.. 
 
 -

 
 Hppletons' 
 Tlown anD Country 
 
 No. 208 
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 A STUDY IN PREJUDICES. 
 
 I2mo. Cloth, $1.00. 
 
 " Charmingly and clearly written, with strength and thought- 
 fulness, in a style of commendable simplicity." New York 
 Herald. 
 
 " Fairly sparkles with bright sayings and quick-witted obser- 
 vations." Philadelphia Public Ledger. 
 
 "An able book, and sometimes extremely clever, not to say 
 brilliant." London Academy. 
 
 " A bright and pretty story, . . . worthy of being read at 
 length." London Literary World. 
 
 New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.
 
 CM.IF. LIBRAE, JjO* AJIflHLES 
 
 THE 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE PASTON 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 A MODERN AMAZON, A STUDY IN PREJUDICES, ETC. 
 
 Is. 
 
 " Only a. learned and a manly soul 
 I purposed her, that should with even powers 
 The rock, the spindle, and the shears control 
 Of destiny, and spin her own free hours." 
 
 BEN JONSON 
 
 D.
 
 Authorized Edition.
 
 THE 
 
 CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE St John household, or rather the feminine part 
 of it, was in a state of the deepest consternation and 
 dismay, for the daughter and heiress of the house had 
 refused to say her accustomed prayers. The rebel, 
 aged eight, standing up straight and stiff in her 
 little frilled nightgown, shook her curly mane, and 
 obstinately refused to bow the knee. 
 
 " You naughty girl ! " panted her mother, who had 
 been summoned in haste from the drawing-room, and 
 who was flushed with the reluctant irritation of a 
 stout woman. "If you don't kneel down directly I 
 shall have to fetch your father." 
 
 " Little gells that don't say their prayers when they 
 are bid won't go to heaven," said the old nurse, who 
 had washed and slapped her middle-aged mistress, 
 and whose theology was that of an earlier generation. 
 
 By this time grandmamma and Aunt Agnes 'had 
 arrived on the scene. 
 
 2138309
 
 2 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 "You'll never get married when you grow up, my 
 dear, if you don't say your prayers and go to church 
 regularly," said old Mrs. St. John, who had been a 
 beauty in her youth, and whose eyes, carriage, and 
 complexion were still the envy and despair of younger 
 generations. " Men prefer religious girls for their 
 wives." 
 
 "And only think what Mr. Daintrey would say 
 if he could see you now, 1 ' put in Miss Agnes, 
 pathetically. " He would be so very, very grieved." 
 
 Mr. Daintrey was the new curate. 
 
 "I don't care," said Candida, with another shake 
 of her curls. " I don't want to marry anybody but 
 papa, and he wouldn't refuse me, however naughty I 
 was. And I don't care to go to heaven, because 
 nurse says I can't have a pony there. And I shall 
 be very glad if you will fetch papa, because he will 
 understand." 
 
 So Mr. St. John's study was invaded by a dis- 
 tracted-looking female, and he, too, was bidden to the 
 conclave. 
 
 " Well, what's all this about ? " he inquired, as he 
 entered the nursery, bringing, as the women felt, a 
 judicial masculine mind to bear upon the difficulty 
 which threatened to disturb the peace and blessed- 
 ness of the house. " Why this sudden disbelief in the 
 efficacy of prayer ? " 
 
 "Will you listen to me if I tell you, without getting 
 cross and saying how wicked I am ? " asked his
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 3 
 
 daughter. "Because I don't really mean to be 
 wicked. I'm only trying not to be a whited 
 sepulchre." 
 
 " I will listen with attention and toleration to all 
 that you have to say," he replied gravely, " and 
 reserve my own remarks till you have quite finished." 
 
 "Thank you," said Candida. "Well, I am not 
 going to pray any more because I don't get what I 
 pray for. The Bible says, ' Ask, and ye shall receive.' 
 Now, I have prayed for things till I quite ached 
 inside, but I never received them. I wanted a 
 Newfoundland puppy, and I've prayed for him ever 
 since before last Christmas, but he hasn't come. And 
 I don't always pray for what I want myself. On 
 your last birthday I heard you say at dessert that 
 you had got up your last bottle of 'forty-seven port, 
 and you wished you had another twenty dozen, so I 
 prayed ever so hard that God would send you twenty 
 dozen 'forty-seven port. I know I got the numbers 
 right ; but you said only yesterday that you should 
 have to buy some new port, and wait till it was fit to 
 drink." 
 
 " But the Bible means spiritual blessings when it 
 says, ' Ask, and ye shall receive,' " put in Aunt Agnes, 
 who was accustomed to talk as if she possessed a 
 private key to the Scriptures. 
 
 " Well, I've prayed ' God bless father, and mother, 
 and granny, and Aunt Aggy ' ever since I was quite 
 a little thing," answered her niece, more in sorrow
 
 4 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 than in anger, "and I can't see that you are any 
 blesseder than you were when I began. Anyway, 
 you're always saying you are miserable sinners." 
 " You can't tell how much less blessed we miVht 
 
 o 
 
 all have been but for your petitions," said Mr. St. 
 John, who had won his small daughter's confidence 
 by always talking to her as if she were a reasonable 
 being. " And I'll tell you what I should do, Candida. 
 Instead of asking for new things, which there may be 
 some excellent reason that you shouldn't have, I 
 should pray that I might keep what I had got. 
 There's poor old Boxer he's a very good fellow, 
 though he may not be equal to a Newfoundland 
 pup ; and there's the pony and your mother and me, 
 to say nothing of your grandmother and aunt. I 
 think you would be sorry to lose any of us, particularly 
 the pony. So why not pray that we may all be pre- 
 served, and perhaps in the course of time a New- 
 foundland pup may be added unto you. I cannot 
 say that I have much hope of the 'forty-seven 
 port." 
 
 Candida considered for a moment " Yes," she 
 decided at length. " I don't mind doing that." 
 
 Without more ado she plumped down upon her 
 knees, shut her eyes, folded her hands, and whispered 
 her petitions in the orthodox attitude of an infant at 
 prayer. 
 
 " Doesn't she look like a little angel, bless her ? " 
 murmured Aunt Agnes, the tears rising to her pale
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 5 
 
 eyes. " ' Out of the mouths of babes and suck- 
 lings ' 
 
 " All the same," observed the little angel, suddenly 
 scrambling to her feet, " I don't think the Bible 
 ought to say, ' Ask, and ye shall receive,' if it doesn't 
 really mean it" 
 
 It was mainly owing to her father's peculiar views 
 and eccentric theories that Candida passed a very 
 happy childhood. 
 
 " We have brought a girl-child into the world," he 
 was accustomed to say, when his wife complained 
 of the unusual character of their daughter's education. 
 " Therein we have done her an irreparable injury; 
 The only compensation that we can make her is to 
 let her be a boy as long as possible." 
 
 So it came about that during the first sixteen 
 years of our heroine's life she was attired in tunic 
 and knickerbockers, had her hair cropped, was 
 encouraged to climb trees and ride the pony astride 
 and given, much against her will, a liberal educa- 
 tion. Mr. Ferrars, the vicar, once a well-known uni- 
 versity coach, instructed her in Latin, English, and 
 mathematics, while her father taught her Greek. 
 Candida only enjoyed her lessons with her father, but 
 she worked splendidly for the vicar, because, being 
 a confirmed woman-hater, he constantly expressed 
 the opinion that it was no use trying to give a "female 
 thing" a man's education, since she could have neiiher
 
 6 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 the intelligence nor the industry to profit by it So 
 when Candida was inclined to be idle or inattentive, 
 her master's contemptuous, " How like a girl ! " roused 
 her energies like the prick of a spur. It was fortu- 
 nate, perhaps, that she could not remember how 
 when Ted Ferrars, the vicar's only son, played truant 
 from his lessons to roam about the fields, his father 
 only smiled indulgently, and said, " Boys will be 
 boys." 
 
 But Ted was six or seven years older than Candida, 
 and a great personage in her eyes, whom she could 
 never have imagined guilty of fleeing from his books, 
 since he had become a fine scholar as well as a 
 distinguished athlete. She was only too proud when 
 Ted would let her run about after him. in the long 
 vacation, and give her valuable instruction in tennis, 
 cricket, or shooting at a mark. 
 
 When Candida could get neither her father 
 nor Ted as a .companion, she spent her spare time 
 in the stable with Lester, the old coachman, or 
 riding about the farms with Flaxman, the old bailiff. 
 Nearly all the Branksmead servants were old. For 
 girls she had at that time a supreme contempt, 
 regarding them as inferior animals who were unable 
 to throw straight, dreaded getting wet, and cried when 
 they were hurt 
 
 If Candida had a contempt for her own kind, it 
 must be owned that she herself was a source of the 
 deepest anxiety and misgiving to all her feminine
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 7 
 
 relations. Her aunt and grandmother were con- 
 stantly lamenting over the probable fate of the poor 
 unfortunate child, who was growing up so rough and 
 wild a regular young hoyden. No man, they feared, 
 would ever think of marrying her unless she changed 
 her ways, took some interest in her appearance, learnt 
 to play the piano, and paid more attention to needle- 
 work. It, was such a pity they thought, that her 
 father should have put the idea of working for a 
 living into her head They knew that the times were 
 very bad, they were always having the agricultural 
 depression dinned into their ears, but they were 
 sure there would always be enough for them all 
 to live upon There could be no necessity that a 
 Miss St. John, of Branksmead, should have to stoop 
 so far as to work for her bread. 
 
 It \vas not until Candida was sixteen that Mrs. 
 St John, an easy-going woman by nature, was so 
 far worked upon by her mother and sister-in-law 
 as to rebel in some measure against her husband's 
 system. 
 
 " How much longer do you intend to let Candida 
 be a boy ? " she asked him one day as they stood 
 watching their daughter's efforts to " gentle " a par- 
 ticularly irritable young colt. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," he answered uneasily, for 
 there was a touch of sarcasm in her tone. "She 
 seems very happy as she is. Why should we make 
 any change till we are obliged ? The miseries of
 
 8 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 young ladyhood will fall upon her quite soon 
 enough." 
 
 " I think you ought to try and realize," said his 
 wife, firmly, "that Candida is nearly grown-up, 
 that she will soon be a woman. Nothing you can 
 say or do will alter that fact. And the longer 
 she goes on pretending to be a sort of boy, the 
 more difficult she will find it to turn into a young 
 lady." 
 
 There was reason in this, and Mr. St. John, though 
 a man of theory, was able to see reason when it was 
 put to him plainly. 
 
 " What do you wish me to do ? " he asked. 
 
 " Begin by letting me put Candida into long skirts. 
 Those short petticoats and knickerbockers look 
 quite disgraceful on a girl of her size." 
 
 " But have you forgotten that picture of the 
 Duchess of Strathpfeffer in her shooting-costume ? " 
 asked her husband. " Her skirts were quite as short 
 as Candida's, and her figure not nearly so well adapted 
 to knickerbockers. 
 
 That picture of the duchess had been his trump- 
 card for the past year or two, but the duchess was to 
 avail him no longer. 
 
 " I haven't forgotten," said Mrs. St. John ; " but, of 
 course, the duchess only wears that costume in the 
 Highlands, where it would be quite in keeping. I 
 don't object to Candida wearing her short skirts 
 about the grounds, or even in the village, because
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 9 
 
 people are used to seeing her dressed like that, and 
 everybody knows that she is Miss St. John. But she 
 ought to have proper clothes to wear when she drives 
 out with me, and goes into Brancaster. And long 
 skirts will help to tame her more than anything. 
 She won't be able to ride bare-backed, or jump fences, 
 or climb trees in them. They will be an education 
 in nice, gentle, feminine ways." 
 
 " I accept the compromise under protest," said Mr. 
 St. John. " If you women choose to think that 
 nature's provision of two legs is indecent, and there- 
 fore handicap yourselves by pretending to move 
 about on a draped pedestal, I suppose we have no 
 right to complain. Such a proceeding throws all 
 the prizes of life into our hands." 
 
 Thus it came about that a fashionable costume was 
 ordered for Candida, who was invested with it in all 
 state on her seventeenth birthday. With the long 
 skirt and the tight-fitting bodice she acquired certain 
 ideas and sensations which hitherto had been absent 
 from her mind. For the first time she looked in the 
 glass for another purpose than to see if her face was 
 clean, twisted up her pig-tail into a tight knot at the 
 back of her head, and held her breath in true feminine 
 fashion when her waist measurement was taken. 
 Though she had studied anatomy, it was something 
 of a shock to her when the tape registered a full 
 twenty-five inches. Truly, her initiation into the 
 ways of young ladyhood had begun.
 
 io THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 After breakfast came a serious conversation with 
 her father in the study. 
 
 " You are nearly a woman," began the squire, 
 "and it will soon be time for you to choose a pro 
 fession. As you know, the estate, such as it is, 
 goes to your cousin at my death, and your mother 
 and aunt will be left with the very smallest income 
 upon which they can live in any sort of comfort. 
 Owing to the bad times through which all persons 
 connected with the land are now passing, it is with 
 the utmost difficulty that I can keep my head above 
 water, and pay the interest on the mortgages. The 
 truest kindness that I can show you is to give you a 
 good training for any profession that you may fancy, 
 and thus arm you to fight your own battle against 
 the world, since every year will probably make it more 
 and more impossible for me to assist you. You can 
 understand that where the women of the past gene- 
 rations are helpless and entirely dependent upon 
 their male relations, as in the case of your grand- 
 mother and aunt, it becomes necessary for the women 
 of the present to work for themselves. It is no hard- 
 ship, in my opinion, since, next to health, a congenial 
 occupation is the first essential to human happiness. 
 Have you come to any decision with regard to your 
 future career ? " 
 
 " I have been thinking about it for years," replied 
 Candida. " Of course, I always knew that I was to 
 work for my living. In fact, I couldn't have lived at
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. n 
 
 home all my life doing nothing, like Aunt Aggie ; it 
 would have driven me melancholy mad. But the 
 worst of it is that the things I should like best to do 
 are supposed to be impracticable for a woman." 
 
 " Ah, I remember your telling me some time ago 
 that you would like to be a veterinary surgeon. I 
 think it probable that you might have practised that 
 profession with very good success, but, unfortunately, 
 it is closed to ladies. Have you no other ideas?" 
 
 " I used to think I should like to go out to 
 America and lasso mustangs on the prairies, as they 
 do in boys' books ; but, of course, that was only 
 a childish fancy. I should have been quite satisfied 
 to read for the Bar, like Ted ; but that door is 
 shut in my face. I should like a little more time 
 in which to make up my mind." 
 
 " Very well," said her father. " There is no hurry. 
 If no better plan presents itself, you shall go to 
 Girton for three years, at the end of which time, if 
 you have worked well, various occupations will be 
 open to you. I see Ted Ferrars coming up the drive. 
 Tell him to stop to luncheon, and take you for a 
 walk afterwards."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE fact that Ted Ferrars seemed considerably im- 
 pressed by the long skirts and grown-up air of his 
 girl friend, afforded Candida not a little pride and 
 gratification. For the first time in their acquaintance 
 he treated her with the somewhat formal and distant 
 courtesy which he considered the proper attitude 
 towards a full-fledged young lady. Ted was not 
 much accustomed to feminine society, and blissfully 
 ignorant of the ways of women. He had no sisters, 
 and could not remember his mother ; consequently, 
 as his father sometimes observed, he thought that all 
 women were angels. Hitherto, he had regarded 
 Candida as a nice little fellow of no particular sex, 
 and it was rather a shock to him, on coming home 
 after six months' absence, to find that she had 
 developed into a creature whom he instinctively took 
 off his hat to, and allowed to pass through a door 
 in front of him. 
 
 By the time they had tramped a couple of miles 
 together, however, the strangeness had worn off, and
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 13 
 
 he was descanting at great length and with over- 
 whelming fluency upon his literary idol of the hour, 
 Matthew Arnold. Ted was at the somewhat trying 
 age when a new mental phase is gone through 
 about once in three months, the malady, for such it 
 is, varying in duration and intensity with the power 
 and fascination of the author under whose influence 
 the patient has temporarily fallen. When Ted was 
 thoroughly interested in a man or book, he would 
 pour out his mind on the subject to any one who 
 would listen, or even pretend to listen, to him. He 
 preferred a sympathetic audience, but he would 
 discourse to a post rather than keep his valuable 
 ideas to himself. Candida listened rather inatten- 
 tively as he declaimed the doctrines of sweetness 
 and light, but she inwardly wondered how a man 
 who had rowed stroke in his college boat, and was 
 the best swift bowler in the county cricket-club, 
 could be so enthusiastic about any book or writer. 
 In her eyes the trail of " lessons " still hung about 
 all books, and authors she regarded as unnecessarily 
 tiresome, long-winded persons. 
 
 Another reason for her inattention lay in the fact 
 that the roads were muddy, and that it was necessary 
 for her to hold up her skirt, which wound itself round 
 her legs in a particularly exasperating manner, and 
 made their four-miles-an-hour pace an unusual strain 
 upon her powers. 
 
 " Well, but what does Arnold want us to do ? " she
 
 i 4 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 asked at length, getting rather tired of the reiteration of 
 such phrases as " conduct is three-fourths of life," " the 
 Eternal not ourselves," "sweet reasonableness," and 
 so forth. 
 
 "Well, we must control our natural impulses of 
 
 self-preservation and re " Ted pulled himself 
 
 up short in his glib citation. "Oh, you wouldn't 
 understand that yet. And we must get culture ; 
 that is, get to know the best that has been said and 
 written upon every subject. Otherwise we shall 
 only be barbarians or Philistines. But, above all, 
 Candida " and here his eager, ugly face glowed with 
 enthusiasm " we must try to be a remnant." 
 
 "A what ?" asked Candida, a faint reminiscence of 
 a shopping excursion during the summer sales float- 
 ing through her mind. 
 
 " A remnant You see, the elect always constitute 
 a small remnant of a nation, just as they did with the 
 Jews and Greeks. The great mass of the people are 
 ignorant, sordid, blown about with every wind. They 
 are the mob, the rabble who cry ' Hosanna ! ' one day 
 and * Crucify him ! ' the next." 
 
 " In that case," said Candida, thoughtfully, " we 
 ought to be governed by a minority. How funny it 
 would be if the candidates at an election each wanted 
 to come in at the bottom of the poll, and tried to 
 persuade their voters to plump for their rivals. It 
 would be a sort of political donkey-race. Oh, don't 
 look so cross, Ted ; I'm afraid I shall never be a
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 15 
 
 remnant. Shall we take the short cut home through 
 the meadows ? I have made my arm ache holding 
 up my skirt." 
 
 The pair turned into a by-lane which led to the 
 gate of the water-meadows. It was a six-barred 
 gate, and it was locked. Ted vaulted lightly over, 
 and Candida was about to do the same, when she 
 remembered her new attire. 
 
 "Bother this skirt! " she grumbled, as she climbed 
 bar by bar to the top of the gate. Rejecting Ted's 
 proffered hand, she attempted to jump down, but her 
 skirt catching on a projecting piece of wood, she 
 fell to the ground with a force which made her nose 
 bleed, and flashed stars before her eyes. It was a 
 new and most humiliating experience, for though 
 she had often met with accidents before, they had 
 hitherto been unavoidable, the result of some piece of 
 hardihood on her own part. But she had never 
 fallen off an ordinary gate in that helpless feminine 
 fashion, and she felt thoroughly degraded in her own 
 sight. 
 
 Much to Ted's surprise and consternation, his 
 companion, instead of jumping up and laughing at 
 her own clumsiness, sat still upon the muddy ground, 
 and burst into tears. 
 
 "Oh, I'm afraid you have hurt yourself badly," 
 said the young man, kneeling down beside her. " Do 
 you think you have broken any bones ? Shall I run 
 and fetch you some water ? "
 
 16 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " No, no," wept Candida. " I'm not hurt not to 
 matter. It's all this beastly skirt. I shall never, 
 never be happy again. I can't even jump off a 
 gate." 
 
 " Oh, well, never mind," said Ted, awkwardly, as he 
 tried to wipe off the mud from her face with his 
 pocket-handkerchief. " It's what all girls have to 
 put up with, you know, so I suppose it's all right. 
 And you'll get used to it in no time, I expect" 
 
 "It's not all right," cried Candida, passionately 5 
 "it's perfectly infernal, and I shall never get used 
 to it, not if I live to be a hundred. Father was 
 right when he said this morning that I was being 
 crippled for life. But please go away and leave me 
 alone, Ted. I hate to be pitied ; I prefer to be 
 miserable all by myself." 
 
 Thus bidden, Ted went reluctantly away. If he 
 himself had fallen into such a plight, he knew that he 
 should have much preferred no eye-witness of his woe. 
 Yet there seemed something horribly unchivalrous in 
 leaving a lady to sit on the ground and mingle her 
 tears with her blood. He compromised the matter 
 by hiding behind a tree at a respectful distance, until 
 he saw the disconsolate damsel rise to her feet, go 
 and wash her face in the brook that flowed through 
 the meadow, and then set off towards home. 
 
 On arriving at the Hall, Candida went straight to 
 the study, where she found the squire busy over his 
 accounts.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 17 
 
 " Father," she said in the tone of one who has just 
 taken a solemn resolution, " I have quite made up 
 my mind about my future profession. I wish to be 
 an acrobat" 
 
 " An acrobat ! " said Mr. St. John, raising his eye- 
 brows in mild surprise. " Isn't this a little sudden ? 
 May I ask what has led you to this decision? " 
 
 "Acrobats don't wear skirts," returned Candida, 
 promptly. " It is the only profession I can think of, 
 the practice of which will ensure me the free use of 
 my limbs." 
 
 " I'm afraid that acrobats have to begin their train- 
 ing in the nursery," said Mr. St. John. "And I fancy 
 they are usually chosen from among those who have 
 an hereditary gift for tumbling, which is not the case 
 with you. But there are so many new occupations 
 for women nowadays that there may be another 
 which would meet your requirements. I will write 
 to my old friend, Mrs. Festus, and ask her advice. 
 She combines all the experience of age with much of 
 the liberality and enlightenment of youth." 
 
 " Thank you," said Candida, carefully feeling her 
 nose, which seemed to be gradually increasing in size 
 and heat. " If anything could reconcile me to being 
 a girl it would be having a man like you for my 
 father. You never seem to think that because I am 
 thirty years younger than you I must be thirty times 
 more foolish." 
 
 Candida's appearance, and the accident that had
 
 i8 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 damaged her beauty, called forth a good deal of com- 
 ment at the afternoon tea-table. 
 
 "A young lady of seventeen," said her mother, 
 " should know better than to go careering across 
 country, and climbing over gates. Why can't you 
 walk quietly through the lanes as your aunts and I 
 used to do when we were girls ? If we came to a 
 stile or a locked gate we turned back at once ; we 
 had too much consideration for our frocks to risk 
 soiling or tearing them. Your new dress is covered 
 with mud, and torn out at the gathers." 
 
 " We used to walk in the fields sometimes when I 
 was a girl, but only if we had a gentleman to escort 
 us," put in Miss Agnes, gently. " I remember one 
 day we were out with Sir James Courthope, and we 
 met a dreadful cow which we thought was a mad bull. 
 I fainted dead away, and my sister Ellen nearly went 
 into hysterics, and Sir James had to fetch a carriage 
 to take us home." 
 
 " You seem to have given a great deal of unneces- 
 sary trouble," remarked Candida. "Poor Sir 
 James ! " 
 
 " Men prefer women who are timid and helpless," 
 said the dowager Mrs. St John, who always spoke 
 of men with the air of one having authority. " And 
 let me tell you, Candida, they don't admire young 
 ladies with scratched hands and swollen noses. You 
 will never be a social success if you don't alter your 
 ways very much. When I was your age I was
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 19 
 
 engaged in my third love affair and by the time I 
 was eighteen I had had nineteen proposals. Did I 
 ever tell you about the first time I went to the opera, 
 and how the young queen, who was then a bride, 
 was deeply annoyed because the princes and the 
 gentlemen of the royal party did nothing but stare 
 at our box ? " 
 
 " That was certainly very ill-mannered," said 
 Candida, gravely. She had heard the anecdote 
 many times before, and was aware that her comment 
 was not exactly of the kind that was expected or 
 desired. 
 
 In the course of two or three days Mrs. Festus's 
 reply to her old friend's letter ai rived. The acrobatic 
 idea she dismissed at once as out of the question. 
 " But," she proceeded, " it" your daughter wishes for 
 an active career, her best plan would be to go into 
 training as a gymnastic-instructor. The profession 
 is not as yet overcrowded, few ladies having taken 
 it up, while there are new openings in connection 
 with high schools and colleges every year. The 
 training, which lasts about two years, should begin 
 when a girl is seventeen or eighteen years of age, 
 and at the end of the second year, if she has made 
 the most of her time, she should have little difficulty 
 in obtaining an appointment. I understand that 
 well-qualified, experienced teachers who have taken 
 up musical drill, fencing, and skirt-dancing, as well as 
 gymnastics proper, are able to earn two hundred a
 
 20 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 year and upwards at their profession. The fees 
 amount to about thirty pounds a year, and I suppose 
 there would be a premium ; but I can obtain all 
 particulars from my friend, Miss Mason, the head 
 of the Bloomsbury Gymnasium for Women. 
 
 " If your Candida takes to the idea, let her come to 
 me for the time of her training. She would have two 
 young companions in my house, one studying paint- 
 ing and the other medicine." 
 
 Candida did take to the idea very eagerly, for work 
 which consisted chiefly of climbing, jumping, vaulting 
 and swinging sounded like the most delightful kind 
 of play. Latterly her athletic feats had been per- 
 formed in secret with the consciousness that should 
 they come to her mother's ears they would be looked 
 upon with disapproval as unseemly for a young lady 
 of seventeen. But now those restless limbs and active 
 muscles of hers would be allowed full scope, and the 
 performances which had hitherto been regarded as 
 hoydenish, would be smiled upon as praiseworthy 
 efforts to improve herself in her profession. Some 
 opposition the new plan met with from the feminine 
 part of the family, for though they had but the 
 vaguest ideas about the calling of gymnastic in- 
 structor, the novelty of the occupation made them 
 suspect that it must be eccentric, and unsuited to the 
 dignity of a Miss St. John of Branksmead, even 
 though Branksmead were a falling house. But the 
 squire was firm in his determination that his daughter
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 21 
 
 should be as free to choose her own vocation in life 
 as though she were his son. 
 
 So it came about that one morning early in 
 October, Candida, outwardly cheerful and of good 
 courage, but inwardly shivering and forlorn, set out 
 alone upon her first flight into the strange world. 
 Her father had insisted that she should be unsupported 
 on this occasion by either her mother or himself. 
 The sooner she learnt independence and self-reliance 
 the better, he declared ; and besides, young people 
 always got on better with strangers, and were less 
 inclined to be self-conscious when deprived of the 
 countenance of their nearest relatives. The following 
 letter was received at Branksmead on the day but 
 one after her departure : 
 
 "200, Bloomsbury Square, 
 
 " October 8th, 188-. 
 
 "Mv DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER, 
 
 "You will have got my telegram yesterday 
 saying that I arrived safely in Bloomsbury Square. 
 It seems a long time ago already ; so much has 
 happened since. I think I shall like Mrs. Festus, 
 though she is rather alarming at first sight, being so 
 big and handsome, and having such very white hair, 
 with such piercing dark eyes. She is quite different 
 from any other woman I have ever known ; I mean 
 in her ideas and opinions. She told me she had only 
 one rule for her household, and that \\as ' Live and
 
 22 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 let live.' She says that most women martyrize 
 themselves and everybody about them with fussy 
 little rules, which are more honoured in the breach 
 than the observance. She thinks, after studying my 
 face, that my imagination and emotional nature have 
 not been sufficiently cultivated, and she is going to 
 put me through a course of novels and poetry. She 
 told me, also, to talk to the servants, and try to get 
 upon confidential terms with them. Isn't that funny ? 
 She brought in the tea herself because the parlour- 
 maid was having a violin lesson. 
 
 "At dinner I saw the other girls who are living 
 here. The medical one is plain, and has a bumpy 
 forehead. The artist one would be pretty if her hair 
 were not like a deserted bird's-nest, and if she did not 
 wear such queer clothes. I like her the best, though. 
 She said she hoped I was not intellectual, as she was 
 tired of being the only fool in the house. About 
 half an hour after dinner the three maids came into 
 the drawing-room, and Mrs. Festus read aloud out of 
 a book called " Christie Johnstone." The cook, who 
 is rather stout, groaned at intervals, but Mrs. Festus 
 said afterwards that she always groans at the pas- 
 sages she likes best. She says Mariana (that's the 
 cook's name) is passionately fond of poetry, particu- 
 larly of the morbid kind, but that she very seldom 
 allows her to read any now because it makes her cry 
 so that all the dishes are too salt. 
 
 " This morning Mrs. Festus went with me to the
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA, 23 
 
 Gymnasium, which is only five minutes' walk from 
 here. Miss Mason, the chief, is a very clever woman ; 
 she can pull up on the bar with one hand. We did 
 musical drill first, and afterwards exercises on the 
 horizontal and parallel bars, the ladders, flying rings 
 and. vaulting-horse, as well as rope-climbing and the 
 high jump. I was so stupid at everything except 
 the vaulting and jumping that I felt horrribly ashamed 
 of myself, but they were all very kind, and said I 
 should be sure to get on because I was not afraid 
 of falling about and hurting myself. 
 
 " I am going to be tremendously busy now, because 
 there are several classes every day, and I have to 
 attend anatomy lectures as well. 
 
 " Love to granny and Aunt Aggie. 
 
 " Your affectionate daughter, 
 
 "CANDIDA ST. JOHN."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON a July morning, two years later, Candida awoke 
 to the delightful consciousness that she was free at 
 last from a state of pupilage, having triumphantly 
 passed all her examinations, and that as soon as the 
 holidays were over the post awaited her of assistant 
 instructor at the Bloomsbury Gymnasium, at a salary 
 of sixty pounds a year. Meanwhile, it was pleasant 
 to think of Branksmead, where she would be before 
 the evening, and the two months' holidays, which had 
 been well-earned by the past half-year of hard work, 
 mental as well as physical. Her mind, which up to 
 her eighteenth year had been far less developed 
 than her body, had since begun to work with a 
 vigour that bade fair to make up very quickly for 
 its past inertia. A course of novels and poetry, as 
 prescribed by Mrs. Festus, had roused her imagina- 
 tion and awakened in her a taste for reading for 
 its own sake. In her spare time she greedily devoured 
 books on any and every subject history, science, 
 philosophy ; nothing came amiss to her, and it was
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 25 
 
 probably chiefly due to the excellence of her physical 
 condition that she escaped a bad attack .of mental 
 indigestion. But when the brain is overloaded or 
 over-stimulated, nothing can be better adapted to 
 restore its equilibrium than for its owner to turn 
 somersaults on the trapeze, or to " circle " round the 
 horizontal bar until she can scarcely distinguish 
 her heels from her head. 
 
 At nineteen, Candida had reached her full height 
 of five feet nine, and she turned the scale at ten stone. 
 In certain branches of her chosen profession she 
 had gained considerable distinction, notably in those 
 which required strength and nerve rather than grace 
 or dexterity. She was an accomplished performer 
 upon the horizontal and parallel bars, the vaulting- 
 horse and swings. Her fencing was dashing and 
 fearless, but rather lacking in neatness, while at skirt- 
 dancing she was never more than a mediocre per- 
 former. Thanks to her good temper and genuine 
 enthusiasm for her work, she had got on well with 
 both pupils and instructors, and gave promise of 
 herself becoming a successful teacher. In the course 
 of her two years' training she had made several 
 friends, but had remained entirely free from the inter- 
 ruptions or distractions of a love-affair, or even of a 
 mild flirtation. Her observation had led her to the 
 conclusion that love was trying to the temper and 
 disastrous to the nerves, and consequently she had 
 early made up her mind to keep clear of the tender
 
 26 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 passion, at any rate until she had gained a firm 
 footing in her profession. 
 
 At Branksmead station the old coachman who had 
 given her her first riding-lesson was waiting with the 
 old dog-cart and the well-bred little mare which, in 
 her shabby harness, looked like some fine lady 
 masquerading in beggar's costume. 
 
 "Nancy looks very fit," remarked Candida, as they 
 went swinging up the long hill from the station. 
 " You haven't forgotten.the old recipe for grooming a 
 horse, I see, Lester." 
 
 "No, Miss Candy, no," replied the old man, with 
 a chuckle. "The young fellows, they're mighty 
 particular about their tools, and run their masters up 
 a bill for more brushes and things than I know 
 the names of, but they forget the elbow-grease they 
 forget the elbow-grease. They come a-driving over 
 to the Hall, and turn up their noses at my harness- 
 room, and think a lot of theirselves because they sit 
 behind a dirty pair of jobbed horses. But I says I'd 
 rather drive one beast as can hold up her head 
 for herself, than two as have to have theirn strapped 
 up with bearing-reins. And I takes my hand and 
 rubs their hosses' coats the wrong way, and lawk! 
 you should see the muck that comes out. Then I 
 tells 'em they can stroke my mare any . time with 
 a fresh pipe-clayed glove, and no damage done. 
 I don't groom her as if I was wiping a baby." 
 
 Candida laughed.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 27 
 
 " I see the cart is getting the worse for wear," 
 she said. " I suppose my father cannot afford to buy 
 a new one, with two more farms thrown on his 
 hands, and a further reduction of rents." 
 
 "No, no," grumbled the old man; "when the 
 tenants want to live like fighting-cocks, the landlords 
 have to pinch. These new-fangled farmers, with 
 their hunters and pony-carriages and pianos, how do 
 they think they're going to pay for all that off the 
 land ? Why, they don't get their breakfasts till near 
 dinner-time, nor their dinners till bed-time. And 
 their fine lady wives and daughters never go near 
 the cows or the poultry. ' Nasty, dirty things ! ' they 
 says. ' Oh no, I don't know the price of butter 
 nor eggs. You must ask the dairy-woman or the 
 hen-wife.' Now, you know, Miss Candy, the land 
 won't stand that in good times, much less in 
 bad." 
 
 They had now reached the lodge gates, and were 
 soon spinning up the avenue that led to the Hall. 
 Mr. St. John was standing on the steps to receive 
 his daughter. She fancied that he looked greyer 
 and more stooping than when she had last seen him 
 only six months before. 
 
 " Poor father ! " she said to herself, " I wish I could 
 earn enough to help him. But, at least, I'll never 
 be another burden to weigh him down." 
 
 The ladies of the family were assembled in the 
 drawing-room, eagerly awaiting both the traveller
 
 28 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 and their tea, which they had postponed drinking 
 until her arrival. 
 
 " Well, my child," said Mrs. St. John, standing on 
 tip-toe to kiss her tall daughter. " Are you very 
 tired after your long journey ? You must be dying 
 for your tea." 
 
 " Tired ! " said Candida, in surprise. " Why, I've 
 done nothing but sit perfectly still for the last three 
 or four hours. I feel as fresh as a daisy. And I 
 gave up tea some time ago ; I find that my hand 
 is steadier without it. No, no muffin, thank you ; I 
 should like some bread and butter, stale bread, please, 
 and cut rather thick." 
 
 " Turn to the light, child, and let me see how you 
 are looking," said her grandmother. " H'm, you have 
 grown up to your features, and your complexion is 
 clearer. But people will not climb on chairs to look 
 at you, as they used to do at me. Did I ever tell 
 you about the first time I went to the opera, and 
 how annoyed the queen was because the princes did 
 nothing but stare at our box ? " 
 
 " I have no doubt you were well worth looking at," 
 said Candida, who had learnt a little tolerance in the 
 past two years. " As for me, I know I'm not a 
 beauty, but I had better biceps than any other girl at 
 the Gymnasium." 
 
 " Biceps ! The idea of a young lady having 
 biceps ! " Mrs. St. John closed her eyes for a 
 moment, as though to shut out the thought, then
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 29 
 
 went on querulously, " It seems to me that the 
 young people grow plainer and more unattractive 
 every day. The new curate came to see me this 
 morning, and you never saw such a nose as he has. 
 It isn't a feature, it's a limb. A man with a nose 
 like that ought never to have been ordained." 
 
 u Bishops evidently think that beauty is a snare," 
 said her son, lightly. " You used to say that the last 
 curate had a mouth like an earthquake." 
 
 " So he had," retorted the old lady. " And he made 
 it worse by preaching two extempore sermons every 
 Sunday." 
 
 " I should like to go out and look round the 
 place before dinner," said Candida, who had dis- 
 posed of her bread and butter. "Will you come, 
 father ? " 
 
 The pair went out together, the one young and 
 supple and straight as an arrow, the other prema- 
 turely aged, bowed beneath the burden of a hopelessly 
 encumbered estate and three helpless women. They 
 went first to the stables, which presented a long row 
 of loose boxes, all empty save for the one occupied 
 by Nancy, who thrust her nose through the boxes 
 in the well-founded expectation of sugar. The 
 kennels were visited next, where dwelt in solitary 
 grandeur an old setter, who showed but a chastened 
 pleasure at the sight of his young mistress. Being 
 a dog of conservative views, he could only feel a 
 qualified approval of a young lady who was so
 
 30 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 ill-advised as to leave her home and family for ten 
 months out of the twelve. 
 
 " We will talk over your plans for the future to- 
 morrow morning," said her father. "This first even- 
 ing shall be given up to frivolity. By the way, I 
 suppose you know that Ted Ferrars is at home 
 now ? He is coming up some time to-morrow to see 
 his old playfellow." 
 
 " I am very glad," said Candida. " I haven't seen 
 Ted for months. He has been very busy, I believe, 
 since he was called to the Bar; he seems to have 
 made a good start in his profession." 
 
 " That's not a bad tea-gown," observed Mrs. St. John 
 the elder, looking critically at her granddaughter, 
 as the four ladies sat together after dinner. " But 
 I prefer to see young women in evening dress." 
 
 " I never wear evening dress," replied Candida. 
 
 "Yet >ou have such beautiful arms and shoulders," 
 sighed her mother. " It seems a pity that nobody 
 should ever see them." 
 
 " I suppose my husband will see them some day," 
 said her daughter. " I don't consider that anybody 
 else has any right to see them." 
 
 Miss Agnes blushed. She thought the conversa- 
 tion had taken an indelicate turn, which was some- 
 what inconsistent, considering that her own collar- 
 bones were liberally displayed.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 31 
 
 " Your husband ! " repeated the dowager. '' Have 
 you ever had an offer of marriage ? " 
 
 " No, not a ghost of one," replied Candida, cheer- 
 fully. 
 
 "And you are nineteen," said the old lady, re- 
 proachfully. " At your age I was married, and 
 my husband was my twenty-fifth lover. But I 
 suppose you modern young ladies despise men and 
 marriage." 
 
 " Not at all. I consider that every healthy woman 
 should be married by the time she is twenty-five, and 
 a mother before she is thirty." 
 
 " My dear, what dreadful things you say," cried the 
 three ladies, while Miss Agnes glanced at the door, 
 as though meditating flight. 
 
 " Why ? " asked Candida. " Is there anything 
 dreadful in discussing some of the most important 
 questions of life with the women of one's own family ? 
 I have every intention of marrying if I meet the right 
 man, and I hope to justify my existence by carrying 
 on the race as well as working for it." 
 
 " But supposing," hesitated her aunt, who was 
 getting a little hardened to these continual shocks 
 to her sense of propriety " supposing you became 
 attached to a gentleman who did not return your 
 affection ? " 
 
 Candida considered for a moment. 
 
 " Well, in that case," she replied at length, " I 
 should have had a very valuable experience."
 
 32 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 Mr. St. John, who had come into the room just as 
 the last question was put, broke into a laugh. 
 
 " You are really very amusing, Candida," he said. 
 " What a pity it is that you are quite unable to 
 appreciate your own humour." 
 
 The next morning a prolonged discussion was held 
 on the subject of ways and means, and plans for the 
 future. Candida submitted to her parents' approval 
 a scheme for sharing a lodging with her friend Sabina 
 Romney, who had been a fellow-inmate with her of 
 the house in Bloomsbury Square, and who had lately 
 obtained an engagement at the Piccadilly Theatre, at 
 the magnificent salary of three guineas a week. 
 
 " Sabina has some furniture that belonged to her 
 mother," explained Candida. " So we think of taking 
 three little unfurnished rooms somewhere near the 
 Museum." 
 
 "And how will you pay your share of the board 
 and lodging, and clothe yourself out of three and 
 twenty shillings a week ? " asked her father. 
 
 "Oh, it can be done," said his daughter, confidently. 
 "There are lots of respectable women living in 
 London on less than sixty pounds a year. I must 
 have enough to eat, of course, but I shall make up 
 my mind to go into no kind of society where dress 
 matters, and as I shall be wearing my gymnasium 
 costume for about eight hours a day, I shall want 
 to buy very little, except boots. Then I have the 
 promise of some private pupils, and after the summer
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 33 
 
 holidays my salary is to be raised. I have thought 
 it all out, and I am sure that I can manage with 
 care and economy." 
 
 " Well," said her father, " if you can fight your way 
 to success alone and unaided, so much the better. A 
 touch of privation will do you no harm, and some 
 day you will probably look back upon this period of 
 struggle as the happiest time in your life. All the 
 same, I shall pay a small sum into your account at 
 the bank, which you can draw upon should you be ill 
 or out of work." 
 
 "111!" cried Candida, squaring her shoulders. 
 " Do I look as if I were likely to be ill ? And as for 
 the probability of being out of work well, you 
 haven't seen my certificates yet." 
 
 " And this Miss Romney," asked Mrs. St. John. 
 " Is she a sensible sort of girl ? " 
 
 " Well no," replied her daughter. " I don't think 
 her worst enemy could call Sabina a sensible girl. 
 She is very pretty and fascinating, and perfectly easy 
 to get on with as long as she is not jealous of you, 
 and she is never jealous of me. She is apt to fancy 
 herself in love with some man or other, but it doesn't 
 really mean anything, and she gets tired of them as 
 soon as they fall in love with her. I know the worst 
 of Sabina, and as I shall be out all day and she will 
 be out all the evening, it will be strange if we can't 
 manage to get on together." 
 
 " Well, it all seems very odd and peculiar," sighed
 
 34 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 Mrs. St. John. " I suppose you'll never have proper 
 meals, and you'll sit up late, and get your feet wet, 
 and everybody will wonder what we can be thinking 
 of to let you go and live in lodgings like a bachelor. 
 However, I wash my hands of it all." 
 
 "Would you rather I spent my time like Aunt 
 Aggie, in making comforters that nobody wears, and 
 taking soup to people who throw it out of the window 
 as soon as her back is turned ? " 
 
 "No, but I should like you to go to parties and 
 balls, and have pretty frocks, and get married, as I did 
 when I was a girl." 
 
 " Unfortunately, nobody ever gives balls in this 
 neighbourhood, and there are no men to marry, 
 except poor Ted. And that reminds me, Ted is 
 coming to have some singles with me to-day. I 
 must go and cut the grass." 
 
 When Ted arrived he found his old playfellow 
 engaged in running a good-sized lawn-mower over 
 the grass. 
 
 " You can take the handles and steer," she said, in 
 response to his offer of help. She harnessed herself 
 to the ropes, and began to stride up and down at a 
 pace that left her companion no inclination for speech. 
 
 " There, that has taken exactly thirty-five minutes," 
 observed Candida, when the task was ended. " The 
 gardener and the boy seldom do it under two hours. 
 I took the place of the boy once, but the gardener 
 broke down before we had cut half, and had to be
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 35 
 
 restored with porter, so I thought I had better do it 
 alone to-day. You look rather warm." 
 
 Ted, conscious of a scarlet face and streaming brow, 
 murmured something apologetic about being out of 
 training. 
 
 " We'll have some hard singles after lunch," said 
 Candida. " That will soon get you into condition 
 again." 
 
 He looked at her with surprise and a half unwilling 
 admiration as she stood facing him, her breathing 
 scarcely quickened, her cool cheek just tinged with 
 pink. She had improved in appearance, he decided, 
 during the four or five months that had elapsed 
 since he had last seen her. She stood within an 
 inch of his own height, and her figure, which, but 
 for the culture it had received, might have been rather 
 heavy for her age, was admirably lithe and supple. 
 Her alert, fearless bearing, and the long sweeping 
 line of her limbs recalled the classical enthusiasms 
 of his college days, and he mentally compared her 
 with some huntress nymph, swiftest-footed of the 
 followers of Artemis. In face she was not, as her 
 grandmother had remarked, a striking beauty. 
 Abundant fair hair, clear blue-grey eyes, perfect teeth 
 and an unimpeachable complexion were her chief 
 attractions, for the mouth was too large and the 
 line of jaw slightly too heavy, while there was as 
 yet no subtlety in her expression, no challenge in her 
 glance.
 
