was speaking of himself, and 
 they rode on in silence, each grave with a sense of 
 mutual understanding and companionship. They 
 forded the stream, and trotted up the little village 
 street, the cottagers gazing admiringly after them till 
 they disappeared within the great arched gateway. 
 And Charles looked at his old house as they paced 
 up the wide drive, and wondered whether it were 
 indeed possible that the lonely years he had spent 
 in it had come to an end at last at last. 
 
 Kuth had noticed that he had lost no opportunity 
 of talking to her, and, when she heard him con- 
 versing with Lady Grace, or plunging into fashion- 
 able slang with Miss Wyndham, found herself 
 admiring the facility with which he adapted himself 
 to different people. 
 
 The following afternoon, as she was writing in 
 the library, she was amused to " see that he found it 
 incumbent on him to write too, even going so far as 
 to produce a letter from Molly, whose correspond- 
 ence he said he invariably answered by return. 
 
 ' You seem very fond of giving Molly pleasure,' 
 said Euth. 
 
 ' I am glad to see, Miss Deyncourt, that you are 
 beginning to estimate me at my true worth.' 
 
 ' You have it in your power just now to give a 
 great pleasure/ said Euth earnestly, laying down 
 the pen which she had taken up. 
 
190 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 'How?' 
 
 ' It seems so absurd when it is put into words, 
 but by asking Mrs. Alwynn some time to stay 
 here. She has always longed to see Stoke Moreton, 
 because well, because Mrs. Thursby has ; and real, 
 positive, actual tears were shed because she could 
 not come when you asked us/ 
 
 ' Is it possible ? ' said Charles. ' It is the first 
 time that any letter of mine has caused emotion of 
 that description/ 
 
 ' Ah ! you don't know how important the 
 smallest things appear if one lives in a little corner 
 of the world where nothing ever happens. If Mrs. 
 Alwynn had been able to come, her visit would have 
 been an event which she would have remembered 
 for years. I assure you, I myself, from having 
 lived at Slumberleigh eight months, became quite 
 excited at the prospect of so much dissipation/ 
 
 And Euth leaned back in her chair with a little 
 laugh. 
 
 Charles looked narrowly at her and his face 
 fell. 
 
 ' I am glad you told me,' he said, after a 
 moment's pause. ' People generally mention these 
 things about ten years afterwards, when there 
 is probably no possibility of doing anything. 
 Thank you/ 
 
 Kuth was disconcerted by the sudden gravity of 
 his tone, and almost regretted the impulse that had 
 made her speak. She forgot it, however, in the 
 tableaux vivants which they were preparing for the 
 evening, in which she and Charles illustrated the 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 191 
 
 syllable nun to enthusiastic applause. Kuth repre- 
 sented the nun, engaged in conversation, over the 
 lowest imaginable convent-wall, with Charles, in all 
 the glory of his cocked hat and deputy-lieutenant's 
 uniform ; who, while he held the nun's hand in one 
 of his, pointed persuasively with the other towards 
 an elaborately caparisoned war-horse, trembling 
 beneath the joint weight of a yeomanry saddle 
 and a side saddle attached behind it, which 
 considerably overlapped the charger's impromptu fur 
 boa tail. 
 
 After the tableaux there was dancing in acting 
 costume, against which the two men who acted the 
 war-horse between them were the only persons to 
 protest, Lady Grace being beautiful as an improvised 
 Anne Boleyn, and the shy man resplendent in a 
 fancy dress of Charles's. 
 
 When the third morning came, Kuth gave a 
 genuine sigh at the thought that it was the last 
 day. Lady Grace, who was also leaving the follow- 
 ing morning, may be presumed to have echoed it 
 with far more sorrow. The Wyndhams were going 
 that day, and disappeared down the drive, waving 
 handkerchiefs, and carriage rugs, and hats on sticks, 
 out of the carriage windows, as is the custom of 
 really amusing people when taking leave. 
 
 In the afternoon Lady Grace and Charles went 
 off for a ride alone together, to see some ruin in 
 which Lady Grace had manifested a sudden interest, 
 the third horse, which had been brought round for 
 another of the men, being sent back to the stables, 
 his destined rider having decided, at the eleventh 
 
192 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 hour, to join the rest of the party in a little desult- 
 ory rabbit shooting in the park, which he proceeded 
 to do with much chuckling over his extraordinary 
 penetration and tact. 
 
 The elder ladies went out driving, looking, as 
 seen from an upper window, like four poached 
 eggs on a dish; and, the coast being clear, Kuth, 
 who had no love of driving, escaped with her paint 
 box to the garden, where she was making a sketch 
 of Stoke Moreton. 
 
 Some houses, like people, have dignity. Stoke 
 Moreton, with ivy creeping up its mellow sandstone, 
 and peeping into its long lines of mullioned win- 
 dows, stood solemn and stately amid its level 
 gardens ; the low sun, bringing out every line of 
 carved stone frieze and quaint architrave, firing 
 all the western windows, and touching the tall heads 
 of the hollyhocks and sunflowers, that stood in 
 ordered regiments within their high walls of clipped 
 box. And Ruth dabbed and looked, and dabbed 
 again, until she suddenly found that if she put 
 another stroke she would spoil all, and also that her 
 hands were stiff with cold. After a few admiring 
 glances at her work, she set off on a desultory 
 journey round the gardens to get warm, and finally, 
 seeing an oak door in the garden wall open, wan- 
 dered through it into the churchyard. The church 
 door was open, too, and Ruth, after reading some of 
 the epitaphs on the tombstones, went in. 
 
 It was a common little church enough, with a 
 large mortuary chapel, where all the Danvers family 
 reposed; ancient Danvers lying in armour, with 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 193 
 
 their mailed hands joined, beside their wives ; more 
 modern Danvers kneeling in bas-relief in coloured 
 plaster and execrable taste in recesses. The last 
 generations were there also ; some of them antici- 
 pating the resurrection and feathered wings, but for 
 the most part still asleep. Charles's mother was 
 there, lying in white marble among her husband's 
 people, with the child upon her arm which she had 
 taken away with her. 
 
 And in the middle of the chapel was the last 
 Sir Charles Danvers, whom his brother, Sir George, 
 the father of the present owner, had succeeded. 
 The evening sun shone full on the kneeling soldier 
 figure, leaning on its sword, and on the grave, clear- 
 cut face, which had a look of Charles. The long, 
 beautifully modelled hands, clasped over the battered 
 steel sword-hilt, were like Charles's too. Kuth read 
 the inscription on the low marble pedestal, relating 
 how he had fallen in the taking of the Eedan, and 
 then looked again. And gradually a great feeling 
 of pity rose in her heart for the family which had 
 lived here for so many generations, and which 
 seemed now so likely to die out. Providence does 
 not seem to care much for old families, or to value 
 long descent. Rather it seems to favour the new 
 race, the Browns, and the Joneses, and the Robin- 
 sons, who yesterday were not, and who to-day elbow 
 the old county families from the place which has 
 known them from time immemorial. 
 
 ' I suppose Molly will some day marry a Smith,' said 
 Ruth to herself, ' and then it will be all over. I don't 
 think I will come and see her here when she is married.' 
 
 13 
 
194 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 With which reflection she returned to the house, 
 and, after disturbing Mr. Alwynn, who was deep in 
 a catalogue of the Danvers' manuscripts, in which 
 it was his firm conviction that he should find some 
 mention of the charters, she went into the library, 
 and wondered which of the several thousands of 
 books would interest her till the others came in. 
 
 The library was a large room, the walls of which 
 were lined with books from the floor to the ceiling. 
 In order to place the higher shelves within reach, a 
 light balcony of polished oak ran round the four walls, 
 about equidistant from the floor and the ceiling. 
 Kuth went up the tiny corkscrew staircase in the 
 wall, which led to the balcony, and settling herself 
 comfortably in the low, wide window seat, took out 
 one volume after another of those that came within 
 her reach. These shelves by the window where she 
 was sitting had somehow a different look to the rest. 
 Old books and new, white vellum and cardboard, 
 were herded together without any apparent order, 
 and with no respect of bindings. Here a splendid 
 morocco Novum Organum was pushed in beside a 
 cheap and much-worn edition of Marcus Aurelius ; 
 there Emerson and Plato and Shakespeare jostled 
 each other on the same shelf, while, just below, 
 Don Quixote was pressed into the uncongenial 
 society of Carlyle on one side, and Confucius on the 
 other. As she pulled out one book after another, 
 she noticed that the greater part of them had 
 Charles's name in them. Kuth's curiosity was at 
 once aroused. No doubt this was the little corner 
 in his great house in which he chose to read, and 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 195 
 
 these were his favourite books which he had arranged 
 so close to his hand. If we can judge our fellow- 
 creatures at all, which is doubtful, it is by the books 
 they read, and by those which, having read, they 
 read again. She looked at the various volumes in 
 the window-seat beside her with new interest, and 
 opened the first one she took up. It was a collection 
 of translations from the Persian poets, gentlemen of 
 the name of Jemshfd, Sadi, and Hafiz, of whom she 
 had never heard. As she turned over the pages, 
 she heard the ringing of horses' hoofs, and, looking 
 out from her point of observation, saw Charles and 
 Lady Grace cantering up the short wide approach, 
 and clattering out of sight again behind the great 
 stone archway. She turned back to her book, and 
 was reading an ode here and there, wondering to 
 see how the same thoughts that work within us to- 
 day had lived with man so many hundred years ago, 
 when her eye was caught by some writing on the 
 margin of a page as she turned it over. A single 
 sentence on the page was strongly underlined 
 
 ' True, self-knowledge, is knowledge of God' 
 
 ' Jemshid was a wise man,' Kuth thought, ' if he 
 had found out that ;' and then she read, in Charles's 
 clear handwriting in the margin 
 
 ' With this compare " Look within. Within is 
 the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up if 
 thou wilt ever dig" Marcus Aurelius! 
 
 At this moment Charles came into the library, 
 and looked up to where she was sitting, half hidden 
 from below by the thickness of the wall. 
 
 ' What, studying ? ' he called gaily. ' I saw you 
 
196 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 sitting in the window as I rode up. I might have 
 known that if you were lost sight of for half an 
 hour you would be found improving yourself in some 
 exasperating way.' And he ran up the little stairs 
 and came round the balcony towards her. 'My 
 own special books, I see. Eve, as usual, surrep- 
 titiously craving for a knowledge of good and evil. 
 What have you got hold of ? ' 
 
 The remainder of the window-seat was full of 
 books ; so, to obtain a better view of what she was 
 reading, he knelt down by her, and looked at the 
 open book on her knee. 
 
 Euth did not attempt to close it. She felt guilty, 
 she hardly knew of what. After a moment's pause 
 she said 
 
 ' I plead guilty. I was curious. I saw these 
 were your own particular shelves ; but I never can 
 resist looking at the books people read.' 
 
 ' Will you be pleased to remember in future that, 
 in contemplating my character, Miss Deyncourt a 
 subject not unworthy of your attention you are on 
 private property. You are requested to keep on the 
 gravel paths, and to look at the grounds I am dis- 
 posed to show you. If, as is very possible, admira- 
 tion seizes you, you are at liberty to express it. 
 But there must be no going round to the back 
 premises, no prying into corners, no trespassing 
 where I have written up, " No road." ' 
 
 Kuth smiled, and there was a gleam in her eyes 
 which Charles well knew heralded a retort, when 
 suddenly through the half open door a silken rustle 
 came, and Lady Hope -Acton slowly entered the 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 197 
 
 room as if about to pass through it on her way to 
 the hall. 
 
 Now, kneeling is by no means an attitude to be 
 despised. In church, or in the moment of presenta- 
 tion to majesty, it is appropriate, even essential; but it 
 is dependent, like most things, upon circumstances 
 and environment. No attitude, for instance, could 
 be more suitable and natural to any one wishing to 
 read the page on which a sitting fellow-creature 
 was engaged. Charles had found it so. But, as 
 Lady Hope-Acton sailed into the room, he felt that, 
 however conducive to study, it was not the attitude 
 in which he would at that moment have chosen to 
 be found. Ruth felt the same. It had seemed so 
 natural a moment before, it was so hideously sugges- 
 tive now. 
 
 Perhaps Lady Hope-Acton would pass on through 
 the other door, so widely, so invitingly open. 
 Neither stirred in the hope that she might do so. 
 But in the centre of the room she stopped, and 
 sighed the slow, crackling sigh of a stout woman 
 in a too well-fitting silk gown. 
 
 Charles suddenly felt as if his muddy boots and 
 cords were trying to catch her eye, as if every book 
 on the shelves were calling to her to look up. 
 
 For a second Ruth and Charles gazed down upon 
 the top of Lady Hope- Acton's head, the bald place 
 on which showed dimly through her semi-transparent 
 cap. She moved slightly, as if to go ; but no, 
 another step was drawing near. In another moment 
 Lady Grace came in through the opposite door in 
 her riding-habit. 
 
198 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Kuth felt that it was now or never for a warning 
 cough; but, as she glanced at Charles kneeling 
 beside her, she could not give it. Surely they would 
 pass out in another second. The thought of the two 
 pairs of eyes which would be raised, and the expres- 
 sion in them, was intolerable. 
 
 'Grace/ said Lady Hope-Acton, with dreadful 
 distinctness, advancing to meet her daughter, ' has 
 he spoken ? ' 
 
 ' No/ said Lady Grace, with a little sob, ' and ' 
 with a sudden burst of tears ' oh, mamma, I don't 
 think he ever will.' 
 
 Oh, to have coughed, to have sneezed, to have 
 choked a moment earlier ! Anything would have 
 been better than this. 
 
 'Kun upstairs this moment, then, and change 
 your habit and bathe your eyes,' said Lady Hope- 
 Acton sharply. 'You need not come down till 
 dinner time. I will say you are tired.' 
 
 And then, to the overwhelming relief of those 
 two miserable spectators, the mother and daughter 
 left the door. 
 
 But to the momentary sensation of relief in 
 Euth's mind a rush of pity succeeded for the child- 
 like grief and tears ; and with and behind it, like 
 one hurrying wave overtopping and bearing down 
 its predecessor, came a burning indignation against 
 the cause of that picturesque emotion. 
 
 It is indeed a lamentable peculiarity of our fallen 
 nature that the moment of relief from the smart of 
 anxiety is seldom marked by so complete a mental 
 calmness and moderation as could be wished. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 199 
 
 Kuth rose slowly, with the book still in her 
 hand, and Charles got off his knees as best he could, 
 and stood with one hand on the railing of the 
 balcony, as if to steady himself. His usually pale 
 face was crimson. 
 
 Euth closed the book in silence, and with a 
 dreadful precision put it back in its accustomed 
 place. Then she turned and faced him, with the 
 western light full upon her stern face, and another 
 light of contempt and indignation burning in her 
 direct eyes. 
 
 ' Poor little girl,' she said, in a low distinct voice. 
 ' What a triumph to have succeeded in making her 
 unhappy ! She is very young, and she did not 
 understand the rules of the game. Poor, foolish 
 little girl ! ' 
 
 If he had been red before, he was pale enough 
 now. He drew himself up, and met her direct 
 gaze without flinching. He did not speak, and she 
 left him standing in the window, and went slowly 
 along the balcony and down the little staircase into 
 the room below. 
 
 As she was about to leave the room, he moved 
 forward suddenly, and said 
 
 1 Miss Deyncourt.' 
 
 Involuntarily she stopped short, in obedience to 
 the stern authority of the tone. 
 
 ' You are unjust.' 
 
 She did not answer, and left the room. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 ' UNCLE JOHN,' said Ruth next morning, taking Mr. 
 Alwynn aside after breakfast, ' we are leaving by 
 the early train, are we not ? ' 
 
 ' No, my love, it is quite impossible. I have 
 several papers to identify and rearrange/ 
 
 ' We have stayed a day longer than we intended, 
 as it is. Most of the others go early. Do let us 
 go too.' 
 
 'It is most natural, I am sure, my dear, that 
 you should wish to get home,' said Mr. Alwynn, 
 looking with sympathetic concern at his niece; 
 ' and why your aunt has not forwarded your letters 
 I can't imagine. But still, if we return by the 
 midday train, Ruth, you will have plenty of time 
 to answer any letters that ahem ! seem to re- 
 quire immediate attention, before the post goes ; 
 and I don't see my way to being ready earlier.' 
 
 Ruth had not even been thinking of Dare and 
 his letters ; but she saw that by the early train she 
 was not destined to depart, and watched the other 
 guests take leave with an envious sigh. She was 
 anxious to be gone. The last evening, after the 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 201 
 
 episode in the library, had been interminably long. 
 Already the morning, though breakfast was hardly 
 over, seemed to have dragged itself out to days in 
 length. A sense of constraint between two people 
 who understand and amuse each other is very galling. 
 Kuth had felt it so. All the previous evening 
 Charles had hardly spoken to her, and had talked 
 mainly to Lady Hope -Acton, who was somewhat 
 depressed, and another elder lady. A good-night 
 and a flat candlestick can be presented in a very 
 distant manner, and as Euth received hers from 
 Charles that evening, and met the grave, steady 
 glance that was directed at her, she perceived that 
 he had not forgiven her for what she had said. 
 
 She felt angry again at the idea that he should 
 venture to treat her with a coldness which seemed 
 to imply that she had been in the wrong. The 
 worst of it was that she felt she was to blame; 
 that she had no right whatever to criticise Charles 
 and his actions. What concern were they of hers ? 
 How much more suitable, how much more eloquent 
 a dignified silence would have been. She could 
 not imagine now, as she thought it over, why she 
 had been so unreasonably annoyed at the moment as 
 to say what she had done. Yet the reason was not 
 far to seek, if she had only known where to lay her 
 hand on it. She was uneasy, impatient ; she longed 
 to get out of the house. And it was still early ; 
 only eleven. Eleven till twelve. Twelve till one. 
 One till half-past. Two whole hours and a half to 
 be got through before the Stoke Moreton omnibus 
 would bear her away. She looked round for a 
 
202 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 refuge during that weary age, and found it nearer 
 than many poor souls do in time of need, namely, 
 at her elbow, in the shape, the welcome shape of 
 the shy man, almost the only remnant of the large 
 party whose dispersion she had just been watching. 
 Whenever Euth thought of that shy man afterwards, 
 which was not often, it was with a sincere hope 
 that he had forgotten the forwardness of her be- 
 haviour on that particular morning. She wished 
 to see the picture-gallery. She would of all things 
 like a walk afterwards. No, she had not been as 
 far as the beech avenue; but she would like to go. 
 Should they look at the pictures first now no 
 time like the present ? How pleased he was ! 
 How proud ! He felt that his shyness had gone 
 for ever, that Miss Deyncourt would, no doubt, like 
 to hear a few anecdotes of his college life, that a 
 quiet man, who does not make himself cheap to 
 start with, often wins in the end, that Miss Deyn- 
 court had unusual appreciation, not only for pictures, 
 but for reserved and intricate characters that yet 
 (here he ventured on a little joke, and laughed at 
 it himself) had their lighter side. And in .the 
 long picture-gallery Kuth and he studied the old 
 masters, as they had seldom been studied before, 
 with an intense and ignorant interest on the 
 one hand, and an entire absence of mind on the 
 other. 
 
 Charles, who had done a good deal of pacing up 
 and down his room the night before, and had arrived 
 at certain conclusions, passed through the gallery 
 once, but did not stop. He looked grave and pre- 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 203 
 
 occupied, and hardly answered a question of Mr. 
 Conway's about one of the pictures. 
 
 Half-past eleven at last. A tall inlaid clock in 
 the gallery mentioned the hour by one sedate stroke ; 
 the church clock told the village the time of day a 
 second later. They had nearly finished the pictures. 
 Never mind. She could take half an hour to put 
 on her hat, and surely any beech avenue, even on 
 a dull day like this, might serve to while away the 
 remaining hour before luncheon. 
 
 They had come to the last picture of the 
 Danvers' collection, and Euth was dwelling fondly 
 on a very well-developed cow by Cuyp, as if she 
 could hardly tear herself away from it, when she 
 heard a step coming up the staircase from the hall, 
 and presently Charles pushed open the carved fold- 
 ing-doors which shut off the gallery from the rest 
 of the house, and looked in. She was conscious 
 that he was standing in the doorway, but new 
 beauties in the cow, which had hitherto escaped 
 her, engaged her whole attention at the moment, 
 and no one can attend to two things at once. 
 
 Charles did not come any farther ; but, stand- 
 ing in the doorway, he called to the shy man, who 
 went to him, and the two talked together for a few 
 moments. Ruth gazed upon the cow until it 
 became so fixed upon the retina of her eye that, 
 when she tried to admire an old Florentine cabinet 
 near it, she still saw its portrait, and when, in 
 desperation she turned away to look out of the 
 window, across the sky and sloping park, the 
 shadow of the cow hung like a portent. 
 
204 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 A moment later Mr. Conway came hurrying 
 back to her much perturbed, to say he had quite 
 forgotten till this moment, had not in the least 
 understood, in fact, etc. etc. Danvers' gray cob, 
 that he had thoughts of buying, was waiting at the 
 door for him to try in fact, had been waiting 
 some time. No idea upon his soul 
 
 Kuth cut his apology short before he had done 
 more than flounder well into it. 
 
 ' You must go and try it at once/ she said with 
 decision ; and then she added, as Charles drew 
 near, ' I have changed my mind about going out. 
 It looks as if it might turn to rain. I shall get 
 through some arrears of letter-writing instead.' 
 
 Mr. Conway stammered and repeated himself, 
 and finally rushed out of the gallery. Kuth 
 expected that Charles would accompany him, but 
 he remained standing near the window, apparently 
 engaged like herself in admiring the view. 
 
 ' It struck me,' he said slowly, with his eyes 
 half shut, 'that Conway proved rather a broken 
 reed just now.' 
 
 'He did,' said Ruth. She suddenly felt that 
 she could understand what it was in Charles that 
 exasperated Lady Mary so much. 
 
 He came a step nearer, and his manner 
 altered. 
 
 ' I sent him away,' he said, looking gravely at 
 her, ' because I wished to speak to you.' 
 
 Ruth did not answer or turn her head, though 
 she felt he was watching her. Her eyes absently 
 followed two young fallow deer in the park, 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 205 
 
 cantering away in a series of hops on their long 
 stiff legs. 
 
 ' I cannot speak to you here/ said Charles, after 
 a pause. 
 
 Kuth turned round. 
 
 ' Silence is golden sometimes. I think quite 
 enough has been said already.' 
 
 'Not by me. You expressed yourself with 
 considerable frankness. I wish to follow your 
 example.' 
 
 'You said I was unjust at the time. Surely 
 that was sufficient.' 
 
 ' So insufficient, that I am going to repeat it. I 
 tell you again that you are unjust in not being 
 willing to hear what I have to say. I have seen a 
 good deal of harm done by misunderstandings, Miss 
 Deyncourt. Pride is generally at the bottom of 
 them. We are both suffering from a slight attack 
 of that malady now. But I value your good 
 opinion too much to hesitate if by any little 
 sacrifice of my own pride I can still retain it. If, 
 after your remarks yesterday, I can make the 
 effort (and it is an effort) to ask you to hear some- 
 thing I wish to say, you, on your side, ought not to 
 refuse to listen. It is not a question of liking; 
 you ought not to refuse/ 
 
 He spoke in an authoritative tone, which gave 
 weight to his words, and in spite of herself she saw 
 the truth of what he said. She was one of those 
 rare women who, being convinced against their 
 will, are not of the same opinion still. It was 
 ignominious to have to give way; but, after a 
 
206 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 moment's struggle with herself, she surmounted her 
 dislike to being overruled, together with a certain 
 unreasoning tenacity of opinion natural to her sex, 
 and said quietly 
 
 ' What do you wish me to do ? ' 
 
 Charles saw the momentary struggle, and 
 honoured her for a quality which women seldom 
 give men occasion to honour them for. 
 
 ' Do you dislike walking ? ' 
 
 'No/ 
 
 ' Then, if you will come out of doors, where 
 there is less likelihood of interruption than in the 
 house, I will wait for you here.' 
 
 She went silently down the picture-gallery, half 
 astonished to find herself doing his bidding. She 
 put on her walking things mechanically, and canie 
 back in a few minutes to find him standing where 
 she had left him. In silence they went downstairs, 
 and through the piazza with its flowering orange 
 trees, out into the gardens, where, on the stone 
 balustrade, the peacocks were attitudinising and 
 conversing in the high key in which they always 
 proclaim a change of weather and their innate 
 vulgarity to the world. Charles led the way 
 towards a little rushing brook which divided the 
 gardens from the park. 
 
 ' I think you must have had a very low opinion 
 of me beforehand to say what you did yesterday,' 
 he remarked suddenly. 
 
 ' I was angry,' said Ruth. ' However true what 
 I said may have been, I had no right to say it to 
 a comparative stranger. That is why I repeat that 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 207 
 
 it would be better not to make matters worse by 
 mentioning the subject again. It is sure to annoy 
 us both. Let it rest.' 
 
 ' Not yet/ said Charles dryly. ' As a compara- 
 tive stranger, I want to know ' stopping and facing 
 her 'exactly what you mean by saying that 
 she, Lady Grace, did not understand the rules of the 
 game.' 
 
 'I cannot put it in other words/ said Euth, 
 her courage rising as she felt that a battle was 
 imminent. 
 
 ' Perhaps I can for you. Perhaps you meant to 
 say that you believed I was in the habit of amusing 
 myself at other people's expense ; that I see your 
 difficulty in finding the right words that it was 
 my evil sport and pastime to shall we say 
 raise expectations which it was not my intention 
 to fulfil ? ' 
 
 ' It is disagreeably put/ said Ruth, reddening a 
 little ; ' but possibly I did mean something of that kind.' 
 
 ' And how have you arrived at such an uncharit- 
 able opinion of a comparative stranger ? ' asked 
 Charles, quietly enough, but his light eyes flashing. 
 
 She did not answer. 
 
 ' You are not a child, to echo the opinion of 
 others/ he went on. ' You look as if you judged 
 for yourself. What have I done since I met you 
 first, three months ago, to justify you in holding me 
 in contempt ? ' 
 
 1 1 did not say I held you in contempt/ 
 
 ' You must do, though, if you think me capable 
 of such meanness.' 
 
208 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Silence again. 
 
 ' You have pushed me into saying more than I 
 meant/ said Euth at last ; ' at least you have said 
 I mean a great deal more than I really do. To be 
 honest, I think you have thoughtlessly given a good 
 deal of pain. I daresay you did it unconsciously.' 
 
 'Thank you. You are very charitable, but I 
 cannot shield myself under the supposition that at 
 eight-and-thirty I am a creature of impulse, uncon- 
 scious of the meaning of my own actions/ 
 
 'If that is the case/ thought Euth, 'your 
 behaviour to me has been inexcusable, especially the 
 last few days ; though, fortunately for myself, I was 
 not deceived by it.' 
 
 ' If you persist in keeping silence/ said Charles, 
 after waiting for her to speak, ' any possibility of 
 conversation is at an end.' 
 
 ' I did not come out here for conversation/ 
 replied Euth. ' I came, not by my own wish, to hear 
 something you said you particularly desired to say. 
 Do you not think the simplest thing, under the cir- 
 cumstances, would be to say it ? ' 
 
 He gave a short laugh, and looked at her in 
 sheer desperation. Did she know what she was 
 pushing him into ? 
 
 ' I had forgotten/ he said. ' It was in my mind 
 all the time ; but now you have made it easy 
 for me indeed by coming to my assistance in this 
 way. I will make a fresh start/ 
 
 He compressed his lips, and seemed to pull 
 himself together. Then he said, in a very level 
 voice 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 209 
 
 'Kindly give me your whole attention, Miss 
 Deyncourt, so that I shall not be obliged to repeat 
 anything. The deer are charming, I know ; but you 
 have seen deer before, and will no doubt again. I 
 am sorry that I am obliged to speak to you about 
 myself, but a little autobiography is unavoidable. 
 Perhaps you know that about three years ago I suc- 
 ceeded my father. From being penniless, and head 
 over ears in debt, I became suddenly a rich man ; 
 not by my father's will, who entailed every acre of 
 the estates here and elsewhere on Kalph, and left 
 everything he could to him. I had thought of 
 telling you what my best friends have never known, 
 why I am not still crippled by debt. I had thought 
 of telling you why at five -and -thirty I was still 
 unmarried, for my debts were not the reason ; but I 
 will not trouble you with that now. It is enough 
 to say that I found myself in a position which, had 
 I been a little younger, with rather a different past, 
 I should have enjoyed more than I did. I was well 
 received in English society when, after a lapse of 
 several years and a change of fortune, I returned 
 to it. If I had thought I was well received for 
 myself, I should have been a fool. But I came 
 back disillusioned. I saw the machinery. When 
 you reflect on the vast and intricate machinery 
 employed by mothers with grown-up daughters, you 
 may imagine what I saw. In all honesty and sin- 
 cerity I wished to marry ; but in the ease with 
 which I saw I could do so lay my chief difficulty. I 
 did not want a new toy, but a companion. I suppose 
 I still clung to one last illusion, that I might meet 
 
 14 
 
210 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 a woman whom I could love, and who would love 
 me, and not my name or income. I could not find 
 her, but I still believed in her. I went everywhere 
 in the hope of meeting her, and, if others have ever 
 been disappointed in me, they have never known 
 how disappointed I have been in them. For three 
 years I looked for her everywhere ; but I could not 
 find her, and at last I gave her up. And then I 
 met Lady Grace Lawrence, and liked her. I had 
 reason to believe she could be disinterested. She 
 came of good people all Lawrences are good ; she 
 was simple and unspoilt, and she seemed to like me. 
 When I look back I believe that I had decided to ask 
 her to marry me, and that it was only by the merest 
 chance that I left London without speaking to her. 
 What prevented me I hardly know, unless it was a 
 reluctance at the last moment to cast the die. I 
 came down to Atherstone, harassed and anxious, 
 tired of everything and everybody, and there,' said 
 Charles, with sudden passion, turning and looking 
 full at Euth, ' there I met you! 
 
 The blood rushed to her face, and she hastily 
 interposed. 
 
 ' I don't see any necessity to bring my name in.' 
 
 'Perhaps not/ he returned, recovering himself 
 instantly ; ' unfortunately, I do.' 
 
 ' You expect too much of my vanity,' said Euth, 
 her voice trembling a little ; ' but in this instance I 
 don't think you can turn it to account. I beg you 
 will leave me out of the question.' 
 
 ' I am sorry I cannot oblige you,' he said grimly ; 
 ' but you can't be left out. I only regret that you 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 211 
 
 dislike being mentioned, because that is a mere 
 nothing to what is coming.' 
 
 She trusted that he did not perceive that the 
 reason she made no reply was because she suddenly 
 felt herself unable to articulate. Her heart was 
 beating wildly, as that gentle, well-conducted organ 
 had never beaten before. What was coming ? 
 Could this stern, determined man be the same 
 apathetic, sarcastic being whom she had hitherto 
 known ? 
 
 ' From that time/ he continued, ' I became surer 
 and surer, of what at first I hardly dared to hope, 
 what it seemed presumption in me to hope, namely, 
 that at last I had found what I had looked for in 
 vain so long. I had to keep my engagement with 
 the Hope- Actons in Scotland; but I regretted it. 
 I stayed as short a time as I could. I did not ask 
 them to come here. They offered themselves. I 
 think, if I have been to blame, it has not been in so 
 heartless a manner as you supposed ; and it appears 
 to me Lady Hope-Acton should not have come. 
 This is my explanation. You can add the rest for 
 yourself. Have I said enough to soften your harsh 
 judgment of yesterday ? ' 
 
 Euth could not speak. The trees were behaving 
 in the most curious manner, were whirling round, 
 were swaying up and down. The beeches close in 
 front were dancing quadrilles ; now ranged in two 
 long rows, now setting to partners, now hurrying 
 back to their places as she drew near. 
 