 3 6 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 Ted wondered whether she had grown in mind as 
 well as in body, and smiled involuntarily as he 
 remembered his boyish outpourings into her un- 
 sympathetic ears. The same recollection recurred 
 later to Candida herself, for while they were resting 
 after a couple of hard singles she inquired 
 
 "Who are the objects of your idolatry just now, 
 Ted ? The last time I saw you they were Ibsen 
 and Tolstoi, and years ago I remember you at the 
 Matthew Arnold stage. I have been through it all 
 myself since then, even to the yearning to be a 
 remnant. 
 
 " Then you find time to read ? " he asked. 
 
 "Of course. Mrs. Festus says it is as foolish to say 
 we have no time to read as it would be to say we 
 have no time to eat. It was impossible to live with 
 her and not get a taste for reading. Books were like 
 live creatures to her ; in fact, I am not sure that she 
 does not love them better than human beings." 
 
 " I am glad she has infected you with her taste," 
 said Ted. " One so seldom comes across a girl to 
 whom one can talk about the books or subjects that 
 really interest one, and yet I have often thought that 
 it should be instructive to get at the feminine point of 
 view. But, as a rule, if you discuss abstract topics 
 with a girl you run the risk of either boring or 
 shocking her." 
 
 " My experience is that men will seldom condescend 
 to talk to girls as if they were reasonable beings," said
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 37 
 
 Candida. "You and I must set the rest of the world 
 a better example, Ted. Tell me about your latest 
 craze." 
 
 " It's not for remnants," he answered laughing. 
 " Rather the other way. I've been tending towards 
 socialism lately. Evolutionary socialism you under- 
 stand," he added, with evident pride in the phrase. 
 
 " My mind is still in a fluid state on that and one 
 or two other subjects," said Candida. " Of course, if 
 I only studied one side of a question, after the most 
 approved feminine fashion, I should find it easy 
 enough to crystallize my ideas. But I must hear the 
 evidence on both sides before I give a verdict." 
 
 The two solemn young faces drew nearer together, 
 the two important young voices joined in a har- 
 monious duet, as the couple exchanged threadbare 
 phrases, and threshed out the empty husks of questions 
 that had vainly vexed the minds of their grandfathers. 
 Aunt Aggie, coming to call them into tea, a romantic 
 interest in the young couple already stirring her 
 tender heart, was chilled and disappointed to find 
 them exchanging confidences on such subjects as 
 land-tenure, nationalization of property, and indus- 
 trial co-operation.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON the first Sunday after Candida's home-coming 
 the household was shaken to its foundations by her 
 announcement that she was not going to church. 
 " This, then," cried the ladies of the family, " this was 
 what came of educating a girl like a boy, allowing 
 her to enter a profession, and bringing her up in ideas 
 of independence; she turns out a free-thinker, an 
 infidel, an atheist." 
 
 " Milton says," observed Candida, whose conscious 
 integrity enabled her to remain calm in the midst 
 of the agitation, "that if a man has no reason for 
 the faith that is in him beyond the fact that it is 
 taught him by his pastor and professed by his 
 community, the^i his faith, however true, is for him 
 heresy. In that sense I have been a heretic all my 
 life. I had no right to form an opinion about any 
 religion until I knew the arguments that could be 
 urged against as well as for it. If I were the Creator, 
 I should not be satisfied with a worship that was 
 founded on wilful ignorance ; I should regard it as an
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 39 
 
 insult from the creatures upon whom I had bestowed 
 the gift of reason." 
 
 " But what will the vicar think ? " cried her mother, 
 as though that were a far more important matter. 
 " And the poor people such a shocking example for 
 them." 
 
 " Would you have me play a dishonest part in 
 order that the poor people may be edified ? " demanded 
 Candida, with solemnity. 
 
 " I can't argue about it," said her mother, almost in 
 tears. " I only know that it is very wrong, and 
 and unwomanly." 
 
 "If only you would have a little talk with Mr. 
 Oriel," put in Miss Agnes, timidly, " I am sure he 
 would smooth away all your difficulties." 
 
 "Come," said Mr. St. John, "it is time for us to 
 start. Candida, we will leave you to prosecute your 
 search for truth. There is a very complete edition of 
 the Fathers in the library." 
 
 "Thank you," she replied. "At present I am 
 studying the argument from design. I shall go for a 
 walk in the fields." 
 
 "Don't take this phase too seriously," said the 
 squire to his wife and sister, as they obeyed the 
 summons of the bells. " It was bound to come 
 sooner or later. I admit that our dear Candida 
 is a bit of a prig at the present moment but then all 
 properly brought up boys and girls are prigs at 
 nineteen."
 
 40 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " It is not only her refusal to attend church that 
 troubles me," said Mrs. St. John ; "but she seems to 
 have picked up such queer ideas from Mrs. Festus. 
 She has been asking the poor women not to curtsey 
 to her ; she says she can't stand being bobbed to by 
 her elders and betters. And the other day, when 
 Jane was turning out her room, just because she 
 fancied the girl looked pale and breathless, she sent 
 her to lie down and did the room herself, scrubbing 
 the floor and all. And she made me write to the 
 stores for some very expensive iron medicine for 
 Jane, who, she "says, is anaemic. As if all young 
 servants were not anaemic ! It is really too up- 
 setting." 
 
 Mr. St. John laughed. 
 
 " I believe Candida is perfectly right," he said. 
 " Young people generally are right theoretically, only 
 they are in too great a hurry to put their theories 
 into practice. They are not content to grind slowly, 
 though they are anxious to grind exceeding small. 
 We elderly people are only useful as drags upon the 
 wheels of their splendid energy. If it were not for 
 us they would turn the world upside down once a 
 week and scrub it all over, entirely for its own good." 
 
 Meanwhile Candida had unchained the dog, and 
 together they wandered through the fields, from 
 which the last load of hay had been carried only the 
 evening before. In a meadow that bounded the 
 Vicarage glebe, she came u,pon Ted lying on his back
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 41 
 
 beneath the shade of an elm, enjoying his morning 
 pipe. He felt a slight shock of disapproval on seeing 
 Candida. A man may be an honest doubter, but a 
 woman! Surely she should cling to "her early 
 heaven, her happier views." 
 
 " You have given up going to church," he said, as 
 he sprang to his feet, and leaned over the gate by her 
 side. 
 
 " For the present," she replied. " I am an in- 
 quirer." 
 
 " Ah," said Ted. " Men mostly pass through that 
 phase at college. Some of them remain in it. What 
 have you been bothering your head with ? Kant, 
 Schopenhauer, Herbert Spencer ? " 
 
 " No," she confessed. " I can understand a plain 
 fact in plain English, but metaphysics are beyond me. 
 I have been reading history chiefly, and some physical 
 science. It makes one feel very small to be brought 
 face to face with the great facts of the universe. I 
 feel sometimes as if I had lost a father, and been 
 turned out of a comfortable home to wander in the 
 desert. Yet the air of the desert is more bracing 
 than that of the home, and the sense of space brings 
 a sense of freedom." 
 
 " I know, I know," cried Ted, to whom the word 
 " universe " was as the sound of the trumpet to a 
 war-horse. "And the possibility that you may be 
 alone, uncared-for, unregarded, an infinitesimal insect 
 clinging for a few moments to the wheel of life, makes
 
 42 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 you feel only the more determined to play your little 
 part as well as you can, and look facts in the face 
 without whimpering." 
 
 The universe is always a fruitful, fascinating topic 
 to young minds ; it is also a safe one, for who could 
 wax sentimental over such subjects as time, space, 
 or eternity ? The pair spent their Sunday morning 
 most enjoyably in discussing problems that have 
 perplexed the world since our ancestors lost their 
 tails, abandoned their arboreal habits, and developed 
 self-consciousness. Whence do we come ? whither 
 are we going ? what are life, death, truth ? These, 
 and other hoary-headed questions they asked, and, 
 unlike jesting Pilate, they waited for a reply. 
 They were so young, they lived in such quickly 
 moving times, that any morning they might wake to 
 find that one of the riddles had been solved, or the 
 veil of a great mystery rent in twain. 
 
 Ted quite forgot his disapproval of feminine freedom 
 of thought in his enjoyment of the conversation. He 
 knew very well what other young men of his own 
 standing said and thought upon most of these 
 subjects, but to discuss them with a woman was 
 quite a different thing. The experience was piquant, 
 instructive, stimulating ; there were unexpected 
 variations, digressions, disagreements ; at any 
 moment a gleam of light might be flashed upon 
 a dark corner, or a fresh point of view disclosed. 
 It was a great pity, he reflected, that men and women
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 43 
 
 could not always be comrades, fellow-students of 
 nature, co-seekers after truth. Yet it is to be 
 doubted whether, if Candida's figure had been 
 'stumpy, her skin sallow, and her eyes spectacled, 
 Ted would have found the conversation so supremely 
 interesting. It is more than probable that he would 
 have preferred his solitary pipe, and his undis- 
 turbed contemplation of the sky through the elm 
 branches. 
 
 The following day Sabina Romney was expected 
 at the Hall, where she had been invited to spend the 
 remainder of the holidays. 
 
 "It has just occurred to me that we know nothing 
 about your friend Sabina except that she is pretty 
 and susceptible," observed Mr. St. John at breakfast. 
 "Enlighten us, Candida. Has she any skeletons 
 whose cupboards we must be careful to avoid ? Who 
 is she when she is not at the Piccadilly Theatre, and 
 what are her people ? " 
 
 " I don't think she has any people," replied 
 Candida. " Her mother is dead, and she never had 
 any real father." 
 
 " How did she manage that ? " 
 
 " Well, her father was one of those people who 
 think marriage immoral, and he converted her mother 
 to his own belief in the virtuousness of a free union. 
 They lived together till Sabina was about five years 
 old, and then Mr. Romney fell in love with another 
 woman. From his point of view, it then became sinful
 
 44 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 for him to go on living with Mrs. Rom'ney, but, un- 
 fortunately, he could not afford to support more 
 than one wife and family. He offered to provide for 
 Sabina if her mother would give her up, but of course 
 she refused. He ended by marrying the other woman, 
 whom he could not convert to his own views, and wife 
 number one slowly did herself to death with fine 
 needlework. When Sabina was about sixteen she 
 got a ' walk-on ' at a theatre, and she has supported 
 herself ever since. Her mother died about a year 
 ago, and then she came to live with Mrs. Festus." 
 
 " A very instructive little story," remarked Mr. St. 
 John. " Unfortunately for its professors, free love 
 is a very expensive custom." 
 
 "Then this girl has no right to her name, "said Mrs. 
 St. John, in disapproving tones. " I don't think she 
 is at all a nice friend for you, and I wonder Mrs. 
 Festus took her into her house." 
 
 " It was her father's name," said Candida. " And 
 it wasn't her fault that he was a selfish brute and her 
 mother a weak fool. A girl can't choose her own 
 parents, nor settle under what conditions she is to 
 come into the world." 
 
 When Sabina arrived, it became clear that she 
 would very soon make her peace with offended 
 propriety in the person of Mrs. St. John. She was 
 an exceedingly pretty girl, with appealing brown 
 eyes, a rose-leaf complexion, softly curling hair, and 
 a smile of the most enchanting innocence. Before
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 45 
 
 the end of the first evening she had managed to 
 fascinate the whole family. She described the 
 newest fashions with a lucidity and minuteness to 
 which Candida had never been able to attain, gave 
 the latest particulars of the most thrilling society 
 scandal, appealed to Mr. St. John for information on 
 every subject under discussion with a flattering con- 
 fidence in the infallibility of his knowledge, and 
 listened attentively to the longest of his mother's 
 narratives about the triumphs of her youth. 
 
 " It's a pity you don't try and catch something of 
 your friend's manner, Candida," said the old lady, 
 after the guest had retired for the night. "She 
 reminds me of what the girls used to be in my youth. 
 If you would only smile and blush, and use a little 
 more gesture while you are talking, it would add 
 immensely to your attractions. You are not suffi- 
 ciently animated for a young woman ; your face and 
 whole bearing are too impassive." 
 
 " I am very sorry," said Candida. " I only desire 
 to be natural. I don't think the kittenish style 
 would sit well upon me ; I am too big and heavy. 
 But Sabina is perfectly charming, as you say ; men 
 go down before her like ninepins." 
 
 That night Candida was awoke out of her first 
 sleep by the sound of muffled sobbing in the adjoin- 
 ing room, which was occupied by her friend. The 
 sobs presently increased to low moans and half- 
 stifled cries, which seemed to be wrung from a soul 
 4
 
 46 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 in anguish. It was impossible to listen to such 
 heartrending sounds without making some effort, 
 at least, to administer consolation. Candida jumped 
 out of bed, lighted a candle, tapped at the door 
 of her friend's room, and receiving no answer, 
 walked in. 
 
 Sabina was lying on her face, trying to stifle her 
 sobs with the pillow, over which her beautiful hair 
 was tossed in wild confusion. 
 
 "What's the matter now?" asked Candida, who 
 was not wholly unused to such scenes. " You seem 
 pretty bad." 
 
 Sabina turned on her side, and looked up with 
 streaming eyes. 
 
 " I can't bear it," she gasped. " I'm so miserable 
 I don't know how to live. I believe I'm going mad 
 stark staring mad." 
 
 Her face, was white and drawn, and her eyes looked 
 unnaturally large and dark. 
 
 "This is all about some man, I suppose," said 
 Candida, sitting down upon the end of the bed. 
 "Tell me as much as you like. I imagine that it 
 does you good to talk about it." 
 
 "He doesn't care about me," went on Sabina, 
 writhing like one in acute agony. " He never spoke 
 a word to me last night, though he knew that we 
 shouldn't meet again for weeks. He was with that 
 creature all the evening, that red-haired cat, that 
 snub-nosed demon. It is she who has come between
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 47 
 
 us. I wish I had killed her before his eyes I can't 
 think why I didn't." 
 
 " Because you were too sensible, I should hope," 
 said Candida. " I don't think you can be very well, 
 Sabina. You are nervous and out of sorts. Now, if 
 you would only work at my polymachinon for half an 
 hour after your bath every morning, you would be 
 a different creature at the end of a week." 
 
 Sabina broke into a shrill little laugh. 
 
 " You are too funny with your polly what's it's 
 name," she cried. " I believe you are nothing but a 
 great big stuffed doll. What do you know about 
 love ? Have you ever been in love, or has any one 
 ever been in love with you ? " 
 
 "No, never," replied Candida, placidly. "And 
 when I look at you I can't say I regret it." 
 
 " Put your hand there, and you will learn some- 
 thing," said Sabina, pointing to the pillow with a 
 tragic gesture. 
 
 Candida laid her hand on the pillow, and found 
 that it was soaking wet. 
 
 " My tears," explained Sabina. " Do you propose 
 to dry them with your polytechnicon ? " 
 
 " No, but I can fetch you a dry pillow," replied 
 her friend. " There are two in my room." 
 
 She exchanged the wet pillow for a dry one, restored 
 the tangled bedclothes to something like order, and 
 tucked up the love-lorn maid, who, worn out with grief 
 and excitement, presently fell into a childlike slumber.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE next morning Sabina awoke in the best of 
 spirits, and sang comic songs all the time she was 
 making her toilet. The very memory of the past 
 night seemed to have gone from her as completely as 
 a bad dream from one who is fully awake. Candida 
 looked and listened in astonishment, scarcely able to 
 believe that this was the same girl who, a few hours 
 before, had been weeping tears of anguish. 
 
 " One can't go on being miserable about a man one 
 is not going to see for months," explained Sabina, 
 airily, in response to a comment from Candida upon 
 her changed mood. " Besides, when I think about 
 him in broad daylight he doesn't seem worth it He 
 is beginning to get fat, and he so often has a cold in 
 his head. It was only his not seeming to appreciate 
 me that made me so mad. If he had really made 
 love to me I should have loathed him." 
 
 The visitor threw herself heart and soul into the 
 preparations for a large garden-party which was to 
 be given at Branksmead a day or two later. Next to
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 49 
 
 Sabina, the person who was the most excited and 
 interested about the approaching festivity was the 
 dowager Mrs. St. John, who apparently looked 
 forward to a repetition of the triumphs of her youth. 
 Her best Indian shawl was taken out of its cedar- 
 wood drawer, a new cap had been ordered from 
 Bond Street, and every detail of her toilette had 
 undergone the most careful and minute consideration. 
 Meanwhile, the old lady, who had gradually been 
 failing, mentally and physically, during the past 
 twelve months, was stimulated to unusual liveliness 
 and garrulity by the society of such a kindred spirit 
 as Sabina. She chattered incessantly of the gaieties 
 that had taken place half a century before, mixed up 
 generations and epochs, and was sometimes so carried 
 away by the interest of the conversation as to forget 
 the present altogether, alluding quite naturally to the 
 lover she had just dismissed, or the gown she meant 
 to wear at her next ball. 
 
 Early in the afternoon of the important day she 
 retired to her room to begin the serious business of 
 the toilette. A few minutes later, Martin, her middle- 
 aged attendant, came running into the drawing-room, 
 anxious-eyed and panting for breath. 
 
 " Oh, if you please, ma'am," she gasped, " will 
 some one come to mistress at once ? She's turned so 
 strange, I can't do nothing with her." 
 
 Candida and her mother hurried upstairs at once. 
 They found the dowager sitting in her high-backed
 
 50 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 chair, her cap off, and her thick white hair in 
 picturesque disorder. 
 
 "Martin," she exclaimed, her dark eyes gleaming 
 with indignation, " how often am I to tell you that 
 I mean to wear my new white crepe bonnet with the 
 rose-coloured feathers ? Pray take away that hideous 
 black satin erection, which looks as if it had been 
 made for my grandmother, and get out my white 
 silk slip and the India muslin with the pink sprig. 
 And my hair, you stupid girl," she went on, putting 
 up her hands to her head. " I can't think what you 
 have done to my hair. It is all flattened down, and 
 you seem to have smoothed my ringlets quite away. 
 I shall never be ready in time." 
 
 Springing to her feet with unwonted agility, she 
 peeped at herself in the glass. In an instant her 
 expression of complacent expectancy changed, first 
 to horrified incredulity, then to abject despair. 
 Dropping back into her chair, she put her hands 
 before her face, and broke into a fit of agonized 
 weeping. 
 
 "I am old, I am old," she moaned. "Grey and 
 wrinkled and shrunken. I had forgotten for the 
 moment. Everything is over ; there is nothing left 
 to live for. Why do women go on living after they 
 have lost their youth ? Nobody cares about them any 
 more. Why aren't we put out of our misery before 
 we get to this ? Shrunken and old and grey." 
 
 Her voice died away into a feeble, long-drawn wail.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 51 
 
 Candida, her heart pierced by the sight of such help- 
 less suffering, threw herself on her knees beside the 
 chair, with the intention of administering consolation. 
 
 " Dear granny," she began. " You have us, 
 and " 
 
 She stopped short abruptly, as the old lady turned 
 upon her with sudden fury. 
 
 " Granny ! " she cried. " I know why you call me 
 by that name ; you do it to insult me, and remind tne 
 that you are young and I am old. I wish you 
 would leave me alone. I don't want to see your 
 insolent pink face and your great overgrown figure. 
 Why can't I be left to die in peace ? " 
 
 Candida retreated in dismay at the same moment 
 that Mr. St. John, who had been summoned by his 
 wife, entered the room. 
 
 "Why, what is the matter, mother?" he asked, as 
 he bent over the unhappy old woman. " You will 
 not be able to receive any of your admirers to-day 
 if you don't compose yourself. Your old flame, Sir 
 Henry Hammond, is coming on purpose to see you. 
 He always declares that you are the most beautiful 
 woman of your age in the kingdom." 
 
 " Sir Henry Hammond ! " Mrs. St. John sat upright, 
 and instantly composed her features, though the tears 
 still glistened in the furrows of her cheeks. " Martin, 
 my tea-gown and the Spanish mantilla for my head. 
 I cannot appear in public to-day, but I will see Sir 
 Henry in the boudoir. Some eau de Cologne and
 
 52 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 water for my eyes, and just a dust of powder. Most 
 women would use rouge in the circumstances, but I 
 have too much regard for my complexion. Roland, 
 you will explain to Sir Henry that I have had an 
 attack of nerves, but that I could not refuse to see 
 such an old friend. Martin, don't forget to give me 
 my fan and vinaigrette" 
 
 Mr. St. John beckoned to his wife and daughter to 
 follow him from the room. 
 
 " She will soon be quite herself," he said, when 
 they were outside. " She is tired, and has been over- 
 excited. But if she rests for the next hour or two, it 
 will do her no harm to see Sir Henry for a few 
 minutes." 
 
 Candida put her hand through his arm, and leant 
 against his shoulder. She had been strangely moved 
 and shaken by the painful scene she had just 
 witnessed. 
 
 " Oh, poor granny, poor granny ! " she murmured. 
 " Why is old age so intolerable and degrading to 
 women, when it might be so beautiful and dig- 
 nified ? " 
 
 " Because the majority of women are brought 
 up as if they were gifted with eternal youth, and 
 exempted from all responsibility," he replied. "Most 
 parents act as if they imagined that Rousseau's dictum, 
 'A woman should die at forty,' were carried into 
 effect. They allow their daughters the opportunity 
 of enjoying themselves in the sunshine of spring and
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 53 
 
 summer, but give them no protection against the 
 damp of autumn, or the frost and snow of winter. 
 Consequently an aged woman is too often as uncom- 
 fortable an anomaly as a butterfly in December." 
 **#*** 
 
 The guests had all arrived, tennis and croquet 
 were in full swing, and Candida, having started the 
 games for the young people, and settled the dowagers 
 in comfortable chairs, was standing upon the terrace, 
 talking to the Bishop of Thorminster. The bishop, 
 like the apostles and the four great doctors of the 
 Church (according to ancient heraldry), was a 
 " gentleman of blood and coat armour," who stood 
 six foot two in his gaiters, and possessed shoulders 
 that caused every recruiting sergeant in his diocese 
 to break the tenth commandment "Thor," as he 
 was familiarly called, was the terror of clerical 
 shirkers and absentees, but the workers adored him, 
 and the restive spirits, who fretted under all other 
 ecclesiastical restraint, pulled quietly and steadily 
 when his hand was on the bridle. 
 
 The bishop had christened Candida, given her 
 rides on his shoulder in her childish days, and 
 confirmed her only three years before. He had been 
 the object of her earliest hero-worship, and she still 
 regarded him with a respectful admiration that was 
 mainly due to his thews and sinews. 
 
 " And what church do you attend in London, my 
 dear?" asked his lordship, at length.
 
 54 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 Candida hesitated. The question was not alto- 
 gether unexpected, and she had been debating 
 within herself whether she could answer it without 
 wounding the susceptibilities of a distinguished 
 guest. The bishop had always been regarded by 
 the ladies of the St. John household as a kind of 
 superior pope, and therefore it was natural that she 
 should feel a tremor at the thought of administering 
 to him what would be, figuratively speaking, a slap in 
 the face. But the tremor decided her. She reminded 
 herself that she was accepting the bishop's kindness 
 on false pretences, and that that was the conduct of 
 a coward and a hypocrite. 
 
 " I have not attended any church for some time," 
 she replied, with a quiver in her voice. " I think I 
 ought to tell you, my lord, that at this moment I am 
 not a Christian." 
 
 She held her breath like one who has just fired a 
 train of gunpowder, and stared anxiously at the 
 bishop's gaiters, as though expecting them to fly into 
 the air with the shock of her communication. But, 
 to her surprise, nothing happened, no explosion took 
 place. The bishop merely inquired with a bland 
 smile 
 
 "May I be permitted to ask what you are at this 
 moment?" 
 
 " I don't think I am anything," replied Candida, 
 much relieved by the calmness with which he had 
 received her confession. " I suppose if I wished to
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 55 
 
 label myself I should say that I was an agnostic, 
 because I feel that I know nothing for certain except 
 that we are born and that we die." 
 
 " But that ignorance is common to us all," said his 
 lordship. " The wisest of us knows nothing for 
 certain beyond those two well-attested facts." 
 
 Candida stared at him open-mouthed. 
 
 " We don't say ' I know ' in the Creeds of our 
 Church," he went on. " We say ' I believe,' and those 
 words in themselves are a confession of ignorance." 
 
 " But dogmas " stammered Candida, 
 
 " Dogmas are the drapery of faith," he replied 
 sententiously. " Sometimes an ornament, sometimes 
 a protection, more often an impediment. Dogmas 
 are continually being outgrown and discarded, with- 
 out the slightest injury to the living faith." 
 
 The bishop politely suppressed a yawn ; he had 
 not come to a garden-party to talk theology. His 
 wandering eye caught sight of Sabina, the centre of 
 a little group of admiring youths. Her tinkling 
 laughter and their deeper " Haw haws " struck grate- 
 fully upon his ear. 
 
 " Who is the pretty young lady in the pretty hat ? " 
 he inquired. " A friend of yours ? I should like to 
 make her acquaintance." 
 
 Candida, her mind still in a whirl, introduced him 
 to Sabina, and then walked away, feeling a little flat. 
 If the bishop had called his fellow-guests around him, 
 denounced her to them as an infidel, and forthwith
 
 56 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 banished her from the assembly, she would have 
 regarded it as a perfectly just and natural proceeding. 
 But to be smiled upon, agreed with, and then 
 desertei for a pretty hat, was mortifying to a degree. 
 Martyrdom might not be a pleasant experience, but 
 at least the martyr was an important personage. 
 
 Mrs. St. John, when she had leisure to observe the 
 course events were taking, was not altogether satisfied 
 \\ith the effect produced by her daughter. While 
 Sabina was the centre of attraction, and always sur- 
 rounded by obsequious males, Candida was more 
 often to be seen among the dowagers, or talking to 
 some middle-aged fogey. With the young men, 
 indeed, she seemed on frank and friendly terms, but 
 they did not pursue and surround her, follow her 
 with their eyes, and hang upon her lips, as they did 
 with Sabina. The mother hinted something of her 
 disappointment to her husband. 
 
 " I was just congratulating myself upon the same 
 thing," he replied. " It is quite refreshing to see a 
 girl who makes no difference in her method of speak- 
 ing to, or looking at, men and women. Observe 
 Candida's composed manner, and tranquil, contented 
 expression. As a rule, you only see that expression 
 on the faces of women who are happily married, and 
 the mothers of healthy children. Compare her with 
 the other unmarried women, both young and middle- 
 aged ; note their anxious mouths, their restless eyes, 
 their exaggerated smiles, the way they writhe and
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 57 
 
 wriggle when they speak to a man. Poor things, 
 they know that in marriage is their one chance of 
 living, their only means of justifying their existence. 
 If they miss that chance what have they to fall back 
 upon but district-visiting and the mild approval of 
 the parochial clergy ? All their eggs are in one basket, 
 and that a frail one. But with Candida the case is 
 different. She is conscious that she has her own 
 work in life, her own niche in the world ; she can 
 associate with men upon terms of equality because 
 she is independent of them. Should marriage come 
 her way, she will welcome it as one of the good gifts 
 of life, but she will not clutch at it like a drowning 
 wretch at a straw. I shall be glad if she has her 
 youth calm and unharassed, free from intrigues, en- 
 tanglements, and the fever of sham love-affairs. When 
 she marries she will bring her husband a sound heart 
 and a sound mind in a sound body." 
 
 " I shouldn't be surprised if all your wonderful 
 theories were to end in our seeing her an old maid," 
 said his wife, aggrievedly. 
 
 " Well, better so than that she should marry the 
 wrong man in a hurry. But I don't think you need 
 alarm yourself. Candida is not the sort of woman 
 whom men leave to wither on the virgin stalk."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THERE was one man who had gradually come to the 
 conclusion- that it should not be his fault if Candida 
 withered on the virgin stalk. Ted Ferrars was not a 
 youth of impulse ; he knew that it would be two or 
 three years before he was able to support a wife, and 
 at present his work satisfied nearly all his energies 
 and aspirations. In the mental vision that he had 
 formed of the future, however, the figure of his old 
 playfellow already occupied an important place. 
 Through the vista of the years he fancied that he 
 could see her at his side, a brave comrade and true 
 wife, understanding his thoughts, sympathizing with 
 his desires, helping him in his difficulties, comforting 
 him in his sorrows. Such was his notion of an ideal 
 helpmate, and of this Candida seemed to him the 
 living embodiment. 
 
 Ted had made a good start in his profession, and 
 knew that he was already regarded as a promising 
 young man. He was not brilliant, but he had a 
 prodigious capacity for work, a memory upon which
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 59 
 
 he could place absolute reliance, an unlimited amount 
 of dogged determination, and, most useful of all, some 
 influential solicitor relations. In two or three years' 
 time he thought that, with average luck, he would be 
 earning an income which, in addition to the allowance 
 made him by his father, would justify him in thinking 
 of marriage. Meanwhile, he intended to keep his hopes 
 to himself, and refrain from pressing his suit until he 
 had something tangible to offer. It will be seen that 
 there was not much evidence of passion about these 
 deliberations, nothing better than ordinary common 
 sense and manly consideration for the woman whom 
 he hoped to make his wife. In laying its plans, how- 
 ever, the one thing which youth reckons without is its 
 own temperament. 
 
 The holidays were rapidly drawing to a close. 
 Sabina had already left Branksmead to pay other 
 visits, and only about ten days remained before 
 Candida's return to town. Ted, coming up to dine 
 at the Hall one night about this time, found the dis- 
 tinguished gymnast stretched upon the sofa, with her 
 mother and aunt hovering compassionately around her. 
 In response to his anxious inquiries, the dowager, 
 who had temporarily recovered her clearness of mind, 
 replied with gentle sarcasm 
 
 " Oh, it's nothing serious ; Candida has merely been 
 fighting a brewer's drayman." 
 
 " That is rather a picturesque way of describing my 
 little adventure," put in Candida. " You shall hear
 
 60 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 my version of the story, Ted. I saw a man brutally 
 flogging a horse which was trying to get a heavy load 
 of barrels up Cawston Hill. He was hitting it about 
 the head and legs with an ash stick. You know I 
 never can bear to see a horse ill-treated, so I politely 
 requested him to leave off, and suggested that he and 
 I should each put a shoulder to the wheel. Of course, 
 he swore at me in reply, and began to beat the horse 
 more cruelly than before. So I twisted his stick out 
 of his hand, and said if he didn't do as I told him, I 
 would treat him as he treated his beast. He looked 
 as if he longed to knock me down and jump upon 
 me, but he was smaller than I and in shocking con- 
 dition, so he thought better of it, and slunk behind 
 the cart. Then we both pushed at the wheels, and 
 with the assistance of the horse we managed to get 
 the load up the hill. Finally, I gave him some good 
 advice and a shilling for his stick, and we parted on 
 the best of terms. I'm glad he didn't show fight," 
 she added thoughtfully; " because he looked so red 
 and soft and shiny. If I had hit him hard any- 
 where, I believe he would have swelled up and 
 died." 
 
 " I wish I had been there," said Ted, not over 
 pleased at the anecdote. " But how did you manage 
 to get hurt?" 
 
 " I suppose I did rather more than my share of the 
 pushing, for I have strained my knee a little. Mother 
 insisted on having Dr. Rose, and he says I must keep
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 61 
 
 quiet for the next few days, or I shan't be fit to go 
 back to work." 
 
 " I'm most awfully sorry," said Ted, quite incapable 
 of expressing all the agitation that filled his breast at 
 the sight of his deity prostrate and probably in pain. 
 
 " I wish there was anything I could do for you." 
 
 " You might give me your arm," said Candida. " I 
 think I could hop out on to the terrace, and lie on the 
 lounge chair. It seems such a waste to spend the 
 whole evening indoors." 
 
 A vehement protest from her mother and aunt 
 brought a worried look into the girl's face, which 
 Ted, his faculties sharpened by sympathy, instantly 
 perceived. 
 
 " I think, if Mr. St. John and I were to make a 
 'chair' with our crossed hands, we could carry Can- 
 dida on to the terrace without jolting her," he said. 
 
 Mr. St. John agreed, and the feat was safely 
 accomplished, in spite of Candida's fears that her 
 weight would break their wrists. When the invalid 
 was comfortably established in a chaise tongue, Ted 
 seated himself on the terrace wall by her side. His 
 heart was beating loudly, and his breath came more 
 quickly than usual, though not in consequence of the 
 physical efforts he had just made. A tendril of his 
 lady's hair had blown against his forehead in the 
 transit, and sent the blood rushing to his brain, while 
 the light touch of the hand that had rested upon his 
 shoulder felt as though it were branded into his flesh.
 
 62 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " Isn't this unfortunate for me ? " demanded Can- 
 dida, who, it must be owned, made a very bad patient, 
 having had little or no training in the art of illness. 
 " I dare say I shall be laid on the shelf for the rest of 
 my holiday, I who never have anything the matter 
 with me. Doesn't it make one feel humiliated and 
 degraded to be ailing or helpless ? I suppose I'm 
 very ungrateful, but it irritates me dreadfully to be 
 asked incessantly how I feel, and whether I am in 
 pain, and implored to take more care of myself. You 
 don't mind my grumbling to you, do you, Ted ? 
 That is one of the privileges of friendship." 
 
 She smiled at him as she spoke, but he noticed 
 that her cheeks were pale, and that there was a little 
 crease of pain 'between her eyebrows. He had never 
 before seen her wear so soft, so appealing, so feminine 
 an air. All the chivalry in his nature rose to the 
 surface, and his heart went out to her in yearning and 
 tenderness. He longed to take her in his arms, and 
 carry her safely through all the perilous paths of life. 
 He wished that there were still dragons and giants 
 on the earth that he might ride forth and slay them 
 in the name of his love. He could almost have 
 desired that she were beset by some great danger, in 
 order that he might rescue her at the risk of his own 
 life. For the first time his feeling for her was fired by 
 the touch of passion, and all considerations of prudence 
 and worldly wisdom were soon to be consumed in its 
 flame. He could no longer keep silence, he felt
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 63 
 
 irresistibly impelled to unburden his heart, even 
 though by so doing he might put to an end to his 
 hopes for ever. 
 
 "Always tell me everything," he cried "all that 
 you are thinking and feeling, all that causes you 
 grief or pleasure. Oh, Candida dearest ! " here a 
 mighty sigh broke from the very depths of his heart 
 " I wish I wish you would let me take care of you in 
 future, work for you, live for you, devote my whole 
 life to your happiness. I ask nothing better of fate, 
 because because I love you." 
 
 The secret was out now, and he stopped abruptly, 
 alarmed at his own .temerity. Candida, sitting bolt 
 upright, turned upon him a pair of startled eyes. 
 
 "What are you talking about ? " she cried, scarcely 
 knowing whether to take his words seriously. " You 
 are very obliging, but you know that I am perfectly 
 well able to take care of myself, this little accident 
 notwithstanding, and that I require no one to work 
 for me. What can have put this idea into your 
 head all of a sudden ? " 
 
 " It's not sudden," he replied, a little sobered by 
 her tone. " I have been thinking of it all the summer, 
 but I had not intended to say anything about it for 
 years, not until I could offer you a home. But some- 
 how this evening, when I saw you pale and suffering, 
 when I felt you resting on my arms, I could not keep 
 it to myself any longer ; I was obliged to speak out 
 all that was in my heart. Don't be angry with me.
 
 64 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 It would be such happiness only to know that you 
 cared for me a little, that you might some day care 
 for me more. The thought of you would make me 
 work like a nigger, and I am sure that in two years, 
 three at the outside, I could we might " 
 
 " Oh, don't talk like that," interrupted Candida, im- 
 patiently. " Of course, we ought neither of us to think 
 of marriage for half a dozen years to come, and then 
 we shall probably each have a different person in view. 
 Remember, I have a profession as well as you, Ted ; 
 we are both at the beginning of a career, with one 
 foot on the first rung of the ladder. You have made 
 a good start, and I have excellent prospects. You 
 know I told you that I had been studying the German 
 and Swedish systems, and meant to try and introduce 
 some new features at the Bloomsbury, which would 
 probably make my name known in the profession. 
 You ought to be able to sympathize with me, because 
 you are very ambitious, and most enthusiastic about 
 your own profession. How would you like to be 
 asked to give it up almost at the outset ? " 
 
 " The cases are not analogous," he replied. " I am 
 a man, and " 
 
 " And I am a woman," put in Candida. " That is 
 to say, we are both human beings, both have hearts 
 and minds, both are made of flesh and blood." 
 
 " Well," said Ted, " I suppose marriage is a pro- 
 fession as well as gymnastics, and the more natural 
 for a woman. However, I won't bother you any
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 65 
 
 more now. I am an obstinate sort of fellow, and I 
 don't mean to let one rebuff frighten me. I shall 
 bide my time, and hope for better luck a year or 
 two hence, when habit may have quenched your rage 
 for work." 
 
 " That's a good, sensible boy," she said, with a sigh 
 of relief. " Six or seven years hence, if you are still 
 in the same mind, and we are both of us free, you 
 may ask me again ; but don't make too sure of my 
 answer." 
 
 " And you won't let this make any difference to 
 our present friendship ? " 
 
 " Oh no, you can come and see us sometimes on 
 Sundays when we are settled in town. We shall 
 have interesting visitors, I hope, because we don't 
 mean to confine ourselves to one circle of acquaintance. 
 Sabina will have her theatrical friends, and I shall 
 invite a little dressmaker I know, who is a sort of 
 obscure heroine, and a very original Scotch cobbler, 
 who will like to talk socialism with you. And I 
 hope a commissionaire who has a post in our neigh- 
 bourhood will sometimes be able to come and see 
 us. He is an old soldier, and was all through the 
 Zulu war." 
 
 Ted looked dubious. His socialistic theories were 
 genuine enough as regarded himself, but he was not 
 prepared to apply them to the woman he loved. 
 
 " You two will want somebody to look after you 
 if you are going in for such mixed society," he
 
 66 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 said. " You had better engage me to act as chucker- 
 
 out." 
 
 ***** 
 
 Ten days later, Candida was once more upon her 
 feet, and able to go back to her work at the appointed 
 time. She was not allowed to enter upon an inde- 
 pendent life without many warnings and much good 
 advice from the various members of her family. Her 
 grandmother recommended her always to wash her 
 face in soft water, and presented her with a recipe for 
 a complexion-lotion which, tradition said, had been 
 used by the beautiful Miss Gunnings. Her aunt 
 gave her a little book called " Continual Droppings," 
 which contained meditations for every morning and 
 evening in the year, and adjured her to read it 
 diligently, that in time her spiritual stoniness might 
 be worn away. Mrs. St John lectured eloquently 
 upon the dangers of wet feet and the duties of eating 
 sufficient meat ; but it was her father's parting words 
 that impressed themselves mostvividly upon Candida's 
 mind, for the reason that they caused her some little 
 surprise and distress. 
 
 " You are very young to be starting upon an inde- 
 pendent career, my child," he began. " Still, the 
 world presents fewer perils and temptations to a 
 young woman than to a young man, if only because 
 she is gifted with a colder temperament, and has 
 acquired an abnormal power of self-restraint, the 
 result of centuries of repression of all natural ideas,
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 67 
 
 feelings, and instincts on the part of her sex. I have 
 every faith in your good sense and right judgment, 
 but I should like to give you a word of warning 
 against your friend." 
 
 " Against Sabina ! " said Candida, opening her 
 eyes. " Why, I thought you liked her so much." 
 
 " She is a most lovely and delightful young lady," 
 he replied. " And her mere proximity is enough to 
 make an old man feel young again. But she is essen- 
 tially a creature of emotion. She will always be 
 swayed, guided, inspired by impulse ; neither principles 
 nor moral codes exist for her. She combines all the 
 acquired weakness of a woman with much cf the 
 natural fire of a man. It is women such as she who 
 change the fate of nations, and set kingdoms in a 
 blaze. Wise men run mad for them, and princes lay 
 crowns and sceptres at their feet." 
 
 "But how does all that affect me?" asked his 
 daughter. "I know that Sabina is fascinating, and I 
 admit that she may sometimes be foolish, but neither 
 her fascination nor her folly can harm me." 
 
 "I see," said Mr. St. John, "that when we try to 
 graft foreign qualities upon a character, we run the 
 risk of losing indigenous ones. Your training has 
 freed you from many of the weaknesses that are 
 supposed to be natural to the feminine temperament, 
 but at the same time you appear to be lacking in 
 certain of the gifts that have always stood woman in 
 good stead. You have lost the intuitive knowledge
 
 68 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 of your own sex, a loss for which only long and 
 varied experience can ever compensate you. You 
 are attracted, and will probably be deceived by 
 exactly the same kind of girl who would attract 
 and deceive a man. You believe in your friend 
 upon the same grounds that a man believes in his 
 sweetheart, namely, because she is pretty and 
 amiable. No doubt Miss Romney is attached to you> 
 and she will probably be true to you as long as her 
 emotions are not brought into play. If ever a man 
 comes between you, beware of your pretty Sabina." 
 
 " I am quite willing to take the risk," laughed 
 Candida. " Sabina is welcome to all the lovers. I 
 have other things to think about."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IT was on a misty October afternoon that the two 
 friends settled down into their new home, three little 
 rooms in Blake Street, one of the dingiest thorough- 
 fares in Bloomsbury. 
 
 " I do like living in lodgings," said Sabina, as she 
 flitted about, filling vases and jugs with flowers that 
 had been brought from Branksmead. "It always 
 reminds me of holidays at the seaside. As long as 
 we are indoors there is nothing to show that we are 
 not at Brighton. And the best of having only one 
 sitting-room," she added, "is that one can always 
 keep a plum-cake in the cupboard." 
 
 "I think the room will look rather pretty when 
 the pictures are up," said Candida. " Ted is coming 
 to-morrow to help us to hang them." 
 
 She spoke without a trace of self-consciousness ; 
 indeed, she felt none, for Ted had returned to his 
 former friendly attitude, and she had succeeded in 
 putting his premature declaration out of her mind. 
 
 "To think that I really begin work on my own 
 account on Monday ! " she said with a radiant face, as
 
 70 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 they sat at tea. " Only two days more, and I shall 
 actually be ' spinning my own free hours,' a burden 
 upon no man." 
 
 " You'll sing a different tune after twelve months of 
 it," said Sabina. " I was thanking the fates that the 
 theatre doesn't open for another fortnight. I feel 
 sometimes like the maid-of-all-work in the epitaph ; I 
 long to ' do nothing for ever and ever.' " 
 
 " That is because you have no real taste for your 
 profession," said Candida. " You were forced into it 
 through circumstances. But I wonder, feeling as you 
 do, that you don't marry. I am sure you have plenty 
 of opportunity." 
 
 "Perhaps I would if I could find a man to love 
 me," answered Sabina, with unusual earnestness. 
 " Oh, I know I've plenty of lovers, but not one of 
 them cares for me my "own self the real Sabina ; 
 they are only in love with my looks. You don't 
 know how sick I get of being told I'm pretty. There 
 comes a time in my acquaintance with nearly every 
 man when he thinks proper to inform me of that fact^ 
 as if it were quite a new discovery. He seems to 
 imagine that I shall be so overwhelmed with gratitude 
 at the announcement, that I shall instantly lose my 
 heart to him in return. I suppose they all take it 
 for granted that I have a pretty little soul to match 
 my pretty little body. There is not one who 
 wouldn't turn from me if I had the small-pox, or 
 had been guilty of theft or murder."
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 71 
 
 "Well, you could hardly expect a man to love a 
 criminal," said Candida. 
 
 "Why not? A woman can. If I loved a man I 
 shouldn't care if he had robbed a church, or killed his 
 own brother. But the vilest man in creation always 
 expects to have an immaculate woman for his wife." 
 