 'Sit down,' said Charles's voice gently; 'you 
 look tired' 
 
212 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 The trunk of a fallen tree suddenly appeared 
 rising up to meet her out of a slight mist, and she 
 sat down on it more precipitately than she could 
 have wished. In a few seconds the trees returned 
 to their places, and the mist, which appeared to be 
 very local, cleared away. 
 
 Charles was sitting on the trunk beside her, 
 looking at her intently. The anger had gone out of 
 his face, and had given place to a look of deep 
 anxiety and suspense. 
 
 ' I have not finished yet,' he said, and his voice 
 had changed as much as his face. ' There is still 
 something more.' 
 
 ' No, no/ said Kuth. ' At least, if there is, don't 
 say it/ 
 
 ' I think I would rather say it. You wish to 
 save me pain, I see ; but I am quite prepared for 
 what you are going to say. I did not intend to 
 speak to you on the subject for a long time to come, 
 but yesterday's event has forced my hand. There 
 must be no more misunderstandings between us. 
 You intend to refuse me, I can see. All the same, 
 I wish to tell you that I love you, and to ask you 
 to be my wife/ 
 
 ' I am afraid I cannot/ said Euth, almost in- 
 audibly. 
 
 'No/ said Charles, looking straight before him, 
 ' I have asked you too soon. You are quite right. 
 [ did not expect anything different ; I only wished 
 you to know. But, perhaps, some day ' 
 
 ' Don't ! ' said Ruth, clasping her hands tightly 
 together. 'You don't know what you are saying. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 213 
 
 Nothing can make any difference, because I am 
 engaged.' 
 
 She dared not look at his face, but she saw his 
 hand clench. 
 
 For an age neither spoke. 
 
 Then he turned his head slowly and looked at 
 her. His face was gray even to the lips. With a 
 strange swift pang at the heart, she saw how her few 
 words had changed it. 
 
 ' To whom ? ' he said at last, hardly above a 
 whisper. 
 
 ' To Mr. Dare.' 
 
 ' Not that man who has come to live at Vandon? ' 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 Another long silence. 
 
 ' When was it ? ' 
 
 'Ten days ago.' 
 
 'Ten days ago,' repeated Charles mechanically, 
 and his face worked. ' Ten days ago ! ' 
 
 ' It is not given out yet,' said Euth, hesitating, 
 ' because Mr. Alwynn does not wish it during Lord 
 Polesworth's absence. I never thought of any 
 mistake being caused by not mentioning it. I 
 would not have come here if I had had the least 
 idea that ' 
 
 'You cannot mean to say that you had never 
 seen that I what I felt for you ? ' 
 
 ' Indeed I never thought of such a thing until 
 two minutes before you said it. I am very sorry I 
 did not, but I imagined ' 
 
 ' Let me hear what you imagined.' 
 
 ' I noticed you talked to me a good deal ; but I 
 
214 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 thought you did exactly the same to Lady Grace, 
 aiid others.' 
 
 ' You could not imagine that I talked to others 
 to any other woman in the world as I did to 
 you?' 
 
 ' I supposed/ said Euth simply, ' that you talked 
 gaily to Lady Grace because it suited her ; and more 
 gravely to me, because I am naturally grave. I 
 thought at the time you were rather clever in 
 adapting yourself to different people so easily ; and 
 I was glad that I understood your manner better 
 than some of the others.' 
 
 ' Better ! ' said Charles bitterly. ' Better, when 
 you thought that of me ! No, you need not say 
 anything. I was in fault, not you. I don't know 
 what right I had to imagine you understood me 
 you seemed to understand me to fancy that we 
 
 had anything in common, that in time ' He 
 
 broke into a low wretched laugh. 'And all the 
 while you were engaged to another man. Good 
 God ! what a farce ! what a miserable mistake 
 from first to last ! ' 
 
 Ruth said nothing. It was indeed a miserable 
 mistake. 
 
 He rose wearily to his feet. 
 
 1 1 was forgetting,' he said ; ' it is time to go 
 home.' And they went back together in silence, 
 which was more bearable than speech just then. 
 
 The peacocks were still pirouetting and minuet- 
 ting on the stone balustrade as they came back to 
 the garden. The gong began to sound as they 
 entered the piazza. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 215 
 
 To Euth it was a dreadful meal. She tried to 
 listen to Mr. Conway's account of the gray cob, 
 or to the placid conversation of Mr. Alwynn about 
 the beloved manuscripts. Fortunately the morning 
 papers were full of a recent forgery in America, and 
 a murder in London, which furnished topics when 
 these were exhausted, and Charles used them to the 
 utmost. 
 
 At last the carriage came. Mr Alwynn and Mr. 
 Conway simultaneously broke into incoherent ejacula- 
 tions respecting the pleasure of their visit ; Kuth's 
 hand met Charles's for an embarrassed second ; and 
 a moment later they were whirling down the straight 
 wide approach, between the columns of fantastically 
 clipped hollies, leaving Charles standing in the door- 
 way. He was still standing there when the carriage 
 rolled under the arched gateway with its rampant 
 stone lions. Kuth glanced back once as they turned 
 into the road, at the stately old house, with its 
 pointed gables and forests of chimneys cutting the 
 gray sky-line. She saw the owner turn slowly 
 and go up the steps, and looked hastily away 
 again. 
 
 ' Poor Danvers ! ' said Mr. Alwynn cheerfully, 
 also looking and putting Kuth's thoughts into words. 
 ' He must be desperately lonely in that house all by 
 himself; but I suppose he is not often there.' 
 
 And Mr. Alwynn, whose mind had been entirely 
 relieved since Ruth's engagement from the dark sus- 
 picion he had once harboured respecting Charles, 
 proceeded to dilate upon the merits of the charters, 
 and of the owner of the charters, until he began to 
 
216 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 think Ruth had a headache, and, finding it to be the 
 case, talked no more till they reached, at the end 
 of their little journey, the door of Slumberleigh 
 Rectory. 
 
 ' Is it very bad ? ' he asked kindly, as he helped 
 her out of the carriage. 
 
 Ruth assented, fortunately with some faint vestige 
 of truth, for her hat hurt her forehead. 
 
 ' Then run up straight to your own room, and I 
 will tell your aunt that you will come and have 
 a chat with her later on ; perhaps after tea, when 
 the post will be gone.' Mr. Alwynn spoke in the 
 whisper of stratagem. 
 
 Ruth was only too thankful to be allowed to slip 
 on tiptoe to her own room, but she had not been 
 there many minutes when a tap came to the door. 
 
 'There, my dear/ said Mr. Alwynn, putting his 
 head in, and holding some letters towards her. 
 ' Your aunt ought to have forwarded them. I 
 brought them up at once. And there is nearly 
 an hour to post time, and she won't expect you to 
 come down till then. I think the headache will 
 be better now, eh ? ' 
 
 He nodded kindly at her, and closed the door 
 again. Ruth sat down mechanically, and began to 
 sort the packet he had put into her hands. The 
 first three letters were in the same handwriting, 
 Dare's large vague handwriting, that ran from one 
 end of the envelope to the other, and partly hid 
 itself under the stamp. 
 
 She looked at them, but did not open them. 
 A feeling of intense lassitude and fatigue had 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 217 
 
 succeeded to the unconscious excitement of the 
 morning. She could not read them now. They 
 must wait with the others. Presently she could 
 feel an interest in them ; not now. 
 
 She leaned her head upon her hand, and a rush of 
 pity swept away every other feeling as she recalled 
 that last look at Stoke Moreton, and how Charles 
 had turned so slowly and wearily to go indoors. 
 There was an ache at her heart as she thought of 
 him, a sense of regret and loss. And he had loved 
 her all the time ! 
 
 ' If I had only known ! ' she said to herself, 
 pressing her hands against her forehead. ' But how 
 could I tell how could I tell ? ' 
 
 She raised her head with a sudden movement, and 
 began with nervous fingers to open Dare's letters, 
 and read them carefully. 
 
CHAPTEK XIX 
 
 IN the long evening that followed Kuth's departure 
 from Stoke Moreton, Charles was alone for once in 
 his own home. He was leaving again early on the 
 morrow, but for the time he was alone, and heavy 
 at heart. He sat for hours without stirring, looking 
 into the fire. He had no power or will to control 
 his thoughts. They wandered hither and thither, 
 and up and down, never for a moment easing the 
 dull miserable pain that lay beneath them all 
 
 Fool ! fool that he had been ! 
 
 To have found her after all these years, and to 
 have lost her without a stroke ! To have let another 
 take her, and such a man as Dare ! To have such 
 a fool's manner that he was thought to be in earnest 
 when he was least so ; that now, when his whole 
 future hung in the balance, retribution had over- 
 taken him, and with bitter irony had mocked at his 
 earnestness and made it of none effect. She had 
 thought it was his natural manner to all ! His 
 cursed folly had lost her to him. If she had 
 known, surely it would have been, it must have 
 been different. At heart Charles was a very humble 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 219 
 
 man, though it was not to be expected many would 
 think so ; but nevertheless he had a deep, ever- 
 deepening consciousness (common to the experience 
 of the humblest once in a lifetime) that between 
 him and Kuth that mysterious link of mutual 
 understanding and sympathy existed, which cannot 
 be accounted for, which eludes analysis, which yet 
 makes, when the sex happens to be identical, the 
 indissoluble friendship of a David and a Jonathan, 
 a Karlos and a Posa ; and, where there is a difference 
 of sex, brings about that rarest wonder of the world 
 a happy marriage. 
 
 Like cleaves to like. He knew she would have 
 loved him. She was his by right. The same law 
 of attraction which had lifted them at once out of 
 the dreary flats of ordinary acquaintanceship would 
 have drawn them ever closer and closer together 
 till they were knit in one. He knew, with a cer- 
 tainty that nothing could shake, that he could have 
 made her love him, even as he loved her; uncon- 
 sciously at first, slowly perhaps, for the current of 
 strong natures, like that of deep rivers, is some- 
 times slow. Still the end would have been the 
 same. 
 
 And he had lost her by his own act, by his own 
 heedless folly; her want of vanity having lent a 
 hand the while to put her beyond his reach for 
 ever. 
 
 It was a bitter hour. 
 
 And as he sat late into the night beside the fire, 
 that died down to dust and ashes before his absent 
 eyes, ghosts of other heavy hours, ghosts of the past 
 
220 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 which he had long since buried out of his sight, 
 came back and would not be denied. 
 
 To live much in the past is a want of faith in 
 the Power that gives the present. Comparatively 
 few men walk through their lives looking backwards. 
 Women more frequently do so from a false estimate 
 of life fostered by romantic feeling in youth, which 
 leads them, if the life of the affections is ended, 
 resolutely to refuse to regard existence in any other 
 maturer aspect, and to persist in wandering aimlessly 
 forward, with eyes turned ever on the dim flowery 
 paths of former days. 
 
 ' Let the dead past bury its dead.' 
 
 But there comes a time, when the grass has 
 grown over those graves, when we may do well 
 to go and look at them once more; to stand once 
 again in that solitary burial-ground, ' where/ as an 
 earnest man has said, ' are buried broken vows, 
 worn-out hopes, joys blind and deaf, faiths betrayed 
 or gone astray, lost, lost love ; silent spaces where 
 only one mourner ever comes.' 
 
 And to the least retrospective of us our dead 
 past yet speaks at times, and speaks as one having 
 authority. 
 
 Such a time had come for Charles now. From 
 the open grave of his love for Kuth he turned to 
 look at others by which he had stood long ago, in 
 grief as sharp, but which yet in all its bitterness 
 had never struck as deep as this. 
 
 Memory pointed back to a time twenty years 
 ago, when he had hurried home through a long 
 summer night to arrive at Stoke Moreton too late; 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 221 
 
 to find only the solemn shadow of the mother whom 
 he had loved, and whom he had grieved ; too late 
 to ask for forgiveness ; too late for anything but a 
 wild passion of grief and remorse, and frantic self- 
 accusation. 
 
 The scene shifted to ten years later. It was a 
 sultry July evening of the day on which the woman 
 whom he had loved for years had married his brother. 
 He was standing on the deck of the steamer which 
 was taking him from England, looking back at the 
 gray town dwindling against the tawny curtain of 
 the sunset. In his brain was a wild clamour of 
 wedding bells, and across the water, marking the 
 pulse of the sea, came to his outward ears the 
 slow tolling of a bell on a sunken rock near the 
 harbour mouth. 
 
 It seemed to be tolling for the death of all that 
 remained of good in him. In losing Evelyn, whom 
 he had loved with all the idealism and reverence of 
 a reckless man for a good woman, he believed, in 
 the bitterness of his spirit, that he had lost all; 
 that he had been cut adrift from the last mooring 
 to a better future, that nothing could hold him back 
 now. And for a time it had been so, and he had 
 drowned his trouble in a sea in which he well-nigh 
 drowned himself as well. 
 
 Once more Memory pointed pointed across five 
 dark years to an evening when he had sat as he 
 was sitting now, alone by the wide stone hearth in 
 the hall at Stoke Moreton, after his father's death, 
 and after the reading of the will. He was the 
 possessor of the old home, which he had always 
 
222 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 passionately loved, from which he had been virtually 
 banished so long. His father, who had never liked 
 him, but who of late years had hated him, as men 
 only hate their eldest sons, had left all in his power 
 to his second son, had entailed every acre of the 
 Stoke Moreton and other family properties upon 
 him and his children. Charles could touch nothing, 
 and over him hung a millstone of debt, from which 
 there was now no escape. He sat with his head in 
 his hands, the man whom his friends were envying 
 on his accession to supposed wealth and position 
 ruined. 
 
 A few days later he was summoned to London 
 by a friend whom he had known for many years. 
 He remembered well that last meeting with the 
 stern old man whom he had found sitting in his 
 armchair with death in his face. He had once or 
 twice remonstrated with Charles in earlier days, and 
 as he came into his presence now for the last time, 
 and met his severe glance, he supposed, with the 
 callousness that comes from suffering which has 
 reached its lowest depths, that he was about to 
 rebuke him again. 
 
 'And so,' said General Mars ton sternly, 'you 
 have come into your kingdom; into what you 
 deserve/ 
 
 ' Yes/ said Charles. ' If it is any pleasure to 
 you to know that what you prophesied on several 
 occasions has come true, you can enjoy it. I am 
 ruined/ 
 
 ' You fool ! ' said the sick man slowly. ' To 
 have come to five-and- thirty, and to have used up 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 223 
 
 everything which makes life worth having. I am 
 not speaking only of money. There is a bankruptcy 
 in your face that money will never pay. And you 
 had talent and a good heart and the making of a 
 man in you once ! I saw that when your father 
 turned you adrift. I saw that when you were at 
 your worst after your brother's marriage. Yes, you 
 need not start. I knew your secret and kept it as 
 well as you did yourself. I tried to stop you ; but 
 you went your own way.' 
 
 Charles was silent. It was true, and he knew it. 
 
 'And so you thought, I suppose, that if your 
 father had made a just will you could have retrieved 
 yourself ? ' 
 
 ' I know I could/ said Charles firmly ; ' but he 
 
 left the shire property to Ealph, and every 
 
 shilling of his capital; and Ealph had my mother's 
 fortune already. I have Stoke Moreton and the 
 place in Surrey, which he could not take from me, 
 but everything is entailed, down to the trees in the 
 park. I have nominally a large income ; but I am 
 in the hands of the Jews. I can't settle with them 
 as I expected, and they will squeeze me to the 
 uttermost. However, as you say, I have the con- 
 solation of knowing I brought it' on myself.' 
 
 'And if your father had acted justly, as you 
 would call it, which I knew he never would, you 
 would have run through everything in five years' 
 time.' 
 
 ' No, I should not. I know I have been a fool ; 
 but there are two kinds of fools the kind that 
 sticks to folly all its life, and the kind that has its 
 
224 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 fling, and has done with it. I belong to the second 
 kind. My father had no right to take my last 
 chance from me. If he had left it me, I should 
 have used it.' 
 
 ' You look tired of your fling/ said the elder man. 
 ' Very tired. And you think money would set you 
 right, do you ? ' He looked critically at the worn, 
 desperate face opposite him. ' I made my will the 
 other day/ he went on, his eyes still fixed on 
 Charles. ' I had not much to leave, and I have no 
 near relations, so I divided it among various charit- 
 able institutions. I see no reason to alter my will. 
 If one leaves money, however small the sum may 
 be, one likes to think it has been left to some 
 purpose, with some prospect of doing good. A few 
 days ago I had a surprise. I fancy it was to be 
 my last surprise in this world. I inherited from a 
 distant relation, who died intestate, a large fortune. 
 After being a poor man all my days, wealth comes 
 to me when I am on the point of going where 
 money won't follow. Curious, isn't it ? I am 
 going to leave this second sum in the same spirit 
 as the first, but in rather a different manner. I 
 like to know what I am doing, so I sent for you. 
 I am of opinion that the best thing I can do with 
 it is to set you on your legs again. What do you 
 owe?' 
 
 Charles turned very red, and then very white. 
 
 ' What do you owe ? ' repeated the sick man 
 testily. ' I am getting tired. How much is it ? ' 
 He got out a cheque-book, and began filling it in. 
 ' Have you no tongue ? ' he said angrily, looking 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 225 
 
 up. ' Tell me the exact figure. Well ? Keep 
 nothing back.' 
 
 'I won't be given the whole,' said Charles with 
 an oath. ' Give me enough to settle the Jews, and 
 I will do the rest out of my income. I won't get 
 off scot free.' 
 
 ' Well, then, have your own way as usual, and 
 name the sum you want. There, take it/ he said 
 feebly, when Charles had mentioned with shame a 
 certain hideous figure, ' and go. I shall never know 
 what you do with it, so you can play ducks and 
 drakes with it if you like. But you won't like. 
 You have burned your fingers too severely to play 
 with fire again. You have turned over so many 
 new leaves that now you have come to the last 
 in the book. I have given you another chance, 
 Charles; but one man can't do much to help 
 another. The only person who can really help 
 you is yourself. Give yourself a chance, too/ 
 
 How memory brought back every word of that 
 strange interview. Charles saw again the face of 
 the dying man ; heard again the stern, feeble voice, 
 ' Give yourself a chance/ 
 
 He had given himself a chance. ' Some natures, 
 like comets, make strange orbits, and return from 
 far.' Charles had returned at last. The old man's 
 investment had been a wise one. But, as Charles 
 looked back, after three years, he saw that his 
 friend had been right. His money debts had been 
 the least part of what he owed. There were other 
 long-standing accounts which he had paid in full 
 during these three years, paid in the restless weari- 
 
 15 
 
226 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ness and disappointment that underlay his life, in 
 the loneliness in which he lived, in his contempt for 
 all his former pursuits, which had left him at first 
 devoid of any pursuits at all. 
 
 He had had, as was natural, very little happiness 
 in his life, but all the bitterness of all his bitter past 
 seemed as nothing to the agony of this moment. 
 He had loved Evelyn with his imagination, but he 
 loved Euth with his whole heart and soul, and he 
 had lost her. 
 
 The night was far advanced. The dawn was 
 already making faint bars over the tops of the 
 shutters, was looking in at him as he sat motionless 
 by his dim lamp and his dead fire. And, in spite 
 of the growing dawn, it was a dark hour. 
 
CHAPTEK XX 
 
 DARE returned to Vandon in the highest spirits, 
 with an enormous emerald engagement ring in an 
 inner waistcoat pocket. He put it on Kuth's third 
 finger a few days later, under the ancient cedar on 
 the terrace at Vandon, a spot which, he informed her 
 (for he was not without poetic flights at times), his 
 inner consciousness associated with all the love 
 scenes of his ancestors that were no more. 
 
 He was stricken to the heart when, after duly 
 admiring it, Euth gently explained to him that she 
 could not wear his ring at present, until her engage- 
 ment was given out. 
 
 ' Let it then be given out,' he said impetuously. 
 ' Ah ! why already is it not given out ? ' 
 
 She explained again, but it was difficult to make 
 him understand, and she felt conscious that if he 
 would have allowed her the temporary use of one 
 hand to release a fly, which was losing all self- 
 control inside her veil, she might have been more 
 lucid. As it was, she at last made him realise 
 the fact, that until Lord Polesworth's return from 
 America in November no further step was to be taken. 
 
228 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' But all is right/ he urged with pride. ' I have 
 seen my lawyer; I make a settlement. I raise 
 money on the property to make a settlement. There 
 is nothing I will not do. I care for nothing, only to 
 marry you.' 
 
 Kuth led him to talk of other things. She was 
 very gentle with him, always attentive, always 
 ready to be interested ; but any one less self-centred 
 than Dare would have had a misgiving about her 
 feeling for him. He had none. Half his life he 
 had spent in Paris, and, imbued with French ideas 
 of betrothal and marriage, he thought her manner at 
 once exceedingly becoming and natural. She was 
 reserved, but reserve was charming. She did not 
 care for him very much perhaps, as yet, but as much 
 as she could care for any one. Most men think that 
 if a woman does not attach herself to them she is by 
 nature cold. Dare was no exception to the rule ; 
 and though he would have preferred that there 
 should be less constraint in their present intercourse, 
 that she would be a little more shy, and a little 
 less calm, still he was supremely happy and proud, 
 and only longed to proclaim the fortunate state of 
 his affairs to the world. 
 
 One thing about Ruth puzzled him very much, 
 and with a vague misgiving she saw it did so. Her 
 interest in the Vandon cottages, and the schools, and 
 the new pump, had been most natural up to this 
 time. It had served to bring them together. But now 
 the use of these things was past, and yet he observed, 
 with incredulity at first and astonishment afterwards, 
 that she clung to them more than ever. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 229 
 
 What mattered it for the moment whether the 
 pump was put up or not, or whether the cottages by 
 the river were protected from the floods ? Of course 
 in time, for he had promised, a vague something 
 would be done ; but why in the golden season of love 
 and plighted faith revert to prosaic subjects such as 
 these ? 
 
 Some men are quite unable to believe in any 
 act of a woman being genuine. They always find 
 out that it has something to do with them. If an 
 angel came down from heaven to warn a man of 
 this kind, of wrath to come, he would think the real 
 object of her journey was to make his acquaintance. 
 
 Euth saw the incredulity in Dare's face when 
 she questioned him, and her heart sank within her. 
 It sank yet lower when she told him one day, with 
 a faint smile, that she knew he was not rich, and 
 that she wanted him to let her help in the rebuild- 
 ing of certain cottages, the plans of which he had 
 brought over in the summer, but which had not yet 
 been begun, apparently for want of funds. 
 
 ' What you cannot do alone we can do together/ 
 she said. 
 
 He agreed with effusion. He was surprised, 
 flattered, delighted ; but entirely puzzled. 
 
 The cottages were begun immediately. They 
 were near the river, which divided the Slumberleigh 
 and Vandon properties. Euth often went to look 
 at them. It did her good to see them rising, strong 
 and firm, though hideous to behold, on higher ground 
 than the poor dilapidated hovels at the water's edge, 
 where fever was always breaking out, which yet 
 
230 SIR CHARLES BANTERS 
 
 made, as they supported each other in their crooked- 
 ness, and leant over their own wavering reflections, 
 such a picturesque sketch that it seemed a shame to 
 supplant them by such brand-new red brick, such 
 blue tiling, such orthodox little porches. 
 
 Euth drew the old condemned cottages, with the 
 long lines of pollarded marshy meadow, and the 
 distant bridge and mill in the background, but it 
 was a sketch she never cared to look at afterwards. 
 She was constantly drawing now. There was a 
 vague restlessness in her at this time that made her 
 take refuge in the world of nature, where the mind 
 can withdraw itself from itself for a time into a 
 stronghold where misgiving and anxiety cannot 
 corrupt, nor self break through and steal. In these 
 days she shut out self steadfastly, and fixed her 
 eyes firmly on the future, as she herself had made 
 it with her own hands. 
 
 She had grown very grave of late. Dare's high 
 spirits had the effect of depressing her more than 
 she would allow, even to herself. She liked him. 
 She told herself so every day, and it was a pleasure 
 to her to see him so happy. But when she had 
 accepted him he was so diffident, so quiet, so anxious, 
 that she had not realised that he would return to 
 his previous happy self-confidence, his volubility, 
 his gray hats, in fact his former gay self, directly 
 his mind was at ease, and he had got what he 
 wanted. She saw at once that the change was 
 natural, but she found it difficult to keep pace with, 
 and the effort to do so was a constant strain. 
 
 She had yet to learn that it is hard to live for those 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 231 
 
 who live for self. Between a nature which struggles, 
 however feebly, towards a higher life, and one whose 
 sole object is gracefully and good-naturedly, but 
 persistently to enjoy itself, there is a great gulf fixed, 
 of which often neither is aware, until they attempt 
 a close relationship with each other, when the chasm 
 reveals itself with appalling clearness to the higher 
 nature of the two. 
 
 Kuth was glad when a long-standing engagement 
 to sing at a private concert in one place, and sell 
 modern knick-knacks in old English costume at 
 another, took her from Slumberleigh for a week. 
 She looked forward to the dreary dissipation in store 
 for her with positive gladness ; and when the week 
 had passed, and she was returning once more, she 
 wished the stations would not fly so quickly past, 
 that the train would not hurry itself so unneces- 
 sarily to bring her back to Slumberleigh. 
 
 As the little local line passed Stoke Moreton 
 station she looked out for a moment, but leaned 
 back hurriedly as she caught a glimpse of the Danvers' 
 omnibus in the background, with its great black 
 horses, and a footman with a bag standing on the 
 platform. In another moment Mrs. Alwynn, 
 followed by the footman, made a dart at Buth's 
 carriage, jumped in, seized the bag, repeated voluble 
 thanks, pressed half her gaily-dressed person out again 
 through the window to ascertain that her boxes 
 were put in the van, caught her veil in the venti- 
 lator as the train started, and finally precipitated 
 herself into a seat on her bag, as the motion 
 destroyed her equilibrium. 
 
232 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Well, Aunt Fanny !' said Kuth. 
 
 ' Why, goodness gracious, my dear, if it isn't you i 
 And, now I think of it, you were to come home to 
 day. Well, how oddly things fall out, to be sure, 
 me getting into your carriage like that. And you'll 
 never guess, Kuth, though for that matter there's 
 nothing so very astonishing about it, as I told Mrs. 
 Thursby, you'll never guess where Tve been visit- 
 ing.' 
 
 Kuth remembered seeing the Danvers' omnibus 
 at the station, and suddenly remembered, too, a 
 certain request which she had once made of Charles. 
 
 * Where can it have been ? ' she said, with a 
 great show of curiosity. 
 
 'You will never guess,' said Mrs. Alwynn, in 
 high glee. 'I shall have to help you. You re- 
 member my sprained ankle ? There ! Now I have 
 as good as told you.' 
 
 But Kuth would not spoil her aunt's pleasure ; 
 and, after numerous guesses, Mrs. Alwynn had the 
 delight of taking her completely by surprise, when 
 at last she leaned forward and said, with a rustle 
 of pride, emphasising each word with a pat on 
 Kuth's knee 
 
 ' I've been to Stoke Moreton.' 
 
 ' How delightful ! ' ejaculated Kuth. ' How as- 
 tonished I am ! Stoke Moreton ! ' 
 
 'You may well say that,' said Mrs. Alwynn, 
 nodding to her. ' Mrs. Thursby would not believe 
 it at first, and afterwards she said she was afraid 
 there would not be any party; but there was, Kuth. 
 There was a married couple, very nice people, of 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 233 
 
 the name of Beynolds. I daresay, being London 
 people, you may have known them. She had quite 
 the London look about her, though not dressed low 
 of an evening; and he was a clergyman, who had over- 
 worked himself, and had come down to Stoke Moreton 
 to rest, and had soup at luncheon. And there was 
 another person besides, a Colonel Middleton, a very 
 clever man, who wrote a book that was printed, and 
 had been in India, and was altogether most superior. 
 We were three gentlemen and two ladies, but we 
 had ices each night, Kuth, two kinds of ices ; and 
 the second night I wore my ruby satin, and the 
 clergyman at Stoke Moreton, that nice young Mr. 
 Brown, who comes to your uncle's chapter meetings, 
 dined, with his sister, a very pleasing person indeed, 
 Euth, in black. In fact, it was a very pleasant 
 little gathering, so nice and informal, and the foot- 
 men did not wait at luncheon, just put the pudding 
 and the hot plates down to the fire ; and Sir 
 Charles so chatty and so full of his jokes, and I 
 always like to hear him, though my scent of humour 
 is not quite the same as his. Sir Charles has a 
 feeling heart, Kuth. You should have heard Mr. 
 Eeynolds talk about him. But he looked very thin 
 and pale, my dear, and he seemed to be always so 
 tired, but still as pleasant as could be. And I told 
 him he wanted a wife to look after him, and I 
 advised him to have an egg beaten up in ever such 
 a little drop of brandy at eleven o'clock, and he 
 said he would think about it, he did indeed, Euth ; 
 so I just went quietly to the housekeeper and asked 
 her to see to it, and a very sensible person she was, 
 
234 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Kuth, been in the family twenty years, and thinks 
 all the world of Sir Charles, and showed me the 
 damask tablecloths that were used for the prince's 
 visit, and the white satin coverlet, embroidered with 
 gold thistles, quite an heirloom, which had been 
 worked by the ladies of the house when James I. 
 slept there. Think of that, my dear ! ' 
 
 And so Mrs. Alwynn rambled on, recounting 
 how Charles had shown her all the pictures himself, 
 and the piazza where the orange and myrtle trees 
 were, and how she and Mrs. Keynolds had gone for 
 a drive together, 'in a beautiful landau/ etc. etc., 
 till they reached home. 
 
 As a rule Kuth rather shrank from travelling 
 with Mrs. Alwynn, who always journeyed in her 
 best clothes, ' because you never know whom jou 
 may not meet' To stand on a platform with her 
 was to be made conspicuous, and Ruth generally 
 found herself unconsciously going into half-mourning 
 for the day, when she went anywhere by rail with 
 her aunt. To-day Mrs. Alwynn was more gaily 
 dressed than ever, but as Euth looked at her 
 beaming face she felt nothing but a strange pleasure 
 in the fact that Charles had not forgotten the little 
 request which later events had completely effaced 
 from her own memory. He, it seemed, had re- 
 membered, and, in spite of what had passed, had 
 done what she asked him. She wished that she 
 could have told him she was grateful. Alas ! 
 There were other things that she wished she could 
 have told him ; that she was sorry she had mis- 
 judged him ; that she understood him better now. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 235 
 
 But what did it matter? What did it matter? 
 She was going to marry Dare, and lie was the 
 person whom she must try to understand for the 
 remainder of her natural life. She thought a little 
 wearily that she could understand him without 
 trying. 
 
CHAPTEK XXI 
 
 THE 18th of October had arrived. Slumberleigh 
 Hall was filling. The pheasants, reprieved till then, 
 supposed it was only for partridge shooting, and, 
 thinking no evil, ate Indian corn, and took no 
 thought for the annual St. Bartholomew of their 
 race. 
 
 Mabel Thursby had met Kuth out walking that 
 day, and had informed her that Charles was to be 
 one of the guns, also Dare, though, as she re- 
 membered to add, suspecting Dare admired Euth, 
 the latter was a bad shot, and was only asked out 
 of neighbourly feeling. 
 
 After parting with Mabel, Kuth met, almost at 
 her own gate, Ealph Danvers, who passed her on 
 horseback, and then turned on recognising her. 
 Ralph's conversational powers were not great, and, 
 though he walked his horse beside her, he chiefly 
 contented himself with assenting to Kuth's remarks 
 until she asked after Molly. 
 
 He at once whistled and flicked a fly off his 
 horse's neck. 
 