 The time that followed was a period of hard work 
 and rigid economy for our heroine ; yet, in later days, 
 as her father had prophesied, she looked back upon 
 those strenuous months as among the happiest of her 
 life. She was young, strong, unharassed by heart- 
 burnings of whatsoever kind, enjoyed her work, and 
 was proud of her position as a unit in the universal 
 army of labour. Lack of time and lack of money, 
 rather than lack of inclination, prevented her from 
 going into society, apart from occasional tea or 
 supper-parties at the houses of hard-working women 
 like herself. On Sunday afternoons the little sitting- 
 room in Graham Street was chiefly filled with 
 Sabina's friends, though Ted Ferrars was a pretty 
 constant visitor. Candida's plan of mixing the 
 classes and the masses had proved a decided failure, 
 not on account of the haughtiness of the classes, but 
 by reason of the bashfulness of the masses. On the 
 only occasion when the two sections of society fairly 
 met, the representatives of the classes had so lionized, 
 patronized, pestered and petted the representatives 
 of the masses, that the latter, bewildered and ashamed, 
 had fled on the earliest opportunity, and obstinately
 
 72 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 refused to repeat the experiment Candida, however, 
 was a welcome guest in the houses of several of her 
 poorer neighbours, being, as one of them informed her, 
 u a nice, homely sort of young woman, who never 
 poked her nose into things as didn't concern her, nor 
 gave her opinion afore it was asked." Help she 
 could only give to her less prosperous sisters in kind, 
 teaching musical drill on one evening in the week at 
 an institute for working girls. 
 
 During those first few months of independence, 
 although her number of private pupils gradually 
 increased, Candida found it a pretty hard task to 
 make both ends meet. 'Nearly the whole of her 
 earnings were swallowed up in the expenses of board 
 and lodging, omnibus fares, and other small necessaries, 
 leaving an almost imperceptible margin for dress or 
 pocket-money. Boots had to be patched, gloves 
 worn shiny, and all menus plaisirs rigorously foregone. 
 Almost her only recreation consisted of an occasional 
 visit to concerts or theatres with orders which 
 were as plentiful as blackberries in Sabina's circle 
 of acquaintance. 
 
 In her profession Candida was modestly conscious 
 of being a success. Her pupils bestowed upon her a 
 good measure of heroine-worship, that frankest and 
 most unalloyed of youthful emotions. They laughed 
 it is true, at the severe felt hat and shabby serge coat 
 and skirt which constituted her invariable outdoor 
 attire; but they raved about her figure and her hair,
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 73 
 
 and agreed that whatever she wore she looked " per- 
 fectly splendid." The secret of her success was 
 probably due to the enthusiasm that she felt for her 
 work, as well as to her earnest belief in its usefulness 
 as a factor in the progress of her own sex, and 
 through it of the whole race. Nothing gave her more 
 gratification than to see the girls who came to the 
 gymnasium in the giggling, hysterical, anaemic stage, 
 transformed under her eyes into strong, healthy 
 women, firm of muscle, steady of nerve, and supple 
 of form. 
 
 The two friends lived amicably together, the more 
 so, perhaps, for seeing very little of each other, even 
 their meals being for the most part at different hours. 
 Only one dispute disturbed their peace in the course 
 of the winter, and in that Candida admitted that she 
 was to blame. Coming home late one bitter night 
 from the Working Girls' Institute, she perceived what 
 looked like a heap of clothes huddled up on the 
 doorstep. Bending down, she found that the heap 
 was a woman, whose face was turned away from the 
 lamplight. 
 
 "I'm afraid you are ill," said Candida, gently. 
 " Can I do anything for you ?" 
 
 The woman turned round sharply, and instantly 
 assumed a defensive attitude. 
 
 " I'm not doing any harm," she said hoarsely. " I 
 only sat down a minute to get my breath. I went 
 kind of dizzy, but I ain't drunk ; you'd smell my
 
 74 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 breath if I was. You've no call to tell me to move 
 on." 
 
 A violent fit of coughing interrupted her speech, 
 and she rocked herself to and fro, gasping for breath, 
 while the handkerchief which she held to her lips was 
 spotted with blood. 
 
 " You poor thing ! " said Candida, shocked at the 
 woman's evident expectation of rough usage. " I'm 
 only anxious to help you. You will kill yourself if 
 you sit out here in the cold with that dreadful cough. 
 If you will come in with me you can rest and warm 
 yourself by the fire, and afterwards you will feel 
 better able to walk home." 
 
 " Are you one of them good lydies what gets hold 
 of people and tries to keep them in ? " asked the 
 woman. 
 
 " No, I am not at all good, and lam only a work- 
 ing girl. If you will make use of my room till you 
 feel better, you will be perfectly free to go your way." 
 
 " Do you know what sort of a woman I am ? " asked 
 the other, suspiciously. 
 
 " Yes," answered Candida, promptly. " I know 
 that you are a sick woman, and that if you sit out 
 here much longer you are likely to be a dead woman. 
 Will you let me help you upstairs, and give you 
 some supper ? " 
 
 She raised the panting creature in her strong arms, 
 half carried her up the stairs, and established her on 
 the sofa near the fire. Then she warmed up some
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 75 
 
 soup, and brought a cup to her visitor, who drank it 
 eagerly. 
 
 " That's real good stuff," she said with a sigh. 
 " I've had nothing all day but a crust of bread and 
 a pennyworth of ' thick.' " 
 
 Candida brought her a plate of cold beef next, but 
 the woman tried in vain to choke down a mouthful 
 of meat. 
 
 " It's no good," she said ; " my teeth are bad, and 
 my stomach's weak. I ain't used to solid food, but I 
 could do with another cup of that soup." 
 
 Candida warmed up the remainder of the soup, 
 and then brought out a bottle of port wine which had 
 been bought on account of a sore throat of Sabina's. 
 The warmth of the room, the food, and a glass of 
 wine put the visitor into a state of drowsiness from 
 which she had just passed into an uneasy slumber 
 when Sabina returned from the theatre very cold and 
 a little cross. 
 
 " Who on earth have you got there ? " she asked, 
 gazing at the figure with such manifestly disapproving 
 eyes that Candida began to feel suddenly uncom- 
 fortable. 
 
 " It's a poor sick woman whom I found on the 
 doorstep," she explained. " And I brought her in for 
 a little food and warmth." 
 
 " Good heavens ! " cried Sabina, " have you taken 
 leave of your senses ? She was probably drunk. 
 And how do you know she is respectable ? "
 
 76 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " She is quite sober," answered Candida. " I can't 
 answer for her respectability, but she certainly has 
 bronchitis." 
 
 " You've finished the soup between you, I see, and 
 I do believe you've been giving her some of my 
 port wine. She may be sober, but no respectable 
 woman would be sitting on doorsteps at this time of 
 night." 
 
 "Bother respectability!" cried Candida, who had a 
 deep-mouthed way of pronouncing the harmless 
 expletive that made it almost as effective as an oath. 
 " Have you got no feelings of humanity ? Can't you 
 realize that she is a woman like ourselves, made of 
 the same flesh and blood, with the same capacity for 
 suffering, the same need of kindness and sympathy ? 
 Do you grudge her the little we can give her, just 
 because she is ill and in distress ? You don't grudge 
 your hospitality to people who fare sumptuously 
 every day." 
 
 "Oh well, you needn't excite yourself," said 
 Sabina, sitting down to her supper. " But perhaps 
 you'll kindly explain what you mean to do with her 
 now that you have fed and warmed her. I'm afraid 
 twopence and promises wouldn't go far with any 
 inn-keeper in these days." 
 
 " She said she wanted to go home," answered 
 Candida, doubtfully. " But it has begun to snow 
 again, and the wind is worse than ever. It would be 
 like committing a murder to turn her out now.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 77 
 
 Perhaps if we kept her till to-morrow morning we 
 could persuade her to go into a refuge or infirmary." 
 
 At these words the woman on the sofa opened her 
 eyes, and moved uneasily 
 
 " For Gawd's sake, lady, don't put me into no 
 refuges ! " she said. " I've been there ; I know all 
 about 'em. They're always at you about your sins, 
 and the love of Jesus, and they makes you feel bad 
 inside all for nothing. I shan't last much longer," 
 she added drowsily; "but I mean to die in the 
 open." 
 
 "You shall do just as you please," said Can- 
 dida. "But I hope you will remain here to-night, 
 and to-morrow we will see if we can do anything to 
 help you, to make you more comfortable." 
 
 She fetched a warm rug from her bedroom, and 
 wrapped it round the shrunken figure of the woman, 
 \vho was soon asleep again. 
 
 " I suppose you would like to support her for the 
 remainder of her existence," said Sabina, sarcastically. 
 
 Candida looked at her with a wistful glance. 
 
 " I believe we could do it if we lived on porridge," 
 she said. " The poor creature was right in saying 
 that she would not last long. There is death in her 
 face." 
 
 "Well, I haven't the slightest intention of living 
 on porridge, or of sharing a lodging with a woman 
 picked out of the gutter," said Sabina. " As it is, 
 the landlady will probably give us notice to-morrow.
 
 78 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 I'm going to bed. Do you mean to leave your guest 
 alone here, in order that she may pocket what she 
 pleases in the morning ? " 
 
 " No, I shall put on my dressing-gown, and sleep 
 in an armchair. We can't disturb the poor creature 
 now. She shall be left in peace for a few hours, at 
 least." 
 
 Candida, tired with a hard day's work, slept 
 soundly on her improvised bed, and did not awake 
 until half-past seven, her usual hour of rising. As 
 the events of the past night slowly returned to her 
 mind, she glanced anxiously round the room ; but it 
 was empty. The guest must have stolen away in the 
 early winter dawn, scared by the prospect of being 
 delivered over to the tender mercies of the good. A 
 deliberate scrutiny of the room revealed the fact that 
 she had taken nothing with her. The little orna- 
 ments on the mantel-piece were undisturbed ; the 
 tale of the spoons and forks was complete. 
 
 With a heavy heart Candida went off to her morn- 
 ing's work. On her return to the midday dinner, she 
 was informed by Sabina that the outraged landlady, 
 who had somehow got wind of her lodger's strange 
 proceedings, had expressed her intention of giving 
 them notice to quit the next time that they brought 
 in " creatures " out of the street. 
 
 " She means it, too," concluded Sabina. " She 
 has cherished a grudge against you, Candida, ever 
 since you took the last slavey but one to the
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 79 
 
 Ophthalmic Hospital, and brought her home in spec- 
 tacles. What a row there was when the old lady 
 refused to let her wear them ! I never realized till 
 then what a fearful temper you had." 
 
 " Any display of temper was justified by her 
 diabolical behaviour," cried Candida, flushing with 
 indignation at the remembrance. " I wasn't going 
 to allow the wretched child to lose her sight for a 
 mere whim. The barbarous old hag, to say that she 
 couldn't have a servant of hers doing her work in 
 spectacles ! " 
 
 " So you gave the old hag a piece of your mind, 
 and she gave the slavey a month's warning. And 
 the end of the matter was that you had to pawn 
 your watch in order to support the girl till she got 
 another place." 
 
 "Yes, that was rather inconvenient," admitted 
 Candida. " But in the end I found her a situation 
 with some human beings, who are rather proud of 
 having a spectacled servant ; they think it makes 
 her look like a lady-help. I don't regret my action 
 in that case at all, but I am willing to admit that 
 I may sometimes be too impulsive and unpractical. 
 I had no right to bring that woman last night into a 
 room which I share with another person, particularly 
 if that other person were likely to object. I ought to 
 have given her some food at a restaurant, and sent 
 her home in a cab. But it cut me to the heart to 
 see her evident expectation of harshness and cruelty,
 
 8o THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 when I, another woman, spoke to her. She seemed 
 to think that because she wag ill and in misery it 
 was natural that I should treat her with cold-blooded 
 brutality. Oh ! " she went on, with sudden passion, 
 " I feel sometimes as if all. the wretchedness in 
 London were resting on my shoulders, and I could 
 not lift a finger to lighten the burden. I daren't 
 think, I daren't listen, I daren't look to the right 
 hand or to the left when I walk through the streets. 
 The sound of 
 
 * Women sobbing out of sight 
 Because men made the laws ' 
 
 seems to be always in my -ears." 
 
 " I don't see why you should worry yourself about 
 it," said Sabina. " You have no time, or money, or 
 influence. You can't do anything." 
 
 " No, not now," admitted Candida, mournfully. " I 
 can do nothing but feel for them. But if I live, 
 I'll do something for them some day, when I am 
 older and wiser, and have conquered in the struggle 
 for life. It may be twenty years before I'm ready, 
 but I shall be gaining experience, preparing myself 
 all the time. I can be patient, but if I can help 
 it, I won't go out of the world without having broken 
 a lance on behalf of my sisters, who are made, the 
 victims and scapegoats of society." 
 
 " I don't recommend you to wait too long," observed 
 Sabina, with her little cynical smile "at least, if
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 81 
 
 you want men to help you. If you wait till you have 
 lost your looks, you may talk till you are black 
 in the face, and however eloquent your pleading, 
 however admirable your cause, no man will heed 
 you."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IN the course of the spring, Candida received dis- 
 quieting accounts of her grandmother's health from 
 time to time. The old lady was evidently failing 
 rapidly, both in mind and body, so that it was with 
 but little surprise that the girl received a telegram 
 one morning, early in May, summoning her to Branks- 
 mead, to take a last leave of her grandmother. 
 
 A few hours later she drove up to the door of 
 her own home, where her father was looking out 
 for her. 
 
 "Lester will have told you that you are just in 
 time," he said. " But the doctors think that she 
 can scarcely live through the night." 
 
 " Let me go to her at once," said Candida, in awed 
 tones, for this was. the first time that Death had laid 
 his hand upon one who was near to her, and warm 
 though the life-blood was in her veins, it made her 
 realize his power. 
 
 She slipped her hand through her father's arm, and 
 together they went upstairs to the sick-room. As
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 83 
 
 the door opened Candida heard the faint sound of 
 a murmuring voice. Her grandmother, wearing a 
 nightgown that seemed composed entirely of em- 
 broidery and tucks, and a cap trimmed with fine old 
 lace, was talking softly to herself, as she lay among 
 her pillows, and picked at the counterpane with 
 transparent fingers. Her finely cut aquiline nose 
 looked pinched, and there were faint grey shadows 
 round her mouth and eyes ; otherwise Candida 
 thought her but little altered. Her daughter was 
 kneeling beside the bed, her face hidden in her 
 hands. 
 
 "Your mother has gone to lie down," whispered 
 Mr. St. John. " She was up all last night." 
 
 " It must be nearly time to start," the dying woman 
 was saying to herself. " We must get there early, 
 or my best partners will have their cards filled up. I 
 shall look like a debutante to-night in this white 
 gown, but they say that white suits me better than 
 any colour. I promised Sir James the first waltz. 
 Will he speak to-night, I wonder ? A little encourage- 
 ment after supper and I ought to be able to bring 
 him to the point." 
 
 She stopped to give a little laugh of triumph. 
 
 Miss Agnes raised an agonized face to her 
 brother. 
 
 " Can nothing be done to bring her to a sense of 
 her frightful peril ? " she asked. " This worldly talk 
 is too horrible when we know "that in a few hours
 
 84 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 she will be plunged into eternity. I have sent for 
 Mr. Oriel ; I hoped he would have been here before 
 now." 
 
 " Poor soul, she seems quite happy and peaceful," 
 said Mr. St. John. " It seems a pity to disturb her." 
 
 " I hope I'm in looks to-night," went on the sick 
 woman. " The Leveson girl is to be there, and they 
 say she is quite a belle, with a waist of eighteen inches. 
 But Sir James declares " 
 
 " Mr. Oriel is here," answered a voice at the door. 
 
 " Thank God ! " cried Miss Agnes, devoutly. " Beg 
 him to come in at once, Martin." 
 
 The young curate entered, a big Prayer-book under 
 his arm, and a scared expression on his face. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Oriel," said the afflicted daughter, " do 
 speak to her; do try and lead her mind to holy 
 thoughts." 
 
 Thus adjured, the unhappy curate cautiously ap- 
 proached the bed. The sight of a masculine figure 
 attracted the invalid's attention. 
 
 " I don't think I've met you before," she remarked, 
 staring up at him. " Or were you introduced to me 
 at the Hunt ball? I'm afraid I can't give you a 
 dance to-night ; my programme is quite full. Besides," 
 she added in a would-be aside, " I never dance with 
 parsons." 
 
 " My dear sister," began the young man, in trem- 
 bling tones, " let me exhort you to turn your thoughts 
 in this awful hour to things that may be of comfort
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 85 
 
 and healing to your soul. Remember that there is 
 time, even at the eleventh hour, for all who truly " 
 
 "What is he mumbling about now?" demanded 
 the old lady, sharply. " If it's eleven o'clock it's high 
 time the carriage came round. The first waltz will be 
 over before we get there, and I promised Sir James I 
 would be punctual." 
 
 "You see she is in no state to benefit by your 
 ministrations," whispered Mr. St. John. " But if you 
 like to kneel down somewhere out of sight, and read 
 some prayers in a low tone, it will be a comfort to my 
 sister, and can do the patient no harm." 
 
 The curate, with evident relief, retired behind the 
 cheval-glass, and began to read extracts from the 
 service for the Visitation of the Sick, which mingled 
 strangely with the wanderings of the person for whose 
 benefit they were intended. 
 
 "I hope my hair is quite firm," she muttered, 
 trying to raise one hand to her head. "That new 
 polka mazurka is enough to shake out all one's hair- 
 pins. I came home from the last assembly dance 
 with my wreath hanging over one ear ; Colonel Gay- 
 thorpe said I looked like a Bacchante." 
 
 " Sanctify, we pray thee, this thy fatherly correction 
 to her," monotoned the curate, "that the sense of 
 her weakness may add strength to her faith, and 
 seriousness to her repentance." 
 
 " I feel rather breathless," went on the voice from 
 the bed. " I'm afraid I made Bellman lace me too
 
 86 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 tight. But I told her she must draw me in to seven- 
 teen inches, because the Leveson girl is eighteen. I 
 hope the lace won't break; it might injure my pros- 
 pects for life." 
 
 " Consider her contrition," came from behind the 
 cheval-glass. " Accept her tears, assuage her pain, as 
 shall seem most expedient to thee." 
 
 The montonous reading seemed to soothe the 
 patient, who presently fell into a drowsy state, which 
 lasted for several hours. Candida, who had been 
 sent to lie down at ten o'clock, was roused soon after 
 midnight by her mother. 
 
 " She is awake now," said Mrs. St. John ; " and I 
 think the end must be very near." 
 
 When they reached the sick-room, they found the 
 dying woman in a most, enviable frame of mind. Her 
 beautiful dark eyes were shining like stars, and there 
 was a radiant smile upon her lips. 
 
 "He has come to the point at last," she was saying, 
 " and everything is settled. He has twenty thousand 
 a year, a place in Berkshire, and a house in Grosvenor 
 Square. The settlements are all that could be wished, 
 the family diamonds are to be reset, .and all the other 
 girls are mad with envy." 
 
 She closed her eyes with a long-drawn sigh of 
 happiness, sank back upon her pillows, and before 
 sunrise had gently breathed her life away. 
 
 This death-bed scene, the first that she had ever 
 witnessed, made a deep impression on Candida's
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 87 
 
 mind. She had fancied that death must always of 
 necessity be solemn, tragic, mysterious, and that the 
 aged, at least, were prepared to meet the great change 
 with dignity and calm acquiescence, having renounced 
 all hold upon the world and the infinite littleness of 
 finite life. But now she discovered that dying could 
 be conducted in almost as frivolous a fashion as 
 living. She had felt sickened and ashamed during 
 the great last scene that should have inspired nothing 
 but awe, while the solemn mummeries of the funeral 
 had almost moved her to an outbreak of hysterical 
 laughter. The obtrusive quiet of the undertaker's 
 men, the difficulties of all the mourners with the 
 buttons of their new kid gloves, the abnormally 
 developed manes and tails of the horses, the mag- 
 nificent flowers which were solemnly deposited in the 
 grave, as though the dead woman were expected to 
 carry a bouquet when she made her cttbut into the 
 next world, all these things made the girl feel as if 
 death were but an undignified continuation of the 
 farcical comedy of life. 
 
 One. day, shortly after the funeral, her father found 
 her sitting alone upon her favourite garden-seat, an 
 expression of puzzled despondency upon her face. 
 
 " You are troubled and depressed," he said, seating 
 himself beside her. " It is only to be expected ; you 
 have just had your first sight of death." 
 
 " It is not death that troubles me," she answered. 
 " Death seems natural and comprehensible enough.
 
 88 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 It is life that I find so perplexing. I was wondering 
 whether granny was still alive somewhere, and if so, 
 how much she was changed. I cannot imagine her 
 being happy in paradise without a looking-glass, 
 unless she were transformed into somebody else. 
 And if she is to be somebody else to all eternity, 
 why should she have been herself during these few 
 years upon earth ? " 
 
 "You want to know too much," said her father. 
 " It is the fashion of the age to ask unanswerable 
 questions, and then to be miserable because there is 
 no reply. Egoism and curiosity are the distinguishing 
 characteristics of the period. Our vocabulary will 
 soon be reduced to two words, ' I,' and ' Why.' " 
 
 "But there must be answers to all these questions, 
 if we could only find them out," returned Candida. 
 " Why should not some, at least, be solved in our life- 
 time?" 
 
 " Why not ? Life seems long at twenty," said the 
 squire, smiling. " Let me suggest a possible answer 
 to one of your riddles now. You ask why your grand- 
 mother should have been herself in this life, when it is 
 probable that if she still exists, she will be somebody 
 quite different to all eternity ? I reply that she never 
 was herself in this life, except perhaps during her 
 earliest childhood. She, like most other women, was 
 the purely artificial product of a lopsided civilization 
 which has been built up by one sex, and of an age in 
 which one sex has reigned supreme. It may be that
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 89 
 
 in another existence these victims of society may 
 have a chance of continuing the growth that was 
 checked and stunted in this life. Here they never 
 get beyond mental childhood, there they may be 
 allowed to attain their full stature." 
 
 " That is a consoling theory, certainly," said Can- 
 dida. " But it would be better practice to grant them 
 freedom to grow as high as they can in the only life 
 they are quite sure of." 
 
 The long summer holidays passed uneventfully 
 away. The return to town was followed by an increase 
 of work and an increase of income. A rise in salary, 
 and a few more private pupils obviated the necessity 
 for such rigid economy as Candida had been com- 
 pelled to practise during the preceding winter. The 
 preparations for a grand public performance and 
 prize-giving which was to be held at the Gymnasium 
 early in the new year, kept her busily employed 
 New exercises were to be introduced, and extra 
 classes were held to enable the pupils to practise 
 for the important event Candida had no time 
 for doubts or questionings, and her spiritual per- 
 plexities quickly disappeared before the realities of 
 work-a-day life.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON a foggy day early in January, two young men 
 were lunching together at a restaurant in Holborn. 
 Their tongues went even faster than their knives and 
 forks, for they were talking that financial "shop" 
 which is so enthralling to the initiated, and by reason 
 of its technical jargon so fearsomely mysterious to the 
 outsider. 
 
 "Got anything particular to do this afternoon, 
 Sylvester ? " asked the elder, as he beckoned up the 
 waiter. 
 
 " No," replied the other, rather gloomily. " There 
 is no object in going back to the old shop this after- 
 noon. Fred is there, but there's absolutely nothing 
 doing. No one dares touch anything. I never saw 
 the market in such a state." 
 
 "Then there's bound to be a reaction soon," said 
 his friend, more cheerfully. "The slump can't last 
 much longer, and when the luck turns we'll all make 
 our fortunes. You had better come with me this 
 afternoon. I'm going to inspect one of the places
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 91 
 
 where they manufacture new women, and I can take 
 you in too, if you like." 
 
 "Doesn't sound much in my line, nor in yours 
 either, Travers. Is it a Women's Suffrage Meeting, 
 or what ? " 
 
 "No, it's a field-day at a girls' gymnasium. A 
 young cousin of mine is a pupil there, and she says 
 one of the instructors is uncommonly good-looking, 
 with the best figure in London. Of course, you can't 
 trust a girl's judgment in such matters ; but as I've 
 nothing particular to do, I thought I'd look in for 
 half an hour. There's to be skirt-dancing as well as 
 gymnastics, and altogether I imagine it will be some- 
 thing like a highly respectable music-hall with the 
 songs left out." 
 
 " H'm ! " said Sylvester, dubiously. " That doesn't 
 sound wildly exciting. Still, I don't mind going with 
 you as long as it's only for half an hour. I suppose 
 they won't allow us to smoke." 
 
 Candida, though she had no time to think about 
 it, happened to be looking her best that afternoon. 
 Her cheeks were pink, her eyes sparkling, her fair 
 hair slightly ruffled, and her whole face lit up with 
 animation and excitement. Her costume, a well-cut 
 tunic and knickerbockers of smoke-blue, with a 
 silken sash loosely knotted round the waist, became 
 her far better than ordinary feminine attire. She 
 had lately been unexpectedly promoted, owing to 
 the marriage of one of the other instructors, and was
 
 92 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 now second in command. Her " chief" being occupied 
 in receiving guests and superintending the general 
 arrangements, most of the practical work fell upon 
 Candida. It was she who had to put the squadrons 
 through the musical drill, and display to best advantage 
 the various feats upon the vaulting-horse, parallel bars, 
 swings, and ladders, encouraging the timid, covering 
 the mistakes of the clumsy, and stimulating the "show 
 pupils " to the highest pitch of excellence. 
 
 While the skirt-dancing was going on she had 
 leisure to look about her, and recognize her friends 
 among the audience. Her glance, wandering carelessly 
 over the rows of spectators, was arrested by the dark 
 eyes and pale handsome face of a young man whom 
 she had previously remarked as being one of the most 
 eager in interest and vehement in applause. He 
 must be a friend of the Travers's, she decided, for she 
 had noticed that Mabel Travers had smiled and nodded 
 at him. He looked ill and worn, yet he was certainly 
 very picturesque. How he stared ! She met his eyes 
 every time she glanced in his direction until the 
 skirt-dancing came to an end, and she was called 
 away to make arrangements for the high jump. 
 
 Meanwhile, Adrian Sylvester had been so carried 
 away by his enthusiastic admiration for the "girl in 
 blue " that his friend Travers had been obliged to try 
 and check his raptures by pointing out that he was 
 making an ass of himself, and attracting more atten- 
 tion than any of ,the performers. But Adrian, having
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 93 
 
 Irish blood in his veins, was but little afflicted with 
 mauvaise honte. He would restrain himself for a 
 minute or two, and then break out again with 
 
 "But she's superb, she's matchless, she's unique! 
 Can't you see it, old fellow ? Haven't you got any 
 eyes in your head ? Those lines, those curves, 
 those attitudes ! It's Freija herself come back to 
 earth." 
 
 " Fry how much ? " asked Travers. " A fine, 
 strapping young woman, no doubt ; but have you 
 noticed that little witch in the front row, the one with 
 fluffy hair and mauve in her hat ? " 
 
 "That pooh, a doll, a fashion-plate," returned his 
 friend, contemptuously. " But this other ; look how 
 she stands and moves ! Now she's carrying that jump- 
 ing apparatus across the room. Did you ever see 
 such a poise, such poetry of motion ? Can't you 
 appreciate the turn of her head, and that pillar of a 
 throat, and the way her hair crests up from the 
 parting ? Here, where's my pencil ? I must try and 
 get that effect." 
 
 For a few minutes he sketched rapidly, with bold 
 firm strokes, while his friend looked admiringly over 
 his shoulder. 
 
 "Yes, that's not bad," said Travers, at length. 
 "You've got the general effect right enough. I 
 always said you ought to have gone in for art, only 
 I suppose you'd never have had the patience to grind 
 at that any more than at anything else."
 
 94 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 After the performance there was tea in the class- 
 room for the guests and the teachers. Adrian lost 
 no time in getting hold of Travers's aunt, and making 
 her introduce him to Miss St. John, who was helping 
 to pour out the tea. 
 
 " I have been longing to tell you how much I have 
 enjoyed this afternoon," he said eagerly. " The whole 
 thing has been quite a revelation to me. These girls 
 are just as strong and active as boys, and they seem 
 to take quite as much pleasure in violent exercise. 
 I always thought that they preferred dressing dolls 
 and reading story-books to any active amusements." 
 
 "That is the most firmly rooted of all fallacies," 
 said Candida, smiling at the nalvett of his manner. 
 "From their earliest childhood girls are told that it 
 is tomboyish to run and jump and climb, and taught 
 that all properly behaved young ladies ought to sit 
 still and sew their seam or read their book. Of 
 course, the poor little twigs grow the way they are 
 bent ; but once give them a chance of sprouting in a 
 natural direction, and they are only too ready to take 
 advantage of it. Did I see you making sketches just 
 now ? " she added, thinking that he could not really 
 be interested in the subject of feminine education. 
 " Were you doing them for a paper ? " 
 
 "No, only for my own amusement. I am the 
 merest amateur." 
 
 He took out his note-book, and opened it at the page 
 which contained the most successful study of herself.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 95 
 
 " Did I really look like that ? " she asked, in pleased 
 surprise. " I had no idea that I could ever look so 
 so nice. But, apart from all question of resemblance, 
 it seems to me a very clever sketch. May I look at 
 some of the others ? " 
 
 He turned over the leaves for her, and together 
 they laughed at one or two caricatures of stout, clumsy 
 girls who had twisted themselves into extraordinary 
 contortions in the conscientious effort to perform some 
 difficult feat. The sketches led Adrian to ask for 
 information about some of the exercises with clubs 
 and bar-bells that had particularly taken his fancy ; 
 but before his companion could enlighten him very 
 far she was called away to attend to other visitors. 
 Just before his departure, ' however, the young man 
 contrived to get another word with her. 
 
 " I was so awfully interested in what you were 
 telling me just now," he said. " I should have liked 
 to hear a. lot more, because I want to try some of 
 thosb things myself. I don't get half enough exercise 
 to keep me in health." 
 
 He paused, and looked at her with soft wistful eyes. 
 Even had she been less attracted by him than she 
 was, Candida could hardly have refused the invitation 
 he was so evidently angling for. 
 
 " If you will come and see us some Sunday at tea- 
 time, I will tell you all I can," she answered cordially. 
 " Our address is 197, Blake- Street." 
 
 On the Sunday week following, Candida was
 
 96 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 unwillingly entertaining a visitor of whom she had 
 seen a good deal more than she desired during the past 
 few months. This was a certain Professor Harding, an 
 Oxford don, and a personage of some celebrity in his 
 own sphere. The professor was rather an unfinished- 
 looking specimen of humanity, with a narrow chest 
 and short legs, weak sight and a scanty growth of 
 hair ; but, like many of his kind, he was blessed 
 with a magnifying eye where his own personality was 
 concerned. He always walked on tip-toe, bowed his 
 head on entering a door of average height, and 
 evidently saw himself in imagination as a man of 
 imposing presence, and more than ordinary strength. 
 He cherished a theoretical enthusiasm for physical 
 culture, for Nature, and for poetry of the robust school, 
 frankly declaring himself a pagan in temperament, and 
 an enemy of civilization. He had professed an immense 
 admiration for Candida from the first moment of 
 their acquaintance. In appearance she was his 
 feminine ideal, he openly averred ; he had never 
 before seen any woman so purely, so completely 
 Greek. He was sure that in a former incarnation she 
 must have raced with Atalanta, or played at ball 
 with Nausicaa. 
 
 The languid raptures of this puny admirer inspired 
 his idol with nothing but irritation and distaste. 
 She did her best to avert a threatened declaration 
 by laughing at his Neo-Hellenism, disagreeing with 
 his artistic theories, refusing to share his contempt
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 97 
 
 for all good work that lay outside his own narrow 
 canons of taste, and even declaring herself unable to 
 appreciate Walt Whitman. This last heresy had 
 almost sent the professor back to Oxford cured of his 
 infatuation ; but the thought that his eloquence might 
 enable him to make a convert of this splendid young 
 Philistine brought him once again to Blake Street 
 with an expression of determination in his watery eyes 
 that made his hostess's heart quail within her, for 
 Sabina had fled, and she shrank from making herself 
 positively unpleasant in her own house. However, 
 geniality, she felt, would be fatal, so she sat and 
 listened with but the faintest pretence of interest while 
 her admirer endeavoured to entertain her with highly 
 coloured word-sketches of the Alpine scenery amid 
 which he had spent his summer vacation. 
 
 " I'm afraid you hardly sympathize with my feeling 
 for Nature," he said at length, perceiving that his 
 efforts scarcely met with the appreciation that he con- 
 sidered their due. " I hope you are not a disciple of 
 Peter Bell." 
 
 " I believe I am," replied Candida, eagerly seizing 
 another opportunity of proving her heterodoxy. " At 
 least, a primrose by the river's brim, or anywhere else, 
 a yellow primrose is to me, and nothing more. I 
 don't see why it should be any more ; it certainly would 
 not have any greater attractions for me if I could see 
 a moral lesson in it. It strikes me that nowadays 
 Nature suffers more from her admirers than from those
 
 98 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 who are simply indifferent to her. I am thinking of 
 the persons who find lectures in stones, magazine 
 articles in the running brooks, and self-advertisement 
 in everything. They patronize the Alps, write puff- 
 paragraphs about the first daffodil, and are always 
 ready to do the honours of a fine sunset." 
 
 " But the interpreters of Nature," began the little 
 man. " Surely we owe something " 
 
 " I don't see that Nature needs any interpreters," 
 put in Candida. " If we are blind to her beauties, no 
 interpreter can give us eyes ; but it is a mistake to 
 suppose that those who look and admire in silence 
 are less appreciative than the self-constituted word- 
 painters, who vulgarize the most exquisite landscapes 
 by trying to lithograph them in crudely-coloured 
 language. I am often reminded, when I read modern 
 descriptive writing, oi Cowell's remark that ' if every- 
 body must needs blab of the favours that have been 
 done him by roadside and river-brink and woodland 
 walk, as if to kiss and tell were no longer treachery, 
 it will be a positive refreshment to meet a man 
 who is as superbly indifferent to Nature as she is 
 to him.' " 
 
 " How brutally I'm behaving," she added to herself, 
 remorsefully. " Still, it's the truest kindness in his case, 
 for a refusal would be a crushing blow to his vanity." 
 Fortunately, before her admirer could think of a 
 suitable reply to this attack upon Nature's self-com- 
 placent showmen, the door opened, and Mr. Sylvester
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 99 
 
 was announced. The cordiality with which the new- 
 comer was received put the finishing touch to the pro- 
 fessor's displeasure. After sitting for a few moments 
 in sulky silence, he took his departure, carefully 
 explaining that as he was returning to Oxford on the 
 following day, it would probably be a long time 
 before he had the pleasure of meeting Miss St. John 
 again. 
 
 When Adrian found himself alone with his hostess, 
 he drew his chair nearer to hers, and said in confi- 
 dential tones 
 
 " I've bought a pair of dumb-bells." 
 
 "I'm delighted to hear it," she answered, amused at 
 his evident expectation of her interest and sympathy. 
 "If you practise with them regularly I'm sure you'll 
 feel the better for it." 
 
 " It's precious dull work," he observed ruefully. 
 "They want musical accompaniments, such as you 
 have at your gymnasium, to make them go down. 
 I'm awfully fond of music ; perhaps you'll let me try 
 your piano some day." 
 
 " What, you're a musician as well as an artist ? " 
 said Candida. " How many more accomplishments 
 do you possess ? " 
 
 " Oh, I only just strum a little, chiefly by ear," he 
 answered modestly. "And as for drawing, I I 
 er 
 
 He paused, and put his hand to his head. Candida 
 noticed that he had turned deadly white.
 
 zoo THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 "You are not feeling well," she cried anxiously. 
 "Your head is bad." 
 
 " Oh, it's nothing nothing to speak of," he answered 
 faintly. " Only the room is rather warm, and coming 
 in out of the cold I I " 
 
 His voice failed again, and, to his hostess's dismay, 
 he gradually slipped from his chair, and subsided on 
 to the floor. Candida ran to the window, and threw 
 it open, then placed a cushion under the head of the 
 unconscious youth, and dashed some water from a 
 flower-vase in his face. As she did so, she was again 
 struck by the clear-cut beauty of his features, in spite 
 of their ashen pallor. 
 
 In a few moments he began to revive. The dark 
 eyes opened, and fixed themselves upon her face. 
 
 "Violet," he murmured softly, "you have come 
 back to me." 
 
 Candida made no reply, but contented herself with 
 chafing his cold hands in her warm ones. As the 
 faintness gradually passed away, he raised his head, 
 and stared round him in dazed perplexity. 
 
 "I'm damned if I know where I am," he said 
 in more natural tones. " Have I been drinking 
 again ? " 
 
 "No, no," cried Candida, quickly. "You are with 
 me Miss St. John. The room was too warm, and 
 it made you feel a little faint." 
 
 A hot flush of shame stole over his face. 
 
 " Good heavens, what must you think of me ! " he
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. xoi 
 
 cried. " How could I make such a fool of myself, 
 and give you all this trouble ? " 
 
 "You mustn't talk like that," she said kindly. 
 " Come, let me help you on to the sofa. You 
 must lie still till you feel quite recovered, and then 
 I will send for a cab." 
 
 " How good you are to me ! " he said gratefully, 
 as he lay back upon the cushions of the sofa. " My 
 mother would like to thank you if she knew." 
 
 There was a change in his voice as he spoke of 
 his mother that went to Candida's heart. 
 
 " You are her only son ? " she asked. 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "And she is a widow," he answered softly. 
 
 " You ought to take care of yourself for her sake. 
 You don't look very strong." 
 
 " Oh, I'm pretty tough," he said carelessly. " I 
 don't want you to think me a chronic invalid. Shall 
 I tell you what really made me feel so queer to-day ? " 
 he added impulsively, a twinkle dawning in his eyes. 
 
 " Yes, if you don't mind my knowing." 
 
 " You promise not to be shocked ? " 
 
 " Yes, if it's not very shocking." 
 
 " Well, then, I didn't get to bed till past four this 
 morning, and I've had nothing all day but some 
 soda-water and a biscuit." 
 
 " Oh," cried Candida, " how can you destroy your 
 health in that fashion ? Do I know you well enough 
 to say that you are very wrong and very foolish ? "
 
 102 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 "You may call me whatever names you please," 
 he answered cheerfully. " I know I'm playing the 
 deuce with my health, but I can't help it ; I'm driven 
 to it. The other fellows in my set do just the same, 
 and I can't keep out of it ; I wasn't cut out for a 
 hermit. I'm sure there are times when I feel sick 
 enough of it all, when the whole thing bores me to 
 death whisky, and cards, and music-halls, and all the 
 rest of it. Yet I can't mope at home every evening ; 
 I'm such a sociable beast. And, after all, one can 
 only enjoy one's self while one's young." 
 
 " But it seems a pity to use up youth and strength 
 as you are doing without getting any real enjoyment 
 in return," said Candida, secretly flattered at the 
 confidence that had been reposed in her. " Don't you 
 know any pleasant houses where you can drop in in 
 the evening when you've nothing particular to do, 
 without waiting to be asked ? " 
 
 " No, I haven't a general invitation to any house 
 I should care to go to in that sort of way ; I wish I 
 had. But, you see, I'm not an eligible, and so mothers 
 don't encourage me. As a rule, I spend my evenings 
 between the club and the music-halls. But that sort 
 of thing gets frightfully monotonous after a time." 
 
 " You ought to go on the river or play golf when 
 you can get the chance," said Candida, thoughtfully, 
 for she was becoming interested in this good-looking 
 young penitent ; " then you wouldn't feel tempted to 
 sit up playing cards till four in the morning. And
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 103 
 
 if you were to get some Indian clubs you would find 
 them more interesting than dumb-bells, especially if 
 you had any one to play accompaniments for you." 
 
 Her words sounded cold and unsympathetic in her 
 own ears. This youth was a complete stranger to 
 her ; yet he had allowed her a glimpse into the trials 
 and temptations of his life. Stranger or not, he was 
 a human soul in a fair way to ruin both health and 
 happiness for want of a friendly hand. She felt as 
 though he had appealed to her for help, and she had 
 tacitly refused it. It was surely in the highest degree 
 improbable that she could be of the slightest use to 
 him ; yet was it not her duty to try ? Was conven- 
 tionality to be put before even the faintest chance 
 of helping a fellow-creature ? The thought of the 
 widowed mother decided her to cast prudence to the 
 winds, and yield to a generous impulse. 
 
 " I don't know whether you would care to come in 
 here sometimes in the evening ? " she said hesitatingly. 
 "I am nearly always at home, except on Mondays, 
 and if you would come without waiting for a special 
 invitation, I should be very pleased to see you. I 
 am afraid you would find it rather dull ; but I could 
 show you some exercises with the clubs, and play 
 the accompaniments, though I am not much of a 
 musician." 
 
 " Now, I do call that kind ! " he cried, his face 
 lighting up. " I shall like it of all things, and I only 
 hope you won't find that I take you too literally at
 
 104 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 your word. But you must promise to turn me out 
 if I bore you too often." 
 
 "Then it's a bargain," said Candida, inwardly 
 wondering how far the mild entertainment which she 
 had to offer would be able to compete with the charms 
 of whisky, poker, and music-hall artistes.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ONE afternoon, some three or four months later, as 
 the two girls were sitting together at tea, a large 
 cardboard box was brought in, addressed to Miss St. 
 John. 
 
 " What's that ? " asked Sabina. " You don't mean 
 to say that you have been buying a new hat all of 
 your own accord ? " 
 
 Candida looked slightly embarrassed. 
 
 " My winter hat is getting so very shabby," she 
 said apologetically ; " and you are always telling 
 me how unbecoming it is, and what a fright I look 
 in it. But, as you know, I am a perfect baby in the 
 hands of those alarmingly elegant shopwomen. They 
 bring out all the hideous things that nobody else will 
 buy, jam them on my head, and tell me that I never 
 looked so well in my life." 
 
 "You should always take me with you when you 
 go to buy clothes," said Sabina. "Now, let me see 
 what sort of monstrosity you have invested in to-day. 
 H'm, not so bad as usual ; there must have been a
 
 106 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 special providence over you. Come here, and put it 
 on." 
 
 Candida knelt down in front of her friend, and 
 submitted to have the broad-leafed black hat placed 
 at different angles upon her head. 
 
 "That's better," said Sabina, as she bent the brim 
 into more picturesque curves. " It's really most 
 becoming. It transforms you from a magnificent 
 dowdy into a handsome, stylish-looking woman. How 
 does it suit me ? " 
 
 She placed the hat on her own curly head, while 
 Candida gazed at her in wistful admiration. 
 
 "You always look as pretty as a picture and as 
 smart as paint," she said with a little sigh. " I can't 
 think how you manage it. Now I, except when I 
 am wearing my gymnastic costume, feel as if I had 
 the effect of an anachronism. Fashionable clothes 
 never look natural on me." 
 
 " That's because you don't know how to wear them. 
 Jfou've splendid raw material, but you make nothing 
 of it. But why this sudden desire to shine ? It would 
 be a dangerous symptom in any other woman." 
 
 " I suppose it's natural to wish to look one's best," 
 said Candida. " Circumstances compelled me to be a 
 dowdy for the first year after we came to town, but 
 now there's less occasion for it. And it seems to be 
 considered a woman's first and last duty to look as 
 nice as she can." 
 
 "Saul among the prophets," laughed Sabina. "I
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 107 
 
 shall have to look to my laurels soon. By the way, 
 do you expect your young Adonis to-night ? If so, 
 don't ask him to supper, because there's not enough 
 for three." 
 
 " I don't suppose he will come to-night," answered 
 Candida. " He has been here twice this week already." 
 
 Her anticipation of a solitary evening, however, 
 proved to be unfounded, for about an hour after 
 Sabina had started for the theatre, the bell rang, and 
 Mr. Sylvester was announced. 
 
 " I didn't mean to come again so soon," he said 
 apologetically ; " but I had nothing to do, and I felt 
 as if I couldn't get through the evening alone. I 
 knew you wouldn't like me to go where I should lose 
 my money, and lay the foundation for a 'head' to- 
 morrow, so here I am." 
 
 " I am very glad to see you," said Candida. " You 
 have looked so much better since you took to regular 
 exercise and more regular hours." 
 
 "Yes, I'm two inches bigger round the chest already, 
 thanks to Dr. St. John," he said gaily. "And I 
 expect soon to equal Sandow in the matter of muscle. 
 I want you to show me that snake twist with the 
 clubs again to-night, if you don't mind. I couldn't 
 quite get the hang of it last time." 
 