 ' Sad business with Molly,' he said ; ' and mother 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 237 
 
 out for the day. Great grief in the nursery. Vic's 
 dead ! ' 
 
 'Oh, poor Molly!* 
 
 'Died this morning. Fits. I say/ with a 
 sudden inspiration, 'you wouldn't go over and 
 cheer her up, would you ? Mother's out. I'm out. 
 Magistrates' meeting at D .' 
 
 Euth said she had nothing to do, and would go 
 over at once, and Ealph nodded kindly at her, and 
 rode on. He liked her, and it never occurred to 
 him that it could be anything but a privilege to 
 minister to any need of Molly's. He jogged on 
 more happily after his meeting with Euth, and only 
 remembered half an hour later that he had com- 
 pletely forgotten to order the dogcart to meet 
 Charles, who was coming to Atherstone for a night 
 before he went on to kill the Slumberleigh pheasants 
 the following morning. 
 
 Euth set out at once over the pale stubble fields, 
 glad of an object for a walk. 
 
 Deep distress reigned meanwhile in the nursery 
 at Atherstone. Vic, the much-beloved, the stoat 
 pursuer, the would-be church-goer, Vic was dead, 
 and Molly's soul refused comfort. In vain nurse 
 conveyed a palpitating guinea pig into the nursery 
 in a bird cage, on the narrow door of which remains 
 of fur showed an unwilling entrance ; Molly could 
 derive no comfort from guinea pigs. 
 
 In vain was the new horse, with leather hoofs, 
 with real hair, and a horsehair tail in vain was 
 that token of esteem from Uncle Charles brought 
 out of its stable, and unevenly yoked with a 
 
288 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 dappled pony planted on a green oval lawn, into 
 Molly's own hay -cart. Molly's woe was beyond 
 the reach of hay-carts, or horsehair tails, however 
 realistic. Like Hezekiah, she turned her face to 
 the nursery wall, on which trains and railroads were 
 depicted ; and, even when cook herself rose up out 
 of her kitchen to comfort her with material consola- 
 tions, she refused the mockery of a gingerbread nut, 
 which could not restore the friend with whom 
 previous gingerbread nuts had always been equally 
 divided. 
 
 Presently a step came along the passage, and 
 Charles, who had found no one in the drawing- 
 room, came in tired and dusty, and inclined to be 
 annoyed at having had to walk up from the station. 
 
 Molly flew to him, and flung her arms tightly 
 round his neck. 
 
 'Oh, Uncle Charles! Uncle Charles! Vic is 
 dead!' 
 
 ' I am so sorry, Molly,' taking her on his knee. 
 
 Nurse and the nursery-maid and cook withdrew, 
 leaving the two mourners alone together. 
 
 'He is dead, Uncle Charles. He was quite 
 well, and eating Albert biscuits with the dolls this 
 morning, and now ' The rest was too dread- 
 ful, and Molly burst into a flood of tears, and 
 burrowed with her head against the faithful waist- 
 coat of Uncle Charles Uncle Charles, the friend, 
 the consoler of all the ills that Molly had so far 
 been heir to. 
 
 ' Vic had a very happy life, Molly,' said Charles, 
 pressing the little brown head against his cheek 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 239 
 
 and vaguely wondering what it would be like to 
 have any one to turn to in time of trouble. 
 
 ' I always kept trouble from him, except that 
 time I shut him in the door/ gasped Molly. ' I 
 never took him out in a string, and he only wore 
 his collar that collar you gave him, that made him 
 scratch so on Sundays.' 
 
 'And he was not ill a long time. He did not 
 suffer any pain ? ' 
 
 ' No, Uncle Charles, not much ; but, though he 
 did not say anything, his face looked worse than 
 screaming, and he passed away very stiff in his 
 hind legs. Oh ! ' (with a fresh outburst) ' when 
 cook told me that her sister that was in a decline 
 had gone, I never thought ' (sob, sob !) ' poor Vic 
 would be the next.' 
 
 A step came along the passage, a firm light step 
 that Charles knew, that made his heart beat violently. 
 
 The door opened and a familiar voice said 
 
 f Molly ! My poor Molly ! I met father, 
 and ' 
 
 'Ruth stood in the doorway, and stopped short. 
 A wave of colour passed over her face, and left it 
 paler than usual. 
 
 Charles looked at her over the mop of Molly's 
 brown head against his breast. Their grave eyes 
 met, and each thought how ill the other looked. 
 
 ' I did not know I thought you were going to 
 Slumberleigh to-day,' said Ruth. 
 
 ' I go to-morrow morning,' replied Charles. ' I 
 came here first/ 
 
 There was an awkward silence ; but Molly came 
 
240 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 to their relief by a sudden rush at Euth, and a re- 
 petition of the details of the deathbed scene of poor 
 Vic for her benefit, for which both were grateful. 
 
 ' You ought to be thinking where he is to be 
 buried, Molly/ suggested Charles, when she had 
 finished. ' Let us go into the garden and find a 
 place/ 
 
 Molly revived somewhat at the prospect of a 
 funeral, and, though Kuth was anxious to leave her 
 with her uncle, insisted on her remaining for the 
 ceremony. They went out together, Molly holding 
 a hand of each, to choose a suitable spot in the 
 garden. By the time the grave had been dug by 
 Charles, Molly was sufficiently recovered to take a 
 lively interest in the proceedings, and to insist on 
 the attendance of the stable cat, in deep mourning, 
 when the remains of poor Vic, arrayed in his best 
 collar, were lowered into their long home. 
 
 By the time the last duties to the dead had been 
 performed, and Charles, under Molly's direction, 
 had planted a rose tree on the grave, while Euth 
 surrounded the little mound with white pebbles, 
 Molly's tea-time had arrived, and that young lady 
 allowed herself to be led away by the nursery-maid, 
 with the stable cat in a close embrace, resigned, and 
 even cheerful at the remembrance of those creature 
 comforts of cook's, which earlier in the day she had 
 refused so peremptorily. 
 
 When Molly left them, Euth and Charles walked 
 together in silence to the garden gate which led to 
 the footpath over the fields by which she had come 
 Neither had a word to say, who formerly had so much 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 241 
 
 ' Good-bye/ she said, without looking at him. 
 
 He seemed intent on the hasp of the gate. 
 
 There was a moment's pause. 
 
 ' I should like/ said Kuth, hating herself for the 
 formality of her tone, ' to thank you before I go for 
 giving Mrs. Alwynn so much pleasure. She still 
 talks of her visit to you. It was kind of you to 
 remember it. So much seems to have happened 
 since then, that I had not thought of it again.' 
 
 At her last words Charles raised his eyes and 
 looked at her with strange wistful intentness, but 
 when Euth had finished speaking he had no remark 
 to make in answer ; and as he stood bareheaded by 
 the gate, twirling the hasp and looking, as a hasty 
 glance told her, so worn and jaded in the sunshine, 
 she said ' Good-bye ' again, and turned hastily away. 
 
 And all along the empty harvested fields, and 
 all along the lanes, where the hips and haws grew 
 red and stiff among the ruddy hedgerows, Kuth still 
 saw Charles's grave worn face. 
 
 That night she saw it still, as she sat in her own 
 room, and listened to the whisper of the rain upon 
 the roof, and the touch of its myriad fingers on the 
 window-panes. 
 
 ' I cannot bear to see him look like that. I 
 cannot bear it/ she said suddenly; and the storm 
 which had been gathering so long, the clouds of 
 which had darkened the sky for so many days, 
 broke at last, with a strong and mighty wind of 
 swift emotion which carried all before it. 
 
 It was a relief to give way, to let the tempest do 
 its worst, and remain passive. But when its force 
 
 16 
 
242 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 was spent at last, and it died away in gusts and 
 flying showers, it left flood and wreckage and deso- 
 lation behind. When Euth raised her head and 
 looked about her, all her landmarks were gone. 
 There was a streaming glory in the heavens, but it 
 shone on the ruin of all her little world below. 
 She loved Charles, and she knew it. It seemed to 
 her now as if, though she had not realised it, she 
 must have loved him from the first ; and with the 
 knowledge came an overwhelming sense of utter 
 misery that struck terror to her heart. She under- 
 stood at last the meaning of the weariness and the 
 restless misgivings of these last weeks. If hereto- 
 fore they had spoken in riddles, they spoke plainly 
 now. Every other feeling in the world seemed to 
 have been swept away by a passion, the overwhelm- 
 ing strength of which she regarded panic-stricken. 
 She seemed to have been asleep all her life, to have 
 stirred restlessly once or twice of late, and now to 
 have waked to consciousness and agony. Love, 
 with women like Euth, is a great happiness or a 
 great calamity. It is with them indeed for better, 
 for worse. 
 
 Those whose feelings lie below the surface escape 
 the hundred rubs and scratches which superficial 
 natures are heir to ; but it is the nerve which is 
 not easily reached which when touched gives forth the 
 sharpest pang. Nature, when she gives intensity of 
 feeling, mercifully covers it well with a certain super- 
 ficial coldness. Euth had sometimes wondered why 
 the incidents, the books, which called forth emotion in 
 others, passed her by. The vehement passion which 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 243 
 
 once or twice in her life she had involuntarily 
 awakened in others had met with no response from 
 herself. The sight of the fire she had unwittingly 
 kindled only made her shiver with cold. She 
 believed herself to be cold always a dangerous 
 assumption on the part of a woman, and apt to 
 prove a broken reed in emergency. 
 
 Charles knew her better than she knew herself. 
 Her pride and unconscious humble-mindedness, her 
 frankness with its underlying reserve, spoke of 
 a strong nature, slow, perhaps, but earnest, constant, 
 and, once roused, capable of deep attachment. 
 
 And now the common lot had befallen her, the 
 common lot of man and womankind since Adam 
 first met Eve in the Garden of Eden. Kuth was 
 not exempt. 
 
 She loved Charles. 
 
 When the dawn came up pale and tearful to 
 wake the birds, it found her still sitting by her win- 
 dow, sitting where she had sat all night, looking 
 with blank eyes at nothing. Creep into bed, Euth, 
 for already the sparrows are all waking, and their 
 cheerful greetings to the new day add weariness to 
 your weariness. Creep into bed, for soon the 
 servants will be stirring, and before long Martha, 
 who has slept all night, and thinks your lines have 
 fallen to you in pleasant places and late hours, will 
 bring the hot water, 
 
CHAPTEK XXII 
 
 RESERVED people pay dear for their reserve when 
 they are in trouble, when the iron enters into their 
 soul, and their eyes meet the eyes of the world tear- 
 less, unflinching, making no sign. 
 
 Enviable are those whose sorrows are only pen 
 and ink deep, who take every one into their confi- 
 dence, who are comforted by sympathy, and fly to 
 those who will weep with them. There is an utter 
 solitude, a silence in the grief of a proud, reserved 
 nature which adds a frightful weight to its intensity ; 
 and when the night comes, and the chamber door is 
 shut, who shall say what agonies of prayers and 
 tears, what prostrations of despair pass like waves 
 over the soul, to make the balance even ? 
 
 As a rule, the kindest and best of people seldom 
 notice any alteration of appearance or manner in one 
 of their own family. A stranger points it out, if 
 ever it is pointed out, which happily is not often, 
 unless, of course, in cases where advice has been 
 disregarded, and the first symptom of ill-health is 
 jealously watched for, and triumphantly hailed, by 
 those whose mission in life it is to say, ' I told you so.' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 245 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn, whose own complaints were of so 
 slight a nature that they had to be constantly 
 referred to to give them any importance at all, was 
 not likely to notice that Euth's naturally pale com- 
 plexion had become several degrees too pale during 
 the last two days, or that she had dark rings under 
 her eyes. Besides, only the day before, had not 
 Mrs. Alwynn, in cutting out a child's shirt, cut out 
 at the same time her best drawing-room tablecloth 
 as well, which calamity had naturally driven out of 
 her mind every other subject for the time ? 
 
 Euth had proved unsympathetic, and Mrs. 
 Alwynn had felt her to be so. The next day, also, 
 when Mrs. Alwynn had begun to talk over what she 
 and Euth were to wear that evening at a dinner- 
 party at Slumberleigh Hall, Euth had again shown 
 a decided want of interest, and was not even to be 
 roused by the various conjectures of her aunt, though 
 repeated over and over again, as to who would most 
 probably take her in to dinner, who would be 
 assigned to Mr. Alwynn, and whether Euth would 
 be taken in by a married man or a single one. As 
 it was quite impossible absolutely to settle these 
 interesting points beforehand, Mrs. Alwynn's mind 
 had a vast field for conjecture opened to her, in 
 which she disported herself at will, varying the 
 entertainment for herself and Euth by speculating as 
 to who would sit on the other side of each of them ; 
 ' for,' as she justly observed, ' everybody has two sides, 
 my dear ; and though, for my part, I can talk to any- 
 body Members of Parliament, or bishops, or any one 
 still it is difficult for a young person ; and if you 
 
246 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 feel dull, Ruth, you can always turn to the person 
 on the other side with some easy little remark.' 
 
 Euth rose and went to the window. It had 
 rained all yesterday; it had been raining all the 
 morning to-day, but it was fair now ; nay, the sun 
 was sending out long burnished shafts from the 
 broken gray and blue of the sky. She was pos- 
 sessed by an unreasoning longing to get out of the 
 house into the open air anywhere, no matter where, 
 beyond the reach of Mrs. Alwynn's voice. She had 
 been fairly patient with her for many months, but 
 during these two last wet days a sense of sudden 
 miserable irritation would seize her on the slightest 
 provocation, which filled her with remorse and com- 
 punction, but into which she would relapse at a 
 moment's notice. Every morning since her arrival, 
 nine months ago, had Mrs. Alwynn returned from 
 her housekeeping with the same cheerful bustle, 
 the same piece of information ' Well, Ruth, I've 
 ordered dinner, my dear. First one duty, and then 
 another ! ' 
 
 Why had that innocent and not unfamiliar 
 phrase become so intolerable when she heard it again 
 this morning ? And when Mrs. Alwynn wound up 
 the musical-box, and the ' Buffalo Girls ' tinkled on 
 the ear to relieve the monotony of a wet morning, 
 why should Ruth have struggled wildly for a 
 moment with a sudden inclination to laugh and cry 
 at the same time, which resulted in two large tears 
 falling unexpectedly, to her surprise and shame, 
 upon her book. 
 
 She shut the book, and, recovering herself with 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 247 
 
 aii effort, listened patiently to Mrs. Alwynn's 
 remarks, until, early in the afternoon, the sky 
 cleared. Making some excuse about going to see 
 her old nurse at the lodge at Arleigh, who was still 
 ill, she at last effected her escape out of the room, 
 and out of the house. 
 
 The air was fresh and clear, though cold. The 
 familiar fields and beaded hedgerows, the red land, 
 new ploughed, where the plovers hovered, the gray 
 broken sky above, soothed Euth like the presence of 
 a friend, as Nature, even in her commonest moods, 
 has ministered to many a one who has loved her 
 before Euth's time. 
 
 Our human loves partake always of the nature 
 of speculations. We have no security for our 
 capital (which fortunately is seldom so large as we 
 suppose) ; but the love of Nature is a sure invest- 
 ment, which she repays a thousandfold, which she 
 repays most prodigally when the heart is bankrupt 
 and full of bitterness, as Euth's heart was that day. 
 For in Nature, as Wordsworth says, 'there is no 
 bitterness/ that worst sting of human grief. And 
 as Euth walked among the quiet fields, and up the 
 yellow aisles of the autumn glades to Arleigh, Nature 
 spoke of peace to her not of joy or of happiness as in 
 old days, for she never lies, as human comforters do, 
 and these had gone out of her life ; but of the peace 
 that duty steadfastly adhered to will bring at last ; 
 the peace that after much turmoil will come in the 
 end to those who, amid a Babel of louder tongues, 
 hear and obey the low-pitched voices of conscience 
 and of principle. 
 
248 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 For it never occurred to Euth for a moment 
 to throw over Dare and marry Charles. She had 
 given her word to Dare, and her word was her bond. 
 It was as much a matter of being true to herself as 
 to him. It was very simple. There were no two 
 ways about it in her mind. The idea of breaking 
 off her engagement was not to be thought of. It 
 would be dishonourable. 
 
 We often think that, if we had been placed in 
 the same difficulties which we see overwhelm others, 
 we could have got out of them. Just so ; we might 
 have squeezed, or wriggled, or crept out of a position 
 from which another who would not stoop could not 
 have escaped. People are differently constituted. 
 Most persons with common sense can sink their 
 principles temporarily at a pinch ; but others there 
 are who go through life prisoners on parole to their 
 sense of honour or duty. If escape takes the form 
 of a temptation, they do not escape. And Euth, 
 walking with bent head beneath the swaying trees, 
 dreamed of no escape. 
 
 She soon reached the little lodge, the rusty gates 
 of which barred the grass -grown drive to the 
 shuttered, tenantless old house at a little distance. 
 It was a small gray stone house of many gables, 
 and low lines of windows, that if inhabited would 
 have possessed but little charm, but which in its 
 deserted state had a certain pathetic interest. The 
 place had been to let for years, but no one had taken 
 it ; no one was likely to take it in the disrepair 
 which was now fast sliding into ruin. 
 
 The garden beds were almost grown over with 
 
SIR CHAKLES BANTERS 249 
 
 weeds, but blots of nasturtium colour showed here 
 and there among the ragged green, and a Virginia 
 creeper had done its gorgeous red-and-yellow best to 
 cheer the gray stone walls. But the place had a 
 dreary appearance even in the present sunshine ; 
 and after looking at it for a moment, Euth went 
 indoors to see her old nurse. After sitting with her, 
 and reading the usual favourite chapter in the big 
 Bible, and answering the usual question of ' any 
 news of Master Eaymond ' in the usual way, Euth 
 got up to go, and the old woman asked her if she 
 wanted the drawing-block which she had left with 
 her some time ago, with an unfinished sketch on it 
 of the stables. She got it out, and Euth looked at 
 it. It was a slight sketch of an octagonal building 
 with wide arches all round it, roofing in a paved 
 path, on which, in days gone by, it had evidently 
 been the pernicious custom to exercise the horses, 
 whose stalls and loose boxes formed the centre of 
 the building. The stable had a certain quaintness, 
 and the sketch was at that delightful point when no 
 random stroke has as yet falsified the promise that 
 a finished drawing, however clever, so seldom fulfils. 
 Euth took it up, and looked out of the window. 
 The sun was blazing out, ashamed of his absence for 
 so long. She might as well finish it now. She 
 was glad to be out of the way of meeting any one, 
 especially the shooters, whose guns she had heard 
 in the nearer Slumberleigh coverts several times 
 that afternoon. The Arleigh woods she knew were 
 to be kept till later in the month. She took her 
 block and paint-box, and, picking her way along the 
 
250 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 choked gravel walk and down the side drive to the 
 stables, sat down on the bench for chopping wood 
 which had been left in the place to which she had 
 previously dragged it, and set to work. She was 
 sitting under one of the arches out of the wind, and 
 an obsequious yellow cat came out of the door of 
 one of the nearest horse-boxes in which wood was 
 evidently stacked, and rubbed itself against her 
 dress, with a reckless expenditure of hair. 
 
 As Kuth stopped a moment, bored but 
 courteous, to return its well-meant attentions by 
 friction behind the ears, she heard a slight 
 crackling among the wood in the stable. Eats 
 abounded in the place, and she was just about to 
 recall the cat to its professional duties, when her 
 own attention was also distracted. She started 
 violently, and grasped the drawing-block in both 
 hands. 
 
 Clear over the gravel, muffled but still distinct 
 across the long wet grass, she could hear a firm 
 step coming. Then it rang out sharply on the 
 stone pavement. A tall man came suddenly round 
 the corner, under the archway, and stood before 
 her. It was Charles. 
 
 The yellow cat, which had a leaning towards 
 the aristocracy, left Euth, and, picking its way 
 daintily over the round stones towards him, rubbed 
 off some more of its wardrobe against his heather 
 shooting stockings. 
 
 ' I hardly think it is worth while to say any- 
 thing except the truth,' said Charles at last. ' I 
 have followed you here.' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 251 
 
 As Euth could say nothing in reply, it was 
 fortunate that at the moment she had nothing 
 to say. She continued to mix a little pool of 
 Prussian blue and Italian pink without looking up. 
 
 ' I hurt my trigger finger after luncheon, and 
 had to stop shooting at Croxton corner. As I went 
 back to Slumberleigh, across the fields below the 
 Eectory, I thought I saw you in the distance, and 
 followed you.' 
 
 ' Is your hand much hurt ? ' with sudden 
 anxiety. 
 
 ' No,' said Charles, reddening a little. ' It will 
 stop my shooting for a day or two, but that is all.' 
 
 The colours were mixed again. Euth, contrary 
 to all previous conviction, added light red to the 
 Italian pink. The sketch had gone rapidly from 
 bad to worse, but the light red finished it off. It 
 never, so to speak, held up its head again ; but I 
 believe she has it still somewhere, put away in a 
 locked drawer in tissue paper, as if it were very 
 valuable. 
 
 ' I did not come without a reason,' said Charles, 
 after a long pause, speaking with difficulty. ' It is 
 no good beating about the bush. I want to speak 
 to you again about what I told you three weeks 
 ago. Have you forgotten what that was ? ' 
 
 Euth shook her head. She had not forgotten. 
 Her hand began to tremble, and he sat down 
 beside her on the bench, and, taking the brush out 
 of her hand, laid it in its box. 
 
 ' Euth,' he said gently, ' I have not been very 
 happy during the last three weeks, but two days 
 
252 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ago, when I saw you again, I thought you did not 
 look as if you had been very happy either. Am 
 I right ? Are you happy in your engagement 
 
 with ? Quite content ? Quite satisfied ? 
 
 Still silent. Am I to have no answer ? ' 
 
 ' Some questions have no answers ? ' said Euth 
 steadily, looking away from him. 'At least, the 
 questions that ought not to he asked have none.' 
 
 ' I will not ask any more, then. Perhaps, as 
 you say, I have no right You won't tell me 
 whether you are unhappy, but your face tells me so 
 in spite of you. It told me so two days ago, and I 
 have thought of it every hour of the day and night 
 since/ 
 
 She gathered herself together for a final effort 
 to stop what she knew was coming, and said 
 desperately 
 
 ' I don't know how it is. I don't mean it, and 
 yet everything I say to you seems so harsh and 
 unkind ; but I think it would have been better not 
 to come here, and I think it would be better, better 
 for us both, if you would go away now.' 
 
 Charles's face became set and very white. Then 
 he put his fortune to the touch. 
 
 ' You are right,' he said. ' I will go away for 
 good ; I will never trouble you again, when you 
 have told me that you do not love me.' 
 
 The colour rushed into her face, and then died 
 slowly away again, even out of the tightly com- 
 pressed lips. 
 
 There was a long silence, in which he waited 
 for a reply that did not come. At last she turned 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 253 
 
 and looked him in the face. Who has said that 
 light eyes cannot be impassioned ? Her deep eyes, 
 dark with the utter blankness of despair, fell before 
 the intensity of his. He leant towards her, and 
 with gentle strength put his arm round her, and 
 drew her to him. His voice came in a broken 
 whisper of passionate entreaty close to her ear. 
 
 'Kuth, I love you, and you love me. We 
 belong to each other. We were made for each 
 other. Life is not possible apart. It must be 
 
 together, Euth, always together, always ' and 
 
 his voice broke down entirely. 
 
 Surely he was right. A love such as theirs 
 overrode all petty barriers of everyday right and 
 wrong, and was a law unto itself. Surely it was 
 vain to struggle against Fate, against the soft yet 
 mighty current which was sweeping her away 
 beyond all landmarks, beyond the sight of land 
 itself, out towards an infinite sea. 
 
 And the eyes she loved looked into hers with 
 an agony of entreaty, and the voice she loved spoke 
 of love, spoke brokenly of unworthiness, and an 
 unhappy past, and of a brighter future, a future 
 with her. 
 
 Her brain reeled. Her reason had gone. Let 
 her yield now. Surely, if only she could think, if 
 the power to think had not deserted her, it was 
 right to yield. The current was taking her ever 
 swifter whither she knew not. A moment more 
 and there would be no going back. 
 
 She began to tremble, and, wrenching her hands 
 out of his, pressed them before her eyes to shut out 
 
254 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 the sight of the earnest face so near her own. But 
 she could not shut out his voice, and Charles's voice 
 could be very gentle, very urgent. 
 
 But at the eleventh hour another voice broke in 
 on his, and spoke as one having authority. Con- 
 science, if accustomed to be disregarded on common 
 occasions, will rarely come to the fore with any 
 decision in emergency; but the weakest do not put 
 him in a place of command all their lives without 
 at least one result, that he has learned the habit of 
 speaking up and making himself attended to in 
 time of need. He spoke now, urgently, imperatively. 
 Her judgment, her reason were alike gone for the 
 time, but, when she had paced the solemn aisles of 
 the woods an hour ago in possession of them, had she 
 then even thought of doing what she was on the 
 verge of doing now ? What had happened during 
 that hour to reverse the steadfast resolve which she 
 had made then ? What she had thought right an 
 hour ago remained right now. What she would 
 have put far from her as dishonourable then re- 
 mained dishonourable now, though she might be too 
 insane to see it. 
 
 Terror seized her, as of one in a dream who is 
 conscious of impending danger, and struggles to 
 awake before it is too late. She started to her feet; 
 and, putting forcibly aside the hands that would 
 have held her back, walked unsteadily towards the 
 nearest pillar, and leaned against it, trembling 
 violently. 
 
 ' Do not tempt me,' she said hoarsely. 'I cannot 
 bear it.' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 266 
 
 He came and stood beside her. 
 
 ' I do not tempt you/ he said. ' I want to save 
 you and myself from a great calamity before it is 
 too late.' 
 
 ' It is too late already.' 
 
 'No/ said Charles, in a low voice of intense 
 determination. ' It is not yet. It will be soon. 
 It is still possible to go back. You are not married 
 to him, and it is no longer right that you should 
 marry him. You must give him up. There is no 
 other way.' 
 
 'Yes/ said Kuth with vehemence. 'There is 
 another way. You have made me forget it ; but 
 before you came I saw it clearly. I can't think it 
 out as I did then ; but I know it is there. There 
 is another way/ and her voice faltered ; ' to do 
 what is right, and let everything else go.' 
 
 Charles saw for the first time, with a sudden 
 frightful contraction of the heart, that her will was 
 as strong as his own. He had staked everything 
 on one desperate appeal to her feelings; he had 
 carried the outworks, and now another adversary 
 her conscience rose up between him and her. 
 
 'A marriage without love is a sin/ he said 
 quietly. ' If you had lived in the world as long 
 as I have, and had seen what marriage without love 
 means, and what it generally comes to in the end, 
 you would know that I am speaking the truth. 
 You have no right to marry Dare if you care for 
 me. Hesitate, and it will be too late ! Break 
 off your engagement now. Do you suppose/ with 
 sudden fire, 'that we shall cease to love each 
 
256 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 other, that I shall be able to cease to love you for 
 the rest of my life because you are Dare's wife? 
 What is done can't be undone. Our love for each 
 other can't. It is no good shutting your eyes to 
 that. Look the facts in the face, and don't deceive 
 yourself into thinking that the most difficult course 
 is necessarily the right one/ 
 
 He turned from her, and sat down on the bench 
 again, his chin in his hands, his haggard eyes 
 fastened on her face. He had said his last word, 
 and she felt that when she spoke it would be her 
 last word too. Neither could bear much more. 
 
 ' All you say sounds right at first' she said, 
 after a long silence, and as she spoke Charles's 
 hands dropped from his face and clenched them- 
 selves together ; ' but I cannot go by what any one 
 thinks unless I think so myself as well. I can't 
 take other people's judgments. "When God gave 
 us our own, He did not mean us to shirk using it. 
 What you say is right, but there is something which 
 after a little bit seems more right at least, which 
 seems so to me. I cannot look at the future. I 
 can only see one thing distinctly, now in the 
 present, and that is that I cannot break my word. 
 I never have been able to see that a woman's word 
 is less binding than a man's. When I said I would 
 marry him, it was of my own free will. I knew 
 what I was doing, and it was not only for his sake 
 I did it. It is not as if he believed I cared for 
 him very much. Then, perhaps but he knows I 
 don't and he is different from other men he 
 does not seem to mind. I knew at the time that I 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 257 
 
 accepted him for the sake of other things, which 
 are just the same now as they were then ; because 
 he was poor and I had money ; because I felt sure 
 he would never do much by himself, and I thought 
 I could help him, and my money would help too ; 
 because the people at Vandon are so wretched, and 
 their cottages are tumbling down, and there is no 
 one who lives among them and cares about them. 
 I can't make it clear, and I did hesitate ; but at 
 the time it seemed wrong to hesitate. If it seemed 
 so right then, it cannot be all wrong now, even if it 
 has become hard. I cannot give it all up. He is 
 building cottages that I am to pay for, that I asked 
 to pay for. He cannot. And he has promised so 
 many people their houses shall be put in order, and 
 they all believe him. And he can't do it. If I 
 don't, it will not be done ; and some of them are 
 very old and and the winter is coming.' Kuth's 
 voice had become almost inaudible. ' Oh, Charles ! 
 Charles ! ' she said brokenly, ' I cannot bear to hurt 
 you. God knows I love you. I think I shall 
 always love you, though I shall try not. But I 
 cannot go back now from what I have undertaken. 
 I cannot break my word. I cannot do what is 
 wrong, even for you. Oh, God ! not even for you ! ' 
 
 She knelt down beside him, and took his clenched 
 hands between her own ; but he did not stir. 
 
 ' Not even for you/ she whispered, while two 
 hot tears fell upon his hands. In another moment 
 she had risen swiftly to her feet, and had left him. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIII 
 
 CHARLES sat quite still where Kuth had left him, 
 looking straight in front of him. He had not 
 thought for a moment of following her, of speaking 
 to her again. Her decision was final, and he knew 
 it. And now he also knew how much he had 
 built upon the wild new hope of the last two days. 
 
 Presently a slight discreet cough broke upon his 
 ear, apparently close at hand. 
 
 He started up, and, wheeling round in the 
 direction of the sound, called out in sudden anger, 
 ' Who is there ? ' 
 
 If there is a time when we feel that a fellow- 
 creature is entirely out of harmony with ourselves, 
 it is when we discover that he has overheard or 
 overseen us at a moment when we imagined we 
 were alone, or almost alone. 
 
 Charles was furious. 
 
 ' Come out ! ' he said in a tone that would have 
 made any ordinary creature stay as far in as it 
 could. And hearing a slight crackling in the 
 nearest horse-box, of which the door stood open, he 
 shook the door violently. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 259 
 
 ' Come out,' he repeated, ' this instant ! ' 
 
 ' Stop that noise, then,' said a voice sharply from 
 
 the inside, ' and keep quiet. By , a violent 
 
 temper, what a thing it is ; always raising a dust, 
 and kicking up a row, just when it's least 
 wanted.' 
 
 The voice made Charles start. 
 
 ' Great God ! ' he said, ' it's not ' 
 
 ' Yes, it is,' was the reply ; ' and wh.en you have 
 taken a seat on the farther end of that bench, and 
 recovered your temper, I'll show, but not before.' 
 
 Charles walked to the bench and sat down. 
 
 'You can come out/ he said in a carefully 
 lowered voice, in which there was contempt as well 
 as anger. 
 
 Accordingly there was a little more crackling 
 among the faggots, and a slight, shabbily dressed 
 man came to the door, and peered warily out, 
 shading his blinking eyes with his hand. 
 
 'If there is a thing I hate/ he said, with a 
 curious mixture of recklessness and anxiety, ' it is a 
 noise. Sit so that you face the left, will you, and 
 I'll look after the right, and if you see any one 
 coming you may as well mention it. I am only 
 at home to old friends.' 
 