 Although nearly four months had passed since 
 Candida had given her impulsive invitation, and 
 though every advantage had been taken of it, she had 
 not yet repented her of her rashness. Sometimes she
 
 io8 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 wondered that she had not tired of the society of her 
 prot/g/, for Adrian, though lively and quick-witted, 
 was but little superior in mind or culture to the 
 average young man of his class. His chief merit was 
 due to the fact that he assumed no pose, made no 
 pretensions to any artistic infallibility, but confessed 
 his ignorance with cheerful unconcern, yawned when he 
 was bored, and positively refused to admire anything 
 that did not really appeal to his taste. His simplicity 
 and naturalness were especially refreshing to one whose 
 chief acquaintance lay among the lesser lights of art 
 and literature, and whose amusement at their affecta- 
 tions had long since changed to weariness and disgust. 
 
 But the young man's strongest attraction in the eyes 
 of his girl friend was his habit of consulting her, con- 
 fiding in her, taking her sympathy for granted, and 
 making her feel that she could be of use to him. 
 Unconsciously, perhaps, she found pleasure in the 
 knowledge that there was some one outside her own 
 family, some one upon whose regard she had no claim 
 of kinship or long habit, who yet honestly admired 
 and appreciated her. Then, too, unlike most young 
 men, he was not in the least afraid of her ; he con- 
 fessed his scrapes to her, laughed at her when she 
 was disposed to be solemn, and made her feel young 
 and foolish again, as she was almost forgetting how 
 to feel under the pressure of work and the burden of 
 responsibility. 
 
 Sometimes the pair went out together on Saturday
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 109 
 
 afternoons to matin tes or exhibitions, and on these 
 occasions Adrian proved himself a capital playfellow. 
 His spirits were so good, his enjoyment so complete, 
 that Candida usually caught the infection of his gaiety, 
 and gave herself up unreservedly to the pleasure of 
 the moment. 
 
 Adrian, in the beginning of their acquaintance, made 
 no attempt to analyze his feelings ; he had little turn 
 for analysis of any kind. He only knew that Candida 
 was quite different from any girl of his tolerably 
 numerous acquaintance, and that he admired her 
 more than any of his former loves. Her magnificent 
 health and strength appealed to him the more that he 
 himself was easily tired, and frequently ailing ; her 
 calm temperament rested his excitable nerves, and 
 her superiority, so far from humiliating him, only 
 made her friendship the more flattering to his self- 
 love. But the beginning and the end of .the whole 
 matter was that he admired her physically, and 
 with him admiration and love were interchangeable 
 terms. 
 
 It was not long before he felt that he was despe- 
 rately in love with this new friend, and that he should 
 never be happy until he had won her for his own ; 
 but he was aware that this would only be possible 
 upon terms of marriage, and the idea of marriage 
 had not hitherto found much favour in his eyes. But 
 of late his feelings had been undergoing a gradual 
 change. He was really tired, for the time being,
 
 no THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 of the monotony of an existence spent between his 
 office, his club, and the music-halls ; his mother and 
 sisters were always urging him to marry and settle 
 down, and his doctor had taken to croaking about 
 his health. His income, though a fluctuating one, 
 would allow of his supporting a wife, and from the 
 point of view of family, a Miss St. John of Branks- 
 mead would be a brilliant match for him. But to 
 do him justice, such arguments had little weight 
 with him ; it was enough that he wanted this girl 
 for his own, and that he could only have her through 
 the gate of marriage. 
 
 As yet he had given her no hint of his intentions, 
 for he was not by any means certain of her feel- 
 ing for him. Being a sceptic as to the possibility 
 of friendship between men and women, he believed 
 that her kindness to himself, and her undisguised 
 liking for his society, were signs that she was, uncon- 
 sciously perhaps, strongly attracted by him ; at the 
 same time, he feared lest by any premature word 
 or deed he should put a stop to their delightful inti- 
 macy. A kind of natural instinct, which stands him 
 who possesses it in better stead than wide experience, 
 taught him the best method of treating her, and 
 helped him to steer clear of anything that might 
 frighten or repel her. 
 
 To-night, however, he was feeling agitated and 
 uncertain of himself. He had been suffering from 
 " nerves " all day, and at dinner had doctored himself
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. in 
 
 with champagne and liqueurs ; but the medicine had 
 failed to effect a "cure. He began to wish that he 
 had not come, and to wonder what excuse he could 
 make for an early departure. Meanwhile, he took 
 the clubs in his trembling hands, and Candida sat 
 down to the piano to play an accompaniment to the 
 exercise. As he stood behind her, his attention was 
 distracted by the curve of her neck, and the gleam 
 of the lamplight upon the twisted coils of her hair. 
 His absence of mind resulted in the complete failure 
 of his performance, and the sound of the clubs being 
 knocked awkwardly together made Candida stop 
 playing, and turn round on the stool. 
 
 " Oh, you are doing it all wrong," she cried. " I'm 
 afraid you haven't been taking pains. Let me show 
 you again." 
 
 She took the clubs from him, tucked up her sleeves, 
 and went through the evolutions of the exercise, while 
 Adrian stood in front of her, his eyes drinking in the 
 exquisite effects produced by the white waving arms, 
 the gleaming ebony clubs, and the unconsciously 
 graceful attitudes. When at length she paused he 
 dared not speak, he scarcely dared to breathe. 
 
 " Now," she said, slightly embarrassed in her turn 
 by his silence and strange looks, "let me see you do 
 it without the music. I expect you keep your wrists 
 too stiff." 
 
 As she gave him the clubs she started to feel how 
 cold his hands were. Thinking that he must be ill,
 
 ii2 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 she glanced anxiously in his face, and saw that his 
 cheeks were flushed and his eyes burning. 
 
 " You are so beautiful to-night ! " he said under his 
 breath. 
 
 Involuntarily Candida stepped backwards, a startled 
 look coming into her face. Her movement of sug- 
 gested flight, the unwonted timidity of her expres- 
 sion gave him a sudden spurt of courage. The clubs 
 fell to the ground with a crash as he sprang forward 
 and threw himself at her feet. 
 
 " I love you ! " he cried, almost grovelling before 
 her " I love you ! No, don't push me away ; don't be 
 unkind to me. For Cod's sake say you love me too ! 
 You must ; you belong to me. Nobody ever loved 
 you as I do." 
 
 " Oh, don't please don't ! " exclaimed Candida, 
 astonished to find that all her boasted self-possession 
 had deserted her. " I would so much rather you didn't. 
 Oh, do get up ; please let me go." 
 
 Was that little trembling, imploring voice really 
 her own ? Was this foolish, shrinking, breathless 
 creature really her calm and dignified self? What 
 strange magic could have been laid upon her that she 
 was thus transformed in a moment into an awkward 
 frightened girl, without even the strength of mind 
 to deal with an undesired avowal ? She told herself 
 angrily that she must throw off this weakness, must 
 put a stop to this dreadful scene. With a determined 
 effort she freed herself from her lover's clasp, and
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 113 
 
 retreated behind the table. But in an instant he was 
 by her side, was leaning over her, was looking im- 
 ploringly into her face. 
 
 "You have always been so kind to me," he mur- 
 mured. "Don't be cruel to me now. Make me 
 happy just for this one evening ; say you love me, 
 whether you do or not. No, don't take your hands 
 away ; don't drive me from you. Be good to me, 
 darling ! We have been so happy together ; why 
 shouldn't we be together always ? " 
 
 Candida put her hand up to her throat. She was 
 feeling as if two forces were at war within her. Her 
 will, her reason remained firm and inflexible, but her 
 senses were in open rebellion, were fighting wildly for 
 freedom. Even her nerves and muscles seemed to 
 be in league with the enemy, for her arms were 
 struggling to throw themselves around the petitioner 
 at her side, and her fingers were tingling to twine 
 themselves in his. A sudden sensation of intense 
 languor overcame her ; she felt an almost irresistible 
 impulse to lay her head upon her lover's shoulder, 
 and shed tears of sheer exhaustion. In mortal terror 
 lest her will should give way beneath the strain, she 
 stood stiffly upright, and forced herself to speak. 
 
 "Pray don't talk like that," she said, trying to 
 speak naturally. "This is all a mistake, a delusion. 
 We are friends and comrades, nothing more ; it is 
 absurd to suppose that we ever could be more. You 
 are not yourself to-night ; you have been carried away
 
 n 4 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 by some passing fancy. To-morrow you will be 
 ready to laugh at yourself for thinking that we were 
 suited to each other ; you will realize that you would 
 tire of me in a month. Then you will thank me for 
 not having taken you au strieux, and we shall soon 
 be as good friends as ever." 
 
 " Now you are cruel," broke in Adrian, vehemently. 
 " I did not think you could be so hard, so untrue to 
 yourself and me. Why, ever since I have known you, 
 you have been the only woman in the world for me ; 
 the others have all seemed like mere shadows by the 
 side of you. And how dare you say that we are not 
 suited to each other, that I should tire of you in a 
 month ? You won't let your own heart speak, and 
 you stop your ears against the pleadings of mine. 
 Yet I believe," he went on in softer tones, " I feel 
 yes, I know that you are beginning to love me. You 
 told me so yourself when you were silent ; it is only 
 your lips that deny it. I thought you prided yourself 
 on your honesty ? Oh, my dearest, why won't you 
 tell me the truth ? Why won't you say you love me ? 
 I am so tired of being alone, and so hungry for love." 
 
 His voice broke, and Candida perceived, with a 
 great pang at her heart, that the tears were standing 
 in his dark eyes. He had come so close to her that 
 she could feel his breath upon her cheek; but she 
 was unable to move, though she knew that his arm 
 was stealing gently round her. She made no effort 
 to free herself, though as she noticed his dawning
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 115 
 
 smile of triumph she longed to strike him on the 
 mouth. But instead she closed her eyes, and was 
 conscious that for a moment their lips met. Then, 
 as though the spell were broken, she tore herself 
 away from him, and sprang to the other side of the 
 room. 
 
 " Oh, what are we doing ? " she cried, putting her 
 hands to her head. " What must you think of me ? 
 I suppose this is all my fault. I do beg your pardon 
 for letting you kiss me ; but indeed I didn't intend 
 to. I must have been mad. I don't want to hurt 
 you, but you mustn't think that I love you, or can 
 ever marry you. I know I've behaved very badly, 
 but I hope you'll forgive me in time." 
 
 There was no mistaking the sincerity of her tone, 
 and the triumphant lover of a moment before was 
 instantly sobered. 
 
 " Do you mean that ? " he asked, looking as though 
 he could scarcely believe his ears. "You have been 
 leading me on like any society coquette, encourag- 
 ing me to make a fool of myself, and now you turn 
 round and say you did not mean anything you were 
 only playing with me ! " 
 
 " No, no, I wasn't playing ; I don't know what I 
 was doing," cried Candida in an agony of remorse. 
 " I only know that I have always liked you very 
 much, and enjoyed laughing and talking to you ; 
 but that is not love. So, though I shall miss you 
 very much, I think we ought not to meet for some
 
 n6 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 time, not until you have forgotten all this folly, and 
 can look upon me as a friend again." 
 
 "If you send me away from you like this," said 
 Adrian, white with anger and wounded vanity, " I 
 shall never come back again. You may call my love 
 folly, but it is serious enough to me; and, though I 
 may be only good to laugh and talk with, I can suffer 
 as much as any of your solemn prigs. Good-bye," 
 he added, with a sudden change of tone. " I dare 
 say you are quite right to send me about my busi- 
 ness. Don't make yourself unhappy about me. I 
 was a presumptuous ass to think you could ever 
 care for me." 
 
 In another moment he was gone, and Candida 
 drew a deep sigh of relief as she heard the front door 
 bang ; yet mingled with her relief was a faint dull 
 sense of disappointment. The victory was hers, but 
 it was the type of victory that is only less disastrous 
 than defeat. She had been obliged to hold her heart 
 in both hands, and even then she had felt it slipping, 
 through her fingers. With a keen sense of humiliation 
 she recalled her momentary surrender. How could 
 it have happened ? she asked herself again and again, 
 for all the while her will had never wavered, and the 
 voice of reason had argued so convincingly against 
 the pleadings of her lover. 
 
 And now another new and unwelcome experience 
 befell her. Instead of falling, almost as soon as her 
 head touched the pillow, into an untroubled, dreamless
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 117 
 
 sleep, she tossed restlessly to and fro during wakeful, 
 feverish hours, tormented by conflicting thoughts and 
 desires, with now and again a lapse into unconscious- 
 ness, from which she awoke with the sensation of a 
 touch upon her lips, and the close pressure of arms 
 about her waist. And each awaking to reality was 
 accompanied by some feeling that strangely resembled 
 loss and disillusionment. When morning came her 
 eyes were sore, her head aching, her whole frame 
 exhausted and unstrung. Yet she rejoiced to see the 
 dawn, for now she could throw off the harassing visions 
 of the night, and find forgetfulness in her work. 
 
 Her work ! The very thought of it filled her with 
 fresh courage and vigour. How she pitied other 
 girls who were forced to eat out their hearts in 
 idleness, to dance and dress and smile and chatter, 
 hiding their haggard looks beneath "face joy," the 
 costliest mask that women wear. For herself, she 
 felt convinced that her peace of mind would soon be 
 regained. She had been incredibly weak and foolish, 
 but at last she had perceived the precipice to whose 
 brink she had strayed, and she had drawn back in 
 time. She would look back upon this little incident 
 in later days as one of the lessons of life a valuable 
 experience, no doubt, but still a thing apart, a mere 
 episode, certainly not " her whole existence."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 IN spite of all her courage and determination, in spite 
 of all her resources in the shape of work and study, 
 Candida was no less surprised than annoyed at the 
 sense of blank and loneliness which the loss of her 
 late constant companion left in her life. Before she 
 had known him solitude had possessed no terrors for 
 her ; as long as she was seeing him continually she 
 had not consciously set a high value upon his society. 
 But now, as she recognized with self-contempt, her 
 egoism or her vanity hungered for the subtle flattery 
 with which he alone had fed it. She missed the 
 admiring eyes, the sympathetic manners, the, boyish 
 confidences, the light-hearted irresponsible talk and 
 laughter to which she had become accustomed 
 during the past few months. Books seemed for 
 the time being to have lost their savour, and the 
 visits to concerts or theatres, which when shared 
 had been so full of interest and enjoyment, now 
 appeared insufferably dull and tiresome. Memories 
 of that brief period of bright companionship were
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 119 
 
 associated with certain of the streets, the railway 
 stations and the shops. At that corner of Oxford 
 Street Adrian had bought her a bunch of violets, 
 paying double the price demanded for it. Although 
 the flower-girl had deserted the spot, the perfume of 
 violets lingered about it still. At this confectioner's 
 in the Strand they had more than once had tea 
 together. Why should it seem so different from all 
 other shops ? 
 
 There were moments when she felt almost irresistibly 
 impelled to write to him, and beg him to come back 
 upon the old terms ; moments when some invisible 
 power seemed to be drawing her feet towards the 
 neighbourhood in which he lodged, or the streets 
 through which he walked on his way home from the 
 office ; moments when the sight of a handsome, pale- 
 faced, dark-eyed youth advancing towards her sent 
 the blood to her cheek, and made all her pulses 
 throb. 
 
 How absurd it all was, she would tell herself 
 angrily, for in spite of these suspicious symptoms she 
 was not in love with Adrian ; certainly she had no 
 desire to marry him. She was convinced that he was 
 thoroughly unsuited to domestic life ; the very idea 
 of him in the role of householder and paterfamilias 
 was hopelessly ludicrous. No, he was an agreeable 
 companion and fair-weather friend, but not a man in 
 whom it was possible to place implicit confidence, 
 certainly not a mate for life.
 
 120 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 As the weeks passed on, the feeling of loss and 
 loneliness began gradually to fade away. The holidays 
 were drawing near, and she looked forward eagerly to 
 the summer months that would be spent among her 
 own people in her own home. She would have her 
 father for a companion there, to say nothing of Ted 
 Ferrars, who was by no means to be despised. She 
 had seen very little of Ted for some time past ; when 
 he was not on circuit, he was working so hard in town 
 that he found it necessary to spend most of his Sundays 
 in the country boating, or playing golf. She felt con- 
 vinced that he had long since forgotten his old foolish 
 fancy for herself, and now they would be as good 
 friends as ever. 
 
 Her spirits began to recover their former serenity 
 now that she felt free and at ease in her mind again. 
 Many girls, she reflected with self-congratulation, would 
 have mistaken her sensations for love, and shipwrecked 
 their lives on the rock of that error. People were 
 so apt to forget that there were a thousand imitations 
 of the one and only love. What she had experienced 
 had been one of the imitations, a mere Brummagem 
 article, from which the plating had quickly worn, and 
 displayed the baser metal beneath. 
 
 Returning home from her work one June afternoon, 
 Candida found a letter awaiting her, addressed in an 
 unknown hand. The first glance at its contents 
 destroyed in one blow the shelter of complacent 
 indifference that she had so carefully built up for her
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 121 
 
 perturbed spirit. After the opening sentence the 
 words swam before her eyes, and a deadly chill settled 
 upon her heart. 
 
 The letter was signed "Margaret Sylvester," and the 
 writer stated that her son Adrian had been dangerously 
 ill from inflammation of the lungs, accompanied by 
 severe nervous prostration, brought on, it was supposed, 
 by overwork and exposure. Although rather better, 
 he was still so weak that the doctor did not yet 
 consider him out of danger. In his delirium Miss 
 St. John's name had been constantly on his lips, and 
 now that he was sensible again, he had begged that 
 she might be asked to come and see him, perhaps 
 for the last time. 
 
 " Exposure and overwork ! " Candida could guess 
 what that meant. It was her cruelty that had driven 
 him to recklessness and despair. She had been so 
 anxious to save her own soul, to guard her own 
 happiness, that she had spared no thought for him. 
 Poor fellow, what had she done to him ? Even now 
 he might die, and then she would have murdered him. 
 A flood of pity and tenderness filled her heart as she 
 remembered his bright boyish ways, his light-hearted 
 laugh, his absolute devotion to herself. And now to 
 think of him lying there, pale and weak and wasted 
 by sickness, all for love of her. It was like an epi- 
 sode out of some ancient tale of chivalric romance. 
 If he were ready to die for her, surely the least 
 she could do would be to live for him. No one had
 
 122 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 ever loved her as he did ; probably no one ever 
 would again. 
 
 While these thoughts passed through her mind she 
 was already on her way to Doughty Street, where 
 Adrian lodged. Presently, as though in a sort of 
 dream, she found herself being received by a little 
 grey-haired lady with a soft voice and anxious expres- 
 sion, and ushered into a room where lay a pale, 
 hollow-cheeked youth, who gazed at her wistfully out 
 of sunken eyes. 
 
 " Have you really come ? " he murmured feebly, "or 
 have I got the fever again ? I have seen you every 
 night since I was ill, but you never spoke, and always 
 melted away when I tried to touch you. Is it really 
 you ? " 
 
 " Yes, it is really I," she said, kneeling down beside 
 the bed, and taking his thin hand in hers. " I'm not 
 going to melt away this time. My poor boy, what 
 have you been doing to yourself? Why didn't you 
 let me know that you were ill before ? " 
 
 " I I didn't like to bother you," he returned. " I 
 didn't think that you would care." 
 
 Candida put her mouth close to his ear. 
 
 " Was it all my fault ? " she whispered. 
 
 "No, no, you mustn't think that," he answered in 
 the same tone. " You couldn't help not caring about 
 me ; I ought never to have expected it. Only, when 
 I knew I had lost you, I felt as if nothing really 
 mattered, and I went and played the fool rather more
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 123 
 
 than usual. I caught a bad chill on the top of it all, 
 and and here I am. I've lost all my muscle again," 
 he concluded ruefully. 
 
 " I was a selfish, cold-blooded prig," she said 
 remorsefully. " I did care about you all the time. 
 At least, I had begun to, but I wouldn't let myself 
 go on. I did my best to stamp out my tender feeling 
 for you, because I was afraid that it would not lead 
 to my own happiness ; I never gave a thought to 
 yours. Forgive me, dear. Get better as fast as you 
 can, and when the holidays begin we will go down to 
 Branksmead together, and I will nurse you back to 
 health and strength again." 
 
 He looked up at her with the trustful smile of a 
 sick child. 
 
 " I can hardly believe my own happiness," he said. 
 " I thought that I had lost you, and was going to die, 
 and now you and life have come back to me together." 
 
 The tears of weakness began to trickle down his 
 cheeks, but Candida took out her handkerchief 
 and wiped them away. Then, not being a woman 
 who did things by halves, she bent down and kissed 
 him. 
 
 " I will come and see you again to-morrow," she 
 said. "But I must not stay longer now, or I shall 
 tire you out." 
 
 Mrs. Sylvester, who had been waiting outside the 
 sick-room, accompanied her visitor down the stairs. 
 
 " Did you think him looking very ill ? " she asked.
 
 124 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 There was a flicker of interest and curiosity in her 
 sad eyes as they rested on the stranger's handsome 
 face. 
 
 " Yes, but I am sure he will get better very quickly 
 now," answered Candida. "And then he must have 
 a long holiday in the country. You won't mind my 
 coming to see him again to-morrow, will you ? " 
 
 " Mind ! " repeated the other. " Why, it will do him 
 more good than all the doctors in London. Of course, 
 it's easy to see that he worships the ground you walk 
 on. Poor boy ! all he wants is some nice girl to care 
 for him, and take an interest in him. They say that 
 good sons make good husbands, and though Adrian 
 may have his faults, he has been the best of sons to 
 me, always kind and thoughtful and considerate." 
 
 Candida, in considerable embarrassment, stammered 
 that she was delighted to hear it, and then hastily 
 made her escape. 
 
 Thanks to the new hope and happiness that had 
 come into his life, the invalid made rapid progress, 
 and by the time the holidays began, though still weak, 
 he was able to travel down to Branksmead, escorted 
 by Candida, who had received her father's permission 
 to bring an invalid friend. Leaning upon her arm, 
 Adrian entered the hall, where he was taken possession 
 of by Mrs. St. John and her sister-in-law, whose hearts 
 were instantly won by his good looks and evident 
 delicacy. 
 
 During the first few days of his stay the guest
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 125 
 
 was regarded in all good faith as an interesting 
 young protegt of Candida's, and she herself was not 
 quite clear as to what really were the relations that 
 existed between them, until, as Adrian's strength 
 returned, he gave her to understand both by words 
 and looks that he depended upon her keeping the 
 compact that had been implied rather than spoken 
 by his bedside. He evidently regarded himself as 
 her accepted lover, and though she had her fears 
 as to the future which might be in store for her 
 as his wife, she was unable, and indeed unwilling, 
 to draw back from the position which she had 
 taken up. 
 
 It was not long before Mr. St. John began to have 
 his doubts as to the disinterestedness of his daughter's 
 conduct. He had intercepted stolen glances which 
 roused his suspicions, and overheard half-uttered words 
 which went near to confirming them ; for during those 
 long sunny days the undeclared lovers were going 
 through a second period of courtship, and were apt to 
 forget that they were not the only inhabitants of their 
 summer paradise. 
 
 " That young friend of yours is a very pretty fellow," 
 remarked the squire one day, when he found himself 
 alone with his daughter. " He has pretty manners, 
 too, and a pretty touch on the piano. He reminds 
 me of an Arcadian shepherd who has strayed to town, 
 and exchanged some of his Arcadian simplicity for 
 the customs of the city. Those premature crowsfeet 
 9
 
 iz6 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 contrast so oddly with his boyish air and otherwise 
 youthful appearance." 
 
 " He is not really so very juvenile," said Candida, 
 looking rather disturbed. " I think he is nearly thirty, 
 but people always fancy that he is much younger 
 than his years." 
 
 "A sign of an irresponsible nature," observed her 
 father. " I wonder whether the shakiness of his hand is 
 due entirely to his late illness ? He seems thoroughly 
 to appreciate your grandfather's old Madeira." 
 
 His daughter turned on him indignantly. 
 
 " Do you grudge it to him ? " she demanded. " I 
 brought him here, weak and ill as he was, because I 
 thought that he would meet with kindness and 
 welcome. I would never have done so if I had known 
 that he would be grudged food and drink, and that 
 his weakness would only be laughed at." 
 
 " My dear girl, what is all this about ? " asked the 
 squire, in amazement. " I grudge your young friend 
 nothing, not even the Madeira. But apparently you 
 object to my criticizing him, even in fun. Is he copy- 
 right, or have you taken out a patent for him ? " 
 
 " I don't like you to laugh at him," replied Candida, 
 turning aside her head. " It it hurts me." 
 
 " And pray why should it do that ? What possible 
 interest can you feel in this agreeable youth beyond 
 that of friendly kindness ? " 
 
 " That's just what I have been wanting to tell you, 
 only it seemed impossible as long as nothing was
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 127 
 
 definitely settled. I have agreed to marry him if he 
 still wishes it when he is quite strong again." 
 
 Her father threw up his hands with a gesture of 
 despair, and strode to the other end of the room with- 
 out a word. 
 
 " It's all over with you," he said at length, coming 
 back and standing in front of her. " It's all over with 
 you if you adhere to that decision. You poor dear 
 simpleton, you great stupid baby, do you know what 
 you are doing ? You, whom I have hitherto regarded 
 as a girl of some sense and judgment, you contemplate 
 throwing yourself away on this dissipated young 
 whippersnapper, who is a mere bundle of nerves and 
 emotions, who would tire of you or any woman in 
 three months, who is in a fair way to wear himself 
 out before he is forty! You are not in the habit of 
 joking, but I hope that for once you are amusing 
 yourself at my expense." 
 
 "No, I am perfectly serious," replied his daughter. 
 " But I can thoroughly enter into your feelings on the 
 subject, because I felt very much the same myself only 
 a few weeks ago. I cannot explain all the reasons that 
 have made me change my mind probably you would 
 not understand them if I did but the conclusion of the 
 whole matter is that Adrian loves me, and thinks, 
 rightly or wrongly, that his happiness and well-being 
 depend on me ; and that I well, I suppose that I love 
 him too, for I only desire to be good to him, and 
 make him happy."
 
 i 2 8 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " Love ! " cried her father, contemptuously. " I 
 don't believe you know the meaning of the word. 
 You are carried away by a passing fancy for the beaux 
 yeiix of this young puppy, just as a man is often 
 possessed by a temporary infatuation for a pretty 
 face, and you, no more than he, pause to ask if 
 there is anything behind it. If you marry this grown- 
 up boy, what, in heaven's name, is to become of you 
 when your youth and his are past ? How can you 
 settle down as companions for life when you have 
 scarcely an idea or an interest in common ? It is bad 
 enough for an intelligent man to be tied to a pretty 
 face with nothing behind it, but it is infinitely worse 
 for a woman, more particularly a woman like you." 
 
 "I think you are unjust to Adrian," said Candida, 
 keeping her temper by a strong effort. "He may 
 not be exactly intellectual, but he is quick and 
 intelligent, and has a natural taste for art. One 
 doesn't marry a man in order to discuss abstract 
 questions with him." She paused for a moment, and 
 then went on with a visible effort. " And as for love, 
 you must remember that love does not always grow 
 up just when and where it ought, or depend altogether 
 upon similarity of ideas and community of tastes. 
 All I know is, that up to within the last few months 
 I used to pass the lovers in the streets and parks, 
 and wonder what magic it could be that made their 
 dull, tired faces so radiant when they were together, 
 and why they looked so happy as long as their hands
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 129 
 
 were clasped, even though they seldom exchanged a 
 word. They seemed to have learnt some wonderful 
 secret to which I had no clue. I should have despised 
 them, perhaps, if I had not guessed that there must be 
 something more than mere sentimental folly in a phase 
 of mind through which, at one time or another, the 
 whole of humanity seems to pass. I have learnt their 
 secret now. What right have I to refuse myself to 
 the man who has opened my eyes to the greatest 
 mystery of life, more especially when that man claims 
 my help, looks to me for strength and support?" 
 
 " What right have you to wreck your own happiness 
 by throwing yourself away upon a man who is un- 
 worthy of you ? " 
 
 " Happiness ! " cried Candida, in supreme contempt. 
 "There is no such thing as happiness, permanent 
 happiness, except for children and fools. No grown- 
 up thinking person ever achieves happiness, least 
 of all a woman. The people who come nearest to 
 happiness are those who do their best to throw it 
 away, the women who devote their lives to the sick 
 and the sorry, the outcast and despised. Nobody 
 thinks them foolish or misguided, though they are 
 only actuated by an impersonal desire to help their 
 fellows, and be of use in their generation. Why 
 should not I devote myself to the man I love, without 
 considering the possible risk to my own happiness ? " 
 
 " Because marriage, unlike philanthropy, cannot be 
 renounced if you find it a failure. However, I have
 
 1 30 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 neither the right nor the power to coerce you in this 
 matter. I have always held that men and women 
 should be free to follow their own inclinations in 
 marriage, and that their parents and guardians should 
 refrain from all interference ; but it is sometimes very 
 hard to act up to one's theories. I will take an 
 early opportunity of having a confidential talk with 
 this with your with Mr. Sylvester, and perhaps I 
 may find that I have taken too gloomy a view of 
 himself and his circumstances." 
 
 "I don't think you will," said Candida, frankly. 
 "I doubt if a more unsatisfactory match could be 
 found from the common-sense point of view. Dear 
 father, I am so sorry to be such a disappointment to 
 you, after all the trouble you have taken about me. 
 Don't think I can ever forget how much I owe you. 
 I may make shipwreck of my life, but, thanks to you, 
 I shall always be able to build a raft
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SHORTLY after Candida's engagement was made 
 known to her family, Ted Ferrars arrived at the 
 Vicarage. Ted already had his suspicions that some- 
 thing was going wrong with his course of true love, 
 and now those suspicions were only too thoroughly 
 confirmed. While he had been working early and 
 late with the object of providing a home at no very 
 distant date for the girl he loved, working so incessantly 
 that he could allow himself but little of her society 
 in the present, this impudent, worthless, curly-headed 
 puppy had stepped in and carried off the prize. At 
 first he felt it almost impossible to realize that the 
 chief object of his life had been destroyed at one 
 blow, that the reward which was to crown all his 
 endeavours, his other self, whose image had occupied 
 his heart for years past, whom he had hoped to gain 
 for his own in the years to come, had been snatched 
 from him by this stranger, leaving him forlorn and 
 destitute, without purpose in the present, without hope 
 for the future. The wound in his heart was too deep
 
 132 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 to cause him as yet more than a dull, though chronic, 
 ache, but the wound to his vanity pained him acutely, 
 so that it was natural he should cast about him for 
 some means to heal the smart. 
 
 Sabina had lately arrived at the Hall, and finding 
 herself occupying the unusual position of "odd woman 
 out," was already in the first throes of depression and 
 ennui. Candida, she thought, had behaved rather 
 badly in pretending to be indifferent to men and 
 marriage, and then throwing herself into the arms 
 of the first good-looking youth who had made love to 
 her. It was very hard, she complained, to have to 
 give up her friend and housemate to a man who was 
 so obviously unworthy of her ; she had really never 
 expected that Candida would act with so little sense 
 or discrimination. Some of these sentiments she 
 confided to Ted, who received them with approbation, 
 and confessed to his complete agreement with them. 
 He admitted to himself that he had wronged Sabina 
 hitherto in regarding her as a silly, empty-headed little 
 flirt, for she really seemed to have a good deal of 
 sense and a very just perception of character. He 
 had never before realized the unusual charm of her 
 manner, and her beauty was undeniable. Most fellows 
 would think themselves uncommonly lucky to enjoy 
 long uninterrupted tete-a-tgtes with her. In short, 
 Sabina's society, her gracious smiles and her appealing 
 glances, constituted the most healing treatment for 
 the wound that had been dealt to his self-love, even
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 133 
 
 though they had no power to soothe or satisfy his 
 heart. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mr. St. John had been studying his 
 daughter's fiand with closer attention, and on more 
 than one occasion had succeeded in inveigling the 
 young man, despite all his efforts to escape, into the 
 study for confidential conversation. These interviews 
 left him no better satisfied than before with the 
 prospects of the match. 
 
 " I have been cross-examining Mr. Sylvester on 
 the subject of his worldly affairs," he told his daughter 
 one day. " The income upon which he proposes to 
 marry and found a family seems to be charmingly 
 precarious. As far as I can make out, he has a 
 hundred or two a year of his own, and is in partner- 
 ship with some other scatter-brained young fellow 
 as stockbrokers or stock-jobbers, or something of 
 the kind. Altogether, he can reckon, he assures 
 me, upon an average of seven or eight hundred a 
 year. What a shocking life for an active young 
 fellow! He'd be much better employed in chopping 
 wood." 
 
 " I am not in the least afraid of poverty," said 
 Candida. "We are to live with his mother at first, 
 because she has a very small income, and Adrian 
 says it will be a help to her to have us to board with 
 her, as he won't be able to make her an allowance 
 after he is married. He is devoted to his mother, 
 and she to him."
 
 134 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 "Ma mhe ! Yes, a most effective allusion on the 
 stage, or in a French murder trial." 
 
 " Now you are unjust to him," cried Candida, with 
 some warmth. "Why should he pretend to be fond 
 of his mother? Most young men pretend to be 
 ashamed of theirs. But the fact is, you don't like 
 him, and so you refuse to see any good in him." 
 
 " No, I don't like him," returned her father. " I 
 don't like his face, though I admit that it is absurdly 
 handsome, and I don't like his soft voice or his 
 pretty manners. I don't like the shakiness of his 
 hand, nor the lines round his eyes, nor the fact that 
 he never looks at me when I am speaking to him. 
 I imagine that he has a tolerably intimate acquaint- 
 ance with life as it is lived by young men about town." 
 
 " I don't suppose he has been a saint," said Candida, 
 with a quick flush. "I know he is weak perhaps 
 he has been wicked ; but in that case he has all the 
 more need of pity and help." 
 
 " On the same principle, I suppose, that charitable 
 ladies assist the drunken loafer who flaunts his rags 
 in their faces, while the 'deserving poor' are left to 
 look after themselves." 
 
 Candida was silent for a moment. She could 
 scarcely remember any subject upon which she and 
 her father had not been of the same mind, and it hurt 
 her keenly that upon this, the most important decision 
 of her whole life, they should be so completely at 
 variance.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 135 
 
 "Mother is pleased at my engagement," she said 
 at length. "And so is Aunt Aggie. They were 
 afraid that I should never marry." 
 
 "And women think a disastrous marriage better 
 than none at all," he retorted. "Well, I suppose 
 your mind is made up. You are yet another 
 victim to that foolish craving for self-sacrifice which 
 the teaching of centuries has implanted in the 
 feminine breast. But I confess that I am disappointed 
 in you, Candida. I see that a masculine education 
 doesn't hinder a woman from making a fool of her- 
 self about some man." 
 
 Candida went and knelt down beside his chair. 
 
 "Dear father," she said softly, "does a masculine 
 education ever hinder a man from making a fool of 
 himself about some woman ? " 
 
 In spite of Mr. St. John's disapproval, the lovers 
 were very happy together during those summer weeks. 
 Adrian was naturally of an ardent and susceptible 
 disposition, and he honestly believed himself to be 
 in love for the first and last time. Candida, being 
 really a novice in the tender passion, was almost 
 carried off her feet by the adoration of which she 
 found herself the object, and was no less flattered 
 than bewildered by her lover's unwillingness to let 
 her out of his sight, and the fact that he seemed to 
 have no eyes or ears for any one else as long as she 
 was by his side. 
 
 The date of the marriage was a vexed question
 
 136 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 Mr. St. John wished it to be put off for a year, at 
 least, Adrian pleaded that it might take place as soon 
 as possible after their return to town, while Candida 
 herself desired to fix it for a day early in January, 
 in order that she might give her employer three 
 months' notice. Ultimately her wishes were allowed 
 to prevail, although Mr. St. John only gave in on 
 condition that his daughter consented to accept the 
 small allowance for dress and pocket-money that she 
 had hitherto refused. 
 
 Autumn came too soon for each member of the 
 party. Even Sabina, who cared little for the country, 
 had grown interested in the task she had set herself 
 of subjugating the unsuspecting Ted. Sabina was a 
 creature to whom friendship with a member of the 
 opposite sex was a physical impossibility. As she 
 grew more intimate with the disconsolate young 
 man, her latent coquetry awoke, and from sheer force 
 of habit she began to put forth all her wiles to lure 
 him into her net. 
 
 Ted, unconscious of what was happening to him, 
 became more than ever convinced of Miss Romney's 
 beauty and charm, and began to have a dim suspicion 
 that she appreciated his own character and society. 
 Though she was always ready to talk enthusiastically 
 about Candida, and condole with him upon his 
 disappointment, yet the conversation had a curious 
 knack of coming round to their own personalities, 
 and the peculiar traits in their characters. She
 
 . THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 137 
 
 seemed such a timid, trustful little creature that Ted 
 was convinced that the stage was a most unsuitable 
 profession for her, and decided that somebody he 
 did not quite know whom ought to take care of her, 
 and provide her with all the comforts and luxuries 
 of life. 
 
 Perhaps his feeling for her would never have 
 advanced beyond a kindly interest if his cousin and 
 old schoolmate, Captain James Ferrars, had not come 
 to spend the last fortnight of the holidays at the 
 Rectory. Captain Jim conceived a sudden and enthusi- 
 astic admiration for Miss Romney, constituted himself 
 her shadow, and succeeded in involving her in one of 
 the violent flirtations for which Ted remembered that 
 he was famous in his regiment. Coarse brute ! The 
 fact that the poor child was on the stage was quite 
 enough to make him take advantage of her innocence, 
 and do his best to break her heart. But if he had 
 any designs against her peace of mind, he should find 
 that he had some one else to reckon with, some one 
 who was ready to play the part of a brother to her. 
 Alas, for poor human nature ! Sabina's beauty and 
 fascination increased a thousandfold in Ted's eyes, 
 now that she was monopolized by another man. 
 
 The day before that on which the party at Branks- 
 mead was to break up, Ted, having seen his cousin ofif 
 at the station, went up to the Hall, where he found 
 Sabina sitting alone in the garden. There was some- 
 thing pensive, almost disconsolate, in her attitude.
 
 i 3 8 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 Could she, he wondered, be regretting the departure 
 of her late admirer ? 
 
 "I suppose you'll be delighted to turn your back 
 on the country to-morrow," he said abruptly, as he 
 seated himself beside her. " This must seem a fearfully 
 dull hole to you, after all the excitements of town." 
 
 "Ah, you are evidently no thought-reader," she 
 answered, turning eyes upon him so softly bright that 
 he instantly repented himself of his brtisquerie. " I 
 was just wishing that I could have this summer over 
 again ; it has been such a happy time. I shall feel 
 so lonely when I get back to town. Of course, 
 Candida will have no time to waste on me, and some- 
 how one sees so little of one's real friends in London." 
 
 " You will let me come and see you sometimes ? " 
 he put in. " We are real friends now, aren't we ? " 
 
 " Oh, I hope so," she said, dropping her eyes. 
 "Will you come and see me, even after Candida is 
 married ? I shall have to chum -up with another girl, 
 I suppose, and most of them are such cats. I shall 
 never find another like her." 
 
 "No, there is nobody like her," he agreed, loyally 
 echoing her sigh. "But I hope you won't think me 
 impertinent if I say that I wish you could find an 
 older friend to live with. You are so much too too 
 young and pretty to set up with a girl of your own 
 age. You ought to have some one to take care of 
 you. You see, I am giving myself the privileges of 
 an old friend."
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 139 
 
 " It is so good of you to care to take any interest 
 in my fate," she said, with a pathetic note in her voice. 
 " It seems quite wonderful to me, because I have had 
 no one to take care of me for three years, no one to 
 whom it mattered whether I were alive or dead. 
 And and I always thought you regarded me as a 
 mere frivolous little doll, quite unworthy of the friend- 
 ship of any sensible man." 
 
 She smiled at him as she spoke, but he fancied 
 that a tear was trembling on the end of her long 
 lashes. It was strange what magic power could be 
 contained in one little tear-drop ; it seemed to scald 
 his heart and brain. A sudden longing came over 
 him to seize her in his arms, and kiss away that tear. 
 The next moment he told himself that he was a 
 brute, and pictured to himself the horror that would 
 overwhelm his gentle companion could she but guess 
 the thoughts and impulses that were passing through 
 his mind. But he could and would control himself. 
 He had nothing to offer this poor pretty child, no 
 love, no home, and to pretend to make love to her 
 under those circumstances would be a cowardly insult, 
 the more so since he knew that she had no natural 
 protector to call him to account. 
 
 With a mighty effort he turned away his eyes from 
 the lovely mournful face, and, gripping the bench with 
 his would-be rebel arms, answered in as steady a 
 voice as he could assume 
 
 "And I always thought you regarded me as a dull,
 
 r 4 o THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 heavy sort of fellow, quite beneath the notice of a 
 triumphant young beauty. Perhaps we misjudged 
 each other. Anyway, please don't say again that there 
 is no one who takes any interest in your fate, or cares 
 whether you are alive or dead. That is rather cruel 
 to your friends, and I can't allow it now that I am 
 admitted among the number." 
 
 Sabina looked round at him in surprise. Long 
 practice in the art of flirtation, and unusual sensitive- 
 ness to the mental temperature of her admirers, had 
 led her fully to expect an avowal of some kind at 
 this juncture. That a man should keep his head 
 when she had arranged that he should lose it, and 
 resist a temptation that she had placed in his way, 
 was so great a novelty in her experience that she 
 was startled into naturalness and sincerity. 
 
 "You are very kind and good," she said frankly. 
 "And it will mean more to me than you can guess 
 to feel that I have one real honest friend among all 
 the indifferent acquaintances and pretended admirers 
 who only seek me as long as I can amuse them, and 
 who would drop me to-morrow if I lost my looks, or 
 were ill and out of spirits. You are different from 
 all the others. I believe I can trust you." 
 
 Again the desire to give this dangerously fascinating 
 friend some tangible proof of his regard swept over 
 the young man. Fearful lest he should disgrace him- 
 self for ever in her eyes, he sprang to his feet, and, 
 muttering an incoherent hope that he might be allowed
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 141 
 
 to serve her should occasion ever arise, he sought 
 safety in flight, leaving Sabina still seated on the 
 bench, with an unusually thoughtful expression upon 
 her pretty face. 
 
 * * * 
 
 The Piccadilly Theatre opened that autumn with 
 a new " comedy farce " which, it was supposed, would 
 appeal to all classes of playgoers, but which, as 
 events proved, was of the kind that only appeals to 
 the class that never pays for its seats. The dead- 
 head, who is notoriously hard to please, approved of 
 the play, and attended regularly, but the paying 
 public stayed away. So it came about that at the 
 end of three weeks the piece, upon the mounting 
 of which an unusually large sum had been spent, 
 was withdrawn, and the theatre was sub-let to an 
 actor-author-manager who was anxious to produce a 
 romantic drama of his own composition. This 
 drama, having nothing in common with real life, 
 proved a prodigious success, being played to crowded 
 houses for five hundred nights. But, alas ! there was 
 no part in the new piece for a pretty little actress of 
 the sonbrette type, and consequently Sabina found 
 herself minus an engagement for the first time in two 
 years. 
 
 Thereon followed some weary weeks spent in fruit- 
 less visits to agents and managers. Her former good 
 luck had left her quite unprepared for the difficulties 
 which a young and not especially gifted actress who 
 
 10
 
 i 4 2 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 has got "out " often finds in getting "in," and perhaps 
 she was rather hard to please. She objected to 
 boy's parts, and she absolutely refused to go into the 
 provinces, and she would submit to no reduction of 
 salary. She wanted a berth made on purpose for 
 her, said the agents, whose offices were daily besieged 
 by girls who could sing, act, and dance much better 
 than Sabina, and who were willing to do anything 
 and go anywhere. So time passed on, and still Miss 
 Romney was described as "resting," though in point 
 of fact she was employed in the hardest and most 
 unremunerative of all pursuits, that of seeking work 
 and finding none. 
 
 Among her friends and acquaintances none was 
 more interested in her search, or sympathized more 
 sincerely in her disappointments, than Ted Ferrars. 
 He called in Blake Street regularly once or twice 
 a week at this time, and as Candida was usually out 
 or otherwise engaged, he enjoyed numerous tete-b-tetes 
 with Sabina. The depression of spirits under which 
 she now laboured harmonized with the tone of his 
 own mind far better than her former somewhat flippant 
 gaiety. He still suffered acutely from the disappoint- 
 ment which, he fancied, had blighted his whole 
 existence, and he found his best consolation in the 
 society of another almost equally despondent human 
 being. 
 
 Calling in Blake Street late one afternoon, he 
 found Sabina crouching on the hearthrug, the room
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 143 
 
 only lighted by a dull-burning fire. A lamp being 
 brought in directly afterwards, he perceived that her 
 eyes were pink, and that there were traces of tears 
 still upon her cheeks. 
 
 "Hasn't the luck turned yet?" he asked kindly. 
 " I hoped you would have heard from Coulson before 
 this." 
 
 " No, I'm afraid he's a base deceiver, like all the 
 rest," answered Sabina, turning her face away from 
 the light. "I see the rehearsals have already begun 
 at the Pall Mall. I don't believe I shall ever get 
 another engagement. Can you tell me which is the 
 most luxurious workhouse in London ? I should like 
 one of those where Sundays out are allowed, and where 
 they have dramatic entertainments at Christmas. 
 One is always reading paragraphs in the newspapers 
 about the way in which the able-bodied paupers are 
 pampered." 
 
 " Ah, it's all very well for you to make light of it 
 now," he said. " That is only to put me off the scent. 
 You were crying when I came into the room." 
 
 " And why shouldn't I cry if I like ? " she demanded, 
 with sudden warmth. " I suppose even able-bodied 
 paupers are allowed the luxury of tears? And I 
 wasn't joking, either ; I have only five pounds between 
 me and the workhouse. Of course, I ought to have 
 saved ; Candida was always worrying me about it, 
 but somehow the money slipped away." 
 
 "Of course it did," he returned sympathetically.
 
 144 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 "You were never meant to bother your head with 
 money, or any such prosaic details. Girls like you 
 ought always to have some one to take care of them, 
 and work for them, so that they may be left free to 
 enjoy all the gladness of life." 
 
 Sabina sighed, but made no answer, and for some 
 moments silence reigned between them. Ted thought 
 that he had never seen her look so soft, so sweet, so 
 innocent as she did at that moment, with her ruffled 
 hair, drooping mouth, and eyes still misty with tears. 
 She was sad and lonely, like himself; wculd it not be 
 possible for them to console each other ? Though he 
 had lost the woman who was all the world to him, 
 might he not find comfort in the love of another, 
 and win back his own happiness by providing for hers ? 
 Certain it was that his dreary purposeless existence 
 had become almost intolerable, and the void in his 
 heart was crying out to be filled. He felt sure that 
 he was not disagreeable to this girl ; she already 
 liked and trusted him as a friend, surely it would not 
 be very hard to win her. In imagination he could 
 see her happy and at peace in the nest that he 
 would build for her, loving him with the blind, un- 
 questioning devotion that only such women knew how 
 to give, welcoming him on every home-coming with 
 eyes that always brightened, and lips that always 
 smiled, and arms that were always open for him alone. 
 The image of the comrade-wife that had so long 
 occupied his heart grew dim before the vision of
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 145 
 
 this clinging, melting, helpless, feminine presence that 
 would brood over his home, and fill the dreary rooms 
 with warmth and light. 
 
 " I wish I wish that you would let me take care 
 of you in future," he murmured. " Will you, dearest ? 
 Could you trust yourself to me ? " 
 
 He tried to take her hand, but she pulled it 
 sharply away. 
 
 " You are only saying that out of pity," she cried. 
 "You don't love me a bit, really." 
 
 " Pity for myself, then," he returned, seizing her 
 hand again. " Will you take care of me ? You 
 don't know how badly I want it. I can't swear that 
 you are my first and only love, but if you will only 
 take me as I am, and give me a little sympathy, a 
 little tenderness, I will repay you with all my devotion 
 in the years to come. My only thought shall be to 
 make you happy, to shield you from all trouble and 
 sorrow. Say you will try and love me a little say 
 yes, darling." 
 
 Sabina was silent for a moment. 
 
 " I wish I could I wish I could," she said at length, 
 with a ring of regret in her voice. " If only it were 
 possible ! " 
 
 " But it is possible," he cried, slipping his arm round 
 her waist. " You beautiful darling, I believe you do 
 care just a little for me, though I can't imagine why 
 you should. Do you do you just the least little 
 bit ? If so, nothing shall ever part us."
 
 146 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 For all answer Sabina suddenly burst into tears, 
 and dropped her head upon his shoulder. 
 
 "It can't be," she sobbed. "I can never marry 
 you. I shall never marry anybody." 
 
 "But, my dearest child," he expostulated, "you 
 must give me some reason for such a determination. 
 Of course, if you don't love me, and think that you 
 never will, that is quite enough ; I should never dream 
 of forcing myself upon you. Tell me, is that the 
 reason ? You don't like me, you think me ugly and 
 stupid and tiresome, and you don't wish to be bothered 
 by me any more. Say yes, and I'll go away at once, 
 and never trouble you again." 
 
 He waited for an answer, .but Sabina said nothing, 
 only sobbed more uncontrollably than before. 
 
 "You can't say it," he cried triumphantly, wiping 
 away her tears with his pocket-handkerchief, " You 
 can't deny that I have a little corner in your heart. 
 Look up, and tell me that you are going to make 
 me very happy one of these days." 
 
 But all the answer he could get from the girl he 
 had thought so soft and yielding was 
 
 " No, no, don't ask me. You don't know. It's 
 quite impossible." 
 
 If Sabina had deliberately set herself to fan her 
 wooer's first impulse of chivalrous generosity into some- 
 thing closely resembling genuine passion, she could 
 have chosen no better means than this mingling of 
 regretful tenderness and stubborn resistance. Ted's
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 147 
 
 masculine obstinacy was roused, and though he was 
 considerably puzzled by a decided rejection accom- 
 panied by a tacit admission of regard, he concluded 
 that this was but an exhibition of girlish coyness or 
 timidity, and that he had only to exercise a little tact 
 and patience in order to gain his ends. A ring at 
 the bell caused Sabina to spring from his side, and 
 run to her room before he could obtain any explana- 
 tion of her mysterious conduct, but he departed with 
 the inward determination of giving her no peace until 
 she had either promised to make him happy, or else 
 convinced him that there was some good reason for 
 her refusal.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IT must not be supposed that Candida was too much 
 absorbed in her own love-affair to be oblivious of 
 the little romance that was being enacted at her 
 elbow, nor can it be asserted that she was free from 
 all feeling of pique when she perceived the ease and 
 rapidity with which a once-devoted lover was able 
 to transfer his affections. Yet another proof, she 
 reflected, that men's hearts are tough, and their 
 wounds quickly healed. She took herself to task, 
 however, for this feeling, which was certainly of the 
 dog-in-the-manger order, since she did not want Ted 
 for herself, and therefore had no right to be annoyed 
 at the idea of his marriage with another woman. 
 If he and Sabina really cared for each other she 
 thought that they would be happy together, however 
 ill-assorted such a union might appear in the eyes of 
 the world. Perhaps she had sympathy with ill-assorted 
 couples by reason of the knowledge that her engage- 
 ment to Adrian was regarded by the whole circle of 
 her acquaintance as hopelessly unsuitable. So she
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 149 
 
 resolved to do all in her power to help forward the 
 affair, which seemed to have stuck fast in a rather 
 inexplicable fashion. 
 
 As time passed on, she was surprised at receiving 
 no confidences from her friend, who was unusually 
 silent and subdued in spirit. Could Sabina, she 
 wondered, have turned from Ted's wooing in horror 
 and disgust, as she had turned from that of other men, 
 even when in the first instance she had seemed to be 
 attracted by them ? 
 
 Candida determined to sound her friend upon the 
 subject as soon as a favourable opening occurred. 
 This opening she thought she had found when, on 
 going into Sabina's room one night to borrow some 
 matches, she found its occupant stretched flat on the 
 floor, with her face hidden in her arms. Candida 
 went and sat down beside her. 
 
 "Sabina," she said softly, "something has gone 
 wrong. You are in trouble, and it is a more serious 
 matter than a temporary want of employment. Won't 
 you tell me what it's all about ? " 
 
 Sabina did not reply at once. 
 
 " What is it that they put dogs into when they want 
 to get rid of them painlessly ? " she asked at length, 
 in muffled tones. "A lethal chamber, isn't it? I 
 wish some one would put me into a lethal chamber, 
 so that I could have done with it all. I am so tired 
 of being alive." 
 
 " Don't talk nonsense," said Candida. " Come, tell
 
 i 5 o THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 me what is wrong with you ; I can guess a certain 
 amount Ted is in love with you, and you are not 
 altogether indifferent to him, but instead of marrying 
 him like a sensible girl, you prefer to fret yourself to 
 fiddle-strings in solitude. I know you have some 
 prejudice against marriage, and I can understand your 
 shrinking where many men are concerned. But Ted 
 is different ; he is kind and considerate and unselfish ; 
 he has all the makings of an excellent husband. Let 
 me write to him to-morrow, and tell him that you 
 have changed your mind." 
 
 "No, no," cried Sabina, with a shudder, "you don't 
 understand. He doesn't know me. He doesn't really 
 love me ; he only loves an ideal of his own creation." 
 "Well, we can none of us see into each other's 
 hearts," reasoned Candida. " We love or hate people, 
 not for what they really are, but for what they appear 
 to us to be. You have got some strange fancy into 
 your head, or else or else there is a secret that you 
 have been keeping from me from us all." 
 
 There was no answer, beyond a little moan of despair 
 
 " Won't you tell me ? " went on Candida, in gentler 
 
 tones. " Perhaps I might be able to help you. You 
 
 know that your secret, whatever it is, will be absolutely 
 
 safe with me." 
 
 "I daren't I daren't," wailed Sabina. "You'd 
 despise me ; you'd never speak to me again." 
 
 " Oh, how can you say that ? Do you think me 
 so hard, so self-righteous ? Do trust me, dear. This
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 151 
 
 may be only some trifle that has been magnified by 
 your own fancy." 
 
 Candida forced herself to speak hopefully, but a 
 vague fear was pressing like a cold hand upon her 
 heart. . 
 
 Sabina suddenly raised her head from her arms, 
 and sat upright, a forlorn little figure with wan cheeks 
 and swollen eyes. 
 
 "Very well, then, I will tell you," she cried reck- 
 lessly. " I don't care what happens afterwards- ; I can't 
 keep it to myself any longer. I'm not what you think 
 me ; I'm a bad girl. I've committed the one un- 
 pardonable sin in woman. No man would marry 
 me if he knew." 
 
 She stopped, and stared at her friend with wide- 
 open, apprehensive eyes, as if she expected a blow, 
 or a word that would be worse than a blow. But 
 Candida drew nearer, and put her arm round the 
 little shrinking figure. 
 
 " I have lived with you for three years, and I know 
 you are not a bad girl," she said. "And I don't 
 believe in unpardonable sins. If it won't hurt you, 
 will you tell me what you mean ? I suspect that life 
 has been harder for you than I ever guessed." 
 
 "I'm afraid you don't understand, even now," said 
 Sabina, mournfully. " I had better tell you the whole 
 story. You remember what I told you about my 
 childhood, how my father deserted us, and my mother 
 slaved to support herself and me."
 
 i 5 2 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 "Yes, yes," put in Candida, as her friend paused 
 again. 
 
 " Well, when I was sixteen she fell ill ; I believe 
 it was a break-down from overwork, bad food, 
 and anxiety. I had obtained my first engagement 
 a few months before ; it was only a walk-on at a 
 pound a week, but it meant a lot to us. Just when 
 my mother was at her worst, the piece was taken off, 
 and I was told that I shouldn't be wanted for the 
 next one. The morning that I got my dismissal 
 the doctor had told me that unless my mother had 
 plenty of good food, and were kept free from all 
 worry, she could not possibly recover." 
 
 " Oh, you poor child ! " cried Candida. " What did 
 you do ? " 
 
 " I was nearly frantic. I adored my mother. I 
 think we were more to each other than most mothers 
 and daughters, because we had gone through so much 
 together, and we were so entirely alone in the world. 
 Of course, I dared not tell her about my dismissal. 
 I took my courage in both hands, and went to the 
 manager. I was horribly afraid of him, though he 
 had always been rather kind to me ; but there was 
 something about him that terrified and revolted me. 
 He was a stout, black-bearded man, with protruding 
 eyes and a double chin a Jew, they said. I had 
 always tried to keep out of his way before, but now 
 I went to him, and told him all our troubles, and 
 implored him to find me something to do in the next
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 153 
 
 piece. He listened to me in silence, staring hard at 
 me all the time out of his dreadful eyes, and when 
 I had finished, he spoke kindly to me, and said he 
 would think it over, and that I was to come and see 
 him again the next morning. I went away full of 
 hope, and the next day he told me that there was 
 a little part in the new piece which he thought I 
 could play, and though he had half promised it to 
 another girl, he felt rather inclined to give it to me. 
 The salary, he said, would be two guineas a week. 
 Oh, Candida, I felt as if I were in heaven ; I thought 
 he looked like an angel. I could have gone down 
 on my knees and kissed his feet. He said at last 
 that he would give me the part on one condition, and 
 then then he told me the condition." 
 
 Her voice suddenly failed, and a spasm passed 
 over her face. Candida clasped the trembling form 
 more closely in her arms. 
 
 " He said I needn't make up my mind at once ; 
 that I could take a day or two to think it over," went 
 on Sabina. "When I left him, I went round to all 
 the agents and managers where I thought I should 
 have the ghost of a chance, but I could hear of 
 nothing. The next day the doctor said my mother 
 must have port wine and turtle soup and jelly and 
 grapes. Unless her strength were kept up, he said 
 she had scarcely a chance of recovery." 
 
 There was another halt. Sabina dropped her head 
 on her arms again.
 
 154 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " She had the port wine and things," she muttered. 
 "And she got better, and lived three years longer." 
 
 Candida drew a long breath, and then burst into 
 tears. 
 
 " You poor darling," she cried passionately, " how I 
 have misjudged you ! How you must have suffered ! 
 I have sometimes thought you were hard and cynical ; 
 I never guessed that you were unhappy. Why didn't 
 you tell me before ? I would have been so much 
 kinder to you ; I would have tried to make up to 
 you a little for all the martyrdom you have endured." 
 " I thought you would never speak to me again ; 
 that you would utterly despise me," answered Sabina, 
 looking up in surprise, as though she could hardly 
 believe her ears. " If you were like most good women 
 you wouldn't have anything more to do with me." 
 
 " No, no," exclaimed Candida. " No woman worthy 
 of the name is hard upon a sister. If she appears 
 to be so, it is because she is coerced by some man 
 father, brother, or husband." 
 
 She stopped abruptly, for her words had brought 
 a new thought into her mind. Sabina seemed to be 
 struck by the same idea. 
 
 " Yes, men are always hard upon women," she said. 
 " That's why I refused to marry Ted. I never wanted 
 to marry any one else, though I used to flirt with 
 them ; but all the others seemed so horrible and 
 repulsive as soon as they began to make love to me. 
 But Ted never had that dreadful wild-beast look ;
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 155 
 
 he seemed to think more of me than of himself, and 
 to wish to respect me. As you said just now, he 
 was always gentle and considerate, even when he was 
 making love to me. Of course, I might have held 
 my tongue and married him, but, though I know 
 I'm very wicked, I'm not bad enough for that." 
 
 "You are not wicked; you have only been the 
 victim of wickedness," said Candida. " But Ted " 
 
 She could not finish her sentence. What would Ted 
 say if he knew all ? That was a question which she 
 could not solve with any certainty, though she felt that 
 there ought to be only one answer. Surely no man 
 who professed to love her would turn from this poor 
 little victim who had been sacrificed on the altar of 
 filial love, would not be ready and anxious to console 
 her for the misery of the past, to shield her from all 
 sorrow in the future. But men looked at things so 
 differently from women. She could not tell how Ted, 
 honest, kindly, and chivalrous though he was, would 
 act in such a case as this. Yet she remembered with 
 rising hopes the generous warmth with which he 
 had often inveighed against the unjust hypocritical 
 judgments of the world, and the enthusiasm with 
 which he had espoused the cause of ill-used women and 
 children. Then, too, how often had he quoted with 
 approval passages from poets, moralists, or philosophers, 
 which advocated that equal justice and equal mercy 
 should be extended to the whole race, and that there 
 should be no favouritism on the score of sex.
 
 156 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 "Dearest," she said gently, "will you let me tell 
 Ted ? You know that your secret would be as safe 
 with him as with me. Let me tell him." 
 
 " No, no, I can't," wailed Sabina. " As it is, though 
 he will leave off caring for me in time, he will never 
 have anything but a kindly remembrance of me. 
 I could not bear to know that he despised me, thought 
 of me always with disgust and contempt." 
 
 "If he did," cried Candida, "his respect would not 
 be worth having. No, if Ted is what I think him, 
 
 what he has always appeared to be, he will 
 
 She broke off, fearing lest she had said too 
 much. 
 
 Sabina began to cry in feeble, helpless fashion. 
 
 " You can do as you please," she sobbed at length. 
 " Tell him, tell everybody ; nothing will make any 
 difference. No one will ever love me when they 
 know all about me. Oh, Candida, isn't it hard that 
 if I had told lies at sixteen, or been cruel or mean 
 or treacherous, it would all have been forgotten and 
 forgiven long ago, but this one sin will never be 
 forgotten or forgiven? It has spoilt my whole 
 life." 
 
 ***** 
 
 An evening or two later Ted arrived in Blake 
 Street, in response to a summons from Candida. He 
 wore a cheerful, self-confident air, which was pathetic 
 enough under the circumstances. Candida did her 
 best to tone down his obviously sanguine mood by
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 157 
 
 the gravity of her expression, the solemnity of her 
 greeting. There was an anxious question or two 
 from Ted as to the welfare and whereabouts of Sabina, 
 a reassuring answer from herself, and then, without 
 any circumlocution, she plunged into her painful story. 
 Her hearer was acquainted with the circumstances 
 of Sabina's childhood, but she dwelt upon them for 
 a moment before passing on to the melancholy end- 
 ing of that childhood. Slowly and brokenly she told 
 her story, while the rare tears overflowed her eyes, 
 and streamed down her cheeks. When she had 
 finished the bare recital of facts she was silent for a 
 moment, half hoping, half expecting that Ted would 
 turn to her with generous ardour, and cry, " Oh, my 
 poor little girl ! My love shall make up to her for 
 all the sufferings of the past." 
 
 Like Nora, she had expected a miracle to happen, 
 and, like the doll-wife, she was doomed to disappoint- 
 ment. Ted sat silent, staring straight in front of him 
 with set lips and stony eyes. 
 
 " Have you nothing to say ? " she asked at length. 
 
 "I I'm awfully sorry," he muttered, almost 
 inaudibly. 
 
 " Is that all ? " 
 
 " What can I say ? " he returned, stung by her tone. 
 " Poor child, she has been cursedly ill-used ; but what 
 can I do ? You must understand that this entirely 
 alters the position of things." 
 
 Candida made no reply. She dared not take upon
 
 158 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 herself the responsibility of influencing his mind, of 
 pleading Sabina's cause. 
 
 " God knows I don't judge her, poor little thing ! " 
 went on Ted. " I've no right to do that. But this is 
 an awful blow. I dare say you think me a poor- 
 spirited cur, but you know how men look upon these 
 things, and you must admit that it's natural for an 
 old-fashioned fellow like myself to be influenced by 
 the laws and customs of the society in which he 
 finds himself." 
 
 "You talk as if our social laws and customs had 
 come down to us from heaven, graven on stone 
 tablets by the finger of God," said Candida, glad to 
 vent her feelings upon an impersonal topic. "But 
 who really makes them, and who enforces them ? 
 Not society, not the nation at large, but one small 
 section of it elderly men. The laws are passed by 
 elderly dried-up statesmen, and interpreted by elderly 
 cynical lawyers, and administered by elderly gouty 
 judges, while the social conventions are enforced by 
 elderly pharisaical citizens, all of them men who have 
 lost their attraction for women, and with it their 
 sympathy for, and understanding of, our sex. What 
 justice or mercy can we look for from such a 
 tribunal ? " 
 
 "I know that women have had hard measure 
 meted out to them," answered Ted. "I've always 
 said that a man has no right to condemn others 
 for sins that he has committed himself, whatever may
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 159 
 
 have been his excuse ; a self-appointed judge is 
 bound to be able to show a clean bill. And I admit 
 that we can't realize women's temptations any more 
 than they can realize ours, so that we have no 
 business to be harder on them than they are on us. 
 But somehow it's deuced hard to put one's theories 
 into practice. One can't help being guided to some 
 extent by the customs and modes of thought that 
 have governed men for centuries. They may be 
 unjust or ill-founded, but you can't expect them to 
 disappear all in a moment. Even if a man knows 
 that he's a low beast himself, he wants his wife to 
 be a superior order of being ; he can't bear the notion 
 that other low beasts may fling mud at her. Don't 
 think I really despise that poor child because she 
 has suffered so cruelly. But I can't talk about it 
 now. I must have time to think ; I must go away 
 and work it out for myself." 
 
 "Yes," said Candida, as she took his hand, "you 
 must work it out for yourself; no one can help 
 you. The answer depends upon the strength of your 
 love, and you alone can tell whether it is strong 
 enough to forgive."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A WEEK or ten days passed away before Ted 
 appeared again in Blake Street, and then Candida, 
 on coming home from her work late one afternoon, 
 found him sitting by Sabina's side on the sofa. The 
 young man jumped up, but he did not relinquish his 
 hold of the girl's hand. 
 
 "Sabina has consented to make me very happy," 
 he said in rather solemn tones. " I hope you will 
 wish me joy, Candida." 
 
 He looked pale and rather worn. It was evident 
 that he had been through a severe struggle, and that 
 he had suffered and made sacrifice before love and 
 pity had been able to win the day. 
 
 " I wish you joy with all my heart," cried Candida, 
 as she grasped his hand. " I am so glad ! I am sure 
 you will be very happy. We must be married on 
 the same day, Sabina ; it will be quite a weight off 
 my mind to know that I am not leaving you alone, 
 after all." 
 
 When Ted had taken his departure for the time
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 161 
 
 being, Sabina launched into an enthusiastic disser- 
 tation upon his manifold excellences and her own 
 exceeding good fortune. 
 
 " You've no idea how good, how perfectly 
 angelic he was to me," she exclaimed rapturously. 
 " He is so entirely different from all the other men 
 I have ever known. I never thought that any man 
 could be so gentle and considerate, almost reverent. 
 And the engagement-ring is to be one big pearl sur- 
 rounded by diamonds ; he insisted on my telling him 
 what I should like best. And, Candida, do you mean 
 to be married in white satin or in a travelling-dress ? 
 I think white satin is the most economical in the 
 long run, because it comes in as an evening dress 
 afterwards." 
 
 " Oh, I don't know ; I hadn't thought about it," 
 said Candida, rather taken aback by this sudden 
 change of topic. "You'll be very good to Ted, 
 won't you, Sabina, because he really does deserve 
 it ? You won't let all the kindness be on his 
 side ? " 
 
 " Oh, you needn't be afraid. I shall spoil him 
 horribly. I think ivory satin or bengaline would be 
 best, don't you ? And one could have a square-cut 
 bodice, filled in with lace for the ceremony." 
 **** 
 
 The double wedding took place very quietly shortly 
 after Christmas, the only guests being near relations 
 of the contracting parties. Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester
 
 i6a THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 drove straight from the church door to Victoria, en 
 route for Paris, where they were to spend a short 
 honeymoon. 
 
 Paris ! For the rest of her life that name called up 
 in Candida's mind a confused vision of glittering 
 theatres, glittering shops, glittering cafes, glaring sun- 
 shine and piercing winds, strange faces, strange voices, 
 and strange manners. Nothing could have been better 
 adapted than the novelty of her surroundings to draw 
 her more closely to her husband, and make her feel 
 her dependence upon him. It was not until long after- 
 wards, when she could look back calmly upon that 
 soul-shaking time, that she was able to realize how 
 admirably Adrian had behaved. Some feminine 
 streak in his own character helped him to adapt 
 himself to the temperament of the woman he loved, 
 while his naturally quick perception enabled him 
 to decipher her moods, and to avoid jarring upon her 
 susceptibilities. Altogether, it is doubtful whether, if 
 he had been a man of more solid and substantial 
 qualities, he would have acquitted himself so success- 
 fully in his new role. 
 
 After a fortnight spent in love-making and pleasure- 
 seeking, both husband and wife felt as though they 
 had suddenly awoke from some fantastic dream to 
 prosaic reality when they found themselves in England 
 once more, journeying down to the little suburban 
 home, and the commonplace every-day existence that 
 must perforce await them there. Although Candida
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 163 
 
 wondered, with a touch of dull misgiving, how romance 
 and sentiment were likely to fare under these un- 
 promising conditions, she yet felt a certain sense of 
 relief at the thought of entering upon a permanent 
 and settled mode of existence by her husband's side, 
 after the disturbed months of their engagement and 
 the hurry and excitement of the Paris holiday. 
 Though she hoped that Adrian would never be less 
 her lover, she yet looked forward to the time when 
 he would be more her friend when, in short, they 
 would no longer be irresponsible playfellows, dally- 
 ing with life like children in a flower garden, but 
 companions and helpmates, living in a work-a-day 
 world, where duties and responsibilities occupied a 
 larger place than pleasures or amusements. 
 
 Some such thoughts passed through her mind as they 
 travelled down to Herne Vale together, mingled with 
 an irrepressible desire that they were going to a home 
 of their own, however modest ; a couple of rooms 
 in a dingy lodging-house would have more than 
 contented her, if only she could have felt that they 
 were her own. It would have been such happiness 
 to keep house for Adrian, to make the rooms neat 
 and pretty, to feel that she was working for him 
 while he was working for her. She did not like to 
 confess her longing to her husband, fearing that she 
 would seem ungracious towards his mother ; but, by 
 some lover's instinct he answered, as he often did, 
 her unspoken thoughts.
 
 164 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " Don't you wish we were still to be alone together ? " 
 he asked, as he leant his head upon her shoulder. 
 "Yes, I can see you do, though you don't like to 
 say so. Well, we'll have a home of our own some 
 day next year, perhaps, if things turn out as I hope. 
 I shall work like a nigger now that I have got my 
 most gracious sovereign lady to look after me, and 
 keep me in order." 
 
 " I'm sure we shall be very happy with your mother," 
 said Candida. "And I'm glad to think that our being 
 there will be a help to her." 
 
 "Yes, she is charmed at having us, and the girls 
 too ; they are always called the girls, you know, though 
 Louisa is forty, and Fanny a couple of years older. 
 I only hope you won't find it intolerably dull. We 
 shall always have the evenings together, of course, and 
 on Saturdays we can go to the theatre, or take a run 
 into the country." 
 
 " Oh, I shall be able to make myself happy where- 
 ever I am, as long as as long as you don't get tired 
 of me. I never feel as if I were the sort of woman 
 to keep the love of a man like you. I am always 
 the same ; I can't pretend to be what I don't feel, 
 and men are supposed to like variety." 
 
 " It is just the being always the same that makes 
 your greatest charm," he said. " It is so restful to 
 have to do with a woman whom one can depend 
 upon, who is not a mere bundle of whims and moods. 
 Caprices and vagaries are much more tiring in the
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 165 
 
 long run than sameness your kind of sameness, be 
 it understood." 
 
 His tone was that of a man who has enjoyed a 
 wide and varied experience, but Candida was not 
 inclined to retrospective jealousy, so she laughed and 
 allowed her misgivings to be coaxed away. 
 
 Candida had been down to Forest Lodge, her 
 mother-in-law's house, several times in the course of 
 her engagement, yet it was with something of a 
 shock that she looked around her upon entering what 
 was now to be her home. Forest Lodge was a small 
 semi-detached villa, with a slip of a garden in front, 
 in which grew one grimy sycamore. On one side of the 
 narrow passage that was dignified by the name of 
 hall, was a small square drawing-room, on the other 
 side a small square dining-room. Gas was flaring 
 in both rooms, on the night of the traveller's return, 
 and the fresh odours of the coming supper mingled 
 with the stale odours of the departed dinner. 
 
 Candida did her best to banish from her mind the 
 critical thoughts which seemed like rank ingratitude 
 in face of the warm welcome that greeted her. Mrs. 
 Sylvester had scarcely eyes or ears except for her 
 idolized son ; but her daughters, Fanny and Louisa, 
 hovered round their new sister-in-law, offering her 
 everything they could think of, apologizing for all 
 shortcomings, anxious to make themselves of use to 
 her, yet fearful lest they should seem to be putting 
 themselves forward. Their nervousness took the not
 
 i66 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 uncommon form of excessive laughter, which Candida 
 found rather disconcerting, since she had no intention 
 of being amusing ; still, she recognized that they 
 meant to be very kind and conciliatory, and in the 
 midst of her fatigue and embarrassment, was touched 
 and comforted by the friendliness of her reception. 
 She began to wonder what sort of characters the two 
 plain, giggling, middle-aged women really possessed, 
 and how they occupied their time. She had had but 
 little experience of women of their age and circum- 
 stances, and inwardly resolved to try and enter into 
 their interests, and share, if possible, their pursuits, 
 since she, like them, would have no profession and 
 no housekeeping to take up her time. 
 
 During the first two or three weeks at Forest Lodge, 
 Candida felt herself too much in the position of a 
 guest to be able to arrange her own life, or make 
 any definite plans for the future. She was introduced 
 to several of the Sylvesters' friends, and two or three 
 little tea-parties were got up expressly to do her honour. 
 Each Saturday she spent in town, passing the morning 
 at the Gymnasium, and going to some place of 
 amusement with her husband in the afternoon. Adrian 
 was still as lover-like as in the early days of their 
 engagement, and though he had settled down to work 
 very steadily, yet as soon as office hours were over 
 his only desire seemed to be to rush home to her 
 side. His mother and sisters were never tired of 
 telling Candida how beneficial her influence over him
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 167 
 
 had proved. The dear boy had been a different 
 creature since he had known her, they declared ; it 
 only showed that all he had needed to steady him 
 and keep him out of mischief was a nice wife. 
 
 All this was gratifying enough, yet Candida could 
 not help feeling some faint disappointment that she 
 had been unable to persuade Adrian to take her into 
 his confidence, and talk to her about his business 
 affairs. She had made more than one attempt to 
 lead the conversation round to financial topics when 
 she sat with him in the smoking-room after dinner, 
 but hitherto her efforts had all been baffled by the 
 lover-like nonsense which formed the staple of his 
 conversation almost as much now as in the days of 
 their honeymoon. 
 
 One evening, about three weeks after their return, 
 she went straight to the point that she had hitherto 
 approached in roundabout fashion, and begged him 
 to tell her about his work, and explain to her some 
 of the mysteries of the Stock Exchange. 
 
 " I want to know about bulls and bears, and booms 
 and slumps," she said. " Can't you explain to me 
 the sort of things you do ? I should like to under- 
 stand how companies are started, and what the cover 
 system really is." 
 
 " Oh, for heaven's sake, don't let us talk about such 
 horrors now," he cried, with not unnatural shrinking 
 from the proposed topic. "If you are really interested 
 in such matters you can read the "Stock Exchange
 
 168 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 Year Book," and the financial papers, and our monthly 
 investment circular. Learn as much as you like 
 about the beastly things, only don't expect me to 
 talk shop in the bosom of my family." 
 
 Candida looked pained. 
 
 " I don't want to bother you," she said. " But I 
 feel as if I had no part whatever in your real life, 
 no share in your serious interests. Am I never to 
 be anything but a sort of legalized mistress for you 
 to kiss and coax when you have nothing more im- 
 portant to occupy you ? Are we never to exchange 
 a rational idea, or discuss anything but the shape of 
 my nose and the colour of my eyes ? " 
 
 He laughed good-humouredly. 
 
 " I'm sure we couldn't have more charming topics," 
 he replied. " Darling, you look so nice when you are 
 getting a little cross. I believe you know that a slight 
 frown is extremely becoming to you. Your eye- 
 brows look like two brown feathers that have blown 
 together." 
 
 "Ah, you think you can silence me with flattery," 
 she returned, shaking her head reproachfully at him. 
 
 " Do you know I have just discovered a new dimple 
 beneath the corner of your left eye ? " he observed 
 irrelevantly. "It only appears when you smile in a 
 particular way. Now, if there is one thing in woman 
 I admire more than another, it is dimples. A really 
 well-situated dimple covers a multitude of sins." 
 
 "I'm afraid I am getting fat," sighed Candida.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 169 
 
 "That comes of leading such an idle life. I really 
 must try and find some occupation ; but none of the 
 women about here seem to have anything to do, 
 unless they are mothers of families." 
 
 " So much the better for them," said Adrian, lightly. 
 " I wish I had nothing to do. Never mind, my dearest 
 dear," he added quickly, as he perceived her perturbed 
 expression ; "well have a house of our own next 
 year, and then you shall clean the windows and scrub 
 the floors all day long, if you really wish it. Now, 
 will you please smile again, because I want to kiss 
 that new dimple ? " 
 
 After this conversation Candida made a con- 
 scientious attempt to glean some knowledge of stocks 
 and shares from the columns of the financial press, 
 but the information thus gained was not exactly of 
 an engaging nature ; indeed, there came a time when 
 she thought it wisest to discontinue her studies, and 
 remain voluntarily in the dark. She next turned her 
 attention to the only resource for the feminine un- 
 employed work among the poor. But it presently 
 appeared that Mrs. Sylvester was afflicted with a 
 nervous dread of dirt and infection, insomuch that 
 her own daughters were only allowed to enter such of 
 the houses of their poorer neighbours as were guaran- 
 teed to be clean and respectable by the clergyman of 
 the parish. The district was not a poor one, and 
 there was so large an army of voluntary workers that 
 Candida recognized that her own efforts were quite
 
 iyo THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 superfluous. She gradually withdrew from the work 
 when she found herself almost treading on the heels 
 of other district-visitors in the best parlours of respect- 
 able women, who clearly needed nothing at her hands, 
 and who scarcely took the trouble to conceal their 
 contempt for the parochial doles. 
 
 For the space of a few weeks she shared, as far 
 as possible, the occupations and amusements of her 
 sisters-in-law. The life was so totally unlike any- 
 thing to which she had hitherto been accustomed that 
 at first its very novelty saved her from ennui. She 
 felt as though she were plunged into the middle of 
 some novel dealing with suburban life and society, 
 and only needed to close the book when she wearied 
 of the tedium and pettiness of the details therein 
 described. Indeed, there was so strange an air of 
 unreality about this new existence, owing, probably, 
 to the lack of all regular employment, that she could 
 hardly believe she would not awake some morning 
 to find herself back in her Bloomsbury lodging, with 
 a hard day's work before her. 
 
 But as the novelty wore off, the reality of her lot 
 became more and more apparent, while she found 
 it less easy to shut her eyes to its wearisome triviali- 
 ties. Her curiosity as to the characters and pursuits 
 of her new relations was soon satisfied, and with 
 familiarity her amused interest changed to com- 
 passion and regret. Much as she appreciated the 
 kindness and amiability of her sisters-in-law, it was
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 171 
 
 only too clear to her that she could look for no real 
 companionship from them. The two "girls" were 
 accustomed to say that they had no time for reading, 
 which meant that they had no inclination, wherefore 
 it was not surprising that they were still mentally at 
 the same level as when they left school at seventeen, 
 having neither grown nor matured. Like too many 
 of their kind, they were nothing more than good- 
 humoured middle-aged school-girls, who still giggled 
 over the tiny jokes, secrets, and mysteries that had 
 delighted them a quarter of a century before. 
 
 Apart from bazaars, tea-parties, and church decora- 
 tions, religion and ill-health formed the principal 
 excitements of their lives. They fasted on Fridays, 
 went regularly to early services, and were nearly 
 always ailing ; indeed, they seemed to regard chronic 
 ill-health as the natural prerogative of women. Their 
 doctor's and chemist's bills rivalled those of the 
 butcher and grocer, while the trying of a new " treat- 
 ment," or even of a quack remedy, was a source of 
 never-failing delight. Until she perceived how much 
 real enjoyment they derived from their ailments, Can- 
 dida was quite concerned at the regularity with which 
 colds, headaches, and bilious attacks succeeded each 
 other in the family circle. The three ladies were 
 seldom all free from sickness at the same time, and 
 this fact seemed to constitute their only claim to 
 interest and importance in their own eyes, and in 
 those of their neighbours. Candida attributed their
 
 172 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 ill-health to their lack of occupation, and made up her 
 mind that if, instead of existing with difficulty on a 
 widow's and spinsters' pittance, they had only started 
 a dancing-school or a Berlin-wool shop, they would 
 now be enjoying the robust health and excellent 
 spirits which distinguished the majority of the wage- 
 earning women of her acquaintance. She soon 
 became aware, however, that her new relations re- 
 garded the necessity for work as a downright degra- 
 dation, and infinitely preferred leading the narrowest 
 of existences on the narrowest of means, to earning 
 a penny by their own exertions.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE return of Mr. and Mrs. Ferrars from a lengthened 
 wedding tour was quite an important event in the 
 empty and purposeless existence to which Candida 
 now found herself condemned. On her first visit to 
 the little house in Hampstead in which the young 
 couple had settled themselves, she found the bride 
 in a great state of excitement over her new home, 
 her new servants, and her new furniture. She could 
 scarcely be induced to mention her husband, who 
 had no longer any pretensions to the novelty of the 
 rest of the establishment 
 
 " Oh, Ted," she said at length, in reply to her 
 friend's repeated inquiries "Ted is all right, dear 
 old thing ! That reminds me, I must show you the 
 lace he bought me at Venice. Yes, yes, of course, 
 he is the best of husbands, positively without a flaw 
 now that he has given up trying to talk to me as if 
 I were an intellectual woman. At first he rather 
 bored me by trying to get me to take an intelligent 
 interest in the churches and pictures in Italy, but
 
 174 
 
 he soon saw that the task was hopeless, and took 
 me to theatres instead. We used to look in at the 
 shop windows all the morning, and in the afternoon 
 he did the guide-book sights by himself while I 
 rested. How sensible you were to spend all your 
 time in Paris, where one need never be bothered with 
 ruins or churches ! I bought this frock in Paris. 
 What do you think of it ? " 
 
 "Very pretty," answered Candida, absently. "I 
 suppose Ted is working very hard ? " 
 
 " Oh, dreadfully. I never see anything of him 
 except in the evenings, and then he yawns so, 
 particularly if he takes me out anywhere, that I'm 
 always afraid he will crack his jaws. I really must 
 try and find some one else to take me about, and 
 then he can yawn at home in peace." 
 
 "But would not that be rather dull for him, after 
 working hard all day ? " 
 
 "Oh, he really likes being dull, and he always 
 has a lot of stupid old books that he wants to read. 
 He tried to persuade me to begin what he calls a 
 systematic course of reading, in order to improve my 
 mind. He is so funny sometimes. Fancy me im- 
 proving my mind ! " 
 
 Candida looked a little uneasy. 
 
 " I hope you are very good to Ted," she said ; 
 "especially as he has turned out such a paragon 
 of a husband. You are very happy together, aren't 
 you?"
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 175 
 
 "Yes, of course. We get on like two turtle-doves, 
 and he is perfectly devoted to me. But do just look 
 at this cabinet, Candida. I got it in Wardour Street 
 the other day ; it's Chippendale or Sheraton, or 
 something of the kind. Ted was rather horrified 
 at the price, but it was really ridiculously cheap. 
 Don't you think I'm a lucky girl, Candida ? I wish 
 you had a house of your own and nice things, instead 
 of having to live with your husband's relations in 
 a pokey place like Herne Vale." 
 
 " Yes, I must say I should like a house of my 
 own," said Candida, rather wistfully. "Still, I am 
 very happy, and all the more so for knowing that 
 you are too." 
 
 Any slight uneasiness that she might have felt 
 about the condition of the new menage was dispelled 
 by the sight of Ted, who came home just in time 
 to walk with her to the station. There could be 
 no doubt that he was genuinely in- love with his 
 wife, and very proud of her beauty, which, he 
 declared, had made quite a sensation at every hotel 
 they stayed in during their tour. He evidently re- 
 garded her love of finery and amusement with an 
 indulgent eye, considering that such little weaknesses 
 were perfectly natural, and even becoming in so 
 young and pretty a woman. He could afford to 
 gratify her every reasonable wish, he explained, as 
 long as he stuck closely to work, and that would 
 not hurt him ; indeed, he really enjoyed it
 
 176 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 It was about this time that Candida made up her 
 mind to emancipate herself from the vortex of after- 
 noon calls, tea-parties, and shopping excursions, in 
 which she had been struggling since her arrival at 
 Forest Lodge, and map out some more dignified 
 form of existence for herself. A subscription to the 
 London Library placed books once more within her 
 reach, and she exchanged the little pottering walks, 
 which her sisters-in-law regarded as constitutionals, 
 for long lonely rambles, which carried her beyond 
 the regions of villa-dom, out of sight even of the 
 crystal monstrosity which dominated the landscape 
 for miles around Herne Vale. With these resources 
 she was able to pass her time not unpleasantly, the 
 monotony of her existence being compensated for by 
 the delightful "week-ends" which she and Adrian 
 always spent together, and an occasional run up to 
 town between whiles to visit some of her old friends, 
 or take a class* at the Gymnasium. 
 
 In spite of her revolt against the claims of Herne 
 Vale society, and her lack of appreciation of suburban 
 gaieties, Candida had contrived to win the confidence 
 and affection of her mother and sisters-in-law. Her 
 success, it is true, was partly due to a suppression 
 of her own ideas and opinions a piece of moral 
 insincerity of which she was often ashamed. But 
 discussion of any subject was impossible in that 
 household if peace were to be maintained. She was 
 compelled to treat the ladies much as if they were
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 177 
 
 elderly children, humouring all their prejudices, and 
 carefully avoiding any expression of opinion that 
 would be likely to wound their very sensitive sus- 
 ceptibilities. They had, she discovered, their own 
 well-defined views upon every abstract question that 
 had come within their ken, and from these there could 
 be no appeal, even though the views were never based 
 upon reason or logic, but only upon the authority of 
 some favourite clergyman, whose arguments were 
 regarded as no less infallible than his office. 
 
 Candida's restraint of her naturally outspoken 
 tongue was due, however, less to fear of giving 
 offence than to a desire to avoid giving pain a 
 desire which was deepened and strengthened by a little 
 confidence which accident caused her sisters-in-law 
 to repose in her. Happening to meet them one 
 day in a stationer's shop in Sydenham, she was 
 surprised to see handed over the counter to them 
 a large bundle of letters, which had evidently been 
 addressed to the care of the proprietor. Their 
 blushes, giggles, and guilty looks, as they followed 
 her out of the shop, naturally roused her curiosity. 
 
 " I believe you two have been up to some mischief," 
 she said laughingly. "You had better make a clean 
 breast of it to me." 
 
 "Oh no, we couldn't possibly," said Louisa, ner- 
 vously. "You would laugh at us, wouldn't she, 
 Fanny? And I dare say you would be horribly 
 shocked."
 
 iy8 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " I wonder whether she would ? " returned Fanny, 
 doubtfully. "After all, it was only a joke. Would 
 you promise not to tell any one else if we told 
 you not even Adrian ? " 
 
 "Oh yes, I promise," she answered carelessly. 
 " You had better confide in me now I have seen 
 the letters, or I shall think it something very 
 dreadful." 
 
 "Yes, we had better tell her now," said Fanny. 
 "You explain, Louie." 
 
 "No, I daren't," cried Louisa, giggling more un- 
 controllably than ever. "You do it, Fanny." 
 
 " Well, I don't know whether I can make you under- 
 stand why we did it," began the elder sister, hesitatingly. 
 " You ought to know the sort of lives we have always 
 led, how we never went to dances, or saw much of 
 of gentlemen, because mamma disapproved of 
 worldly ways." 
 
 " And we were never pretty or very attractive, even 
 when we were quite young," put in Louisa. "And 
 we had very little money to spend on clothes, because 
 Adrian's education was so expensive." 
 
 " I've no doubt you always looked very nice," 
 said Candida, wondering whither this preamble was 
 leading. 
 
 " Perhaps we were really better and safer without 
 beauty," said Louisa, with a sigh, "though it must 
 be very pleasant to be admired and and loved. 
 Nobody ever fell in love with us, that we know of,
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 179 
 
 though there was a curate once who was rather atten- 
 tive to Fanny." 
 
 " Oh, how can you say such things ? " exclaimed 
 her sister, with an hysterical laugh. " I'm sure that 
 was all your fancy, Louie ; I never troubled my 
 head about him. The long and the short of it is, 
 Candida, that we neither of us ever had a lover ; so, 
 though we've read a lot about love in story-books, we 
 haven't had any experience of it in real life. We 
 often used to wonder what was in love-letters, and 
 what proposals were like, and what engaged couples 
 talked about I dare say you will think it all very 
 silly." 
 