 He took his hand from his eyes as they became 
 more accustomed to the light, and showed a shrewd, 
 dissipated face, that yet had a kind of ruined good 
 looks about it, and, what was more hateful to 
 Charles than anything else, a decided resemblance 
 to Kuth. Though he was shabby in the extreme, 
 his clothes sat upon him as they always and only 
 
260 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 do sit upon a gentleman ; and, though his face and 
 voice showed that he had severed himself effectually 
 from the class in which he had been born, a certain 
 unsuitability remained between his appearance and 
 his evidently disreputable circumstances. When 
 Charles looked at him he was somehow reminded of 
 a broken-down thoroughbred in a hansom cab. 
 
 ' It is a quiet spot/ remarked Eaymond Deyn- 
 court, for he it was, standing in the doorway, his 
 watchful eyes scanning the deserted courtyard and 
 strip of green. ' A retired and a peaceful spot. I'm 
 sorry if my cough annoyed you, coming when it did, 
 but I thought you seemed before to be engaged in 
 conversation, which I felt a certain diffidence in 
 interrupting.' 
 
 ' So you listened, I suppose ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, I listened. I did not hear as much as I 
 could have wished, but it was your best manner, 
 Danvers. You certainly have a gift, though you 
 dropped your voice unnecessarily once or twice, I 
 thought. If I had had your talents, I should not 
 be here now. Eh ? Dear me ! you can swear still, 
 can you ? How refreshing. I fancied you had 
 quite reformed/ 
 
 ' Why are you here now ? ' asked Charles 
 sternly. 
 
 Eaymond shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 ' Why are you here ? ' continued Charles bitterly, 
 ' when you swore to me in July that if I would pay 
 your passage out again to America you would let 
 her alone in future ? Why are you here, when I 
 wrote to tell you that she had promised me she 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 261 
 
 would never give you money again without advice ? 
 But I might have known you could break a promise 
 as easily as make one. I might have known you 
 would only keep it as long as it suited yourself.' 
 
 ' Well, now, I'm glad to hear you say that/ said 
 Raymond airily, ' because it takes off any feeling of 
 surprise I was afraid you might feel at seeing me 
 back here. There's nothing like a good understand- 
 ing between friends. I'm precious hard up, I can 
 tell you, or I should not have come ; and when a 
 fellow has got into as tight a place as I have he 
 has got to think of other things besides keeping 
 promises. Have you seen to-day's papers ? ' with 
 sudden eagerness. 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' Any news about the Frisco forgery case ? ' and 
 Raymond leaned forward through the door, and 
 spoke in a whisper. 
 
 ' Nothing much,' said Charles, trying to recollect. 
 ' Nothing new to-day, I think. You know they got 
 one of them two days ago, followed him down to 
 Birmingham, and took him in the train.' 
 
 Raymond drew in his breath. 
 
 ' I don't hold with trains,' he said after a pause ; 
 ' at least, not with passengers. I told him as much 
 at the time. And the the other one Stephens ? 
 Any news of him ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing more about him, as far as I can 
 remember. They were both traced together from 
 Boston to London, but there they parted company. 
 Stephens is at large still.' 
 
 'Is he ? ' said Raymond. ' By George, I'm glad 
 
262 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 to hear it ! I hope he'll keep so, that's all. I'm 
 glad I left that fool. He'd not my notions at all. 
 We split two days ago, and I made tracks for the 
 old diggings ; got down as far as Tarbury under a 
 tarpaulin in a goods train there's some sense in a 
 goods train and then lay close by a weir of the 
 canal, and got aboard a barge after dark. Nothing 
 breaks a scent like a barge. And it went the right 
 way for my business too, and travelled all night. 
 I kept close all next day, and then struck across 
 country for this place at night. If I hadn't known 
 the lie of the land from a boy, when I used to spend 
 the holidays with old Alwynn, I couldn't have done 
 it, or if I'd been as dog lame as I was in July ; but I 
 was pushed for time, and I footed it up here, and 
 got in just before dawn. And not too soon either, 
 for I'm cleaned out, and food is precious hard to 
 come by if you don't care to go shopping for it. I 
 am only waiting till it's dark to go and get some- 
 thing from the old woman at the lodge. She 
 looked after me before, but it wasn't so serious then 
 as it is now/ 
 
 ' It will be penal servitude for life this time for 
 Stephens/ said Charles. 
 
 ' Yes/ said Kaymond thoughtfully. ' It's playing 
 deuced high. I knew that at the time, but I 
 thought it was worth it. It was a beautiful thing, 
 and there was a mint of money in it if it had gone 
 straight a mint of money ; ' and he shook his head 
 regretfully. ' But the luck is bound to change in 
 the end/ he went on, after a moment of mournful 
 retrospection. ' You'll see, I shall make my pile 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 263 
 
 yet, Daiivers. One can't go on turning up tails all 
 the time.' 
 
 ' You will turn them up once too often,' said 
 Charles, ' and get your affairs wound up for you 
 some day in a way you won't like. But I suppose 
 it's no earthly use my saying anything. 1 
 
 ' Not much,' replied the other. ' I guess I've 
 heard it all before. Don't you remember how you 
 held forth that night in the wood ? You came out 
 strong. I felt as if I were in church; but you 
 forked out handsomely at the collection afterwards. 
 I will say that for you.' 
 
 ' And what are you going to do now you've got 
 here ? ' interrupted Charles sharply. 
 
 I Lie by.' 
 
 ' How long ? ' 
 
 * Perhaps a week, perhaps ten days. Can't say.' 
 
 ' And after that ? ' 
 
 ' After that, some one, I don't say who, but some 
 one will have to provide me with the " ready " to 
 nip across to France. I have friends in Paris where 
 I can manage to scratch along for a bit till things 
 have blown over.' 
 
 Charles considered for a few moments, and then 
 said 
 
 'Are you going to dun your sister for money 
 again, or give her another fright by lying in wait for 
 her ? Of course, if you broke your word about 
 coming back, you might break it about trying to get 
 money out of her.' 
 
 I 1 might,' assented Raymond ; ' in fact, I was on 
 the point of making my presence known to her, and 
 
264 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 suggesting a pecuniary advance, when you came up, 
 I don't know at present what I shall do, as I let 
 that opportunity slip. It just depends.' 
 
 Charles considered again. 
 
 ' It's a pity to trouble her, isn't it ? ' said Ray- 
 mond, his shrewd eyes watching him ; ' and women 
 are best out of money matters. Besides, if she has 
 promised you she won't pay up without advice, 
 she'll stick to it. Nothing will turn her when she 
 once settles on anything, if she is at all like what she 
 used to be. She has got dollars of her own. You 
 had better settle with me, and pay yourself back 
 when you are married. Dear me ! There's no 
 occasion to look so murderous. I suppose I'm at 
 liberty to draw my own conclusions/ 
 
 ' You had better draw them a little more care- 
 fully in future/ said Charles savagely. ' Your 
 sister is engaged to be married to a man without a 
 sixpence/ 
 
 ' By George/ said Raymond, ' that won't suit 
 my book at all. I'd rather' with another glance 
 at Charles ' I'd rather she'd marry a man with 
 money/ 
 
 If Charles was of the same opinion he did not 
 express it. He remained silent for a few minutes, 
 to give weight to his last remark, and then said 
 slowly 
 
 ' So you see you won't get anything more from 
 that quarter. You had better make the most you 
 can out of me/ 
 
 Raymond nodded. 
 
 ' The most you will get, in fact, I may say all 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 265 
 
 you will get from me, is enough ready money to 
 carry you to Paris, and a cheque for twenty pounds 
 to follow, when I hear you have arrived there/ 
 
 ' It's mean/ said Eaymond ; ' it's cursed mean ; 
 and from a man like you too, whom I feel for as a 
 brother. I'd rather try my luck with Euth. She's 
 not married yet, anyway/ 
 
 ' You will do as you like/ said Charles, getting 
 up. 'If I find you have been trying your luck 
 with her, as you call it, you won't get a farthiog 
 from me afterwards. And you may remember, she 
 can't help you without consulting her friends. And 
 your complaint is one that requires absolute quiet, 
 or I'm very much mistaken/ 
 
 Eaymond bit his finger, and looked irresolute. 
 
 ' To-day is Wednesday/ said Charles ; ' on Satur- 
 day I shall come back here in the afternoon, and if 
 you have come to my terms by that time you can 
 cough after I do. I shall have the money on me. 
 If you make any attempt to write or speak to your 
 sister, I shall take care to hear of it, and you need 
 not expect me on Saturday. That is the last re- 
 mark I have to make, so good afternoon;' and, 
 without waiting for a reply, Charles walked away, 
 conscious that Eaymond would not dare either to 
 call or run after him. 
 
 He walked slowly along the grass-grown road 
 that led into the carriage drive, and was about to 
 let himself out of the grounds by a crazy gate, 
 which rather took away from the usefulness of the 
 large iron locked ones at the lodge, when he per- 
 ceived an old man with a pail of water fumbling at 
 
266 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 it. He did not turn as Charles drew near, and even 
 when the latter came up with him, and said, ' Good 
 afternoon,' he made no sign. Charles watched him 
 groping for the hasp, and, when he had got the gate 
 open, feel about for the pail of water, which when 
 he found he struck against the gate post as he 
 carried it through. Charles looked after the old 
 man as he shambled off in the direction of the 
 lodge. 
 
 'Blind and deaf! He'll tell no tales, at any 
 rate,' he said to himself. 'Kaymond is in luck 
 there.' 
 
 It had turned very cold ; and, suddenly re- 
 membering that his absence might be noticed, he 
 set off through the woods to Slumberleigh at a 
 good pace. His nearest way took him through the 
 churchyard and across the adjoining high-road, on 
 the farther side of which stood the little red-faced 
 lodge which belonged to the great new red-faced 
 seat of the Thursbys at a short distance. He came 
 rapidly round the corner of the old church tower, 
 and was already swinging down the worn sandstone 
 steps which led into the road, when he saw below 
 him at the foot of the steps a little group of people 
 standing talking. It was Mr. Alwynn, and Kuth, 
 and Dare, who had evidently met them on his 
 return from shooting, and who, standing at ease 
 with one elegantly gaitered leg on the lowest step, 
 and a cartridge-bag slung over his shoulders in a 
 way that had aroused Charles's indignation earlier 
 in the day, was recounting to them, with vivid 
 action of the hands on an imaginary gun, his own 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 267 
 
 performances to right aud left at some particularly 
 hot corner. 
 
 Mr. Alwynn was listening with a benignant 
 smile. Charles saw that Euth was leaning heavily 
 against the low stone wall. Before he had time 
 to turn back, Mr. Alwynn had seen him, and had 
 gone forward a step to meet him, holding out a 
 welcoming hand. Charles was obliged to stop a 
 moment while his hand was inquired after, and a 
 new treatment, which Mr. Alwynn had found useful 
 on a similar occasion, was enjoined upon him. As 
 they stood together on the church steps, a fly, heavily 
 laden with luggage, came slowly up the road towards 
 them. 
 
 ' What/ said Mr. Alwynn, ' more visitors ! I 
 thought all the Slumberleigh party arrived yester- 
 day.' 
 
 The fly plodded past the Slumberleigh lodge 
 however, and as it reached the steps a shrill voice 
 suddenly called to the driver to stop. As it came 
 grinding to a standstill, the glass was hastily put 
 down, and a little woman with a very bold pair of 
 black eyes, and a somewhat laced-in figure, got out 
 and came towards them. 
 
 ' Well, Mr. Dare ! ' she said, in a high distinct 
 voice, with a strong American accent. 'I guess 
 you did not expect to see me riding up this way, 
 or you'd have sent the carriage to bring your wife 
 up from the station. But I'm not one to bear 
 malice ; so if you want a lift home to what's the 
 name of your fine new place ? you can get in, and 
 ride up along with me.' 
 
208 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Dare looked straight in front of him. No one 
 spoke. Her quick eye glanced from one to another 
 of the little group, and she gave a short constrained 
 laugh. 
 
 ' Well/ she said, ' if you ain't coming, you can 
 stop with your friends. I've had a deal of 
 travelling one way and another, and I'll go on 
 without you.' And, turning quickly away, she 
 told the driver in the same distinct high key to 
 go on to Vandon, and got into the fly again. 
 
 The grinning man chucked at the horse's bridle, 
 and the fly rattled heavily away. 
 
 No one spoke as it drove away. Charles glanced 
 once at Kuth; but her set white face told him 
 nothing. As the fly disappeared up the road, Dare 
 moved a step forward. His face under his brown 
 skin was ashen gray. He took off his cap, and 
 extending it at arm's length, not towards the sky, 
 but, like a good churchman, towards the church, 
 outside of which, as he knew, his Maker was not to 
 be found, he said solemnly 
 
 * I swear before God what she says is one great 
 lie! 
 
CHAPTEK XXIV 
 
 IP conformity to type is indeed the one great 
 mark towards which humanity should press, Mrs. 
 Thursby may honestly be said to have attained to it. 
 Everything she said or did had been said or done 
 before, or she would never have thought of saying 
 or doing it. Her whole life was a feeble imitation 
 of the imitative lives of others ; in short, it was the 
 life of the ordinary country gentlewoman, who lives 
 on her husband's property, and who, as Augustus 
 Hare says, 'has never looked over the garden 
 wall.' 
 
 We do not mean to insinuate for a moment 
 that the utmost energy and culture are not 
 occasionally to be met with in the female portion 
 of that interesting mass of our fellow-creatures who 
 swell the large volumes of the 'Landed Gentry/ 
 Among their ranks are those who come boldly 
 forward into the full glare of public life ; and, 
 conscious of a genius for enterprise, to which an 
 unmarried condition perhaps affords ampler scope, 
 and which a local paper is ready to immortalise, 
 become secretaries of ladies' societies, patronesses of 
 
270 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 flower shows, breeders of choice poultry, or even 
 associates of floral leagues of the highest political 
 importance. That such women should and do exist 
 among us, the conscious salt-cellars of otherwise 
 flavourless communities, is a fact for which we can- 
 not be too thankful ; and if Mrs. Thursby was not 
 one of these aspiring spirits, with a yearning after 
 ' the mystical better things/ which one of the above 
 pursuits alone can adequately satisfy, it was her 
 misfortune and not her fault. 
 
 It was her nature, as we have said, servilely to 
 copy others. Her conversation was all that she 
 could remember of what she had heard from others, 
 her present dinner party, as regards food, was a 
 cross between the two last dinner parties she had 
 been to. The dessert, however, conspicuous by its 
 absence, conformed strictly to a type which she had 
 seen in a London house in June. 
 
 Her dinner party gave her complete satisfaction, 
 which was fortunate, for to the greater number of 
 the eighteen or twenty people who had been indis- 
 criminately herded together to form it, it was (with 
 the exception of Mrs. Alwynn) a dreary or at 
 best an uninteresting ordeal; while to four people 
 among the number, the four who had met last on 
 the church steps, it was a period of slow torture, 
 endured with varying degrees of patience by each, 
 from the two soups in the beginning, to the peaches 
 and grapes at the long-delayed and bitter end. 
 
 Euth, whose self - possession never wholly 
 deserted her, had reached a depth of exhausted 
 stupor, in which the mind is perfectly oblivious of 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 271 
 
 the impression it is producing on others. By an 
 unceasing effort she listened, and answered, and 
 smiled at intervals, and looked exceedingly dis- 
 tinguished in the pale red gown which she had put 
 on to please her aunt; but the colour of which 
 only intensified the unnatural pallor of her com- 
 plexion. The two men whom she sat between 
 found her a disappointing companion, cold and 
 formal in manner. At any other time she would 
 have been humiliated and astonished to hear herself 
 make such cut-and- dried remarks, such little trite 
 observations. She was sitting opposite Charles, and 
 she vaguely wondered once or twice, when she saw 
 him making others laugh, and heard snatches of the 
 flippant talk which was with him, as she knew now, 
 a sort of defensive armour, how he could manage to 
 produce it; while Charles, half wild with a mad 
 surging hope that would not be kept down by any 
 word of Dare's, looked across at her as often as he 
 dared, and wondered in his turn at the tranquil 
 dignity, the quiet ordered smile of the face which a 
 few hours ago he had seen shaken with emotion. 
 
 Her eyes met his for a moment. Were they 
 the same eyes that but now had met his, half blind 
 with tears. He felt still the touch of those tears 
 upon his hand. He hastily looked away again, 
 and plunged headlong into an answer to something 
 Mabel was saying to him on her favourite subject 
 of evolution. All well-brought-up young ladies 
 have a subject nowadays, which makes their con- 
 versation the delightful thing it is ; and Mabel, of 
 course, was not behind the fashion. 
 
272 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Yes,' Kuth heard Charles reply, ' I believe with 
 you we go through many lives, each being a higher 
 state than the last, and nearer perfection. So a 
 man passes gradually through all the various grades 
 of the nobility, soaring from the lowly honourable 
 upwards into the duke, and thence by an easy 
 transition into an angeL Courtesy titles, of course, 
 present a difficulty to the more thoughtful ; but, as 
 I am sure you will have found, to be thoughtful 
 always implies difficulty of some kind/ 
 
 ' It does, indeed,' said Mabel, puzzled but not a 
 little flattered. ' I sometimes think one reads too 
 much ; one longs so for deep books Korans, and 
 things. I must confess ' with a sigh ' I can't 
 interest myself in the usual young lady's library 
 that other girls read/ 
 
 ' Can't you ? ' replied Charles. ' Now, I can. I 
 study that department of literature whenever I have 
 the chance, and I have generally found that the 
 most interesting part of a young lady's library is to 
 be found in that portion of the bookshelf which lies 
 between the rows of books and the wall. Don't 
 you think so, Lady Carmian ? ' (to the lady on his 
 other side). ' I assure you I have made the most 
 delightful discoveries of this description. Cheap 
 editions of Ouida, Balzac's works, yellow backs of 
 the most advanced order, will, as a rule, reward the 
 inquirer, who otherwise might have had to content 
 himself with The Heir of Reddyffe, the Lily Series, 
 and Miss Strickland's Queens of England.' 
 
 Charles's last speech had been made in a moment- 
 ary silence, and directly it was finished every woman, 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 273 
 
 old and young, except Lady Carmian and Kuth, 
 simultaneously raised a disclaiming voice, which by 
 its vehemence at once showed what an unfounded 
 assertion Charles had made. Lady Carmian, a 
 handsome young married woman, only smiled lan- 
 guidly, and, turning the bracelet on her arm, told 
 Charles he was a cynic, and that for her own part, 
 when in robust health, she liked what little she 
 read ' strong ' ; but in illness, or when Lord Carmian 
 had been unusually trying, she always fell back on 
 a milk-and-water diet. Mrs. Thursby, however, 
 felt that Charles had struck a blow at the sanctity 
 of home life, and (for she was one of those persons 
 whose single talent is that of giving a personal turn 
 to any remark) began a long monotonous recital 
 of the books she allowed her own daughters to read, 
 and how they were kept, which proved the extensive 
 range of her library, not in bookshelves, but in a 
 sliding bookstand, which contracted or expanded at 
 will. 
 
 Long before she had finished, however, the con- 
 versation at the other end of the table had drifted 
 away to the topic of the season among sporting men, 
 namely the poachers, who, since their raid on Dare's 
 property, had kept fairly quiet, but who were sure 
 to start afresh now that the pheasant shooting had 
 begun ; and from thence to the recent forgery case 
 in America, which was exciting every day greater 
 attention in England, especially since one of the 
 accomplices had been arrested the day before in 
 Birmingham station, and the principal offender, 
 though still at large, was, according to the papers, 
 18 
 
274 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 being traced * by means of a clue in the possession 
 of the police.' 
 
 Charles knew how little that sentence meant, but 
 he found that it required an effort to listen unmoved 
 to the various conjectures as to the whereabouts of 
 Stephens, in which Euth, as the conversation became 
 general, also joined, volunteering a suggestion that 
 perhaps he might be lurking somewhere in the 
 Slumberleigh woods, which were certainly very 
 lonely in places, and where, as she said, she had 
 been very much alarmed by a tramp in the 
 summer. 
 
 Mrs. Thursby, like an echo, began from the other 
 end of the table something vague about girls being 
 allowed to walk alone, her own daughters, etc., and 
 so the long dinner wore itself out. Dare was the 
 only one of the little party who had met on the 
 church steps who succumbed entirely. Mr. Alwynn, 
 who looked at him and Euth with pathetic interest 
 from time to time, made laudable efforts, but Dare 
 made none. He had taken in to dinner the younger 
 Thursby girl, a meek creature, without form and void, 
 not yet out, but trembling in a high muslin on the 
 verge, who kept her large and burning hands clutched 
 together under the tablecloth, and whose conversation 
 was upon bees. Dare pleaded a gun headache, and 
 hardly spoke. His eyes constantly wandered to the 
 other end of the table, where, far away on the 
 opposite side, half hidden by ferns and flowers, he 
 could catch a glimpse of Euth. After dinner he did 
 not come into the drawing-room, but went off to the 
 smoking-room, where he paced by himself, up and 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 275 
 
 down, up and down, writhing under the torment of 
 a horrible suspense. 
 
 Outside the moon shone clear and high, making 
 a long picturesque shadow of the great prosaic house 
 upon the wide gravel drive. Dare leaned against 
 the window sill and looked out. ' Would she give 
 him up ? ' he asked himself. Would she believe 
 this vile calumny ? Would she give him up ? And 
 as he stood the Alwynns' brougham came with two 
 gleaming eyes along the drive and drew up before 
 the door. He resolved to learn his fate at once. 
 There had been no possibility of a word with Kuth 
 on the church steps. Before he had known where 
 he was, he and Charles had been walking up to the 
 Hall together, Charles discoursing lengthily on the 
 impropriety of wire fencing in a hunting country. 
 But now he must and would see her. He rushed 
 downstairs into the hall, where young Thursby was 
 wrapping Kuth in her white furs, while Mr. Thursby 
 senior was encasing Mrs. Alwynn in a species of 
 glorified ulster of red plush which she had lately 
 acquired. Dare hastily drew Mr. Alwynn aside and 
 spoke a few words to him. Mr. Alwynn turned to 
 his wife, after one rueful glance at his thin shoes, 
 and said 
 
 ' I will walk up. It is a fine night, and quite 
 dry under foot.' 
 
 ' And a very pleasant party it has been/ said 
 Mrs. Alwynn as she and Kuth drove away together, 
 ' though Mrs. Thursby has not such a knack with 
 her table as some. Not that I did not think the 
 chrysanthemums and white china swans were nice, 
 
276 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 very nice ; but, you see, as I told her, I had just 
 been to Stoke Moreton, where things were very 
 different. And you looked very well, my dear, 
 though not so bright and chatty as Mabel; and 
 Mrs. Thursby said she only hoped your waist was 
 natural. The idea ! And I saw Lady Carmian 
 notice your gown particularly, and I heard her ask 
 who you were, and Mrs. Thursby said so like her 
 you were their clergyman's niece. And so, my dear, 
 I was not going to have you spoken of like that, 
 and a little later on I just went and sat down by 
 Lady Carmian, just went across the room, you know, 
 as if I wanted to be nearer the music, and we got 
 talking, and she was rather silent at first, but pre- 
 sently, when I began to tell her all about you, and 
 who you were, she became quite interested, and 
 asked such funny questions, and laughed, and we 
 had quite a nice talk.' 
 
 And so Mrs. Alwynn chatted on, and Euth, 
 happily hearing nothing, leaned back in her corner, 
 and wondered whether the evening were ever going 
 to end. Even when she had bidden her aunt ' Good- 
 night/ and, having previously told her maid not to 
 sit up for her, found herself alone in her own 
 room at last, even then it seemed that this inter- 
 minable day was not quite over. She was stand- 
 ing by the dim fire, trying to gather up sufficient 
 energy to undress, when a quiet step came cautiously 
 along the passage, followed by a low tap at her 
 door. She opened it noiselessly, and found Mr. 
 Alwynn standing without. 
 
 ' Euth,' he said, * Dare has walked up with me. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 277 
 
 He is in the most dreadful state. I am sure I don't 
 know what to think. He has said nothing further 
 to me, but he is bent on seeing you for a moment. 
 It's very late, but still could you ? He's in the 
 drawing-room now. My poor child, how ill you 
 look ! Shall I tell him you are too tired to-night 
 to see any one ? ' 
 
 'I would rather see him/ said Kuth, her voice 
 trembling a little, and they went downstairs to- 
 gether. In the hall she hesitated a moment. She 
 was going to learn her fate. Had her release come ? 
 Had it come at the eleventh hour ? Her uncle 
 looked at her with kind compassionate eyes, and 
 hers fell before his as she thought how different her 
 suspense was to what he imagined. Suddenly, and 
 such demonstrations were very rare with her, she 
 put her arms round his neck, and pressed her cheek 
 against his. 
 
 ' Oh, Uncle John, Uncle John ! ' she gasped, ' it 
 is not what you think.' 
 
 ' I pray God it may not be what I suppose,' 
 he said sadly, stroking her head. ' One is too 
 ready to think evil, I know. God forgive me if 
 I have judged him harshly. But go in, my dear ; ' 
 and he pushed her gently towards the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 She went in and closed the door quietly behind 
 her. 
 
 Dare was leaning against the mantelpiece, which 
 was draped in Mrs. Alwynn's best manner, with 
 oriental hangings having bits of glass woven in 
 them. He was looking into the curtained fire, and 
 
278 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 did not turn when she entered. Even at that 
 moment she noticed, as she went towards him, that 
 his elbow had displaced the little family of china 
 hares on a plush stand, which Mrs. Alwynn had 
 lately added to her other treasures. 
 
 'I think you wished to see me/ she said as 
 calmly as she could. 
 
 He faced suddenly round, his eyes wild, his face 
 quivering, and, coming close up to her, caught her 
 hand, and grasped it so tightly that the pain was 
 almost more than she could bear. 
 
 1 Are you going to give me up ? ' he asked 
 hoarsely. 
 
 ' I don't know/ she said ; c it depends on your- 
 self, on what you are, and what you have been. 
 You say she is not your wife ? ' 
 
 ' I swear it.' 
 
 ' You need not do so. Your word is enough.* 
 
 ' I swear she is not my wife.' 
 
 'One question remains/ said Kuth firmly, a 
 flame of colour mounting to her neck and face. 
 ' You say she is not your wife. Ought you to 
 make her so ? ' 
 
 ' No/ said Dare passionately. ' I owe her no- 
 thing. She has no claim upon me. I swear ' 
 
 ' Don't swear. I said your word was enough/ 
 
 But Dare preferred to embellish his speech with 
 divers weighty expressions, feeling that a simple 
 affirmation would never carry so much conviction 
 to his own mind, or consequently to another, as an 
 oath. 
 
 A momentary silence followed. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 279 
 
 ' You believe what I say, Ruth ? ' 
 
 ' Yes/ with an effort. 
 
 'And you won't give me up because evil is 
 spoken against me ? ' 
 
 'No.' 
 
 ' And all is the same as before between us ? * 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 Dare burst into a torrent of gratitude, but she 
 broke suddenly away from him, and went swiftly 
 upstairs again to her own room. 
 
 The release had not come. She laid her head 
 down upon the table, and Hope, who had ventured 
 back to her for one moment, took her lamp and 
 went quite away, leaving the world very dark. 
 
 There are turning-points in life when a natural 
 instinct is a surer guide than noble motive or high 
 aspiration, and consequently the more thoughtful 
 and introspective nature will sometimes fall just 
 where a commonplace one would have passed in 
 safety. Ruth had acted for the best. When for 
 the first time in her life she had been brought into 
 close contact with a life spent for others, its beauty 
 had appealed to her with irresistible force, and she 
 had willingly sacrificed herself to an ideal life of 
 devotion to others. 
 
 1 But we are punished for our purest deeds, 
 And chasten'd for our holiest thoughts.' 
 
 And she saw now that if she had obeyed that 
 simple law of human nature which forbids a 
 marriage in which love is not the primary con- 
 sideration, if she had followed that simple humble 
 path, she would never have reached the arid 
 
280 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 wilderness towards which her own guidance had 
 led her. 
 
 For her wilful self-sacrifice had suddenly paled 
 and dwindled down before her eyes into a hideous 
 mistake a mistake which yet had its roots so firmly 
 knit into the past that it was hopeless to think of 
 pulling it up now. To abide by a mistake is some- 
 times all that an impetuous youth leaves an honour- 
 able middle age to do. Poor middle age, with its 
 clear vision, that might do and be so much if it 
 were not for the heavy burdens, grievous to be 
 borne, which youth has bound upon its shoulders. 
 
 And worse than the dreary weight of personal 
 unhappiness, harder to bear than the pang of dis- 
 appointed love, was the aching sense of failure, of 
 having misunderstood God's intention, and 'spoilt 
 the purpose ' of her life. For some natures the cup 
 of life holds no bitterer drop than this. 
 
 Kuth dimly saw the future, the future which she 
 had chosen, stretching out waste and barren before 
 her. The dry air of the desert was on her face. 
 Her feet were already on its sandy verge. And the 
 iron of a great despair entered into her soul 
 
CHAPTEE XXV 
 
 DARE left Slumberleigh Hall early the following 
 morning, and drove up to the Eectory on his way 
 to Vandon. After being closeted with Mr. Alwynn 
 in the study for a short time, they both came out 
 and drove away together. Kuth, invisible in her 
 own room with a headache, her only means of 
 defence against Mrs. Alwynn's society, heard the 
 coming and the going, and was not far wrong in her 
 surmise that Dare had come to beg Mr. Alwynn to 
 accompany him to Vandon, being afraid to face alone 
 the mysterious enemy intrenched there. 
 
 No conversation was possible in the dogcart, 
 with the groom on the back seat thirsting to hear 
 any particulars of the news which had spread like 
 wildfire from Vandon throughout the whole village 
 the previous afternoon, and which was already miracu- 
 lously flying from house to house in Slumberleigh 
 this morning, as things discreditable do fly among a 
 Christian population, which perhaps ' thinks no evil/ 
 but repeats it nevertheless. 
 
 There was not a servant in Dare's modest 
 establishment who was not on the look-out for him 
 
282 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 on his return. The gardener happened to be tying 
 up a plant near the front door; the housemaids 
 were watching unobserved from an upper case- 
 ment ; the portly form of Mrs. Smith, the house- 
 keeper, was seen to glide from one of the un- 
 used bedroom windows ; the butler must have been 
 waiting in the hall, so prompt was his appearance 
 when the dogcart drew up before the door. 
 
 Another pair of keen black eyes was watching 
 too, peering out through the chinks between the 
 lowered Venetian blinds in the drawing-room ; was 
 observing Dare intently as he got out, and then 
 resting anxiously on his companion. Then the 
 owner of the eyes slipped away from the window, 
 and went back noiselessly to the fire. 
 
 Dare ordered the dogcart to remain at the door, 
 flung down his hat on the hall table, and, turning to 
 the servant who was busying himself in folding his 
 coat, said sharply 
 
 ' Where is the the person who arrived here 
 yesterday ? ' 
 
 The man replied that { she ' was in the drawing- 
 room. The drawing-room opened into the hall. 
 Dare led the way, suppressed fury in his face, looking 
 back to see whether Mr. Alwynn was following him. 
 The two men went in together, and shut the door. 
 
 The enemy was intrenched and prepared for 
 action. 
 
 Mrs. Dare, as we must perforce call her for lack 
 of any other designation rather than for any right 
 of hers to the title, was seated on a yellow brocade 
 ottoman, drawn up beside a roaring fire, her two 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 283 
 
 smart little feet resting on the edge of the low brass 
 fender, and a small work-table at her side, on which an 
 elaborate medley of silks and wools was displayed. 
 Her attitude was that of a person at home, aggressively 
 at home. She was in the act of threading a needle 
 when Dare and Mr. Alwynn came in, and she put 
 down her work at once, carefully replacing the 
 needle in safety, as she rose to receive them, and held 
 out her hand, with a manner the assurance of which, 
 if both men had not been too much frightened to 
 notice it, was a little overdone. 
 