 "No, I think it was perfectly natural," answered 
 Candida, gently. " I used to wonder just the same 
 before before I knew." 
 
 "No! did you really?" said Fanny, visibly encouraged 
 by this sympathetic reception of her confidences. 
 "Well, we never thought we should be able to gratify 
 our curiosity until a few months ago, when we happened 
 to see a copy of a matrimonial newspaper. The 
 advertisements amused us so much that I suggested 
 only in fun, you know that we should each send an 
 advertisement to the paper, just to see what sort of 
 replies we should get. Of course, we never thought 
 of answering any of them." 
 
 "But you don't mean to say that you really did 
 it ? " said Candida, uncertain whether to feel amused 
 or scandalized.
 
 i8o THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " Yes, we really did. Louie described herself as 
 a brunette of thirty, not pretty, but pleasant and 
 domesticated, and with five hundred a year ; and I 
 said I was nineteen, tall and fair, with a Grecian nose 
 and violet eyes." 
 
 "I had thirty-seven answers to mine, and Fanny 
 only two," observed Louisa, not without complacency. 
 
 "Ah, but yours only wanted the money," put in 
 the elder sister. "Mine were like real love-letters. 
 They both wanted to have my photograph, and one 
 of them asked me to meet him under the clock at 
 Charing Cross." 
 
 "Well, I expect I've had more offers than any 
 woman in Herne Vale," said Louisa. "There are not 
 so many this time, I see. I put my fortune at two 
 thousand a year, and they must have thought it 
 was a hoax. Only five for me, and eleven for you, 
 Fanny. Let me see, you were a widow of twenty- 
 five, weren't you, with two hundred a year ? " 
 
 Candida looked from one to the other, her heart 
 filled with compassion for the two loveless little women, 
 who had sought to brighten their stunted, colourless 
 lives by means of counterfeit romances, and in- 
 dignation against the customs that had rendered such 
 a state of things possible. After all, she said to 
 herself, these two women were not irredeemably plain, 
 or rather, their lack of personal attraction was due 
 not so much to any natural defects of face or figure 
 as to the unhealthy conditions of their lives. Their
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 181 
 
 features were passable, their figures straight and fairly 
 proportioned. Vacuity of expression, dull eyes and 
 hair, a sallow skin, a want of development, a 
 mistaken taste in dress it was to these defects 
 that they owed their hopelessly uninteresting appear- 
 ance. Had they received a vigorous education in 
 their youth, and afterwards been given some object 
 in life, some definite work to do in the world, instead 
 of being condemned to lead the narrowest of semi- 
 conventual existences, she could see no reason why 
 they should not have turned out healthy, intelligent, 
 pleasant-looking human beings, if nothing more. In 
 the world of workers they would have found their 
 own level, and made friends among the men and 
 women with whom they were brought in contact. 
 As things were, she could not bring herself to blame 
 them for the peculiar method they had chosen of in- 
 troducing a little romance into their grey lives ; yet 
 she felt that it would be as well to prevent a repeti- 
 tion of the doubtful experiment. 
 
 " Now that you have gratified your curiosity," she 
 remarked, " I suppose you won't care to go on with 
 these advertisements ? There is a certain amount of 
 risk connected with the joke, because one of your 
 would-be suitors might wait outside the shop to see 
 who came to fetch the letters, and follow you 
 home." 
 
 " Oh, what a dreadful idea ! " cried the sisters both 
 at once, glancing nervously over their shoulders. " Do
 
 i8a THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 you think any one was there to-day ? No, we shan't 
 care to do it again." 
 
 " There's the tram," said Louisa. " I think we had 
 better take it, or Fanny will be over-tired. Dr. 
 Matthews called just before we left home, and he 
 said she was suffering from nervous debility. He has 
 ordered her a course of iron and quinine." 
 
 "I am sorry to hear it," said Candida, longing to 
 suggest that more air and exercise, and the healthier 
 appetite consequent thereupon, would probably benefit 
 the invalid more than tons of tonics. 
 
 She was beginning to be quite ashamed of her 
 own appetite, for the three ladies ate like sparrows, 
 and, with the exception of dinner, the meals provided 
 were of the scantiest description. It was evident 
 that Mrs. Sylvester's means were very narrow, and 
 Candida felt glad to think that the payments made 
 by Adrian must be some help to her ; besides, his 
 presence in the house ensured the appearance of 
 one sufficient meal every day. She herself was often 
 obliged to supplement the breakfasts and luncheons out 
 of her own pocket, and for this and other purposes 
 found the advantage of her father's allowance, since 
 Adrian never seemed to have any ready money to 
 spare. He had told her soon after their return to put 
 down any purchases that she might make to his 
 account. But as she had a morbid horror of debt, 
 this arrangement had the effect of keeping her ex- 
 penditure strictly within the limits of her allowance.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 183 
 
 It was upon the subject of finance that she and 
 her husband had their first little disagreement. 
 Adrian came home one evening overflowing with 
 enthusiasm about the prospects of a commercial com- 
 pany which was shortly to be floated by some friends 
 of his. The Automatic Cork-drawing Company, 
 Limited, was expected to make the fortunes of every 
 one connected with it, and Adrian only regretted that 
 he had but a small sum at his disposal to invest 
 in so promising a speculation. 
 
 After dinner, when he and Candida were alone 
 together, he continued to descant upon the advantages 
 held out by the new undertaking. 
 
 "I should like to give my friends a chance of 
 sharing in the luck," he observed at length. "Do 
 you think your father would care to invest a few 
 hundreds ? " 
 
 " No, I'm sure he wouldn't, even if he had them," 
 she replied with decision. " He hates speculations, 
 and he never has any money to spare." 
 
 "But he might easily raise some say a thousand, 
 or even five hundred. He would probably double 
 his capital in three months, and then he could clear 
 out. There would be practically no risk, as long as 
 he knew when to run." 
 
 " Then do you mean that there would be risk for 
 the people who bought the shares of him ? " 
 
 "Oh, that would depend on how long they held 
 on ; of course, they would have to look out for
 
 184 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 themselves. You might write and tell your father 
 about it. It would be an advantage to me as well 
 as to him, because the directors have promised 
 to put business in my way if I bring them a certain 
 amount of capital." 
 
 " It would be quite useless," she answered. " He 
 hasn't got the money, and if he had he wouldn't put 
 it into a company that was to be boomed for a few 
 weeks, only to smash up as soon as the promoters 
 had cleared out." 
 
 " You don't understand anything about business," he 
 said, with gentle reproach. " And you really might 
 trust my judgment in these matters. Of course, I don't 
 want your father to do anything shady ; I was merely 
 proposing a perfectly legitimate speculation for our 
 mutual benefit. You have often said you wished you 
 could be of use to me ; now here is your chance." 
 
 " There is nothing that would give me more happi- 
 ness than to be able to help you," she said ; "but you 
 are mistaken in thinking that this is my chance. If 
 you knew my father as well as I do, you would under- 
 stand that to make him such a proposal would be 
 simply a waste of ink and paper." 
 
 "That's the worst of these country gentlemen," 
 grumbled Adrian. "They never have any notion of 
 business. Consols at two and three-quarters are their 
 idea of a lucrative investment. And then they are 
 surprised to find themselves hard up." 
 
 "City men are not always in flourishing circum-
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 185 
 
 stances," returned Candida. "There is such a thing 
 as being too clever." 
 
 " There's something in that," he said, with a good- 
 humoured laugh. " Well, I'm sorry you don't see 
 your way to helping me in this little matter. How- 
 ever, I dare say I shall be able to raise the money 
 elsewhere."
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 WITH the approach of summer the question of a 
 holiday, which yearly agitates the breast of every 
 Londoner, became the subject of discussion at Forest 
 Lodge. Mrs. Sylvester at once announced her 
 intention of remaining quietly at home ; it was a 
 trouble to move, she explained, and the Herne Vale 
 air was so fine that there was really no necessity for 
 a change. Adrian having no money to spend on 
 travelling expenses, it was decided that the young 
 couple should take advantage of a standing invita- 
 tion to Branksmead, and Candida laid a secret plan 
 of inducing her mother to ask Fanny and Louisa 
 to spend a fortnight there by turns. It was finally 
 arranged that she should go home first alone, and 
 that Adrian should follow her in about a week's time. 
 
 Mr. St. John greeted his daughter upon her arrival 
 with an air of tender sympathy, almost of com- 
 miseration, which made her laugh ; it seemed so 
 comically inappropriate. 
 
 "You are looking much better than I expected,"
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 187 
 
 he said, as they wandered round the garden after 
 dinner. " You are really happy still ? Your illusions 
 are not shattered yet? I never thought that your 
 spirits would survive six months of a suburban 
 home, a mother-in-law, and a stock-broking husband." 
 
 " Why not ? " asked Candida. " My mother-in-law 
 is the kindest little woman in the world, and we 
 have not had a single jar. As for Adrian, he is the 
 most devoted of husbands, and it is not his fault 
 that he was brought up to a business career. He is 
 working very steadily now, and he spends every 
 minute of his spare time with me. He hasn't tired 
 of me yet," she added, with a little nod of triumph. 
 " He still thinks me the most beautiful and fascinating 
 of my sex." 
 
 "Well, well," sighed her father, "I only hope 
 the idyll will last." 
 
 " I believe you are quite disappointed because Adrian 
 has not begun to beat me yet," laughed Candida. 
 "But you must remember that I am nearly as big 
 as he is, and in much better training. I think the 
 idyll will last," she added, lowering her voice, " because 
 because I hope that a great happiness is coming to 
 us. I have just told mother, but no one else knows, 
 not even Adrian. I thought I should like to tell him 
 down here." 
 
 ' " Oh, you poor dear child ! " said her father, putting 
 his arm round her. "What risks women do run 
 when they marry. Dear, dear, I wish Branksmead
 
 1 88 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 were not entailed upon the Foley St. Johns. I should 
 have liked your boy to have it." 
 
 " Oh, he will be better off fighting his own way in 
 the world with a free hand than trying to prop up 
 a falling house," said Candida. " He shall have a 
 good education if I can manage if, and if he has good 
 health, he will need no other heritage. I have begun 
 to make plans already," she added with a smile. 
 
 " But what if it is a girl ? " 
 
 "Oh, the same plans will serve. If I had half 
 a dozen children, I shouldn't make any difference 
 between the education and opportunities given to 
 the sons and the daughters. I would never see the 
 girls sacrificed to the boys, only to be rewarded with 
 brotherly ingratitude and contempt." 
 
 As soon as Adrian arrived, Candida hastened to 
 confide her secret to him. Watching for his eyes 
 to brighten with joy and pride at her intelligence, 
 she could hardly believe her own senses when she 
 saw his countenance fall, and heard him mutter 
 
 " Good heavens ! this is a deuced awkward com- 
 plication." 
 
 " You you are not glad," she faltered. " But surely 
 you must have realized that this was a very probable 
 event." 
 
 " Well, upon my soul, I'd scarcely given it a thought," 
 he answered gloomily. "Anyhow, I never imagined 
 it would be so soon. Other good-looking young 
 married women don't have these misfortunes. It will
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 189 
 
 quite spoil your beauty, and age you by years. And 
 then the expense! It will nearly double our rate 
 of living, and that little house will be quite unin- 
 habitable." 
 
 " Of course, we must have a home of our own now ; 
 at least, we ought to get into one before Christmas. 
 I shall be sorry to leave your mother, and we must try 
 and help her as much as we can, but she will quite 
 understand that we cannot possibly stop on there." 
 
 " Oh, but we must ; it would be impossible to move 
 at present," he said decidedly. " I simply haven't got 
 the money. We shall have to make shift as best we 
 can. I must give up my dressing-room, I suppose, 
 and the girls will have to sleep together. I must say 
 it's confoundedly awkward just now ; I shouldn't have 
 minded so much half a dozen years hence." 
 
 " I'm sorry it causes you such intense annoyance," 
 she said coldly. " But it is rather strange that you 
 shouldn't have thought of this contingency before you 
 married." 
 
 Fearing lest her powers of self-control should give 
 way, she turned and left him. With all her desire 
 to see her husband in the best light, and to make 
 allowance for his shortcomings, she could not help 
 feeling bitterly hurt at the manner in which he had 
 received her news. He had not appeared to realize 
 that the child was his as much as hers, but seemed to 
 regard its advent as an error of taste for which she 
 alone was responsible. All her natural pleasure in 
 13
 
 1 90 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 the prospect of motherhood was temporarily dimmed 
 by this unexpected lack of sympathy in the one 
 human being from whom, above all others, she had 
 a right to expect it. 
 
 Candida had by no means recovered her spirits when 
 she met her husband again at the dinner-table, but 
 Adrian, who was keenly sensitive to any coolness in 
 the social atmosphere, took an early opportunity of 
 making his peace with her. 
 
 The news had taken him by surprise, he explained, 
 and he was anxious about her safety, as well as 
 worried over money affairs. But he admitted that 
 it was very absurd to be taken aback by such a 
 natural occurrence, and no doubt the luck would turn 
 before long. Anyhow, she was to forget what he 
 had said, and not to treat him as if he were a long 
 way off, or suffering from an infectious disease, 
 because that kind of thing made him very un- 
 comfortable. And Candida allowed herself to be 
 soothed and pacified, being quite incapable of per- 
 ceiving that his desire for a reconciliation lay not 
 so much in a real feeling of tenderness as in his 
 dislike of any unpleasantness in his social surroundings. 
 
 The arrival of Louisa upon a fortnight's visit took 
 off her thoughts from herself and her own troubles, 
 for her sister-in-law was as gauche with strangers 
 as a girl of sixteen, and all Candida's energies were 
 bent on making her feel happy and at home. Adrian, 
 who entertained a wholesome fear of his father-in-law,
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 191 
 
 and found the Hall decidedly dull, spent a good 
 deal of his time at the Vicarage, where Sabina had 
 been staying for the past fortnight, while Ted ran 
 down for the Sundays. 
 
 "I never realized till quite lately what good com- 
 pany your husband was," remarked Mrs. Ferrars one 
 day to her friend. " Of course, last summer he was 
 entirely engrossed by you, so that I had no opportunity 
 of discovering his talents. He is such a contrast to 
 Ted, who is virtue personified, but a trifle solid. He 
 never seems to want any amusement, but would be 
 contented to spend all the evenings for the rest of his 
 life by the domestic hearth. Oh, those domestic 
 evenings! I begin to think it is a pity I gave up 
 the stage when I married ; I had forgotten how 
 interminable evenings at home really could seem." 
 
 " Ted would never have agreed to your continuing 
 to act," said Candida. "For one thing, he would 
 have seen nothing of you, as he has to be out all day. 
 Besides, he is much too old-fashioned to tolerate the 
 idea of his wife working for money as long as he can 
 afford to maintain her." 
 
 "Then he ought not to mind paying my bills," 
 grumbled Sabina. 
 
 " But does he ? " 
 
 " Well, he never says much, but he looks surprised 
 at the ' demned total.' He might see that as I've 
 nothing else to do, I must go in for dress and society ; 
 I'm simply driven to it. And he ought not to think
 
 i 9 2 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 it a hardship to take me out in the evenings, or be 
 left alone at home. He forgets how dull I've 
 been all day, with nothing to do and no one to 
 speak to." 
 
 "You will be all right when you have children," 
 observed Candida. "Wifehood isn't a sufficient 
 occupation for an able-bodied woman, but I believe 
 motherhood is." 
 
 " Don't talk of anything so dreadful," cried Sabina. 
 "I want to have a little more fun before I'm laid 
 on the shelf for life. Oh, here comes your Adrian. 
 You never told me what a splendid mimic he was. 
 He can take off the vicar to the life, and most of the 
 funny old people in the village." 
 
 Candida flushed uncomfortably. She did not 
 enjoy the idea of her old friends being held up to 
 ridicule. 
 
 The subject of her conversation with Sabina left an 
 uneasy impression upon her mind, with the result that 
 she took advantage of Ted's next visit to Branks- 
 mead to have a confidential talk with him. She found 
 him, as she had expected, a little inclined to be 
 plaintive on the subject of his wife and her require- 
 ments. 
 
 "I don't wish to say a word against Sabina," he 
 began, using the time-honoured preamble to a marital 
 complaint. "She is a dear, good girl, and we are 
 as fond of each other as ever ; but I do think that 
 she is just the least bit exacting. If I work hard
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 193 
 
 all day to keep her in comfort, it is rather unreason- 
 able to expect me to take her out nearly every 
 evening. I think she might be contented to bear 
 me company in her own home. You might as well 
 put a horse to plough in the daytime, and expect 
 him to perform in a circus at night." 
 
 " I dare say it does seem rather hard," said Candida, 
 thoughtfully. " But I suppose it is natural that she 
 should crave for a little excitement, considering how 
 stimulating her life has been during the past few 
 years. And remember, that while you are working 
 at an interesting profession, Sabina is engaged in a 
 much more wearisome pursuit ; I mean, in doing 
 nothing." 
 
 " She has her house and servants to look after." 
 
 "Yes, but no human being can spend twelve or 
 fourteen hours a day in ordering a dinner for two 
 persons." 
 
 " I wish she had a taste for reading, like you," he 
 said. " I don't believe she ever reads anything but 
 novels and society papers. Yet she is naturally very 
 quick and clever ; she might be an excellent com- 
 panion if only she would give herself a chance." 
 
 "Well, you see," returned Candida, apologetically, 
 " girls are always having it dinned into them that men 
 hate clever women, so, naturally, they try to appear 
 as silly and ignorant as they possibly can. Man's 
 taste, we know, is woman's test. If you happen to 
 prefer a cultivated intelligent human being to a human
 
 I 9 4 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 goose, why, you must expect to suffer for the eccen- 
 tricity of your taste. But as for Sabina, she is really 
 clever enough for two ; she only pretends to be silly 
 because she likes to be popular." 
 
 "Yes," he said, his face softening, "of course 
 she likes gaiety and fun better than books or serious 
 talk. She is so young and pretty, it is only natural 
 she should want to enjoy herself, and I don't really 
 grudge it to her, though I do grumble now and then. 
 She will grow old and sober down quite soon enough, 
 and then we shall be able to play Darby and Joan 
 for the rest of our lives."
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE return to Herne Vale marked the beginning of 
 a new epoch in Candida's life. Her long walks had 
 to be curtailed, and part of the time hitherto bestowed 
 upon her books was now devoted to a more domestic 
 occupation. She was learning to sew, and proving 
 herself a very dull pupil. Nothing but the most 
 dogged industry and determination could have 
 brought those strong unpractised ringers to set dainty 
 stitches and run Liliputian tucks. But though progress 
 was slow and painful, the art was gradually acquired, 
 and Candida declared that since the day on which 
 she had first succeeded in circling round the three 
 trapezes, she had never felt so proud and triumphant 
 as when she made a tiny frock alone and unaided, 
 and was assured by her mother-in-law that it was 
 " not at all bad." 
 
 It was well that she had so engrossing an occupa- 
 tion to divert her attention from the clouds that had 
 begun to gather upon her horizon. It was a time of 
 general depression, if not panic, in the financial world,
 
 i 9 6 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 and Adrian looked every day more anxious and 
 harassed. He was often detained late at the office, 
 and occasionally dined and slept in town. The 
 Saturday outings had been given up, partly because 
 ready money was so scarce, partly because they were 
 not thought prudent in the present state of Candida's 
 health. Adrian, though almost invariably courteous 
 and considerate to his wife, had gradually relinquished 
 his lover-like ways, and no longer showed any special 
 desire for her society. Candida tried to shut her 
 eyes to his growing indifference, and to console 
 herself with the thought that the alteration in his 
 behaviour was chiefly due to his preoccupation with 
 business worries. She assured herself that when their 
 affairs improved, and still more when their child was 
 born, the old affection would revive, and all would be 
 well with them once again. 
 
 A few weeks after their return, however, an incident 
 occurred which sowed fresh seeds of uneasiness in her 
 mind. Having occasion to go to town for a morning's 
 shopping, she took the opportunity of paying a long- 
 promised visit to her former colleague, Miss Mason, 
 who had lately taken a flat at Earl's Court. That 
 lady, declaring that her visitor must be moped to 
 death at Herne Vale, and that a glimpse of the world 
 would do her good, had insisted upon carrying her off 
 to Olympia. There they were to have tea, and amuse 
 themselves for an hour with the humours of the crowd. 
 But the humours of the crowd turned out to be rather
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 197 
 
 more sensational than Candida had either expected or 
 desired. 
 
 At a little table, not far from that at which the two 
 friends had settled themselves, a man and a girl were 
 seated. The girl was pretty and quietly dressed, with 
 a touch of refinement about her manner and appear- 
 ance. The man was sitting with his back to Candida; 
 but his figure was too familiar an aspect to leave her 
 for an instant in doubt as to his identity. It was her 
 husband. 
 
 A sensation of sickness and dizziness stole over her 
 as she noticed the einpressement of his manner towards 
 his companion, and his evident delight in her society ; 
 it was so exactly the attitude that he had assumed 
 towards herself when they visited such places together, 
 only a few short months before. 
 
 The pair were obviously wrapped up in each other; 
 and Candida's heart ached as she saw the girl's eyes 
 melt and soften when she met her companion's glance^ 
 Presently a bunch of Neapolitan violets was trans- 
 ferred from Adrian's coat to the front of the girl's 
 black dress. Violets ! Candida started as she remem- 
 bered that her husband had more than once breathed 
 the name of Violet in his sleep. She had guessed that 
 a Violet must have been among his early loves, but 
 she had never cared to question him upon the subject. 
 
 " I I am tired," she said to her friend. " I think I 
 had better go home now. I can catch the five-thirty 
 from Victoria."
 
 198 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 On her arrival at Forest Lodge she found a tele- 
 gram from Adrian to say that business would keep 
 him at the office until late, and that he should dine 
 and sleep in town. It was not until the next evening 
 that she had the opportunity of a few words alone 
 with him. 
 
 " You have never inquired how I got on in town 
 yesterday," she began, speaking with a nervous- 
 ness that was more on his account than her own. 
 " After I finished my shopping, I went to see Miss 
 Mason, and she insisted on taking me to tea at 
 Olympia." 
 
 He started slightly, and threw a quick glance at 
 her. 
 
 "Olympia!" he said, with assumed carelessness. 
 " Wasn't that rather imprudent ? " 
 
 " I don't think I'm the worse for it. I wanted to 
 tell you that I saw you there. I suppose you didn't 
 see me ? " 
 
 " No; I saw no one I knew except the acquaintance 
 I was with. Did you notice her ? " 
 
 " Yes, I thought she was very pretty. I wondered 
 if she was Violet." 
 
 " Violet ! " he repeated, turning sharply upon her. 
 " What do you know about Violet ? Has any one 
 been trying to make mischief between us ? " 
 
 " No ; you are the only person that has ever 
 mentioned her to me. You have sometimes uttered 
 her name in your sleep. I should not have said
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 199 
 
 anything about it if I had not seen you yesterday 
 with a girl to whom you gave some violets. Does 
 she know that you are married ? " 
 
 " Yes no I forget ; but you really needn't 
 trouble your head about her. She is a little girl 
 whom I had a flirtation with long ago, before I knew 
 you. I hadn't seen her for ages, till I met her in 
 Oxford Street yesterday ; and she asked me to take 
 her to Olympia for old acquaintance' sake. As I told 
 you, I was obliged to stop and dine with a fellow at 
 the Club, so I thought I might as well spend the 
 afternoon at Olympia as anywhere else. Perhaps I 
 was foolish ; but you don't think it so very wrong, do 
 you, now that you know the whole story ? " 
 
 " No, of course not," agreed Candida. " Yet yet 
 I can't help thinking about that poor girl ; she had 
 such a pretty, pathetic little face, and looked so over- 
 flowing with happiness at being with you. I think 
 you ought to tell her you are married ; it might save 
 her from a great disappointment." 
 
 " What a queer girl you are ! " he said, looking at 
 her with mingled amusement and surprise. " Most 
 women would have been ready to scratch her eyes 
 out of her head. The fact of my marriage doesn't 
 concern her in the slightest degree, and there's no 
 occasion for you to worry about her at all. She's not 
 a lady, you know, only a little girl out of a shop, and 
 she probably goes out with a different fellow every 
 Saturday afternoon."
 
 200 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 Candida was silent for a moment. She was only 
 too willing to believe her husband's statement, yet 
 she could not forget what she had seen with her own 
 eyes. 
 
 " I don't want you to think me foolishly suspicious," 
 she said at length. " Only I couldn't help fancying 
 that you were attracted by this girl, and I wanted to 
 tell you that I could understand that that you may 
 have difficulties and temptations to contend with, 
 which you would naturally shrink from confiding to 
 me. I have often thought that to a man, and 
 particularly a man of your temperament, the calm 
 affection of married life must seem sober prose indeed 
 compared with the glamour and romance of dawning 
 love. Don't you remember the days when you and I 
 were just hovering on the borders of passion, when 
 everything was vague, tentative, uncertain, when our 
 silence said so much more than our speech, and when 
 the touch of our hands seemed to reveal hidden 
 secrets in life ? And don't you remember the first 
 word of love, how it altered the aspect of the whole 
 world ? and the first kiss, what a soul-shaking event 
 it was ? Nothing can ever equal the early spring of 
 love, and I can quite understand that a man, without 
 being naturally sensual or inconstant, may feel an 
 irresistible desire to repeat the experience." 
 
 She paused, but Adrian was staring into the fire, 
 and did not speak. 
 
 "Even I," she went on hesitatingly "yes, even I
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 201 
 
 a woman, and therefore by nature and training 
 colder and more self-restrained than a man, have 
 sometimes felt that if a lover, young, impetuous and 
 adoring as you were in early days, were to set himself 
 to win me from my allegiance, it might cost me a 
 sharp struggle to resist him, to shut my heart to all 
 the delights of unfamiliar tenderness, all the glories 
 of a newly-awakened love." 
 
 " You dare to tell me that ! " cried Adrian, the 
 blood rushing to his face. 
 
 " Perhaps it is foolish to be so frank, even with 
 one's husband. But I only wanted to show you that 
 I could enter into what seem to be very natural 
 feelings, and make allowance for involuntary weak- 
 nesses. If I knew that you were harassed and beset 
 by any temptation that you were trying to resist, I 
 should be so ready and willing to help you if I could. 
 I would not look for any signs of affection at such a 
 time, nor be hurt by any coldness or neglect. Only 
 let me know the truth, and you will never find me 
 hard or unforgiving. And if the warning does not 
 come too late, stop before you lead that poor pretty 
 thing into any trouble. It is easy to see that you 
 have won her fancy, and I should not imagine that 
 she had a very strong character, so that it is for you 
 to protect her against herself." 
 
 "You talk as if she were your sister," he said, 
 with rather a forced laugh. " But I tell you the 
 girl is nothing to me, nor I to her, so far as I
 
 2oa THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 know. So pray make your mind easy on the 
 subject." 
 
 " Of course, I believe you," she answered. " You 
 pride yourself on being a man of honour, and there- 
 fore you would not stoop to lie to a woman, even 
 though she is your wife." 
 
 He flushed slightly, and his eyes dropped before 
 hers, but he only answered carelessly 
 
 " That is a good, sensible girl. I knew you were 
 not likely to make a fuss about nothing ; I have 
 always found you willing to listen to reason."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 EARLY in the new year the time of trial came and 
 passed, and was straightway forgotten in the joy and 
 pride of motherhood. The child was a boy, as 
 Candida had hoped, the world being, as she some- 
 times said, not yet ripe for women. The young 
 mother had done marvellously well, according to 
 the doctor who attended her, and who, being a 
 conservative, old-fashioned man, felt but a grudging 
 admiration for her splendid physique and elastic 
 constitution. He was not at all sure that he approved 
 of such comparative immunity from pain and weak- 
 ness at the time of peril. In his opinion there was 
 something unfeminine about it ; the Churching service 
 would lose all meaning if the majority of women 
 were like Mrs. Sylvester, and the most lucrative 
 branch of the medical profession would be shorn of 
 much of its profit. Still, he could not deny that his 
 patient was as happy and devoted a mother as any 
 of the "womanly" women who so nearly slipped
 
 204 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 through his fingers, and wrung even his callous old 
 heart in their hour of agony, 
 
 ' When Candida was about again the Branksmead 
 party came up to spend the day, and make the 
 acquaintance of the new member of the family. The 
 boy, who was to be called Roland, after his grand- 
 father, had received unlimited admiration and 
 adulation of an undiscriminating nature from the 
 female members of his household, but his father had 
 hitherto held aloof, criticized the shape of his nose 
 and the size of his mouth, and positively refused to 
 handle him. But Mr. St. John, much to the young 
 mother's delight, took his grandson fearlessly in his 
 arms, examined his points, carefully measured him 
 from top to toe, and ordered up the kitchen scales to 
 weigh him in. When he was solemnly pronounced to 
 be three pounds heavier, and an inch and a half longer 
 than the normal male infant of his age, Candida 
 became as radiant as a young debutante who hears 
 that she has been adjudged the belle of her first ball. 
 
 "He will be just like you, father," she said "a 
 true St. John. Look what broad shoulders, and what 
 a deep chest he has. And his spine is so strong that 
 he tries to sit up already." 
 
 It was a material addition to Candida's happiness 
 that she was at ease for the moment about the extra 
 expenses entailed upon the household. Her god- 
 mother had sent her a cheque which covered the 
 doctor's and nurses' fees, and enabled her to lay by a
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 205 
 
 portion of her allowance to meet future calls upon 
 her purse. There was a nursemaid to be hired, a 
 baby-carriage to be bought, and then it was so hard 
 to pass unheeding those tempting shop-windows in 
 which were displayed the most fairy-like of em- 
 broideries, the daintiest of cloaks and hoods. Though 
 she sometimes fell a victim to vicarious vanity, she 
 restrained her extravagant impulses to the best of 
 her ability, for there were many necessary demands 
 upon her small means. Apparently the depression 
 still continued in the money-market^ for Adrian made 
 no proposal to contribute anything towards her 
 personal expenses. 
 
 " I can manage to pay the nurse's wages out of 
 my allowance as long as you are short of money," 
 she had told him, when that functionary was first 
 engaged. "But, of course, you will arrange with 
 your mother about payment for the extra expense 
 that we shall cause her. There is the nurse's board, 
 you know, and more should be paid for my keep for 
 some months to come." 
 
 " I will see to it ; you needn't trouble about it," 
 Adrian had replied. " In fact, I have already settled 
 the matter with my mother. You had better not 
 speak to her on the subject, as it only makes her 
 uncomfortable. By the way," he added after a pause, 
 "you must be rather dull now that you are tied at 
 home so much. Wouldn't you like to invite a friend 
 down here for a few days ? I dare say Mrs. Ferrars 
 14
 
 206 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 would come if you asked her ; Ted must be on 
 circuit just now." 
 
 Candida fell in with the suggestion readily enough, 
 feeling touched and grateful by her husband's thought- 
 fulness on her account. Sabina accepted the invita- 
 tion, and brought her pretty face, her smart frocks, 
 and her high spirits to enliven the little household 
 for the space of a week. She was looking par- 
 ticularly well, and seemed more contented than she 
 had been in the summer. Ted, she explained, was 
 very much improved ; in fact, he was turning into 
 quite a model husband. 
 
 . " He lets me go out as much as I like," she said ; 
 "pays my bills without a murmur, and never tries to 
 make me read improving books. He seems to have 
 made up his mind to take me as I am, and make the 
 best of me." 
 
 " I hope he gets rewarded for his good behaviour," 
 observed Candida. 
 
 " Oh yes, I always give him good dinners, and see 
 that his buttons are sewn on. He ought to be 
 satisfied, because men always give out that all they 
 want in a wife is a pretty good-tempered woman who 
 will attend to their creature comforts." 
 
 " Yes, but Ted is different from the average man," 
 said Candida, thoughtfully. " He used to have ideas 
 about making a companion of his wife ; he never 
 gave out that he wanted a useful toy or an 
 ornamental housekeeper."
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 207 
 
 "Well, that's very much what he has got," laughed 
 Sabina. " But, of course, the supply corresponds with 
 the demand, and the individual must expect to suffer 
 if his demands are above those of his fellows." 
 
 Adrian, who, in his character of host, had exerted 
 himself to entertain the visitor, and make her stay 
 agreeable to her, relapsed after her departure into 
 more unsociable ways. He seemed to take but the 
 faintest interest in his child, and spent the greater 
 part of his time in town. His health began to 
 deteriorate again, and Candida realized with bitter 
 disappointment that she no longer had the slightest 
 influence over him, and that the birth of their child 
 had not had the expected result of binding them 
 more closely together. Still, she had no overt wrong 
 to complain of. Her husband, when at home, was 
 invariably pleasant and courteous both to herself and 
 to his mother and sisters, but at the same time he 
 availed himself of every opportunity of escaping from 
 the domestic circle, and Candida could hardly bring 
 herself to blame him for his neglect. Now that love 
 had died out between them, the society of three 
 women and a baby must, she realized, prove insup- 
 portably dull to a man of his age and temperament. 
 
 This vaguely unsatisfactory period lasted for some 
 weeks, and then a new experience befell her. Adrian 
 had gone to dine at a bachelor-party given by a 
 stockbroker friend in the neighbourhood, and had 
 left orders that no one should sit up for him. About
 
 2 o8 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 two o'clock Candida, sleeping with her child in the 
 room that was now called the night-nursery, was 
 awakened by the sound of voices in the front garden, 
 and the turning of the key in the lock. 
 
 "There, now you're all right, aren't you, old 
 fellow ? " said a strange voice. " Good night. Hope 
 you won't be the worse for this to-morrow." 
 
 The door creaked on its hinges, and there was the 
 sound of uncertain steps in the hall below. Candida 
 listened for the scratch of a lucifer, but hearing 
 nothing but the noise of collisions with the hall 
 furniture, got up, fearing she scarcely knew what, and 
 went downstairs. She found her husband apparently 
 searching for the matchbox in the umbrella-stand. 
 
 " That you, my dear ? " he said with a curiously 
 pompous inflection on perceiving her. " Sorry to 
 have dish-disturbed you so late. Great deal of 
 business talk after dinner great deal great " 
 
 He gave a slight lurch towards her, but instantly 
 recovered himself, and stood more rigidly upright 
 than before. 
 
 " Couldn't find the mash-matchbox," he went on, 
 still with the same portentous solemnity of tone. 
 " It's such a such a silly mashbox." 
 
 He gave a sudden unexpected little titter, which 
 Candida, much to her own surprise, involuntarily 
 echoed. Her husband's condition was now only too 
 obvious, and her first sensation was one of relief that 
 the sight of him no more aroused in her a feeling
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 209 
 
 of scorn or disgust than would the sight of a delirious 
 fever patient, or an encounter with an " innocent " in a 
 village street. Had she still loved him the spectacle 
 of him as he now was might have gone near to 
 breaking her heart ; but as things were, only her 
 feminine instincts of compassion and helpfulness 
 were called forth by the sight of his infirmity, and 
 the efforts of the human in him to assert itself over 
 the fuddled brute, or, at least, to conceal the 
 fuddlement. Her only thought was how she could 
 best aid him in that pathetic struggle, support his 
 tottering self-respect, and keep up the illusion that 
 there was nothing unusual in his manner or appear- 
 ance. 
 
 "Yes, some matchboxes are silly," she agreed, 
 scarcely knowing what she said, so anxious was she 
 to "play up to him" in the squalid little drama. "I 
 will light your candle. You must be quite tired out 
 after so much business talk, and longing to get to 
 bed." 
 
 She put her hand under his arm, and guided his 
 uncertain steps to the foot of the staircase. With 
 the support of the banisters on one side, and herself 
 on the other, she thought that he would be capable 
 of making the ascent without any such noise as 
 would be likely to alarm the household. But, to her 
 dismay, he halted at the bottom of the flight, and 
 bent his knees as though he were about to sit down 
 on the lowest step.
 
 2io THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " Yes, very exhausting evening," he murmured in- 
 distinctly. " And most unsatis satisfractry. Some 
 of the other fellows took too mush mush too 
 mush to drink. Such a sad sight painful sight" 
 
 " Yes, it must have been," agreed Candida, holding 
 him on his feet by main force, for if once he sat down 
 she was afraid she would be unable to get him on 
 his legs again without assistance. " I am afraid you 
 are feeling a little faint I dare say the room was hot 
 but try and walk upstairs. You will be so much 
 more comfortable in bed, and I want to get back 
 to baby before he wakes." 
 
 Fortunately his natural instincts of courtesy and 
 compliance, so far from being destroyed, were rather 
 accentuated by his condition. The entreaty in his 
 wife's voice had power to reach his brain through the 
 fumes that obscured it. By a determined effort of his 
 half-stupefied will, he planted his foot on the first 
 stair, and, partly carried, partly dragged by his wife, 
 struggled up to the top with less noise than might 
 have been expected. 
 
 But even now Candida's troubles were not at an 
 end. The sight of the half-open door of the night- 
 nursery, and the light burning within, started a new 
 train of thought in her husband's mind. 
 
 " I want to go and say goo night to my little 
 son," he remarked in sentimental tones. "Just to 
 kish kiss him in his sleep." 
 
 " No, no ; you would wake him," said Candida,
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 211 
 
 hastily, shuddering at the very idea of that spirituous 
 breath scorching her baby's cheek. " Wait till to- 
 morrow morning." 
 
 "Oh, you are unkind," said Adrian, reproachfully, 
 as she guided him into his own room, " not to let me 
 k sh my little son." 
 
 He suddenly sat down on the end of the bed, and 
 burst into tears. Candida, recognizing that it would 
 be useless to reason with him, knelt down and pulled 
 off his muddy boots, while he sat with his hands 
 covering his face, and the tears streaming through 
 his ringers. When at length she had contrived, with 
 infinite toil and difficulty, to get him into bed, he 
 sank almost at once into a heavy, uneasy slumber. 
 Fearing to leave him alone, lest he should wake, and 
 try to light a candle, or wander about the house, she 
 opened the door into her own room, that she might 
 hear if her child cried, and then established her- 
 self in an armchair, where she sat till dawn, listen- 
 ing to the stertorous breathing of the man on the 
 bed. 
 
 The next morning Adrian did not make his appear- 
 ance at the breakfast-table. 
 
 " He was late last night," explained Candida. 
 " And he has a bad headache this morning. He will 
 be down presently, but he doesn't feel equal to going 
 up to town." 
 
 She threw a furtive glance at her mother-in-law, and 
 encountered another as furtive.
 
 212 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 "Adrian has always been subject to bad head- 
 aches," observed Mrs. Sylvester ; " and late hours 
 never did agree with him." 
 
 When at last Adrian made his appearance, Candida 
 could with difficulty express a shiver of disgust as she 
 noted his swollen bloodshot eyes and sodden skin. 
 His shaking hand could hardly carry his cup to his 
 mouth, and it was with difficulty that he choked down 
 a few morsels of dry toast. His mother and sisters 
 were full of pity for his evident sufferings, and Can- 
 dida felt that they regarded her as hard and callous 
 because she did not join the chorus of sympathy and 
 regret. 
 
 When at length she was left alone with her hus- 
 band, he looked up at her with a deprecatory smile. 
 
 " I'm afraid I gave you a lot of bother last night," 
 he said. " I can only urge as an excuse for my 
 conduct, that it's the first time I've come home like 
 that since we were married, and that's fifteen months 
 ago." 
 
 " You have been very considerate," she replied. 
 
 " You can't judge a man by a woman's standard, 
 you know," he went on. " At least, if you tried to 
 you'd make him less of a man than a molly-coddle." 
 
 She looked at him for a moment, but answered 
 nothing. He was quick enough to understand her 
 unspoken thought. 
 
 "You're thinking that I'm not a particularly 
 brilliant specimen of manhood this morning," he
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 213 
 
 said good-humouredly. " Well, I'm afraid I'm hardly 
 in a fit state to argue the point. I feel all head and 
 and no legs." 
 
 The amiability of his mood, taken in conjunction 
 with his obvious physical discomfort, did not fail to 
 make its impression on Candida's mind, in spite of 
 her natural feeling of repulsion and distaste. Her 
 sense of justice, no less than of generosity, urged her 
 to give credit where credit was due ; besides, the fact 
 that a man was down was, in her opinion, a reason 
 for giving him a fillip rather than a kick. 
 
 " You are the best-tempered person I ever met, 
 man or woman," she observed. " I hope our boy will 
 inherit a share of your amiability." 
 
 Adrian stared at her for a moment, scarcely able to 
 believe his ears, her character being as completely a 
 riddle to him as in the first hour of their acquaintance. 
 He had expected, been fully prepared for blame and 
 reproaches, but to hear instead of either an aspiration 
 that her idolized child might be like him in any par- 
 ticular, constituted a treatment that puzzled and 
 well-nigh alarmed him. 
 
 "The heir-apparent will be well-advised to take 
 after his mother," he said lightly. "You're a good 
 fellow, Candida ; most women would have nagged 
 my head off this morning. Ugh, that must have 
 been vile champagne of Warner's ; it couldn't have 
 been the whisky. We had liqueurs, though, and they 
 always play the deuce with me."
 
 214 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 He looked so sick and sorry, that the ministering 
 impulse awoke again in Candida's breast. 
 
 " You'd like some soda-water," she said. " I'll fetch 
 you a bottle. And hadn't you better lie down, and 
 have an eau-de-Cologne-and-water bandage on your 
 head ? Then if I read aloud to you for a little while 
 you'll probably go to sleep. That's how I used to 
 doctor Sabina when she had a headache." 
 
 "When she had been making a night of it, I 
 thought you were going to say," he laughed, as he 
 threw himself on the sofa. " Did our lovely Sabina 
 ever make a night of it, I wonder? Dear Candida," 
 he added, as she brought him the soda-water, " I'm 
 so awfully obliged to you for giving me a cooling 
 drink instead of a scolding. I can't think how you 
 can resist the temptation to say a word in season, 
 or something equally unpleasant, entirely for my own 
 good." 
 
 " I used to think a woman might influence a man 
 for his own good," she answered; " but that was when 
 I was a foolish inexperienced girl. I am wiser now. 
 If you can disregard the warnings your doctor has 
 given you, you will heed no words of mine."
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 EASTER fell late that year. The spring months had 
 been unusually sultry, and the small rooms at Forest 
 Lodge felt almost unbearably warm and close. 
 Candida began to long for a breath of country air, 
 both on her own account and upon that of her child, 
 whose cheeks were gradually losing their colour and 
 roundness. Branksmead was always open to her ; but 
 she shrank from going home now, knowing that she 
 could no longer meet her father's eyes, and assert that 
 she was still happy in her marriage. It was a great 
 relief, therefore, when Adrian announced one day that 
 a friend had offered to lend him a cottage in Surrey 
 for the Easter holidays. 
 
 " It's an out-of-the-way place, I believe," he said, 
 " and a long way from the station. But I'm told that 
 there's a large garden, and the air is said to be good." 
 
 "Oh, it sounds delightful!" cried Candida. "It will 
 be the very thing for Roley. I have been longing to 
 take him away somewhere." 
 
 " It will be precious dull," observed Adrian.
 
 216 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " Couldn't we ask some lively person to come and 
 cheer us up ? We shall have a spare room." 
 
 " I thought you would ask one of your sisters, if 
 there was room. Fanny would be the better for a 
 change." 
 
 " Good heavens ! " he exclaimed. " We don't want 
 to take the whole family with us when we go out for 
 a holiday. Besides, Fanny is going to stay with a 
 friend at Sutton, and Louisa will be wanted at home. 
 No ; can't you suggest some one who would keep up 
 our spirits and her own too? It had better be a 
 woman, because a man would be bored by the baby." 
 
 Candida considered for a moment. 
 
 " Most of my friends are working women, who 
 would only get a few days at Easter," she said. " I 
 can't think of any one except Sabina ; but I fancy 
 Ted would be at home, and she might not like to 
 leave him." 
 
 " Probably not," returned Adrian, carelessly. "But 
 it might be just worth while asking her. If she can't 
 come, we must try and find somebody else." 
 
 But, as it turned out, Sabina was able to accept the 
 invitation. Ted, it appeared, had arranged to go for 
 a walking tour with a couple of friends, so that she 
 would be left alone. She should thoroughly enjoy 
 having Candida and the dear baby all to herself. She 
 supposed that Mr. Sylvester would have to go up to 
 town nearly every day. 
 
 The holiday passed off pleasantly enough. The
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 217 
 
 cottage was comfortable, the neighbourhood abounded 
 in woods and commons, while the weather was suffi- 
 ciently accommodating to allow the visitors to spend 
 most of their time out of doors. Candida contented 
 herself for the most part with the garden and the 
 nearest lanes, where she could wheel Roley in his 
 carriage, while the others took long rambles and 
 explored the surrounding country. The only draw- 
 back to the outing was the fact that Sabina was 
 obliged to cut short her visit at the end of ten days, 
 and return to town. The servants had been quarrel- 
 ling, she explained, in response to entreaties that she 
 would stay till the end of the fortnight ; and there 
 was something wrong with the kitchen boiler. She 
 must get home before Ted, and see that the household 
 machinery was in working trim. 
 
 The blank left by the removal of her lively 
 presence was so keenly felt by the friends she had 
 deserted that both husband and wife found it some- 
 thing of a relief when the holiday came to an end, 
 and they returned to Forest Lodge. 
 
 As the weeks passed on, the shadow of a new 
 anxiety fell upon Candida. It became only too 
 evident that her mother-in-law was seriously pressed 
 for money. Ominous-looking blue envelopes arrived 
 by nearly every post ; the voices of protesting trades- 
 men were heard from time to time in the hall, and 
 the meals were more than ever insufficient. The new 
 nursemaid complained bitterly of the fare provided,
 
 218 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 and Candida, who herself was nearly always hungry, 
 was no longer able to supplement the housekeeping 
 out of her allowance. She kept silence as long as she 
 could; but when at last Roley began to look pale and 
 peaked, she felt that it was time to come to an under- 
 standing with her mother-in-law on the subject of the 
 household arrangements. 
 
 Her opportunity came one afternoon towards the 
 middle of June, when, the drawing-room door having 
 been left ajar, she involuntarily overheard an angry 
 monologue in the hall. 
 
 " I don't give no more credit till my bill is settled, 
 or something considerable paid on account," she heard 
 a coarse masculine voice proclaim. " I don't hold 
 with people calling theirselves ladies ordering in the 
 best joints regardless, and then keeping honest trades- 
 men out of their money. I've waited till I'm tired of 
 waiting ; and now 1 send in no more meat till my 
 account is settled. And if that ain't done pretty soon, 
 I'll take the matter into the county court." 
 
 There was a good deal more to the same effect ; 
 then the hall-door banged, and a moment afterwards 
 Mrs. Sylvester came into the drawing-room, her face 
 looking white and haggard, her thin hands trembling 
 visibly. Candida felt that to ignore the family skele- 
 ton any longer would only be false delicacy. 
 
 " I'm afraid you are a little troubled about about 
 money," she said gently. Does Adrian know? 
 Can't he be of some assistance ? "
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 219 
 
 " No, no ; it's only a little temporary embarrass- 
 ment," stammered her mother-in-law, flushing pain- 
 fully. " I do not like to trouble Adrian about it ; he 
 has anxieties enough of his own just now." 
 
 " But I think he ought to know," said Candida. "I 
 hope we are not the cause of any of your difficulties. 
 When Roley was born, I asked Adrian to arrange 
 about the extra expense with you, and he said that 
 he had made it all right ; but perhaps you and he may 
 have under-estimated matters. I know that I have 
 been an expensive person to keep during the last few 
 months." 
 
 " Oh, my dear, I'm sure you have been most good 
 and patient," answered Mrs. Sylvester, twisting her 
 fingers together nervously. " I know you can't have 
 had enough to eat, and the dear baby is beginning to 
 suffer. If it were not for that, I wouldn't say a word. 
 But I'm afraid it can't go on like this any longer, for 
 the tradespeople won't give any more credit, and we 
 must live. If we could only hold on for a few months, 
 no doubt it would come all right ; but, meanwhile, the 
 money is locked up, and I can't get at it" 
 
 Candida began to wonder whether her mother-in- 
 law had been indulging in a little private speculation, 
 and was afraid to confide in her son. 
 
 "If Adrian knew that you were pressed for money," 
 she suggested, " he might be able to pay the next 
 quarter in advance." 
 
 Mrs. Sylvester looked at her uncertainly.
 
 220 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " You see, my dear," she said, "business is a very 
 confusing thing, and you understand even less about 
 it than I do. Poor Adrian's money is all locked up 
 too, but he will make it all right as soon as the 
 market begins to improve again." 
 
 " All locked up ? " repeated Candida. " But then, 
 how does he manage to contribute to the household 
 expenses ? " 
 
 " Oh, he is most particular about that ; indeed, I 
 fear that he has been only too generous, but he says 
 that when he has a stroke of luck he wishes his old 
 mother to share in it. I have had the full equivalent, 
 and more ; I can show you all the papers." 
 
 " Equivalent ! Papers ! I'm afraid I am very 
 stupid, but I don't understand. Do you mind telling 
 me what Adrian really does contribute as our share 
 of the housekeeping expenses ? " 
 
 " At the rate of two hundred a year at present. It 
 was a hundred and fifty before the baby came. It's 
 too much really, because I never wanted to make a 
 profit out of you." 
 
 The sum seemed a sufficient one, for the house- 
 keeping was carried on on so modest a scale that she 
 doubted whether the whole expenditure amounted to 
 more than two hundred a year. But then, why these 
 difficulties ? 
 
 " But how does Adrian manage to give you two 
 hundred a year, if his money is all locked up ? " she 
 inquired.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 221 
 
 "Oh, it's perfectly safe, you know," was the 
 enigmatic reply. "It will soon be doubled, I believe; 
 anyhow, it's all accounted for, every penny of it." 
 
 " But where is it ? " asked Candida, beginning to 
 feel as if her brain would turn. 
 
 " In the company the Automatic Cork-drawing 
 Company. You see, Adrian had promised to take a 
 certain number of shares, and he very kindly let me 
 have some of them as an equivalent for his con- 
 tribution towards the housekeeping. Of course, it is 
 a splendid thing to be in, or will be in a very short 
 time. But I shall sell out as soon as I can find 
 a purchaser; I don't really care about a high 
 profit." 
 
 Candida felt herself turning cold and rigid. "Do 
 you mean to say," she asked, controlling herself by a 
 strong effort, " that you have been paid nothing in 
 money since we came to live here ? " 
 
 " Oh dear, yes, nearly up to the time that the 
 company was floated. Then, of course, Adrian 
 required all his ready money, so he very liberally 
 proposed to give me his contribution for a year in 
 advance in the form of shares." 
 
 "And have they gone up, or paid any interest 
 since you have had them ? " 
 
 " Well, no, not as yet. You see, it has been such a 
 dreadful year in the financial world, what with panics 
 and long-continued depression, which, of course, 
 Adrian could not possibly foresee. But when once
 
 222 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 they begin to move, he is confident that they will 
 increase in value very rapidly. I don't like to ask 
 him for an advance after he has behaved so hand- 
 somely, and yet I can't bear to think of you and the 
 baby suffering. I'm sure I don't know what is to be 
 done." 
 
 Candida was silent for a moment. A hot flush 
 dyed her cheek, and her eyes sparkled ominously. 
 
 " I will go up to town this afternoon, and see if I 
 can catch Adrian before he leaves the office," she 
 said. " He is generally detained late on a Monday. 
 He must raise money somehow to pay his debt to 
 you, for the shares may or may not be worth any- 
 thing in the future. Meanwhile, you shall be relieved 
 of the burden of baby and me ; I will take him down 
 to Branksmead to-morrow for the summer. By the 
 time the winter is here I shall be able to work, and 
 provide for him and myself. We will sponge on you 
 no longer." 
 
 Something in her voice struck terror into the old 
 lady's heart. 
 
 " You won't misjudge Adrian, or do anything 
 hastily ? " she pleaded. " A little holiday will do you 
 good, no doubt, and dear baby too. In a few weeks' 
 time things will have changed for the better, and 
 then you will come back, and we shall all be happy 
 and comfortable as before. Don't talk of anything 
 so dreadful as having to work for yourself and Roley ; 
 Adrian would never hear of it"
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 223 
 
 Candida shivered a little. To her mind the idea of 
 coming back to the old life now that her eyes had 
 been opened was quite intolerable, while the prospect 
 of freedom and independence won by her own work 
 shone out like a vision of bliss. 
 
 It was nearly six o'clock before she reached her 
 husband's office. The big building in which it was 
 situated looked nearly deserted, and charwomen were 
 sweeping some of the passages, but there was just 
 a chance that he might still be there. The outer 
 office was empty, but she fancied she could hear a 
 murmur of voices in the inner room. There was no 
 answer to her gentle tap, so she opened the door, 
 but stopped short on the threshold with a little 
 cry of surprise. Two persons, a man and a 
 woman, were standing in front of the fireplace, 
 locked in each other's arms. Evidently they had 
 been too much absorbed to hear her knock, but 
 at the sound of a step on the threshold they 
 sprang guiltily apart. The man was Adrian, but the 
 woman ? She had hastily let down a thick veil over 
 her face, and then, turning to the mantlepiece, had 
 leant against it, her head bowed upon her arms in 
 evident shame and terror. The shrinking attitude, 
 the quivering form, and the gasping breath that 
 heralded a burst of anguished weeping, struck pity 
 to the intruder's heart, for this was obviously no 
 hardened sinner, but some frail creature who had 
 been tempted beyond her strength. Acting on a
 
 224 
 
 sudden impulse, Candida sprang to the window, and 
 flinging up the sash, leant out. 
 
 " Run," she called over her shoulder. " I won't 
 look round. Run." 
 
 There was a faint swish of silken skirts, a light 
 patter of high-heeled shoes, and the sound of a 
 closing door. Candida waited for a moment to 
 assure herself that the fugitive had got safely off, 
 and then turned round and faced her husband.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FOR a moment the pair stood opposite each other 
 in silence. 
 
 " Say what you please to me," observed Adrian, at 
 length. "You cannot show more severity than I 
 deserve. Yet I should like to explain that things 
 are not quite so black as they seem, as you probably 
 think them. I admit that I was temporarily infatuated 
 by that that lady ; you told me once that you 
 could understand and make allowances for such a 
 weakness. Our relations were at first only those of 
 flirtation a romantic flirtation, I confess ; but as 
 matters grew more serious between us, she declared 
 that she felt it her duty to put an end to our friend- 
 ship, and never to see me again. I begged her to 
 grant me one favour, to come here to say good-bye, 
 that we might be alone together for the last time. 
 She came, and she gave me a farewell kiss : it was 
 the first as well as the last ; we were never to meet 
 again. The rest you know. She refused to let me 
 lock the door, and therefore we were found out,
 
 226 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 whereas a more guilty couple would probably have 
 escaped detection." 
 
 " I don't want to hear any more," remarked 
 Candida, coldly. " You don't suppose that I imagined 
 you were true to me all these months, do you ? But 
 I take no interest in the details of your love-affairs ; 
 in fact, your doings or misdoings have become a 
 matter of the utmost indifference to me. I desire 
 neither love nor faith from a man who has proved 
 himself a heartless swindler." 
 
 The last words sent the blood to his face like the 
 flick of a whip. 
 
 "Swindler! " he repeated angrily, "What do you 
 mean by that ? I may have been weak, may have 
 yielded to temptation, but I have never done anything 
 that was inconsistent with the character of a man of 
 honour, as men understand it." 
 
 " I have always understood that a man of honour 
 may break his oath to a woman, and even steal away 
 his friend's wife. Such trifles leave no stain upon 
 the dazzling purity of his character. But I never 
 heard that a man of honour was free to swindle his 
 own mother.' 1 
 
 " What are you talking about ? " he asked, the 
 colour fading from his face. "Will you please 
 explain yourself?" 
 
 " Do you think that women and children can eat 
 worthless shares, you man of honour ? " she demanded 
 ironically. " It is often said that women do not
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 227 
 
 understand the rules of honour that govern the 
 conduct of men. That is perfectly true. We neither 
 understand nor practise them, and I hope we never 
 shall." 
 
 " I suppose you allude to the fact that I paid my 
 mother for our share of the expenses in scrip instead 
 of in cash," he said, trying to control his face and 
 voice. "That was a private arrangement between 
 her and myself which she entered into entirely of her 
 own free will. If you knew anything about business 
 you would understand that I gave her what I 
 believed to be very good value for the money. I 
 quite expected that the shares would have doubled in 
 value before this, and so they would if the times 
 had not been so abnormally bad. But misfortune 
 scarcely deserves the name of swindling." 
 
 Candida laughed contemptuously. 
 
 " No, but misfortune is apt to fall upon a speculation 
 of the ' wild cat ' order. I have heard business men 
 discussing your cork-drawing company, and know 
 how it is regarded by the financial press. You took 
 advantage of your mother's ignorance and her trust 
 in you, to make her invest the money she so sorely 
 needed in a rotten undertaking. My father would 
 have been another victim if I had not put a spoke in 
 your wheel. Do you know that in consequence of 
 your little private arrangement your mother is being 
 insulted and bullied by the tradespeople every day, 
 that we haven't had enough to eat for weeks, and
 
 228 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 that your sisters are ashamed to visit their friends 
 because their clothes are so shabby ? Oh, it makes 
 my heart burn when I think how you and I and the 
 boy have been living like parasites on those poor 
 women, weighing them down and sucking them dry. 
 And you made me think that we were doing them a 
 favour in going to live with them, we who have nearly 
 broken their backs. However, there's an end of it all 
 now now that I am free." 
 
 " Free ! " he repeated. 
 
 "Yes, you don't suppose that I'm going to play the 
 part of blood-sucker any longer, do you ? We'll not 
 burden your mother another day, my boy and I. 
 Even if you could support me, you would have no 
 right to try and keep me with you. You no longer 
 care for me, and you never cared for the child. You 
 have no claim on us, and we make none on you. I 
 take Roley down to Branksmead to-morrow." 
 
 "And what if I refuse to let him go?" asked Adrian, 
 seeking for some means of revenging himself for the 
 smart her words had caused him. "The law gives 
 me full power over him, and none at all to you." 
 
 Candida turned on him like a tigress who fears an 
 attempt to rob her of her young. 
 
 " I defy you to take him from me," she cried, her 
 hands clenched and her eyes gleaming. " I'll keep 
 him though you and all the lawyers in England were 
 against me. What right have you to him ? I have 
 bought him and paid for him. Didn't I bear him
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 229 
 
 and care for him ? Haven't I fed him and clothed him ? 
 Isn't he a part of myself my very own flesh and 
 blood ? What do I care for the law ? I wouldn't give 
 him up if all the judges in England stood in a row 
 and demanded him from me. He is my own, and I 
 keep him." 
 
 "I never really thought of taking him from you/' 
 put in Adrian, glancing at her with a flicker of 
 admiration in his eyes. " I only meant to remind 
 you that I had some right to him too, but I agree 
 with you that it is a legal rather than a moral right. 
 I dare say you will both be much better without me. 
 I know I've behaved like a blackguard to you ; don't 
 imagine that I deny it. But I don't want you to 
 think worse of me than I deserve. Believe me or not 
 as you please, I honestly thought that the company 
 would turn out a good speculation ; I mean, I felt 
 convinced that we could very soon clear out at a 
 profit And I never realized that my mother was so 
 hampered for money ; things always seemed pretty 
 comfortable when I was at home, and I thought she 
 was such a good manager that she could tide over 
 this little difficulty until I was able to pay her again. 
 I simply haven't known which way to turn for money. 
 I've been at my wit's end. For the rest, I've nothing 
 to say except that I know you've found me a bad 
 bargain, and I admit that you are within your right 
 to be unforgiving." 
 
 Candida was silent for a moment.
 
 230 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " Perhaps I may have judged you too harshly and 
 too hastily," she said. " If so, I beg your pardon. 
 And I have no right to be unforgiving on my own 
 account. I do forgive you fully and freely for any 
 wrong you may have done to myself. It may be 
 that I was to blame for your ceasing to love me so 
 soon. Another woman more skilled in feminine wiles 
 and coquetries might have kept you true to her ; I 
 was ignorant of all such arts. But now, before we part, 
 let me beg you, if you have still a shadow of regard 
 fcTr me, or any memory of the days when we were all 
 in all to each other, to grant me one last request. 
 Raise money, no matter how, and put an end to the 
 difficulties and anxieties that are slowly killing your 
 mother. I have some necklaces, bracelets, and other 
 trumpery that might fetch a little money ; I will 
 leave them behind if you will dispose of them for 
 her. Good-bye. I need not ask you to remain in town 
 to-night. By midday to-morrow I shall be gone." 
 
 " Good-bye," he answered reluctantly. " I will get 
 the money somehow, without selling your jewels, I 
 hope You are quite right to leave me; I have 
 brought you nothing but trouble and disappointment. 
 Well, I hope you will be happy and prosperous now 
 that you are rid of me, you and the boy too." 
 
 His voice shook, and his hand trembled as he 
 clasped hers for the last time, for his facile nature 
 was easily moved to emotion, and he felt a keen self- 
 pity as well as some faint idea of the value of the
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 231 
 
 love he had thrown away, as Candida passed slowly 
 from the room. Alone ! deserted by his wife, robbed 
 of his child, neither Benedick nor bachelor it seemed 
 a cruel fate, even though he might be said to have 
 brought it on himself. His fine eyes grew dim as he 
 stood gazing into the empty fireplace, and wondered 
 how such a well-meaning fellow as himself had 
 managed to make such a mess of his life. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Twenty-four hours later, Candida, with Roley on 
 her knee, was being driven through the shady lanes 
 that lay between the station and her home. She was 
 inclined to condemn herself for the buoyancy of her 
 spirits and the exquisite sense of freedom that filled 
 her heart. But it was impossible to be gloomy or 
 downcast in view of the fact that she belonged to 
 herself once again, that the time of her bondage, 
 first to passion and afterwards to wifely duty, was 
 over, as she believed, for ever. 
 
 Her father and mother received her with anxious, 
 mystified faces, for her letter and telegram had told 
 little except that she was coming for a long visit. 
 
 " Please don't look so serious," she said, as they sat 
 together under the trees. " I have eloped with Rolcy, 
 as you see, but I can't tell you all the circumstances 
 that led to the rash act. A difficulty about money 
 was the chief reason that made me leave home, for 
 I am not going back again. Adrian has been un- 
 fortunate in business, and we have agreed to part"
 
 232 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " But this is only a temporary arrangement, I hope," 
 said her mother. "When Adrian's affairs improve 
 you will go back to him. A wife's place is beneath 
 her husband's roof." 
 
 " He has never given me a roof. No, this is a per- 
 manent arrangement. I have other reasons for taking 
 this step which I cannot tell you. I made a mistake 
 in thinking that I could make Adrian happy, that he 
 really needed me. Father, you have a perfect right 
 to say ' I told you so.' " 
 
 " I will forego that privilege for the present," he 
 replied. "Indeed, I scarcely feel that I have the 
 right when I see how well and cheerful you are 
 looking. You may have suffered shipwreck, but I 
 expect that you have already set about building a 
 raft." 
 
 "Yes, and I have precious salvage," she said, with 
 a glance at her boy, who was sitting contentedly on 
 his grandmother's knee. " Thanks to your uncon- 
 ventional ideas, father, I'm still afloat. If it hadn't 
 been for the opportunities you gave me, baby and I 
 would have been floundering in the water, and deep 
 water too." 
 
 " You intend to return to your former profession ? " 
 asked Mr. St. John. 
 
 "Yes. Miss Mason told me when I left that she 
 had no doubt of being able to find me an opening 
 should I ever desire to take up my work again, and I 
 have already written to her to tell her of my changed
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 233 
 
 prospects. We shall be very glad to stay here during 
 the summer months, Roley and I, but when the 
 autumn comes we must go out into the world again, 
 and begin our work." 
 
 Two or three days later Candida came running out 
 to her father, who was working in the garden, with an 
 open letter in her hand. 
 
 " Read that," she cried triumphantly. " My raft is 
 built, the sail is rigged, and the flag is flying." 
 
 The letter was from Miss Mason, and contained an 
 offer of the post of head instructor of a branch gym- 
 nasium which was to be established at Westminster 
 under the same management as that at Bloomsbury. 
 The salary would begin at a hundred and fifty a year, 
 with a percentage on the net profits. 
 
 " Well, that sounds promising," said Mr. St. John, 
 when he had read the letter. " I suppose it is the 
 best thing that could happen to you under the cir- 
 cumstances." 
 
 " Of course it is. I have the chance of making a 
 fresh start, and beginning life over again. That is 
 better luck than falls to the lot of most people who 
 have made a big mistake." 
 
 " Beginning life over again ? Yes ; but with a 
 weight chained to your leg." 
 
 " A weight ? Do you mean Roley ? " 
 
 " No ; I was thinking of your marriage vow, which 
 condemns you, a young, healthy woman, to lead a 
 single life."
 
 234 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " I've had quite enough of marriage, thank you," 
 said Candida. " I shall be perfectly contented with 
 platonic relations in the future." 
 
 " Ah, you think that now because you have had an 
 unfortunate experience. But men are not all alike, 
 and in time your wounds will heal. It troubles me to 
 think of your anomalous position neither maid, wife, 
 nor widow." 
 
 " No, but woman, mother, worker. Isn't that 
 position definite enough ? Ah, here comes Roley 
 with his new playmates." 
 
 The boy was carried out by old Lester's daughter 
 Margaret, who had been promoted to the office of 
 nurse. He was laughing and crowing with delight at . 
 the antics of some setter puppies that were leaping up 
 and trying to lick his face. 
 
 " Isn't he a jolly fellow? " said Candida, laying him 
 on the grass, and letting him roll about with the 
 puppies. " Look, he's not a bit afraid of the dogs. He 
 has got quite sunburnt already from being out of 
 doors so much the last few days. You really must 
 weigh and measure him again, father." 
 
 Mr. St. John looked at her, instead of at the baby. 
 
 " I haven't yet said, ' I told you so,' " he remarked 
 irrelevantly. " You don't give me the opportunity. 
 You look happier and handsomer than you ever did 
 in your life before. I don't believe you repent not 
 having taken my advice." 
 
 " No, I don't. How can I ? I have gained so much
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 235 
 
 more than I have lost. First, there's Roley, and then 
 there's the experience, to say nothing of most valuable 
 lessons in keeping my temper and holding my tongue." 
 
 " Ah, but you might have had all those and a good 
 husband to boot, as husbands go. However, if you 
 are satisfied, it is not for me to complain. Have you 
 had any communication with Forest Lodge since you 
 left?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Candida, her face clouding over. " I 
 have heard from Mrs. Sylvester and the girls. They 
 think it dreadfully wicked of me to leave my husband, 
 and are scandalized at the idea of my working for a 
 living. They seem to fancy that it will cast a stigma 
 gn him. Poor things, I'm very sorry ; but if they 
 knew all, I'm sure they would think that I had taken 
 the best the only possible course."
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 WITH the passing of summer, Candida went back to 
 town, leaving her boy at Branksmead until she could 
 build a new nest for him. A month's steady practice 
 at the Bloomsbury Gymnasium restored to her a good 
 measure of her former strength and skill, so that by 
 the end of October, when the new establishment was 
 opened, she was able to begin her reign with con- 
 fidence and courage. The three rooms that she and 
 Sabina had occupied being vacant, she hired them 
 temporarily, since they would just contain herself and 
 her belongings. When the scanty furniture, which 
 was all she could afford, had been brought in, and she 
 had settled down to her new existence, she could 
 hardly believe that the past two years, with her mar- 
 riage and her life at Herne Vale, had not been some 
 strangely vivid dream. If it were not for the little 
 crib that stood beside her bed, she would have fancied 
 herself a girl again, with all her life before her. 
 
 The opening of the new Westminster Gymnasium 
 ushered in a prolonged period of hard and responsible
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 237 
 
 work. The organization of the new institution was 
 left entirely in her hands, and all arrangements were 
 submitted to her, while her assistants had to be 
 initiated into her ways, the hours for classes and 
 private pupils fitted in, and a "good connection" 
 gradually built up. But although a busy time, it 
 was also a very happy and satisfying one, so that 
 past troubles were practically forgotten in the joy of 
 successful accomplishment. To rise in the morning 
 to the knowledge that a day filled with the delightful 
 rush of congenial work lay before her ; to come home 
 at night honestly tired and gloriously hungry ; to 
 spend long evenings in renewing her acquaintance 
 with some of her old studies, rendered more than ever 
 fascinating now by the thought that she was preparing 
 herself to help Roley on his way to knowledge ; to 
 have no time for memories or regrets ; all this made 
 up a lot which, in her eyes, was bliss itself compared 
 with the ordinary feminine existence. 
 
 A few months rolled away without bringing much 
 change to our heroine's circumstances, except that as 
 order was gradually introduced into her domain, and 
 experiment gave way to system, she was able to 
 devote more time to the claims of friendship and of 
 society. All links with the short period of her married 
 life had been broken off. Her mother-in-law, she 
 knew, had died in the spring, and the two daughters, 
 left with the tiniest of spinster pittances, had gone to 
 
 live in a cottage in the country, under the wing of 
 16
 
 238 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 some more prosperous relations. Rumours about her 
 husband reached her from time to time. According 
 to the latest, he was in ill-health, had dissolved his 
 partnership, and gone abroad. 
 
 Of her oldest friends, the Ferrars, she had seen 
 scarcely anything since her return to town. She could 
 seldom spare the time to take a journey to Hamp- 
 stead, and Sabina was apparently too full of more 
 important engagements to be able to accept an 
 invitation to tea ; so that, without any quarrel or 
 misunderstanding, they had gradually drifted further 
 and further apart. One evening, however, towards 
 the beginning of her second winter in town, Candida, 
 hastening up St. Martin's Lane, on her way home to 
 tea, suddenly found herself face to face with Ted. 
 
 " Why, Candida," he cried, with a start of pleasure, 
 " is that really you ? What ages it is since we have 
 met ! I have often thought of paying you a visit on 
 my own account, only I knew I was not likely to find 
 you at home. And you haven't been to Hampstead 
 for months." 
 
 " No, because Sabina is never at home," laughed 
 Candida. "She seems to work quite as hard at 
 society as any of us at our professions. I have often 
 regretted that we have lost touch of each other so 
 completely ; but I felt shy of asking her to come and 
 see me, because I fancied she would think it slow. 
 But won't you come together some Sunday say, 
 next Sunday?"
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 239 
 
 "I shall be delighted," said Ted. "And I will 
 bring Sabina, if she has no other engagement ; but 
 she has blossomed into such a very fashionable lady, 
 that she is almost monopolized by so-called society." 
 
 " Tell me about yourself, Ted," said Candida, as he 
 turned and walked beside her. " You are not looking 
 very well. I expect you are overdoing the work." 
 
 " I have to work hard," he said curtly, " and play 
 hard too. I don't like to let Sabina go everywhere 
 alone, and she never seems to care to stay quietly 
 at home. Sometimes I think " he hesitated 
 " sometimes I'm afraid that she must be unhappy 
 about something. She is so restless, so eager for 
 excitement ; it looks almost as though she were afraid 
 to allow herself time to think. Yet I have done my 
 best to make her happy, poor girl. It may be that 
 she is fretting because she has no child." 
 
 Candida looked thoughtful. 
 
 M It is a pity that married persons so seldom have 
 the courage to tell each other their secret troubles," 
 she said. " Sabina is the sort of creature to have 
 trials and temptations such as would never occur to 
 prosaic, every-day folk like you and me. However, 
 bring her to see me, and I will try to win her 
 confidence again." 
 
 When Sunday came, Ted arrived, according to his 
 promise, but alone He looked so strange and unlike 
 himself that his hostess's words of welcome died away 
 upon her lips.
 
 240 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA, 
 
 "You you haven't brought Sabina," she stam- 
 mered. 
 
 " Sabina has left me," he answered mechanically. 
 " She's gone away." 
 
 " Left you ! " repeated Candida, aghast " You don't 
 mean that " 
 
 " I know nothing beyond the fact," he said. 
 "Yesterday no, I suppose it was the day before 
 we had a quarrel. I thought she had been indiscreet, 
 had encouraged a man I distrusted, against whom 
 I had warned her. I lost my temper, and said 
 some harsh things to her, and she you know how 
 sensitive she was how she never could bear an 
 unkind word. Perhaps she was frightened, or she 
 may have been wounded by my suspicions. Anyway, 
 when I came home last evening I found her gone." 
 
 " Did she leave no note or message ? " 
 
 " Yes, there was a note, begging me not to try and 
 find her, and telling me I should be much happier 
 without her, as she saw I no longer loved her." 
 
 " But have you done nothing taken no steps to 
 find her?" 
 
 " I have done all I could. I went to that brute's 
 chambers, and was told that he had just gone abroad. 
 I am afraid there is no doubt that she went with him. 
 I can do no more. I did my best to make her happy, 
 and I failed ; the experiment is at an end. I will 
 give her her freedom if she desires it ; the man may 
 marry her."
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 241 
 
 " Oh, poor Sabina ! " cried Candida. " I still can't 
 believe that she is really guilty. She may have been 
 foolish and imprudent, and perhaps your anger 
 frightened her, as you say, and drove her away from 
 you. Remember what a nervous, excitable creature 
 she always was. She may be in hiding somewhere 
 at this moment, longing for you and her home, yet 
 without the courage to go back and ask you to 
 forgive her." 
 
 " It would be too late," he said sternly. " My 
 patience is at an end. I will give her money should 
 she need it, but she is no longer my wife. She left 
 me of her own free will, and now the door is shut." 
 
 Candida looked at him sadly. 
 
 " It is such a pity," she said. " I wish I could help 
 you and her too. But I suppose I can do nothing." 
 
 "You can let me come and see you sometimes," 
 he said. " We are both lonely souls now, only you 
 have your boy, and I have no one." 
 
 " Come as often as you like," said Candida. " Only 
 promise me to think as kindly as you can of Sabina. 
 I hope that all may yet be well between you and her." 
 
 He shook his head gloomily, and bade her 
 good-bye. 
 
 The following Saturday he came again, to report 
 that, having heard nothing more of his wife, he had 
 determined to put his house into the hands of an 
 agent, and take chambers in or near the Temple. 
 He asked leave to come again the next day ; he was
 
 242 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 miserable alone in his empty house, he said, and he 
 shrank from going into society or to his club. He was 
 so obviously restless and depressed that Candida 
 thought the kindest thing she could do would be to give 
 him a general invitation to come and see her as often as 
 he felt inclined. If she could lead him to resume his 
 youthful habit of discussing with her the books he 
 was reading, and the ideas that were occupying his 
 mind, nothing would serve more effectually to distract 
 his thoughts from the troubles of the present Then, 
 from time to time, she could put in a word for Sabina, 
 and try to persuade him to renew his efforts to find 
 her. 
 
 This plan answered even better than she had 
 expected, and Ted's visits gradually increased in 
 number and length, especially after he had taken up 
 his abode in the Temple, until at last it came to be 
 regarded as a matter of course that he should spend 
 his Sundays and his leisure evenings with his old 
 friend in Blake Street. 
 
 "This is quite like old times," he said one night, as 
 he leant back in his chair with a sigh of content after 
 a stimulating argument over the merits of a new 
 drama, which had lately delighted one half of the 
 public, and scandalized the other. " Do you remember 
 our long talks years ago in the fields at Branksmead ? 
 There are some books that I can never open to this 
 day without being reminded of the wood or meadow 
 where you and 1 read or discussed them together.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 243 
 
 Every page is illustrated with memory landscapes, or 
 vignettes of you with your eyes sparkling and your 
 hair blowing in the wind. I can remember your 
 ideas and opinions as clearly as if they were printed 
 as marginal annotations to the book. Ah, those 
 were the happiest days I have ever kno\vn." 
 
 "We were young and foolish then," Candida 
 answered, smiling. "We lived in the present, and 
 the future was one big hope." 
 
 Roley, now more than two years old, was a constant 
 source of pleasure and amusement to the deserted 
 husband, who seldom refused the young man's 
 demands to come and play at "gee-gees," the one 
 game of which he never tired. 
 
 " Roley comes of a long line of fox-hunting 
 squires," his mother used to say laughingly. " And 
 he doesn't belie his pedigree. The worst of it is that 
 Margaret Lester, being her father's daughter, en- 
 courages his taste for horseflesh. She told me with 
 pride the other day that Master Roley had a wonder- 
 ful eye for the points of a horse, and that he nearly 
 jumps out of his perambulator at the sight of a beast 
 with fine action." 
 
 The winter melted into spring, and with the passing 
 of time the pleasant comradeship became only more 
 firmly cemented. The couple made country ex- 
 peditions together, went on the river together, visited 
 the theatres together, squabbled, chaffed, talked end- 
 less "shop," or maintained a companionable silence,
 
 244 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 in the manner that is only possible between friends of 
 long standing and close intimacy. 
 
 The remembrance of the troubled waters through 
 which both had lately passed grew gradually fainter, 
 and life regained its former zest and savour, so that 
 for the moment they were content with the unthink- 
 ing, unconscious contentment which is the one really 
 enviable condition of human existence. 
 
 Unfortunately, such pleasant and peaceful relations 
 are seldom of long continuance between a man and a 
 woman, for though the woman may sometimes know 
 when she is well off, the man usually wants to "go 
 one better." The world, again, is seldom inclined to 
 leave an innocently happy couple in peace ; perhaps 
 because it is jealous of the happiness, and therefore 
 wishes to throw doubts upon the innocence. In this 
 case it was the world in the person of Mrs. Spalding, 
 the wife of a member of the Gymnasium Committee 
 of Management, that was the cause of all the 
 mischief. 
 
 Mrs. Spalding was a lady whose sole idea of duty 
 consisted of saying and doing things that were 
 unpleasant to other people. Her sense of duty would 
 impel her to inform her friends that their conduct was 
 being made the subject of disagreeable comment, but 
 never led her to repeat a compliment. To her ears 
 came the rumour that Mrs. Sylvester was making 
 herself conspicuous with a young man. The word 
 "conspicuous" in the social sense, has, of course, only
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 245 
 
 one meaning, and that an evil one. Consequently, 
 Mrs. Spalding felt that it was her duty to inform her 
 young friend of the scandal that was busy with her 
 name. 
 
 ' You see a good deal of that Mr. Ferrars, don't 
 you, dear ? " she said in the course of a Sunday after- 
 noon call on Mrs. Sylvester. 
 
 Ted had been present when she arrived, but she 
 had sat him out with inflexible determination. 
 
 " Yes, I see him nearly every day," answered 
 Candida. " We are very old friends." 
 
 Mrs. Spalding shook her head mournfully. 
 
 " Ah, friendship is a beautiful thing," she murmured. 
 " What a pity it is that the world is so censorious. 
 It never can be brought to believe in friendship when 
 the friends are young and of different sexes." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " asked her hostess, bluntly, 
 for there was innuendo in the visitor's tone and look as 
 well as in her words. 
 
 " Well, dear, you know how unkind people are, how 
 ready they are to gossip about young women in your 
 position. A wife who is separated from her husband 
 has to be doubly careful if she would escape calumny. 
 And then Mr. Ferrars' wife having left him I'm 
 afraid some people think that you are consoling each 
 other. Of course, I don't believe a word of it," she 
 added hastily. " I have every confidence in you, 
 and so has my husband. Still, I thought it was only 
 right you should know what was being said, in order
 
 246 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 that you might be just a little more careful in the 
 future." 
 
 Candida sat looking straight in front of her for a 
 moment, a deep flush standing in her cheeks. Her 
 friendship was spoilt now, tarnished and poisoned by 
 the world's venomous breath ; that beautiful friend- 
 ship which had brought so much comfort and bright- 
 ness into her life. She realized its full value now for 
 the first time. 
 
 "Thank you," she said at length, speaking almost 
 mechanically. " I will remember what you have told 
 me. I will be more careful." 
 
 The visitor having accomplished her mission, 
 presently departed. But Candida sat still, with her 
 chin on her hand, lost in thought. What was to 
 happen now ? Was she to give up Ted in obedience 
 to the world's mandate ? No, that was absurd, im- 
 possible. A real true friendship was too precious a 
 thing to be sacrificed just because a few evil-tongued, 
 evil-minded persons chose to chatter. Even as she 
 came to that decision she shivered at the bare thought 
 of the chatter. She was no longer independent of the 
 world, she could no longer face with contemptuous 
 indifference the shafts of the scandal-mongers, for 
 Roley's mother, like Caesar's wife, should be above 
 suspicion. 
 
 A compromise naturally suggested itself. Perhaps 
 she had been injudicious in seeing so much of Ted, 
 since persons as well as actions are apt to become a
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA, 247 
 
 habit. They must not meet so often in future ; once 
 a week, or, better still, once a fortnight, would be 
 quite enough. She would announce her decision to 
 Ted next time he came, and that would certainly be 
 to-morrow. Yes, she really had been rather impru- 
 dent, more especially since her capacity for earning a 
 livelihood depended upon the blamelessness of her 
 character. If it were true that the man who had a 
 wife and children had given hostages to fortune, it 
 was no less certain that the woman who became a 
 mother gave hostages to Mrs. Grundy. 
 
 The following evening Ted arrived earlier than 
 usual, for he was full of a new literary project that he 
 had undertaken. This was a series of articles for a 
 legal review upon the differences in the laws as they 
 affect the two sexes, and the causes, both historical 
 and psychological, that had led to such differences. 
 In this work he was anxious to have Candida's advice 
 and assistance. 
 
 The hour grew late, and still Ted turned over the 
 leaves of his manuscript, quoted acts and clauses, and 
 made notes or emendations in accordance with the 
 suggestions of his companion. Nothing could have 
 been more innocent or less sentimental than their 
 intercourse, in which even a Mrs. Spalding could have 
 found no ground for criticism. 
 
 " Well, I suppose I ought to be going," said Ted, at 
 length, getting up with a sigh of regret " We seem 
 to be always saying good-bye."
 
 248 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " That is because we meet so often," returned Can- 
 dida, thinking that here was a good opportunity for 
 explaining the change that she was about to make in 
 the manner of their intercourse. " If we only met 
 once a week, we should only say good-bye once a 
 week." 
 
 " That fact is quite indisputable," said Ted, laugh- 
 ing. " You might add that if we never met we should 
 never have to say good-bye. But my objection to 
 saying good-bye to you is not strong enough to lead 
 me to renounce your society." 
 
 Candida considered for a moment. When it came 
 to the point, she found that it was not so easy to in- 
 form Ted of her decision as it had seemed the evening 
 before, and she felt a little nervous as to the way in 
 which he would receive it. 
 
 "If you don't mind," she began hesitatingly, "I 
 think it might be as well if we didn't meet quite so 
 often, for the present, at least Once a fortnight 
 would really be often enough." 
 
 Ted turned upon her eyes full of reproachful 
 surprise. 
 
 "You are getting tired of me?" he asked sadly. 
 " I have worn out even your patience and kindness ? 
 And all the time I thought that we were such good 
 friends, that you really enjoyed our palavers almost 
 as much as I did myself. Well, that only shows what 
 a blind idiot a man can be, how easily he is taken in 
 by a woman. As long as she listens to him kindly,
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 249 
 
 and pretends to enjoy his society, he never notices 
 how often she yawns behind her hand, how bored she 
 is with him and his egoistic chatter." 
 
 " Oh, don't talk like that," cried Candida, throwing 
 prudence to the winds, and relapsing into her native 
 frankness. " I never get tired of my friends, and I 
 am sure I shall miss our talks quite as much as you, 
 if not more. It is not on my own account that* 
 I have proposed this change, but the fact is that I 
 heard that that people were talking were saying 
 that you and I saw too much of each other." 
 
 " The old cats ! " exclaimed Ted, savagely. " What 
 business is it of theirs ? Besides, people always talk 
 about everybody. You don't mean to say that you 
 paid any attention to that cackle ? " 
 
 " I had to, because Mrs. Spalding spoke to me 
 about it, and her husband is on the committee of 
 management. There is Roley to be thought of, you 
 know." 
 
 "Well, what do you intend to do?" he asked 
 grimly. " Send me to the right-about ? " 
 
 " No, there can be no necessity for that. But for 
 the present we had better not see each other more 
 than once a fortnight or thereabouts, instead of nearly 
 every day." 
 
 " How calmly you arrange it all, he said, with a 
 bitter laugh. " Evidently it is no more to you than 
 if you had settled to have fish for dinner once a 
 fortnight instead of every day. I suppose that
 
 250 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 women cannot feel friendship any more than love in 
 the degree that men do." 
 
 " No ; but women prefer half a loaf to no bread, 
 while men demand all or nothing." 
 
 " I don't think you can accuse me of having 
 demanded all or nothing," returned Ted. " However, 
 if you have determined to reduce my half loaf to an 
 'occasional crust, I suppose that I must submit. 
 When do you propose to bestow the next few crumbs 
 upon me?" 
 
 " Now, don't be absurd and unreasonable, because 
 that only makes things harder for me. Let us make 
 up our minds to be patient, and wait for the good 
 time when we shall be old enough to do as we like." 
 
 " And too old to enjoy doing anything," he an- 
 swered moodily. " Why can't people live and let 
 live, instead of martyrizing themselves and each other 
 in the name of some ridiculous fetish called society ? " 
 
 " That fetish may seem ridiculous to a man," said 
 Candida, "but it is powerful enough to ruin a 
 woman. " So good-bye till this day fortnight."
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE fortnight passed with leaden footsteps. Candida 
 was surprised, almost alarmed, to find how keenly 
 she missed her companion of the past few months. 
 Roley had been sent to Branksmead for change of 
 air, so that she was doubly alone. Her heart had 
 long since recovered from the wound that had been 
 dealt it, and her healthy nature had recovered its 
 elasticity, while, like most women of strong vitality, 
 she craved for human sympathy and human com- 
 panionship more ardently than her sisters of slower 
 pulse and colder blood. Mentally and physically she 
 had now reached her prime, and, complete woman as 
 she was, neither her work nor even her boy could 
 wholly fill her mind, nor satisfy the hunger of her 
 heart. 
 
 As the time crept slowly by, she found herself 
 continually thinking of Ted, and counting the days 
 to his next visit. In vain she chid herself for this 
 f Uy a folly for which she held Mrs. Spalding mainly 
 accountable, since, if that lady had not occasioned
 
 252 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 this sudden break in their intercourse, it would have 
 flowed serenely on, and she would never have thought 
 of Ted otherwise than as her old friend, almost her 
 brother. Now, she was always wondering what he 
 was doing, whether he was thinking of her, whether 
 he was very dull without her. She had always appre- 
 ciated his society, but now she became vividly con- 
 scious of his good points. How thoughtful and careful 
 he always was of her comfort when they went about 
 together ; her conscience smote her as she remembered 
 that she had sometimes laughed at him for his fussi- 
 ness. How kind he had been to Roley, too ; Roley 
 would miss his playfellow sadly when he came back 
 to town. Then, however busy he might be, he was 
 always ready to advise her in her difficulties, and to 
 sympathize with her about her worries. Lastly, 
 he had kept her in touch with the world of men, 
 told what people were saying and thinking, insisted 
 on her keeping herself au conrant with the litera- 
 ture of the day, carried her off to see the best plays 
 and pictures, in a word, had prevented her from 
 letting herself go to rust, as a woman is apt to 
 do when she lives alone, and has no intimate men 
 friends. 
 
 The night before their next meeting she lay awake 
 for hours, longing for the dawn, and when the day 
 arrived it seemed as long as the whole fortnight that 
 had preceded it. But at length came evensong, and 
 with it Ted. A strange shyness fell upon the friends
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 253 
 
 as they greeted each other once more ; it seemed as 
 if some invisible barrier had been raised between them. 
 At first they talked rapidly and nervously upon 
 indifferent topics, but little by little their unnatural 
 fluency deserted them, and presently they relapsed 
 into silence. For a few moments they sat side by 
 side in the dimly lighted room, each thinking, or rather 
 feeling, what could not be put into words. It was 
 Ted who first broke the silence. 
 
 " It seems a hundred years since last Sunday week," 
 he observed, speaking for -the first time in natural 
 tones. 
 
 Candida answered nothing, though her heart beat 
 a quick assent. 
 
 "I thought the fortnight would never end," he 
 went on. " I dare say you'll think me very foolish, 
 but last night I couldn't sleep for thinking that I was 
 to see you again so soon, and all to-day I have been 
 feeling as if the evening would never come. I don't 
 suppose you can understand it, because you have 
 your boy, and plenty of friends besides. You are 
 not so dependent on my society as I am on yours. 
 I never realized how much our friendship meant to 
 me until I was suddenly deprived of it. I feel now 
 like a starving man, who can only look forward to a 
 meal every other week. Perhaps it would be kinder 
 to put him out of his misery once and for all." 
 