 Dare disregarded her gesture of welcome, and she 
 sat down again, and returned to her work, with a 
 laugh that was also a little overdone. 
 
 ' What do you mean by coming here ? ' he said, 
 his voice hoarse with a furious anger, which the 
 sight of her seemed to have increased a hundred- 
 fold. 
 
 ' Because it is my proper place/ she replied, 
 tossing her head, and drawing out a long thread of 
 green silk ; ' because I have a right to come/ 
 
 ' You lie ! ' said Dare fiercely, showing his teeth. 
 
 ' Lord, Alfred ! ' said Mrs. Dare contemptuously, 
 ' don't make a scene before strangers. We've had 
 our tiffs before now, and shall have again, I suppose. 
 It's the natur' of married people to fall out; but 
 there's no call to carry on before friends. Push up 
 that lounge nearer the fire. Won't the other gentle- 
 man,' turning to Mr. Alwynn, ' come and warm him- 
 self ? I'm sure it's cold enough.' 
 
 Mr. Alwynn, who was a man of peace, devoutly 
 wished he were at home again in his own study. 
 
284 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' It is a cold morning/ he said ; ' but we are not 
 here to discuss the weather/ 
 
 He stopped short. He had been hurried here 
 so much against his will, and so entirely without 
 an explanation, that he was not quite sure what he 
 had come to discuss, or how he could best support 
 his friend. 
 
 ' What do you want ? ' said Dare, in the same 
 suppressed voice, without looking at her. 
 
 1 My rights/ she said incisively ; ' and, what's 
 more, I mean to have 'em. I've not come over 
 from America for nothing, I can tell you that ; and 
 I've not come on a visit neither. I've come to 
 stay/ 
 
 ' What are these rights you talk of ? ' asked Mr. 
 Alwynn, signing to Dare to restrain himself. 
 
 'As his wife, sir. I am his wife, as I can 
 prove. I didn't come without my lines to show. 
 I didn't come on a speculation, to see if he'd a fancy 
 to have me back. No, afore I set my foot down 
 anywheres I look to see as it's solid walking/ 
 
 ' Show your proof/ said Mr. Alwynn. 
 
 The woman ostentatiously got out a red morocco 
 letter case, and produced a paper which she handed 
 to Mr. Alwynn. 
 
 It was an authorised copy of a marriage 
 register, drawn out in the usual manner, be- 
 tween Alfred Dare, bachelor, English subject, 
 and Ellen, widow of the late Jaspar Carroll, of 
 Neosho City, Kansas, U.S.A. The marriage was 
 dated seven years back. 
 
 The names of Dare and Carroll swam before 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 285 
 
 Mr. Alwynn's eyes. He glanced at the paper, but 
 he could not read it 
 
 ' Is this a forgery, Dare ? ' he asked, holding it 
 towards him. 
 
 'No/ said Dare, without looking at it; 'it is 
 right. But that is not all Now,' turning to the 
 woman, who was watching him triumphantly, 
 ' show the other paper the divorce.' 
 
 ' I made inquiries about that/ she replied 
 composedly. ' I wasn't going to be fooled by that 
 'ere, so I made inquiries from one as knows. The 
 divorce is all very well in America ; but it don't 
 count in England.' 
 
 Dare's face turned livid. Mr. Alwynn's flushed 
 a deep red. He sat with his eyes on the ground, 
 the paper in his hand trembling a little. Indigna- 
 tion against Dare, pity for him, anxiety not to 
 judge him harshly, struggled for precedence in his 
 kind heart, still beating tumultuously with the 
 shock of Dare's first admission. He felt rather 
 than saw him take the paper out of his hand. 
 
 ' I shall keep this/ Dare said, putting it in his 
 pocket-book; and then, turning to the woman 
 again, he said, with an oath, ' will you go, or will 
 you wait till you are turned out ? ' 
 
 ' I'll wait/ she replied undauntedly. ' I like the 
 place well enough.' 
 
 She laughed and took up her work, and, after 
 looking at her for a moment, he flung out of the 
 room, followed by Mr. Alwynn. 
 
 The defeat was complete ; nay, it was a rout. 
 
 The dogcart was still standing at the door. 
 
286 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 The butler was talking to the groom ; the gardener 
 was training some new shoots of ivy against the 
 stone balustrade. 
 
 Dare caught up his hat and gloves, and ordered 
 that his portmanteau, which had been taken into 
 the hall, should be put back into the dogcart. 
 As it was being carried down he looked at his 
 watch. 
 
 ' I can catch the midday express for London,' 
 he said. ' I can do it easily.' 
 
 Mr. Alwynn made no reply. 
 
 ' Get in/ continued Dare feverishly ; ' the 
 portmanteau is in.' 
 
 * I think I will walk home/ said Mr. Alwynn 
 slowly. It gave him excruciating pain to say any- 
 thing so severe as this ; but he got out the words 
 nevertheless. 
 
 Dare looked at him in astonishment. 
 
 ' Get in/ he said again quickly. ' I must speak 
 to you. I will drive you home. I have something 
 to say.' 
 
 Mr. Alwynn never refused to hear what any 
 one had to say. He went slowly down the steps, 
 and got into the cart, looking straight in front of 
 him, as his custom was when disturbed in mind. 
 Dare followed. 
 
 'I shall not want you, James/ he said to the 
 groom, his foot on the step. 
 
 At this moment the form of Mrs. Smith, the 
 housekeeper, appeared through the hall door, 
 clothed in all the awful majesty of an upper 
 servant whose dignity has been outraged. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 287 
 
 ' Sir/ she said, in a clear not to say a high 
 voice, ' asking your pardon, sir, but am I, or am I 
 not, to take my orders from ' 
 
 Goaded to frenzy, Dare poured forth a volley of 
 horrible oaths French and English, and, seizing up 
 the reins, drove off at a furious rate. 
 
 The servants remained standing about the steps, 
 watching the dogcart whirl rapidly away. 
 
 ' He's been to church with her/ said the gardener 
 at last. ' I said all along she'd never have come, 
 unless she had her lines to show. I ha'n't cut 
 them white grapes she ordered yet; but I may as 
 well go and do it.' 
 
 ' Well,' said Mrs. Smith, ' grapes or no grapes, I'll 
 never give up the keys of the linen cupboards to 
 the likes of her, and I'm not going to have any one 
 poking about among my china. I've not been here 
 twenty years to be asked for my lists in that way, 
 and the winter curtains ordered out unbeknownst 
 to me ; ' and Mrs. Smith retreated to the fastnesses 
 of the housekeeper's room, whither even the auda- 
 cious enemy had not yet ventured to follow her. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mr. Alwynn and Dare drove at 
 moderated speed along the road to Slumberleigh. 
 For some time neither spoke. 
 
 ' I beg your pardon,' said Dare at last. ' I lost 
 my head. I became enraged. Before a clergyman 
 and a lady, I know well, it is not permitted to swear.' 
 
 ' I can overlook that/ said Mr. Alwynn ; ' but/ 
 turning very red again, ' other things I can't.' 
 
 Dare began to flourish his whip, and become 
 excited again. 
 
288 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 'I will tell you all/ he said with effusion 
 'every word. You have a kind heart. I will 
 confide in you.' 
 
 '1 don't want confidences/ said Mr. Alwynn. 
 ' I want straightforward answers to a few simple 
 questions.' 
 
 ' I will give them, these answers. I keep 
 nothing back from a friend.' 
 
 ' Then, first. Did you marry that woman ? ' 
 
 'Yes/ said Dare, shrugging his shoulders. 'I 
 married her, and often afterwards, almost at once, 
 I regretted it ; but que voulez-vous, I was young. I 
 had no experience. I was but twenty-one.' 
 
 Mr. Alwynn stared at him in astonishment at 
 the ease with which the admission was made. 
 
 'How long afterwards was it that you were 
 divorced from her ? ' 
 
 ' Two years. Two long years.' 
 
 ' For what reason ? ' 
 
 'Temper. Ah! what a temper. Also because 
 I left her for one year. It was in Kansas, and 
 in Kansas it is very easy to marry, and also to be 
 divorced.' 
 
 ' It is a disgraceful story/ said Mr. Alwynn in 
 great indignation. 
 
 ' Disgraceful ! ' echoed Dare excitedly. ' It is 
 more than disgraceful. It is abominable. You do 
 not know all yet. I will tell you. I was young ; 
 I was but a boy. I go to America when I am 
 twenty-one, to travel, to see the world. I make 
 acquaintances. I get into a bad set, what you call 
 undesirable. I fall in love. I walk into a net. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 289 
 
 She was pretty, a pretty widow, all love, all soul ; 
 without friends. I protect her. I marry her. I 
 have a little money. I have five thousand pounds. 
 She knew that. She spent it. I was a fool. In 
 a year it was gone/ Dare's face had become white 
 with rage. ' And then she told me why she married 
 me. I became enraged. There was a quarrel, and 
 I left her. I had no more money. She left me 
 alone, and a year after we are divorced. I never 
 see her or hear of her again. I return to Europe. 
 I live by my voice in Paris. It is five years ago. 
 I have bought my experience. I put it from my 
 mind. And now' his hands trembled with anger 
 ' now that she thinks I have money again, now, 
 when in some way she hears how I have come to 
 Vandon, she dares to come back and say she is my 
 wife/ 
 
 'Dare/ said Mr. Alwynn sternly, 'what excuse 
 have you for never mentioning this before before 
 you became engaged to Kuth ? ' 
 
 ' What ! ' burst out Dare, ' tell Kuth ! Tell her ! 
 Quelle icUe. I would never speak to her of what 
 might give her pain. I would keep all from her 
 that would cause her one moment's grief. Besides,' 
 he added conclusively, ' it is not always well to talk 
 of what has gone before. It is not for her happi- 
 ness or mine. She has been, one sees it well, 
 brought up since a young child very strictly. 
 About some things she has fixed ideas. If I had 
 told her of these things which are passed away and 
 gone, she might not ' and Dare looked gravely at 
 Mr. Alwynn ' she might not think so well of me/ 
 
 19 
 
290 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 This view of the case was quite a new one to 
 Mr. Alwynn. He looked back at Dare with hope- 
 less perplexity in his pained eyes. To one who 
 throughout life has regarded the supremacy of 
 certain truths and principles of action as fixed and 
 recognised as a matter of course by all the world, 
 however imperfectly obeyed by individuals, the 
 discovery comes as a shock, which is at the moment 
 overwhelming, when these same truths and principles 
 are seen to be entirely set aside, and their very 
 existence ignored by others. 
 
 Where there is no common ground on which to 
 meet, speech is unavailing and mere waste of time. 
 It is like shouting to a person at a distance whom 
 it is impossible to approach. If he notices anything 
 it will only be that, for some reasons of your own, 
 you are making a disagreeable noise. 
 
 As Mr. Alwynn looked back at Dare his anger 
 died away within him, and a dull pain of deep dis- 
 appointment and sense of sudden loneliness took its 
 place. Dare and he seemed many miles apart. 
 He felt that it would be of no use to say anything ; 
 and so, being a man, he held his peace. 
 
 Dare continued talking volubly of how he would 
 get a lawyer's opinion at once in London ; of his 
 certainty that the American wife had no claim upon 
 him ; of how he would go over to America, if 
 necessary, to establish the validity of his divorce ; 
 but Mr. Alwynn heard little or nothing of what he 
 said. He was thinking of Euth with distress and 
 self-upbraiding. He had been much to blame of 
 course. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 291 
 
 Dare's mention of her name recalled his attention. 
 
 ' She is all goodness/ he was saying. * She 
 believes in me. She has promised again that she 
 will marry me since yesterday. I trust her as 
 myself ; but it is a grief which as little as possible 
 must trouble her. You will not say anything to 
 her till I come back, till I return with proof that I 
 am free, as I told her ? You will say nothing ? ' 
 
 Dare had pulled up at the bottom of the drive 
 to the Eectory. 
 
 ' Very well/ said Mr. Alwynn absently, getting 
 slowly out. He seemed much shaken. 
 
 ' I will be back perhaps to-night, perhaps to- 
 morrow morning/ called Dare after him. 
 
 But Mr. Alwynn did not answer. 
 
 Dare's business took him a shorter time than he 
 expected, and the same night found him hurrying 
 back by the last train to Slumberleigh. It was a 
 wild night. He had watched the evening close in 
 lurid and stormy across the chimneyed wastes of 
 the black country, until the darkness covered all 
 the land, and wiped out even the last memory of 
 the dead day from the western sky. 
 
 Who, travelling alone at night, has not watched 
 the glimmer of light through cottage windows as 
 he hurries past; has not followed with keenest 
 interest for one brief second the shadow of one who 
 moves within, and imagination picturing a mysterious 
 universal happiness gathered round those twinkling 
 points of light, has not experienced a strange feeling 
 of homelessness and loneliness ? 
 
292 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Dare sat very still in the solitude of the empty 
 railway carriage, and watched the little fleeting, mock- 
 ing lights with a heavy heart. They meant homes, and 
 he should never have a home now. Once he saw a 
 door open in a squalid line of low houses, and the 
 figure of a man with a child in his arms stand out- 
 lined in the doorway against the ruddy light within. 
 Dare felt an unreasoning interest in that man. 
 He found himself thinking of him as the train hurried 
 on, wondering whether his wife was there waiting 
 for him, and whether he had other children besides 
 the one he was carrying. And all the time, through 
 his idle musings, he could hear one sentence ringing 
 in his ears, the last that his lawyer had said to him 
 after the long consultation of the afternoon. 
 
 'I am sorry to tell you that you are incon- 
 testably a married man/ 
 
 Everything repeated it. The hoofs of the cab 
 horse that took him to the station had hammered it 
 out remorselessly all the way. The engine had 
 caught it up, and repeated it with unvarying, end- 
 less iteration. The newspapers were full of it. 
 When Dare turned to them in desperation he saw 
 it written in large letters across the sham columns. 
 There was nothing but that anywhere. It was the 
 news of the day. Sick at heart, and giddy from 
 want of food, he sat crouched up in the corner of 
 his empty carriage, and vaguely wished the train 
 would journey on for ever and ever, nervously 
 dreading the time when he should have to get out 
 and collect his wandering faculties once more. 
 
 The old lawyer had been very kind to the 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 293 
 
 agitated, incoherent young man whose settlements 
 he was already engaged in drawing up. At first, 
 indeed, it had seemed that the marriage would not be 
 legally binding the marriage and divorce having 
 both taken place in Kansas, where the marriage 
 laws are particularly lax and he seemed inclined 
 to be hopeful; but as he informed himself about 
 the particulars of the divorce, his face became grave 
 and graver. When at last Dare produced the copy 
 of the marriage register, he shook his head. 
 
 ' " Alfred Dare, bachelor and English subject," ' 
 he said. ' That " English subject " makes a difficulty 
 to start with. You had never, I believe, any inten- 
 tion of acquiring what in law we call an American 
 domicile ? and, although the technicalities of this 
 subject are somewhat complicated, I am afraid that 
 in your case there is little, if any, doubt. The 
 English courts are very jealous of any interference 
 by foreigners with the status of an Englishman ; 
 and though a divorce legally granted by a com- 
 petent tribunal for an adequate cause might I 
 will not say would be held binding everywhere, 
 there can be no doubt that where in the eyes of 
 our law the cause is not adequate, our courts would 
 refuse to recognise it. Have you a copy of the 
 register of divorce as well ? ' 
 
 'No.' 
 
 ' It is unfortunate ; but no doubt you can 
 remember the grounds on which it was granted.' 
 
 ' Incompatibility of temper, and she said I had 
 deserted her. I had left her the year before. We 
 both agreed to separate.' 
 
<394 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 The lawyer shook his head. 
 
 ' What's incompatibility ? ' he said. ' What's a 
 year's absence ? Nothing in the eyes of an English- 
 man. Nothing in the law of this country.' 
 
 ' But the divorce was granted. It was legal. 
 There was no question/ said Dare eagerly. ' I was 
 divorced in the same State as where I married. I had 
 lived there more than a year, which was all that 
 was necessary. No difficulty was made at the time/ 
 
 ' No. Marriage is slipped into and slipped out 
 of again with gratifying facility in America, and 
 Kansas is notorious for the laxity prevailing there as 
 regards marriage and divorce. It will be advisable 
 to take the opinion of counsel on the matter, but I 
 can hold out very little hope that your divorce 
 would hold good, even in America. You see, you 
 are entered as a British subject on the marriage 
 register, and I imagine these words must have been 
 omitted in the divorce proceedings, or some difficulty 
 would have been raised at the time, unless your 
 residence in Kansas made it unnecessary. But, even 
 supposing by American law you are free, that will 
 be of no avail in England, for by the law of 
 England, which alone concerns you, I regret to be 
 obliged to tell you that you are incontestably a 
 married man/ 
 
 And in spite of frantic reiterations, of wild 
 protests, on the part of Dare, as if the compassionate 
 old man represented the English law, and could 
 mould it at his pleasure, the lawyer's last word 
 remained in substance the same, though repeated 
 many times. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 295 
 
 ' Whether you are at liberty or not to marry 
 again in America, I am hardly prepared to say. I 
 will look into the subject and let you know ; but in 
 England I regret to repeat that you are a married 
 man.' 
 
 Dare groaned in body and in spirit as the words 
 came back to him; and his thoughts, shrinking 
 from the despair and misery at home, wandered 
 aimlessly away, anywhere, hither and thither, afraid 
 to go back, afraid to face again the desolation that 
 sat so grim and stern in solitary possession. 
 
 The train arrived at Slumberleigh at last, and he 
 got out, and shivered as the driving wind swept 
 across the platform. It surprised him that there 
 was a wind, although at every station down the line 
 he had seen people straining against it. He gave 
 up his ticket mechanically, and walked aimlessly 
 away into the darkness, turning with momentary 
 curiosity to watch the train hurry on again, a pillar 
 of fire by night, as it had been a pillar of smoke by 
 day. 
 
 He passed the blinking station inn, forgetting 
 that he had put up his dogcart there to await his 
 return, and, hardly knowing what he did, took from 
 long habit the turn for Vandon. 
 
 It was a wild night. The wind was driving the 
 clouds across the moon at a tremendous rate, and 
 sweeping at each gust flights of spectre leaves from 
 the swaying trees. It caught him in the open of 
 the bare high-road, and would not let him go. It 
 opposed him, and buffeted him at every turn ; but 
 he held listlessly on his way. His feet took him, 
 
296 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 and he let them take him whither they would. 
 They led him stumbling along the dim road, the 
 dust of which was just visible like a gray mist 
 before him, until he reached the bridge by the mill. 
 There his feet stopped of their own accord, and he 
 went and leaned against the low stone wall, looking 
 down at the sudden glimpses of pale hurried water 
 and trembling reed. 
 
 The moon came out full and strong in temporary 
 victory, and made black shadows behind the idle 
 mill wheel and open mill race, and black shadows, 
 black as death, under the bridge itself. Dare leaned 
 over the wall to watch the mysterious water and 
 shadow run beneath. As he looked, he saw the 
 reflection of a man in the water watching him. He 
 shook his fist savagely at it, and it shook its fist 
 amid a wavering of broken light and shadow back at 
 him. But it did not go away ; it remained watch- 
 ing him. There was something strange and un- 
 familiar about the river to-night. It had a voice, 
 too, which allured and repelled him a voice at the 
 sound of which the grim despair within him stirred 
 ominously at first, and then began slowly to rise up 
 gaunt and terrible ; began to move stealthily, but 
 with ever-increasing swiftness through the deserted 
 chambers of his heart. 
 
 No strong abiding principle was there to do 
 battle with the enemy. The minor feelings sensi- 
 bilities, emotions, amiable impulses, those courtiers 
 of our prosperous days, had all forsaken him and 
 fled. Dare's house in his hour of need was left 
 unto him desolate. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVKRS 297 
 
 And the river spoke in a guilty whisper, which 
 yet the quarrel of the wind and the trees could not 
 drown, of deep places farther down, where the people 
 
 were never found, people who But there were 
 
 shallows, too, he remembered, shallow places among 
 the stones where the trout were. If anybody were 
 drowned, Dare thought, gazing down at the pale 
 shifting moon in the water, he would be found there, 
 perhaps, or at any rate, his hat he took his hat off, 
 and held it tightly clenched in both his hands his 
 hat would tell the tale. 
 
CHAPTEK XXVI 
 
 CHARLES left Slumberleigh Hall a few hours later 
 than Dare had done, but only to go back to Ather- 
 stone. He could not leave the neighbourhood. 
 This burning fever of suspense would be unbearable 
 at any other place, and in any case he must return by 
 Saturday, the day on which he had promised to meet 
 Kaymond. His hand was really slightly injured, 
 and he made the most of it. He kept it bound up, 
 telegraphed to put off his next shooting engagement 
 on the strength of it, and returned to Atherstone, 
 even though he was aware that Lady Mary had 
 arrived there the day before, on her way home to 
 her house in London. 
 
 Ealph and Evelyn were accustomed to sudden 
 and erratic movements on the part of Charles, and 
 to Molly he was a sort of archangel, who might 
 arrive out of space at any moment, untrammelled by 
 such details as distance, trains, time, or tide. But 
 to Lady Mary his arrival was a significant fact, and 
 his impatient refusal to have his hand investigated 
 was another. Her cold gray eyes watched him 
 narrowly, and, conscious that they did so, he kept 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 299 
 
 out of her way as much as possible, and devoted 
 himself to Molly more than ever. 
 
 He was sailing a mixed fleet of tin ducks and 
 fishes across the tank by the tool-shed, under her 
 supervision, on the afternoon of the day he had 
 arrived, when Ealph came to find him in great 
 excitement. His keeper had just received private 
 notice from the Thursbys' keeper that a raid on the 
 part of a large gang of poachers was expected that 
 night in the parts of the Slumberleigh coverts that 
 had not yet been shot over, and which adjoined 
 Kalph's own land. 
 
 ' Whereabout will that be ? ' said Charles inatten- 
 tively, drawing his magnet slowly in front of the 
 fleet. 
 
 ' Where ? ' said Kalph excitedly, ' why, round by 
 the old house, round by Arleigh, of course. Thursby 
 and I have turned down hundreds of pheasants 
 there. Don't you remember the hot corner by the 
 coppice last year, below the house, where we got 
 forty at one place, and how the wind took them as 
 they came over ? ' 
 
 ' Near Arleigh ? ' repeated Charles, with sudden 
 interest. 
 
 'Uncle Charles,' interposed Molly reproachfully, 
 ' don't let all the ducks stick on to the magnet like 
 that. I told you not before. Make it go on in 
 front.' 
 
 But Charles's attention had wandered from the 
 ducks. 
 
 'Yes,' continued Ealph, 'near Arleigh. There 
 was a gang of poachers there last year, and the 
 
300 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 keepers dared not attack them, they were so strong, 
 though they were shooting right and left. But we'll 
 be even with them this year. My men are going, 
 and I shall go with them. You had better come 
 too, and see the fun. The more the better.' 
 
 ' Why should I go ? ' said Charles listlessly. 
 'Am I my brother's keeper, or even his under 
 keeper ? Molly, don't splash your uncle's ward- 
 robe. Besides, I expect it is a false alarm or a 
 blind/ 
 
 ' False alarm ! retorted Ealph. ' I tell you 
 Thursby's head keeper, Shaw you know Shaw 
 saw a man himself only last night in the Arleigh 
 coverts ; came upon him suddenly, reconnoitring, of 
 course, for to-night, and would have collared him too 
 if the moon had not gone in, and when it came out 
 again he was gone.' 
 
 ' Of course, and he will warn off the rest to- 
 night/ 
 
 c Not a bit of it. He never saw Shaw. Shaw 
 takes his oath he didn't see him. I'll lay any odds 
 they will beat those coverts to-night, and, by 
 George ! we'll nail some of them, if we have an 
 ounce of luck/ 
 
 Ealph's sporting instinct, to which even the 
 fleeting vision of a chance weasel never appealed in 
 vain, was now thoroughly aroused, and even Charles 
 shared somewhat in his excitement. 
 
 How could he warn Raymond to lie close ? 
 The more he thought of it the more impossible it 
 seemed. It was already late in the afternoon. He 
 could not, for Raymond's sake, risk being seen 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 301 
 
 hanging about in the woods near Arleigh for no 
 apparent reason, and Kaymond was not expecting to 
 see him in any case for two days to come, and 
 would probably be impossible to find. He could do 
 nothing but wait till the evening came, when he 
 might have some opportunity, if the night were only 
 dark enough, of helping or warning him. 
 
 The night was dark enough when it came ; but 
 it was unreliable. A tearing autumn wind drove 
 armies of clouds across the moon, only to sweep them 
 away again at a moment's notice. The wind itself 
 rose and fell, dropped and struggled up again like a 
 furious wounded animal. 
 
 ' It will drop at midnight,' said Ealph to Charles 
 below his breath, as they walked in the darkness 
 along the road towards Slumberleigh ; ' and the moon 
 will come out when the wind goes. I have told 
 Evans and Brooks to go by the fields, and meet us 
 at the cross roads in the low woods. It is a good 
 night for us. We don't want light yet a while; 
 and the more row the wind kicks up till we are in 
 our places ready for them the better.' 
 
 They walked on in silence, nearly missing in 
 the dark the turn for Slumberleigh, where the road 
 branched off to Vandon. 
 
 ' We must be close upon the river by this 
 time/ said Kalph; 'but I can't hear it for the 
 wind.' 
 
 The moon came out suddenly, and showed close 
 on their right the mill blocking out the sky, and 
 the dark sweep of the river below, between pale 
 wastes of flooded meadow. Upon the bridge, lean- 
 
302 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ing over the wall, stood the figure of a man, bare- 
 headed, with his hat in his hands. 
 
 He could not see his face, but something in* his 
 attitude struck Charles with a sudden chill. 
 
 ' By ,' he said below his breath, plucking 
 
 Kalph's arm, ' there's mischief going on there ! ' 
 
 Kalph did not hear, and in another moment 
 Charles was thankful he had not done so. 
 
 The man raised himself a little, and the light 
 fell full on his white desperate face. He was feel- 
 ing up and down the edge of the stone parapet 
 with his hands. As he moved, Charles recognised 
 him, and drew in his breath sharply. 
 
 ' Who is that ? ' said Kalph, his obtuser faculties 
 perceiving the man for the first time. 
 
 Charles made no answer, but began to whistle 
 loudly one of the tunes of the day. He saw Dare 
 give a guilty start, and, catching at the wall for 
 support, lean heavily against it as he looked 
 wildly down the road, where the shadow of the 
 trees had so far served to screen the approach of 
 Charles and Ealph, who now emerged into the 
 light, or at least would have done so, if the moon- 
 light had not been snatched away at that moment. 
 
 ' Hullo, Dare ! ' said Ealph cheerfully through 
 the darkness, ' I saw you. What are you up to 
 standing on the bridge at midnight, with the clock 
 striking the hour, and all that sort of thing ; and 
 what have you done with your hat ? Dropped it 
 into the water ? ' 
 
 Dare muttered something unintelligible, and 
 peered suspiciously through the darkness at Charles. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 303 
 
 The moon made a feint of coming out again, 
 which came to nothing, but which gave Charles a 
 moment's glimpse of Dare's convulsed face. And 
 the grave penetrating glance that met his own so 
 fixedly told Dare in that moment that Charles had 
 guessed his business on the bridge. Both men 
 were glad of the returning darkness, and of the 
 presence of Ealph. 
 
 ' Come along with us/ the latter was saying to 
 Dare, explaining the errand on which they were 
 bound ; and Dare, stupefied with past emotion, and 
 careless of what he did or where he went, agreed. 
 
 It was less trouble to agree than to find a 
 reason for refusing. He mechanically put on his 
 hat, which he had unconsciously crushed together 
 a few minutes before, in a dreadful dream from 
 which even now he had not thoroughly awaked. 
 And, still walking like a man in a dream, he set 
 off with the other two. 
 
 'There was suicide in his face,' thought Charles, 
 as he swung along beside his brother. ' He would 
 have done it if we had not come up. Good God ! 
 can it be that it is all over between him and 
 Euth ! ' The blood rushed to his head, and his 
 heart began to beat wildly. He walked on in 
 silence, seeing nothing, hearing nothing. Raymond 
 and the poachers were alike forgotten. 
 
 It was not until a couple of men joined them 
 silently in the woods, and others presently rose up 
 out of the darkness to whisper directions and sink 
 down again, that Charles came to himself with a 
 start, and pulled himself together. 
 
304 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 The party had halted. It was pitch dark, and 
 he was conscious of something towering up above 
 him, black and lowering. It was the ruined house 
 of Arleigh. 
 
 'You and Brooks wait here, and keep well 
 under the lee of the house/ said Ealph in a 
 whisper. ' If the moon comes out, get into the 
 shadow of the wall. Don't shout till you're sure of 
 them. Shaw is down by the stables. Dare and 
 Evans, you both come on with me. Shaw's got 
 two men at the end of the glade, but it's the 
 nearest coverts he is keenest on, because they can 
 get a horse and cart up close to take the game, and 
 get off sharp if they are surprised. They did last 
 year. Don't stir if you hear wheels. Wait for 
 them.' And with this parting injunction Ealph 
 disappeared noiselessly with Dare and the other 
 keeper in the direction of the stables. 
 
 Ealph had been right. The wind was drop- 
 ping. It came and went fitfully, returning as if 
 from great distances, and hurrying past weak and 
 impotent, leaving sudden silences behind. Charles 
 and his companion, a strapping young under keeper, 
 evidently anxious to distinguish himself, waited, 
 listening intently in the intervals of silence. The 
 ivy on the old house shivered and whispered over 
 their heads, and against one of the shuttered 
 windows near the ground some climbing plant, 
 torn loose by the wind, tapped incessantly, as 
 if calling to the ghosts within. Charles glanced 
 ever and anon at the sky. It showed no trace 
 of clearing as yet. He was getting cramped with 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 305 
 
 standing. He wished he had gone on to the 
 stables. His anxiety for Kaymond was sharpened 
 by this long inaction. He seemed to have been 
 standing for ages. What were the others doing? 
 Not a sound reached him between the lengthening 
 pauses of the wind. His companion stood drawn 
 up motionless beside him; and so they waited, 
 straining eye and ear into the darkness, conscious 
 that others were waiting and listening also. 
 
 At last in the distance came a faint sound of 
 wheels. Charles and Brooks instinctively drew a 
 long breath ; and Charles for the first time believed 
 the alarm of poachers had not been a false one, after 
 all. It was the faintest possible sound of wheels. 
 It would hardly have been heard at all but for 
 some newly broken stones over which they passed. 
 Then, without coming nearer, they stopped. 
 
 Charles listened intently. The wind had dropped 
 down dead at last, and in the stillness he felt as if 
 he could have heard a mouse stir miles away. But 
 all was quiet. There was no sound but the tremu- 
 lous whisper of the ivy. The spray near the window 
 had ceased its tapping against the shutter, and was 
 listening too. Slowly the moon came out, and 
 looked on. 
 
 And then suddenly, from the direction of the 
 stables, came a roar of men's voices, a sound of 
 bursting and crashing through the underwood, a 
 thundering of heavy feet, followed by a whirring of 
 frightened birds into the air. Brooks leaned forward 
 breathing hard, and tightening his newly moistened 
 grip on his heavy knotted stick. 
 20 
 
306 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Another moment and a man's figure darted 
 across the open, followed by a chorus of shouts, 
 and Charles's heart turned sick within him. Tt was 
 Raymond. 
 