 " He has the remedy in his own hands," she 
 answered, speaking the more coldly for the difficulty 
 17
 
 254 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 that she had in steadying her voice. It seemed so 
 hard that he should be sad and solitary when she 
 would so gladly give him comfort and companion- 
 ship. 
 
 "Then you wouldn't care if there were an end of 
 it all," he answered bitterly, for his ear was not fine 
 enough to detect the quaver in her voice. " No, I 
 don't believe you would. You are as hard and cold 
 and cautious as the rest of your sex. Women only 
 consider what people will say, and what people will 
 think. When it comes to a choice between prudence 
 and friendship, they don't hesitate to choose pru- 
 dence. They will throw over their best friends any 
 moment at the world's bidding." 
 
 "I know," she said proudly. "Because we can 
 hold our tongues and control our passions, you say 
 that we have no hearts, just as some modern scientists 
 imagine that we feel pain less keenly than men, 
 because we bear it with more fortitude. Well, you 
 shall have the whole truth for once from a woman's 
 lips, but you will have only yourself to thank if my 
 frankness puts an end to our friendship for ever 
 Listen, then. I, too, have felt as if the past fortnight 
 were a hundred years a hundred hundred years ; I, 
 too, lay awake last night, longing for the dawn ; and 
 I, too, thought this day would never pass. I, too, 
 have been lonely and unsatisfied, and hungering for 
 your return. Is that enough for you ? Can I feel ? 
 Am I still cold and hard and cautious?"
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 255 
 
 He had sprung to his feet while she was speaking, 
 and now with one step he was at her side. 
 
 "You are an angel," he cried. "Bless you for 
 telling me the truth, for not torturing me to satisfy 
 your vanity or your prudishness. Oh, I can never 
 thank you enough for making me so happy as I am 
 to-night." 
 
 " How can you say that ? " she said, shrinking 
 away from him, "when you know what this means, 
 what it involves." 
 
 "Yes, yes," he returned eagerly. "It means that 
 we belong to each other now. No one else has any 
 claim upon us ; those that had have forfeited it." 
 
 " It means that we must see each other no more. 
 Our friendship is at an end, and love may not take 
 its place. Wait," she added, as she saw the vehement 
 protest in his face. " Have you ever known a man 
 who had been caught cheating at cards ? " 
 
 "Yes, I suppose I have," he answered in surprise. 
 " What has that got to do with it ? " 
 
 "You know how he was punished for his offence. 
 You know that he was regarded as an outcast, a 
 pariah, that even his friends and relations fell away 
 from him, as if he were afflicted with some leprous 
 disease. You know that socially he was dead and 
 buried, though his lonely ghost still flitted about the 
 earth, finding no rest, no comfort, no sympathy. 
 And you know that this dreadful death in life might 
 go on for years and years, till he became an old man,
 
 256 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 and really died at last, still alone, still an outcast, 
 still a shame and reproach to all who were connected 
 with him. You wonder what all this has to do with 
 you and me. Can't you understand ? Don't you 
 realize that society treats a woman who rebels against 
 its unwritten laws precisely in the same manner as it 
 treats a man who has been convicted of cheating at 
 cards?" 
 
 Ted fell back a step or two, a baffled look in his 
 eyes. 
 
 " Damn society ! " he muttered. " Would not you 
 and I be enough for each other ? " 
 
 " For a little while, perhaps. But afterwards, when 
 youth had passed and passion died out, do you think 
 that we shouldn't feel our, or rather my, isolation ? 
 And the more you cared for me, the more grieved 
 and angered you would be to see me disgraced and 
 degraded ; and not me alone, but perhaps others no 
 less dear to you. You may say that our social laws 
 are cruel and unjust ; perhaps they are. But they 
 were made by men for the benefit of men, and there- 
 fore it is unreasonable for a man to complain of them." 
 
 He made no answer for a few moments. 
 
 "Yes, it is all true," he said at length. "I cannot 
 deny it. But still I see no necessity for our parting. 
 I can bear anything but that. I will be reasonable ; 
 I will be satisfied with a half-loaf, with an occasional 
 crust. Let me be your friend and comrade still, if I 
 may be no more,"
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 257 
 
 "Impossible," she said. "Friendship and love 
 cannot exist together ; the one burns the other up. 
 We are not children, but grown-up man and woman, 
 and you know as well as I that such an arrangement 
 could have but one ending. You may fancy that 
 you are strong enough to keep within the limits of 
 friendship, never to hint at love by word or look, 
 but I don't believe you are, and I know that I am 
 not." 
 
 It was the truth, but the truth is not always prudent 
 from a woman to a man. The confession sent the 
 blood racing through the young man's veins, while a 
 triumphant sense of impending victory filled his heart. 
 He came close to her side, and took both her hands 
 in his. 
 
 "You have a man's tongue in a woman's mouth," 
 he cried joyfully. "If I were really never to see 
 you again, the memory of those words would sweeten 
 all my life. But I say that we are to meet as often 
 as we please ; I will never let you go. As for the 
 world, we'll throw dust in its stupid eyes, and gag its 
 malignant tongue. We have only to be careful, to 
 keep our own counsel. Of course, if the Mrs. Spaldings 
 of society are to be deceived, we must not meet here, 
 or only at long intervals. To-morrow I will set about 
 making other arrangements, and in the evening I 
 will come once more to talk them over with you." 
 
 Candida made one last effort to free herself from 
 the net into which she felt she was being drawn, but
 
 258 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 her powers of resistance seemed to be gradually melt- 
 ing away beneath the magic of her lover's look and 
 voice and clasp. 
 
 " It would be so degrading," she murmured. " We 
 should be always acting a lie, living a hole-and-corner 
 life." 
 
 "That would be the world's fault for forcing such 
 a course upon us," he answered. "We should be 
 doing no wrong. There is no law, human or divine, 
 against friendship." 
 
 Still holding her hands in his, he bent towards her, 
 his purpose plainly visible in his eyes. 
 
 "No, no," she pleaded, turning away her head. 
 " Let us keep up the pretence of friendship as long 
 as we can." 
 
 " I will never ask anything of you that you are not 
 willing to give to me freely out of love and kindness," 
 he said, instantly releasing her. "Good-bye, dearest 
 friend, till to-morrow." 
 
 As soon as the door closed behind him, Candida 
 dropped into a chair, and moaned in bitter humilia- 
 tion. 
 
 "Oh, what a weak fool what a weak, cowardly 
 fool I am ! " 
 
 Now that the spell which his presence exercised 
 over her was removed, she could see clearly the folly, 
 the madness, of the secret compact to which she had 
 tacitly agreed. To-morrow she must tell him that 
 she could not carry out her part in it, must make
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 259 
 
 him understand that it was impossible they should 
 continue to play at friendship, with love always 
 smiling behind the mask. But was she strong enough 
 to see him again, to tell him her decision by word 
 of mouth ? Would it not be better, safer, to leave a 
 note for him next evening, and refuse him admission 
 henceforward ? And yet, would it be fair or kind to 
 cast him off for ever without so much as a good wish 
 or friendly word at parting ? Her own suffering she 
 regarded as no more than a just punishment for her 
 blindness long ago, when she had deliberately chosen 
 the false and rejected the true, but he ought she 
 not to try and soften his disappointment, to alleviate 
 as far as words could do it, the pain that she was 
 about to cause him ? But then, if she were to be 
 unable to resist his prayers and entreaties, if her own 
 heart were to play her false once again, there would 
 be nothing but a renewed and even more agonizing 
 struggle in store for both of them. 
 
 These pros and cons occupied her mind through the 
 long hours of the wakeful night, through the leisure 
 intervals of the busy day, and yet when evening 
 came the problem was not yet solved. She expected 
 her visitor to arrive at eight ; the clock struck six, 
 seven, half-past seven, and still she had written no 
 note, given no orders to the servant. A ring at the 
 bell made her start violently, and almost stopped the 
 beating of her heart. Could it be Ted half an hour 
 before his time ? If so, it was too late to forbid his
 
 260 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 entrance, for she could hear Martha already at the 
 door. A dull sense of disappointment and foreboding 
 stole over her as the maid brought in a note. The 
 handwriting was so faint and tremulous that at first 
 she failed to recognize it, but a hasty glance at the 
 contents was sufficient to convince her that the 
 question which had been troubling her was solved, 
 and solved for ever. 
 
 The note, which was dated from a street in Chelsea, 
 ran as follows : 
 
 " I am dying ; but I can't die in peace until I 
 have seen you once more, and asked your forgiveness 
 for a wrong I have done you. Come to me soon, for 
 I cannot tell how much time may be still left to me. 
 
 "SABINA." 
 
 Candida put the note, together with a few words 
 from herself, into an envelope, and left it with the 
 servant to be given to Mr. Ferrars when he called. 
 Then, hastily putting on her hat and cloak, she set 
 out upon her journey. It was a long drive to the 
 little street out of the King's Road, where, in the 
 second-floor bedroom of a dingy lodging-house she 
 found her friend. 
 
 Sabina was lying on a sofa, wrapped in a faded 
 pink dressing-gown, and looked but the wreck of her 
 former self. Her once brilliant colouring was changed 
 to a waxy pallor, her curly hair cut short, her eyes
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 261 
 
 dull and sunken, and her face so thin that the bones 
 of her cheeks were plainly discernible. 
 
 " It was very good of you to come so soon," she 
 said feebly, as Candida entered. " But I thought 
 you would. Please come and sit down close beside 
 me, because my voice is weak. I have so much to 
 tell you, and I am longing to get it over. Then I 
 can die in peace." 
 
 " But you " said Candida. " I am so sorry 
 
 to see you like this. Why did you come to this 
 dreadful place ? Why didn't you let your friends 
 know that you were alone and ill ? " 
 
 " I'll tell you all about that afterwards, if you still 
 care to hear it There is something that I must get 
 off my mind first. You won't be very angry with me, 
 will you ? You'll promise to forgive me, as I'm dying." 
 
 "Yes, yes, of course, though I hope you are not 
 so ill as you think," answered Candida. " I have no 
 right to judge you or anybody else." 
 
 Sabina was silent for a moment. Then, turning 
 away her head, she said in a low voice 
 
 " I was the woman you told to run." 
 
 For an instant Candida stared at her uncompre- 
 hendingly. Then in a flash the half-forgotten scene 
 returned to her mind. The quivering shoulders of a 
 shame-stricken woman, a man standing by pale and 
 defiant, the sight of the grimy court as she leaned 
 out of the window, the sound of rustling skirts and 
 pattering feet.
 
 262 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " You you were that woman ? " she stammered. 
 
 "Yes, but don't please don't be angry with me. 
 It wasn't so bad as you think, though it was bad 
 enough. It all began that summer at Branksmead 
 when I was staying at the Vicarage. I thought it 
 was only fun at first ; we were just playfellows, 
 nothing more. But when we went back to town he 
 got into the way of coming to see me, and nearly 
 always when Ted was out, or on circuit. Then, 
 after your baby was born, I came to stay with you, 
 and it was about that time that I first began to get 
 frightened. He was different, and I you know how 
 weak I have always been." 
 
 She stopped to cough, and Candida mechanically 
 pulled up the cushions, and placed her in a more 
 comfortable position. 
 
 "Then I came to you at the cottage," went on 
 Sabina. "And you remember that I went home 
 suddenly before the time was up ; that was because 
 I dared not stay any longer. Oh, I did struggle, 
 Candida ; I thought of you and Ted, and I fought 
 against the temptation with all my might, though I 
 was miserable, and saw that he was too Adrian, I 
 mean. At last I begged him, for all our sakes, not 
 to come and see me any more, but to keep away and 
 forget me, and allow me to forget him too. In the 
 end, he said he would agree to all I wished, if I would 
 give him one farewell interview at the office, where 
 we should be alone and undisturbed. He said it was
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 263 
 
 his last request, and that after that I should never see 
 him again unless I desired it. I would have consented 
 to almost any condition that would put an end to 
 the struggle ; so I went, and we were just taking our 
 last leave of each other when you came in. That is 
 the whole story ; I swear it." 
 
 " I believe your word," said Candida. " He told 
 me very much the same." 
 
 " And can you ever forgive me ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed ; I stand as much in need of forgive- 
 ness as you. I, too, have been weak only saved by 
 accident, perhaps, from worse than weakness. I 
 know what it is to struggle, and be beaten. But tell 
 me what happened afterwards. Why did you leave 
 your home ? " 
 
 " I don't know whether I can make you understand. 
 I was so restless and miserable after that dreadful 
 day that I felt sometimes as if I were going out of 
 my mind. It was so lonely, too, and Ted had left 
 off caring for me ; I knew he had, though he tried not 
 to show it. When I heard that you had left your 
 husband, I thought that perhaps it was my fault, and 
 I could have killed myself for my treachery. It was 
 about that time that I met old Kesterton, who used 
 to be at the Piccadilly, and he told me that he was 
 going to take out a company to South America, and 
 asked if I would like an engagement. He only 
 meant it in fun, of course, and I thought no more of 
 it till a day or two later. I had a quarrel with Ted
 
 264 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 about some stupid man or other, and he said dreadful 
 things to me ; they hurt me like blows. I knew he 
 would be happier without me, and I was pining for 
 change and excitement anything to make me forget ; 
 so I went off to Kesterton, and told him I had 
 quarrelled with my husband, and would be glad of 
 an engagement. As it happened, some girl had 
 dropped off at the last moment, so he said I could 
 have the vacant place. We sailed two days later, 
 and oh, we had such an awful time ! " 
 
 "That was how you got ill?" asked Candida. 
 
 " Yes, we had to rough it horribly, and I had fever 
 several times. Then I got a chill on the top of that, 
 and had bronchitis. I was in a hospital for weeks 
 at Buenos Ayres, and when I got a little better, they 
 said I had better come home, as the voyage would 
 do me good. But we had such stormy weather that 
 it made me worse, and now I have only come home 
 to die." 
 
 "Oh, I hope that is only your fancy. I expect 
 you want nothing but good food and good nursing, 
 such as you can't possibly get here." 
 
 " No, it's not my fancy," said Sabina. "The doctor 
 told me I shouldn't recover ; at least, he wouldn't say 
 I should when I asked him about it, and he wanted 
 to know if I had any relations I should like to com- 
 municate with. Then I understood that it was all 
 up with me. And the landlady says that I have 
 death in my face, and that I look just like her sister-
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 265 
 
 in-law's cousin before she was carried off by a gallop- 
 ing consumption." 
 
 " We must get you out of this place at once," said 
 Candida, who had been thinking busily. "There is 
 a room vacant in the house where I am living, and 
 to-morrow I shall bring a carriage and fetch you 
 home. I must have you under my own eye if I am to 
 pull you through, as I hope to do." 
 
 "But the money," faltered Sabina. "I have very 
 little, only just enough to see me underground. That 
 is why I came to this place. I couldn't be a burden 
 upon upon anybody I had behaved ill to." 
 
 "I ask you to come as a favour to myself," said 
 Candida, earnestly. "Your presence in the house 
 will be a safeguard to me. Come for my sake, 
 Sabina ; you can pay me back some day if you really 
 wish it." 
 
 " In the next world," said Sabina, with a dreary 
 smile. "Well, it can't be for long, and I have some 
 jewellery still, which you can have when I am dead. 
 I can't believe in the fable of my presence being a 
 safeguard to anybody, least of all to you."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE removal was successfully accomplished, and the 
 invalid established in a room adjoining Candida's 
 sitting-room. Here she lay on her sofa from morning 
 till night, languidly awaiting the summons of death. 
 The new doctor who had been called in gave no 
 definite hope of her recovery. She was in a state of 
 extreme exhaustion, he said, and one lung was affected, 
 but the worst symptom of all was her total lack of 
 desire to live. She seemed to be gradually fading 
 away, not so much from any positive disease as from 
 the fact that she had made up her mind to die. 
 
 Candida had seen nothing more of Ted, but she had 
 received a short, coldly-worded letter from him, re- 
 questing her to do everything that was necessary for 
 Sabina's welfare, and to hold him responsible for all 
 expense that she might incur upon that account. 
 Apparently he had no desire for an interview with 
 his truant wife, nor did he express any interest in 
 her fate. Sabina asked once or twice where Ted was 
 living, and wondered whether he had forgiven her,
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 267 
 
 but she evidently had not the courage to beg that 
 she might see him once more, and receive his pardon 
 from his own lips. Once she expressed her regret 
 that her presence in the house prevented him from 
 enjoying the society of his old comrade. 
 
 " You said Ted used to come here sometimes when 
 you were alone," she observed. " It is a pity that 
 you should never see each other now. He never 
 really liked me half as well as he did you ; I was 
 only a pis aller. I sometimes think," she added, 
 with a little laugh, "that on our wedding-day we 
 we must have sorted ourselves wrong." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " asked Candida, feeling 
 ready to kill herself for the blush that she knew had 
 risen to her cheek. 
 
 " I mean that in the flurry of the moment we some- 
 how got mixed. I ought to have had Adrian, because 
 I should have understood him, and known how to 
 manage him. I should have teased and coaxed and 
 piqued and provoked him, so that he would never 
 have felt sure of me, and no other woman would have 
 seemed half so interesting. I know exactly how to 
 win and keep that sort of man. Then, of course, you 
 and Ted would have fitted each other like hand and 
 glove. He wanted no managing, and he would have 
 been perfectly happy with a woman who could talk 
 to him and enter into his interests, and he would have 
 asked nothing better than that she should be always 
 the same. He would never have tired either of her or
 
 268 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 the domestic hearth, while a son would have filled his 
 cup to overflowing. Yes, we certainly sorted ourselves 
 wrong ; there are unlooked-for dangers in a double 
 ceremony. However, Ted will soon have a chance 
 of retrieving his blunder. You must be friends with 
 him again when I am gone." 
 
 " But I am not going to let you go," said Candida. 
 " If you would only make up your mind to get well, 
 you would soon be about again." 
 
 " Why should I ? Nobody wants me, nobody cares 
 about me. I have grown such a fright now, and 
 I never had anything to recommend me but my 
 looks. I am much better out of the way." 
 
 It was this conversation which put it into Candida's 
 head to try the effect of a new treatment. She wrote 
 to Ted, asking him to give her an interview the next 
 afternoon at the Gymnasium, as she wanted to consult 
 with him about a question that concerned Sabina. 
 Punctually at the appointed hour he arrived, but her 
 heart sank as she looked into his face ; its expression 
 was cold and stern. 
 
 " Sabina is very ill," she told him. " She gets no 
 better, and unless we can do something to induce her 
 to take some interest in life, I am afraid we shall 
 lose her." 
 
 "I am sorry," he said, looking quite unmoved. 
 
 " Anything in my power " 
 
 " There is one thing in your power that would give 
 her a little comfort forgiveness. She feels that she
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 269 
 
 has sinned beyond all hope of pardon, and become 
 an object of indifference, if not contempt, to those who 
 once loved her. And Sabina cannot live without kind- 
 ness, any more than a flower without sunshine." 
 
 " What do you want me to do ? " he asked. " You 
 can tell her that I am willing to forgive her, if you 
 think that will do her any good." 
 
 " I want you to tell her so yourself, to make her 
 understand that she still has a friend in you, that she 
 is not entirely alone in the world, despised of all men. 
 Surely we have no right to say that any wrong is un- 
 pardonable, no right to refuse a fellow-sinner a second 
 chance. I only ask you to hold out your hand to 
 her, and help her on her feet again. I want you to 
 give her a little hope, because it is the lack of hope 
 that is killing her more surely than any disease." 
 
 "I can forgive her, but I can do no more," he 
 returned. "She treated me with wanton selfishness 
 and cruelty. She has no further claim upon me." 
 
 "She makes none, nor I for her, though perhaps 
 if you understood more you would not feel so bitter 
 against her. But, of course, she dared not tell you her 
 secret trials and sorrows, nor ask for pity and con- 
 sideration in her darkest hour. Sabina was not so 
 heartless as you thought ; she was only half distracted 
 with misery, and fighting for something more than 
 
 life." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " he asked, turning sharply 
 
 upon her. 
 18
 
 270 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 " She thought you had ceased to care for her, and 
 another man came by and filled her empty heart. 
 For the moment she was almost carried away by 
 her infatuation, yet she remembered her duty to 
 you and to others, and she fought against him and 
 against her own heart. Finally she conquered, and 
 they parted. It was then that she tried to deaden 
 her pain, and find forgetfulness in gaiety and ex- 
 citement. Then came the quarrel, and she fancied 
 that you would gladly be rid of her, so she fled 
 alone. The rest you know. Oh, Ted, we who have 
 known the misery and fever of forbidden love, we 
 who have so nearly sinned against truth and honour, 
 what right have we to be hard on this poor 
 creature who has been punished so cruelly for all her 
 weakness ? 
 
 The memory of their last meeting was vividly 
 present with them both. The lines of Ted's face 
 relaxed at last, as he answered more gently 
 
 " No, God knows I have no right to be hard upon 
 her. I will come and tell her that I bear her no ill 
 will, and that she must always look upon me as a 
 friend. Poor girl, I used to fancy she was unhappy, 
 but, of course, I was too stupid to discover the cause." 
 
 His voice and manner were warmer than his words, 
 and Candida was satisfied with the result of her 
 interview. 
 
 Ted lost no time in carrying out his promise, for 
 he arrived in Blake Street the next afternoon, and
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 271 
 
 asked to see his wife. The invalid was lying on a 
 sofa, a wisp of lace over her hair, and a table by her 
 side, on which stood a vase containing three lilies, 
 and a small Church-service with a very large cross. 
 These were the correct "properties" for a dying girl, 
 and Sabina, though perfectly sincere in her belief in 
 her approaching dissolution, could still feel an artistic 
 pleasure in an effective pose. Ted's heart softened 
 at the sight of her little pale face and unnaturally 
 big eyes. For the first time he felt convinced that 
 her days were numbered ; it was so impossible to 
 doubt the evidence of the vase of lilies and the 
 Church-service. 
 
 " It is so good of you to come ! " she murmured. 
 " I have been hoping to see you once more for the 
 last time." 
 
 " Oh, you mustn't talk like that, you know," he 
 said awkwardly. " I expect you'll soon be better now 
 that Candida has taken you in hand." 
 
 She smiled and gently shook her head. 
 
 " You are going to forgive me ? " she said. " I 
 know I don't deserve it, but it is the last thing I 
 shall ever ask of you. I was selfish and heartless, 
 and you were always so kind and patient. I hope 
 you'll be rewarded for it some day." 
 
 " I didn't do anything," he answered gruffly. " I 
 don't think we quite understood each other, but I 
 dare say that was as much my fault as yours. Any- 
 way, I bear no malice, and I'm sure you don't,"
 
 272 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 "Ah, but the cases are different," sighed Sabina. 
 "You had been so good and generous. Not one 
 man in a million would have behaved as you did after 
 after all that had happened. I ought to have repaid 
 you with the devotion of my whole life." 
 
 " No, by heaven, I can't let you think that," cried 
 Ted. "I had no more right than another man to 
 pose as a superior being, a sort of moral King 
 Cophetua. I married you because I loved you, and 
 if there was any mesalliance at all, it was on your 
 side, not on mine." 
 
 At this point, greatly to his consternation, Sabina 
 melted into tears. 
 
 " And now nobody loves me," she sobbed. " I am 
 ugly and hateful, and a burden on those I have 
 behaved ill to. Why can't I die, and put an end 
 to it all ? " 
 
 "For God's sake, don't cry like that," exclaimed 
 Ted, anxiously, for tears were to him an alarming 
 mystery. "You'll only make yourself worse, and 
 there's nothing whatever to cry about. I expect I 
 was a stupid clumsy brute ; I hadn't the least idea 
 how to treat a woman like you. I dare say it was 
 all my fault. I'm sure I'm very sorry. Sabina, do 
 please stop crying, and say you forgive me." 
 
 It was altogether a most unexpected turning of 
 the tables, and Ted could never remember afterwards 
 how he came to be on his knees to his wife, pleading 
 for pardon.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 273 
 
 "Of course I do," answered Sabina, through her 
 tears. " I was never hard upon you, was I, Ted ? and 
 I never nagged at you as a better woman might have 
 done. And I always made you comfortable, didn't 
 I, and gave you good dinners ? " 
 
 "You did you always did," he confessed peni- 
 tently. "I'm sure I don't know how it was that 
 things went wrong ; we were awfully happy at first, 
 do you remember ? " 
 
 " Yes, weren't we ? " returned Sabina. " Ah, one 
 never knows how to value a thing until one has 
 thrown it away. However, everything is forgiven 
 and forgotten now, isn't it, and I can die in peace ? 
 And when I'm gone, if we are allowed to watch 
 over those we loved on earth " 
 
 " Oh, don't talk like that," put in Ted, feeling as 
 though the invalid might develop wings before his 
 very eyes. "You'd get well fast enough if you would 
 only try." 
 
 "But I don't want to try," she said, the tears still 
 trickling down her pale cheeks. " There's nothing to 
 live for ; nobody wants me. And the time seems so 
 long lying here alone all day when Candida is out. 
 I wish you would lend me some books, Ted. Not 
 novels, of course, and nothing very difficult, because 
 my head is so weak. Poetry would be best, I think 
 serious poetry, you know." 
 
 "Yes, yes; I'll bring you some to-morrow," he 
 answered, hastily running over the contents of his
 
 274 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 bookshelves in his mind. "And perhaps you'd like 
 me to read aloud to you sometimes ; it would be 
 better for your head than reading to yourself." 
 
 Ted read aloud very well, and knew it. 
 
 " Oh, if you only would ! " cried Sabina. " I should 
 be so grateful, and I'm sure you will be rewarded for 
 all your goodness some day. Perhaps, when I am 
 no longer here " 
 
 But at this Ted jumped up, and declared that he 
 must not stop any longer, or he would tire her out. 
 
 "I'll look in again to-morrow about tea-time," he 
 said, "and bring the books. And I dare say you 
 would like some more flowers," he added, with a 
 respectful glance at the vase of lilies. 
 
 It was from the date of this interview that Sabina's 
 health began to improve, and though she still talked 
 about dying, she was soon in a fair way to complete 
 recovery. During her period of convalescence, Ted 
 came nearly every afternoon, generally with a book 
 under his arm, and an offering of flowers in his hand. 
 He began his course of reading with extracts from 
 "Paradise Lost," Young's "Night Thoughts," and 
 the " Christian Year." As Sabina grew stronger, he 
 administered Cowper, then Wordsworth, and finally 
 celebrated the doctor's announcement that there was 
 no more cause for anxiety with a prolonged dose of 
 Burns. 
 
 Then August came, and the house at Hampstead, 
 which had been let for the season, was thrown upon
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 275 
 
 its owner's hands again. It was about this time that 
 Ted came to the conclusion that it was rather absurd 
 for a man to have a furnished house in one part of 
 London, and a wife in another, while he himself 
 occupied solitary chambers in a third. Being a young 
 man of sound common sense, with a tendency, rare 
 among mortals, to want what he could have when 
 quite convinced that he could not have what he 
 wanted, he suggested that he and Sabina should give 
 each other another trial, and see whether, with the 
 experience both had gained, they could not make 
 something better out of marriage than a failure. It 
 was finally arranged that, as Sabina's chest was still 
 delicate, they should go abroad for a long holiday, 
 and on their return settle down together in the house 
 at Hampstead.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ON a Sunday afternoon, nearly a year later, Candida 
 set out from the little flat in Kensington, to which 
 she had lately removed her small household, to pay 
 a visit to the Ferrars's at Hampstead. It was no 
 ordinary friendly call, however, being nothing less 
 than a visit of congratulation to her friends upon 
 the birth of a daughter. The Ferrars had been at 
 Bournemouth when the event took place, and had 
 only just returned to town, so that this was Mrs. 
 Sylvester's first opportunity of paying her respects 
 to her future god-daughter. 
 
 The Ferrars' second venture in matrimonial waters 
 had turned out, in the opinion of the world at least, 
 an unqualified success. The severe discipline that 
 she had undergone had taught Sabina the value of 
 a good husband and a comfortable home, and she 
 rewarded Ted for his kindness with the undiscrimin- 
 ating admiration and spaniel-like devotion so dear to 
 the heart of man. Her delicate health had rendered 
 her indifferent to the charms of society, and she was
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 277 
 
 perfectly content to sit by her own fireside, stitch- 
 ing at some piece of fancy-work, while her husband 
 talked or read aloud. Her quick superficial in- 
 telligence caught up with amazing dexterity the more 
 striking of his ideas and opinions, which, slightly 
 coloured and remodelled, she would reproduce in the 
 course of conversation, immensely to his surprise and 
 gratification. So entirely had her personality become 
 absorbed in his, so faithfully did she echo and reflect 
 his thoughts, that he naturally came to regard her 
 as an exceptionally intelligent woman, and wondered 
 that he could have been so blind as to underrate 
 her powers in the past. 
 
 The birth of a child had made Ted's cup of happi- 
 ness run over, and ensured him against disillusionment 
 with his domestic lot in the future. He was one of 
 those men, not uncommon among Teutonic races, in 
 whom the paternal instinct is highly developed, lead- 
 ing them to transfer their passionate devotion from 
 wife to child, while retaining for the former a mild 
 and tranquil affection, mingled with ardent gratitude 
 for the precious gift she has bestowed upon them. 
 
 Candida was shown into Sabina's own little sanctum, 
 where the young mother, in the most becoming of 
 tea-gowns, was lying on the sofa, and her husband, 
 seated on a low chair at her side, was gazing at her 
 with the rapt expression of a devotee worshipping at 
 the shrine of a Madonna. It occurred to the visitor 
 that Sabina really did look rather like a Madonna. Her
 
 278 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 fluffy hair was smoothed down upon her temples, 
 her eyelids were drooped, and her once impudent, 
 up-to-date beauty had taken quite a meek and lowly 
 cast. Candida could not be sure how much of this 
 altered appearance was due to nature, and how much 
 to Sabina's innate sense of the fitness of things. 
 
 "You'll like to see Honora at once," said Ted, 
 importantly, as soon as the first greetings had been 
 got over. "We are going to call her Honora, after 
 my mother. I'll go and see if she is awake ; she was 
 some time going off to sleep this afternoon, so that 
 she may be later than usual ; but I'll tell nurse to 
 bring her as soon as she wakes." 
 
 He left the room, shaking the floor with his efforts 
 to attain a noiseless tread. 
 
 " Ted is quite beside himself with delight at having 
 a daughter," remarked Sabina, languidly. " He fusses 
 over her like an old hen with one chick." 
 
 " And you are pleased too, I hope ? " said Candida, 
 struggling to repress the thought that Sabina had 
 grown rather uninteresting since she became a 
 reformed character. 
 
 " Oh yes, of course ; I shall always have something 
 to occupy me now. And I shall never be afraid of 
 Ted finding out that I am an intellectual fraud, and 
 getting tired of me. The baby's mother will always 
 be sacred in his eyes." 
 
 At this point the door was flung wide open, and Ted 
 pranced in again.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 279 
 
 "She's awake she's being dressed she'll be here 
 directly ! " he cried excitedly. " Ah, here she comes ! " 
 as the nurse carried in a bundle of white embroidery. 
 " Now, what do you think of her ? Not regularly 
 pretty, perhaps, but a very intelligent expression, hasn't 
 she ? and wonderful cranial development. Look, she 
 yawns just like a human being I mean a grown-up 
 person. Oh, do you think you had better take her, 
 Candida ? Are you sure you won't drop her ? " 
 
 "My dear boy," retorted Candida, "you seem to 
 forget that I was a parent long before you were. 
 Come, Honora, let me feel your muscle. I already 
 look upon her as a future pupil." 
 
 The rest of the visit was taken up with baby-talk 
 and baby-worship. When Candida left the house an 
 hour later, she remembered with a gleam of amuse- 
 ment, not unmixed with melancholy, that the fond 
 parents had not asked her a single question about 
 herself, had shown not the slightest interest in her 
 doings, and had not even mentioned Roley, except 
 for the casual remark that in time to come he would 
 make a capital play-fellow for Honora. Ted did not 
 accompany her to the omnibus, as usual, but parted 
 from her on the doorstep, in order to hasten back to 
 his idol, and Candida went on her way alone. 
 
 Alone ! She felt a wistful pain at her heart as she 
 compared her own lot with that of the couple she had 
 just left, as she remembered their absorption in each 
 other and their child, their complete independence of
 
 zSo THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 the world outside. She still had Roley, it was true, 
 but for long ? In a few years' time he would go to 
 school, and she knew that the first lesson a British 
 boy learns at school, and the only one he learns 
 thoroughly, is to despise his womankind. She was 
 aware that the day was not far distant when he 
 would wriggle impatiently from her kiss, and bitterly 
 resent all expression of maternal anxiety and 
 solicitude. Such, her observation had taught her, 
 was a mother's usual reward for bringing a man-child 
 into the world. 
 
 She left the omnibus in the Bayswater Road, and 
 walked home through Kensington Gardens. The 
 beauty of the evening, the mellow light, the radiant 
 freshness of the newly awakened trees and flowers, 
 roused in her that yearning to be in harmony with the 
 renewed life of Nature that is only experienced by 
 those who have lost their youth, or in whose ears the 
 world's music rings harshly and out of tune. Can- 
 dida was still young, not yet six-and-twenty, her 
 natural vigour was unabated, and the blood was still 
 warm in her veins. Her heart had inmates that 
 were cherished with all possible love and constancy, 
 but yet there was room. It was not enough for her 
 to love and serve those who loved her and were 
 themselves lovable, not enough for her to do good 
 work that was pleasant and well-rewarded. There 
 were moments when the " world-sorrow " lay like 
 a dead weight upon her spirit, moments when she
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 281 
 
 longed to gather the whole of suffering humanity 
 into her arms, and hush its cries upon her breast 
 She could have been happy leading a forlorn hope, 
 championing a losing cause, or heading a crusade 
 against cruelty and oppression, since woman is by 
 nature a fighting animal as long as she knows herself 
 to be on the weaker side, with long odds against 
 her. 
 
 Turning into one of the sidewalks, she saw a bath- 
 chair being drawn slowly towards her. Before it 
 reached her the chairman stopped, pulled the chair 
 to the side of the path, and then retired to a little 
 distance to rest and chat with one of the park- 
 keepers. The occupant of the chair, a shrunken- 
 looking man, with a short, grizzled beard, sat per- 
 fectly motionless, gazing straight in front of him. 
 Candida was moved by the sight of his forlorn and 
 apparently helpless condition. Had he no mother, 
 sister, or friend, she wondered, to bear him company 
 in his outings ? Glancing furtively at him as she 
 came on a level with his chair, she heard him utter 
 her name in timid, uncertain accents, as though he 
 doubted whether she would deign to make any 
 response. 
 
 " Candida ! " 
 
 The voice made her stop abruptly, and turn wide, 
 startled eyes upon the speaker, for it was a once 
 familiar voice, the voice of her husband. 
 
 "Adrian!" she gasped, going close up to him,
 
 282 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 and gazing into his face. Yes, it was he, changed 
 and worn and prematurely grey, but unmistakably he. 
 
 " I don't wonder you didn't recognize me," he said, 
 with a faint smile. "You are not altered except for 
 the better." 
 
 " You are you have been ill ? " she said, still 
 scarcely able to collect her thoughts. "Why didn't 
 you let me know?" 
 
 "I'm done for," he answered quietly. "You 
 remember how the doctors were always croaking at 
 me, and threatening me with awful consequences if 
 I didn't change my ways. I never paid much 
 attention to them at the time, but the old boys were 
 true prophets for once." 
 
 "Do you mind telling me what is the matter?" 
 
 " Paralysis," he replied. " They say I may live 
 for years without getting much worse, but I shall 
 never be any better." 
 
 " Oh, poor Adrian ! " 
 
 Her eyes filled with tears as she looked around 
 her, and remembered how he and she had walked 
 together in those gardens in the early days of their 
 love. There were young lovers still wandering hand 
 
 in hand along the flower-bordered paths, while he 
 
 The trees and shrubs grew dim before her eyes. 
 
 " I am so sorry," she faltered, recognizing the utter 
 futility of words. " Is there no hope of cure ? " 
 
 " No, none. Of course. I've only myself to thank, 
 but I don't know that that makes it any better."
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 283 
 
 " Will you tell me where you are living ? I hope 
 you are comfortable that you have all you want." 
 
 " I've got a room in Golden Ball Street, Netting 
 Hill. It's rather a slummy neighbourhood, but I 
 chose it because it was the cheapest place I could 
 find within easy reach of the Gardens. I lost all my 
 money, as perhaps you heard. An uncle makes me 
 a small allowance, but it doesn't run to luxuries. That 
 fellow over there comes in morning and evening to 
 dress me and put me to bed, and three times a week 
 he takes me out in a chair; I can't afford to have 
 it every day. For the rest, the landlady and her 
 husband and the slavey look after me between 
 them." 
 
 "But have you no one to come and see you no 
 occupation ? How can you get through the day ? " 
 
 * Well, now and then an old pal drops in to play 
 piquet with me, but it's dull for them, of course, so I 
 can't expect them to come often. Then I have the 
 papers I never cared much about books, you 
 remember and I draw a little, and sometimes the 
 landlady comes in and talks to me. Oh, I pass the 
 time somehow." 
 
 Candida listened to his simple statement with 
 mingled admiration and astonishment. How could 
 he bear his terrible . fate with such apparent cheer- 
 fulness and resignation ? 
 
 " I wish you had let me know," she said. " I 
 would so gladly have come, and brought Roley with
 
 284 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 me. But now now that I have found you I will 
 try and make things easier for you. I will learn 
 some games, and come and sit with you as often as 
 I can." 
 
 "You are very kind and forgiving. I hadn't the 
 cheek to write to you after after all that had 
 happened, and I've only been back in town a short 
 time. I was in Germany last year, trying the baths, 
 and after that I stayed with the girls. They are 
 still called the ' girls,' " he added with a smile. 
 
 At this point the chairman came up and suggested 
 that it was time to be moving homewards. 
 
 "May I come with you?" asked Candida; "then 
 I shall know my way another time." 
 
 "I shall" be delighted," he replied. "And I will 
 give you some tea, or rather you will have to give 
 it to me." 
 
 She walked by his side until they reached his 
 lodgings, a tiny ground-floor in a back street. The 
 chairman brought out a crutch, with the help of 
 which, and the man's arm, Adrian was able to drag 
 himself into the house. 
 
 "The landlady will bring in the tea as soon as 
 the kettle boils," he said, when he was safely estab- 
 lished on the horse-hair couch. "She is a good- 
 natured old body, and often pops in to 'cheer the 
 poor gentleman up a bit.' Unfortunately, the slavey 
 is not amusing, like the slaveys in novels, though she 
 is quite as dirty." 
 

 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 285 
 
 "I can't think how you can bear it," broke in 
 Candida, passionately. " How can you be so patient 
 and cheerful under such an affliction ? I should be 
 ready to cut my throat." 
 
 " One bears things because one has to, I suppose," 
 he said carelessly. " How nice it is to have tea poured 
 out by a lady again. It makes me feel quite fashionable 
 and elegant. I hope you don't despise water-cresses ? 
 My landlady always sends some in because she thinks 
 I must want a relish with my bread and butter. I 
 never could see that there was much relish about 
 water-cresses, but I graze on them every day rather 
 than hurt her feelings." 
 
 He chatted on easily and naturally till it grew dark, 
 and Candida began to put on her gloves. 
 
 " Will you wash my hands for me before you 
 go ? " he asked. " I don't like to ask the slavey to 
 assist at my ablutions too often, because it gives 
 her such a low opinion of my intellect." 
 
 Candida silently fetched a basin of water, and 
 held it for him while he washed his hands. A warm 
 raindrop falling into the basin made him look up 
 suddenly. 
 
 " You are not crying ! " he said in surprise. " Cry- 
 ing over me ! Don't do that ; I'm not worth it" 
 
 She put down the basin, and came and knelt by 
 his side. 
 
 "Adrian," she said between her tears "Adrian, 
 I can't leave you here except for this one night longer. 
 19
 
 286 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 You must come back to me. To-morrow I will 
 come and fetch you home." 
 
 " No, no ; you don't know what you are saying," 
 he returned quickly. "You have been shocked and 
 startled by coming upon me unexpectedly. This is 
 one of your Quixotic impulses, but I won't take 
 advantage of you. The best advice I can offer you 
 is to get a divorce. I could give you a technical 
 slap before a witness the bath-chairman would do 
 and the other evidence would be forthcoming. I 
 wouldn't defend the case, so there would be very little 
 unpleasantness. Then you could marry a nice young 
 man with straight legs and curly hair, and live happily 
 ever after." 
 
 " But I don't want a young man with cur curly 
 hair," she sobbed. " I only want somebody who 
 wants me, and you do want me now, Adrian. I 
 thought you needed me years ago, when I was a 
 foolish girl, blinded by vanity. I fancied I could 
 help you then, but I know I can now, if you will 
 only let me." 
 
 " I don't think you realize what you are proposing," 
 he said, turning away his head so that she might not 
 see the longing in his eyes. "Do you understand 
 that I may live, a helpless invalid, for ten, twenty, 
 even thirty years, that I shall never be any better, 
 but that I must in time grow worse, that my brain 
 will probably become affected ? Then I am not 
 certain of my allowance. My uncle, who is a mean
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 287 
 
 old hunks, might stop it if he thought you were able 
 to support me." 
 
 " That makes no difference," she cried eagerly ; " I 
 can manage perfectly. I have saved money, and I 
 can easily make more if I work longer hours. We 
 have a spare-room now, and I will get a properly 
 trained servant to attend upon you. Then you will 
 have me in the evenings, and Roley will be company 
 for you too. He is four years old, you know, and 
 such a dear little fellow ; I am sure you would like 
 him now." 
 
 He was silent for a moment. 
 
 "I remember," he said slowly, "that your father 
 used to say that a liberal education hadn't been 
 able to knock the woman out of you, and I'm sure 
 I don't know why the dickens it should. But this 
 plan is cruel barbarous to you. I have no claim 
 upon you, remember ; I forfeited that long ago. 
 How can I accept your offer, knowing that you will 
 probably repent of it some day ? " 
 
 " Never, never ! " she exclaimed. " How could I 
 ever be happy as long as I knew that you were 
 here alone, neglected and uncared for ? I should 
 always see you as I did this afternoon, sitting in your 
 chair, helpless and deserted, yet looking so patient 
 and resigned. It would come between me and 
 everything else nothing could give me any plea- 
 sure as long as that memory was tugging at my 
 heart."
 
 288 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 
 
 She put her arm round him, and drew his grey head 
 down on her shoulder. 
 
 "Now it is all settled," she said in coaxing tones. 
 "You are not to have your own way any more. 
 To-morrow morning I shall come and carry you off 
 home with me." 
 
 " How can I refuse ? " he muttered helplessly ; " how 
 can I refuse ? It does seem a howling shame, but 
 you have tempted me beyond my strength." 
 
 He leant back among his cushions, and watched 
 her as she moved about, tidying up the room, and 
 making all ready for the night. The teaching of 
 ages had already begun to re-assert its power, and 
 was soon to put an end to his instinctive shrinking 
 from the proposed sacrifice. After all, he reflected, she 
 was his wife, and in the eyes of the world it would be 
 no more than right and fitting that this strong and 
 splendid creature should offer up herself, her youth 
 and her beauty, at the shrine of her disabled husband ; 
 that she should bear upon her shoulders the burden 
 of his shattered life, and act as his unpaid nurse and 
 handmaid till death did them part He began to 
 feel that he was doing her a favour in providing her 
 with such an unparalleled opportunity for the self- 
 immolation that all true women are supposed to love. 
 There was even a faint tinge of patronage in his 
 manner as he bade her good night, and promised 
 to hold himself in readiness on the morrow for his 
 removal to his new abode.
 
 THE CAREER OF CANDIDA. 289 
 
 And Candida walked home through the darkening 
 streets, her eyes shining because the future lay dim 
 before her, her step buoyant because the yoke was 
 upon her neck again, her mind at ease because she 
 had just assumed a grave responsibility, and her 
 heart satisfied because she had flung all hopes of 
 happiness away. 
 
 THE END.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 
 
 JJII J 3 
 
 SRLF 
 2 WEEK LOAM 
 
 JUN 5 '96 RECCL
 
 A 000 127 849 8
 
 
 a-'~*n 
 
 r" ^ 
 
 - ? 'v