 . ' Cut him off at the gate, Charles/ roared Ralph 
 from behind ; ' down to the left.' 
 
 There was not a second for reflection. As 
 Brooks rushed headlong forwards, Charles hurriedly 
 interposed his stick between his legs, and, leaving 
 him to flounder, started off in pursuit. 
 
 ' Down to your left ! ' cried a chorus of voices 
 from behind, as he shot out of the shadow of the 
 house ; for Charles was some way ahead of the rest 
 owing to his position. 
 
 He could hear Raymond crashing in front, then 
 he saw him again for a moment in a strip of open, 
 running as a man does who runs for his life, with a 
 furious recklessness of all obstacles. Charles saw 
 he was making for the rocky thickets below the 
 house, where the uneven ground and the bracken 
 would give him a better chance. Did he remember 
 the deep sunken wall which, broken down in places, 
 still separated the T/iiderness of the garden from the 
 wilderness outside? Charles was lean and active, 
 and he soon out-distanced the other pursuers, but a 
 man is hard to overtake who has such reasons for 
 not being overtaken as Raymond, and do what he 
 would he could not get near him. He bore down 
 to the left, but Raymond seemed to know it, and, 
 edging away again, held for the woods a little higher 
 up. Charles tacked, and then as he ran he saw 
 that Raymond was making with headlong blindness 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 307 
 
 through the shrubbery direct for the deep sunk wall 
 which bounded the Arleigh grounds. Would he 
 see it in the uncertain light ? He must be close 
 upon it now. He was running like a madman. 
 As Charles looked he saw him pitch suddenly 
 forward out of sight and heard a heavy fall. If 
 Charles ever ran in his life, it was then. As he 
 swiftly let himself drop over the wall, lower than 
 Raymond had taken it, he saw Ralph and Dare, 
 followed by the others, come streaming down the 
 slope in the moonlight, spreading as they came. It 
 was now or never. He rushed up the fosse under 
 cover of the wall, and almost stumbled over a pros- 
 trate figure, which was helplessly trying to raise 
 itself on its hands and knees. 
 
 'Danvers, it's me,' gasped Raymond, turning a 
 white tortured face feebly towards him. ' Don't let 
 those devils get me.' 
 
 'Keep still,' panted Charles, pushing him down 
 among the bracken. 'Lie close under the wall, 
 and make for the house again when it's quiet ; ' and 
 darting back under cover of the wall, to the place 
 where he had dropped over it, he found Dare almost 
 upon him, and rushed headlong down the steep rocky 
 descent, roaring at the top of his voice, and calling 
 wildly to the others. The pursuit swept away 
 through the wood, down the hill, and up the sandy 
 ascent on the other side ; swept almost over the top 
 of Charles, who had flung himself down, dead-beat 
 and gasping for breath, at the bottom of the gully. 
 
 He heard the last of the heavy lumbering feet 
 crash past him, and heard the shouting die away 
 
308 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 before he stiffly dragged himself up again, and began 
 to struggle painfully back up the slippery hillside, 
 down which he had rushed with a whole regiment 
 of loose and hopping stones ten minutes before. 
 He regained the wall at last, and crept back to the 
 place where he had left Kaymond. It was with a 
 sigh of relief that he found that he was gone. No 
 doubt he had got into safety somewhere, perhaps in 
 the cottage itself, where no one would dream of 
 looking for him. He stumbled along among the 
 loose stones by the wall till he came to the place 
 by the gate where it was broken down, and clam- 
 bering up, for the gate was locked, made his way 
 back through the shrubberies and desolate remains 
 of garden towards the point near the house where 
 Eaymond had first broken covert. As he came 
 round a clump of bushes his heart gave a great leap, 
 and then sank within him. 
 
 Three men were standing in the middle of the 
 lawn in the moonlight, gathered round something 
 on the ground. Seized by a horrible misgiving, he 
 hurried towards them. At a little distance a dog- 
 cart was being slowly led over the grass-grown drive 
 towards the house. 
 
 ' What is it ? Any one hurt ? ' he asked hoarsely, 
 joining the little group ; but as he looked he needed 
 no answer. One glance told him that the prostrate, 
 unconscious figure on the ground, with blood slowly 
 oozing from the open mouth, was Kaymond Deyn- 
 court. 
 
 ' Great God ! the man's dying,' he said, dropping 
 on his knees beside him. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 309 
 
 ' He's all right, sir ; he'll come to/ said a little 
 brisk man in a complacent, peremptory tone. ' It's 
 only the young chap ' pointing to the bashful 
 but gratified Brooks ' as crocked him over the head 
 a bit sharper than needful. Here, Esp' to the 
 grinning Slumberleigh policeman, whom Charles now 
 recognised, ' tell the lad to bring up the 'orse and 
 trap over the grass. We shall have a business to 
 shift him as it is.' 
 
 ' Is he a poacher ? ' asked Charles. ' He doesn't 
 look like it.' 
 
 ' Lord ! no, sir,' replied the little man, and 
 Charles's heart went straight down into his boots and 
 stayed there. ' I'm come down from Birmingham 
 after him. He's no poacher. The police have 
 wanted him very special for some time for the 
 Francisco forgery case.' 
 
CHAPTEK XXVII 
 
 CHARLES watched the detective and the policeman 
 hoist Baymond into the dogcart and drive away, 
 supporting him between them. No doubt it had 
 been the wheels of that dogcart which they had 
 heard in the distance. Then he turned to Brooks. 
 
 ' How is it you remained behind ? ' he asked 
 sharply. 
 
 Brooks's face fell, and he explained that just as 
 he was starting in the pursuit he had caught his 
 legs on ' Sir Chawles sir's ' stick, and ' barked hisself.' 
 
 ' I remember,' said Charles. ' You got in my 
 way. You should look out where you are going. 
 You may as well go and find my stick.' 
 
 The poor victim of duplicity departed rather 
 crestfallen, and at this moment Dare came up. 
 
 ' We have lost him,' he said, wiping his forehead. 
 ' I don't know what has become of him/ 
 
 ' He doubled back here,' said Charles. ' I followed, 
 but you all went on. The police have got him. 
 He was not a poacher after all, so they said.' 
 
 ' Ah ! ' said Dare. ' They have him ? I regret 
 it. He ran well. I could wish he had escaped. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 311 
 
 I was in the doorway of a stable watching a long 
 time, and all in a moment he rushed past me out of 
 the door. The policeman was seeking within when 
 he came out, but though he touched me I could not 
 stop him. And now/ with sudden weariness as his 
 excitement evaporated, ' all is, then, over for the 
 night ? And the others ? Where are they ? Do 
 we wait for them here ? ' 
 
 ' We should wait some time if we did/ replied 
 Charles. 'Ealph is certain to go on to the other 
 coverts. He has poachers on the brain. Probably 
 the rumour that they were coming here was only a 
 blind, and they are doing a good business somewhere 
 else. I am going home. I have had enough enjoy- 
 ment for one evening. I should advise you to do 
 the same.' 
 
 Dare winced, and did not answer, and Charles 
 suddenly remembered that there were circumstances 
 which might make it difficult for him to go back to 
 Vandon. 
 
 They walked away together in silence. Dare, 
 who had been wildly excited, was beginning to feel 
 the reaction. He was becoming giddy and faint 
 with exhaustion and want of food. He had eaten 
 nothing all day. They had not gone far when 
 Charles saw that he stumbled at every other step. 
 
 ' Look out/ he said once, as Dare stumbled more 
 heavily than usual, ' you'll twist your ankle on these 
 loose stones if you're not more careful.' 
 
 ' It is so dark/ said Dare faintly. 
 
 The moon was shining brightly at the moment, 
 and, as Charles turned to look at him in surprise, 
 
312 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Dare staggered forward, and would have collapsed 
 altogether if he had not caught him by the arm. 
 
 ' Sit down/ he said authoritatively. ' Here, not 
 on me, man, on the bank. Always sit down when 
 you can't stand. You have had too much excitement. 
 I felt the same after my first Christmas tree. You 
 will be better directly.' 
 
 Charles spoke lightly, but he knew from what he 
 had seen that Dare must have passed a miserable 
 day. He had never liked him. It was impossible 
 that he should have done so. But even his more 
 active dislike of the last few months gave way to 
 pity for him now, and he felt almost ashamed at the 
 thought that his own happiness was only to be built 
 on the ruin of poor Dare's. 
 
 He made him swallow the contents of his flask, 
 and as Dare choked and gasped himself back into the 
 fuller possession of his faculties, and experienced 
 the benign influences of whisky, entertained at first 
 unawares, his heart, always easily touched, warmed 
 to the owner of the silver flask, and of the strong 
 arm that was supporting him with an unwillingness 
 he little dreamed of. His momentary jealousy of 
 Charles in the summer had long since been forgotten. 
 He felt towards him now, as Charles helped him up, 
 and he proceeded slowly on his arm, as a friend and 
 a brother. 
 
 Charles, entirely unconscious of the noble senti- 
 ments which he and his flask had inspired, looked 
 narrowly at his companion, as they neared the turn 
 for Atherstone, and said with some anxiety 
 
 ' Where are you going to-night ? ' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 313 
 
 Dare made no answer. He had no idea where 
 he was going. 
 
 Charles hesitated. He could not let him walk 
 back alone to Vandon over the bridge. It was 
 long past midnight Dare's evident inability to 
 think where to turn touched him. 
 
 ' Can I be of any use to you ? ' he said earnestly. 
 ' Is there anything I can do ? Perhaps, at present, 
 you would rather not go to Vandon.' 
 
 'No, no/ said Dare, shuddering, 'I will not go there.' 
 
 Charles felt more certain than ever that it would 
 not be safe to leave him to his own devices, and his 
 anxiety not to lose sight of him in his present state 
 gave a kindness to his manner of which he was 
 hardly aware. 
 
 'Come back to Atherstone with me,' he said. 
 ' I will explain it to Ealph when he comes in. It 
 will be all right.' 
 
 Dare accepted the proposition with gratitude. 
 It relieved him for the moment from coming to any 
 decision. He thanked Charles with effusion, and 
 then his natural impulsiveness quickened by the 
 quantity of raw spirits he had swallowed, by this 
 mark of sympathy, by the moonlight, by Heaven 
 knows what that loosens the facile tongue of unre- 
 ticence then suddenly, without a moment's pre- 
 paration, he began to pour forth his troubles into 
 Charles's astonished and reluctant ears. It was 
 vain to try to stop him, and, after the first moment 
 of instinctive recoil, Charles was seized by a burning 
 curiosity to know all where he already knew so 
 much, to put an end to this racking suspense. 
 
814 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' And that is not the worst/ said Dare, when he 
 had recounted how the woman he had seen on the 
 church steps was in very deed the wife she claimed 
 to be. ' That is not the worst. I love another. We 
 are affianced. "We are as one. I bring sorrow upon 
 her I love/ 
 
 1 She knows, then ? ' asked Charles hoarsely, 
 hating himself for being such a hypocrite, but 
 unable to refrain from putting a leading question] 
 
 ' She knows that some one a person is at 
 Vandon/ replied Dare, 'who calls herself my wife, 
 but I tell her it is not true, and she, all goodness, 
 all heavenly calm, she trusts me, and once again 
 she promises to marry me if I am free, as I tell her, 
 as I swear to her.' 
 
 Charles listened in astonishment. He saw Dare 
 was speaking the truth, but that Euth could have 
 given such a promise was difficult to believe. He 
 did not know, what Dare even had not at all 
 realised, that she had given it in the belief that 
 Dare, from his answers to her questions, had never 
 been married to the woman at all, in the belief 
 that she was a mere adventuress seeking to make 
 money out of him by threatening a scandalous 
 libel, and without the faintest suspicion that she 
 was his divorced wife, whether legally or illegally 
 divorced. 
 
 Dare had understood the promise to depend on 
 the legality or illegality of that divorce, and told 
 Charles so in all good faith. With an extra- 
 ordinary effort of reticence he withheld the name of 
 his affianced, and pressing Charles's arm, begged 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 315 
 
 him to ask no more. And Charles, half sorry, half 
 contemptuous, wholly ashamed of having allowed 
 such a confidence to be forced upon him, marched 
 on in silence, now divided between mortal anxiety 
 for Eaymond and pity for Dare, now striving to 
 keep down a certain climbing rapturous emotion 
 which would not be suppressed. 
 
 One of the servants had waited up for their 
 return, and, after getting Dare something to eat, 
 Charles took him up to the room which had been 
 prepared for himself, and then, feeling he had done 
 his duty by him and that he was safe for the 
 present, went back to smoke by the smoking-room 
 fire till Ealph came in, which was not till several 
 hours later. When he did at last return it was in 
 triumph. He was dead-beat, voiceless, and footsore ; 
 but a sense of glory sustained him. Four poachers 
 had been taken red-handed in the coverts farthest 
 from Arleigh. The rumour about Arleigh had, of 
 course, been a blind ; but he, Kalph, thank Heaven, 
 was not to be taken in in such a hurry as all that ! 
 He could look after his interests as well as most 
 men. In short, he was full of glorification to the 
 brim, and it was only after hearing a hoarse and 
 full account of the whole transaction several times 
 over that Charles was able in a pause for breath 
 to tell him that he had offered Dare a bed, as he 
 was quite tired out, and was some distance from 
 Vandon. 
 
 ' All right. Quite right,' said Ealph, unheed- 
 ing ; ' but you and he missed the best part of the 
 whole thing. Great Scot ! when I saw them come 
 
316 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 dodging round under the Black Eock and ' 
 
 He was off again ; and Charles doubted afterwards, 
 as he fell asleep in his armchair by the fire, whether 
 Ealph, already slumbering peacefully opposite him, 
 had paid the least attention to what he had told 
 him, and would not have entirely forgotten it in 
 the morning. And, in fact, he did, and it was not 
 until Evelyn desired with dignity, on the morrow, 
 that another time unsuitable persons should not 
 be brought at midnight to her house, that he re- 
 membered what had happened. 
 
 Charles, who was present, immediately took the 
 blame upon himself, but Evelyn was not to be 
 appeased. By this time the whole neighbourhood 
 was ringing with the news of the arrival of a foreign 
 wife at Vandon, and Evelyn felt that Dare's pres- 
 ence in her blue bedroom, with crockery and crewel- 
 work curtains to match, compromised that apartment 
 and herself, and that he must incontinently depart 
 out of it. It was in vain that Ealph and even 
 Charles expostulated. She remained unmoved. It 
 was not, she said, as if she had been unwilling 
 to receive him, in the first instance, as a pos- 
 sible Eoman Catholic, though many might have 
 blamed her for that, and perhaps she had been 
 to blame; but she had never, no, never, had 
 any one to stay that anybody could say anything 
 about. (This was a solemn fact which it was 
 impossible to deny.) Ealph might remember her 
 own cousin, Willie Best, and she had always liked 
 Willie, had never been asked again after that time 
 Ealph chuckled that time he knew of. She was 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 317 
 
 very sorry, and she quite understood all Charles 
 meant, and she quite saw the force of what he said ; 
 but she could not allow people to stay in the house 
 who had foreign wives that had been kept secret. 
 What was poor Willie, who had only Ealph need 
 not laugh; there was nothing to laugh at what 
 was Willie to this ? She must be consistent. She 
 could see Charles was very angry with her, but she 
 could not encourage what was wrong, even if he was 
 angry. In short, Dare must go. 
 
 But, when it came to the point, it was found that 
 Dare could not go. Nothing short of force would 
 have turned the unwelcome guest out of the bed in 
 the blue bedroom, from which he made no attempt 
 to rise, and on which he lay worn out and feverish, 
 in a stupor of sheer mental and physical exhaus- 
 tion. 
 
 Charles and Ealph went and looked at him 
 rather ruefully, with masculine helplessness, and the 
 end of it was that Evelyn, in no wise softened, for 
 she was a good woman, had to give way, and a 
 doctor was sent for. 
 
 ' Send for the man in D Don't have the 
 
 Slumberleigh man/ said Charles ; ' it will only make 
 more talk ; ' and the doctor from D was accord- 
 ingly sent for. 
 
 He did not arrive till the afternoon, and after he 
 had seen Dare, and given him a sleeping draught, and 
 had talked reassuringly of a mental shock and a 
 feverish temperament, he apologised for his delay in 
 coming. He had been kept, he said, drawing on his 
 gloves as he spoke, by a very serious case in the 
 
318 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 police-station at D A man had been arrested 
 
 on suspicion the previous night, and he seemed to 
 have sustained some fatal internal injury. He 
 ought to have been taken to the infirmary at once ; 
 but it had been thought he was only shamming 
 when first arrested, and once in the police-station he 
 could not be moved, and the doctor took up his 
 hat he would probably hardly outlive the day. 
 
 ' By the way/ he added, turning at the door, ' he 
 asked over and over again while I was with him to 
 see you or Mr. Danvers. I'm sure I forget which, 
 but I promised him I would mention it. Nearly 
 slipped my memory, all the same. He said one of 
 you had known him in his better days, at Oxford, 
 was it ? ' 
 
 ' What name ? ' asked Charles. 
 
 ' Stephens/ replied the doctor. ' He seemed to 
 think you would remember him.' 
 
 ' Stephens/ said Charles reflectively. ' Stephens ! 
 I once had a valet of that name, and a very good 
 one he was, who left my service rather abruptly, 
 taking with him numerous portable memorials of 
 myself, including a set of diamond studs. I en- 
 deavoured at the time to keep up my acquaintance 
 with him ; but he took measures effectually to close 
 it. In fact, I have never heard of him from that 
 day to this/ 
 
 'That's the man, no doubt/ replied the doctor, 
 ' He has er a sort of look about him as if he 
 might have been in a gentleman's service once; 
 seen-better-days sort of look, you know.' 
 
 Charles said he should be at D in the 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 319 
 
 course of the afternoon, and would make a point of 
 looking in at the police-station; and a quarter of 
 an hour later he was driving as hard as he could 
 tear in Kalph's high dogcart along the road to 
 
 D It was a six-mile drive, and he slackened 
 
 as he reached the straggling suburbs of the little 
 town, lying before him in a dim mist of fine rain and 
 smoke. 
 
 Arrived at the dismal building which he knew to 
 be the police-station, he was shown into a small 
 room hung round with papers, where the warden 
 was writing, and desired, with an authority so 
 evidently accustomed to obedience that it invariably 
 ensured it, to see the prisoner. The prisoner, he 
 said, at whose arrest he had been present, had 
 expressed a wish to see him through the doctor ; 
 and as the warden demurred for the space of one 
 second, Charles mentioned that he was a magistrate 
 and justice of the peace, and sternly desired the con- 
 fused official to show him the way at once. That 
 functionary, awed by the stately manner which none 
 knew better than Charles when to assume, led the 
 way down a narrow stone passage, past numerous 
 doors behind one of which a banging sound, accom- 
 panied by alcoholic oaths, suggested the presence 
 of a free-born Briton chafing under restraint. 
 
 ' I had him put upstairs, sir/ said the warden 
 humbly. ' We didn't know when he came in as it 
 was a case for the infirmary; but seeing he was 
 wanted for a big thing, and poorly in his 'ealth, I 
 giv' him one of the superior cells, with a mattress 
 and piller complete/ 
 
320 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 The man was evidently afraid that Charles had 
 come as a magistrate to give him a reprimand of 
 some kind, for, as he led the way up a narrow stone 
 staircase, he continued to expatiate on the luxury 
 of the ' mattress and piller,' on the superiority of 
 the cell, and how a nurse had been sent for at 
 once from the infirmary, when, owing to his own 
 shrewdness, the prisoner was found to be ' a hospital 
 case/ 
 
 ' The doctor wouldn't have him moved,' he said, 
 opening a closed door in a long passage full of 
 doors, the rest of which stood open. ' It's not 
 reg'lar to have him in here, sir, I know ; but the 
 doctor wouldn't have him moved.' 
 
 Charles passed through the door, and found 
 himself in a narrow whitewashed cell, with a 
 bed at one side, over which an old woman in the 
 dress of a hospital nurse was bending. 
 
 'You can come out, Martha,' said the warden. 
 ' The gentleman's come to see 'im.' 
 
 As the old woman disappeared curtseying, he 
 lingered to say in a whisper 
 
 ' Do you know him, sir ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' said Charles, looking fixedly at the figure 
 on the bed. ' I remember him. I knew him years 
 ago, in his better days. I daresay he will have 
 something to tell me.' 
 
 ' If it should be anything as requires a witness,' 
 continued the man ' he's said a deal already, and 
 it's all down in proper form but if there's any- 
 thing more ' 
 
 'I will let you know,' said Charles, looking 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 321 
 
 towards the door, and the warden took the hint and 
 went out of it, closing it quietly. 
 
 Charles crossed the little room, and, sitting 
 down in the crazy chair beside the bed, laid his 
 hand gently on the listless hand lying palm up- 
 wards on the rough gray counterpane. 
 
 ' Kaymond,' he said ; ' it is I, Danvers/ 
 
 The hand trembled a little, and made a faint 
 attempt to clasp his. Charles took the cold, 
 lifeless hand, and held it in his strong gentle 
 grasp. 
 
 ' It is Danvers/ he said again. 
 
 The sick man turned his head slowly on the 
 pillow, and looked fixedly at him. Death's own 
 colour, which imitation can never imitate, nor 
 ignorance mistake, was stamped upon that rigid 
 face. 
 
 ' I'm done for,' he said with a faint smile, which 
 touched the lips but did not reach the solemn far- 
 reaching eyes. 
 
 Charles could not speak. 
 
 ' You said I should turn up tails once too often,' 
 continued Kaymond, with slow halting utterance, 
 ' and I've done it. I knew it was all up when I 
 pitched over that damned wall on to the stones. 
 I felt I'd killed myself.' 
 
 ' How did they get you ? ' said Charles. 
 
 'I don't know,' replied Eaymond, closing his 
 eyes wearily, as if the subject had ceased to 
 interest him. 'I think I tried to creep along 
 under the wall towards the place where it is 
 broken down, when I fancy some one came over 
 21 
 
322 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 long after .the others, and knocked me on the 
 head/ 
 
 Charles reflected with sudden wrath that 
 Brooks, no doubt, had been the man, and how 
 much worse than useless his manoeuvre with the 
 stick had been. 
 
 ' I did my best,' he said humbly. 
 
 ' Yes/ replied the other ; ' and I would not have 
 forgotten it either if if there had been any time 
 to remember it in ; but there won't be. I've 
 owned up,' he continued in a laboured whisper. 
 'Stephens has made a full confession. You'll 
 have it in all the papers to-morrow. And while 
 I was at it I piled on some more I never did, 
 which will get friends over the water out of 
 trouble. Tom Flavell did me a good turn once, 
 and he's been in hiding these two years for well, 
 it don't much matter what, but I've shoved that in 
 with the rest, though it was never in my line 
 never. He'll be able to go home now.' 
 
 'Have not you confessed under your own 
 name ? ' 
 
 ' No,' replied Kaymond, with a curious remnant 
 of that pride of race at which it is the undisputed 
 privilege of low birth and a plebeian temperament 
 to sneer. ' I won't have my own name dragged in. 
 I dropped it years ago. I've confessed as Stephens, 
 and I'll die and be buried as Stephens. I'm not 
 going to disgrace the family.' 
 
 There was a constrained silence of some 
 minutes. 
 
 ' Would you like to see your sister ? ' asked 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 823 
 
 Charles ; but Kaymond shook his head with feeble 
 decision. 
 
 ' That man ! ' he said suddenly, after a long 
 pause. ' That man in the doorway ! How did he 
 come there ? ' 
 
 ' There is no man in the doorway/ said Charles 
 reassuringly. ' There is no one here but me.' 
 
 'Last night/ continued Kaymond, Mast night 
 in the stables. I watched him stand in the doorway.' 
 
 Charles remembered how Dare had said Raymond 
 had bolted out past him. 
 
 ' That was Dare/ he said ; ' the man who was 
 to have been your brother-in-law/ 
 
 ' Ah ! ' said Raymond with evident unconcern. 
 ' I thought I'd seen him before. But he's altered. 
 He's grown into a man. So he is to marry Ruth, 
 is he ? ' 
 
 ' Not now. He was to have done, but a divorced 
 wife from America has turned up. She arrived at 
 Vandon the day before yesterday. It seems the 
 divorce in America does not hold in England/ 
 
 Raymond started. 
 
 * The old fox/ he said with feeble energy. 
 ' Tracked him out, has she ? We used to call them 
 
 fox and goose when she married him. By , 
 
 she squeezed every dollar out of him before she let 
 him go, and now she's got him again, has she ? 
 She always was a cool hand. The old fox/ he con- 
 tinued with contempt and admiration in his voice. 
 1 She's playing a bold game, and the lucJr is on her 
 side, but she's no more his wife than I am, and she 
 knows that perfectly well/ 
 
324 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Do you mean that the divorce was ' 
 
 ' Divorce, bosh ! ' said Kaymond, working him- 
 self up into a state of feeble excitement frightful to 
 see. 'I tell you she was never married to him 
 legally. She called herself a widow, when she 
 married Dare, but she had a husband living, Jaspar 
 Carroll, serving his time at Baton Eouge Jail, down 
 South, all the time. He died there a year after- 
 wards, but hardly a soul knows it to this day ; and 
 those that do don't care about bringing themselves 
 into public notice. They'll prefer hush-money, if 
 they find out what she's up to now. The prison 
 register would prove it directly. But Dare will 
 never find it out. How should he ? ' 
 
 Eaymond sank back speechless and panting. 
 A strong shudder passed over him, and his breath 
 seemed to fail. 
 
 ' It's coming,' he whispered hoarsely. ' That 
 lying doctor said I had several hours, and I feel it 
 coming already/ 
 
 'Danvers,' he continued hurriedly, 'are you still 
 there ? ' Then, as Charles bent over him, ' Closer ; 
 bend down. I want to see your face. Keep your 
 own counsel about Dare. There's no one to tell if 
 you don't. He's not fit for Kuth. You can marry 
 her now. I saw what I saw. She'll take you. 
 And some day some day, when you have been 
 married a long time, tell her I'm dead ; and tell 
 her about Flavell, and how I owned to it but 
 that I did not do it. I never sank so low as that.' 
 His voice had dropped to a whisper which died 
 imperceptibly away. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 325 
 
 * I will tell her/ said Charles ; and Kaymond 
 turned his face to the wall, and spoke no more. 
 
 The struggle had passed, and for the moment 
 death held aloof; but his shadow was there, lying 
 heavy on the deepening twilight, and darkening all 
 the little room. Eaymond seemed to have sunk 
 into a stupor, and at last Charles rose silently and 
 went out. 
 
 He was dimly conscious of meeting some one in 
 the passage, of answering some question in the 
 negative, and then he found himself gathering up 
 the reins, and driving through the narrow lighted 
 
 streets of D in the dusk, and so away down 
 
 the long flat high-road to Atherstone. 
 
 A white mist had risen up to meet the darkness, 
 and had shrouded all the land. In sweeps and 
 curves along the fields a gleaming pallor lay of 
 heavy dew upon the grass, and on the road the 
 long lines of dim water in the ruts reflected the dim 
 sky. 
 
 Carts lumbered past him in the darkness once 
 or twice, the men in them peering back at his 
 reckless driving; and once a carriage with lamps 
 came swiftly up the road towards him, and passed 
 him with a flash, grazing his wheel. But he took 
 no heed. Drive as quickly as he would through 
 mist and darkness, a voice followed him, the voice 
 of a pursuing devil close at his ear, whispering in 
 the halting, feeble utterance of a dying man 
 
 ' Keep your own counsel about Dare. There is 
 no one to tell if you don't/ 
 
 Charles shivered and set his teeth. High on 
 
326 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 the hill among the trees the distant lights of 
 Slumberleigh shone like glowworms through the 
 mist. He looked at them with wild eyes. She 
 was there, the woman who loved him, and whom he 
 passionately loved. He could stretch forth his 
 hand to take her if he would. His breath came 
 hard and thick. A hand seemed clutching and 
 tearing at his heart. And close at his ear the 
 whisper came 
 
 ' There is no one to tell if you don't! 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 IT was close on dressing time when Charles came 
 into the drawing-room, where Evelyn and Molly 
 were building castles on the hearthrug in the ruddy 
 firelight. After changing his damp clothes, he had 
 gone to the smoking-room, but he had found Dare 
 sitting there in a vast dressing-gown of Kalph's, in 
 a state of such utter dejection, with his head in his 
 hands, that he had silently retreated again before he 
 had been perceived. He did not want to see Dare 
 just now. He wished he were not in the house. 
 
 Quite oblivious of the fact that he was not in 
 Evelyn's good graces, he went and sat by the draw- 
 ing-room fire, and absently watched Molly playing 
 with her bricks. Presently, when the dressing-bell 
 rang, Evelyn went away to dress, and Molly, tired of 
 her castles, suggested that she might sit on his knee. 
 
 He let her climb up and wriggle and finally 
 settle herself as it seemed good to her, but he did 
 not speak ; and so they sat in the firelight together, 
 Molly's hand lovingly stroking his black velvet coat. 
 But her talents lay in conversation, not in silence, 
 and she soon broke it. 
 
328 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' You do look beautiful to-night, Uncle Charles.' 
 
 ' Do I ? ' without elation. 
 
 'Do you know, Uncle Charles, Ninny's sister, 
 with the wart on her cheek, has been to tea ? She's 
 in the nursery now. Ninny says she's to have a 
 bite of supper before she goes.' 
 
 ' You don't say so ? ' 
 
 ' And we had buttered toast to tea, and she said 
 you were the most splendid gentleman she ever saw.' 
 
 Charles did not answer. He did not even seem 
 to have heard this interesting tribute to his personal 
 appearance. Molly felt that something must be 
 gravely amiss, and, laying her soft cheek against his, 
 she whispered confidentially 
 
 ' Uncle Charles, are you uncomferable inside ? ' 
 
 There was a long pause. 
 
 ' Yes, Molly,' at last, pressing her to him. 
 
 ' Is it there ? ' said Molly sympathetically, laying 
 her hand on the front portion of her amber sash. 
 
 ' No, Molly ; I only wish it were.' 
 
 ' It's not the little green pears, then,' said Molly 
 with a sigh of experience, 'because it's always/^ 
 there, always, with them. It was again yesterday. 
 They're nasty little pears ' with a touch of personal 
 resentment. 
 
 Uncle Charles smiled at last, but it was not quite 
 his usual smile. 
 
 ' Miss Molly,' said a voice from the door, ' your 
 mamma has sent for you.' 
 
 ' It's not bedtime yet.' 
 
 'Your mamma says you are to come at once/ 
 was the reply. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 329 
 
 Molly, knowing from experience that an appeal 
 to Charles was useless on these occasions, wriggled 
 down from her perch rather reluctantly, and bade 
 her uncle ' Good-night.' 
 
 'Perhaps it will be better to-morrow,' she said 
 consolingly. 
 
 ' Perhaps,' he said, nodding at her ; and he took 
 her little head between his hands, and kissed her. 
 She rubbed his kiss off again, and walked gravely 
 away. She could not be merry and ride in triumph 
 upstairs on kind curveting Sarah's willing back, 
 while her friend was ' uncomferable inside.' There 
 was no galloping down the passage that night, no 
 pleasantries with the sponge in Molly's tub, no last 
 caperings in light attire. Molly went silently to 
 bed, and as on a previous occasion when in great 
 anxiety about Vic, who had thoughtlessly gone out 
 in the twilight for a stroll, and had forgotten the 
 lapse of time, she added a whispered clause to her 
 little petitions which the ear of ' Ninny ' failed to 
 catch. 
 
 Charles recognised, in the way Evelyn had taken 
 Molly from him, that she was not yet appeased. 
 It should be remembered, in order to do her justice, 
 that a good woman's means of showing a proper 
 resentment are so straitened and circumscribed by 
 her conscience that she is obliged, from actual want 
 of material, to resort occasionally to little acts of 
 domestic tyranny, small in themselves as midge 
 bites, but, fortunately for the cause of virtue, equally 
 exasperating. Indeed, it is improbable that any 
 really good woman would ever so far forget herself 
 
330 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 as to lose her temper, if she were once thoroughly 
 aware how much more irritating in the long run 
 a judicious course of those small persecutions may 
 be made, which the tenderest conscience need not 
 scruple to inflict. 
 
 Charles was unreasonably annoyed at having 
 Molly taken from him. As he sat by the fire alone, 
 tired in mind and body, a hovering sense of cold, 
 and an intense weariness of life took him; and a 
 great longing came over him like a thirst a longing 
 for a little of the personal happiness which seemed 
 to be the common lot of so many round him ; for a 
 home where he had now only a house ; for love and 
 warmth and companionship, and possibly some day 
 a little Molly of his own, who would not be taken 
 from him at the caprice of another. 
 
 The only barrier to the fulfilment of such a 
 dream had been a conscientious scruple of Kuth's, 
 to which at the time he had urged upon her that 
 she did wrong to yield. That barrier was now 
 broken down ; but it ought never to have existed. 
 Kuth and he belonged to each other by divine law, 
 and she had no right to give herself to any one 
 else to satisfy her own conscience. And now all 
 would be well. She was absolved from her promise. 
 She had been wrong to persist in keeping it, in 
 his opinion ; but at any rate she was honourably 
 released from it now. And she would marry him. 
 
 And that second promise, which she had made 
 to Dare, that she would still marry him if he were 
 free to marry ? 
 
 Charles moved impatiently in his chair. From 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 331 
 
 what exaggerated sense of duty she had made that 
 promise he knew not ; but he would save her from 
 the effects of her own perverted judgment. He 
 knew what Kuth's word meant, since he had tried 
 to make her break it. He knew that she had 
 promised to marry Dare if he were free. He 
 knew that, having made that promise, she would 
 keep it. 
 
 It would be mere sentimental folly on his part 
 to say the word that would set Dare free. Even if 
 the American woman were not his wife in the eye 
 of the law, she had a moral claim upon him. The 
 possibility of Kuth's still marrying Dare was too 
 hideous to be thought of. If her judgment was so 
 entirely perverted by a morbid conscientious fear 
 of following her own inclination that she could 
 actually give Dare that promise, directly after the 
 arrival of the adventuress, Charles would take the 
 decision out of her hands. As she could not judge 
 fairly for herself, he would judge for her and save 
 her from herself. 
 
 For her sake as much as for his own he resolved 
 to say nothing. He had only to keep silence. 
 
 ' There's no one to tell if you don't! 
 
 The door opened, and Charles gave a start as 
 Dare came into the room. He was taken aback by 
 the sudden rush of jealous hatred that surged up 
 within him at his appearance. It angered and 
 shamed him, and Dare, much shattered but feebly 
 cordial, found him very irresponsive and silent for 
 the few minutes that remained before the dinner bell 
 rang and the others came down 
 
332 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 It was not a pleasant meal. If Dare had been 
 a shade less ill, he must have noticed the marked 
 coldness of Evelyn's manner, and how Ealph good- 
 naturedly endeavoured to make up for it by double 
 helpings of soup and fish, which he was quite 
 unable to eat Charles and Lady Mary were never 
 congenial spirits at the best of times, and to- 
 night was not the best That lady, after feebly 
 provoking the attack as usual, sustained some 
 crushing defeats, mainly couched in the language of 
 Scripture, which was, as she felt with Christian 
 indignation, turning her own favourite weapon 
 against herself, as possibly Charles thought she 
 deserved, for putting such a weapon to so despicable 
 a use. 
 
 ' I really don't know/ she said tremulously after- 
 wards in the drawing-room, 'what Charles will 
 come to if he goes on like this. I don't mind* 
 venomously 'his tone towards myself. That 
 I do not regard ; but his entire want of reverence 
 for the Church and apostolic succession ; his pro- 
 fane remarks about vestments ; in short, his en- 
 tire attitude towards religion gives me the gravest 
 anxiety.' 
 
 In the dining-room the conversation flagged, and 
 Charles was beginning to wonder whether he could 
 make some excuse and bolt, when the servant came 
 in with a note for him. It was from the doctor in 
 D , and ran as follows : 
 
 ' DEAR SIR I have just seen (6.30 P.M.) Stephens 
 again. I found him in a state of the wildest excite- 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 333 
 
 ment, and he implored me to send you word that he 
 wanted to see you again. He seemed so sure that 
 you would go if you knew he wished it, that I have 
 commissioned Sergeant Brown's boy to take this. 
 He wished me to say " there was something more/' 
 If there is any further confession he desires to make, 
 he has not much time to do it in. I did not 
 expect he would have lasted till now. As it is, he 
 is going fast. Indeed, I hardly think you will be 
 in time to see him ; but I promised to give you this 
 message. Yours faithfully, R. WHITE.' 
 
 'I must go/ Charles said, throwing the note 
 across to Ralph; 'give the boy half-a-crown, will 
 you ? I suppose I may take Othello ? ' and before 
 Ralph had mastered the contents of the note, and 
 begun to fumble for a half-crown, Charles was 
 saddling Othello himself, without waiting for the 
 groom, and in a few minutes was clattering over 
 the stones out of the yard. 
 
 There was just light enough to ride by, and he 
 rode hard. What was it what could it be that 
 Raymond had still to tell him? He felt certain 
 it had something to do with Ruth, and probably 
 Dare. Should he arrive in time to hear it ? 
 
 There at last were the lights of D in front 
 
 of him. Should he arrive in time ? As he pulled 
 up his steaming horse before the police-station his 
 heart misgave him. 
 
 'Am I too late?' he asked of the man who 
 came to the door. 
 
 He looked bewildered. 
 
334 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Stephens ? Is he dead ? ' 
 
 The man shook his head. 
 
 ' They say he's a'most gone.' 
 
 Charles threw the reins to him, and hurried 
 indoors. He met some one coming out, the doctor 
 probably, he thought afterwards, who took him 
 upstairs, and sent away the old woman who was 
 in attendance. 
 
 ' I can't do anything more,' he said, opening the 
 door for him. 'Wanted elsewhere. Very good of 
 you, I'm sure. Not much use, I'm afraid. Good- 
 night. I'll tell the old woman to be about.' 
 
 A dim lamp was burning on the little corner 
 cupboard near the door, and, as Charles bent over 
 the bed, he saw in a moment, even by that pale 
 light, that he was too late. 
 
 Life was still there, if that feeble tossing could 
 be called life ; but all else was gone. Eaymond's 
 feet were already on the boundary of the land 
 where all things are forgotten ; and, at the sight of 
 that dim country, memory, affrighted, had slipped 
 away and left him. 
 
 Was it possible to recall him to himself even yet ? 
 
 ' Raymond,' he said, in a low distinct voice, 
 ' what is it you wish to say ? Tell me quickly 
 what it is.' 
 
 But the long agony of farewell between body 
 and soul had begun, and the eyes that seemed to 
 meet his with momentary recognition only looked 
 at him in anguish, seeking help and finding none ; 
 and wandered away again, vainly searching for that 
 which was not to be found. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 335 
 
 Charles could do nothing, but he had not the 
 heart to leave him to struggle with death entirely 
 alone, and so, in awed and helpless compassion, he 
 sat by him through one long hour after another, 
 waiting for the end which still delayed, his eyes 
 wandering ever and anon from the bed to the high 
 grated window, or idly spelling out the different names 
 and disparaging remarks that previous occupants 
 had scratched and scrawled over the whitewashed 
 walls. 
 
 And so the hours passed. 
 
 At last, all in a moment, the struggle ceased. 
 The dying man vainly tried to raise himself to 
 meet what was coming, and Charles put his strong 
 arm round him and held him up. He knew that 
 consciousness sometimes returns at the moment of 
 death. 
 
 ' Eaymond/ he whispered earnestly. ' Kaymond.' 
 
 A tremor passed over the face. The lips moved. 
 The homeless, lingering soul came back, and looked 
 for the last time fixedly and searchingly at him out 
 of the dying eyes, and then seeing no help for 
 it went hurriedly on its way, leaving the lips 
 parted to speak, leaving the deserted eyes vacant 
 and terrible, until after a time Charles closed them. 
 
 He had gone without speaking. Whatever he 
 had wished to say would remain unsaid for ever. 
 Charles laid him down, and stood a long time look- 
 ing at the set face. The likeness to Kaymond 
 seemed to be fading away under the touch of 
 the Mighty Hand, but the look of Kuth, the 
 better look, remained. 
 
336 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 At last he turned away and went out, stopping 
 to wake the old nurse, heavily asleep in the 
 passage. His horse was brought round for him 
 from somewhere, and he mounted and rode away. 
 He had no idea how long he had been there. It 
 must have been many hours, but he had quite lost 
 sight of time. It was still dark, but the morning 
 could not be far off. He rode mechanically, his 
 horse, which knew the road, taking him at its own 
 pace. The night was cold, but he did not feel it. 
 All power of feeling anything seemed gone from 
 him. The last two days and nights of suspense 
 and high-strung emotion seemed to have left him 
 incapable of any further sensation at present be- 
 yond that of an intense fatigue. 
 
 He rode slowly, and put up his horse with 
 careful absence of mind. The eastern horizon 
 was already growing pale and distinct as he 
 found his way indoors through the drawing- 
 room window, the shutter of which had been 
 left unhinged for him by Ealph, according to 
 custom when either of them was out late. He 
 went noiselessly up to his room, and sat down. 
 After a time he started to find himself still sitting 
 there ; but he remained without stirring, too tired 
 to move, his elbows on the table, his chin in his 
 hands. He felt he could not sleep if he were to 
 drag himself into bed. He might just as well stay 
 where he was. 
 
 And as he sat watching the dawn his mind 
 began to stir, to shake off its lethargy and stupor, 
 to struggle into keener and keener consciousness. 
 
8IE CHARLES DANVERS 337 
 
 There are times, often accompanying great 
 physical prostration, when a veil seems to be lifted 
 from our mental vision. As in the Mediterranean 
 one may glance down suddenly on a calm day, and 
 see in the blue depths with a strange surprise the 
 seaweed and the rocks and the fretted sands below, 
 so also in rare hours we see the hidden depths of 
 the soul, over which we have floated in heedless 
 unconsciousness so long, and catch a glimpse of the 
 hills and the valleys of those untravelled regions. 
 
 Charles sat very still with his chin in his hands. 
 His mind did not work. It looked right down to 
 the heart of things. 
 
 There is, perhaps, no time when mental vision is 
 so clear, when the mind is so sane, as when Death 
 has come very near to us. There is a light which 
 he brings with him, which he holds before the eyes 
 of the dying, the stern light, seldom seen, of reality, 
 before which self-deception, and meanness, and that 
 which maketh a lie, cower in their native deformity 
 and slip away. 
 
 And Death sheds at times a strange gleam from 
 that same light upon the souls of those who stand 
 within his shadow, and watch his kingdom coming. 
 In an awful transfiguration, all things stand for 
 what they are. Evil is seen to be evil, and 
 good to be good. Eight and wrong sunder more 
 far apart, and we cannot mistake them as we do at 
 other times. The debatable land stretching between 
 them that favourite resort of undecided natures 
 disappears for a season, and offers no longer its false 
 refuge. The mind is taken away from all artificial 
 22 
 
338 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 supports, and the knowledge comes home to the 
 soul afresh, with strong conviction, that ' truth is 
 our only armour in all passages of life/ as with 
 awed hearts we see it is the only armour in the 
 hour of death, the only shield that we may hear 
 away with us into the unknown country. 
 
 Charles shuddered involuntarily. His decision 
 of the afternoon to keep secret what Eaymond had 
 told him was gradually but surely assuming a 
 different aspect. What was it, after all, but a 
 suppression of truth a kind of lie ? What was it 
 but doing evil that good might come ? 
 
 It was no use harping on the old string of 
 consequences. He saw that he had resolved to 
 commit a deliberate sin, to be false to that great 
 principle of life right for the sake of right, truth 
 for the love of truth by which of late he had been 
 trying to live. So far, it had not been difficult, for 
 his nature was not one to do things by halves, but 
 
 11 A'VXT' 
 
 U.\J VY""" 
 
 Old voices out of the past, which he had thought 
 long dead, rose out of forgotten graves to urge him 
 on. What was he that he should stick at such a 
 trifle ? Why should a man with his past begin to 
 split hairs ? 
 
 And conscience said nothing, only pointed, only 
 showed, with a clearness that allowed of no mis- 
 take, that he had come to a place where two roads 
 met. 
 
 Charles's heart suffered then ' the nature of an 
 insurrection.' The old lawless powers that had 
 once held sway, and had been forced back into 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 839 
 
 servitude under the new rule of the last few years 
 of responsibility and honour, broke loose, and 
 spread like wildfire throughout the kingdom of his 
 heart. 
 
 The struggle deepened to a battle fierce and 
 furious. His soul was rent with a frenzy of tumult, 
 of victory and defeat ever changing sides, ever 
 returning to the attack. 
 
 Can a kingdom divided against itself stand ? 
 
 He sat motionless, gazing with absent eyes in 
 front of him. 
 
 And across the shock of battle, and above the 
 turmoil of conflicting passions, Ruth's voice came to 
 him. He saw the pale spiritual face, the deep eyes 
 so full of love and anguish, and yet so steadfast 
 with a great resolve. He heard again her last 
 words, ' I cannot do what is wrong, even for you.' 
 
 He stretched out his hands suddenly. 
 
 ' You would not, Ruth/ he said half aloud ; ' you 
 would not. Neither will I do what I know to be 
 wrong for you, so help me God ! not even for 
 you.' 
 
 The dawn was breaking clear and cold, and 
 infinitely far away ; was coming up through un- 
 fathomable depths and distances, through gleaming 
 caverns and fastnesses of light, like, a new revela- 
 tion fresh from God. But Charles did not see it, 
 for his head was down on the table, and he was 
 crying like a child. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 DARE was down early the following morning, much 
 too early for the convenience of the housemaids, who 
 were dusting the drawing-room when he appeared 
 there. He was usually as late as any of the young 
 and gilded unemployed who feel it incumbent on 
 themselves to show by these public demonstrations 
 their superiority to the rules and fixed hours of the 
 working and thinking world, with whom, however, 
 their fear of being identified is a groundless appre- 
 hension. But to-day Dare experienced a mournful 
 satisfaction in being down so early. He felt the 
 underlying pathos of such a marked departure from 
 his usual habits. It was obvious that- nothing but 
 deep affliction or cub-hunting could have been the 
 cause, and the cub-hunting was over. The in- 
 ference was not one that could be missed by the 
 meanest capacity. 
 
 He took up the newspaper with a sigh, and 
 settled himself in front of the blazing fire, which 
 was still young and leaping, with the enthusiasm of 
 dry sticks not quite gone out of it. 
 
 Charles heard Dare go down just as he finished 
 
SIK CHARLES DANVERS 341 
 
 dressing, for he was early too that morning. There 
 was more than half an hour before breakfast time. 
 He considered a moment, and then went downstairs. 
 Some resolutions, once made, cannot be carried out 
 too quickly. 
 
 As he passed through the hall he looked out. 
 The mist of the night before had sought out every 
 twig and leaflet, and had silvered it to meet the sun. 
 The rime on the grass looked cool and tempting. 
 Charles's head ached, and he went out for a moment 
 and stood in the crisp still air. The rooks were 
 cawing high up. The face of the earth had not 
 altered during the night. It shimmered and was 
 glad, and smiled at his grave, careworn face. 
 
 ' Hallo ! ' called a voice ; and Kalph's head, with 
 his hair sticking straight out on every side, was 
 thrust out of a window. ' I say, Charles, early bird 
 you are ! ' 
 
 ' Yes/ said Charles, looking up and leisurely 
 going indoors again ; ' you are the first worm I 
 have seen.' 
 
 He found Dare, as he expected, in the drawing- 
 room, and proceeded at once to the business he had 
 in hand. 
 
 ' I am glad you are down early/ he said. ' You 
 are the very man I want/ 
 
 ' Ah ! ' replied Dare, shaking his head, ' when 
 the heart is troubled there is no sleep, none. All 
 the clocks are heard.' 
 
 'Possibly. I should not wonder if you heard 
 another in the course of half an hour, which wiD 
 mean breakfast. In the meantime ' 
 
342 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' I want no breakfast. A sole cup of ' 
 
 ' In the meantime/ continued Charles, ' I have 
 some news for you.' And, disregarding another 
 interruption, he related as shortly as he could the 
 story of Stephens's recognition of him in the doorway, 
 and the subsequent revelations in the prison con- 
 cerning Dare's marriage. 
 
 ' Where is this man, this Stephens ? ' said Dare, 
 jumping up. ' I will go to him. I will hear from 
 his own mouth. Where is he ? ' 
 
 ' I don't know,' replied Charles curtly. ' It is a 
 matter of opinion. He is dead.' 
 
 Dare looked bewildered, and then sank back with 
 a gasp of disappointment into his chair. 
 
 Charles, whose temper was singularly irritable 
 this morning, repeated with suppressed annoyance 
 the greater part of what he had just said, and 
 proved to Dare that the fact that Stephens was 
 dead would in no way prevent the illegality of 
 his marriage being proved. 
 
 When Dare had grasped the full significance of 
 that fact he was quite overcome. 
 
 ' Am I, then,' he gasped ' is it true ? am I 
 free to marry ? ' 
 
 ' Quite free/ 
 
 Dare burst into tears, and, partially veiling with 
 one hand the manly emotion that had overtaken 
 him, he extended the other to Charles, who did not 
 know what to do with it when he had got it, and 
 dropped it as soon as he could. But Dare, like 
 many people whose feelings are all on the surface, 
 and who are rather proud of displaying them, was 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 343 
 
 slow to notice what was passing in the minds of 
 others. 
 
 He sprang to his feet, and began to pace rapidly 
 up and down. 
 
 ' I will go after breakfast at once immedi- 
 ately after breakfast, to Slumberleigh Kectory/ 
 
 ' I suppose, in that case, Miss Deyncourt is the 
 person whose name you would not mention the 
 other day ? ' 
 
 ' She is,' said Dare. ' You are right. It is she. 
 We are betrothed. I will fly to her after breakfast.' 
 
 ' You know your own affairs best/ said Charles, 
 whose temper had not been improved by the free 
 display of Dare's finer feelings; 'but I am not sure 
 you would not do well to fly to Vandon first. It is 
 best to be off with the old love, I believe, before 
 you are on with the new.' 
 
 ' She must at once go away from Vandon/ said 
 Dare, stopping short. ' She is a scandal, the the 
 old one. But how to make her go away ? ' 
 
 It was in vain for Charles to repeat that Dare 
 must turn her out. Dare had premonitory feelings 
 that he was quite unequal to the task. 
 
 ' I may tell her to go/ he said, raising his eye- 
 brows. ' I may be firm as the rock, but I know 
 her well ; she is more obstinate than me. She will 
 not go/ 
 
 ' She must/ said Charles with anger. ' Her 
 presence compromises Miss Deyncourt. Can't you 
 see that ? ' 
 
 Dare raised his eyebrows. A light seemed to 
 break in on him. 
 
344 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Any fool can see that/ said Charles, losing his 
 temper. 
 
 Dare saw a great deal, many things beside that. 
 He saw that if a friend, a trusted friend, were to 
 manage her dismissal, it would be more easy for that 
 friend than for one whose feelings at the moment 
 might carry him away. In short, Charles was the 
 friend who was evidently pointed out by Providence 
 for that mission. 
 
 Charles considered a moment. He began to see 
 that it would not be done without further delays 
 and scandal unless he did it. 
 
 ' She must and shall go at once, even if I have 
 to do it/ he said at last, looking at Dare with uncon- 
 cealed contempt. 'It is not my affair, but I will 
 go, and you will be so good as to put off the flying 
 over to Slumberleigh till I come back. I shall not 
 return until she has left the house.' And Charles 
 marched out of the room, too indignant to trust 
 himself a moment longer with the profusely grate- 
 ful Dare. 
 
 'That man must go to-day/ said Evelyn after 
 breakfast to her husband, in the presence of Lady 
 Mary and Charles. ' While he was ill I overlooked 
 his being in the house ; but I will not suffer him to 
 remain now he is well.' 
 
 ' You remove him from all chance of improve- 
 ment/ said Charles, 'if you take him away from 
 Aunt Mary, who can snatch brands from the burning, 
 as we all know ; but I am going over to Vandon 
 this morning, and if you wish it I will ask him if he 
 would like me to order his dogcart to come for him. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 345 
 
 I don't suppose he is very happy here, without so 
 much as a tooth-brush that he can call his own.' 
 
 ' You are going to Vandon ? ' asked both ladies 
 in one voice. 
 
 'Yes. I am going on purpose to dislodge an 
 impostor who has arrived there, who is actually 
 believed by some people (who are not such exemplary 
 Christians as ourselves, and ready to suppose the 
 worst) to be his wife.' 
 
 Lady Mary and Evelyn looked at each other in 
 consternation, and Charles went off to see how 
 Othello was after his night's work, and to order the 
 dogcart, Ealph calling after him in perfect good 
 humour that ' a fellow's brother got more out of a 
 fellow's horses than a fellow did himself.' 
 
 Dare waylaid Charles on his return from the 
 stables, and linked his arm in his. He felt the 
 most enthusiastic admiration for the tall reserved 
 Englishman who had done him such signal service. 
 He longed for an opportunity of showing his grati- 
 tude to him. It was perhaps just as well that he 
 was not aware how very differently Charles regarded 
 himself. 
 
 ' You are just going ? ' Dare asked. 
 
 ' In five minutes.' 
 
 Charles let his arm hang straight down, but Dare 
 kept it. 
 
 'Tell me, my friend, one thing.' Dare had 
 evidently been turning over something in his mind. 
 ' This poor unfortunate, this Stephens, why did he 
 not tell you all this the first time you went to see 
 him in the afternoon ? ' 
 
346 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' He did/ 
 
 ' What ? ' said Dare, looking hard at him. ' He 
 did, and you only tell me this morning ! You let 
 me go all through the night first. Why was this ? ' 
 
 Charles did not answer. 
 
 ' I ask one thing more,' continued Dare. ' Did 
 you divine two nights ago, from what I said in a 
 moment of confidence, that Miss Deyncourt was the 
 
 ' Of course I did/ said Charles sharply. ' You 
 made it sufficiently obvious.' 
 
 ' Ah ! ' said Dare. ' Ah ! ' and he shut his eyes 
 and nodded his head several times. 
 
 ' Anything more you would like to know ? ' 
 asked Charles, inattentive and impatient, mainly 
 occupied in trying to hide the nameless exasperation 
 which invariably seized him when he looked at 
 Dare, and to stifle the contemptuous voice which 
 always whispered as he did so, ' And you have given 
 up Euth to him to him!' 
 
 ' No, no, no/ said Dare, shaking his head gently, 
 and regarding him the while with infinite interest 
 through his half-closed eyelids. 
 
 The dogcart was coming round, and Charles 
 hastily turned from him, and, getting in, drove 
 quickly away. Whatever Dare said or did seemed 
 to set his teeth on edge, and he lashed up the horse 
 till he was out of sight of the house. 
 
 Dare, with arms picturesquely folded, stood look- 
 ing after him with mixed feelings of emotion and 
 admiration. 
 
 ' One sees it well/ he said to himself. ' One sees 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 347 
 
 now the reason of many things. He kept silent at 
 first, but he was too good, too noble. In the night 
 he considered ; in the morning he told all. I 
 wondered that he went to Vandon ; but he did it 
 not for me. It was for her sake.' 
 
 Dare's feelings were touched to the quick. 
 
 How beautiful ! how pathetic was this dtnoue- 
 ment I His former admiration for Charles was 
 increased a thousandfold. He also loved ! Ah ! 
 (Dare felt he was becoming agitated.) How sublime, 
 how touching was his self-sacrifice in the cause 
 of honour. He had been gradually working himself 
 up to the highest pitch of pleasurable excitement 
 and emotion ; and now, seeing Kalph the prosaic 
 approaching, he fled precipitately into the house, 
 caught up his hat and stick, hardly glancing at him- 
 self in the hall glass, and, entirely forgetting his 
 promise to Charles to remain at Atherstone till the 
 latter returned from Vandon, followed the impulse of 
 the moment, and struck across the fields in the 
 direction of Slumberleigh. 
 
 Charles, meanwhile, drove on to Vandon. The 
 stable clock, still partially paralysed from long disuse, 
 was laboriously striking eleven as he drew up before 
 the door. His resounding peal at the bell startled 
 the household, and put the servants into a flutter of 
 anxious expectation, while the sound made some one 
 else, breakfasting late in the dining-room, pause with 
 her cup midway to her lips and listen. 
 
 ' There is a train which leaves Slumberleigh 
 station for London, a little after twelve, is not 
 there ? ' asked Charles with great distinctness of the 
 
848 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 butler as he entered the hall He had observed 
 as he came in that the dining-room door was ajar. 
 
 ' There is, Sir Charles. Twelve fifteen/ replied 
 the man, who recognised him instantly, for everybody 
 knew Charles. 
 
 'I am here as Mr. Dare's friend, at his wish. 
 Tell Mr. Dare's coachman to bring round his dog- 
 cart to the door in good time to catch that train. 
 Will it take luggage ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, Sir Charles/ with respectful alacrity. 
 
 'Good. And when the dogcart appears you 
 will see that the boxes are brought down belonging 
 to the person who is staying here, who will leave 
 by that train/ 
 
 ' Yes, Sir Charles/ 
 
 'If the policeman from Slumberleigh should 
 arrive while I am here, ask him to wait/ 
 
 ' I will, Sir Charles/ 
 
 'I don't suppose,' thought Charles, 'he will 
 arrive, as I have not sent for him ; but, as the 
 dining-room door happens to be ajar, it is just as 
 well to add a few artistic touches/ 
 
 ' Is this person in the drawing-room ? ' he con- 
 tinued aloud. 
 
 The man replied that she was in the dining-room, 
 and Charles walked in unannounced, and closed the 
 door behind him. 
 
 He had at times, when any action of importance 
 was on hand, a certain cool decision of manner that 
 seemed absolutely to ignore the possibility of oppo- 
 sition, which formed a curious contrast with his usual 
 careless demeanour. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 349 
 
 ' Good morning,' he said, advancing to the fire. 
 ' I have no doubt that my appearance at this early- 
 hour cannot be a surprise to you. You have, of 
 course, anticipated some visit of this kind for the 
 last few days. Pray finish your coffee. I am Sir 
 Charles Danvers. I need hardly add that I am 
 justice of the peace in this county, and that I am 
 here officially on behalf of my friend, Mr. Dare.' 
 
 The little woman, who had risen, and had then 
 sat down again at his entrance, eyed him steadily. 
 There was a look in her dark bead-like eyes which 
 showed Charles why Dare had been unable to face 
 her. The look, determined, cunning, watchful, put 
 him on his guard, and his manner became a shade 
 more unconcerned. 
 
 'Any friend of my husband's is welcome,' she 
 said. 
 
 ' There is no question for the moment about your 
 husband, though no doubt a subject of peculiar 
 interest to yourself. I was speaking of Mr. Dare.' 
 
 She rose to her feet, as if unable to sit while he 
 was standing. 
 
 ' Mr. Dare is my husband/ she said, with a little 
 gesture of defiance, tapping sharply on the table 
 with the teaspoon she held in her hand. 
 
 Charles smiled blandly, and looked out of the 
 window. 
 
 ' There is evidently some misapprehension on 
 that point,' he observed, ' which I am here to remove. 
 Mr. Dare is at present unmarried.' 
 
 ' I am his wife,' reiterated the woman, her colour 
 rising under her rouge. 'I am, and I won't go. 
 
350 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 He dared not come himself, a poor coward that he 
 is, to turn his wife out of doors. He sent you ; but 
 it's no manner of use, so you may as well know it 
 first as last. I tell you nothing shall induce me to 
 stir from this house, from my home, and you needn't 
 think you can come it over me with fine talk. I 
 don't care a red cent what you say. I'll have my 
 rights.' 
 
 ' I am here,' said Charles, ' to see that you get 
 them, Mrs. Carroll' 
 
 There was a pause. He did not look at her. He 
 was occupied in taking a white thread off his coat. 
 
 ' Carroll's dead,' she said sharply. 
 
 'He is. And your regret at his loss was no 
 doubt deepened by the unhappy circumstances in 
 which it took place. He died in jail.' 
 
 1 Well, and if he did ' 
 
 ' Died,' continued Charles, suddenly fixing his 
 keen glance upon her, ' nearly a year after your so- 
 called marriage with Mr. Dare.' 
 
 1 It's a lie,' she said faintly ; but she had turned 
 very white. 
 
 'No, I think not. My information is on re- 
 liable authority. A slight exertion of memory on 
 your part will no doubt recall the date of your 
 bereavement.' 
 
 ' You can't prove it.' 
 
 ' Excuse me. You have yourself kindly furnished 
 us with a copy of the marriage register, with the 
 date attached, without which I must own we might 
 have been momentarily at a loss. I need now only 
 apply for a copy of the register of the decease of 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 351 
 
 Jaspar Carroll, who, as you do not deny, died under 
 personal restraint in jail ; in Baton Rouge Jail, in 
 Louisiana, I have no doubt you intended to add.' 
 
 She glared at him in silence. 
 
 ' Some dates acquire a peculiar interest when 
 compared/ continued Charles, ' but I will not detain 
 you any longer with business details of this kind, as 
 I have no doubt that you will wish to superintend 
 your packing.' 
 
 ' I won't go.' 
 
 'On the contrary, you will leave this house in 
 half an hour. The dogcart is ordered to take you 
 to the station/ 
 
 ' What if I refuse to go ? ' 
 
 'Extreme measures are always to be regretted, 
 especially with a lady/ said Charles. ' Nothing, in 
 short, would be more repugnant to me ; but I fear, 
 
 as a magistrate, it would be my duty to ' And 
 
 he shrugged his shoulders, wondering what on earth 
 could be done for the moment if she persisted, and 
 whether she was really sufficiently ignorant to 
 believe that a county magistrate had any power 
 whatever. 'But/ he continued, 'motives of self- 
 interest suggest the advisability of withdrawing, 
 even if I were not here to enforce it. When I 
 take into consideration the trouble and expense you 
 have incurred in coming here, and the subsequent 
 disappointment of the affections, a widow's affections, 
 I feel justified in offering, though without my friend's 
 permission, to pay your journey back to America, 
 an offer which any further unpleasantness or delay 
 would of course oblige me to retract/ 
 
352 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 She hesitated, and he saw his advantage and 
 kept it. 
 
 * You have not much time to lose/ he said, laying 
 his watch on the table, ' unless you would prefer the 
 housekeeper to do your packing for you. No ? I 
 agree with you. On a sea voyage especially one 
 likes to know where one's things are. If I give you 
 a cheque for your return journey, I shall of course 
 expect you to sign a paper to the effect that you 
 have no claim on Mr. Dare, that you never were his 
 legal wife, and that you will not trouble him in 
 future. You would like a few moments for reflec- 
 tion ? Good. I will write out the form while you 
 consider, as there is no time to be lost.' 
 
 He looked about for writing materials, and, find- 
 ing only an ancient inkstand and pen, took a note 
 from his pocket-book and tore a blank half-sheet off 
 it. His quiet deliberate movements awed her as he 
 intended they should. She glanced first at him 
 writing, then at the gold watch on the table between 
 them, the hours of which were marked on the half- 
 hunting face by alternate diamonds and rubies, each 
 stone being the memorial of a past success in shooting 
 matches. The watch impressed her; to her prac- 
 tised eye it meant a very large sum of money, and 
 she knew the power of money ; but the cool, uncon- 
 cerned manner of this tall, keen-eyed Englishman im- 
 pressed her still more. As she looked at him he ceased 
 writing, got out a cheque, and began to fill it in. 
 
 ' What Christian name ? ' he asked suddenly. 
 
 ' Ellen,' she replied, taken aback. 
 
 ' Payable to order or bearer ? ' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 353 
 
 ' Bearer/ she said, confused by the way he took 
 her decision for granted. 
 
 ' Now/ he said authoritatively, ' sign your name 
 there ; ' and he pushed the form he had drawn up 
 towards her. 'I am sorry I cannot offer you a 
 better pen/ 
 
 She took the pen mechanically and signed her 
 name Ellen Carroll Charles's light eyes gave a 
 flash as she did it. 
 
 ' Manner is everything/ he said to himself. ' I 
 believe the mention of that imaginary policeman 
 may have helped, but a little stage effect did the 
 business/ 
 
 ' Thank you/ he said, taking the paper, and, after 
 glancing at the signature, putting it in his pocket- 
 book. ' Allow me to give you this ' handing her 
 the cheque. 'And now I will ring for the house- 
 keeper, for you will barely have time to make the 
 arrangements for your journey. I can only allow 
 you twenty minutes/ He rang the bell as he spoke. 
 
 She started up, as if unaware how far she had 
 yielded. A rush of angry colour flooded her face. 
 
 ' I won't have that impertinent woman touching 
 my things/ 
 
 ' That is as you like/ said Charles, shrugging his 
 shoulders ; ' but she will be in the room when you 
 pack. It is my wish that she should be present/ 
 Then turning to the butler, who had already answered 
 the bell, 'Desire the housekeeper to go to Mrs. 
 Carroll's rooms at once, and to give Mrs. Carroll any 
 help she may require/ 
 
 Mrs. Carroll looked from the butler to Charles 
 23 
 
354 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 with baffled hatred in her eyes. But she knew the 
 game was lost, and she walked out of the room and 
 upstairs without another word, but with a bitter 
 consciousness in her heart that she had not played 
 her cards well, that, though her downfall was un- 
 avoidable, she might have stood out for better terms 
 for her departure. She hated Dare, as she threw 
 her clothes together into her trunks, and she hated 
 Mrs. Smith, who watched her do so with folded 
 hands and with a lofty smile ; but most of all she 
 hated Charles, whose voice came up to the open 
 window as he talked to Dare's coachman, already at 
 the door, about splints and sore backs. 
 
 Charles felt a momentary pity for the little 
 woman when she came down at last with com- 
 pressed lips, casting lightning glances at the 
 grinning servants in the background, whom she 
 had bullied and hectored over in the manner 
 of people unaccustomed to servants, and who were 
 rejoicing in the ignominy of her downfall. 
 
 Her boxes were put in not carefully. 
 
 Charles came forward and lifted his cap, but 
 she would not look at him. Grasping a little 
 hand-bag convulsively, she went down the steps, 
 and got up unassisted into the dogcart. 
 
 'You have left nothing behind, I hope?' said 
 Charles civilly, for the sake of saying something. 
 
 ' She have left nothing,' said Mrs. Smith, 
 swimming forward with dignity, 'and she have 
 also took nothing. I have seen to that, Sir Charles.' 
 
 ' Good-bye, then,' said Charles. ' Eight, coach- 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 855 
 
 Mrs. Carroll's eyes had been wandering upwards 
 to the old house rising above her with its sunny 
 windows and its pointed gables. Perhaps, after 
 all the sordid shifts and schemes of her previous 
 existence, she had imagined she might lead an 
 easier and a more respectable life within those walls. 
 Then she looked towards the long green terraces, the 
 valley, and the forest beyond. Her lip trembled, 
 and, turning suddenly, she fixed her eyes with burn- 
 ing hatred on the man who had ousted her from this 
 pleasant place. 
 
 Then the coachman whipped up his horse, the 
 dogcart spun over the smooth gravel between the 
 lines of stiff clipped yews, and she was gone. 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 MR. ALWYNN had returned from his eventful 
 morning call at Vandon very grave and silent. 
 He shook his head when Kuth came to him 
 in the study to ask what the result had been, 
 and said Dare would tell her himself on his 
 return from London, whither he had gone on 
 business. 
 
 Ruth went back to the drawing-room. She had 
 not strength or energy to try to escape from Mrs. 
 Alwynn. Indeed, it was a relief not to be alone 
 with her own thoughts, and to allow her exhausted 
 mind to be towed along by Mrs. Alwynn's, the 
 bent of whose mind resembled one of those 
 mechanical toy animals which when wound up 
 will run very fast in any direction, but, if 
 adroitly turned, will hurry equally fast the 
 opposite way. Kuth turned the toy at inter- 
 vals, and the morning was dragged through, 
 Mrs. Alwynn in the course of it exploring 
 every realm known to her of human thought, 
 now dipping into the future, and speculating on 
 spring fashions, now commenting on the present, 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 357 
 
 now dwelling fondly on the gaily dressed, officer- 
 adorned past of her youth. 
 
 There was a meal, and after that it was the 
 afternoon. Euth supposed that some time there 
 would be another meal, and then it would be even- 
 ing, but it was no good thinking of what was so 
 far away. She brought her mind back to the 
 present. Mrs. Alwynn had just finished a detailed 
 account of a difference of opinion between herself 
 and the curate's wife on the previous day. 
 
 ' And she had not a word to say, my dear, not 
 a word, quite hors de combat, so I let the matter 
 drop. And you remember that beautiful pig we 
 killed last week ? You should have gone to look 
 at it hanging up, Euth, rolling in fat, it was. Well, 
 it is better to give than to receive, so I shall send 
 her one of the pork pies. And if you will get me 
 one of those round baskets which I took the dolls 
 down to the school-feast in they are in the lowest 
 shelf of the oak chest in the hall 111 send it down 
 to her at once.' 
 
 Kuth fetched the basket and put it down by her 
 aunt. Eeminiscences of the school-feast still re- 
 mained in it, in the shape of ends of ribbon and 
 lace, and Mrs. Alwynn began to empty them out, 
 talking all the time, when she suddenly stopped 
 short with an exclamation of surprise. 
 
 ' Goodness ! Well, now . I'm sure. Euth ! ' 
 
 ' What is it, Aunt Fanny ? ' 
 
 ' Why, my dear, if there isn't a letter for you. 
 under the odds and ends,' holding it up and gazing 
 resentfully at it ; ' and, now I remember, a letter 
 
358 SIK CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 came for you on the morning of the school-feast, 
 and I said to John, " I shan't forward it, because I 
 shall see Ruth this afternoon," and, dear me ! I just 
 popped it into the basket, for I thought you would 
 like to have it, and, you know how busy I was, 
 Ruth, that day, first one thing and then another, so 
 much to think of and there it is! 
 
 1 1 daresay it is of no importance,' said Ruth, 
 taking it from her, while Mrs. Alwynn, repeatedly 
 wondering how such a thing could have happened 
 to a person so careful as herself, went off with her 
 basket to the cook. 
 
 When she returned in a few minutes, she found 
 Ruth standing by the window, the letter open in 
 her hand, her face without a vestige of colour. 
 
 ' Why, Ruth,' she said, actually noticing the 
 alteration in her appearance, 'is your head bad 
 again ? ' 
 
 Ruth started violently. 
 
 'Yes no. I mean I think I will go out. 
 The fresh air ' 
 
 She could not finish the sentence. 
 
 ' And that tiresome letter ? Did it want an 
 answer ? ' 
 
 ' None/ said Ruth, crushing it up unconsciously. 
 
 ' Well, now,' said Mrs. Alwynn, ' that's a good 
 thing, for I'm sure I shall never forget the way 
 your uncle was in once, when I put a letter of his 
 in my pocket to give him (it was a plum-coloured 
 silk, Ruth, done with gold beads in front), and then 
 I went into mourning for my poor dear Uncle 
 James, such an out of the common person he was, 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 359 
 
 Ruth, and such a beautiful talker, and it was not 
 till six months later, niece's mourning, you know, 
 that I had the dress on again, and a business I 
 had to meet it, for all my gowns seem to shrink 
 when they are put by, and I put my hand in the 
 pocket, and ' 
 
 But Ruth had disappeared. 
 
 Mrs. Alwynn was perfectly certain at last that 
 something must be wrong with her niece. Earlier 
 in the day she had had a headache. Reasoning by 
 analogy, she decided that Ruth must have eaten 
 something at Mrs. Thursby's dinner-party which had 
 disagreed with her. If any one was ill, she always 
 attributed it to indigestion. If Mr. Alwynn coughed, 
 or if she read in the papers that royalty had been 
 unavoidably prevented attending some function at 
 which its presence had been expected, she instantly 
 put down both mishaps to the same cause, and when 
 Mrs. Alwynn had come to a conclusion it was not 
 her habit to keep it to herself. 
 
 She told Lady Mary the exact state in which, 
 reasoning always by analogy, she knew Ruth's health 
 must be, when that lady drove over that afternoon 
 in the hope of seeing Ruth, partly from curiosity, 
 or rather a Christian anxiety respecting the welfare 
 of others, and partly too from a real feeling of 
 affection for Ruth herself. Mrs. Alwynn bored her 
 intensely, but she sat on and on in the hope of 
 Ruth's return, who had gone out, Mrs. Alwynn 
 agreeing with every remark she made, and treating 
 her with that pleased deference of manner which some 
 middle-class people, not otherwise vulgar, invariably 
 
360 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 drop into in the presence of rank ; a Scylla which is 
 only one degree better than the Charybdis of would- 
 be ease of manner into which others fall. If ever 
 the enormous advantages of noble birth and ancient 
 family, with all their attendant heirlooms and hered- 
 itary instincts of refinement, chivalrous feeling, 
 and honour, become in future years a mark for 
 scorn (as already they are a mark for the envy 
 that calls itself scorn), it will be partly the fault of 
 the vulgar adoration of the middle classes. Mrs. 
 Alwynn being, as may possibly have already trans- 
 pired in the course of this narrative, a middle-class 
 woman herself, stuck to the hereditary instincts of 
 Tier class with a vengeance, and when Ruth at last 
 came in Lady Mary was thankful. 
 
 Her cold pale eyes lighted up a little as she 
 greeted Ruth, and looked searchingly at her. She 
 saw by the colourless lips and nervous contraction 
 of the forehead, and by the bright restless fever of 
 the eyes, that had formerly been so calm and clear, 
 that something was amiss terribly amiss. 
 
 ' I've been telling Lady Mary how poorly you've 
 been, Ruth, ever since Mrs. Thursby's dinner-party/ 
 said Mrs. Alwynn, by way of opening the con- 
 versation. 
 
 But in spite of so auspicious a beginning the 
 conversation flagged. Lady Mary made a few con- 
 ventional remarks to Ruth, which she answered, 
 and Mrs. Alwynn also; but there was a constraint 
 which every moment threatened a silence. Lady 
 Mary proceeded to comment on the poaching affray 
 of the previous night, and the arrest of a man who 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 861 
 
 had been seriously injured; but, at her mention of 
 the subject, Euth became so silent, and Mrs. 
 Alwynn so voluble, that she felt it was useless to 
 stay any longer, and had to take her leave without 
 a word with Euth. 
 
 ' Something is wrong with that girl/ she said to 
 herself, as she drove back to Atherstone. ' I know 
 what it is. Charles has been behaving in his usual 
 manner, and, as there is no one else to point out to 
 him how infamous such conduct is, I shall have to do 
 it myself. Shameful ! That charming, interesting 
 girl ! And yet, and yet ! There was a look in her 
 face more like some great anxiety than disappoint- 
 ment. If she had had a disappointment, I do not 
 think she would have let any one see it. Those 
 Deyncourts are all too proud to show their feelings, 
 though they have got them too somewhere. Per- 
 haps on the whole, considering how excessively dis- 
 agreeable and scriptural Charles can be, and what 
 unexpected turns he can give to things, I had better 
 say nothing to him at present.' 
 
 The moment Lady Mary had left the house, 
 Euth hurried to her uncle's study. He was not 
 there. He had not yet come in. She gave a 
 gesture of despair, and flung herself down in the 
 old leathern chair opposite to his own, on which 
 many a one had sat who had come to him for help 
 or consolation. All the buttons had been gradually 
 worn off that chair by restless or heavy visitors. 
 Some had been lost, but others the greater part, I 
 am glad to say Mr. Alwynn had found, and had 
 deposited in a Sevres cup on the mantelpiece, till 
 
362 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 the wet afternoon should come when he and his 
 long packing needle should restore them to their 
 home. 
 
 The room was very quiet. On the mantelpiece 
 the little conscientious silver clock ticked, orderly, 
 gently (till Euth could hardly bear the sound), then 
 hesitated, and struck a soft low tone. She started 
 to her feet, and paced up and down, up and down. 
 Would he never come in ? She dared not go 
 out to look for him for fear of missing him. "Why 
 did not he come back when she wanted him so 
 terribly? She sat down again. She tried to be 
 patient. It was no good. Would he never come ? 
 
 She heard a sound, rushed out to meet him in 
 the passage, and pulled him into the study. 
 
 ' Uncle John/ she gasped, holding out a letter in 
 her shaking hand. ' That man who was taken up 
 last night was Eaymond. He is in prison. He 
 is ill. Let us go to him/ and she explained as best 
 she could that a letter had only just been found 
 written to her by Eaymond in July, warning her he 
 was in the neighbourhood of Arleigh, near the old 
 nurse's cottage, and that she might see him at any 
 moment, and must have money in readiness. The 
 instant she had read the letter she rushed up to 
 Arleigh, to see her old nurse, and met her coming 
 down in great agitation to tell her that Eaymond, 
 whom she had shielded once before under promise 
 of secrecy, had been arrested the night before. 
 
 In a quarter of an hour Mr. Alwynn and Euth 
 were driving swiftly through the dusk in a close 
 carriage in the direction of D On their way 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 363 
 
 they met a dogcart driving as quickly in the 
 opposite direction, which grazed their wheel as it 
 passed ; and Kuth, looking out, caught a glimpse, by 
 the flash of their lamps, of Charles's face, with a 
 look upon it so fierce and haggard that she shivered 
 in nameless foreboding of evil, wondering what could 
 have happened to make him look like that. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 IT was still early on the following morning that 
 Dare, forgetting, as we have seen, his promise to 
 Charles, arrived at Slumberleigh Kectory so early, 
 that Mrs. Alwynn was still ordering dinner, or in 
 other words, was dashing from larder to scullery, 
 from kitchen to dairy, with her usual energy. He 
 was shown into the empty drawing-room, where, 
 after pacing up and down, he was reduced to the 
 society of a photograph album, which in his present 
 excited condition could do little to soothe the tumult 
 of his mind. Not that any discredit should be 
 thrown on Mrs. Alwynn's album, a gorgeous concern 
 with a golden Fanny embossed on it, which afforded 
 her infinite satisfaction, inside which her friends' 
 portraits appeared to the greatest advantage, sur- 
 rounded by birds and nests and blossoms of the 
 most vivid and life-like colouring. Mr. Alwynn 
 was encompassed on every side by kingfishers and 
 elaborate bone nests, while Ruth's clear-cut face 
 looked out from among long-tailed tomtits, arranged 
 one on each side of a nest crowded with eggs, on 
 which a strong light had been thrown. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 365 
 
 Dare was still looking at Kuth's photograph, 
 when Mr. Alwynn came in. 
 
 ' Do you wish to speak to Kuth ? ' he asked 
 gravely. 
 
 ' Now, at once.' Dare was surprised that Mr. 
 Alwynn, with whom he had been so open, should 
 be so cold and unsympathetic in manner. The 
 alteration and alienation of friends is certainly one 
 of the saddest and most inexplicable experiences of 
 this vale of tears. 
 
 'You will find her in the study,' continued Mr. 
 Alwynn. ' She is expecting you. I have told her 
 nothing, according to your wish. I hope you will 
 explain everything to her in full, that you will keep 
 nothing back.' 
 
 ' I will explain,' said Dare ; and he went, 
 trembling with excitement, into the study. Fired 
 by Charles's example, he had made a sublime 
 resolve as he skimmed across the fields, made it in 
 a hurry, in a moment of ecstasy, as all his resolutions 
 were made. He felt he had never acted such a 
 noble part before. He only feared the agitation 
 of the moment might prevent him doing himself 
 justice. 
 
 Euth rose as he came in, but did not speak. A 
 swift spasm passed over her face, leaving it very 
 stern, very fixed, as he had never seen it, as he had 
 never thought of seeing it. An overwhelming 
 suspense burned in the dark lustreless eyes which 
 met his own. He felt awed. 
 
 ' Well ? ' she said, pressing her hands together, 
 and speaking in a low voice. 
 
366 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 ' Euth,' said Dare solemnly, laying his outspread 
 hand upon his breast and then extending it in the 
 air, ' I am free.' 
 
 Euth's eyes watched him like one in torture. 
 
 ' How ? ' she said, speaking with difficulty. ' You 
 said you were free before.' 
 
 ' Ah ! ' replied Dare, raising his forefinger, ' I 
 said so, but it was an error. I go to Yandon, and 
 she will not go away. I go to London to my lawyer, 
 and he says she is my wife/ 
 
 ' You told me she was not.' 
 
 I It was an error,' repeated Dare. ' I had 
 formerly been a husband to her, but we had been 
 divorced; it was finished, wound up, and I thought 
 she was no more my wife. There is in the English 
 law something extraordinary which I do not com- 
 prehend, which makes an American divorce to 
 remain a marriage in England.' 
 
 ' Go on,' said Kuth, shading her eyes with her 
 hand. 
 
 I 1 come back to Vandon/ continued Dare in a 
 suppressed voice, ' I come back overwhelmed, broken 
 down, crushed under feet ; and then ' he was 
 becoming dramatic, he felt the fire kindling 'I 
 meet a friend, a noble heart, I confide in him. I 
 tell all to Sir Charles Danvers ' Euth's hand was 
 trembling ' and last night he finds out by a chance 
 that she was not a true widow when I marry her, 
 that her first husband was yet alive, that I am 
 free. This morning he tells me all, and I am here.' 
 
 Euth pressed her hands before her face, and 
 fairly burst into tears. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 367 
 
 He looked at her in astonishment. He was sur- 
 prised that she had any feelings. Never having 
 shown them to the public in general, like himself, 
 he had supposed she was entirely devoid of them. 
 She now appeared quite dmue. She was sobbing 
 passionately. Tears came into his own eyes as he 
 watched her, and then a light dawned upon him for 
 the second time that day. Those tears were not for 
 him. He folded his arms and waited. How sug- 
 gestive in itself is a noble attitude ! 
 
 After a few minutes Euth overcame her tears 
 with a great effort, and, raising her head, looked at 
 him, as if she expected him to speak. The suspense 
 was gone out of her dimmed eyes, the tension of her 
 face was relaxed. 
 
 'I am free/ repeated Dare, 'and I have your 
 promise that if I am free you will still marry me.' 
 
 Kuth looked up with a pained but resolute 
 expression, and she would have spoken if he had 
 not stopped her by a gesture. 
 
 ' I have your promise,' he repeated. ' I tell my 
 friend, Sir Charles Danvers, I have it. He also 
 loves. He does not tell me so ; he is not open 
 with me, as I with him, but I see his heart. And 
 yet figure to yourself he has but to keep silence, 
 and I must go away, I must give up all. I am still 
 
 married Ou ! while he But he is noble, he 
 
 is sublime. He sacrifices love on the altar of honour, 
 of truth. He tells all to me, his rival. He shows 
 me I am free. He thinks I do not know his heart. 
 But it is not only he who can be noble/ (Dare 
 smote himself upon the breast.) ' I also can lay 
 
368 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 iny heart upon the altar. Kuth' with great 
 solemnity ' do you love him even as he loves you ? ' 
 
 There was a moment's pause. 
 
 ' I do/ she said firmly, ' with my whole heart/ 
 
 ' 1 knew it. I divined it. I sacrifice myself. 
 I give you back your promise. I say farewell, and 
 voyage in the distance. I return no more to 
 Vandon. There is no longer a home for me in 
 England. I leave only behind with you the poor 
 heart you have possessed so long ! ' 
 
 Dare was so much affected by the beauty of this 
 last sentence that he could say no more, but even at 
 that moment, as he glanced at Kuth to see what 
 effect his eloquence had upon her, she looked so 
 pallid and thin (her beauty was so entirely eclipsed), 
 that the sacrifice did not seem quite so overwhelming, 
 after all. 
 
 She struggled to speak, but words failed her. 
 
 He took her hands and kissed them, pressed 
 them to his heart (it was a pity there was no one 
 there to see), endeavoured to say something more, 
 and then rushed out of the room. 
 
 She stood like one stunned after he had left her. 
 She saw him a moment later cross the garden, and 
 flee away across the fields. She knew she had seen 
 that gray figure and jaunty gray hat for the last 
 time ; but she hardly thought of him. She felt she 
 might be sorry for him presently, but not now. 
 
 The suspense was over. The sense of relief was 
 too overwhelming to admit of any other feeling at 
 first. She dropped on her knees beside the writing- 
 table, and locked her hands together. 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 869 
 
 'He told' she whispered to herself. 'Thank 
 God! Thank God !' 
 
 Two happy tears dropped on to Mr. Alwynn's 
 old leather blotting-book, that worn cradle of many 
 sermons. 
 
 Was this the same world ? Was this the same 
 sun which was shining in upon her ? What new 
 songs were the birds practising outside ? A strange 
 wonderful joy seemed to pervade the very air 
 she breathed, to flood her inmost soul. She had 
 faced her troubles fairly well, but at this new great 
 happiness she did not dare to look; and with a 
 sudden involuntary gesture she hid her face in 
 her hands. 
 
 It would be rash to speculate too deeply on the 
 nature of Dare's reflections as he hurried back to 
 Atherstone ; but perhaps, under the very real pang 
 of parting with Kuth, he was sustained by a sense 
 of the magnanimity of what, had he put it into 
 words, he would have called his attitude, and 
 possibly also by a lurking conviction, which had 
 assisted his determination to resign her, that life at 
 Vandon, after the episode of the American wife's 
 arrival, would be a social impossibility, especially to 
 one anxious and suited to shine in society. Be that 
 how it may, whatever had happened to influence 
 him most of the chance emotion of the moment, 
 it would be tolerably certain that in a few hours he 
 would be sorry for what he had done. He was 
 still, however, in a state of mental exaltation when 
 he reached Atherstone, and began fumbling nerv- 
 ously with the garden gate. Charles, who had been 
 24 
 
370 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 stalking up and down the bowling-green, went 
 slowly towards him. 
 
 ' What on earth do you mean by going off in 
 that way ? ' he asked coldly. 
 
 ' Ah ! ' said Dare, perceiving him, ' and she the 
 is she gone ? ' 
 
 'Yes, half an hour ago. Your dogcart has 
 come back from taking her to the station, and is 
 here now/ 
 
 Dare nodded his head several times, and stood 
 looking at him. 
 
 ' I have been to Slumberleigh,' he said. 
 
 ' Yes, contrary to agreement.' 
 
 ' My friend/ Dare said, seizing the friend's limp, 
 unresponsive hand and pressing it, ' I know now 
 why you keep silence last night. I reason with 
 myself. I see you love her. Do not turn away. 
 I have seen her. I have given her back her 
 promise. I give her up to you whom she loves ; 
 and now I go away, not to return.' 
 
 And then, in the full view of the Atherstone 
 windows, of the butler, and of the dogcart at the 
 front door, Dare embraced him, kissing the blushing 
 and disconcerted Charles on both cheeks. Then, in 
 a moment, before the latter had recovered his self- 
 possession, Dare had darted to the dogcart, and was 
 driving away. 
 
 Charles looked after him in mixed annoyance 
 and astonishment, until he noticed the butler's 
 eye upon him, when he hastily retreated, with a 
 heightened complexion, to the shrubberies. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 IT was the last day of October, about a week after 
 a certain very quiet little funeral had taken place in 
 
 the D Cemetery. The death of Eaymond Deyn- 
 
 court had appeared in the papers a day or two after- 
 wards, without mention of date or place, and it was 
 generally supposed that it had taken place some 
 considerable time previously, without the knowledge 
 of his friends. 
 
 Charles had been sitting for a long time with 
 Mr. Alwynn, and after he left the Eectory he took 
 the path over the fields in the direction of the 
 Slumberleigh woods. 
 
 The low sun was shining redly through a golden 
 haze, was sending long flaming swords across the 
 glade where Charles was pacing. He sat down at 
 last upon a fallen tree to wait for one who should 
 presently come by that way. 
 
 It was a still, clear afternoon, with the solemn 
 stillness that speaks of coming change. Winter was 
 at hand, and the woods were transfigured with a 
 passing glory, like the faces of those who depart in 
 peace when death draws nigh. 
 
372 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 Far and wide in the forest the bracken was all 
 aflame aflame beneath the glowing trees. The 
 great beeches had turned to bronze and ruddy gold, 
 and had strewed the path with carpets glorious 
 and rare, which the first wind would sweep away. 
 Upon the limes the amber leaves still hung, faint 
 yet loth to go, but the horse chestnut had already 
 dropped its garment of green and yellow at its 
 feet. 
 
 A young robin was singing at intervals in the 
 silence, telling how the secrets of the nests had been 
 laid bare, singing a requiem on the dying leaves 
 and the widowed branches, a song new to him, 
 but with the old plaintive rapture in it that his 
 fathers had been taught before him since the world 
 began. 
 
 She came towards him down the yellow glade 
 through the sunshine and the shadow, with a spray 
 of briony in her hand. Neither spoke. She put 
 her hands into the hands that were held out for 
 them, and their eyes met, grave and steadfast, with 
 the light in them of an unalterable love. So long 
 they had looked at each other across a gulf. So 
 long they had stood apart. And now, at last 
 at last they were together. He drew her 
 close and closer yet. They had no words. There 
 was no need of words. And in the silence of 
 the hushed woods, and in the silence of a joy 
 too deep for speech, the robin's song came sweet 
 and sad. 
 
 'Charles!' 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 373 
 
 'Ruth!* 
 
 ' I should like to tell you something.' 
 
 ' And I should like to hear it.' 
 
 ' I know what Eaymond told you to conceal. I 
 went to him just after you did. We passed you 
 coming back. He did not know me at first. He 
 thought I was you, and he kept repeating that you 
 must keep your own counsel, and that, unless you 
 showed Mr. Dare's marriage was illegal, he would 
 never find it out At last, when he suddenly 
 recognised me, he seemed horror-struck, and the 
 doctor came in and sent me away.' 
 
 Charles knew now why Eaymond had sent for 
 him the second time. 
 
 There was a long pause. 
 
 ' Ruth, did you think I should tell ? ' 
 
 'I hoped and prayed you would, but I knew 
 it would be hard, because I do believe you actually 
 thought at the time I should still consider it my 
 duty to marry Mr. Dare. I never should have done 
 such a thing after what had happened. I was just 
 going to tell him so when he began to give me 
 up, and it evidently gave him so much pleasure to 
 renounce me nobly in your favour, that I let him 
 have it his own way, as the result was the same. 
 My great dread, until he came, was that you had 
 not spoken. I had been expecting him all the 
 previous evening. Oh, Charles, Charles ! I waited 
 and watched for his coming as I had never done 
 before. Your silence was the only thing I feared, 
 because it was the only thing that could have come 
 between us.' 
 
374 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 * God forgive nie ! I meant at first to say no- 
 thing/. 
 
 ' Only at first/ said Euth gently ; and they 
 walked on in silence. 
 
 The sun had set. A slender moon had climbed 
 unnoticed into the southern sky amid the shafts of 
 paling fire which stretched out across the whole 
 heaven from the burning fiery furnace in the west. 
 Across the gray dim fields voices were calling the 
 cattle home. 
 
 Charles spoke again at last in his usual 
 tone. 
 
 ' You quite understand, Euth, though I have not 
 mentioned it so far, that you are engaged to marry 
 me?' 
 
 ' I do. I will make a note of it if you 
 wish.' 
 
 ' It is unnecessary. I shall be happy, when I 
 am at leisure, to remind you myself. Indeed, I 
 may say I shall make a point of doing so. There 
 does not happen to be any one else whom you feel 
 it would be your duty to marry ? ' 
 
 'I can't think of any one at the moment. 
 Charles, you never could have believed I would 
 marry him, after all ? ' 
 
 ' Indeed, I did believe it. Don't I know the 
 stubbornness of your heart ? You see, you are but 
 young, and I make excuses for you ; but, after you 
 have been the object of my special and judicious 
 training for a few years, I quite hope your judg- 
 ment may improve considerably.' 
 
 ' I trust it will, as I see from your remarks it 
 
SIR CHARLES DANVERS 375 
 
 will certainly be all we shall have to guide us 
 both/ 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. Lady Mary would not allow even 
 Providence any of the credit of Charles's engage- 
 ment ; she claimed the whole herself. She called 
 Evelyn to witness that from the first it had been 
 her work entirely. She only allowed Charles him- 
 self a very secondary part in the great event, to 
 which she was apt to point in later years as the 
 crowning work of a life devoted under Church 
 direction to the temporal and spiritual welfare of 
 her fellow-creatures; and Charles avers that a 
 mention of it in the long list of her virtues will 
 some day adorn the tombstone which she has long 
 since ordered to be in readiness. 
 
 Molly was disconsolate for many days, but work, 
 that panacea of grief, came to the rescue, and it 
 was not long before she was secretly and busily 
 engaged on a large kettle-holder, with kettle and 
 motto entwined, for Charles's exclusive use, without 
 which she had been led to understand his establish- 
 ment would be incomplete. When this work of art 
 was finished, her feelings had become so far modified 
 towards Euth that she consented to begin another 
 very small and inferior one merely a kettle on a 
 red ground for that interloper, but whether it was 
 ever presented is not on record. 
 
 Vandon is to let. The grass has grown up 
 again through the niches of the stone steps. The 
 place looks wild and deserted. Mr. Alwynn comes 
 
376 SIR CHARLES DANVERS 
 
 sometimes, and looks up at its shuttered windows 
 and trailing, neglected ivy, but not often, for it 
 gives him a sharp pang at the heart. And as he 
 goes home the people come out of the dilapidated 
 cottages, and ask wistfully when the new squire is 
 coming back. 
 
 But Mr. Alwynn does not know. 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh. 
 
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 The scene of this book is laid 
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 worst description. 
 
 Into the Nile comes John 
 Glynn, a young Yorkshireman, 
 who has spent ten years in the 
 western territories of North 
 America, to take up work in 
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 At the outset he is brought 
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 The Romance of John Bainbridge 
 
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 By 
 CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK 
 
 
 
 MAIL. " It is a very clever book indeed, and makes one 
 it Charles Egbert Craddock makes such infrequent appear- 
 ction." 
 'NG STANDARD AND ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE. "A 
 y lively and entertaining story." 
 \T. " The lady who writes under the pseudonym of Charles 
 addock made a name for herself many years ago in a very 
 ook, The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains. Her 
 The Amulet t which deals with life in a fort on the Canadian 
 nmediately after the successful issue of the war with France, 
 nly not detract from her reputation. . . . The story is written 
 t charm, and Mrs. Annandale, Captain Howard's sister, 
 te of pure comedy." 
 
 When Love Speaks 
 
 By 
 WILL PAYNE 
 
 
 ING POST. "A clear, consistent, and well-constructed 
 ork. It challenges comparison with the very best of recent 
 \merica. ... Mr. Payne writes a very absorbing stcry in a 
 manner." 
 MALL GAZETTE." Mr. Pajne writes with vigorous ease, 
 tir the emotions without exaggerated sentiment." 
 
 LONDON : MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 
 
 N. 3.4-07 
 
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